Space Jam

The past.... those two words conjure up so many different memories. Some good and some not so good.

Tonight I watched Space Jam. It was a big time blast from the past, and made me think about a lot where I have been.

It reminded me of Waco, and everything that went on there. I had lots of good times, but lots of bad times also happened. I thought about

-the principals office visits
-the fights
-the bullying (both ways)
-the good grades
-the bad grades
-the baseball
-the basketball
-the girlfriends
-choir
-journalism
-science fair
-video games
-the TV shows
-Disney movies
-skating
-karate

I could go on and on, but whats the point? Most of that stuff is gone, and is being replaced with new memories. I will never forget these things. It got me thinking as to how God has shaped my life. Everything that has ever happened in my life was not me doing it, it was God orchestrating his amazing plan for me to bring me where I am today, and to lead me tomorrow. It's absolutely crazy to think that God brought me here. God brought me through all that, and then some. God brought me to Texas State, where I met certain people and got involved in christian ministries on campus.

It's crazy to think that God used Space Jam to bring all these memories back, but thats exactly what happened.

Jesus Camp

I just got done watching "Jesus Camp" and I am pretty shocked. I guess I shouldn't be, but I am.

If you don't know what "Jesus Camp" is about here is a description:
Jesus Camp directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady directors of the critically acclaimed The Boys Of Baraka follows Levi Rachael and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids On Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake North Dakota where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army". The film follows these children at camp as they hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for Christ." The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future.

I grew up catholic, so the word "evangelical" was like a foreign language to me. Then I came to college, got involved in Chi Alpha and things changed. I saw this "movement" firsthand and experienced it for two years weekly and on a larger scale at conferences.

Then I got involved in CRU and things were different, in a good way.

This "camp" is one of the craziest radical things I have ever seen. It follows the story of three kids who are about as evangelical as they come, and have a twisted view of what Christianity is all about. From global warming to speaking in tongues over a cardboard cut out of George Bush, this movie is pretty disturbing.

At the beginning of this documentary, Pastor Becky Fischer tells an audience of children it is their duty to change the world because there are too many fat and lazy Christians out there that are not helping. Crazy thing is she weighs 250-300 pounds. She also states that she wants her children to be as radical as Muslim Jihadists.

The only voice of reason in this entire thing is Mike Papantonio, an attorney and talk show host who is absolutely astonished at what Fischer is teaching these kids.

These people mean well, and they really do believe everything they are preaching. There were some good parts to this movie, but for the most part it was scary.

Watch this video on Youtube, let me know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caX9g6uHciU

Spurs and "21"

I missed posting yesterday, my bad. I actually thought about it at about 12:15 but it would have counted for today, so I waited until now.

And I still don't have a whole lot to talk about.

The spurs let me down tonight, I can't quit thinking about the game.

I just realized how caught up in sports we get. If I knew half the stuff about the bible as I did about sports, I would be in pretty good shape. 

I mean really does it matter in the grand scheme of things that I can list you the starting lineups, or even benches of some professional sports teams? It's absolutely absurd once you really think about it.

I saw the movie "21" today. I was hoping for better, but not bad for $1.50. There was a line in there, that you might have heard before, but that I thought was kind of interesting:

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery." 

Isn't that the truth? I mean I can't help what happened yesterday, or last week, last month,last year, but what I can change is tomorrow. I can change the way I live my life and hope that daily I get closer and closer to living the life Jesus Christ has laid out for me and figuring out this mystery called Christianity.

Water

When I think of San Marcos, one of the first things I think about is the river. Sewell/Rio Vista/5 mile, whatever the case, San Marcos and this area has a lot of water. Growing up in Waco I had Lake Waco, but it isn't even on par with what this area has.

I started thinking about Water in the bible.

The first mention of water in scripture is found in  the very first chapter of Genesis  and the last mention is found in Revelation 22 In between those two books water flows through the pages of scripture, about 722 times This should teach is that there is a great spiritual significance to it.

In Genesis 1:20, we read of the first mention of life, and this life comes from water, "...Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life...". This just blows my mind. Water is so simple, yet so amazing. John 3 verse 5 says, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."  

Water speaks to us of the word of God 

San Marcos is amazing for so many reasons, but the water is one of the best

Homeless Ministry

Jason Pierce, a very good friend of mine, got me thinking today about Homeless Ministry.

Living in Waco, I saw a pretty good deal of homeless people. Mission Waco does a great job helping homeless people, and Waco in general. In fact one of my favorite churches in Waco is "Church Under The Bridge," which is exactly what it sounds like. It is a haven for those who are not as fortunate as I am for whatever reason. 

Here is an interesting stat and comment by Jimmy Dorrell, who is with Mission Waco:

Waco ranked 19 in the nation for cities containing people below the poverty line in 1990. "That means 20 percent of the kids are below the poverty line," Dorrell said. "Many people can only work 29 hours a week because the company doesn't want to pay for benefits. That means they're making $10,080 per year, which is $7,000 below the poverty level."

Wow. Mission Waco has this program called "Poverty Simulation," it's pretty simple and I attended it in high school. It is exactly what it sounds like, a poverty simulation. I would love to go back and do it again if possible because I really didn't get the full scope of things last time.

http://www.missionwaco.org/povsimhtml.html

Theres the link if anyone wants to check it out...

We have probably all heard this story before, but it's still a good one to hear over and over. In Luke 16, there is a story about a rich man. On his doorstep there was a beggar named Lazarus. The rich man and Lazarus both died,the rich man was sent to hell and Lazarus to heaven. There is no indication the rich man ever did anything wrong to Lazarus. He was simply indifferent to someone the Lord had literally laid on his doorstep.

“And his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham. The rich man shouted, `Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in these flames.' But Abraham said to him, `Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. Anyone who wanted to cross over to you from here is stopped at its edge, and no one there can cross over to us' ” (Luke 16:23-26). 

The important thing that is so hard for us to accomplish on a daily basis is that we recognize whom God has put on our doorstep, and minister to them. So whether that is simply giving a homeless person a meal, or money or a warm shower, the fact is that they were put into out lives for the same reason that you were put into my life, because thats the way God planned it.

More Like Month By Month

When I started this, I really did mean for it to be a daily thing, and I am going to honestly try harder to make it a daily thing even though I think the people that read it could probably be counted on a single hand.

A lot has changed in the past month, for the good and bad. You can try and figure out which is which.

1. Relationships have changed. The summer is always rough whether it is going back home where I don't have a good group of Christian friends, or in San Marcos when people do their things at camps. There is still a good group here in San Marcos, and I am growing with them. The crazy thing is that they are moving on with their lives soon and I am not. It's a scary thought.
2. I have spent a lot of time in some excellent Podcasts. Podcasts really are excellent because you can "almost" attend church around the world. Over the years, and especially this past year I have listened to the Austin Stone podcast weekly. There are other ones that I listen to including Mosaic in LA, The Village in Dallas, John Bevere's church, Joshua Harris's church, and other various podcasts like "The Boundless" show which is amazing.
3. GRADUATION. Wow it is a scary thought. I graduated, and a few days later attended my mom's graduation. It was a whole gamut full of emotions. It was bitter-sweet.
4. I still have no direction regarding a job or school. Right now my life is up in the air. It's pretty crazy.
5. I couldn't go without saying that American Idol is over for now. Another bitter-sweet moment. At least this one will come again next year.

You might have noticed that I really enjoy podcasting, and The Boundless Show has become without a doubt one of my favorite ones to listen to. It is basically people sitting around talking about relationships for the most part, but there are other things thrown in there. They talk about singles groups in the church, and Christian online dating and everything that goes along with that. They also talk about movies like "Juno" and video game addiction. Overall this is just a really great podcast that I suggest checking out.

The Boundless Show got me thinking about podcasting and college. I have had so many interesting conversations with so many different people over the past few years that it may be easy to me to recall them right now, or even in the near future, but man it would be nice to have some of that on audio that I can save forever. I am thinking of hosting, or maybe just participating in a podcast with my Christian friends. I really don't know how to do any of this, or even what kind of equipment would be needed but I really think this is something that I want to do. 

My friend Javier Garcia really had been on me lately about how my day by day wasn't really living up to it's name. I am glad that I have a friend like him that cares enough about me to want to read this and really push me to post more.