WHAT???

From FOX NEWS...

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a Bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.
"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.
"We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said.
A few days later, the couple received a written warning that cited "unlawful use of land," ordering them to either "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit," the couple's attorney Dean Broyles told San Diego news station 10News.
But the major use permit could cost the Jones' thousands of dollars just to have a few friends over.
For David and Mary Jones, it's about more than a question of money.
"The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion," Broyles told FOX News. "I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their grave if they saw that here in the year 2009, a pastor and his wife are being told that they cannot hold a simple Bible study in their own home."
"The implications are great because it’s not only us that’s involved," Mary Jones said. "There are thousands and thousands of Bible studies that are held all across the country. What we’re interested in is setting a precedent here — before it goes any further — and that we have it settled for the future."
The couple is planning to dispute the county's order this week.
If San Diego County refuses to allow the pastor and his wife to continue gathering without acquiring a permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

What is this country coming to???

Wisdom

Solomon is newly appointed king over Israel. Got to be a stressful job, don't you think? One day he offered a thousand burnt offerings to God, and that night God appeared to him. That's what it says - God APPEARED to him! GOD appeared to him! Just think about the magnitude of that! He asked Solomon what he wanted, and told him he would grant his wish (probably where the whole fairy godmother thing derived :P). We all know what he asked for - wisdom. Not long life, not wealth, not the death of his enemies. But guess what? All these things came with wisdom in God's package! I don't bet I have God's King-of-Israel-Deluxe package, but I know whatever God package I have will be just as profitable to me as Solomon's was to him!

I am currently writing a paper for school, and am asking people this question:

If there was one word to describe God, what would it be?

The answers so far have been amazing!

Awesome

Redeemer

Savior

Friend

Holy

Indescribable (this one has been called cheap lol!)

And my favorite.... Everything

Pray for our troops

First, a confession - I rarely remember to pray for our troops. But they sacrifice so much for our freedom that it makes my little problems seem like nothing.

God, please bless our troops. Give them victory and bring them back safely to their families. Thank you for blessing America!

Nouns

Why are there things I feel I couldn't do without? God gave me everything I have, and it's not really mine. Come to think of it, this Earth isn't even home. So why do I hold on to nouns that don't belong to me?

I will awaken the dawn

This was in my daily Bible reading and the poetic beauty of it stuck to me.

Psalm 108

My heart is steadfast, O God;

I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre! (Or keyboard)

I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,

and let your glory be over all the earth.

I did this a lot last night. Not out loud, but in my head. I even got to the point where I was thinking up poems. I, the most unpoetic person ever, felt quite like the Psalmist:)

I stand in awe of the oceans,

mysterious and deep

'cause He who made them comforts me

when I cry myself to sleep.

I stand in awe of the forests,

and all the trees of green

because their Maker's on my side

when other folk are mean.

I stand in awe of the mountains,

all the purple majesties

'cause their Creator hears me

when I am on my knees.

Elementary, to be sure, but it was an excellent thing to do at the time!

It feels like chaos, but somehow there's peace

There is crazy everywhere.

Perfectly young friends are having surgeries all over the place.

There are bad things here and iffy situations there.

You walk around one corner in the maze, and then find another dark room or brick wall.

Dark secrets dance around like so many fauns in the night.

What is going on?

There are so many things I can't see right now. Brick walls, dark rooms. But now I've given up trying to light my own lamps and walk through. Right now I'm just sitting. Sitting in a dark room waiting for God to turn on the lights. Every time this happens and I give up trying to walk through on my own, I wonder why I didn't just sit down earlier. It's easier to leave it to God and just pray. Though praying doesn't always make you quit worrying :)

"Even the best of Christians are troubled by the question, 'Why does an almighty God send, or at least allow, suffering?' When you are nagged by thoughts like this, say to yourself, 'I am still in elementary school. When I graduate from the university of Christian life, I will understand his ways better and doubts will cease.' "

~ Richard Wurmbrand, imprisoned for his faith for 14 years

Gad

Who is Gad?

Not Jacob's son Gad, this Gad is David's seer. I guess he shares time with Nathan, but Gad doesn't get a lot of attention. But this part of him really grabbed my attention today.

We all know the story of when David counted his fighting men and sinned against God by not trusting him wholeheartedly. Gad was the one who gave David the three options of punishment from God - 3 years of famine, 3 months of being driven away by enemies, or 3 days of plague. David chose to fall into the hands of God, so God sent an angel to destroy Israel with the plague. But when he got to Jerusalem, God stopped him. David saw the angel there with it's sword raised and said, David said to God, "Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? O LORD my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people."

Then that same angel went to Gad and told him to tell David to build an altar of sacrifice. I started to keep reading, then I gave this part a double take. So the angel is flying between heaven and earth with a sword killing people, then he goes off to find Gad and give him a message! Just imagine that - pretty scary I think! But it kinda hit me again what the prophet was in those days - he was God's means of communication!

So that wasn't very deep but I hope you found as way cool as I did:)

A Very Nice Chap

I am reading Jesus Freaks by DC Talk, and I recommend it to every Christian in America! This story really stuck in my head. A pastor of an underground church in Russia in the 1940s writes this:

"When I was still living behind the Iron Curtain, I had met a Russian captain. He loved God, he longed after God, but he had never seen a Bible. He had never attended religious services. He had no religious education, but he loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.

"I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy, proclaiming, 'What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ?" It was the first time that I saw someone jubilating in Christ.

"Then I made a mistake. I read to him the passion of crucifixion of Christ, without having prepared him for this. He had not expected it. When he heard how Christ was beaten, how He was crucified, and that in the end He died, he fell in an armchair and began to weep bitterly. He had believed in a Savior and now his Savior was dead!

"I looked at him and was ashamed that I had called myself a Christian and a pastor, a teacher of others. I had never shared the sufferings of Christ as this Russian officer now shared them. Looking at him was, for me, like seeing Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the cross or at the empty tomb.

Then I read to him the story of the resurrection. When he heard this wonderful news, that the Savior arose from the tomb, he slapped his knees and shouted for joy: 'He is alive! He is alive!' Again he danced around the room, overwhelmed with happiness!

"I said to him, 'Let us pray!'

He fell on his knees together with me. He did not know our holy phrases. His words of prayer were, 'O God, what a fine chap you are! If I were You and You were me, I would never have forgiven You Your sins. But You are really a very nice chap! I love You with all my heart!'

"I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from this Russian officer. When this man received Christ, he knew he would immediately lose his position as an officer, that prison and perhaps death in jail would almost surely follow. He gladly paid the price. He was ready to lose everything."

"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." ~ 1 Peter 1:8-9

We are the sheep

"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

I love being one in Jesus's flock! Sheep, let us not trust any old hand and let us avoid the theif that comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Don't ya just love those guys?

I just went to one of the many shows the Apostles of Comedy put on. They are a group of hilarious Christian guys that give people clean laughs as a ministry. They all gave neat testimonies and shared their faith - especially Brad Stine. When it got to his act, I realized that these men were just funny evangelists. His whole act was pretty preachy and great. He talked a lot about what America has become. He said America is better than all the other countries in the world - and better does not mean superior. He said that Christians started this country and made it great, and now we have degressed to where people are trying to make our faith illegal. He was bold about it. "I am NOT going to go quietly! I am NOT going to give this country up without a fight!"

They talked about the media - about how TV and Internet and all that basically raise our kids. So why does the church step out of it? "The secular media should be asking us how on earth we do it so well."

Don't you just love the guys who will stand up in front of 1600 people and scream about how America is falling even deeper into sin and point out how we are doing nothing about it? They used laughs (something everybody loves) to share their faith. I just love it when people share their faith like that and not worry about offending people, maybe because I don't do it enough myself. "Christianity is a religion of inconvenience." All this to say, it was a hilarious and most inspiring experience. God bless the Apostles of Comedy!!!

Oh, and another great quote from Brad Stine on the whole evolution story that dominates America today: "Once upon a time, there was nothing.

Then it blew up."

Why am I depressed?

Yesterday marked a week in which I have been depressed. A strange thing for the happy-go-lucky, think the best of people, always in the middle of it character we all know and love... why is everyone rolling their eyes?

Anyway, I can't figure out why - this has been a week with a lot of highs! Went to a comedy show, my brother played on the Rapids field, I got to high-five every single Real Salt Lake and Rapids player, I'm working all week which is good cuz I need the money for fencing and some stuff I owe to various places, I basically just got my hair cut, and I even like all the Colts draft picks! Usually the euphoria from all these things would drag out a little. And I'm not depressed ALL the time, which gets confusing. I'm focused when I babysit so I'm usually ok there, and I'm having a good time with my bros and that's happy, and all that. But I default back to depressed!

Maybe it's just the lows - the depression kicked off last week when I started getting the feeling that God was mad at me because I was doing something wrong when approaching Him. Even when I was reading the Bible, or praying there was this little whisper that I wasn't good enough for God to still love me, or that He wasn't listening to me because He was mad about something I did. I couldn't find any Biblical evidence that this was true, so I came to the conclusion that it was all a trick from the devil that I fell for. Mean I think, that he'd trick me into skittering away from God making me think He was angry at me. Now I'm coming back, but the space that got shoved between is a little awkward. I mean, why wouldn't God be mad at me? Lord knows I do all kinds of stuff to deserve it! I guess I just can't grasp how God's love is unconditional... all of a sudden. I know that's silly and that Jesus bridged the gap, but having to cross back over after getting tricked that the bridge wasn't there kinda gets me down, since I didn't have to be there in the first place. Ok, that made no sense I'm certain. I thought of a song today that describes me right now. I hadn't heard it in forever and could barely remember the words, so I looked them up.

Your Love Never Changes - Paul Wright

I'm tired of falling on my face Lord

Get up tell myself (oh oh oh oh)

I'm tired of singing the same songs

Na na na na (ha! oh oh oh oh)

I'm so high I'm so low

I'm so hot I'm so cold

I'm so young but I'm feeling so old

I'm at peace I'm at war

I want less I want more

I want it all but I don¹t know what it's for

And all that I am is all that you see

When nobody is looking at me

I fall to my knees you're calling my name

And you love me just the same - Whoa!

Because your love never changes - No

Yea you love me just the same - Whoa!

Cuz your love never changes - No

I'm back on the right track again

I'm back hanging with the right friends

I'm back on my feet again

Kicking back ha just laughing

I'm so high I'm so low

I'm so hot I'm so cold

I'm so young but I'm feeling so old

I'm at peace I'm at war

I want less I want more

I want it all but I don't know what it's for

Yea you love me just the same

Yesterday today tomorrow everyday

Yea you love me just the same

Yesterday today tomorrow everyday

Yup. That's about right. But now that I'm back still doesn't fix my mood for some reason *sigh*. I'd be nice if I could figure out what the problem is.