My days are going by so fast. I have no time to accomplish anything. My mind wonders and I lose focus. The pressure is on now…. only a few more weeks then I’m done with this mile stone of my life. Then sadly its off to start the next one.
All I want to do is worship!
All I want to do is serve!
All I want to do is love him!
I must persevere, I must cross that finish line…
The light above me flickers, a jack hammer rings through the window, the sunshine is so bright it makes me smile. My non-linear interactive game is due in 20 hours, i need to start that, my org comm application paper is due Wednesday, my law exam is tomorrow, my book report for PR is due Thursday, my yard needs work, my ideas need to be written, my mission statement needs perfection, we’re going bowling tonight, and my dog’s need a lot of love.
Man its only Monday. Where is the beach when you need one!
Above all, through this I need time with Christ, 20 mins in the morning isn’t enough anymore, i thirst for Christ, i starve for Christ, I am consumed with Christ.
Grant me Wisdom, Give me Vision, Light my Path, and Hear my Songs to You!
I wake up in the morning… I tell myself that God loves me…. That God adores me… That i need to live up to what i have already attained. I have already attained my salvation, God’s love, and Faith.
Then and only then my day begins.
Throughout the day I want my efforts to shine like this.
2 Peter 1:5-11
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Faith>Goodness>Knowledge>Self-control>Perseverance>Godliness>Brotherly Kindness>LOVE
GOD IS LOVE
As most of you know, I am a volunteer Young Life leader for Taylor High School. Every year we take a summer camp trip and like usual camp is expensive and we need help raising funds to send underprivileged students to camp.
Here are the details.
Help Send a Student to Camp
Here is your opportunity to help students go to camp this summer. With the growing cost of transportation and lodging the price for camp can be a lot for some high school students and their families. There are a few ways that you can support our students.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Fear and Trembling. I discussed my concearns of fearing God and what that really meant for us to fear God. I found an insight on this from Henri Nouwen, an author of many Christian works. Here is what he said;
Letting Go of Our Fear of God
We are afraid of emptiness. Spinoza speaks about our “horror vacui,” our horrendous fear of vacancy. We like to occupy-fill up-every empty time and space. We want to be occupied. And if we are not occupied we easily become preoccupied; that is, we fill the empty spaces before we have even reached them. We fill them with our worries, saying, “But what if …”
It is very hard to allow emptiness to exist in our lives. Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen. It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance. God wants to dwell in our emptiness. But as long as we are afraid of God and God’s actions in our lives, it is unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. Let’s pray that we can let go of our fear of God and embrace God as the source of all love.
I thought that this was close to what I was trying to say in my last post. We need to learn to accept God as Love, to Love God back, and to share God’s Love. If we spend time in fear of God how can we experience this great love that he promises us, and gives us so abundantly.
Now I also believe that sometimes the term fear is used to describe a deep respect for God, His authority, His power, and His control in our lives. However, I believe respect is apart of Love, so loving God and accepting God’s love is our sign of respect.
So i have noticed that everyone seems to be in the blogging game these days. I am excited about it. I believe that blogging is a good outlet to vent, ponder, and discuss what is going through our heads. It is a great way for some of us to stay in touch with each other and continue to understand what is going on in each others lives.
In an effort to further our blogging experience and to find more purpose with why we blog, I have started yet another blog. This one though is a collaborative effort from me and a few of my friends. The goal is for this blog to be an open forum for anything all in the hopes that truth will come through discussion.
The blog is www.captiveoutpost.wordpress.com .
Go check it out. Realize though that we just launched this and there isn’t really much content on it yet. Check out the about page to see what its all about. 
If you are interested in maybe joining us send me an email and let me know.
So I have been sick all day. This really sucks, because I am not one to really get sick, and I hate it when I can not do what I originally wanted to do. I was supposed to hang out with some of my friends from Taylor today, but I didn’t want to risk getting them sick and I knew that I wouldn’t have been and fun to hang out with being all drugged up and coughing up a lung.
I took this stuff earlier called Airborne. Its a vitamin supplement for vitamin C. One dose of this stuff is 1600% of your daily vitamin C dosage. It was really interesting. Anyways, i hate being sick and I hope that it gets better for YL tomorrow.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
What have I already attained?
My answer to that would be my salvation. So let me live up to my salvation. How do I do that?
Live for God, Love God, Seek God, Fulfill the Great Commission, I press on and take hold to that which Christ Jesus took hold of me, Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
This letter from Paul is so rich and so encouraging.
To live up to my salvation, I have to give my heart completely to Christ. I have to surrender my heart to him, let him take care of it, let him hide it. My heart will then be replaced with him, I want the only love I have to give to others to be the love of Christ coming out of me. I don’t want to give my love or my heart to anyone else but Christ. I want all that I have to give, to be Christ!
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Philippians 2: 12-13
What is Paul saying here? Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We should fear our salvation or be in fear of the fact that Jesus was able to be our salvation. I think this ties into the concept of being a God fearing man. Which is something that I have wrestled with for awhile now. Why should I fear God? Doesn’t God love me and want to do great things with me? Aren’t I supposed to love God back? How is living in fear of God going to let me grow closer to God?
Now, I have done some research into what this idea of fearing God really means. Most scholars have said it is a way to express a deep respect for God. I believe that is a valid point, however I feel being in love with God is another way to show deep respect for him. I still cannot fathom how fearing God will get me closer into his love. So I will continue on loving God and working on figuring out if I will fear him.
So this is interesting and to me is proof of how God works in my life. The post I made yesterday about finding God’s truth in our lives and emotions and then claiming them, had a quote from Rob Bells book Velvet Elvis.
“If it is true, if it is beautiful, it is is honorable, if it is right, then claim it. Because its is from God. And you belong to God.”
I talked about how much I loved this idea and quote and thought it rang true to my life. Then today the verse of the day was Philippians 4:8. You just got to read this.
Philippians 4: 4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
I was like WOW! That is so much like what Rob Bell was trying to say in his book. Think about all these things that are of God and you will know its God and God is going to be with you. I feel that through the random verse of the day God decided to affirm my thinking and help me to realize that I am with him.
SO again, I say go out and Claim it!
