Fall and Rise

Well, this summer has been a summer of ups and downs as Kassie and I have had quite a bit of stress in our relationship and things with my job have gone back and forth. I definitely got to a breaking point multiple times, but I finally feel like God is lifting us out of this in a real way. Throughout the summer, and much of our marriage, the ups have consisted of basically forgetting about our problems and pretending they aren't there. This time we are actually working to change, together. God is providing. So this Autumn, as the leaves are falling with the temperature, we will rise in our relationship lifted by God's strength and guidance. Also rising will be the amount of activities I will be doing in ministry, such as 5th quarters, music ministry, walk-thrus, breakfast club, etc. I am actually excited and feel somewhat prepared, infinitely more prepared than I was last year. Praise God!

Oh, Life

First of all, I am glad I changed my blog background. It makes me happier than the old one.

Our big pine tree is down. Some people showed up and felled it this morning. Now I need to mow the lawn.

Kingston Days this weekend! I don't really know what to expect. We are having a garage sale. Hopefully we can get rid of some stuff and maybe even make a little money.

I am having a hard time with life right now. Please be praying for our family. Thanks.

Surprised By Oxford by Carolyn Weber

I enjoyed my time at college. I really didn't pay a whole lot of attention to school when I was at college. I was kind of in a rebellion stage from that, trying to get away from everything that high school was to me, or something like that. Instead, I spent much of my time making friends and becoming involved with His House Christian Fellowship. It was definitely a time of spiritual development for me, though I have been a Christian since I was very young.
Similarly, the author and subject of Surprised By Oxford, Carolyn Weber gained great spiritual insight during her first year at a place of higher learning. Whereas I have been a Christian most of my life, "Caro" as she is often referred to in the book began this journey of faith during her time at Oxford.
While this story is mainly about her journey of finding God and the decision to put her faith in Him, it includes many stories of her life that relate to that decision and her first year at Oxford. It often brought me back to my college experience, though Central Michigan University is much different from Oxford.
Her story was full of quotes from poetry or other literature, some of which I appreciated and some of which I didn't quite understand. Another thing I appreciated was the way her journey to faith was not blind, it wasn't based on her parents' or anybody else's faith, it was thought through. She was encouraged by many strong, intelligent Christians while at the same time facing opposition within the academic community and even her own home.
While the story was quite long, it was enjoyable and thoughtful and varied enough to keep one's interest.
I would recommend this book for those who don't think intellectuals can believe in God or for those who are intellectual and do believe in God or for those who appreciate literature. It's a good book.
I received this book free for review from BookSneeze®.
You can check it out at http://booksneeze.com/blogger/resources/9780849946110

Joy

I have decided to attempt joy.

Fact or Fiction

I realized again why it is not good for me to read fiction books when I received The Canary List by Sigmund Brouwer free from the Waterbrook Multnomah blogging for books program and finished it within three days. I am not necessarily a fast reader and don't normally read that much at a time, but this book, like many novels, had me hooked.
The book centers around a school teacher who gets dragged into a battle of good versus evil. As he searches for answers, he gets pulled deeper and deeper into the web of a plot that has originated in the Vatican.
Although it was somewhat dark and the things that it pointed out were negative aspects of the world, it was a good reminder of the evil that exists all around us an the spiritual battle that is taking place, even within places like the Vatican. As the author pointed out in the book, lack of belief in the existence of demons is very helpful to their cause. If you don't believe they exist, you aren't doing anything to fight them.
One thing the book lacks is hope. My hope comes in knowing that while there is evil, there is also good. Moreover, Jesus has already overcome death and his Word promises that good will triumph over evil in the end. This was not really portrayed in any way in the book. Furthermore, the ending left matters somewhat unclear about the existence of evil. For me, it is obvious that evil exists, but for some who might have read this book, it does not necessarily make anything clear.
My attention was kept by the book, but I don't know that I would suggest it to anybody for the reasons given above.

I do want to again show my appreciation to Waterbrook Multnomah for providing me with free review copies of books, including this one.

Musical Missionary

I wrote not long ago about the idea that I am made for music.

God has used several people, events, and ideas this summer to develop a certain vision of the type of ministry God has created me for.

One part of this was a retreat with some leaders at the church I am part of. Our church is going through a process called ReVision to evaluate God's purposes for our church and our place in the community and the world.

The core leaders of the process will be involved in 4 retreats throughout the year. The first of which was near the beginning of the summer and was focused on us as individuals and what God has created us to be and do.

One of the things that stuck out is that we are God's workmanship, and part of the retreat was creating a sticky note timeline of our life's important events and people.

Through that and other things at the retreat, I realized some of my core values and some of the things God has created me and prepared me to do. Some of the things that are part of who I am are music, global ministry, and a desire to wake up the American Church to the realities of the world and empower us to change.

Not long ago, I also realized that Kassie could be a great drummer. Our wednesday night drummer was absent and Kassie sat in and surprised me, in a good way. She is now working on some basics, but what I really appreciate about her drumming is that it is musical, creative...it isn't just keeping the beat.

Anyway, with those things and others, we have decided to start a band. I have had many ideas about what the band will be and do. I am not sure what will all pan out, but I am trying to remember that God must be the front and center.

Please, be in prayer about this and let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, ideas, etc. Thanks

A Challenge to Change

I think I had been at sort of a spiritual plateau for a while. And actually, it was probably more of a downward slope since it wasn't upward.
Anyway, God has been recently showing me that I really need to put him at the center of my life. An important verse for me has been the one in Matthew that says to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and He will take care of the rest.

Speaking of verses, one thing I decided to do was to take Bible memorization more seriously, so I decided to start in Matthew chapter 5 and am currently on verse 25, which says, "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer and you may be thrown into prison." I am trying for a verse a day, although these past few days I have been slacking a little.

Anyway, right before that ties into the book I just read by Andy Stanley, called Enemies of the Heart. I picked this book mostly because I have heard good things about Andy Stanley.

I think God used this book to bring about some change in me, and to humble me to realize that there definitely are some changes that still need to be made. But along with that, God has encouraged me with the knowledge that I can change, I don't have to settle for who I think I am or who I have been, but I can trust that God's not finished with me. So that's been really cool.

This book has been helpful in that process. Actually, at one point, I realized that if I were going to keep reading the book, it was going to tell me some things I needed to change and I wasn't yet willing to do those things, so I stopped reading it temporarily.

I soon resumed after some time with God, and it was good.

I like the author's writing style along with the content of the book. I appreciate that it doesn't give steps that will automatically make you better but does lead you down a path that will clean out your heart, which will in turn change your life if you are willing to work at it.

I would recommend this book for anyone, specifically anybody who has ever had any problems at all.

This book was provided free for review by Waterbrook Multnomah.