Well, it's been a while! But I'm still here. :)

So, this week so far I have had the whole week off. I was suppose to go to Arizona with a friend and then to California to visit other friends of my friend during this week, but certain events happened and so I ended up needing to cancel my flight. So I have had this whole week to myself. With nothing really planned.

It's been ok I guess. I have just been taking it one day at a time. I have had a lot of free time and honestly its been kinda boring and lonely. On Monday I was talking with a few friends as I was working in their yard with them, and one of them suggested starting a bucket list. A bucket list, incase you don't know, is a list of all the things and goals you want to accomplish before you die. She suggested a bucket list because then I can be doing those things while I have all this free time. Then maybe I won't be so bored but that still doesn't solve the lonely problem. I can be doing something on my bucket list, like learning calligraphy, but if I'm doing it by myself then I honestly don't really want to do it.

I'm totally an extrovert. I love being with and doing things with people. But I do not like being by myself and doing things by myself. And during weeks like this one, it kinda sucks.

I am looking forward to getting back into my rhythm next week when my week off is over!

P.S. I'm preaching tomorrow at The Gathering on Ephesians 3:14-19. It's going to be great!

Joshua

I had dinner with a friend last week that I really look up to.

You know the story in the Bible about Daniel and the Lions Den.? Well, my friend reminds me of Daniel. Daniel was a righteous man, holy and blameless and without fault. It was like he was almost perfect (we know he wasn’t, but it almost seems like he was). Infact, he was so good and blameless that the king decided he would be the one to recieve the crown after he died. Daniels enemies did not like that, so they tried to think of something that they could use against Daniel to get rid of him! Knowing that Daniel prayed 3 times a day to God, they suggested the king make a decree to throw anyone that prays to anyone or anthing besides the king should be thrown into the lions den. Well, it worked in part that the decree came to pass and they were able to get Daniel thrown into the lions den. However, they failed because God is awesome and was with Daniel and so the lions did not harm Daniel at all and Daniel ended coming out of the lions den and then his enemies were thrown in and got all eated (I know eated is not a word…) up by the lions!! So all that to say, that my friend whom I had dinner with last week makes me think of Daniel. He’s like a Daniel in our day.

One thing that he said was this, “What if people, Christians, stopped calling themselves sinners and stopped believing they were sinners? Maybe they would actualy sin less.” I mean, think about it! Jesus has given us a new identity!(2 Corinthians 5:17)! He set us free from the law of sin and death!(Romans 8:2)! He no longer calls us slaves, but friends!(John 15:15)! So why do we not believe it? We really don’t believe it. We have it memorized, as every Christian does, but not very many actually believe it. Instead, they still put themselves down as they slap on the identity of “sinner” and then go and sin. Maybe that’s why we can sin so much, because we expect to! We don’t expect to “not sin.” But really, God has set us free. We are not sinners, we are free!! God, the Almigty and most poweful thing ever, lives inside of us!! He has given us everything we need! He alone is life!! And he has chosen us and given us a new name and a new identity and called us His friends.

Imagine what the world would be like if all the Christians in the world really lived in this truth, knowing who we are and what our identity is. I imagine that it would rock this world!

I may expand on this later…

What do you think?

My best friend Esther shared this video with me.  I cannot stop crying.  God has used this to convict me of sin.  I have to share this with you.  Please, please pay attention.  What is God saying to you?

You know, I have talked a lot about what my passions are and what I want to do in life.  I've told everyone.  I've blogged about it.  And I keep talking about it.  But have I really done anything about it?  To be honest, no not really.

There are so many people like me.  We dream.  But that's all we do.  It's a great dream, to be sure, but the dream only stays a dream.  It doesn't even come close to being a reality.  I hate that I'm like that in some ways.

But you know what I realized?  I'm lazy.  I love to dream and tell others about it, but it actually takes work to make that dream happen.  And I guess I don't really like work.  I wish my dream would just "come true" without me having to do anything!  But life never ever works that way.  Nor will it ever work that way.  Everything takes work.

It takes sacrifice.

My dream is to mentor and disciple fatherless boys and men.  But in order to do that, I have to actually take the time to be with them.  I have to say "no" to something I want in order to actually live out my dream and passions.  For example, I love going to Caribou Coffee and hanging out there and chatting with the people that I know.  It's comfortable and I love the coffee.  But I might actually have to start spending less time there in order to spend more time with someone that I want to disciple and mentor.

What am I waiting for?  I keep putting it off saying "When I get to this certain chapter of my life, then I can do what I am passionate about." and then that "certain chapter" of my life comes but I still don't do it.  I find something else to do that doesn't require as much work and is more comfortable instead.

It's a huge challenge for me, but I've decided I just need to stop waiting and do it.  Yes I'm busy with school and church and other relationships, but I need to make time to do what I'm passionate about and called to do!  So I've been looking at places and people that do what I want to do and getting in touch with them.  And it's actually going to happen!

So anyway, that's where I'm at currently.  I'll hopefully keep sacrificing and doing and changing lives!  Cause that's what I want to do.  That's what I'm called to do!  All for the Glory of God!

You know, I feel like God has been teaching me a few things. All of it is related together. And I think it all wraps up with being in-tune with God.

I have to say that I don’t think I am very in-tune with God most of my days. It is so easy for me to sweep God aside and just do my thing, whether it be work or watching a movie or even sometimes church. I forget about Him. My mind and my heart are not paying attention to Him.

I believe now that God speaks to us way more than we know. In a number of places throughout scripture, especially in the New Testament, God tells us that He speaks to us, and that we, His sheep, hear His voice. Do you believe that God speaks to you all the time?

I believe that He speaks to me all the time. I just don’t think I hear Him very well. I don’t pay very good attention to Him. And that’s what I mean when I say I believe that I am more out of tune with God than I am in-tune with Him, and that it is easy for me to brush Him aside.

I also think that people use the excuse that God gives us free choice. Yes we have free will and God does not nor will not control our actions, and He also gives us brains and wisdom to make our own choices, but I still believe that God speaks to us about a lot of things. I think God knows what’s best for us and has some things to say to us about our lives and the choices we make.

So for me, the challenge is to be more in-tune with God in my life. I’ll still make choices daily, but I want to bring everything before God and submit it to Him in prayer. And He might not say anything at all about it, and so I’ll carry on doing it. But He just might have something to say about it, and then that presents me the challenge to pay attention to what He is saying. Especially if I don’t like what He is saying.

And it’s not just in the things that I do and the choices that I make that I should be in-tune with God about. I just need to pay attention to Him no matter what I am doing, because He just might have something, anything, to say to me or ask me. But it is not easy, and I don’t think I will ever achieve perfection in this, but I can still strive towards it, towards Jesus.

Are you in-tune with God?