Whew!!!!

We back from ATF and it were good.  This was the smoothest trip in a long time.  It was awesome to hear from students after the first night's meeting telling the circle about what God had to say to them.  We saw conversions, recommitments, confessions, a decision to get baptized.  God was moving among us in ways that were public and praiseworthy.  We had a great bunch of students, a great bunch of leaders, and the ATF program itself was one of the finest they've done. 

As always, it'll be fun to watch as God's work this weekend begins to show itself in the students' lives in the following weeks.

I personally was reminded of the call on my life as a "lieutenant" overseening soldiers in God's army, and that I am just as much a soldier as they, if not more so.  I've committed again to the call to serve my soldiers well, and to serve our Commanding Officer well.

hehe, now that we've a plan that works for the location, they're going to change the location.  They announced to us that next year, they're trying to do 3 "big" events, to raise a battle cry for this generation.  So next year's trip will be to SBC park in San Francisco.

If you prayed for us, thanks so much!!! Now you can praise with us!!!

Well, tomorrow I head for Sacramento with 46 others leaders and students, to the Acquire the Fire conference.  That means eating out of a backpack, gas station stores, and a bus luggage bay for the next few days (oh, and Krispy Kreme donuts on Sunday morning, woohoo!).  hehe, I'm tired already, and I haven 't even left yet.

This will be our 7th year of taking students to this conference.  If you're the praying sort, pray for us leaders that we will lead well, love well, and for the students that they will "sit at Jesus' feet" and hear what he might be speaking toward them.

On another note, our students raised enough $$ in a planned famine to get me a hair cut.  Locks of Love, here it comes  . . .

well, here's a question that someone asked one day after I preached re:
take the log out of your own eye before helping your neigbor get the
speck out of his eye:

Does this verse mean that we are not to help others get free of sin till we are free of sin?

Does this verse mean that my sin is log sized compared to the sin I see
in others (which is precisely the opposite of the way I tend to see it)?

Does this verse mean that until I've struggled myself to rid myself of
a particular sin, that I am incapable of understanding the difficulty
my neighbor has getting rid of his?

What do you all think?

God is good all the time  All the time God is good

hey xanga-ites,

Whew, it is something awful that I don't get here more often.  Thanks BR for the kick in the pants.

To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil
behavior and perverse
speech.                                                      
       
         Proverbs 8:3

I have no problem hating evil, pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and
perverse speech when it's coming from others.  But what about when
it's in me?  Do I hate the evil that continues to dog me, drag me
down, and decieve me into living less that Christ toward the others
around me?  Jesus said somewhere that we are to cut off our hand
or gouge out our eye if either causes us to sin.  It's like sin is
a really bad thing, and I should be aghast at its presence in me. 
But I can justify, deny, and bury most of it, hiding from myself
mostly, not from others, not from God.

God is good.  I am not.  All the time.

What a joy to know, from the ressurection of Christ, that my evil is
being forgiven.  What a joy to know that God is completing His
work in me, in ways that I could never imagine or plan.  What a
joy to know that someday, I will be good by His definition, by His
grace, by His work in me.  Woo Hoo.

Anybody remember "gotta spoon?"

Have a great week, all.

PastorHallockD

Geez, has it been that long?

Life's been exciting lately, and it will continue for the next 6 months.  I just took 7 students up to Seattle for a training conference, and it was a great trip.  Most of the classes were good (ya, there were a few bad apples).

It is so awesome to see God moving in students at this stage of their lives to become more able to serve Him.  It's like He called them out long ago, and they stick with the plan, and they get their hearts right, and they put themselves in positions to grow, and they do.  What a privilege it is to work with such students.  The temptations to drop out, flake off, slow down, shortcut are huge, and they have come to where they trust God enough to keep on truckin'

Now about me, do I have that?  Can I keep on truckin' with all the temptations to back off, slow down, sidestep, etc?  Hmmm, that's a question I can't answer yet.  I have a tendency to back away from certain aspects of ministry because there is risk involved.  Real risk makes me real antsy. 

Growing to trust God so much that I'd allow Him to take my entire life and turn it on it's ear is what I need to be doing.  He is good all the time, I just don't believe it all the time.

Have a great day/night/week all

God is good all the time!!!  All the time, God is good!!!

In the words of Tigger:  "ttfn"

Ah, today is another clear, sunny, drought-increasing, beautiful day.  Why, on the sails of beauty, come curses?

I got much sleep yesterday and last night, and my brain is out of the styrofoam mode, and back to "normal" mode (somewhere between marshmellow cream and mustard).  Sleep is such a cool thing.  The world disappears, and we either dwell in non consciousness or in a self?-manufactured "reality" that tastes, sounds, and appears real.  The juxtaposition of image-things from 30 years ago and yesterday's hassles, and tomorrows worrys is so bizarre.  Sleep is a  time to somehow recoup energy spent that day.

So why is sleep pictued as bad in the bible?  Why are we to "wake up, sleeper" and "not be asleep."  What is it that sleep, beautiful sleep, portrays for the believer that is awful and ugly?

Speaking of sleep, I think I'll go back to bed. hehe. not really, I think I'll go wait in line at the DMV to register a truck.  Woo hoo!!!

Oh, and before I go, Supertramp has something to say to us all, who see the evil out there . . .

Crime of the Century

Man, today my brain feels like so much styrofoam.  I was up several hours with Leah, as she barfed till nothing was left, then barfed a few more times.  She was hurtin for certain.  Today, with a styro mind, I need to prep for a worship seminar, some team-building talks/exercises. 

God is good all the time!!  All the time, God is good!!

well blog, here goes the next day's entry.  Tonight my daughter Leah's got another nasty headache, and I found the coolest drug interaction checker website:

http://www.medscape.com/druginfo/druginterchecker

you have to join (free!) and give basic info, but then you just add each medicine to the patient, and it'll tell you if there's some prob with mixing them.  Way Cool!!

Today, i'm realizing the amazing love God has for us, for me, when He keeps on loving me even as i cause Him frustration, consternation, confusion, heartache, and even anger.  I hurt Him, His people, and those He'd like to become His people.

Grace is greatly underated in direct proportion to my underestimate of my own sinfulness.  Big sinner, big grace.

Xanga

Well, well.  I'm spilling the beans on my numb brain tonight.  I've just taxed my mind setting up this blog.  Smithfield's playing, good stuff.  I fixed my old stereo reciever tonight by blowing 15 yrs of dust out of the tubes.  Hehe, tubes, mind you. 

God is good.  All the time.  All the time, God is good.