In the words of Jillian Potter

Love is not complacency

I promise I'll keep this one short cuz the last one was quite lengthy.

I feel that I, and prolly anybody who reads this, let God down in this respect. We love God. There is no denying that. But if we love him why do persist on staying stagnant in our relationships with Him.

I realize that we are all guilty, I include myself in this, of putting other things before God. I myself am a college student who leads ministry and works. On top of that I have homework and need time to spend with my friends and family. My excuse for not finding time to spend with God somedays is that I am just to busy with other things. Matthew 6:25-33 talks about worrying about these things.

Do Not Worry

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Why worry about earthly things? This passage is still incredibly prevalent today almost 2000 years after befing written. Why worry about what you wear? Does God care what you wear. If I had to guess I would say I highly doubt it. If this is the case why do we waste time on something so trivial and meaningless? Not only clothes but many things in our lives are just earthyl possessions that do nothing but deter us from delving deeper into our relationship with Christ. Christ should be the center of our lives and by prioritizing other things above Him is not putting Him first in your life is it?

Again, I am incredibly guilty of this myself. On a daily basis I put my own selfish wants and needs over my relationship with Christ. I am getting better at it but I still struggle alot. My question to you is why waste time checking facebook countless times? Why waste time playing video games hours a day? Why waste time searching for new music on iTunes? What is all this doing for you in your relationship with Christ? At the most all this stuff is doing is stopping you from spending meaningful time with the Lord.

Instead of spending these hours doing meaningless things why not put them to use? You have all this time to spend on doing anything you want. Why not spend it with the Lord? Are video games, music, and facebook to important to put on hold to spend some good quality time in the Word? Im not saying spend all your freetime in the Word, God wants you to to rest and have fun. Instead i'm just asking you to think about whats inportant in life and instead of wasting time everyday why not spend sometime with god and see what He is trying to teach you that day.

So it's kinda late...

but that shall not deter me from talking about Jesus.

First I shall fill you in on my life for the past two weeks then we will get to the reason I write this thing. Um where to begin... well last week it was Colerains homecoming and I got to hang out with the guys at the game. It was cool, I had the opportunity to talk to Austin and Joey a little bit about what they thought of God and I found out something interesting. They both respect God and love God but both of them are not sure how to push into a relationship with Him on a deeper level. So thats my goal with these three guys (Austin, Colin, and Joey). They all already know the Lord so I'm going to show them how to grow in the Lord and how to live our the word.

Um what else? My mom went to the doctor this week. She found out she has two spots that may be cancerous. I am now becoming aware just how little I know about cancer. She went to the hospital to see whats up and they don't know anything yet.

After two months of looking I finally got a job offer at Walmart stocking third shift. I will be making good money and may able to finally not have to stress over car payments and that kind of stuff constantly. That will be nice. The interview is monday, I hope it goes good.

So as far as the first two things go (the boys and my mom) if you could keep them in your prayers that would be awesome. As for the job thing... if you want to pray for that you can. I won't stop you.


Ok now for the good stuff. For nonchristians or followers of Christ, what I am about to write is what I feel started me off on the track towards becoming a follower of Christ. For christians I feel that what I am about to write is a very simple part of our faith but it is something that I often take for granted and unfortunately don't think about and thank God for as much as I should. This simple but great idea is Gods unconditional love for us.

Romans 3:23 Its a classic Young Life verse that usually surfaces during the sin/cross talk. It states "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". We are all sinners. Everybody. Period. Sin comes in all different shapes and forms but sin is sin and it is something that unfortunately controls most of our lives. Whether it be lust, greed, or even complacency we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. What do we deserve for this? If you ask me we all deserve eternal damnation. Whats the other great Young Life line? The first part of Romans 6:23 "for the wages of sin is death". Death. Not just physical death, something that everybody will inevidably got through, but death in the sense of eternity spent away form our Father who loves us. Daily we turn away from Him or we don't include Him in the things we do. Whether that be ministry, spending time with friends, or sitting alone in your room. God created us to love Him and to have an open loving relationship with Him. Why do we feel that it is to much of a burden to spend time with Him on a daily basis. I am not just pointing a finger and saying that everybody else is at fault while I am in the clear. I sin and turn away from the Lord just as much as everyone else, christian or nonchristian.

Romans 6:23 in its entirety reads "for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Another verse that goes good with this is one that anybody who went to sunday school as a kid knows and thats John 3:16 which reads, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God loves us so much that He humbled Himself enough to send His son here to this very earth to live amongst us, teach amongst us, and eventually die for us. Us, sinners, we are the reason God send His son here to die on the cross. He wanted that relationship with us. He didn't want us to be closed off. Christians often think that in our lives we choose God but didn't God really choose us by sending Jesus here? God could just be chillen up in heaven right now by Himself but He is a merciful God and allows us to know Him and love Him in a way that we can't love anything else.

God doesn't care that your a sinner. He doesn't care if you are rich, poor, ugly, fat, have acne, are a gold medalist, a fashion model, or event he president. When God looks at you He doesn't see those things, He sees someone that He loves unconditionally and will do anything for. Some people think that because they are poor and don't live the best life that God doesnt love them. This could not be further from the truth.

To those who believe that the Lord doesn't love them because of the choices they have made or continue to make in their lives I would like to point out the story of the adultress in the temple.

John 8

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

In this passage Christ encounters a woman who is clearly a sinner in the eyes of those around her yet Jesus does not condemn her at all. Instead He tells her to go and leave her life of sin. He does not scorn her, He does not say a single negative thing to this women. This is because of His unconditional love for all of us. Even in His final hours on the cross Jesus prayed for forgiveness of those who were crucifying Him. If He can forgive all these people for turning against Him do you really still believe that He doesn't forgive you for the things you have done in your life?

And to those who still doubt I say just look at Christs disciples, the guys hwo followed Him around and became His closer friends here on earth. The disciples included a bunch of fishermen, a zealot, and someone who down the road would turn Him in to be crucified. The fishermen weren't the rich people of the land. They went out and worked long and hard for their money but yet the Lord reached out to them and loved them. He didn't care if they were poor or not, He just cared that they were His children and that He loved them unconditionally. Then there is Simon the zealot. For those of you who don't know what a zealot is it's someone who is zealous in their God and will rebel against those who disagree with them. This could often lead to the zealots killing others. But Jesus did not care what Simon had done. He just cared that He was His unconditionally loved son. See a pattern yet? Then finally there is Judas. The traitor. Jesuss' life on this earth was always destined to end on the cross and He knew it. He knew that Judas would eb the one to betray Him. But yet He picked Judas to follow Him and learn about the Lord. Why? Because Judas was His son and He loved him unconditionally. Jesus loved even those who were a direct threat to His life and He loved them unconditionally and never showed contempt towards any of them. You and I are the same way. No matter how we have lived our lives thusfar God still loves us more than we can even start to imagine.

Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

What saved my life

I think I'm going to write two new things today. The first of which is going to be my testimony. I feel that sharing how the Lord has worked in my life to bring me to Him is very important. I've never written my testimony down before so I'm not sure how this is going to progress so if it's choppy please forgive me.

I grew up as a very happy child. My family took vacations often and I had a pretty good childhood as far as grades and friends went. My family was a two-a-year catholic church going family. Other than Christmas and Easter we never went to church. Although we didn't go to church my parents insisted that my family still went to sunday school every week. This was more of a hang out time with the friends I met there. God was presented but in such a fashion that God was this big ominous being the loomed over us and knew whenever we did something wrong. Because of this I never realized or was taught that someone could have a growing and loving relationship with the Lord. God to me just sounded likea mean boss who would flood the world if I wasn't good all the time.

In middle school I was (for lack of a better word) a dork. I didn't have many friends and I was picked on alot. This left me starving for social acceptance and friends heading into high school. I joined as many clubs and sports as possible. This completely transformed me. Instead of beig a shy. awkward kid I was now confident and had alot of friends. I constantly looked to these friends whenever something went wrong in my life. I was fully invested in them and rarely went a day without talking to one of them for an extended period of time or hanging out with one of them.

During my sophomore year my parents announced that they were going to start living in seperate houses and insisted that nothing would change as far as family dynamics. Though outwardly I took the seperation (and later on divorce) with a grain of salt on the inside I was very upset by this suprising turn of events. Looking back I think that these reason I didn't want to show any weakness or the fact that if affected me at all is because I didn't want my younger siblings to see me crumble. I felt like I was the rock of my family that was changing so fast. I couldn't let my siblings see me show any weakness because I felt like I would have failed them. During this time I invested heavily in my friends and I resorted to depending on them even more for happiness.

One of the groups I had joined to make friends was Young Life. Even though I went to YL all four years of high school the thought of having a relationship with the Lord never really clicked with me. I always heard about how there was a defining moment in peoples lives where they felt God. At that point I had not yet had a moment like that. On graduation day, May 29th 2007, my world was turned upside down. Two of my sisters best friends, Lauren Dietz and Miranda Phelps, were killed in a car accident on theri way home from school. During the next few weeks I tried to depend on my friends as I had done before. The only problem was they couldn't be there for me this time. They were as broken as I was and were in no state to help. I could no longer depend on the clubs and sports to busy my mind either.

A little over a month later I went to Young Life camp. I never would have guessed how much that week would change my life. The main reason I wanted to go was to have fun and hopefully just forget abotu what had taken place not long before. With there only being one guy leader there and about 14 guys I didn't get to spend to much time with Will. Throughout the week the speaker talked about how we tend to fill our lives with stuff that does not fill us and how eventually all these things will fail us at some point or another. For the first couple of days I blew off the speaker a bit and just concentrated on having fun. After my 1 on 1 time with Will and after finally opening up to listening to the speakers message I realized how guilty I was of trying to use other things in life to make me happy.

The speaker went on to tell us that unlike the things in our lives that let us down constantly God is steady, unchanging, and He unconditionally loves us. Even though what he said didn't sink in right away it ate away ate me all week. I knew I filled my life with my friends and depended on them for everything. But the question on my mind was was I willing to leave my life of old to pursue God?

On the second to last day at camp I sat on a bench overlooking the lake and everything became very clear to me. My entire life had been scripted for me to get to this one moment in time. God had made Himself and His word present in my life and now it was my choice to decide if I wanted to follow Him. During the talk that morning the speaker told us that even though we are sinners and we have all turned away from the Lord, He loves us so much that He sent His son to this earth to die for our sins. All this only beause He wanted to have a relationship with us. He didn't have to send Christ but He did it anyways just because of His love for us. I realized that even though I didn't deserve it, and to this day I still don't, God has unconditional love for me. On that day, on that bench, I came to realize just how much I needed the Lord. Since that day, July 9th 2007, I have been pursueing God and He changes my life on a daily basis and I am so thankful for it.

Luke 15: 4-7
"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

Life till now

I really wanted to put my testimony as the first thing in this blog but that will come at a later time. I really feel like I need to share what God is doing in my life right now. Normally I don't write much but I feel like this will be a good way to centralize my thoughts and make sense of some things.

A major thing that has been going on is God is really winning me back and proving me wrong on a daily basis. For those who don't know I lead Wyldlife at Colerain Middle School. Wyldlife falls under the umbrella of Young Life. Over the past week or so I have found myself doubting and even getting angry at God because of Wyldlife. Wyldlife just recently started up in the Cincinnati area. Last year we were one of two schools that was running club on a consistant basis and we only had about 15 kids showing up. At that time I was completely ok with what was going on even though it was just girls coming and I had no guys to hang out with. Recently other schools in the area have started up Wyldlife have had a huge reception in their areas and have alot of kids showing up. When I found this out I became very aggitated toawrds the Lord. Why had our club not taken off like this? Despite all our hard work and praying we weren't getting nearly that many numbers.

Then last night God showed me that He knows exactly what He is doing. We weren't expecting a huge number of kids last night. Fifteen minutes before club started kids started showing up. Kids we knew at first and then kids we had never seen before. The three guys I had been hanging out with at football games were there which I had expected. Then two guys I had never seen before showed up along with a guy who came around last yeat but hadn't been to anything yet this year. Throughout club God really opened my eyes. Evangelism isn't about numbers. It's not about how many kids I get to come club. It's all about those kids that were there. God opened my eyes and showed me that this is not in my command. He has a plan and He has those kids there for a reason. He has all those kids laughing and goofing around so we can have an oppurtunity to spread His word and share His love with them.

This was not the only big thing that happened last night though. Something equally amazing happened before club that absolutely blew my mind. While Callie, Cathy and I were sitting around talking about club a lady walks in the cafeteria where we have club. She said that she was a teacher and that she just left something in her room. She then asked us what it was that we were doing. We told her that we ran a youth ministry that focuss on middle schoolers and then she said something that blew my mind. Another teacher and her were trying to start up something similiar in the school but didn't know how to do it. We exchanged contact info and she asked if we wanted to pray about it. To say the least we were excited about this new acquaintance God had put in our lives. If this teacher is willing to follow through and work with us then Colerain Wyldlife might finally have our person on the inside of the school that could really help us out.

To say the least God showed Himself and His power last night. He showed me that I have no reason to doubt Him. He is in control and He has a plan for each of us. He also showed me that if I just believe in Him and I am willing to wait and pray patiently He will reveal His plan when its time.

Hebrews 10: 35-36
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.