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.