the greatest state on earth...

i am not one of those people that think texas is the greatest state on earth, that it's God's country and just feel sorry for all the people that aren't blessed enough to live here. i promise i am not one of those people. i mean i like it as much as the next person, people are friendly here and it was a great place to grow up, but i promise i am not one of those people.

however, yesterday i was absolutely in love with texas. yesterday, february we had the best weather ever. it was warm and sunny and in february!!

i thought seriously about quitting my job so i could go outside and play.

i decided to just wait until i got off work to play since that would be the responsible, adult thing to do. also i like to eat everyday and my job plays a major role in that enjoyment.

but then the time came, i rode a borrowed bike. i ran a little bit, i reveled in the warm weather. all the while i was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt...in february!! colorado may have its glorious mountains but can you play on them in shorts and a t-shirt and without frozen snot creeping down from your nose toward your mouth in february? i think not!

so yes, yesterday i probably would have told you that texas was the greatest state in the world.

where are the men?

the first time i heard the pastor jr vasser preach he asked this question. tony evans believes it is a crisis in our world today. that the men are simply not stepping up and taking the role God has given them. instead they are running and hiding. (i know not all of them are doing this but a lot of them are)

tony (the minister to high school students at the church that i work at) spoke about this tonight to our youth. well actually he spoke about david and how he did step up to fight goliath and how men need to follow his example. and he said to the girls that david is a biblical example of the qualities they should look for in future husbands.

as tony talked i sat in the back and looked out over our kids. i laughed as i noticed that the girls were quiet, still, listening intently.

the boys were laughing, playing and pretty much forgetting that they were in church. ugh

seriously? i mean, seriously?

this is our theme for the student life camp we are taking our youth to this summer...

im pretty excited about this, for our kids and my self as well. the culture we live in today teaches, more like screams at us that the world should revolve around us. the sad part is that as believers in Jesus Christ we are also believing these lies.

Jesus said,

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
Luke 9:23

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10:45

Jesus makes this point again and again, that as christians it is NEVER ABOUT US.


NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.

we are to be always putting others first.

but the world tells us something else. and we are inclined to listen to their messages.

i have spent a lot of time thinking, conversing and praying about this over the past few months. i am noticing that when i am upset about something or i think someone has wronged me or i was somehow not given justice that at the root of those frustrations there is a train of thought that i deserve better. there is the inclination that life is about me and this should just not have happened. plainly, that is a lie. mercy Lord please. let me not inherit what i deserve, without you i am a liar, adulterer, murderer and so much more. what i deserve is an eternity in hell without a second of relief.

PRAISE THE LORD that is not what i have waiting for me. that because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, instead of what i deserve, an earthly lifetime of dreading death because i know all that waits for me is a lake of fire, i have a lifetime of hope awaiting the day i will be with my savior.

how can i know this and still think the way i do? why do i believe this and still act the way i do?

Lord, please remove in me every selfish thought. please retrain my heart, mind and soul to be as you were, a servant of others. please make it obvious to me when my thinking is in opposition to what you would have me think and the attitude you would have me walk in.

mercy, mercy, mercy i beg.