10. You can love someone without ever spending more than 20 seconds with them.  Love is like the beauty of the ocean depths, but many of us still only use waders in the waters of love.

9. 1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – have you ever wondered why love is the greatest? I am not sure, but a colleague of mine suggested that maybe its because love is the only one that is eternal – you see, in heaven there will little need for faith or hope, but love. . . . . love will always be there.

8.The places where I am most unlike Christ is where God wants to work the most

 7. One of my goals needs to be: Radical abandonment to God and radical availability to others.

 6. True Christlikeness comes at the point where it is hard NOT to respond as He would – D. Willard

5. I am as holy as I want to be – be disciplined – most imporatnt things in life do not seem urgent in the moment.

4. Fact: Life intune with God is nurtured by time alone

3. Almost everything that is worthwhile in life is difficult at first

 2. It is delusion to think that a great relationship with God can be carried on sloppily

 1. Do our lives look like we want to HEAR from God? Time for silence is MADE not found.

Finally, . . . simply. . .  a true learner obeys -

The Walterhouses shared their story with us, which involved his addiction to porn for almost 20 years starting at age 14, and carrying through his entire training to be a pastor and his pastorship until he was caught. No one knew. . . . . not his wife. . . . . not his “accountability” partner. . . . no one.  These are some lies that he believe that kept him in bondage:

1. I’m the only person struggling with this sin - now he knew others were dealing with it, but not as bad as him, and wasn’t it supposed to go away after marriage – that’s what other people had told him. . . . what was wrong with him??

2. Everyone struggles with this sin (Lie of rationalization/justification) – in other words, when he heard his discipleship leader make a comment about “just because he is on a diet [i.e., he is married] doesn’t mean he can’t look at the menu” – he figured that this is just a man’s cross to bare, and that all men are dealing with it, so it is really not that big a deal.

3. I’m not hurting anyone else (Lie of denial) – this is just affecting me, noone else is getting hurt. Side not here from me – first of all, “you bring you into every relationship, thus, if you are affected then all of your relationships are affected!” Second, you only have a limited amount of passion and desire, and if you are using up some or most of it on porn, then guess who gets short-changed?. . . . your spouse, your friends, your vocation, etc….

4. I can get victory over this sin (Lie of self-effort) – in other words, if I would just confess it enough, pray about it enough, go to enough church camps, etc…. (his list was fairly long here) . . . then I can kick this thing myself, and noone has to know.

5. I can NEVER get victory over this sin (Lie of hopelessness) – After believing lie #4 and trying as hard as he could many, many times. . . he came to the conclusion that all was hopeless in conquering this. Side note from me: this is not uncommone to see with those struggling with addiction, and it goes something like this. People can maybe envision being strong for a few hours, or a day, but once they start imagining being strong for a week or 2 weeks, a month? – they feel overwhelmed, b/c there is no way they are strong enough for that!! and so they say “screw-it” might as well just give in now. . . .

You know what . . . part of them is right – the state they are in right now, they can’t make it a month, but the secret (that the enemy does not want you to know) is that Day 12 is not as hard as Day 1, and that you are being transformed throughout, so that one day at a time. . . you are getting stronger – sure you will fall, but God is there to keep building you up.

So, keys to victory, according to the Walterhouses:

1. Press in clost to the heart of God – emphasis on the HEART! – and that heart is of love and grace, yes. . . . even for this! He is ready to help and bring you back home!

2. be open with your sexual struggles (or hidden sin) with someone that has bite – in other words confess in a radical way – to people that might leave a mark (i.e., a spouse, an RD, etc…)

3. Call it what it really is. . . . Sin and Lies - and just like any sin, when grown fully leads to death.

One last note from my heart on this:

Deep within each man is a desire to be wanted, and wanted sexually – those images, those pictures. . . you know what they are telling men? “I want you” – “I WANT YOU” – “you don’t have to change, I will except you just the way you are, you don’t have to work to convince me – I am all yours”. That temptation strikes to the core of most men – you take into consideration that men or visually driven, and you have the recipe for a “fall.”

There is so much more to be said on this, but that is it for now – pray for the boys/men and girls/women that are in this addiction right now please – they need all of our help.

 I thought about catching you up on everything, but that would take a book, not a blog – plus, I know some of you have been following me on twitter – and greenlockers on twitter too – so, I am just going to start with a top 10 list of things that I have learned in the last month and half:

10. Lasik is a modern day miracle – seriously going from 20/600 to 20/15 over the course of 5 minutes. . . . . . . . come’on that’s just crazy!

9. God’s adventure (i.e., greenLockers) is wilder than I ever could have imagined

8. Not much compares to seeing a “smaller than average” middle school student encouraging his “much larger” peers to not waste schools supplies, but to donate them instead, and he did not know that I was watching

7. I don’t hear anyone talking about parenting in a positive light – about how wonderful it is to be a Dad or a Mom – I plan on changing that a little bit (get ready for . . . . “parenting tips” – coming soon to this blog ). I figured my wife is currently teaching college course called “Parenting” and I teach Child Growth and Development as well as Adolescent Growth and Development – though we ourselves still have a lot to learn, and are NOT perfect by any means!!!! – we also have a lot to share

6. This is one of my favorite pictures of Kya so far – love his Spirit

5. My wife does not get even a 10th of the credit that she deserves. . . – Here is Dane smiling at her during bath time – yeah, he loves her!

4. I am excited about the God’s plan to use the Church (with all of her quirks) to move His kingdom forward. Here are some middle schoolers from GSM cleaning out 800 bins. . . in the rain!

3. The heart of Bethel students continues to impress me – countless students gave up time and effort to FREELY give up parts of their summer for greenLockers

2. Absolutely NOTHING compares to “intentional use of time” and “open communication” when a family is running fully on mission (i.e., the busy, stressful times of the “six days” before the “7th day” rest period) 

1. Blogging and many other “good” things/opportunities are important to me for many reasons, but my family is more important – specifically, being the best husband and father that I can be  – - WILL ALWAYS take precedent over me saving my public face. – here is a picture after Dane’s dedication at church.

She was discussing how plants that grow on continents (e.g., North America) have a lot of defense mechanisms – like thorns:

as well as many other things – like the poison that Black Walnut trees emit so that no other trees can grow around them. Of course, these are all characteristics that over time. . . have allowed the plant to continue to grow and reproduce (i.e., not get eaten by herbivores), but I wonder if it is worth it?

This is all very fascinating, but the realization is that all of these defense mechanisms take a lot of energy to make. . . energy that could be used to make more seeds, produce bigger fruit, and grow faster.

ISN’T THIS US??. . . . . how much time do we spend on protecting ourselves? – you know, not being authentic, hiding our true selves from others, not loving, not serving, not submitting, seeking control and power in relationships, etc….     – the fact is we are wasting our time and energy . . .

Dr. Weakland went on to say that plants on the islands of Hawaii (and most other islands) are very different.  Since they have not been around nearly as long. . . they have yet to adapt to have some of those defense mechanisms, and instead. . . . you see plants using their full energy in producing beautiful things to their fullest potential (i.e., fruit, flowers, etc…) – in fact she said that the biggest rasberrys in the world grow there, why are they so big?? Because they DON’T HAVE ANY THORNS – they can dedicate all of their energy to producing fruit.

Think about all of the things that we do to produce defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from being hurt or even “eaten” by others  INSTEAD OF USING THAT ENERGY TO PRODUCE FRUIT that we were meant to produce:

love

joy

peace

patience

kindness

goodness

faithfulness

gentleness 

self-control

Let’s all start using our time – our days – our minutes – our strength – our energy – NOT FOR THORNS, but for making the fruit we were created for.

There has sense been informal discussions among some Bethel faculty concerning this video, and so I just wanted to let you in on some of that – if your brain doesn’t hurt too much already

“I’m afraid that I detect some biases in these arguments that seem to be at the root of the issue.

Take a look, for instance, at 2:16.  There is a claim that a lack of (natural) explanation giving rise to a conclusion that an event is supernatural is a contradiction.  To quote the video, “In effect, it is saying that ‘I can’t explain something; therefore, I can explain it.’”  I’m afraid this is false.  What’s being claimed is not that a phenomenon cannot be explained, but that it cannot be explained using natural processes.  Thus, the argument is really, “This process cannot be explained through natural processes; therefore, supernatural processes must be employed.”  There are actually arguments like this made in mathematics:  that a particular system (in our case, an axiomatic system) is not sufficient to answer a particular question, so something outside of that system must be brought in to explain it.

While I can appreciate the argument by the person on the left side (at 0:52), the crux of their argument seems to be bashing the “non-scientific person” because they are not open to natural explanations.  At the same time, isn’t the person on the left falling into the same trap by denying (for instance, at 0:17) the possibility of any supernatural explanations for phenomena, thereby also excluding certain conclusions?  I can accept a scathing rebuke of the group on the right that attributes everything to ghosts (though I think a straw man argument has been set up here), but I think there are more than just the two sides.  We appear to have an excluded middle.  Can we not be open to both natural and supernatural explanations?

In fact, this leads down a very interesting road.  How far does one need to go to exhaust natural explanation before it can no longer be invoked?  The analogous questions in math (in terms of axiomatic systems) have answers.  A lot of work was done in these areas since the 1930s and Goedel’s incompleteness theorem.  I am surprised this is not being asked in the scientific community.  The issue I have is, are these questions even being allowed to be asked?  If not, why not?”

Here is another video about how science and religion can work together (not nearly as heavy!), and fight some of the criticisms of Christianinty hating science:

 http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=48261586648

Symbol- Dry Bones Ezk 37

Ø  He (God) does not call the equipped, He equips the called.

Ø  We have dry bones (lost people) every where and they are useless.

Ø  When vision, passion, mission leave you, you dry up.

Ø  The call is discipleship, the call is any time, any place, any where.

Ø  Dry disciples are brittle. They no longer have a backbone . . . only have a wish bone.

Ø  When we dry up we get depressed…we lose hope…and we lose confidence…

Ø  There is more depression in America today because they have lost their hope in God. Without hope. . . we all dry up.

Ø  Want to be big. . . . .  Learn to be small

Ø  Courage is doing the right thing frightened.

Ø  Courage waits for your obedience

Ø  You don’t choose where you are going, you don’t choose what gift you will use, you are just obedient. 

Jill touched on a few different things like dry bones or lost people and spiritually dead Christians, being a soldier of Christ, and then on obedience.   Jill said tonight that in our Christian bubbles we can find one of the hardest places to stay fresh, because we have too many spiritual substitutes. 

Jill made the statement that “it’s easier to be friends with Jesus’ friends than with Him…and it doesn’t matter how holy the substitute is. . . . .  it’s not God!” there are so many people out there that don’t know Christ and I thought it was interesting how Jill put spiritually dead Christians in the same category  with  unbelievers. . . . .really. . . . .  what’s the difference???

It takes courage when following God and the Spirit.  Jill told a story about when she felt the Lord calling her to go into this place where a big concert was being held and tell the people about God. She said that first she wanted to pray for courage and as she prayed she said that she still didn’t have courage so the first night she didn’t go in, but she knew that she would have to come back the next night. So she did and she began to do the same thing pray for courage, but as she was praying, she still did not feel courage,  but she heard God asking her  “will you go in for me, WITHOUT  the courage?”  - – - Are we willing to be Bold for Christ and go into places when we don’t have the courage?? are we willing to be OBEDIENT? Jill went on to say that after she had said yes and started in God gave her courage and she went on to lead a man to Christ. See. . . . .  it takes the first step from us. “Courage is doing the right thing frightened.” Take courage even when you are scared because “God does not call the equipped He equips the called.” It’s up to God and His will to show us where we are going to go and what gift we are going to use, not us. We just have to be obedient. . . . . Amen!

 This session Jill used the symbol of water. She told us different ways water was used as a symbol in the Bible.

 - His (God’s) part is to give us soul fulfilling water…our job is to give Him permission!

 - Is your teaching refreshing the people? Is it water?

 - Are you a well watered garden? That people see and want to walk through with you?

 - Without water people cannot survive, the Spirit is like an artesian well.

 - The devil wants to dump a whole lot of muck down our wells.

 - TV/movies – you invite into your living room people that you would never let in your front door.

 - Some of you are totally out of touch with God and you think nobody knows! You have perfected the Jesus smile

 - There is ether self power or God power.

 - no one ever said that all the blessing were just for the people on the front row

  After hearing the story by Jill about when she was exhausted and disconnected,  and a man made a statement about her Jesus Smile that woke her up a bit; I wondered how many of us are like this? How many times have I been like this? Is this YOU?

 To summarize Jill’s message today and using the Symbol of water we need to know this. Gods job, the thing that he is in our lives to do, is to fill us up with “Soul fulfilling water,”  but this requires something from us as well. . . . Our job is to let him in, to open our heart, mind, and soul, and give him permission to pour into us.  When we allow God to pour into us and water our garden of life we are able to refresh others to teach others with the fruits that grow from us.  Are you a well watered garden. . . am I? Or are we like a dried up tumble weed, a skeleton of a living, vibrantly colored bush? Sink your roots deep into the Spirit of God! Be nourished by living water that can only come from him. Don’t let the devil fill up the well that God is pouring into, with muck and garbage! Without water there is no life.

I wanted to give some highlights of this journey over the next few days starting with today’s talk:

- There is no such thing as an ordinary day when it comes to the Holy Spirit

- You don’t learn error/lies by studying error/lies, you learn it by studying the Truth

- When you feel overwhelmed remember that you are over-shadowed by the Holy-Spirit, who has overcome all things!

She encouraged us to do an exercise in learning about the Holy Spirit. She said to go through John 16 and make a list of all the “work of the spirit”
1. He is a Counselor
2. He will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgement
3. He is the Spirit of Truth
4. He will guide you into all truth
5. He will tell you about the future
6. He will bring Glory by revealing to you what He receives from Jesus and the Father

The question then I have for all of us. . . Are these things happening in our lives? How would we know??

I know this may be a reminder for you, but it was one that I needed recently – As one is able to determine the health of a tree by the quality of its fruit, so it is with us, we know by the fruit that we are (or are NOT) producing. . . here is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23):

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self-control

Fruit happens . . . . . . . let’s make sure it’s the good stuff people!

He said that was impossible to answer, but that he has been growing a lot with the “man upstairs.” Of course I knew he was talking about God, but they are not supposed to write anything that concerns God or Jesus because any communication leaving China may be screened. But then the next thing that he said really stuck with me. . . .

“oh and how our struggles shouldn’t be something we should be ashamed of, its a learning experience, that draws us closer to Him”

Far too often I forget that struggles are really growth opportunities disguised as problems.

I have many struggles myself that I rarely admit. Sometimes I think I don’t admit them because then someone else will know that I have them. . . .and be watching me to see if I improve. . . a little something called accountability. Recently; however, I have come to realize that when I withold my struggles from those that are close to me, I am eroding the trust and authenticity that those relationships are founded on . . .AND. . . . destroying the very thing that I was trying to find – true intimacy.

Yes, . . . I know it takes vulnerability to be “real”, and yes. . . . we will get hurt from time to time, but. . . today. . . . my desire to have the FULL life promised to me (John 10:10) is stronger than my fear of taking those risks.

So, how are we doing men??

When our brothers, sisters, bosses, friends, or wives do something that frustrates us – how do we handle that?

Do we seek first to understand and serve even more before blowing up and trying to “control” the situation?? You know the bible talks about how we are supposed to love our wives like Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25). You know how much crap some people in the global “Church” has done in the name of God – I am talking about horrific things – I mean people have been hurt emotionally, spiritually, even killed in the name of God . . . and you think your person has been doing it to you for a long time – some people have been misusing God’s word for hundreds of years.  but when has Jesus ever said “alright that’s it – no more forgiving. . . you know what. . . . I’m not going to love you anymore, I’m no longer going to serve you, no longer going to listen to your prayers, or give you any my time – you don’t deserve it!”. . . . never!

We don’t deserve that type of grace, and maybe our wives, our bosses, our children, our fathers, our friends, or whomever in our life doesn’t deserve it either. . . . . . . . . . . BUT, how you handle those situations/relationships truly is the MEASURE OF A MAN.

Oh, I have seen it many times in adults too. . . . A man can hide behind childish things like throwing fits, walking out, kicking other people out, not talking anymore, locking people out of rooms, avoiding it, ignoring it, drinking, always blaming the other person, never taking responsibility, being filled with pride, belittling or insulting others. . . even our wives in public!, refusing to listen, etc. . . . . -

The bible says that in our anger we should not sin (Ephesians 4:26-27 ) because it gives the devil a foothold in our lives. . . . so where do you think the devil is going to try and attack you and your life? One place for sure will be through your anger. . . the moments when you are seeking control over the situation or the person, but in reality- by becoming angry and childish . . . you have already turned away from self-control (i.e., a fruit of the Spirit). I know this is difficult – especially when you throw in all the other stresses in our lives that are weighing down on us. This is precisely the reason why how we deal with it is such a great measure. . . .
 

And all of this. . . . will show to our children, our wives (present or future), our grandchildren, our sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, our parents, and our friends what we are really made of. . . . how we handle adversity/conflict/difficult times. . . is the meausre of a man. . . . . . it is difficult, but don’t be passive like Adam in the garden watching Eve eat the fruit without saying anything!!!! that attitude of passivity/just letting things be how they always have been – will forever be one of our greatest temptations men! BE DIFFERENT . . . FIGHT FOR THE STANDARD OF LOVE THAT JESUS CHALLENGED US WITH- Let’s step up. . . let’s stop being little boys. . . and start being the men that God created us to be!! . . . Yes, you CAN get there. . . . . and if you don’t know really where to start – try praying this prayer first:

Father, I know that I have messed up, again, – you know all of the childish things that I do when I don’t feel loved or valued – when the people that I want love from the most don’t give it to me. You know that I have tried to stop doing some of these things from time to time, and it just never seems to work. So, I am just asking with all that I am that you transform me in some way so that when tough stuff comes – I will be able to respond in a way that would make you smile and be proud of me. . . I have no idea how to actually make that happen – I need you to show me – to teach me – please help me find a way Father. . .In Jesus’ name. . . Amen.

First some history – where does this all come from anyways?? (Dr. Richard P. Bucher – http://www.orlutheran.com/html/ash.html)

Ash Wednesday, originally called dies cinerum (day of ashes) is mentioned in the earliest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and probably dates from at least the 8th Century. One of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday is found in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his Lives of the Saints, he writes, “We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast.” Aelfric then proceeds to tell the tale of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes and was accidentally killed several days later in a boar hunt! Throughout the Middle Ages ashes were sprinkled on the head, rather than anointed on the forehead as in our day.

As Aelfric suggests, the pouring of ashes on one’s body (and dressing in sackcloth, a very rough material) as an outer manifestation of inner repentance or mourning is an ancient practice. It is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. What is probably the earliest occurrence is found at the very end of the book of Job. Job, having been rebuked by God, confesses, “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Other examples are found in 2 Samuel 13:19, Esther 4:1,3, Isaiah 61:3, Jeremiah 6:26, Ezekiel 27:30, and Daniel 9:3. In the New Testament, Jesus alludes to the practice in Matthew 11:21: “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

 - So, I received the ash cross on my forehead as the leader said to me “From dust you came and to dust you shall return” – (Genesis 3:19) – This is what God said to Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit. I do not have a lot of ancient rituals in my lifestyle, but they can be powerful to partake in.

It is not for show – in fact one of the traditional readings for Ash Weds. includes statements about not being boastful! (Matthew 6:16-18)

If anything it is a public proclamation that I have surrendered my life. In other words, I am telling the world that in order to be who I was created to be – I cannot operate on my own strength, wisdom, or reasoning. . . I have sinned, and though there is great joy in my salvation, sometimes the joy of freedom cannot fully be experienced without reflection on my personal dissappointment, mistakes, weaknesses, and failures. . . . . all the things that, apart from Jesus, hold me captive.

You see. . . sometimes I forget that I am called to a higher standard. I look around and have a sense consciously or unconsciously that I am doing alright – you know. . . . compared to a lot of other people.  I am faithful in marriage, I love my wife and children well, I have integrity at work, I have friends that I care for and pray for, I even have non-christian friends that I care for deeply, I give back to my community, I volunteer, I am slow to anger, I keep my body in shape, yada yada yada. . . . . . it’s easy isn’t it. . . .to compare ourselves to others to see “how we are doing”. . . . . NOT TODAY.

Today is a day to look at the distance I have yet to travel, to be reminded of where I have fallen short – not in the world’s eyes. . . but in God’s eyes.  Today (and really Lent in general) is where I have the opportunity to contemplate soberly what I have done so as to prepare myself to appreciate even more deeply what Jesus has done for me, and the hope that I and the whole world have . . . not in my strength, wisdom, and perseverance. . . but in Christ’s.

Some of the things that we recited this morning were:

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind and strength

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves

We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ has served us

We have not been true to the mind of Christ

We have grieved your Holy Spirit

- — and then we went on to pray for our forgiveness, for God’s mercy and grace to cleanse us. . .

This cross today on my forehead represents a choice for me. . . I am choosing to be dependent on God and to accept the full life He has for me (John 10:10) over my freedom to be independent. 

In case you forget what this choice looks like – check out 2 Corinthians 6:3-13 – I added the bold for my emphasis today

³ We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry. ⁴ In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. ⁵ We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. ⁶ We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us,^[a] and by our sincere love. ⁷ We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. ⁸ We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. ⁹ We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. ¹⁰ Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

I first showed them this video on conformity (a little old, but the students always get a kick out of the sweet clothes!), and it gets the students warmed up:)

I then ask for some of their reactions, but we do not spend very much time on it. . . because I am just wanting to lay the foundations for the next video:

I then go through a series of questions that the students respond to – usually in written form first (just because some people want time to collect their thoughts – and feel much more comfortable writing it all out first), and then we end up discussing them after we are all the way through. I give them a couple of minutes after each question to write out their responses . . . . a few more minutes after some of the more difficult ones (i.e., #6).

1. What are your intial reactions to this?
2. Why do you think it is that when Stanley Milgram (before he did the experiment) asked psychologists to predict what percentage of people they thought would go all the way to the lethal level of shock (450 volts) . . . the psychologists predicted only 1/10th of 1% . . . . . .?
3. Migram’s parents were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. . . how do you think this might of changed his view on Nazis?
4. What do these two videos/experiments tell us about the human race?
5. Do you think you would have gone all the way to the most severe shock if you were the “teacher” in the second video? . . . explain why
6. How do these two videos. . . and especially the second one. . . .relate to our faith. . . what we believe. . . and how we end of up believing certain things about our faith.
7. Define obedience
8. What type of obedience does God want from you?

What ensues then is a great discussion involving class material, personal experiences, and faith. . . . . . . and that combination, . . . . ALWAYS makes me happy. . . . .man! I love what I get to do:)!

. . . why are you so excited about what you teach? how do you do it? dealing with kids like me…lol marking tests and still having time for your family.

Answer: First of all, I love College students in all of their diversity because they are trying to figure what type of men and women they want to become- and they are starting to get serious about it- -  – I don’t get discouraged at all when I see them have hiccups in their path (whether it is their choice or not) – in fact I really enjoy playing whatever part I can in journeying along with them during those times – That’s what God does for me – - and though I am not God – I’m just doing what I can to love like He loves. . .

I get such a kick out of seeing the “aha!” moments in students’ lives, but what people often forget is that in order to have those moments – there must be times preceding those moments when there was confusion and misuderstanding – so I expect it – it’s just two sides of the same coin. . . . I just love being the one that trys to flip it for them. . . . . . and. . . . I’ll admit. . . . I love to entertain, have fun, and start some fires . . . and teaching in College just seems like such a natural spot for that – -at least for me

As far as family goes. . . a lot of that credit goes to my amazing wife!!! (read some of the posts about here on this blog!). Together. . . . . and that is the key phrase. . . . together, we discuss priorities, time management, scheduling. . . we are far from perfect. . . . . but being commited to communicating well with each other. . . . that has been such a help when it comes to the dillemas surrounding balance in our lives.

Question 2:

What is your favorite childhood memory?

Answer:

This one is easy. . . and it’s actually a conglomeration of multiple events summed up simply as . . laughing at the dinner table with my family . . . we would be eating – discussing the day, and then we would start laughing sooooo hard, and then Jonathan (My older, but not the oldest brother) would not be able to control himself, so he would have to leave the table into the other room. . . .we would all calm down a bit. . . . slowly. . . . but, everytime he would try and return. . . he would just bust out again, which would make the rest of us completely lose control again. . . .oh!. . . . good times!!

TOMORROW – I will give all the details you could have ever wanted on my School recycling project!!! – stay tuned

There are many other ways to instill these principles. . . . my point is. . . . it IS worth it to do these things. . . to rehearse these statements to your children, . . .  and to yourself.

I have a former adult student/friend of mine that I have such respect for because of how genuinely he engaged not only my class, but his ownfaith journey. He commented to me one time that through my class he was finding his way back to church. . . .something he had not diligently considered for years – - I never told him, but that might have been one of the best compliments I have EVER received. . . . well, he sent me this video yesterday, and I just think his timing is great . . . . I personally. . . . . can NEVER be reminded enough. . . . .

yesterday - I spent the whole day with my Block class at Bethel at the Science and industry museum in Chicago.  Now, I forgot my camera, but here are a few pictures that Heather (one of my students) took  – we had a good time

Beyond these pictures – here are few more of my highlights:

1. I got to disect a Cow’s eye for 25 minutes with some of the students. . . . not going to lie. . . pretty amazing – especially the sheer volume of eye juice that was in there!

2. Heard the story and went inside the only German Uboat on American soil – the U505 – it was huge!! The whole thing is indoors, and we went inside for a 20 minute tour that took us back to what happened on the day that it was captured, we got to see the actual torpedo bays that sank 40+ ships, hear some of the music that the soldiers were listening to that day. . . . yes, I know I am a nerd. . . but it was amazing!

3. Saw one of the Ominmax shows. . . . . AMAZING. . . it was about South Africa and the Wild Coast – reminded me that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are heading over there soon as missionaries (more on that to come)

4. Saw a baby chick hatching from its shell. . . live. . .

5. Got to get to know more of my students better – they are an amazing group of young adults!

 . . . .

Then I made it back to Bethel just in time to start my 6-10pm class that I teach every Tues. night. . . . those students are equally as great! – lots of fun, but I was tired . . . . thankfully I got to go home and see the real highlight of my day – Ang . . . isn’t this a great picture of her that Debbie Mann took a few weeks ago?

Today – I got to participate in a lecture series on social media that Aaron Marshall (the aforementioned brother-in-law) has been giving to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary over the past few months. He wanted me to explain a little bit about how I use this blog as well as my twitter and facebook accounts as an evangelistic tool. I had so much fun, because here I am in an office with a webcam. . . . where I can see them, and they can see me (free via Skype), and we can talk – as if we were in the same room. . . . even though they’re in Louisville, KY.

Aaron asked me some questions and I talked about how I feel like my blog is a witness/display to others of how I try (I am sooooooo far from perfect at this!!!!) to really keep God at the center of all my life (i.e., why I include many parts of my life on this blog), AND also how social media is my way of imitating God’s model of coming to us/our world with Jesus. . . so, I go into “their” world – my students (believers and non-believers) – a place that is comfortable for them, relevant to them. . . . . where they spend A LOT of time:). . . . and how, on one such occasion a few weeks ago – I was honored and humbled to help lead someone to Christ through Facebook Chat. . . Crazy. . . I know. . . . God can use anything to show others that He loves them!!! (ps – I am soo proud of that student!)

 One of the best things about this little talk this morning. . . is what happened afterwards. . . .I simply clicked a button on my computer to “hang up” and poof – just like that I am no longer in front of people at a seminary, . . . and then my wife calls and says that she, through a link that my sister-in-law sent her by twitter, was watching me from our home give my little presentation to the conference in Louisville. . . . WILD. . . . . ha! . . . . we have used Skype for awhile, but this is my highlight so far

Thanks for catching up with me. . . . have a great day everyone!