The Mansion.

The infamous mansion next to Beulah Beach. Supposedly the guy that lives here invented the drop ceiling tiles.

Surrender!

A surrendered life is an empowered life. An empowered life is a life that expects the miraculous.

If you are from Nappanee Missionary, you have probably heard that saying. But, what does that mean?

Well let me back up and talk about hiding from God. It was recently said by a SH Youth Pastor that when you hide your sin from God, the only thing you are doing is hurting yourself. God sees all, and he knows about it. By us bringing sin out of hiding, we are being open and honest in front of God. Only then can we experience true freedom in Christ.

In my journey in the last week of finding my way back to seeking God with all my heart, I realized something about surrendering my rights, my desires, my dreams, and my will.
Its only when we get to the point of wanting to give everything over to God, and trusting in him to provide for us that we will experience true freedom in Christ.
Its funny to me that dealing with sin and surrender can involve the same steps. But, at the same time, its so elementary. For some reason, I'm once again reminded of this passage that has been popping into my life all summer long:

Matthew 6
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.

We worry about our sin. We worry about our rights, our desires, our dreams, and our wills. Its time we surrender. The One who we battle with is a lot bigger than us, and He's actually on our side. Sign away everything... all of your sin and all of the things you think you need or you think God has for you. Then you can live in freedom, and fight with, and not against God.

What is holding you back? Have you counted the cost? Do you truly want to seek after God with all of your heart? I know both sides of this story. And frankly, I'm learning that this picture is were I am free.
I really need to remember this post. Somebody please ask me how I'm doing from time to time.

Why So Serious?

Really big screen + Batman = Good Stuff
Maybe I'll see it again soon.

My journey at camp.

I want to share the things I wrote down at camp. If you want to know more, talk to me in person. Its just that I don't want my fingers to fall off.
I feel like I'm one of these stones cut out of the quarry and used as a breaker. Ever so slowly as the waves beat against me, I'm being wore down. there is nothing i can do about it because I am stuck in place. I wonder if being stuck in place is keeping me from pursuing God with reckless abandon. Or is where I am where I am supposed to be so God can smooth the edges a little bit more?

Does my heart and mind purposefully focus on something I can't have? Or is it that I pervert the things that God desires for me? How do I start with a clean slate?

What is keeping me from the direction God wants me to go in my life?

Why do I worry so much? Why do I worry about what others think, what I think others think? What can I do about this?

Are there lies that I'm buying into that I don't fully know of yet? What about the lies I do know of? What do I have put in place to combat these lies?

Am I surrendering to God the things in my life I think I need? Daily? Hourly? At a moment's notice?

Am I not necessarily stuck, but not just fully aware of my role in life?

Back from camp.

Well, I'm back from Senior High Summer Camp. More details to come, but for now, a story about the trip home.
I was driving a church van and trailer on the Ohio turnpike and got slowed up by some congested traffic... rumor has it Obama was in the area. All of the sudden, I saw this:
I then got into the left lane and saw this:
I couldn't contain myself. I had to call the one and only Hoss to let him know that it was just a little way behind him. It only me calling 4 leaders to track him down.

Random thought

As we were setting up for Summer Camp in Ohio yesterday, I had a random thought... how much am I worth? I know, I know, for those of you who have the privilege of knowing me are thinking right now, "You cant put a price on that!!" To that I say, thank you, but seriously, how much am I worth if I cashed my weight in gold?

Well, to figure this out follow me back to elementary math. First of all, you need to know that there are 16 ounces in a pound. Secondly, you need to know the weight of the subject in question...I just weighed in at 185 pounds(random comment.... Thanks to the no pop challenge I'm 20 pounds lighter). Thirdly, you need to know the price of gold. As of this morning gold is around $919.77, but has been dropping, so we will round down to $900 for the sake of this experiment.

16 x 185 = 2960
2960 x 900 = $2,664, 000

I'm worth a decent amount in Gold. And by the way, those 20 pounds just lost me $288,000.

p.s. in the 15 minutes I took to post this, gold dropped to $914.40. Better buy quickly!!

Oh, Canada...

Happy Canada Day!