him..... ME

I know You love me... I love me too
I know You're here... but I'm good on my own
You died for me... I won't die for awhile though
You're Christ...I'm a Christian
You said do this... I ask why
You want my time... time is money
You want my thoughts... I've got a lot on my mind
You're patient with me... I get pissed at stop lights
You want my life... I go to church on sundays
It's all about You... It's all about me
I read my Bible for 20 minutes... I lift weights for an hour
I told you I would talk to you tonight... but the Office is on
I see the homeless... I eat four meals a day
You say to give... I take
You were selfless... I am selfish
I give you my life... I take it back
I put money in the offering... I spend 50 bucks on jeans
I see the swollen-bellied African kids... I hope mine go to Harvard
I'm a saint... I'm a coward
I care about their eternity... but not really
I know they need you... I need friends
You want me out of my comfort zone... I'd rather stay put
You want me to witness... not just LeBron
You want surrender... I'm not ready
I'm a Christian... I'm a hypocrite
I love you... I love me

Persecution

Sorry it's been so long... I kinda got consumed my all of my final exams and stuff these last few weeks, but I got through them all and I wanted to get back on my blog. I was reading though 2 Timothy tonight and I came across this verse:

2 Timothy, 3:12 - "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

I just thought about this verse for a little bit and I am still thinking about it actually... and I wanted some of you guys to think about it. If I'm not being persecuted, am I living a godly life in Christ? Are you?

Get OUT of your comfort zone!

I am so proud of my wife because recently she made a difficult decision and chose to get out of her comfort zone and be real with some friends about Jesus Christ. Getting out of our comfort zones for Jesus is probably the most important demonstration of our faith that we can do here on earth. I know that I live in my comfort zone wayyyy too much and that is something I am trying to change. That's another reason I started this blog... it's not always comfortable to talk about Jesus especially when I know that there are probably some people who will read this and wonder why I got weird. But I don't care about that anymore... I'm living for God's approval, not for the approval of man.

I wanna talk for a minute about the importance of getting out of my comfort zone. Two verses in the Bible that state pretty clearly the role that I am to play in this world are these:

Matthew 22:39 states, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 28:19 states, "Go and make disciples of all the nations."

These two verses might not say it directly, but basically they are shouting at me to be different and step out of my individual bubble and live to make a difference in others lives.... have enough guts to step out of my comfort zone and love others who aren't easy to love, and share Jesus with others when it's not easy to do so. Is this always going to be easy? No! Am I going to encounter fear, resistance and animosity? YES! But that's ok because God promises me my reward if I live for Him.

So this brings me back to my wife and how proud I am of her for being a true follower of Christ and a true friend. Recently, she felt very convicted that she had never directly shared her faith with some of her old friends, so she took a tough step and decided to share Jesus with them. She was very frank with them... told them about Jesus dying for their sins... the existence of  heaven and hell and that she truly believes only those who have a relationship with Jesus will be in heaven. Is this hard to tell friends? Yes. It is true? Absolutely! Well some of them were kind of offended by it and felt judged. So now my wife is heart broken because they don't understand that she told them that out of LOVE and DUTY! So if you read this, I ask that you will pray for Tonya... that she will keep going strong. Because one day those girls will appreciate the courage it took for her to share the TRUTH with them... I just hope that day is in this lifetime.

So guys let's start living out of our comfort zones. Let's start being real and taking steps to change others lives. Let's talk about Truth instead of the weather. Let's invite others to church or small group rather than the big game. Let's stop caring so much about what others think of us... that is my biggest assignment for myself now... Stop caring so much what others think about me and getting the hell out of my comfort zone!

Thanks guys...

Thanks guys for your inputs. It has helped and I have spent some time talking to my wife more and more about this stuff. You know I think I have kinda realized that my view of money is a heart issue and maybe there isn't necessarily a line. I think it's just important to make sure that I keep the one true God as my God and realize that my handling of money is simply a way to show Him this. I read through your guys' posts a few times and this is kinda what I concluded:
- There is nothing wrong with having money as long as it doesn't control me.
- There is nothing wrong with saving up my money and striving to pay off my huge anesthesia school debts.
- There is nothing wrong with spending money as long as it is not spent extravagantly and wastefully.
- It is important to be aware of others needs and provide financial support to them by making some sacrifices in my own life.
- Finally, as long as I look to His guidance for my financial decisions and truly try to honor Him with them... then I am keeping Him as my God (and not money as my God).

Again, I appreciate all of your thoughts on this topic. I don't want this blog to always be about money and these issues, but this has been something on my heart a lot recently.

Right now I am reading through Ephesians and Phillipians and I have really come across some awesome stuff that I am gonna start sharing on here tomorrow. As for now, its finally Friday night so I am about to head out to dinner with my wonderful wife and spend some good quality time with her. I love all you guys and I'll talk to you soon!

The invisible line...

Hey guys thanks for posting back with some or your thoughts and ideas. After reading through what you guys all said I think that you are all kind of wondering the same thing I am... where do we draw the line? Where does a need become a want? Where does tithing/giving become truly surrendering? Where does providing become hoarding? Where does taking care of our future children become spoiling?  

Where is the invisible line that separates most American men from God?

I don't have an answer... it's something that I think about quite often though. I know my wife thinks about it a lot too... the poor girl says it exhausts her sometimes when she wonders if it is wrong to take a vacation when half of the world can't even pay for a gallon of milk. It's funny because 4 of you wrote back and all said that you have thought about this a lot recently... so it's obviously a huge issue, but no one really talks about it you know? Sure the church talks about tithing, but I've seen very few people nut up... stand up and say, "It's either money or God and I choose God." (And then actually live that way). Hey I could actually even respect someone if they said they choose money... cuz at least they would be honest. I can tell my Christian friends that money isn't my God, but I still spend more time during the day focusing on financial and material things than I do the creator of the world.

So how do I get out of this selfish, hoarding, financially-driven mindset? How can I be a great husband/future father and provider without selling out on God's commands? How can I find a balance so that I can stand before Him one day and look Him in the eye and say YOU are my GOD and I LIVED for YOU ALONE!? I'm not entirely sure yet... but I'm working on it... and I'll prolly be working on it until I see him face to face. What ya'll think?

My first post...

So this is my first post. I thought about how to make it epic and impressive so it will blow everyone away and i will have a thousand followers by tomorrow. But my head hurts from school and all I can think of is this:

I got 250 bucks for my birthday and I'm trying to figure out some cool stuff that I could buy. But every time I try to think of what I want, this one freekin annoying thought keeps poking into my brain. There's like 2 billion people who live on less than 250 bucks year. Wow. Interesting fact to think about... I'm glad I am not them. I guess I'll use my 250 bucks to buy some cool new tennis gear or something. Or maybe I don't need it...