My Next Chapter

This is it! The week before my first sermon, which I am excited and nervous for all at once. I did my first run through today with a good friend of mine, I was surprised when he said that he liked. He gave me a good few suggestions and I will employ them for the rest of the week as I have scheduled different people to preach to this week. I was taught in my preaching class that you should preach you sermon three times before you preach on Sunday, right now I am going to be preaching it at least five times, which will help me to feel more confident. I know that Satan has been trying to get into my head and trying to tell me that I am going to do horrible, but I know that preaching is not about me, it's about letting God speak through me, I am just a mere vessel and I know that I am not worthy to preach, but the grace and mercy of God is so awesome. The Lord has provided me with much wisdom for this message, I have talked with other pastor's about their first sermons and I heard the greatest advice, they said that I don't need to worry about it being great, I just need to focus on getting through it! My hope and desire is that my first sermon is the worst one I ever preach, because I want to grow each time I preach!

I have the best friends in the world. I turned 26 over the weekend and it was great being around all of them for my birthday and seeing all the myspace and facebook and happy birthday text messages. I had a great time at my party we all rocked out on rock band, and then we played one of the most amazing games ever, which is called Telephone pictionary it was rad!!! I can't believe that I passed the hump point to 30!! I know that I am in a good place right now, I just need to find a Godly woman!! which will happen in the Lord's timing and not my own, as much I wish it was my own timing. God has been using my singleness to help me grow in Him and to mature as a leader, I want to be able to be my wife's hero (underneath Jesus of course, who is the ultimate hero) I want to remain pure for her and her for me. I want our marriage to based upon the Rock of Salvation and our needs to come second, I want to be able to serve her and cherish her and honor her, and provide for her with all that is within me. It will be great to have a ministry partner. (I don't know where, this all came from... see the Lord is teaching me a lot about relationships right now even though I am not in one at the time)!!! Also this will be a great time to see what God has in store for me ministry wise, I know that God has called me to be a lead pastor (senior pastor to you baptists out there!!) Now I am just waiting on His timing for it to happen, I feel that it is probably a year or two away, but it's about God's will not mine.

Outer Part of the Plate

So it has been a couple of weeks... my endearing fans wait no longer!

I am free for the summer!! (from school at least!) Last week I finished my semester for seminary!! I am finished my first year of Greek and I came out of it with an A God is so good. When I started Greek last fall getting through the first year seemed so far away! but thanks to perseverance and dedication I was able to do well in the class and now I am very excited to start year two!! I learned so much in Greek and I was very blessed to have an amazing professor, who loves the Word and loves students. Going into the second year, I know that it will get tougher and the diagramming harder but I know that I can do it now and I look forward to the academic challenge... You can never learn enough!

On the homefront.... My Pastor challenged everyone on Sunday to wake up 30 Minutes earlier for 21 days and spend it reading the Bible and praying and growing deeper in our relationship with the Lord. For me it is a big challenge seeing that I love my beauty sleep or lack thereof!! I have found that these mornings when I have spent time with God, The days even when crap happens are still good days and I feel more in-tuned with the Holy Spirit and closer to God.

He has been revealing things in my life that I need to let go and giving me encouragement, that I should not worry about failing at anything, because even if I do fail at something, I can still take something good away from that experience. This revelation has given me a bigger passion to pursue my dreams.

Also I think that Satan is trying to distract me and has been trying to get me to focus on other things than the Lord and there is one area where he has been trying to hit me hard in. Today was good because I was able to talk about with a couple of friends of mine, and I feel so much better and like that was all I need to do to overcome this problem. Hopefully I will still feel this way tomorrow.

Contentment and the Lean Years Tradition

" I am ready, when your ready for me" That is a line from a song that is describing how God is waiting for us to call upon Him, because He is always ready for us. I am also using that quote as me saying that I am ready for that time when I find the right girl.

Ever since high school, I have been longing and desiring to find a wife, in college i was desperate and trying to view every girl as a potential relationship, which did not go well. Over the last couple of weeks. God has been showing me that I need to keep Him first in my life, and surrender my will in pursuing the girl that I liked... am still getting over. God told me to stop pursuing her, and it took awhile for me to listen because I really liked this girl, but over the last couple of weeks, my eyes have been opened and I decided that we are just better off as friends.

I feel with the last couple of girls that I have liked I am honing in on the qualities that I want in my wife. Each girl has been a little bit closer to what I desire in a wife, and that means that God has laid upon my heart the kind of girl that I am suppose to marry. God has been good to me! and I have never been so content in being single as I am right now.

I can use my singleness to bring God glory, I am able to do all kinds of ministry stuff without any restrictions and I have been able to focus on doing well in seminary, and being able to hang out with my friends.

The Lord also impressed on my heart, that I do not have enough time for a relationship right now, and I feel like He is preparing me to be a good boyfriend, and husband. By making Jesus my first priority the rest will fall into place, and when I meet the right girl I will be ready for her!! and in the meantime, I am going to keep loving on the Lord and doing His will for my life!

Oh Clarity

Clarity is something that everyone craves, especially when it comes to our lives. Often times though, we do not get clarity and are sometimes it feels like we are wondering around aimlessly. I know that lately in my life, I feel like there has been a huge haze that I have been caught in. Over these last two weeks, It seems that the haze is starting to clear, and I have been able to see things more clearly. One area that has been way hazy God is making clearer and clearer. I need to trust in God's plan for my life and not worry about the rest. Right now my focus is going to be on serving the Lord with all of my heart, and letting go of my own worries and having confidence in who God has made me and confidence in the ministries that I am responsible for running. With God as my focus, everything else will fall in place.

Stand Out and Stand Up

Extremes... We are told to try and live a life that is middle of the road. Why do that? it's boring, We should live life on extermes. I was reading a book recently that is called "The Gospel according to Starbucks" by Lenoard Sweet. He was writing that we should live lives that stand out and that aren't middle of the road. I know that in my own life, I don't always like standing out, I want to blend in most of the time, that is how my personality is. As a Christian, though I do want to stand out and make a difference. I also want to be able to show the world the Love of Jesus in my life. At church on Sunday, my pastor was speaking on mirror image. Jesus has called us to be a mirror image of him. That is so hard! everyday has it's own challange and often times when I look in the mirror, I don't see the reflection of Jesus, because I am caught up in trying to live life my way, instead of God's. That is why I am so thankful, for the grace that the Lord has given us, and if I start the day off with him, I am so much more likely to see the reflection of Jesus in the mirror. I want my life to be well curved, heading upwards not being steady in the middle. I am ready to stand out, and stand up.

new season

here I am back again on blogger after a long hiatus, one quick thing, doing the google captchia is crazy strange, I finally got it right on like the tenth time, maybe I am just a slow learner!

My life is so busy, I am running three different ministries at my church, all while working and pursuring my masters. I cannot wait for the summer, because I am cutting back on work and taking a leave of absence from Seminary, so I can find time to sleep and relax. My body is tired and tense and cannot wait for the month of April to end. Maybe I will even get eight hours of sleep again sometime soon :)