Where has the week gone?

I can't believe it's already Thursday, I feel like I just got here the other day and now I only have one more "work day" left in the week. It's been a productive week so far and Denver is starting to feel like home.

I spent most of today taking care of school related things at Colorado University at Denver Out of all the schools I've dealt with over the years C.U.D. has by far been the most professional, helpful, and just all around easy to deal with. (Yes, that is a plug for a school. Next thing you know I'll sprout wings and fly.) :) I'll be taking one History course, Biology, and Spanish. I'm not looking forward to the last two but they're both required core classes. The plus is they take up so many hours that I only needed the three classes to get 12 hours for the semester. Also, I've felt that I needed to learn Spanish for some time now and have prayed about what I should do about that. I'm looking at this as the Lord's answer to that prayer.

On the apartment front, I still don't have one but I do have a call in to lease one I looked at earlier in the week. Hopefully everything works out and I have a place to come back too before I leave Sunday.

I've taken to doing my Bible study (and other reading) in City Park. The scenery is awesome and the vibe there is relaxing. Right now I'm reading through Acts and Lamentations. (Brad is getting ready to do a sermon series from Lamentations so I'm cheating and reading ahead.) ;)

I'm really enjoying Lamentations, for a couple reasons. First, it flies in the face of the "Prosperity Gospel" as it clearly states that God caused all the suffering experienced by the nation of Israel. (For fun go through the book and count how many times the author directly attributes their suffering to God.)

Second, when something bad happens people generally assume that God must have "accidentally" let it "slip through." In Lamentations we see a God who is so passionately in love with His people that He will stop at nothing to bring them back to Himself. What person let's the people they care about the most continue to harm themselves and does nothing to intervene, regardless of how harsh they may have to be? An evil one. For God to be truly loving He MUST do whatever is needed to reconcile His people back to Himself. How can we NOT love a God who loves us that much? This also touches on God's Holiness. For God to be Holy He cannot tolerate sin and must punish it. Ironically, He does this by using other sinners, committing sin, to punish Israel for their sins. Which just proves we're all deserving of God's judgement. Thankfully, Jesus came and lived a perfect sinless life, died, and rose from the dead so that whoever believes in Him as the only payment for sin can receive eternal life.

That's all I've got for today, later gang. :)

Joining the Colorado Air National Guard: It's good to be a Zoomie (again.)

I signed my paperwork today and was officially sworn in as a member of the Colorado Air National Guard (ANG) at 4:00 p.m. MST. I was supposed to look at an apartment this afternoon as well but there was an accident in front of it just a few minutes before I got there that shut down the street so the property manager is supposed to call me back later and reschedule the appointment.

I've had to do a lot of parallel parking since I got here which I find humorous since my driver's ed instructor said we'd never need to do it so there was no point in teaching it. Now I live in a city where it's the official pastime. Getting you car into a spot in one take is a source of pride, and the smaller the space was the better you feel about it. I'm getting pretty good at it, I'm thinking about going pro soon. :)

Tomorrow is going to be full of taking care of a wide variety of things at CU Denver. Setting up my class schedule, getting my status changed to being a Colorado resident, getting the G.I. Bill taken care of and probably a few other things that will pop up over the course of the day.

That's all of today's highlights, more tomorrow. :)

Denver: The trip out, and what I've learned in the (roughly) 24 hours since I got here.

The trip out was pretty interesting, you gain a whole new appretiation for America when you drive across it. I've flown all over the world and lived in different parts of the country but getting to see the gradual transition in sceanery from Indiana to Colorado gives me a new respect for how large and widely varied our nation is. You also learn alot about what makes us all the same. Standing in line at Subway in Hays Kansas is exactly the same as standing in line back in Anderson. There are people who wish the line would hurry up, other people crack jokes to kill time, and the people behind the counter look like they can't wait for the lunch rush to be over. I am increadably thankful for all of you who prayed for me, the weather on the way out was perfect, I only ran into a few small spots of rain. One in southern Illinois and another about 50 miles east of Denver, where the wind was blowing so hard that tumble weeds were blowing across I-70, which cracked me up. (Add that to the list of things you don't see in Indiana.)

I'm staying with Brad and Haley Hovis while I'm out here. Brad is the pastor/lead planter at High View Church. They've been great, and spending time with them has helped make the idea of living in Denver seem much more natural. Also, getting to be around Brad and talk to him is already giving better insight into the life of a church planter. All in one day yesterday he ripped his pants, had to take his Jeep to the shop because it died on him, and found out that as of right now High View has no place to meet this Sunday. (Pray about that please.)

As for what's currently going on with me, I'm signing my contract today or tomorrow, setting up my class schedule Thursday morning at 9:30 (11:30 EST), and my biggest prayer request for myself right now is that I'd find an apartment.

I need to get a move on now, thank you all for your prayers and support.

Thursday night rundown: Iran, Jesus and Sexuality.

I really want to write something but I can't formulate enough a strong enough idea that I think will hold out for one whole post so I think this is going to end up being fragmented between several different streams of thought.

Iran: I really wish more of the prominent voices in the evangelical Christian world would speak up on what's going on over there. An Islamic nation is in the midst of turmoil and protests that could open the doors (albeit, very briefly) for Christian organizations to come in and provide aid and (hopefully) The Gospel depending on the outcome of current events there. I've seen more Tweets from most Christian leaders the past week on the new iphone and iphone apps then I have on praying for Iran. (In fact, I don't think I've seen any regarding Iran.) If we want people to believe us when we say we genuinely care about the world around us, we need to take advantage of the opportunities we're provided.

Jesus and Sexuality: I've been thinking a lot about how The Gospel relates to our sexuality as well as how we should respond to sexual sin. (Fornication, homosexuality, adultery, etc.) If anybody has any thoughts or questions I'd love to hear them.

On a more personal note I'm having a hard time getting a hold of the Air National Guard person in Indiana I'm supposed to talk to. It would be nice if I could sign the paperwork soon, but I need to talk to him for that to happen so if you could pray about that I'd appreciate it.

Turning in for the night now, hope something in all that made sense.

(What's the Story) Morning Glory?

This post has nothing to do with the song, it just happens to be what's playing in the background and I couldn't think of anything better to put in the title box. (I hate that thing.)

I've been asked twice in the last week why my bracelet says "Pray for China" which is funny because I've been wearing it for almost a year now and this is the first time anybody has asked. I tell them about the church in China and how they're beaten and jailed for being Christians and am met by silence. Apparently China's human rights violations aren't as well known as I thought.

I'm in the middle of working through three different sets of paperwork right now. One for the Colorado Air Guard, another to transfer to C.U. Denver, and the last is to apply for the new G.I. Bill. I'm looking forward to the move, but all stuff I have to get done before then is not particularly thrilling.

And now it's back to the grind...., I have things that need to get done today. Later.

If you don't have Jesus you don't have jack

I visited a local church today as part of my philosophy class requirement and came away incredibly upset by the experience. This a church I've been hearing about for some time and I was really looking forward to visiting it but by the end of the service it was all I could do not to stand up and start yelling at the pastor. I kept thinking that at some point he'd say what I expect to hear in any church that is truly a church, but he never did. Not once did he mention sin, repentance, and most importantly there was no mention of Jesus being the only way to heaven. In fact throughout the entire service of singing, praying, and the message, none of these things was touched on. In fact I don't think I heard the name of Jesus mentioned once.

This may seem incredibly obvious but I'll say it any anyway; if you don't have Christ at the center of what you're doing, you don't have Christianity. You have a group of nice, moral, caring people who are going to Hell. I'm glad they care about the city and in particular the downtrodden and mistreated but if the Gospel of Jesus' redemptive work through His life, death, and resurrection, isn't at the heart of what you're doing you're doing it in vain. What I attended this morning was a meeting for spiritual/religious people who want to have the trappings of a church (worship music, prayer, sermon) without the message of the church. The pastor kept making references to "speaking and living the truth" without ever saying what that truth was. You can't live and speak something you don't know, and these people don't truly know Jesus and His message therefore they don't know The Truth.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - Jesus, John 14:5-7

Also if there is no sin then why did Jesus have to come and pay for it with his life? If there's no sin then Christians have the most dumb, pointless, and useless belief system in the world. If there's no sin there is no reason for Jesus to come and die, which means we believe in a God who is either small minded and simple, or incredibly cruel, neither of which is worth following. So if Christianity is true then sin is real.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23

If we really, truly love the world we will tell them the hard truth: No one is good enough to get into Heaven on their own and it's only by believing that Jesus is the only payment for our sins that we will be allowed into Heaven. And that is The Truth.

Children of the world vs. children of God

I just got done watching the Oasis documentary "Lord Don't Slow Me Down" as an Oasis fan I loved it, but I was also struck by the world view. Noel, Liam, and the boys are very up front about their self centeredness it comes out in the way they talk with writers and each other, the way they live, it just permeates everything about their lives, they are quite obviously wrapped up in themselves. It got me thinking about how Christians are supposed to be that wrapped up and absorbed in Christ. What would it look like if we were as Christ centered as the world is self centered? How would that change things? Our lives, our churches, our communities, our world? Obviously that's a rhetorical question, we all know it would make a lot of things better, maybe not easier (just read the book of Acts), but better. People who are as wrapped up in Jesus and His Gospel and mission as the rest of the world is in their own agenda shake things up. They make a difference that can't be ignored, the world can't go without noticing their actions and words. Christians living passionately Gospel centered lives must be dealt with sooner or later by the world, are they nut jobs? Or is their Jesus really the one and only way to Heaven? May God gives us the strength, courage, and desire to live lives that are focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.