Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2

He Tore Down the Wall

1-6It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

11-13But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

14-15The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

16-18Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

19-22That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

Things to ponder

Why do phone companies give you a number to call if your phone doesn't work?

Why is a carrot more orange than an orange?

Why is there only ONE monopolies commission?

Why do bananas grow upward and all other fruits grow downward?

If you choke a Smurf what color would it turn?

Why do we pay tolls on the freeway?

Why are they called stands when they are made for sitting?

If it is tourist season, why can't we shoot them?

Why is abbreviation such a long word?

Where do all the missing socks go?

Is it possible to be totally partial?

If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they get Teflon to stick to the pan?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite A Holy Mess

Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite A Holy Mess
He spent his childhood trapped within the confines of countless bizarre, strict rules. And lived to tell about it. In this first-hand account, author Matthew Paul Turner shares amusing–sometimes cringe-worthy–and poignant stories about growing up in a fundamentalist household, where even well-intentioned contemporary Christian music was proclaimed to be “of the devil.”
churched is a collection of stories that detail an American boy’s experiences growing up in a culture where men weren’t allowed let their hair grow to touch their ears (“an abomination!”), women wouldn’t have been caught dead in a pair of pants (unless swimming), and the pastor couldn’t preach a sermon without a healthy dose of hellfire and brimstone. Matthew grapples with the absurdity of a Sunday School Barbie burning, the passionate annual boxing match between the pastor and Satan, and the holiness of being baptized a fifth time–while growing into a young man who, amidst the chaotic mess of religion, falls in love with Jesus.

There is the official review from Matthew Paul Turner's website. This is yet another amazing book by my favortie author. I have one copy to give away to people who comment on my blog. If you would like to be chosen leave a comment about your desire to read the book and I will choose a name from a hat on October 17. If you do not want to wait feel free to purchase the book from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400074711

Desert Song By Hillsong

As most of you know music ministers to me in a lot of different ways, this is a song that I have recently been listening to over and over. It is a song full of powerful lyrics.

---------------------



This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in the hunger in me
My God is a God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon forged against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

And this is my prayer in the battle
And triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon forged against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've received I will sow

Blonde Joke

BEST EVER BLONDE JOKE
A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, 'Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get started.'
Her boyfriend asks, 'What is it supposed to be when it's finished?'
The blonde says, 'According to the picture on the box, it's a rooster.'
Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle.
She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.
He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says,
'First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a rooster.'
He takes her hand and says, 'Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then ...' he said wit h a deep sigh, . .. . .. .. .






'Let's put all the Corn Flakes back in the box.'

Difference

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich an d the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.
Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, 'How is your friend Audrey doing?' She replied, 'Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over.'
Her wise father asked his daughter, 'Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who has only a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, 'That's a crazy idea, and how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!'
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, 'Welcome to the Republican party.'
If anyone has a better explanation of the difference between Republican and Democrat, I'm all ears

http://www.newsvine.com/_video/2008/09/12/1860543-for-teens-a-social-network-becomes-a-lifesaver

Check this link out. It is from NBC Nightly News with Bryan Williams. To Write Love On Her Arms

Rock Concert shot from Murray Hill Theatre in Jacksonville Fl

If Children's Pastors Ruled...

IF CHILDREN'S PASTORS RULED...by roger fields



The church water fountain would dispense Kool Aid.

Hymns would have motions.

The adult service would have a flashing light signaling when children’s church was out so the pastor could dismiss the adults.

Children’s Pastors would be well paid and Senior Pastors would get a cracker and juice allowance.

The Senior Pastor would have to put up with YOUR kid.

Nursery duty would be mandatory for all choir members.

Ushers would pass out animal crackers.

Puppets would staff the church welcome center.

People being baptized would be allowed to splash.

Greeters would wear full body costumes and do balloon sculpting.

Every Sunday you could poke your head into the adult service and bark out, “Keep it quiet!” and they would obey.

Church staff meetings would be held at Chuck E. Cheese.

It would be considered harmless fun to wear cowboy gear and blast holes into the church grand piano while yelling “yee haw.”

Adults would raise their hands during the sermon and ask the Senior Pastor for permission to go to the bathroom.

Church boards could only say one phrase: “Go ahead, we don’t care how much it costs.”

The Senior Pastor would get permission from the Children’s Pastor before adding any new worship services or scheduling any special events.

Puppets would come up with their own skits.

The church tithes would go to the children’s department first. Any money left over would be dispensed in small increments to the general fund.

When people got saved in the adult service the Senior Pastor would fire off a confetti cannon.

The adult service would have to use the sound system with the high-pitched hum.

Children’s workers that didn’t show up would be fined. At the end of the year you could use the money to go to the Bahamas while they ran VBS for you.

God wants men to pee standing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxcyqeRc-4

WOW is all I can really say.

Blood on my Hands

I am so amazed all the time at how the lyrics of a song can burn so much in me here is one that I have listned to at least 100 times (well accroding to iTunes 46) but just heard the lyrics today for the first time. God is amazing. This is Blood on My Hands by Todd Agnew

Each crack of that whip was for my mistakes
Blood is on my hands
Each stumble up that hill was my step to take
Blood is on my hands
How do I say thanks for this
(Chorus:)
In the cross, In the cross, be my glory ever
Till my ransomed soul shall find rest beyond the river
Each tear that flowed was by my sorrow sown
Blood is on my hands
Each drop that was spilled, my debt fulfilled
Blood is on my hands
How can I say thanks for this
(Chorus)
Jesus keep me near the cross
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream flows
From Calvary's mountain

Christian Guy Totally Owns Mormons - Watch more free videos

human tetris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84_QL1kEmH4

Superchick - Stand In The RainFrom the album Beauty From Pain 1.1


She never slows down
She doesn’t know why
But she knows that when she’s all alone
It feels like it’s all coming down
She won’t turn around
The shadows are long
And she fears if she cries that first tear
The tears will not stop raining down

Chorus:

So stand in the rain
Stand your ground
Stand up when it’s all crashing down
You stand through the pain
You won’t drown
And one day what’s lost can be found
You stand in the rain


She won’t make a sound
Alone in this fight with herself
And the fear’s whispering
If she stands, she’ll fall down
She wants to be found
The only way out is through everything
She’s running from
Wants to give up and lie down


(2x’s)Chorus:

ok everyone, this is off the Passion Blog, and I just feel the need to share it. Take some time to read it. This is what Passion is all about. This is how amazing the God we serve really is.


http://268blog.blogspot.com/2007/05/ashleys-home.html

Science and God

So here recently I have been fascinated by the cross in science....see blog below for first reference. Thanks to Louie, (if you do not know who Louie is.....do I know you and why are you rading my blog) I am learning how much the cross appears all over creation. See the star below, and what the hubble found. Also there is basically a glue that holds our cells together this glue is called laminin.

--here is an official defination
Laminin, a major component of basement membranes, has numerous biological activities including promotion of cell adhesion, migration, growth, and differentiation, including neurite outgrowth. It can be used as a thin coating on tissue-culture surfaces or as a soluble additive to culture medium. Laminin has been shown in culture to stimulate neurite outgrowth, promote cell attachment, chemotaxis, and cell differentation.


now here is a picture of laminin




the big screen not the man next to it.....that is Louie ;)




It amazes me how these same people who discover all this STILL believe there is no GOD!!!

Picture from NASA

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with what may be their first direct view of an immense ring of dust which fuels a massive black hole at the heart of the spiral galaxy M51, located 20 million light-years away. Surprisingly, they found that the ring is standing almost perpendicular to the relatively flat spiral galaxy, like a top spinning on its side with respect to the floor. Even more surprising is the discovery of a secondary ring or dust lane which is contrary to all expectations.
These observations are being reported by Dr. Holland Ford (Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute), and his Faint Object Spectrograph Team co-investigators at the 180th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Columbus, Ohio.
"Pictures of M5l taken with the [Hubble] Planetary Camera show a striking, dark "X" silhouetted across the nucleus. The "X" is due to absorption by dust and marks the exact position of the nuclear black hole," says Ford. "If these ideas are correct, M51 provides the first direct view of a torus [ring] which both fuels a massive black hole and hides the hole from direct view from anyone outside the ionization cone [narrow cone of light emitted from the near-vicinity of the black hole]
Commonly called the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 is one of the nearest and brightest galaxies, having an angular diameter 1/3rd the width of the Full Moon. The galaxy is spectacular because it is tilted nearly face-on to Earth, allowing for an unobstructed view of its the bright core. M51 is especially noteworthy because its well-defined spiral arms are unusually bright, and the end of one of the spiral arms projects across a small, dusty and distorted satellite galaxy.
Previous observations made with both radio and optical telescopes have revealed energetic activity in the core of the galaxy. Hot ionized gas in the center of M51 is moving at speeds of up to two million miles per hour. Ground-based observations also show a pair of radio and corresponding optical "bubbles" which form a double-lobed structure across the nucleus.
The new HST images now offer the best glimpse yet of the near-vicinity of the "powerhouse" driving these fireworks. The pictures reveal an hour-glass structure formed by two bright beacons of light that are so energetic they cause interstellar gas caught in their beams to glow through ionization. This double cone "searchlight" is bisected by the widest bar of the dark "X". "This suggests that the dark band in the 'X', which is perpendicular to the ionization cone, may be a rotating torus of cold gas and dust seen edge-on," says Ford.
The second bar of the "X" is both interesting and puzzling. The dust in this linear feature could be a second disk seen edge on, or possibly rotating gas and dust in M5l interacting with the jets and ionization cones. “The safest interpretation is that the slash is a caution sign, showing that we do not yet fully understand what is happening in the center of M51," says Ford.
The edge-on torus, estimated to be 100 light-years across, hides the black hole and its disk of infalling hot gas. This accretion disk buried deep inside the torus is presumably the source of the ionizing radiation. The dusty ring confines the radiation from the accretion disk so that it can only escape through the "donut hole" of the torus as a pair of oppositely-directed cones of light.
The ring also determines the axis of a jet of material being accelerated away from the black hole. The dust ring is tilted so that it is perpendicular to the plane of M51. The high-speed jet thus lies in the galaxy's plane and plows into the gas and dust in M51 disk. The jet inflates a bubble of hot gas on either side of the black hole. This is analogous to a fire hose directed against a large pile of sand. The fire hose inflates a cavity of water and sand which expands and advances into the sandpile.
The resulting optical and radio emission from this "blowtorch" in M5l is several times brighter than the radio emission in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. This means that the M51 black hole is more energetic than the million-solar mass black hole suspected to lie at the center of our Galaxy.
The power produced by the M51 black hole is still a hundred times fainter than the nuclei of bright Seyfert galaxies (a class of active galaxy having a brilliant point-like nucleus) which are thought to harbor 100 million solar mass black holes. Ford suggests the M51 core may be classified as a "miniature Seyfert nucleus."
A black hole's level of activity is determined not only by its mass, but the rate at which surrounding material falls into it. The gravitational interaction between M51 and its companion is likely causing gas to fall into the nucleus.
Astronomers will attempt to confirm the existence of the dusty torus and the black hole by using spectroscopy to measure the rotation velocity of the ring. Just as the orbital speed of the planets in our solar system can be used to estimate the mass of our Sun, the black hole's mass can be estimated by the rotation velocity of the torus.



http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1992/17/text/

Passion_07_MainSession5_384K.wmv

Charlie Hall Band and Louie Giglio This was a wonderful night at Passion 07.....you all should watch it

How Great is Our God!!!

Ok so last night. Thurs march 15, 2007 was an amazing night of worship. It started with Chris Tomlin coming on stage and opening up. When was the last time you saw the main act open up a concert. You know why you never see that because this was not a concert. We had church last night. We had a night that was hands lifted and and voices raised to the Lord. And then I got to meet the man whose talks have helped me change the way I see Christ and the way I worship God. I got to meet Louie Giglio and I also got to meet Chris Tomlin. They were really nice and pretty cool to talk to. But I was so excited that I got to meet Louie last night. So that is me for now. I figured this was blog worthy. If you missed last night WOW you missed a night that was something I will never forget (even if you took meeting Louie out of the evening). I am very ready for Thirsty 07 now.

I knew God loved coffee :)

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together
to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the
professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an
assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking,
some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the
coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor
said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to
want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems
and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In
most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we
drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each
other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee. The jobs, money and
position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life,
and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life
we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the
coffee God has provided us."
God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee!
"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make
the best of everything."
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God.

Wow is all one can really say--Yes they are this dumb

On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.)

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever," --Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest.

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life," --Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign .

"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body," --Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward. "

Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country," --Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it," --A congressional candidate in Texas.

"Half this game is ninety percent mental." --Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." --Al Gore, Vice President

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." --Dan Quayle

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?" --Lee Iacocca "The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." --Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people." --Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor.

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas." --Keppel Enderbery

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances." --Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record." --Mark S Fowler, FCC Chairman

Ok so this is life for me....Right now

I am just warning all readers ahead of time that it is midnight as I type this and I am very tired. I also need to warn you that this is not my normal light hearted make people smile kinda blog. But I am being asked all the time when I will post again so here you go. This is random thoughts even for me. I typed as I thought


I am currently in a place in life where I have never been. I am asking myself do I love God. The answer to that question should be DUH of course you love God, you are a Sunday School teacher. You went to Bible college, you are Leona....You love God. So now you are profile wondering where this question came from. I am going to say Passion 07. I had the AMAZING privilege of attending a conference for college students. A conference where I got to worship God with over 20,000 other college students and I am still trying to figure out was it real, But is had to have been cause I got the t-shirt, in fact I got 3 of them. God showed me so much about who I am and even more importantly who HE is. On the first night of the conference, Charlie Hall was leading worship as he was singing Center of the Universe. I was signing as well and I had my hands lifted to the Lord and I can truly say I felt God grab my hands and as I was singing the words, "oh Christ be the center of my life, be the place I fix my eyes" God said ok Leona, I am willing to be the center of your life if you are willing to make me the center of your life. To feel God holding your hand is the most powerful experience I have ever felt up to that point in my life. I mean to quote Aaron Shust "to count it strange so once did I before I knew my savior". That song is talking about the amazing Love that God has for me. I mean seriously Christ was perfect and the Son of God and had never seen sin in his presence and yet he Loved me SO much that he came to the earth to take my sins, my lies, my bad thoughts, my actions, my anger, my everything and take them as His own. And now I have the courage to question if I love God. There is day 1. If I had left the Passion Conference after just one day it would have been worth every penny getting there. But Praise God there were 3 more days So let me continue. I also learned that God created me with one single purpose. He has one thing that he wants me to do. That one thing is...WORSHIP HIM. It is what he created us to do, and everything else falls into place. Amazing right, sounds easy right...WRONG it is not easy to truly and I mean truly worship God. The God that created the universe wants me to worship Him. Now why would God again the creator of everything, care if I worship Him. He cares because he loves me. So why is is really so hard to worship God. But there is so much other stuff I have to do, I have to work, and then there is church and then The Hill, and then.....ya the list keeps going and all that is important but not in the big scheme of things, not really. I have to remember that in order to really worship God I have to love Him, and we are back to the question of Do I love God? . You know what is crazy we always think that God needs us to do His work. But come on think about that for a second. WHY in the world would God NEED us, he does not need us. He could make a bush start talking....oh wait he already did that. But he could have a bird swoop down and tell people about Christ. He does not NEED to use us, but he wants to. Another confusing thought, Why would God want to use the only creature that he created that denies He is even there. Humans are the only creation that do not believe in Him and yet we are the ones he has chosen to use. If I were God I would have changed my mind on that one....good thing I am not God, huh. But he wants to use me as broken, torn, hurt, and little as I am b/c he loves me. You know what is crazy God does not see the same Leona I see. When I look at me I see a girl with a ton of scars, and pain. I see a girl that has messed up and keeps messing up. But God sees a girl that looks a whole lot like His son. God sees a girl who has a life that has been changed and yet I still wonder if I love Him. Ya pretty confusing stuff going on in my head. And to think you the reader only get this little bit of it. So as you can see, or at least I hope you can see I learned a lot about that Love that God has for me at Passion 07. But then I also learned that I can not Love God, by teaching SS, I can not love God by going to Bible College or any of the other things that I DO to show God I love Him. It is not a daily walk with God that shows HIM that I LOVE HIM, it is a second by second walk with Him. I am not saying that serving God in church or other places does not show God you love Him, but for me God asked me "Leona are you serving me b/c you want to or b/c I want you to." Now If I serve God b/c I want to then I am serving man and that is not cool at all. BUT if I am serving God because I want to show Him that I DO LOVE HIM. then that makes it cool. So to answer my own question Do I LOVE God? Yes, I do and I am grateful that he wants to allow me to Love Him, and he wants to use me broken and humble for Him. Life is nothing without the Love of God. My goal in life is to make my life God period. And to truly make HIM the Center of my Universe.

What would life be like if I could find joy in the desert of life?

ok guys so I am reading Praise Habit by David Crowder and if you have not read it you need to. But In it david asks this question What would life be like if I could find joy in the desert of life? And it made me think so here is my answer

I think that my life would be more complete. I mean if my realtionship with God were the same in the times that I need Him as it is in the times when i do not need Him, now wait not to say that I do not need Him all the time but you know what I mean. You know the good times, the times when all the bills are paid and there is money to go shopping on, and when we are coasting through all of our classes with an "A" and the times when the sun is shining and we do not know anyone with a sunburn. You know the good times, the times when we do not really rely on God for everything cause it is already there, or so it seems. But we feel like that God is our best friend and we have to be close to God b/c everything is right where it should be. But then out of nowhere BAM! we are in the desert and it is hot and we are sunburnt and we are thirsty and we are complaining to God not going to Him for rescue because suddenly we feel like God is punishing us for something. Well what if instead we of saying ok God lets go back to the beach where it is nice and cool there is some water in the cooler under the umbrella and we can put on some more sunblock. We said God do you have any aloe? I know we are here for a reason God and I want you to show it to me. And yes I said we cause the cool thing is when we are in that hot desert God is there with us and he does have aloe for the burn and he is with us in every single aspect of our lives, you know why cause God's love is always there for us no matter where we are and God is trying to teach us something in the desert so if we just look at it a little differently then maybe just maybe when we are in the desert we can see God's love more clearly. So again I repeart Crowder's question What would life be like if I could find joy in the desert of life? Earlier in my rambling I said I would be more complete but I am going to change my answer to a better and stronger person for Christ. Because once I have been able to find joy in the trials of life my relationship with God would be so much stronger and when I am sitting under the umbrella again I will be able to have God sit next to me and we can talk about the trials of the past and I can Praise HIM that HE alone was able to bring me back to my comfy beach chair, and HE alone was able to heal my burn.

dare i ask why

Why, Why, Why
1. Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

2. Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?

3. Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

4. Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

5. Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

6. Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? 7. Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

8. Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

9. Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?

10. If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

11. Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

12. Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

13. Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

14. Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

15. Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

16. How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

17. When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, "It's all right?" Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, "That hurt, you stupid idiot?"

18. Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

19. In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

20. How come you never hear father-in-law jokes? And my FAVORITE......

21. The statistics on Sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

I know it is no where near Christmas but I laughed and figured you would to

SANTA CLAUS: An Engineer's Perspective

I. There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per house hold, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

II. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second --- 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

III. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them--Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

IV. 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second crates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop 650 mps in .001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

V. Therefore, if Santa does exist, he's dead now

what a weekend

ok, my weekend really started on Thurs night with the Hawk Nelson, Trouble with Ferguson, and Run Kid Run show at the Hill. I get there and I had made cheesecake for the guys. Well I dropped it off in the cafe and later came back into the cafe, where I walk in the door and Christa yells there is the cheesecake lady and Hawk and Trouble give me a round of applause. I then did a wonderful bow for them. Later in the evening while working Trouble's table and hanging out with those radical and cool guys. Jordan was wearing his Copeland shirt and there were these annoying groupie type girls, who actually asked him if they could sign his shirt. Well after a while of this going on he finally let them sign the bottom of his shoe. It was so funny, but he was so very nice to them. I then had the guys from Hawk sign a picture for me, and they signed to to the maker of the finest cheesecake ever. Jason then in turn asked for more (sad there was not any but I promised to make extra next time they came). Lets move on to day 2 of of the weekend Youth Quake Live was so much fun. It was a great bonding time for Mel, Brandi, and myself. We really had a lot of fun. Including watching Nathan fly over an orange cone, it was SOO flipping funny. Day 3 (saturday night) was the BEST oh my word, we had a blast. First I got to go to a M&G with the bands before the show and by bands I mean Stellar Kart, Disciple, Falling Up. and the Kutless. It was great to hear their hearts and their love for the youth of our country. On the way to the show Mel and I stopped at Wal Mart and picked up some pellets for Kutless and their airguns. Jason ( the road manager for Kutless) was pretty excited to see Mel and I and even more excited to see the pellets. He then sent us on an errand to get rubber bands. He also put Mel on the guest list since the show sold out and she as not able to get a ticket. Jason is like the coolest RM ever. We then rocked out to the show. I have seen all these bands several times but tonight was by far the best ever. They all rocked out. so hard. I am in so much pain today. It was a blast. Oh ya and Ang rocked out at her first hardcore show and WOW did she have a blast. Well there are some pretty random thought not real funny, but maybe if you are lucky you wull get the jokes from me in person at a later date. so BUH BYE for now

for the fun of it

ok just for the fun of it I am gonna post here, I have had the most fun this weekend. On Friday night I got to meet Kevin Max former lead man of DC Talk, he was not feeling well but was SO nice and he put on a fun show. He did some DC Talk songs which was awesome. I was back in the back of Murray Hill at Kevin's merch table rocking out with Mel and Story Side B. Oh and then we get better Skillet on Saturday night those guys have been around for 10 years and are incrediable. I finally after 7 years got my first backstage pass signed by them. John Cooper laughed pretty hard when I told him that I worked their merch table in 1999 and was to scared to ask them to sign it back then. Also on Friday night I met a new band from Orlando called Rook and let me tell you this, those guys rock. They are one of the best bands I have seen around for a long time. And of course Story Side B was incrediable as always. So there you go my fun weekend and I am sure you are all suprised that my entire weekend was at concerts but it was so flipping awesome :)