COME ON YOU FAILURE!

Romans 12:10-13. First the easier stuff. Verse 13b seek to show hospitality. DONE!

Now the rest. We need to be serving the Lord with a fervent spirit and with zeal. We need to be rejoicing in the hope we have as the children of God. We need to be PATIENT in tribulation. And we need to be in constant prayer. FAIL!

All these things work together too. And all these fails are why I feel like I'm in a deeper pit of failure than before. If I rejoice in the grace that God has given me, and in the hope of heaven and eternity with Him, and if I am in constant prayer to my Creator and Savior, all the struggles of daily life will fade, patience will be provided in tribulation. I believe my struggles would not be so frustrating and difficult if I was leaning on God and trusting Him in the first place. I think He is faithful to me and is constantly trying to draw me back to Himself. Oh what a fool I am.

Praise God for His Faithfulness.
Praise God for the Hope we have in Him.

Salt

This doesn't even come out until summer 2010, but "Salt" looks really good.

'Salt' Teaser Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

A Breakfast Break

On Tuesdays I've been meeting with Stuart and Jordan for breakfast and a time to encourage each other. And it is an encouraging time for me. We pray for each other and give each other advice from God's Word. We also have studied things together in the past, like the book "Crazy Love."

I'm a little late today, but I wanted to enter something. My advice today is to always have a group of people you can meet with on a regular basis as an accountability team. Find people that are spiritually mature and know the Bible. Oh, and they need to be the same gender.

Praise God in Patience today.

Let Your Love be Genuine

Romans is a hard book for a struggling Christian. It's a deep book of truths about God and salvation and how we are to live as Christians. Romans 12:9-21 are all about "Marks of the True Christian", as my Bible titles it. And it is stuff that is not easy to hear.

Verse 9 and 10 are all I'm going to cover today. "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." Why do I always fail? I don't love. In fact, people "joke" about my lack of love of others. I'm know as someone who hates things, is annoyed by people, and generally is negative most of the time. I'm not loving. This is so hard for me. I think I can read other people's genuine attitudes in a giving situation; and when others are not genuine or honest with me or a particular event, I get angry and frustrated with them. Or if someone is not paying enough attention to what's going on, when something serious happens and they are shocked, I'm annoyed they weren't prepared. I feel like people are usually not lovable.

BUT, God loves people. "For God so loved the world, He gave his only son..." John 3:16. Even the guy at the baseball game in the outfield, or the one in the end zone at the football game, is trying to tell people that the God of the universe loves people. And now we are called to love people too, right here in Romans.

Let me take this in a different direction. I love music. I love playing the piano and singing. I loved leading worship and First Baptist in Auburn. I loved everything about it. I would say, the job of a music pastor at a church would be my dream job. Except a huge part of being a pastor is loving people. And that love spreads to so many other aspects of the job. Just getting up on the stage and leading people in music worship is not the extent of the job. It takes genuine love.

Praise God Today by Loving Others.

Getting Ready To Make the Switch

Apple and the iPhone are starting to be so frustrating. Apple is too exclusive and arrogant about what they will and won't allow on the iPhone. It's too locked down. The Google Android phone is open source, is on multiple phones, and has free stuff; free stuff like a Navigation Program. The Android phone also has the stuff we want from Google, that Apple keeps blocking. Voice recognition, location software, navigation, Google docs, and more. There are apps and more too. I don't know enough yet about the phone, which is why the title is "Getting Ready to Make the Switch" not "Making the Switch", but with Apple doing things the way they are, and the way they always do, I'm being pushed to boycott. (Other Apple-ism, the new iMac and it's 2 different functioning mini DVI ports on the 2 models. The 27" allows input, while the 21.5" doesn't. And the glossy finish on the screens is not great. Even in Apple's own stores, the glossy finish makes it hard to see the screen. Where's the mat option? How about the iPod Touch? You have to pay $10 every time they update the software. Stupid.) I will admit the iPhone is the greatest phone ever, but there are a lot of things that could be done better. Maybe someone will create the hardware to match the great work Google has done on the software of Android. It will be hard to match or beat the beauty of the iPhone. I was hopeful Motorola would do it with the "Droid", but first pictures aren't looking good. Someone needs to build a phone with a high quality, high resolution screen, and other quality materials and design.

People Without Skills Shouldn't Own Cars with HP

This guy is the anti-Ken Block. People without driving skills shouldn't be allowed to own cars with horsepower. This guy looks like a jerk.