Educated

Today during our School of Discipleship class, I had a little thought. You know how sometimes a little thought is really a way that God can speak with you. I don't know if this was one of those, but interesting anyway.

Here's my thing: I've spent my last 10 years in blue collar work and basically have let my mind go into a coma. I was a pretty smart kid (if I can float my own boat, here) and I was extremely sharp with math and foreign languages. I guess I was sort of convicted during class today that I hadn't kept my brain sharp and stimulated. After some thought on this, I realize my new work and worship settings put me back into a position where I need to wake my brain from it's sleep and get back to work.

I currently find myself in a career as a Civil Engineer. My spiritual walk is growing so I need to be using brain cells that haven't been used in a while. I guess that I've basically been acting uneducated and not really using what God gave me to do these things with excellence. I think that it's time to wake up this poor old brain and start looking at life with a new perspective. No more playing dumb. Maybe the first place I'll start is with reading. I've got 66 books written by 40 authors that I'd love to dig back into with a new set of eyes.

Christian Rap = Sinful???

John Piper, the preacher's pastor, is a very influencial leader in our modern churches. I respect him and his ministry. There has been some debate regarding Christian Rap and whether or not it is scriptural or maybe even sinful. My take is that in most cases it is scriptural and possibly even more powerful in it's message that many of the churches in our nation. It's sad to think that a 3 minute song could contain more scripture than thousands of churches on a Sunday morning, but it's true.

Regarding John Piper..... if Christian Rap is sinful, then someone needs remind Dr. Piper to keep it out of his church. Included is a video of Christian rapper, Voice, presenting the gospel in a rap at Bethleham Baptist and introduced by John Piper.

Warning: Ad links and video suggestions on YouTube are not typically appropriate or suggested for sensitive viewers, so please ignore them as you watch the video. (I don't put them there and can't get rid of them, sorry.)

Personal Update

As if anyone was interested in what's keeping Jamie busy these days..... here's my update.

My friends had twins a couple of weeks ago, I've been street fishing with an organized group at our church, my home bible study stopped until the twins start sleeping through the night, we're knee deep in homeschool with Yazzi, my hoopty van has a recurring broken part that is crippling and costly-again, I'm enjoying "School of Discipleship", leading "Treasure Principle" study, leading "Crown small group" study, co-leading the media team and organizing a cookout for the team that has grown to over a dozen members, transitioning to new software at work, learning about webcams, soaking up about 15 hours of scripture based podcasts daily, loving my wife more than ever before, growing in faith with Jesus, failing at selling our boxcar, dreaming of side business ideas, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Speaking of ice, we're very pleased to be away from Alaska this Autumn again since they are deep in snow and getting only -7F temps this week. :-)

Dad is doing Chemo again for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Keep him in prayer. He's a cancer survivor of like 26 years, I think. Way to go Dad, you're my hero!

My current desire is to get my house in order. This has been on my heart for a long time. Areas of needed improvement are the garage, cars, and yardwork, but those are all superficial. Real needs are in financial planning, child discipling, relational communication, work ethic/focus, personal/recreational bible study, time management, and so on. No major hang ups in any of these but steady plodding through all of these is what's needed.

I just feel like God wants to do something huge, really soon, but He's going to let me get my house in order first. I expect that He's probably going to turn our world rightside up and a well managed home will prepare us for what He has planned. Please keep us in your prayers.

Time to recharge

So, what do you say when you've been gone from your personal blog for as long as I have? I guess the first thing is that I'm sorry. I had a faithful bunch of readers that I'm sure I let down by not posting regularly.

Let me say, that as I type, I start to remember how important it is for everyone to take time out to recharge. For me, the blog was a good way to release some things and give them to God. I miss those times with God. There have been plenty of things that I've given to God in exchange for the time I used to have in my blog, but they don't really make for good replacements. I'm going to have to continue to remind myself, that it's important to take a deep breath every once in a while and give a minute or two to God in a quiet way, like the time I spend here.

Thank you Lord for shedding light on my sins and shortfalls. Thank you that you are perfecting me through trials. I praise you for providing for my needs and giving me a family that loves me. Thank you most for the resurrection of Jesus which is also my resurrection. Without Jesus, I would still be a lawbreaker and lost. Praise be to God.

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