Standing in Awe

Alright people get ready, this is rich.   I had the best quiet time I have had in probably months the other morning and I am about to share it with you.   So as I have mentioned I am doing a bible reading plan to read the entire bible in a year.   I started on January first so I’m getting close!   You may not think if Chronicles as a book of great revelation, but on this particular morning it was for me. So to give you a bit of back-story basically the Israelites go through a seemingly endless cycle of having God’s favor, turning away from him and worshipping other gods, God smiting them so they will turn back to Him, repeat.   It is in 2 Chronicles 20 where we pick up.   Jehoshaphat is the current king ruling over Israel and he has turned the nation back to God.   All is going well until the Moabites Ammonites and Meunites decide that they want to attack the Isrealites.   Jehoshaphat receives the message that a vast army i...

Firstly I have an announcement: We will be hosting a New Life Tailgate for UM's Homecoming weekend on Saturday, October 5th (tailgate starts at 11:30am ) .  I want to invite you to come and see our ministry in action!  Football game days can be a time of great fun but also great temptation for students.  Please come join me at the Tailgate for some food and a chance to meet some of the students I minister to.  There will be a $5 suggested donation for the food that will go toward helping me and my co-workers stay fully funded and working on campus this school year.  Secondly, what I have been thinking about lately how God really can use every situation for good.  I was talking with a friend last night and we were discussing how we have had a lot of friends go through rough situations in the last year.  Being in a season of support raising is not something a lot of people see as a blessing at first glance.  However, I have been thinkin...

"I love everything about the way I look."  How many times have you said that to yourself in the last week? Year? Ever??  To be completely honest I don't know if I have ever said to myself.  Body image is something I have struggled with most of my life like a lot of other men and women.  I could always lose a few pounds here or be firmer there, or if I could just look like her I would be happy.  Lies. A few weeks ago I had the privileged to go on the New Life staff bonding trip to Cleveland with 43 of my co-laborers in Christ.  We didn't do much of anything besides relax, get to know each other, and worship the Lord.  One particular night however has stuck with me.  I was sitting out by the fire with some guys on the staff team and we were discussing how truly awesome (in the real sense of the word) God's is.  As we saw the power of the waves on the lake crashing onto the rocks we remarked how mighty and strong God is and then we looked up...

Confession: I have a reading problem.  I cannot just read one book.  For a while I was reading two books while listening to a third on audio all in addition to my Bible reading plan.  I finished one book and the audio book and thought I had become a rational human being again, but I have since started reading three more!  However, God has strangely used this madness to speak to me.  In one book about prayer, there are questions at the end of each chapter and this last set really made me think.  One question in particular struck me: " What seems 'off limits' in your prayer life? "  In one of the other books that I am reading, Radical Together by David Platt, he challenges the reader to consider what good things we have in our lives that are preventing great things from happening. In both of these questions I think it all boils down to how much we trust God.  In my life I have had a lot of flaky friends and often felt abandoned and alone....

Well, I am a little embarrassed that it has been so long since I have posted.  This is very telling of the last month of my life.  First things first: Announcements. Address Change!! GCM in Orlando is moving its offices to a new larger facility and the mailing address for your gift is changing! Before August 1: P.O. Box 7101 Winter Park, FL 32793 As of August 1: 11002 Lake Hart Drive, Ste 100 Orlando, FL 32832 GCM will automatically change the address on its giving envelope, but please double check! We wouldn't want a gift to go missing. Your support means so much to us. ps - many of our donors use automatic LifeLink giving instead of mailing a check each month. This may be a good time to switch to LifeLink! We really do prefer it if it works for you. It's secure and it makes sure our ministry funds are never accidentally interrupted. Visit www.mygcm.org My address is changing as well! Please leave a comment and I can email you with my ne...

Right now I am writing from the peony garden in the Arboretum.  It is such a beautiful place that boasts God's majesty in thousands of blooms.  Each day I am finding myself in search of something beautiful to remind me of God's goodness, and a place to just be ; to enjoy this very moment and embrace it for what it is and who I am in it.  In a way I think it calms my inner waters that are so easily disturbed.  It gives me a quiet confidence as if the Spirit is whispering, " It is ok to e you, to have a deeper sense of who the Father has made you to be.  You are loved, you are valuable."  Do you allow yourself quiet moments of beauty to just be ? I went home last week nad spent a lot of quality time with my family.  We went to Traverse City to run the Bayshore Half-Marathon, and then back to Eight Point Lake for the duration of the holiday weekend.  I have been doing a lot of reflection about where I was a year ago because I ran the full...

I am blessed .  How often do you say that to yourself?  I can say that I don't say it enough!  I am often bogged down by my own stress and worry to take a step back and remember how blessed I am.  This week was a bit out of the ordinary for me in so many wonderful ways. If you have read my blog from last summer when I was traveling in Europe (if you haven't that's ok too) you might remember me talking about how alive I felt.  I relished in waking up each day with no idea what the day held for me or what new exciting thing I was going to see, do, or taste.  Well being home has proven difficult to feel that way.  However, on Wednesday I felt it again.  I made an appointment in Muskegon on Wednesday and decided to head to the west side for the day and visit the Tulip Festival in Holland, something I have wanted to do for years.  It was absolutely amazing.  I arrived pretty early and so I found parking close by and just wandered around ...