I've been reading alot of the Psalms lately, which I have found to be pretty awesome. The Psalms show so many different ways to praise and pray to God. Tonight I read Psalm 4 and it really stuck out to me, so I decided to pray to God using Psalm 4. I am blogging about this because it is changing the way I look at prayer, and the Psalms are a great tool that allow me to do something different in my prayer life, which is always welcome to avoid apathy. So here is what I prayed to God tonight, and through this prayer and study he fulfilled me with comfort.
(1)Answer my prayers God when I talk to you, my righteous God. Be there for me when I am stressed and help me see that you are in control, forgive me and hear my cry to you. (2)How long will people make fun of the way I am or what I do? How long will people fill up their lives with sin and greed instead of you? (3) Remind me that you have called me out to be with you eternally, and I know that you hear every word that I say. (4)Help me not sin in my anger, let me dwell upon my heart at rest and be silent and focus on what you have given me. (5)Let me sacrifice my aspirations and my life, so that I can trust in your plan for me God. (6)People around me wonder who can be good in this world anymore, let me be able to let Christ shine through my actions and attitude. (7) You have given me so much joy in a troubled world, so much so that I can forget what troubles me. (8)Because you are with me I can lie down and sleep in peace, because you alone give me safety in peace.
God Bless
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Can people follow me?
Tonight I went downtown to a church called Ethos, it was started by the campus ministers at Lipscomb and has grown to several hundred people. It is such a neat church, it meets in a bar - not a normal church atmosphere. It's mission is to reach those who are scared away from typical church settings, or people who have no prior experience with church. I love going there and worshiping and experiencing God in communion much differently than what I am "used to." Tonight Brandon Steele (one of our campus ministers) walked us through the first chapter in 1 Thessalonians and brought up a very interesting question: Can people follow your lifestyle and see that you live as Jesus? He asked how many of us had ever told someone who was younger than us, or a new convert, or someone completely new to any type of faith, to follow our example and see Christ in our life. I began to think, am I leading the type of lifestyle that someone can base their entire Christian lifestyle on the way that I individually act? Because in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 Paul talks about how the church in Thessalonica were imitators of Paul and the other disciples at the time. He urged them to be models for those that were around them, so that they would see Christ in them. It is just something for me to think about, especially when I can choose however I want to live my life.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Ouch
I didn't get a bid from Sigma Iota Delta, the social club that I wanted to join. All of my best friends did, so I am happy for them and will definitely be praying for them during pledging. It is a really big pledge class so they had to cut a few of us out of it, and it turns out some of the older guys didn't know me that well, and therefore didn't give me a bid. This has been something that I have been praying about a lot lately, and I asked that God would just do whatever he had planned for me, and evidently for whatever reason this isn't the semester I should pledge. I'm not going to lie, it will be very tough to watch all of my friends get into the club and have fun with it, wishing that I was a part of it with them. But at the same time God definitely has something going for me here at Lipscomb, and I just need to build a deeper relationship with him to find out what it is. I can't wait for the rest of this year to unfold and see all that God has in store for me, and I will definitely pledge next semester.
Friday, February 13, 2009
God is good
I am doing so awesome right now, everything just seems to be going great. My classes are going great, I like them so much better than last semester. Lipscomb is just awesome, it is definitely where I am supposed to be, and its crazy to know that. I remember laying in my bed several times my junior and senior year of high school not being able to fall asleep just thinking about what would happen when I went off to college? I didn't have a clue where I was going to go, I didn't want the responsibility, and I didn't want to leave my family and friends. But now I look back on what seems so recent, which was 2 years ago now, and it is so easy to realize that God does indeed have a plan for my life. Everything just seems to workout, everything that I got so worked up and worried about just seems so small now, not even remotely relevant.
Right now I have so many opportunities in front of me its crazy, and all I can do is just simply pray about them. I'm trying to get a bid for a social club, I'm interviewing with different churches to see if I can intern anywhere this summer, and I am applying to be an RA, and don't forget I still have school, and also relationships. I let life get so stressful and overwhelming sometimes, but I shouldn't. I should be able to look at my past and realize that I don't know what is best for me, I don't know what is going to happen in my near future, but God does, and he has a plan. I shouldn't worry about all of this, I should just pray and try my best in every situation.
God is so worthy of our praise and worship, and I can never fully understand that. Tonight I felt so close to God at Sanctuary worshiping him, because he is definitely worthy of our praise. I know I throw around the word awesome in every day conversation, but he is truly the only thing that is awesome. He never stops giving, loving, or forgiving. I don't understand how some people make it through life without God, because I am constantly falling back on him and using him for support, I would absolutely not resemble anything I am today if I did not have a relationship with him. I believe God has put this conviction in me, because when I see how much he has done for me in my life, it reaffirms why I want to devote my life to showing other people his love.
God Bless,
On a side note, Lipscomb won the battle of the boulevard defeating Belmont 73 - 68, one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever been apart of.
Right now I have so many opportunities in front of me its crazy, and all I can do is just simply pray about them. I'm trying to get a bid for a social club, I'm interviewing with different churches to see if I can intern anywhere this summer, and I am applying to be an RA, and don't forget I still have school, and also relationships. I let life get so stressful and overwhelming sometimes, but I shouldn't. I should be able to look at my past and realize that I don't know what is best for me, I don't know what is going to happen in my near future, but God does, and he has a plan. I shouldn't worry about all of this, I should just pray and try my best in every situation.
God is so worthy of our praise and worship, and I can never fully understand that. Tonight I felt so close to God at Sanctuary worshiping him, because he is definitely worthy of our praise. I know I throw around the word awesome in every day conversation, but he is truly the only thing that is awesome. He never stops giving, loving, or forgiving. I don't understand how some people make it through life without God, because I am constantly falling back on him and using him for support, I would absolutely not resemble anything I am today if I did not have a relationship with him. I believe God has put this conviction in me, because when I see how much he has done for me in my life, it reaffirms why I want to devote my life to showing other people his love.
God Bless,
On a side note, Lipscomb won the battle of the boulevard defeating Belmont 73 - 68, one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever been apart of.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
In the Name of Jesus
In the name of Jesus is a very short book, only about 100 pages or so. However it is the first book that I have sat down and read basically in one setting, and it only took a little over an hour. Written by Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the name of Jesus is about christian leadership. There are so many great things that are presented in this book, but what really stuck with me was the point that Jesus' only concern is that if we love him or not. Because if we truly have a loving relationship with Jesus, that relationship will never stop shaping our lives.
Nouwen spends a great deal of time on explaining that we should be building a relationship with God through prayer and devoting our time in service to him. He talks about the need for strong relationships with people in our community - in and outside of our church, because without people, humans fall apart. Another point that really stood out to me was that Nouwen states that Christians must give up their desire to be powerful and embrace authority based on prayer and forgiveness. We live in a world that desires popularity, power, and influence. Jesus wants us to give all these up, and to simply love him. In loving him he will give us guidance in our lives, and use us to show others how much he loves them. In doing so God will compell us to various actions and tasks that will greatly influence our surrounding communities for the better. We should never lift our individual selves up higher than others, we should be constantly striving to lift Jesus up above all else, and so many menial tasks that cause us worry in our life will simply fall into place and not be a concern.
One thing I believe we definitely need to be asking ourselves is are we "truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word, and to taste fully God's infinite goodness?
Nouwen spends a great deal of time on explaining that we should be building a relationship with God through prayer and devoting our time in service to him. He talks about the need for strong relationships with people in our community - in and outside of our church, because without people, humans fall apart. Another point that really stood out to me was that Nouwen states that Christians must give up their desire to be powerful and embrace authority based on prayer and forgiveness. We live in a world that desires popularity, power, and influence. Jesus wants us to give all these up, and to simply love him. In loving him he will give us guidance in our lives, and use us to show others how much he loves them. In doing so God will compell us to various actions and tasks that will greatly influence our surrounding communities for the better. We should never lift our individual selves up higher than others, we should be constantly striving to lift Jesus up above all else, and so many menial tasks that cause us worry in our life will simply fall into place and not be a concern.
One thing I believe we definitely need to be asking ourselves is are we "truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word, and to taste fully God's infinite goodness?
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Easy now
Sports can be a lot of fun, there are not very many things better in life that competing and succeeding. They can be taken too serious however, especially intramural basketball in my case. Now while my team is not the 96' Bulls, we are not the Detroit Lions of intramural basketball. We got stomped tonight, and it was not fun in the slightest. It was so frustrating, losing by 20 points and having no subs, we were exhausted the entire game. At then end we kind of goofed off and had some fun but overall it was just plain bad. To make matters worse right after the game the referee asked me if I wanted to referee the next game, because no one else was willing to, I soon found out why no one wanted to officiate that game.
The game had way to many personalities on the floor, it was an A-league game between two of the best teams. Which isn't inherently bad, but as the game went on I made a few bad calls and I heard about it the entire game. I was letting a lot of knicky knack fouls go, because that is what teams wanted, but at the same time they got furious when you didn't call something small. It ends up that a fight broke out at one point and I had to give a player a technical foul and talk to him a minute, and that actually cooled things down for the rest of the game and made it run alot smoother. However it wasn't all bad, because I learned a alot about officiating tonight, and gained alot of confidence in my roll as a referee. All of the previous games that I have reffereed have gone well and I have enjoyed several fun and close games.
It is interesting what you can learn in different situations in life, tonight I was talking to a friend after the game and he talked about how we treat people. He said that in sports you can get frustrated with referees and argue with them but at the same time it speaks alot about how you treat people if you are verbally assaulting them, which is really true. It made me think about alot of the things that I say, because I hated having every single decision that I made tonight questioned orally. How we treat people is so evident when face with situations in which we are the most tired, frustrated, mad, or in just a poor situation.
"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." - Colossians 4:6
- Josh
The game had way to many personalities on the floor, it was an A-league game between two of the best teams. Which isn't inherently bad, but as the game went on I made a few bad calls and I heard about it the entire game. I was letting a lot of knicky knack fouls go, because that is what teams wanted, but at the same time they got furious when you didn't call something small. It ends up that a fight broke out at one point and I had to give a player a technical foul and talk to him a minute, and that actually cooled things down for the rest of the game and made it run alot smoother. However it wasn't all bad, because I learned a alot about officiating tonight, and gained alot of confidence in my roll as a referee. All of the previous games that I have reffereed have gone well and I have enjoyed several fun and close games.
It is interesting what you can learn in different situations in life, tonight I was talking to a friend after the game and he talked about how we treat people. He said that in sports you can get frustrated with referees and argue with them but at the same time it speaks alot about how you treat people if you are verbally assaulting them, which is really true. It made me think about alot of the things that I say, because I hated having every single decision that I made tonight questioned orally. How we treat people is so evident when face with situations in which we are the most tired, frustrated, mad, or in just a poor situation.
"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." - Colossians 4:6
- Josh
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Great day
Today was such a good day, I had a blast. I woke up at 9:00 this morning which is much earlier than the usual wake up at 3p.m. saturday. So I took a shower and then started to debate whether it was really worth the loss of sleep to go zip lining, and then started to get into bed again. Just as I was about to fall asleep again I was surprised with a inspirational text message from one of my RA's saying something to the tune of get down here now haha. So I ended up going on the trip, which was a great decision. We got to go on a zip line course for free, it was a blast and of course what else would we do while waiting for our group to go other than find a bamboo forest beat each other up with bamboo sticks. It was alot of fun just hanging out with a bunch of guys out in the wild finding fun stuff to do.
After zip lining we got back to the dorm around 2:00 and then I played basketball from 3:00 to around 6, and in case you were wondering we played with a bunch of kids from Tennessee state, we won and there might have had a couple top ten plays on sportscenter tonight. After basketball I got back and showered and then went to climb nashville which is a really cool rock climbing place. Ends up there is a $15 fee if you want to "learn" how to belay someone and I figured why pay $15 to watch and instructor belay, when I could watch over a 100 other people in climb nashville and learn for free. Ends up I did that and could take a test and prove I knew how to belay and save $15. It was alot of fun but it turns out my body isn't exactly built for rock climbing haha, but it was still a blast hanging out with everyone.
I just had a really good saturday not doing any work, just hanging out with some friends and I had a blast. Tomorrow I am going to church, then refereeing 3 couple club intramural basketball games which should be interesting, and then hopefully watch the Cardinals win the super bowl.
After zip lining we got back to the dorm around 2:00 and then I played basketball from 3:00 to around 6, and in case you were wondering we played with a bunch of kids from Tennessee state, we won and there might have had a couple top ten plays on sportscenter tonight. After basketball I got back and showered and then went to climb nashville which is a really cool rock climbing place. Ends up there is a $15 fee if you want to "learn" how to belay someone and I figured why pay $15 to watch and instructor belay, when I could watch over a 100 other people in climb nashville and learn for free. Ends up I did that and could take a test and prove I knew how to belay and save $15. It was alot of fun but it turns out my body isn't exactly built for rock climbing haha, but it was still a blast hanging out with everyone.
I just had a really good saturday not doing any work, just hanging out with some friends and I had a blast. Tomorrow I am going to church, then refereeing 3 couple club intramural basketball games which should be interesting, and then hopefully watch the Cardinals win the super bowl.
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