Free Goods

I saw this link to a free Coldplay Live album. Here is the link. I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but hey, it's free.

Enjoy!

Mission Trip Blog

Our mission team for the Dominican Republic started a blog a little while back. You can got to it and check out thoughts and prayer requests of people on the team. Also, we will post pictures when we are there (hopefully, that will depend on technology) and then we will share stories once we are home. Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.thewellefcc.wordpress.com/

Sheer Randomness!

I haven't had the chance to blog ina while, so I thought I would post a few random thoughts...

• my son peed in his eye this morning. that's right, you read that correctly, he peed in his eye. like a good dad I just started screaming. he smiled at me. evidently it wasn't as big a deal to him as it was to me!
• is Charles Barkely the worst golfer in the world? I saw this clip of him golfing this weekend where he hit someone in the crowd with the ball. he was playing at some sort of pro am fundraiser and he took someone out who was sitting in the front row. i'm not sure who is at fault here... who in their right mind would stand there when barkely is teeing off? have they seen his swing? i seriously couldn't stop laughing.
  

• I'm really enjoying teaching through the book of James, but man is it convicting! It seems like every message I prep for God really challenges me through. This last week was on the way that faith expresses itself through speech. ouch.
• I am so excited for the Nuggets in the playoffs. They are playing so well right now and just can't wait. Bring on the Lake show!

National Day of Prayer

I had the chance to share at North County's National Day of Prayer breakfast this morning. It was truly an honor to be able to speak to a room full of people who are far more prestigious than I will probably ever be. I shared about the power of prayer and how I had the chance to introduce a student to Jesus over at Palomar College just yesterday. One thing that I have realized about prayer is that it really forces me to get my agenda in line with God. Yesterday God just literally brought this student up to me and I just responded to the opportunity that he had obviously given to me.

I read this quote about prayer by Henri Nouwen that really got me thinking about the way that I think about prayer and often times compartmentalize my prayer life. Nouwen wrote,
"To pray, I think, does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things, or to spend time with God instead of spending time with other people. Rather, it means to think and live in the presence of God. As soon as we begin to divide our thoughts about God and thoughts about people and events, we remove God from our daily life and put him into a pious little niche where we can think pious thoughts and experience pious feelings. ... Although it is important and even indispensable for the spiritual life to set apart time for God and God alone, prayer can only become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts -- beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful -- can be thought in the presence of God. ... Thus, converting our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer moves us from a self-centred monologue to a God-centred dialogue."

What a great truth to keep in mind!

Great Quote

I ran across this quote this morning as I was doing some reading. It resonates with me because this is exactly what I want the focus of my life to be.

THE GREATEST USE
OF A LIFE IS TO
SPEND IT FOR
SOMETHING THAT
OUTLASTS IT.

Faith You Can See

I started a teaching series on the book of James two weeks ago in the college ministry. When I started it I knew that it was going to be a challenging book to study, but it has really blown my own expectations out of the water. It is REALLY challenging and really practical. This week we are looking at James 1:19-27 which paints a picture of what true faith looks like. As i have studied, there are really 4 different things that James points out. Faith expresses itself in the way that we deal with anger, the way we listen and respond to the Word, the way we speak, and the way we care about the things God cares about.

This is a really challenging passage, but I think James a book that the church needs to embrace in a new way. We (at least in Evangelicalism) have told people that faith is saying a prayer and being convinced in our head of some theological truths. After spending time with James, I think he would say that is a pretty weak definition of the word 'faith.'

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts....

Go Natinals!

Are you kidding me? The worst franchise in baseball just became a bigger joke. Two weeks ago two of the Nationals players (their 2 best players by the way), walked out onto the field to play a major league baskball game... with the name of their team logo spelled wrong on the front of their jersey! Way to strive for excellence Natinals! You go Natinals! The Worlde Seris is rite arownd the korner.