Eating your peas

Tonight we had our young adults bible study. In the month of June we looked at how the public reading of scripture has been devalued over the last few hundred years. I would argue, especially in evangelical christian circles. Long story short, we decided to make the point of coming together tonight, reading. This may not sound like the ideal bible study. In fact, it was equated to "eating your peas" (or whatever vegetable you hated as a child). So For about 25 minutes we read 7 chapters in 1 Corinthians. Honestly, I was a bit nervous. I thought I was going to fight boredom, sleep, drifting thoughts and so on. Really I don't know why I am so surprised that I didn't. I don't know why I didn't have faith that the Holy Spirit would work through us reading the Holy word of God. In some countries, just having a bible in your possession will get you killed. Think about what is actually happening in reading the word of God-we are proclaiming a totally different lifestyle. We are telling the world that we believe in the one true God just as the 1st century church did. It may take a while for the church to realize that the public reading of scripture, in my opinion, is just as important as the sermon or singing. It may be that we have to "eat our peas" for a little while. And maybe just maybe, we might grow to like them. Peas anyone?

Hi Speed Cameras

Just for a little fun, type in Hi speed Camera on youtube. There are some great videos on there. Not all painful one's either.

Wave Pool

I was at a neighborhood pool yesterday babysitting some of our friend's kids. As the kids were playing, one of the older ones started making a wave pool asking all the other kids to grab a kickboard and join in. Next thing you know, every kid in the pool was bobbing up and down and splashing as hard as they could. Wave pools are a blast; especially if you are 5-13 year old (Court tells me I fit right in). A few things about wave pools-Anyone can help make the waves, and most of the time that's everyone. Wave pools aren't sustainable for very long. Wave pools can only happen if there are a lot of people in the pool and they all agree to do the same thing. I say we make a wave pool at Mayfair. Got a kickboard?

Being Faithful

To be faithful as God has been faithful to us, proves to be much more difficult than it sounds-especially in this human flesh. Most of us are very familiar with Israel's story. God chooses them to be the people that show his power/grace/omnipotence to others. But as we all know, they fail time and time again. Other people fail us. The church, heaven forbid, sometimes fails us. But we are called to be faithful to Christ. That means showing the love of Christ when others fail you. That means being faithful to Christ, and all that it encompasses, when others fail you. As God was faithful to Israel, sometimes this means doing something you are completely uncomfortable with. This means standing up for what you know is right. This means teaching the truth in love, even if it means letting that relationship, "wander in the desert for 40 years", because you know it will do more harm than good to continue in it. May God give us wisdom and discernment as we strive to be faithful to the calling of Christ.

Standards

Standards are changing. We expect customer service to be great. We expect great quality food. We expect that our car will not break down. The standards for everything are becoming much greater. Not just services, but businesses/churches/schools/government. All of these are constantly trying to improve. We are not okay with how things are now. In fact, we will probably never be okay with how things are now (whenever that may be). Has the church done this? Is the church trying to raise it's standards (I'm not talking about us individually, but what the church looks like to the community)? Do you believe the community sees us as constantly trying to improve? I'm not sure I know the answer so I would love to hear what you guys think.

Giant Ice Cream Cookie

So Katie, Caleb and I went to Elephant Bar to meet Jeff Bonney for lunch yesterday. One of Katie's favorite reasons to go to Elephant Bar is the Giant Ice Cream Cookie. If you have not partaken of this cookie it is about 10,000 calories big and amazing! As we were talking to our waitress, Jill, Katie mentioned that she might just skip lunch and go straight for the cookie. Jill informed us that they were switching menus and the Giant Ice Cream Cookie was no longer available. We were distraught, downtrodden and then beat our chests and poured ashes on our heads as we mourned. After we finished mourning, we continued to give Jill a hard time informing her that the Giant Ice Cream Cookie was probably the best thing they had on the menu. Katie said something to the effect of, "Olivia (her baby's name), really wanted the Giant Ice Cream Cookie today." With which Jeff responded, "yeah, don't mess with a pregnant lady." Long story short, we ended up with a Giant Ice Cream Cookie at the end of our meal. However, the Giant Ice Cream Cookie did not come from Elephant Bar. Jill informed us that she had called her husband and asked him to go look for some Giant size cookies around town! And he did it! Imagine that phone call, "Honey, there is a pregnant lady that really wants a Giant Ice Cream Cookie and we stopped serving that here. Can you go buy some cookies so we can make this?" Unbelievable! We also found out that it was Jill's second day on the job and they are new to the city! Needless to say, I will be calling the manager and singing Jill's praises (not literally). Jill and her husband are also looking for a new church and said they will probably be attending Mayfair at some point. Make sure and say hi. What a great day.

Repentance

"When I am weak, then I am made strong" These are Paul's words in 2 Cor 12:10. As I read chapter 12, something hit me. Being frustrated leads to repentance. That may not be a mind blowing statement for some of you, but for me it was forming. I realized, that frustration leads to a bad attitude. A bad attitude to anger. Anger to impure thoughts. Ultimately, those thoughts lead to sin. I realized, this is actually a good thing (obviously, I am not saying that it is a good thing when we sin). When I sin, I know I need to repent. I have been made weak. Paul's words flooded my thoughts, "When I am weak, then I am made strong." I have heard those words hundreds of times, but this time, the cycle of frustration to repentance happened in just a few hours. Wow! "When I am weak, then I am made strong!" For me to become who I am to be in Christ, it takes those frustrating moments. It takes being angry. It takes knowing that I need to repent. Because, in those moments, as frustrating as they may be, we are made strong! This week, when you become frustrated and weary, know that repentance is near and you will be a better person for it on the other side.

The Box Doodle Project

To see some really cool cardboard boxes check this out
http://www.neu-e.de
It is a side-scrolling website so the scroll bar is at the bottom.

Thought for the Day-Feelings

When someone is not good at something, and I mean really not good at it, but for some reason have been told otherwise their entire life, what do you do? Do you spare them the embarrassment and tell them, crushing their spirit? Or do you stand by and watch, counting the seconds/days until they are done/finished? Would love to here some of your experiences.

What would you do if....

That is the title of the latest book I just finished reading by Henry Yoder. The question he attempts to answer is, "What would you do if someone was attacking your wife/sister/mother/father?" Would you retaliate? Would you meet violence with violence? Or would you find a more creative way to foil the attackers plan? Much of the book talks about a Christian's answer to violence. Honestly, I had not thought about pacifism much and for a good portion of the book and was baffled by his answer to violence-nonetheless a Christian's answer to violence. There was a point in reading the book however, when my attitude changed. He argues simply that, we are to show the love of Christ to others as he showed to us. That may sound dirt simple, and in theory it is. But when speaking of violence/war it becomes much more difficult. I'd love to know some of your thoughts on pacifism. What do you think a Christian's response to war should be? What should a christian response to violence look like?

Bible Study this Summer

So I thought we might do something a little different for bible study this summer. Since we are only having two meetings a month, it will be difficult to have an on going study the entire summer. So instead of doing a book, or a book of the bible, or even a video series, I thought we might a do a study of some of the christian disciplines-prayer, scripture and the Lord's supper. Looking at them from the perspectives of what it really meant to the Israelites, Jews, and the NT church. How they were performed, where they were performed, what the purpose of them was, and what it meant to them at that time. We will learn about them the first week, and the second week, we will spend time doing each one. First week, for example, we will learn about prayer from the OT/NT perspective , and the second week we will spend 30 minutes or so praying. The first bible study is June 11th at our house. Hope to see you guys there.

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

This website is hilarious! Some great, really awkward, family photos.

Vertical

Tomorrow we will start a new quarter on Wednesday nights. We are going to spend some time of focused praise and worship, with some thoughts on why we worship, and what it means to worship. Afterward we are going to have some snacks and hangout. We are calling this time Vertical. I'm sure most of you already know this, but I wanted to clear things up. Here are the names it is not-Horizontal, Parallel, Altitude, Perpendicular, Corresponding or Analogous. It's Vertical.

Joseph the Dreamer

Yesterday I was beaten down and encouraged again by the story of Joseph. Cocky and prideful as a youth, but humbled by an uncontrollable set of circumstances. Through all of his uncontrollable circumstances (being thrown in a well, sold to slaves, Potipher's wife) he continued to do the right thing. All the while, God blessed everything he did. Joseph must have thought his dreams were not going how he had envisioned them going. I often feel, "This is not how I had pictured this". All the while, God is saying, "Just trust me. Have faith. Be my Child". Things always seem to work out, most of the time going much better than I could have envisioned. More often than not I feel the pain, the uneasiness, and the unknown, is not worth it. The pain of going through the valley, the pain of growing, the pain of change seems to wear my spirit thin. What limited vision we have. What a lack of faith we have. But in spite of all those thoughts, I take comfort in knowing that, Joseph had a God given dream and still probably wasn't sure it was ever going to come true. In fact, Joseph had 12 brothers that were trying to make sure it wouldn't come true. So whatever dreams you have, whatever vision you have for you life, or whatever you don't know right now, know that through an uncontrollable set of circumstances, you might just get there.