Monday, March 23, 2009

Sermon Notes: Night & Day 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

(courtesy of using my cell phone to twitter my notes...)

  • o/~ change my heart oh God - You are the potter, I am the clay o/~
  • todays sermon "night & day" 1 thessalonians 5:1-11
  • good or bad people arent whats at stake; child of God or not is what is at stake. Life WITH Jesus or punishment BY Jesus.
  • i dont belong to the darkness!
  • i am not let off the hook by knowing Christ; i have more responsibility.
  • i need to wake up & wise up! Know who i am in Christ.
  • i am set to rule with Jesus. I need to act with responsibility in who i am. It is NOT a burden.
  • i must be alert & on guard. Why did i stay up until 430a last night? Must wake up & live according to Jesus. Get my -spiritual- coffee!
  • dont be spiritually indifferent
  • people in the darkness arent aware of spiritual truths
  • when i am asleep to Gods calling i am stirred regularly to actually wake up. I need to get up instead of choosing to stay asleep.
  • dont stay asleep to God just cause its too comfortable. Get up & think clearly about God!
  • the end of the world is coming. Wake up & be disciplined & be alert & be watchful. Be aware of what might lead me back to the night.
  • what i do with what God gives me should be well thought out - money, time, words. Consider my life in what it should be in Christ!
  • what do people go out into the night/darkness for? Trouble. Nothing but trouble.
  • have spiritual poise in an unsettled world. Light up the darkness! Light up our world!
  • how do we do it? Put on our spiritual armor with a clear mind & the confidence of our salvation. Faith, hope & love.
  • find delight in God. Be joyful in my intimate walk with God!
  • have a genuine love for people no matter what they may have done to you or what they may be.
  • Dont do to others what they do to you. Just do good. Even if they are mean be kind to them.
  • Thats a weapon that pierces the darkness!
  • I can get broken bones for my faith. It will bring me to dangerous places. BUT i am the light of the world!
  • I have a new identity & destiny so i have a responsibility. Go do something with it in obedience. Get out in the world & meet people!
  • the world says there is no right & wrong; if you can avoid consequences, do it. God calls us to be light in the dankners; do whats right.
  • o/~ turn your eyes upon Jesus o/~
  • ...the advantage to being on the couch to elevate my knee out of the sanctuary is that i was just able to tweet my sermon notes. I like!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Potentially soon to be extinct.

The church is always one generation away from extinction.

I don't remember where I heard it originally, but I think of it regularly. Today was one of those days. I've never met Los, but he took a technology sabbatical & just came back a couple days ago. He's back on twitter again as well & started doing a #twiblestudy. I think it's a pretty cool idea in general - taking a verse & tweeting how you're going to apply it in your life TODAY. I had a rather generalized response today instead of specific to today, but I think the #twiblestudy is what made me think of the church always being one generation away from extinction.

I recently participated in a Bible study with my church related to VisionONE (Outreach New England). I'm wicked glad I participated. A lot of it is being intentional in your relationships with people. Be real, transparent [just got sidetracked by an overdue phone call], supportive, open, etc... Of course, to build others up in Christ means you need to be continually built up in Christ yourself.

Why won't I make the time to spend time with God to learn more about Him?

Monday, March 16, 2009

The pain...

I've gotten pretty used to being single.  I'm pretty okay with it at this point, even.  Valentine's Day came & went.  I didn't spend it alone.  I went to my parents' place 'cause my sisters were home from college for the weekend.  I forgot that daddy-o got mom tickets for them to see Blue Man Group that night for Christmas; I got there only an hour before they left.

Okay, I'll just chill with my sisters.

Not bad.  A & I play guitar hero, while B is on her laptop doing something.  A gets bored of playing after a while, so I end up playing by myself, with them watching & laughing at me.  I was playing GH3 & got through the first 7 "levels" of the game on hard.  I was psyched!  Of course, it was on my parents' Wii, so I'm currently slowly working through it on my own system.  Anyway, fast forward to later in the evening...

Valentine's Day dance that night.  I was pretty excited to go, even though A decided not to.  I was less excited when I got there 'cause barely anyone was there.  A few of my favorites were there, so that was nice.  Why is my knee hurting so much?  Oh well, I'll just dance anyway. Guess I shouldn't have spent 6 hours playing guitar hero on the couch with my foot tucked under my other knee. Yeah, you heard me. Six hours.

Fast forward to now - a month later.

My knee still hurts.  I've been to the doctor twice.  I haven't danced since; I even canceled my trip to MADJam.  Dancing doesn't fit into the rest/elevate/ice/repeat directions with a prescription of ibuprofen.  Since there was vast improvement in the 1.5 weeks between seeing doctors, I was instructed to keep with the conservative route of rest/elevate/ice/repeat & ibuprofen.  After shoving my knee in various directions, my primary said there's nothing torn - but I haven't had an MRI.

I'm so tired of not dancing.  I'm not eating right 'cause I feel so dejected.  I'm sick of hanging out on the couch; you wouldn't believe how many DVDs I've watched recently.  I'm craving participating in some sort of physical activity.

C'mon knee, get better!