I wrote this on Thursday on my Treo, but it's not set up yet to blog so I had to email it to myself.
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I'm thinking that it is high time to write a blog entry. What's great is that i'm writing this in word on my new treo. I needed to get a sprint plan and decided to upgrade to a pda phone.  i love it!  the calendar app will be very handy, plus I'm able to access email. All this and more on a device the size of a deck of cards!

I think that I really am enjoying hanging with my friends the last week or two. We've had ablast. oh, if anyone can get me armadillo meat or rattlesnake I'd appreciate it!

The weather has been glorious today!  I sat on the corner with the sprint sign for an hour and have the sunburn to proove it. Unfortunately I work from10 to 3 on mon so won't make it to the coast. I'm thinking either a bbq or a movie if anyone is in town.

The last week and a half have been interesting...

The wednesday before I went to Madras, I BBQed for a group of people. I plugged the propane in, turned it on, ignited it, let it warm up, and somehow turned the flame off. So I'm standing there, burgers on the grill and nothing is happening. I remove the burgers, wait for it heat up and it didn't. Then I realize that there isn't a flame. So I ignite it again with the lid on. WHUMP!!! I got slightly singed, but luckily that was it. I then heated the grill up and cooked the burgers, even though I was rather embarrassed. In my defense, it was my first time grilling this season.

I've written about the weekend, so I'm just going to say that I really enjoyed my discussions with Dad. We talked a lot about church planting and how to set up a good foundation.

Spider Man 3 was a lot like Star Wars Ep 2 for me. Too much romance, good fight scenes.

Tuesday was a long and hard day. I woke up early for devos with Brian, then went to work at 10:30. I got busy and so didn't get out of there until 7:30. Unfortunately that was when I was supposed to be at the Springfield Bus Station for Lockwood. I ended up there around 8:05 and had to wait for my boss to get back from a run. She got off at 8:20 and I had just a couple minutes for a semi-briefing until the bus left. I then handed out surveys not really knowing what I was doing, but willing to improvise. So I rode the EmX from Springfield to Eugene and back again until 11:01. Then I drove home feeling exhausted.

The bus was fun though. The highlight was being able to strike up all these conversations with total strangers. Luke and Bethany spontaneously rode the bus and kept me company for a bit. Then I had the people with the baby snake to talk to, the old man who had no need for a cell phone, the lady who couldn't read and who needed me to help with the survey, and many other interesting people.

Today has been fun! David and I came home for Mother's Day. We originally planned to go to a church and then go to Cline Falls, but since Mom wasn't feeling well, we didn't do that. She rested, Dad made breakfast and we relaxed this morning. Then they decided we should go for a picnic. We took the Chevy truck to the edge of a canyon and had a wonderful time! I got a lot of pictures, which was nice 'cause I haven't been taking pictures lately. Good dog pictures, good people pictures and good landscape pictures. I'll get some of them up on Flickr soon.

It's been nice to be home. What with Mom and Dad not knowing exactly where God's taking them, I wanted to see them before they move. There's been some good conversations. I love being able to talk ministry with Dad, it's so rewarding.

Oh, another interesting thing was getting to deal with a messed up septic system right when we got here yesterday. After trying everything that we could, we had to call the septic guy. He managed to unclog it and that solved the problem. Not an experience I want to participate in again. Note to self: Save money up so that you never have to deal with a septic tank.

Tomorrow we drive home early morning, I get dropped off at work, and then my buddy Tim is going to pick me up and we'll go to Spider Man 3. I won't get home until 9:30 or later. That ought to be exciting.

Soon I'll be paid. I'm stoked. I have two paychecks due tomorrow - one from Sprint and the other from Lockwood. Can't wait to actually have money that I earned. It's a good feeling.

test

I've been thinking about sin and how insidious it is. No matter what kind of sin it is (anger, pride, jealousy, porn, drunkedness, thievery, among many others), there's an element that starts us on a downward cycle. We sin, say we steal a laptop and sell it. Being Christians, we know we just committed a sin. We've driven a wedge between us and God. God can't stand sin, so this sin is serious. This then becomes a problem. We are convicted, we repent, yet we then do it again. This cycle continues and each time we repent, we can feel like we're damaging our relationship with God - maybe to the point of no return. And if God was human, and dealt with us as a human would, we'd be right.

Even the most loving human would stop welcoming their child back after 20 times in the slammer or after 50 rapes or whatever. We don't have the capacity for that unconditional love that God has. When He died on the cross, He forgave us for our sins: Past, Present, and Future. That point in time covered everything. He removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. There's no coming back to it.

Okay, so what's this repeating sin cycle? Why do we constantly fall into the trap that reduces our relationship with Him? I've come to the point, after reading Romans, after reading the New Testament, that we're fighting a war between the person we are(the spirit) and the person we were (the flesh). God has redeemed us and bought us. We are His Children, adopted into His family. However, we're in a process of refining and molding in a world of free choice. This free choice allows us to make mistakes, it allows us to turn from God, and if you truly desire to be separated from Him, then it allows us to totally deny Jesus (most likely a very difficult thing to do).

How do we continue to walk with Him? One, we can't do it by ourselves. Once we give up independence (hard for Americans to do), and self-reliance, we have the ability to turn to Him. Two, we recognize who is in the driver's seat and let Him control. surrendering our plans, our desires, our wishes, our everything, to Him. Three, realizing that it's work and that it has to be done constantly. Submitting to the Holy Spirit and letting Him fill you is not a one time event, it's an every day, every hour, every minute process.

Don't give in to the doubts that can come. Those are lies. If you've given your life to Christ, nothing can break it. Life may be tough, guilt may try to destroy you, but hold on to that hope. Jesus is your SAVIOUR! His love is the only constant thing that you can count on.

And don't take His love as an okay to sin. His word is very clear that we are to stay as far as we can from sin.

These things have been going through my mind lately and I hope that they help you.

Just sitting here after Connections thinking about all the things I have to do this week. I've reentered the working world and I now have to be busy. It'll be interesting to see how I schedule my ministry around my work schedule. I am now running into the minister's dilemma of having to work at least part time and minister part time. Okay, vocational minister.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about my job and being moved to full time (yay God!), but I'm still a minister and I still want to spend time with these people, "Connecting" with them, caring for them, and listening to them. This is who I am, and I'm coming to realize that no matter where I am, this will be my focus. I will be extremely happy when I can be a paid minister and make that my job.

Here's another interesting thing that's been bouncing around my brain: I have been trying to leave Eugene. Because of my past, and the way God has pushed me out of my comfort zone (think Jerome and the yg there), I've been expecting to leave Eugene soon. However, I don't want to leave Eugene. My desire is to stay here and minister to the odd people of this strange town. It would give me great joy to stay here for five, ten, fifteen more years. I've been skeptical of this desire of mine, because of thinking "it's me, it's my thought, my plans." and everytime I grab ahold of something, it turns out that it's not what God wants. But, I can't believe how the last few weeks pushed me to stay here longer. I get two jobs almost at the same time, right when I'm actually sending feelers out to Salem and Portland. I get moved to full time at Sprint when I'm not expecting it. I'm allowed greater responsibility and am being encouraged in the college/career group. Maybe I'm supposed to stay in Eugene!!

Novel idea to me, that. It's really hard for me to think that God would give me the desire of my heart without me having to move to another city. That's ingrained in me and I can't seem to stop equating "move" with "God's plans."

So yeah, now that I'm actually playing with that idea, other things are percolating. I'm wanting to take more steps in Connections. I'm going to be exploring possible evangelistic ideas. Talking to other college pastors in this town. There's so much that can happen here!!