time to update

Things have slowed down a bit. Not that it changes the amount of time I spend in the office, but I do feel like I can catch my breath now. I spoke with my friend Hassie last night for about an hour, the only catch was it was between 2 and 3 in the am. Why did I stay up so late? Today was a great day. I went to the beach and played in the ocean, planned discipleship, met with two of my girls, went on the beach to share our faith, came back in, took a shower, took the project picture, had a ministry team meeting, had dinner at subway, came back to the office to work - and here I am currently, waiting on some memos to be printed.

My relationship with the Lord continues to grow and change, and I feel as if I have made significant progress in understanding the Spirit filled life. It's a tough concept, but really easy at the same time. The great paradox of the Christian life, I guess, is that it's so simple, yet so difficult. All we have to do is accept what Jesus did on the cross for our sins and be grateful and agree with Him that we need Him in our lives, and let Him know - (by faith you have been saved -eph 2:8-9) Yet, it's also really difficult to grasp the fact, that daily we need to submit ourselves to the cross of Christ or else we will live in defeat. That's why there is so much talk about hypocrisy in Christianity. It's not that we're hypocrits, it's that we're open failures, and we're open failures in the world because we are recipients of grace. Therefore, we know that grace abounds when we are forgiven, but we also know that to put it in perspective we are to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do (eph 2:10) not that it sanctifies, but rather it's the definition of Christianity (followers of Christ) and what did Christ do? He loved on the poor and needy, he went where no one else wanted to go, he didn't just preach conversion. I think this realization has been a long time coming as a biproduct of the Methodist church. I needed to realize that social gospel IS necessary because it's the way Jesus lived.

I guess these are all things that are points to ponder and we are all in process and have not arrived. I will probably have these realizations for the rest of my life as I seek to learn more about who God is and what it's like to be sanctified in truth.

Speaking of which, currently I am reading Psalm 119, cause I am determined to make it through. Next, I think I'll start studying the Old Testament, I have only just begun to realize my ignorance in those books.

One other thing I just learned, is the original sin in the Garden was not wanting to be like God, but rather the lie of you will be like God in knowing good from evil, when really man already had free will to choose. At that point, man did not know there was an alternative. Anyway, more on that later and why I believed something else.

So come back for more soon. More theology talk later.