Who doesn’t love bulleted lists? I do. And it has been a while.

• I think we had 27 students at LINC last night.
• To shake things up a bit - we sang songs and then we prayed.
• Literally - instead of me speaking for 20 or 30 minutes.  We prayed.
• There were 6 different prayereas set up.
• Prayerea = Area where you pray.
• Students prayed for Family, School, Lost Friends, and LINC.
• There was also a prayerea for Repentance and Praising God.
• I really was amazed at how serious the largely middle school group took this time.
• Should I have said seriously?
• Lost Friends are friends that don’t know Jesus - not friends that you have lost.
• Afterwards we had pizza and tossed a disc around.
• Also - I redeemed myself in Guitar Hero this week.

Excluding some issues - the night went extremely well. It was great to see students writing the names of their friends who don’t know Jesus on a white board and then praying for them. I definitely think that some of them were uncomfortable with the idea of praying for the whole service. But in the end - I think that the majority of the students enjoyed or were impacted by the night.

Thank you Jesus for pulling that off.

Laura Beth showed me this video.  Pretty hilarious.

One Million seconds is about eleven days.

One Billion seconds is about thirty-two years.

I just finished the book of Jeremiah today.  Sure - it took me a long time.  Here is my overall opinion of Jeremiah.

God’s wrath is so real.  We are flawed.  There is no chance for any of us.  We have all chosen to worship the ‘gods’ of this world.  But there is hope.  I would find myself reading about the destruction to come and how unfaithful God’s people had been and thinking - When is this going to end?  Where is the silver lining?  And then God would say to his people that HE would restore them.  Despite our unfaithfulness - God will restore us.

God is faithful.  Even when destruction is surrounding us.  God is faithful.  When we are unfaithful and we choose to worship the creation rather than the Creator - God is faithful.  He will restore us.  He will always love us.

Praise God.

I can’t get over the simple truth of Grace. God’s grace is simply amazing. I know that this next quote is going to be kind of long. But it is an excerpt from one of Matt Chandler’s messages. He is talking about the beginning of Matthew 5 and the “beatitudes.”

Blessed are the ones, happy are the ones, being healed are the ones, growing in depth are the ones, worshiping are the ones who are keenly aware of their inadequacies, their failures, their uselessness, how prone they are to wander, their difficulties. Blessed are the ones who keenly understand their brokenness, for they will be comforted. So let me trace the two paths for you. You’ve got the one guy who’s trying with all his might to not be the mess up but he really is. And every time he hears, “You’re a hypocrite, you’re a failure,” he feels, “I know, I’ve got to try harder. I’ve got to get better. I hate this sin. This sin owns me,” and he tries to work harder. So he comes to church every week and he hears someone talk best practices, “This is what a Christian should look like. This is how we should live.” He knows he’s not living up, and so he
gets overwhelmed, he gets depressed, he thinks it’s just not working for him and he contemplates giving up. That’s track A; you’re welcome to hop on it. Here’s track B. Track B is, “Hey man, you’re a hypocrite.” “I know. How crazy is it that Christ still loves me? How crazy is it that He lavishes forgiveness and love on me? I’m doing the things I know to not walk in anymore. And I now I’m constantly messing up, but praise His name that He still loves me right now.” “Hey man, you’re a bitter, angry man.” “I know I am. This has become increasingly clear to me because I try to follow Christ, but how unreal is He? How beautiful is He? How amazing is Christ that, in the middle of my bitterness and rage, He extends grace and mercy and love to me?” “Hey man, you’ve got a real lust issue.” “Man, I know. I’m in the step studies and I’m going to counseling and I’m trying to resolve this thing, but how beautiful is Jesus right now that, right in the middle of my lust, He loves me?” Not, “How great am I that Jesus loves me.” You take that turn and that’s blasphemy upon blasphemy upon blasphemy. Not how great am I that He would love me; how great is He that He would?

God’s grace astounds me everyday. God’s grace is so amazing - I can’t comprehend it. How great is He that he loves me?

I don’t know how many students read this blog.  But Perry Noble has had some good things to say to guys and girls who are interested in dating.

I know that I have said on here before that I haven’t slept well. But here are my symptoms: it takes me a long time to fall asleep at night. I toss and turn. I wake up frequently, but I get back to sleep rather easily. It is very hard for me to wake up in the mornings.

I don’t want to be a hypochondriac - but that looks like insomnia to me. What do you think?

During my quiet time today - God kind of spoke to me about something.  I - like a lot of people - get jacked up at conferences or when I hear awesome messages.  I get fired up and very excited.  I just went to Passion ‘08.  It was awesome and truly a “spiritual mountain top” experience.  But naturally - that experience is wearing off.

I think that conferences and listening to good messages about God are great.  But they are like Spiritual Energy Drinks.  I go to those conferences and it is like chugging an Amp.  I get jacked up.  But inevitably - I am going to crash.  What needs to be happening is me working out my salvation or working out with my quiet times daily.  That is where my energy needs to come from.

Energy drinks are good to spark a short burst - but in order to stay energized and healthy - a person needs to work our and treat their body right.  Do you see what I am getting at?

Anyway - I felt like it applied to where I am at right now in my life.  I have to make a choice to work things out instead of relying on a camp or conference experience to simply get me to the next camp or conference.