10-3-04 Sabbath

Today was another one of those rare days when we actually got to Sabbath school on time! For one thing, it was because I was responsible to run the sound system. Pastor Ed Blackwood from Southside Reformed Presbyterian church led the class on the topic of “what is a church?” The most interesting thing I learned is how the church is not the building, but the people who meet there.

For the morning service, James Faris spoke using the topic “Of Him they will ask the more” from Luke 12:35-48. He gave many convicting points, but the biggest thing that hit me was to contemplate what kind of return I am giving for the investment God has made in my life. Am I living up to my name as a Christian? Here in the United States, I have been blessed with much more than many people in other countries. How am I using the abilities I have been given? I pray that as I go about my daily responsibilities that God’s glory will shine brightly through me. This is one way that I can bring a good return for God’s vast investment in me.

10-2-04 Saturday

Even though I went to bed pretty early last night, I slept in quite late today as well. Getting up at about 11 a.m, I ate some breakfast and showered before I left for Dr. Blackwood’s Ancient Church History class. Kevin and I got to class on time at 1:30 p.m. and then started on the quiz. The quiz covered the material that was taught in class last week. I am sad to say it, but I did not do too well on the quiz. Next time I think I will spend a bit more time studying. After class, Kevin and I drove home and then ate dinner. After a while, Michael, Kevin and I watched Mission Impossible: 2, a movie that Michael had checked out from the library. I do not think I will watch it again. The main character, Ethan Hunt, who was played by Tom Cruise, made a great use of technology. The antagonist also used a lot of high-tech gear and they managed to confront each other quite a bit through out the duration of the movie. Towards the end, Ethan is required to make a decision between what he knows is right and protecting the heroine. In the end he is able to save the heroine’s life, as a result of his self sacrifice.

10-1-04 Friday

When I finally got up between 11 and noon, I had somehow contracted a cold. Colds somehow manage to make you more sleepy than normal. Considering I had planned on being up at about 8, I blew a majority of my day sleeping. Unfortunately sleeping is not an optional commodity. The best thing you can do to recover from a cold, even though I don’t have extra time, is to sleep. After I ate some breakfast or lunch, I had about an hour to work on my piano. After a rewarding practice time, I got ready for work. I was able to work even though I had a stuffy nose. Towards the end of my shift at about 8 p.m, I started to feel pretty bad. I knew I was the only one available to close the front office, so I was able to stick it out until I got off at 10. When I finally got home, I went to bed very quickly.

9-30-04 Thursday

After working a long shift from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m, I came home and ate dinner. In a little while, I decided it would be a great idea to watch the presidential debate. So at 8 p.m. when it started, I turned on the TV, a rare occurrence in our house. By the time the hour and a half debate had finished, I had a new perspective on Kerry. Though many people say that he won the debate, I now know why I disagree with him on so many points. And to make it worse, during the debate he changed his views on multiple important issues. I do not understand how anyone could vote for a candidate with such unreliable positions. President Bush did look tired, but the content of what they each said was drastically different. Bush stayed very strongly on what he has said in the past and is a man of integrity. I do not have to think very long to decide who to vote for in the Presidential race. However, the gubernatorial race is not so clear cut.

9-29-04 Wednesday

So far this week, I have tried my best to get up about 7 a.m. I find that by doing this I can start the day off with my quiet time and then go on to other things. Going to bed earlier at night is not easy, but getting up in the morning is even harder. I still get about the same amount of sleep, but I find that I am much more productive.

After lunch, I took Kevin to the Davies house for his math class. While I was waiting, I went just down the street to our church building and worked for about 2 hours cleaning up the property. I trimmed two trees, picked up trash along the street and blew leaves off the parking lot. By that time, I had to go pick him up and we went home.

From 6 to 8 p.m. I was at the Marion County Master Gardener Associations’ monthly meeting. This was the first evening meeting they had and it was a trial to see how great the interest was. There was a very good turn out and it will likely be done again. After getting some nibble food, I looked at the many displays that were set up detailing the numerous volunteer opportunities available to Master Gardeners. For the last hour, they had a speaker who talked about pleasure gardening. He described the many different landscaping plants he uses; almost all are tropical and do not live through the winter. Since he has to replant every year, he has the chance to have a new design every year. The many pictures that he showed were very helpful for giving ideas that I may use in my own landscaping. I hope to be able to go to the next meeting in October, since this one was as helpful as it was.

For what this is worth...

Heart of Gold


What is Your Heart REALLY Made of?
brought to you by Quizilla

This could be dangerous...

Ask me 3 questions. Any three, and I have to answer them honestly. Of course if it's too personal, I won't answer.
Then post this message on your blog. I'll answer the Q's in an upcoming post.

I want EVERYONE WHO READS THIS TO LEAVE ME QUESTIONS then do this on your site. It'll be more fun.

Cool listing of Indiana blogs!

My brother found this really cool website. It's a list of Indiana blogs, and will eventually include a map of where people are. It's free to list your blog there too.

~Brian

There's plenty of space to continue...

For those who may not have noticed, on one of my posts, there has been a lengthy discussion about salvation - who may receive it and how. I feel that it is a very important topic so please make any continuing comments here on this post.

~Brian

The best book I have read in the past year.

During the course of the last year, I have read several books. It is very hard to choose which one is the best. The two books that made it into the final round are:

· Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris and

· High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband by Evelyn Husband

Both books are very well written, but Boy Meets Girl is more applicable to where I am at right now. Boy Meets Girl is the sequel to I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Joshua Harris wrote his first book at age 21, urging young Christians to give up worldly dating practices and to focus on serving God instead.

Boy meets Girl is the continuing of his life story. Following the principles he established in his first book, Josh commits to focus his life on God. After giving up the dating game, God allowed him to get to know Shannon, his future wife. He tells of his struggles to keep God as his focus all the way through the relationship. The book is about how they met, became friends, courted, and were then married. It is filled with many examples of couples and their experience with dating or courtship. Josh focuses especially on how God allowed it to turn out in the end.

I believe that this quote sums up the main point of the whole book -- “For your relationship to be strong, love for God must be the common passion of your hearts.” Personally, I was challenged to do several things as a result of reading this book. First, I must have my focus totally on God. Second, I need to rely on God to provide a wife in his due time; if that is His plan. Third, there is no reason to worry about who or when. Instead I should pray that God will be working to prepare me for the future he has in store me. I very highly recommend this book to be read by all, especially teenagers.

(This was an English assignment I decided to post)

Work...

I had every intention of getting up and getting a lot done this morning. However, I didn’t get up until about 11:30! After taking a quick shower and eating some food, there was not much time left. I had to leave at 12:45 in order to be at work on time. Work is a whole story by itself. When I got there, there were customers all over the place. I could barely keep up with all the refunds and Western Unions. Not to mention cashing paychecks and selling all the cigarettes and lottery tickets that I did! To keep it short, it was very busy at Customer Service today! I got off at 6, and it really was showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. Certainly, today I was very glad I only had a short shift!

Long day

I had an early start today because I had my monthly appointment with Dr. Hughes. He did not do much today, but told me to continue wearing all three rubber bands as I have been. My next appointment is only in another two weeks, and I should be getting my braces off very soon! For most of the morning after I got home, I worked on B. S. F. questions. I then went to lunch with the Gilberts at Bahama Breeze. The food was excellent, though I’m not sure I’ll go there again. With $100 to spend because Mr. Gilbert had won a contest at his work, we were able to get just abut anything we wanted. When I home I only had an hour or two before I headed out to work at 3:30 p.m. I got off at 10, and now I'm headed to bed.

An RP church in the Philippines?

During the evening service, came the biggest highlight of the day. Pastor York and Magill both shared about their recent trip to the Philippines. The trip was very productive and consisted mainly of a 3 day seminar given by Pastor York and Magill. They also spent much time talking to Ojie Bicaldo, the main contact the RP church has in the Philippines. He and two assistants are praying that God would open the door for a presbytery and a seminary in the Philippines.
*Item for prayer*

Great sermon this morning

James Faris – “What is your End?”

1 Timothy 6:1-21

Verse 8 after having food and clothing – the basics of life - we do not need anything else. Instead be like Paul who was able to be content in his circumstances, regardless. It’s not how much you have or don’t have, but how you are content with what you have.

Verse 15-16 you will see who it is that has kept the Word of God perfectly, to him be honor (Philippians 2) Jesus was the exact opposite of the man in verses 1-5. He could have brought everything he wanted to into the world, but he decided to be equal with men who do not have an option to bring anything into the world. (Isaiah 53) Christ bore the sins of those who love money (and everything else too) so that I do not have to fear my end. Jesus makes the FDIC look puny. Don’t come to church thinking “what am I going to gain?”

Verse 19 by giving you will lay up a good foundation against the time to come, grasping onto eternal life and not letting go. You may not be rich in the time on earth, but by giving, not to the point of poverty on your part, but as God blesses you. By doing this you will lay up in heaven your treasure.

A waste of the morning....

Time, being as precious as it is, I do not know haw I can sleep until 11 a.m. Somehow I did anyway! After a really fast shower and some food, I went to work. After a fairly busy day, I got off at 4 p.m. and went home for a couple hours. At 6:30, I went to Pat Jarboe’s house for the monthly Belcezar committee meeting. This is a meeting at which we discuss the prayer and financial needs of pastor Belcezar, whose ministry is in Nicaragua. The meeting began at 6:30 p.m., and by the time 9 came around, we had covered a lot of important topics. Now I have all kinds of things to pray for him and his ministry.

Whew, a day for the record books!

As far as your average day goes, today was way out of the ordinary. To start off, I left our house at 7:30 a.m. I took Johanna, my sister, to church because she was going to help prepare and serve at the Mother / Son Brunch. My mom and two of my brothers met me at church around 8:30. All four of us got our picture taken and then we were seated for the program to begin. The meal started off with a delicious fruit salad. Then we went through the buffet line that included baked oatmeal, waffles, breakfast pizza, Canadian bacon, and home made coffee cake. All the food was wonderfully prepared by Todd Brown, who is a professional chef. Following the meal Senator Kruse, of the Indiana State Senate, gave a wonderful talk about living your Christian life with integrity. Once the brunch was done, I had about 2 hours to work on a few things I had brought with me. Then it was time for the first class of Dr. Blackwood’s Ancient Church History class. This ran for the majority of the afternoon, beginning at 1:30 p.m. and ending at 5:30. Immediately after class was done, I had to leave to go to work at 6. I finally got home after I got off work at 11 p.m. What a long day!

John 3:14-18, 20-21, 36

14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

This is a great chapter about those that are saved and those that are not. Also it's about why Christ even came to the world at all. Being one who believes in Christ and what he did for me on the cross giving me salvation, I stand as one who is not condemned before God. As I seek to live by the truth, I will be examined thoroughly by both God and men to see if what I did was done for God and his glory alone. As John said “That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”(John 3:29-30) As I mature, things I do will be done more for God and because of the ability he gives me, not for any credit that I may receive.

No work today...

Time is one of the most precious things that I have been given in my life. God seeks for me to always use time to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, times like today, when I slept in really late don’t help me make the best use of the time I have. Anyhow when I did manage to get up, I was able to get quite a lot done in the short amount of time I had available. I took Kevin over to Grandma and Grandpa’s to cut their grass. Then I had a very productive time of practice on the piano for the recital in October. Overall since I didn’t have to work today (which is nice in a while), I got a lot done.

The wonderful life

Nothing really out of the ordinary happened today. However, I did go to the first class of Mr. Pulliam’s writing class at church. There are about 12 people in this class which meets for one and a half hours every other week. I took a semester worth of this class last fall and by far that class has improved my writing better than anything has before. God certainly puts opportunities in front of me, and I must make the best of them. One of the assignments due in 2 weeks is a short paper on what I expect to learn from this class and why I think that writing better is essential. Another assignment is to write 7 days worth of journals during the next 2 weeks, so I’m likely to update my blog a bit more frequently now. After I got home from class, I had a little time, then I went to work! Some days it’s really busy at work, but today was certainly not one of those days. Instead, it was rather slow and I was able to get off very close to 10:00 p.m.

Now I’m off to bed.

Hebrews 12 is an awesome chapter!

Hebrews 12:1-3
¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

...and that's only the begining of the chapter. In life there is not only a physical "race", but also a spiritual "race" as well. There are many distractions around us, but we must continually focus on the goal, the endpoint, to judge weather what we are doing is necessary. Christ desires to be the central focus of both our physical and spiritual race, so that I may see his wonderful example and follow him and not get discouraged.
I must continually ask myself:
How do the things I do today help me to get successfully to the end of life and to Heaven to fellowship with my creator?
How about you?

~Brian