Turkey for me, turkey for you, I eat my turkey out of my big brown shoe.

So it's almost Turkey day so I thought I should compile a random listing of things that I am thankful for.  I have a feeling this will be difficult to read due to the graphic randomness.  I do apologize in advance.  Let's get the serious things out of the way first so I don't look like a complete jerk.  

Saviour/redeemer-nothing even compares.

Family-blessed to have an amazing family and two grannies who are still around.

Friends/close & not so close-accountability and old friends that I can pick up with at any any time.

Church family-even though that's a pretty large family, love the encouragement I get from those guys.

Student Ministry-especially Jr. High but the whole thing is pretty amazing, they love Jesus.

TRIBE Leaders-these guys never cease to amaze me, volunteers that love God and love students.

Church staff- a Godly group of men and women that I am blessed to serve with.

Band members- selfless guys that serve God faithfully and have an amazing heart of worship.

Jobs-Hill Crest & Sound Solutions, honestly I couldn't dream it any better.

Health-can't take that for granted, ever.

Home-love where I live, who I live with, and what I live in.

I'm sure that I could compile multiple pages of things I'm seriously thankful for but that could get old after a while.  So here are a few small things that really make a difference in my life.

Mountain Dew in can, did you honestly think anything else would be first.  That one almost made the list above, jk.  White Chocolate Mocha, sissy drink and I don't even care.  Technology would be a little broad so lets go with Apple in general; MacBook Pro, iPod Touch.  Martin guitars, Gibson guitars, AT and Sennheiser mics, Shure in-ears, Aviom, EV speakers, okay so I got on a Pro Audio kick.  Rammon Noodles (chicken flavored), Oreos with milk (no imitations, must be the real thing death will come to you!)  GPS is a love hate relationship so I wont go there.  Backpacking stuff, that could go on for days, thank you Cody Hale.  Funk Christian music, not enough funk out there.  By the way, one of my dreams is to be a bass player for a funk band. (I don't even play bass)  New shoes (again the woman side of me comes out, I get this from my grandmother Dot).  Razors, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, great food, BBM, youtube.  Let me stop here and say that I really think I could be a youtube advisor, if you need a laugh, call me and I will send you to a funny youtube video.  Current youtube laughs: Bed Intruder and Double Rainbow with addition to the auto tune remixes are a guaranteed laugh.  Really thankful for my inserts that my mom bought me because inherited jacked up feet from her and my granny Dot.  That's two points for granny Dot.  Thankful for shoes on my table and food on my feet, ha ha.  Fingernail clippers, a life with long fingernails would be horrific.  The interstate system, airplanes, gas, electricity, windmills, coal, and hot brownies with vanilla ice cream.  I honestly think when I enter heaven, God will bless me with a plethora of Mountain Dew and brownies/ice cream.  Spellcheck, which I mentioned in a tweet earlier this week.  I wish they would come out with a content check.  Beer, meth, cigarettes, jk, just seeing if you were paying attention.  

I figured that 18 sentences were enough to get a new paragraph.  Lets continue.  Snickers, trailers so I can pull them (makes me feel like a man), Filet-o-fish, making crazy games for my Jr. High students, butter, mayo, turkey sausage, turkey and avocado burgers, grilled shrimp, fried shrimp, baked shrimp, shrimp sandwich, Forrest Gump (minus the "F" bombs and length of the movie), flying (not like super hero flying but actually on a plane), instant grits on the morning after a hike, Salamon foot wear, smart wool, watching old videos of me and my friends being morons, fingers (I couldn't write this amazing blog if I were nubby), iChat, the dollar movie theatre (which is now a church, sad times, but it's a good church), pasta (literally any kind, Olive garden hates me), did I mention great food, live bands, people that sing on pitch, and the fact that no one is grading this for grammar.  I'm sure there are a few things I've missed that I'm thankful for but this is definitely a good start.  Maybe I will continue on the next post.

God's Will

I love how the thing I've been struggling with the most over the past two weeks is what I will be teaching on in the AM.  I've been studying on how to teach students to understand God's will for their lives and tomorrows lesson hits me right in the grill.  I feel a little overwhelmed that I'm teaching something that I'm currently dealing with.  I'm hoping this is a common feeling among teachers who are currently deal with issues that that are about teach on.  There are three points.  I won't go into detail on all three because I'm just using this blog as another opportunity to get things out of my head and on to a page.  First, we don't ask God what His will is.  Seemingly almost too simple, we just don't pray enough, or at least I don't.  I desire to know God's will and I feel as though I am passionately concerned about what He wants to do with my life, but I don't know if I'm passionately, consistently, seeking His will through prayer.  James 1:5 puts it pretty simple, we just need to ask for wisdom.  My problem is I often seek wisdom from others first.  It seems to be the easy way out, maybe the lazy way out.  I found out this past week that I'm kind of lazy... little concerned about that one.  Seeking wisdom from others isn't bad, but we should seek God's wisdom first.  Second, we rely too much on logic.  We try to figure things out on our own or we try to figure God out.  I'm really glad I can't figure out God.  The material that I'm teaching from (which is where the three points came from, not me) brings up the example of how the disciples must have had a battle with logic often with Jesus.  Especially in instances like the feedings of the 5,000.  I can hear them now, "Ummm, yeah, feed them, with what? Ok Jesus, let me just wave my magic staff over this here land and maybe a hot dog stand will pop up and come rolling through."  Not saying that couldn't happen either, but logically it didn't make sense that five loaves and two fish could feed 5,000.  That's where Isaiah 55:9 comes in.  Go read it.  Lastly, or third, or 'C' if you prefer letters, is that we hear what we want to hear.  That's a swift kick right there.  I read too much into things. This was brought to my attention this past week but I denied it... but it's true.  We often read too much into things, blame God, and say that's what God is showing us to do.  However, in reality, it's something that we read too much into and wasn't even there. We want to hear what makes us feel good so we twist and turn things to make them fit our moronic lives. The crazy thing is that we believe it.  2 Timothy 4:3 warned against this.

We often hear that if we seek Him we will find Him, I don't understand why we never finish that verse.  Scripture says," You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13 NASB.  We live out a huge part, we find Him when we search for Him with our whole heart.  Our heart has to be fully devoted and fully searching before we can find Him.  That's where I want to be, seeking God with all my heart.  I'm excited about teaching this tomorrow because I'm burdened about it, and good friend told me that's called a "preacher's burden."  I want more of those.

P.S.
Laziness kicking in=not taking the time to use spell check or look for any other issues.

What am I smoking?

So this would be my first and possibly last attempt at blogging.  Which is kind of funny because I don't really enjoy writing... or reading for that matter. (just ask Cody)  So I must be taking a hit of the good stuff.  I will go ahead and apologize for the spelling woes that you will encounter as well as the over usage of commas. Content should not be an issue, if you can follow anyone with ADHD.  I don't have a reason for writing other than getting some things outside that seemed to be piled up on the inside.  Today I'm thinking of a quote from a guy I work with, "Life sucks, then you die."  I quoted this to someone today, probably shouldn't have, but I did.  Punch me in the face later.  It's a semi true statement seeing is how that life does suck occasionally and we will die at some point. Unless we rapture,  1, 2, 3, go.... 1, 2, 3, go.  Ok, so no rapture yet.  (I anticipate several inside jokes as I write) However, life doesn't suck all the time, not even most the time.  It's just the fact that we seem to let the bad things out weigh the good things.  For me personally, I made the statement a few months ago that I didn't seem to be experiencing any spiritual warfare or wasn't really going through any tough times and questioned if I was doing God's will or being "radical" enough.  Shouldn't have said that.  One thing after another over the past few weeks and all of sudden I'm getting punched below the belt by satan.  Even though I had experienced several good weeks, even months, I let a series of events, really two instances, out weigh a good couple of months.  I made a statement earlier today on Facebook and was instantly encouraged by brothers who fight the good fight daily.  I love those guys because they understand that living a life above reproach isn't easy.  Scriptures like Romans 16:20 and Revelation 12:7-12 are there to encourage those of us who fight the unseen war daily to keep going.  We have overcome.

I've started a new book/devo called Root of the Righteous by A.W. Tozer and today, which is actually yesterdays because I'm behind, was talking about how God can use anything to call someone to repentance.  For example, God used a rooster to trigger the repentance of good ole Pete.  That was an amazing concept to me that God speaks to us through seemingly unimportant or useless things.  That's how cool my God is, that he can set a series of events up that when a rooster crows that it would break the heart of an apostle and bring him to repentance.  Tozer went on to say, "God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear; and conversely, those who do not so prepare themselves will hear nothing even though the Word of God is falling upon their outer ears every Sunday."  My prayer is that we would constantly be preparing our hearts so that when God speaks, we will hear, and when the time comes for battle will be ready to punch satan in the throat.