Monday

I have nothing in regards to witty title lines, so you get the day of the week. Yeah, original, I know. I guess the reason is that my mind is on something else. One of the most unfun things to hear about on Sunday morning is about money and tithe. It will illicit groans and uncomfortable shifting in the audience. Some suggestions were made on Stuff Christians Like that I give you the chance to read now. They are good and I have suggested to my pastor that they might be useful.

Now, to get a bit more serious. I was actually talking to the pastor yesterday before the service. After my use of this blog topic to make a humorous suggestion, he turned it toward a more serious tilt. He said how people of my generation and the one after mine don't give tithing the place that it deserves. Then he told of a member at our church that had shared how their parents every week would sit in front of their children at the breakfast table and write out their tithe check. This instilled an importance to the act of giving and the place that giving back to God was supposed to be. I agreed how that would be a powerful witness to a child. I hope to have that sort of impact on my children as they see us be faithful to God.

I do admit that before a couple years ago, I was no where near a faithful tither. It wasn't something that I thought was necessary. It WAS an afterthought. However, as I have grown over the past couple years and have deepened my understanding of what tithing really means, I love giving. My wife and I have decided that it is more important to give that and trust God for the rest. It has led to us having more than enough for all our bills and all our desires,but also able to give more than we have before.

Back to what tithing is really about. Its about your heart, where you are placing your trust. This is why Jesus talked about money so much because he understood that. Trusting God with your money is tough, at least at first. I love what Andy Stanley said about it. He said how he knows its scary and you are worried, but just decide that a percentage will automatically be given in tithe, even if its not 10%. Just give God the option to prove how faithful He is. I love that idea of challenging God and this is the area that He offers us to challenge Him, Malachi 3:10.

The other thing that is in my heart right now is about the book that I am reading, John Eldridge's Desire. It was technically written before Wild at Heart, but was released after the success of that book due to it being overshadowed. I am finding it great. There is one section that I am thinking about right now, since I haven't finished it yet. He speaks of our desire to have a deep relationship with others, something beyond the normal casualities. I hunger for that. I have recently started going to the men's bible study at my church. My problem has been the trouble with ever having that real connection beyond saying "hello". I guess as men, we feel like we must protect ourselves in some manner. However, it makes it hard for new people to get in and feel like they are part of the group. I realize that by allowing myself to remain an outsider, I am not helping, but rather I have to allow myself to be the vulnerable one and offer the connection that I seek to others. Wow, that sounded almost smart. Oh well, just was connected to what the author was talking about.

I think that I went on for a little longer than I had planned, but hopefully it was good. Laters!

No need to Panic, I am right here

I realize that a day without posting might have signaled that I have reverted to my old ways and that no one would hear from me again until next year sometime. However, I have returned much quicker. In fact, some might not have noticed that I went anywhere. And when I say "some", I mean the only person reading this. And by "only person reading this", I mean no one. Yeah, I am writing this for me. But that really is ok since I sort of wanted to do this and that means that if no one else reads it, I am still expressing my thoughts. Alright, thats enough talking.

I come today with a sort of rant. I know that this is going to sound a lot like complaining and thats because it is. I work for a state agency and for the most part our job isn't very difficult. There is one time of the year when it can get a little crazy, but the rest of the year is pretty lax. I am thankful for this as it allowed me to accomplish a lot for my wedding that my wife was unable to do and has allowed me the time to research and read things online that I might not have been able to without. The problem with having a laid back agency and office is the fact that sometimes people abuse that ease, which is what I am ranting about. I may not have a whole lot to do on a daily basis, but I feel obligated to be there. I might not accomplish a whole lot, but if I am needed, I am there. Unfortunately, my fellow co-workers seem to take advantage of that. There isn't really ever a thought that I won't be at work and thus its not uncommon for the 2 other people in my office to both call in. They know that I will be there to a) take their call and b) cover the office. While its good to be depended upon, its annoying to be used.

I guess this gets me to thinking about how many times we abuse the love of God. We don't call upon him all the time, but know that he is there every time. We see it (His love) every day in our lives and may not think all that much about it. Then when we need it, we call upon Him to answer our needs. We don't think about His desire, only our own. Stanley talks about this, sort of, during the "Faith, Hope, and Luck" series that I have been studying. He says something to the effect of how insulting to God the way we treat Him. While I know that God loves us and wants us to have that close relationship with Him and holds no condemnation for those who are His children, i still have to stop and think about how horribly we abuse the one who gives us life.

Its not a perfect illustration and with a little work I probably could make it better, but thats where my mind is right now. So, as I sit at the office alone again, I praise God for His love that surrounds me every day.

Study and the such

2 days of me being on here, some one must be riding an emotional high of others possibly checking out my thoughts. Yeah, I am willing to talk about myself in that manner. I am also on here because I actually have something that I am thinking about. One of the things that I mentioned that I wanted to talk about on here is the study that I am doing and what I am learning from it.

I got a Driscoll book recently entitled "New Testament: A Book that you will actually Read". It is really short and doesn't really give a whole lot of in depth analysis but there was one part that I found very interesting. At the end of the book, Driscoll talks about building your own Theological Library. He gives his suggestions for books and the such that he has found helpful and informative. I like the insight that this gives me and I might try and check out a couple of these books at some point as well. But the real sort of mind-blowing portion is that Driscoll says that he urges people to spend an average of 6 months when studying a book of the bible. If you work it out, that would mean if you averaged 6 months (some longer some shorter) to study a book, it would take you 33 years to get throught the whole bible. That is dedication. So, I am going to start with a short book and devote a couple months or until I think that I have wringed all I can out of it at this point in my life. That is how I feel God is leading me to study right now. That might change later, but I think its a decent idea.

On to other things, I am currently getting ready to say good-bye to another baseball season. Yes, the post-season will start in October, but for my team, we only have 6 games. It has been a year of greater than expectations, even by us fans, but still a little tough to take it that the Cubs won the division for 2 straight years. I know that as one who is supposed to live in the love of Christ that I shouldn't hate anything really, but I really think that God hates the Cubs as well. I say that with all the humor and sarcasm that I can muster with written words. Oh well, here's to hoping that the Cubs continue to do their normal post-season flop and I get to watch it. Is it so wrong to enjoy the defeat of your rival team? I think not.

The new television season has kicked off. I have a lot of shows that are normal watches for me. One of them started back up last week, Smallville. I loved the show for about 5 years. I have to say that the last couple years have seemed so much weaker than before. I still watch, but more out of loyalty than desire. I am sure that I could make some illusion to our Christian walk and someday I will break that off without even thinking, but today its not coming to me. Mainly I am just wanting it to end, Smallville not my walk.

I think that rambling about Smallville and baseball pretty much signal the end to another blog. Let's see what comes out next time.

Restarting, Sort of

I have to admit that I forgot that I had started this blog. Over the last couple months I have been thinking of starting another blog and when I logged into Blogger, I realized that I had this one. Why start something when you have a perfectly good place already? I can't think of a good reason and thus will just start trying to get motivated to post on here.

I come here on a very important occasion. Its my 1 year anniversary for my marriage. I know that a year isn't a long time, but its noteworthy in the life of a new marriage. Its hard to believe that a year has passed since I stood on stage at church and got married. It has been a wonderful year. Of course, this gives cause for me to look back and make generalizations that later in life I will think are completely crazy or that I have no clue about life. Either way, here goes some thoughts on this past year.

First, I am thankful for my wife who is amazing. She puts up with my silly and often random rants. There are many times that I will get stuck on a topic and just keep going no matter if no one else is laughing because I think its funny. She just sits there and smiles and waits until I am done. Its actually gotten worse because we have the child starter kit, a dog. This gives me another source that I can talk in a different voice and claim its him saying these things to her. Yeah, I do that. But, I acknowledge that her love for me is truly immense to put up with this almost constant annoyance. Its either that she loves me so much or that she loves God so much and has decided that there is some reason He put her with me. Either way I am happy.

The next major thing that I have noticed is my complete amazement at our family and friends. They are great. I know that my personal relationship with my wife is awesome and that has a lot to do with God. But I also know that its because we don't have strife dealing with family or friends. They have done nothing but be supportive to our marriage. Last year before we got married, I got calls and emails from her family members wishing me a Happy Birthday. Its not a big thing, but they made sure to make me feel welcomed.

I am sure that God has many things to teach me about marriage and that I have many more years to look back and see where He has led me to. But today is definitely a great day and I am thankful for every nuance of awesomness that God has given to my marriage.

Before I go and leave for months (not really), I wanted to tell some of the things that God has been doing personally with me. I am a big fan of Andy Stanley's teaching. I usually check out his stuff online when they put the new messages up. The current series about "5 Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith" is really good. Its not a "how-to" list, but rather things that happen to us that when we look back we see how God used them. The last message, Personal Ministry, just floored me. I recommend it. But, the other thing is that my wife and I are leading a bible study based on one of Stanley's message series this fall at our church entitled "Faith, Hope, and Luck". Its about faith, in case you didn't realize that. We had our first meeting but really didn't get into the study. I am so excited about this topic because it means to much to me that I long for others to hear these words. I just don't want to become discouraged due to small numbers. But I guess all small group leaders deal with that to some extent.

I guess that gets me back to posting something. Hopefully that won't be an unlikely event anymore. I also hope to share more about what I am studying. We will see.