So I just got home from a Texas Rangers baseball game, I am a big fan of the team and the game, and to be honest I was embarassed to be at that game. The lack of effort shown by a team that gets paid millions of dollars total to play the game was less than my old high school team, which at times put out little effort. The left fielder threw the ball in to the short stop and it bounced a couple times, not a great throw, then he let it go through, as the fielder rounded second and could've easily taken third base. There were more instances of this as the game progressed and it reached a point where I legitimately believed they had given up.
But something happened in the last inning that really put me over the edge, the Rangers got a base hit. It was an infield hit, and the infielder made a bad throw and went into the dugout, so our runner was able to take second base because the ruling is if the ball goes out of play (which includes the dugout) the batter gets the next base. Now you may be thinking, wow what a huge break, they must be pumped up now and excited, well our runner sure didn't show it as he WALKED to second base, not jog, not run, but WALKED. To me, this showed that he had given up as well and didn't care about the outcome of the game. The rest of the game proved my point as the batters watched good pitches to hit and swung at bad pitches or dug themselves into holes that they could'nt get out of. Bottom line, the Rangers effort tonight sucked and was a poor excuse for a major league team.
Now I know that no team can win every game and I know that no team can have the same great performance as other games, but it was something about the EFFORT that stuck out to me tonight. And the word EFFORT keep hitting me, and I finally realized why. Ever since I returned from mission trip, I have given God less and less of my effort. I left that mission trip wanting to do several things:
Spend more time studying the Bible using the methods we used in our devotional times.
Plan a label for the water bottles and times and dates to go out and hand out water bottles and talk to people about Jesus.
Remember - Ekklesia, Matthew 4, Serve (which falls moreso into the above statement)(ask me about those later).
Remember what God did and not forget it.
Brothers and Sisters, I need your help. Team Anywhere, you may be able to provide more help because we share this experience, but I am opening this to everyone. I need your help to hold me accountable to doing these things and remembering what God did during that week.
Help me as I try to put more effort into my walk with Christ
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
God - Budziszewski w/ an ending from Shew
God is like nothing we could have imagined.
God is utterly other than us - other in a way we express with the world holiness. Yes, He dwells within each Christian, but He's not you. He isn't the same as you, He isn't a part of you, and He isn't a "higher" you. Yes, you're made in His image, but you're not Him. You're not the same as Him, you're not a part of Him, and you aren't a "splinter" of Him - nor will you ever be. He doesn't depend on anything else because He is what everything else must be explained by. Although we can know what He has taught us about Himself, we can never comprhend Him completely because He is greater than our minds. Anything He wills, He can do. He not only holds supreme power but He also uses it. Nothing can defeat Him and nothing can happen contrary to His will. He is also supremely good - light with no darkness. Although evil is real, He detests it and brings it to judgment. He knows everything, He pays attention to everything, and nothing escapes His notice. He's not just a What in three Whos - one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no one like Him. He is set apart. He is what He is, and there was never a time when He was not.
God is utterly intimate with us - intimate in a way we express with the word love. He's our father. He's our master. He's our brother. He's our shepherd. He's our husband. He's our friend. If you think these are "just figures of speech," that's fine. But remember tha figures of speech are always mere shadows of the real thing.
Maybe you don't want God to be that holy. Maybe you don't want to be loved that much. Maybe you don't want to be loved that much by something that holy, for our God is a consuming fire. None of that makes a speck of difference to Him. Though we can reject His loving pursuit, God is relentless, inexorable, and utterly unfettered in His pursuit of us. He empties Himself, pours Himself out for us, to the point of death, whether we want Him to or not. He crushes out sin. He is utterly opposed to whatever in us opposes Him. He wants us to be holy, to be set apart for Him. And He expects us to like it!
25 of us are about to embark on a journey to Haiti, and for the most part, we don't know what to expect once we get down there. A mixture of excitement, nervousness, wicked out of our pants scared are just some of the feelings we are going through right now. Satan must be wicked out of his pants scared too because obstacle after obstacle has been placed in our path especially over the last 24+ hours in attempts to derail us from the ultimate goal, Jesus Christ. In the end we know this, Satan's attempts will be futile as Jesus' light continues to shine through the darkness. Church (church means every follower of Jesus Christ,) we need you to pray for continued financial support to pour in, for our safety during this time (10-17), but above all, that God's will be done.
God is God and God is good.
God is utterly other than us - other in a way we express with the world holiness. Yes, He dwells within each Christian, but He's not you. He isn't the same as you, He isn't a part of you, and He isn't a "higher" you. Yes, you're made in His image, but you're not Him. You're not the same as Him, you're not a part of Him, and you aren't a "splinter" of Him - nor will you ever be. He doesn't depend on anything else because He is what everything else must be explained by. Although we can know what He has taught us about Himself, we can never comprhend Him completely because He is greater than our minds. Anything He wills, He can do. He not only holds supreme power but He also uses it. Nothing can defeat Him and nothing can happen contrary to His will. He is also supremely good - light with no darkness. Although evil is real, He detests it and brings it to judgment. He knows everything, He pays attention to everything, and nothing escapes His notice. He's not just a What in three Whos - one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no one like Him. He is set apart. He is what He is, and there was never a time when He was not.
God is utterly intimate with us - intimate in a way we express with the word love. He's our father. He's our master. He's our brother. He's our shepherd. He's our husband. He's our friend. If you think these are "just figures of speech," that's fine. But remember tha figures of speech are always mere shadows of the real thing.
Maybe you don't want God to be that holy. Maybe you don't want to be loved that much. Maybe you don't want to be loved that much by something that holy, for our God is a consuming fire. None of that makes a speck of difference to Him. Though we can reject His loving pursuit, God is relentless, inexorable, and utterly unfettered in His pursuit of us. He empties Himself, pours Himself out for us, to the point of death, whether we want Him to or not. He crushes out sin. He is utterly opposed to whatever in us opposes Him. He wants us to be holy, to be set apart for Him. And He expects us to like it!
25 of us are about to embark on a journey to Haiti, and for the most part, we don't know what to expect once we get down there. A mixture of excitement, nervousness, wicked out of our pants scared are just some of the feelings we are going through right now. Satan must be wicked out of his pants scared too because obstacle after obstacle has been placed in our path especially over the last 24+ hours in attempts to derail us from the ultimate goal, Jesus Christ. In the end we know this, Satan's attempts will be futile as Jesus' light continues to shine through the darkness. Church (church means every follower of Jesus Christ,) we need you to pray for continued financial support to pour in, for our safety during this time (10-17), but above all, that God's will be done.
God is God and God is good.
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