sunday thoughts

Hey everyone!

Well this week is going to be a busy one!! As most of you know, Tiff and I are going to take Cason to see the Mouse! Yee haw- 12 hours in a car with a two year old! Does anybody else think this is the equivalent of committing psychological suicide?

But first, let me tell y'all about yesterday. We had a great day at the Journey. Shawn Allen, one of our campus pastors, was our teacher yesterday. Erik has been on a three week break (well not really... he's been working in the kid's area. So you could really say, he's been doing even more work! Thanks, Erik, for your willingness to serve- and lead by example!)

Actually, Erik asked several of us on the leadership teams to spend some time with the kids these past weeks. Our teachers needed some breaks and some help, themselves. I personally got to go hang out with the 4-5 year olds. Man, those kids are CRAZY! :) They are so full of energy and just go nonstop! But they love coming to kid's church! And that's awesome. I was in there with Ginger Reed, our children's ministry leader. She does a great job. If you guys have a kid, you should go tell her how much you appreciate her. She's awesome!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend the entire time back there. About twenty five minutes into it, I got a text from my tech booth saying that they were having "issues". Imagine that! Technological issues at the Journey........ noooooo. Who'd believe that! :)

Anyway, back to Shawn. Shawn is one of my best friends. He's a great guy with incredible insight into people and ministry. I'm blessed to have him in my life. And his wife, Miranda, is one of my praise team leaders, as well. Tiffany and I adore them both. And yesterday, Shawn got to finish the Elements series with "Purposes". Shawn, you did a great job, dude. Sorry about your muffler! (I'm just glad I'm not riding to Catalyst with you!) For those of you who are saying..."muffler?", go to the website and watch it. It's hillarious! As always, go to resources, then video library, then "Elements-week three, Purposes".

So, back to the Mouse! Tiffany and I are going to Disney with Cason, leaving this Sunday after church. This makes my week long! One, because I'm more excited to go than Cason!!!! (I love that place, dude! I'm the biggest kid of all!) Two, because before we go, I have three class periods of homework and tests (four to be exact) that I have to take and turn it by Wednesday of this week. Fun huh? So, here I am, talking to y'all, when I should be writing an essay on "claim of Cause" for Ms. Cynthia Wyatt, my english professor. (six pages, by the way!) So, I'll leave y'all with this:

Jesus talked all the time about trying to do things and live this life through your own strengths. He even said, apart from Me, you can do nothing. Now I don't think that he meant that without Him we will all stand stagnant and litterally do nothing! Most of the time, well pretty much all of the time, when Jesus spoke, he said things so that you would have to delve into it to get the meaning. This is what I think he meant: He is God, God in the flesh. Therefore, He created us. Apart from His creating us, we couldn't do anything, because we wouldn't exist! Therefore, apart from Him, we can do nothing. But I also think there's a deeper meaning as well. If we do things of this world that are not centered around Him, then what we do is meaningless. Now, that doesn't mean that nothing has meaning, it just means that in the grand scheme of things, if it's not centered around God's will for our lives, then it's in vain. The bible says that all of our works are like filthy rags. There's nothing that we can do, no amount of works or efforts to attain our salvation. Because it has already been done for us. We just have to accept the grace that has been extended to us. So, if you're going around doing things without God at the center of your life, does your life have meaning?

Love y'all. Here's the songs from yesterday.

You Are Our God (Robbie Cheuvront, Erik Reed), Mighty To Save (Hillsong), Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin), Because You Are Holy (Robbie Cheuvront), He Reigns (Newsboys).