10.30.2006

For your dining pleasure...

I saw this sign yesterday while driving to play football:
SEAFOOD
COMBO
(A picture of a shrimp would be inserted here)
CHINESE FOOD

Alternate readings for this sign could be:
THAT'S THE GROSSEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD
OR
MSG
AND
DISEASES OF THE SEA



10.25.2006

The Man from Jordan

I flew back to Ft. Worth on Monday morning. I got placed on this small little jet 3 seats wide. My seat mate was an elderly man from Jordan. He had lived most of his life in Texas, but had retained his thick Middle Eastern accent. This encounter was God ordained. We talked for 2 out of the 3 hours about Christianity. He is not a Christian, but wants to learn about it. Every possible topic that could have come up in an evangelistic conversation (which is what it was, it wasn’t an argument, just a conversation) did come up. This man is wise and yet open. He simply doesn’t see why it has to be Jesus. He is comfortable with the fact that he is a moral man and his faith rests in Civil law, the Constitution and government. He sees Christianity as a good thing, in that it established civility in people and though he believes Christ really lived, civil law was his only purpose, lowering him to prophetic or “good man” status.
This man shared all of what he thought with me, and I with him. I am not discouraged. It was a great conversation and I pray that this man would see from the life of a child that Christ is so much more.
I was reading in Romans 3 this morning and this is what God showed me:

We are justified through faith in the death of Christ Jesus. We uphold the law through faith in the life of Christ Jesus. This man on the plane asked me, “Why does it have to be Christ?” This is the answer. The answer is found not simply in the life of a good man (like the basis of most other religions) and its not found simply in the martyrdom of one man (if this was the case Jesus would have no need to live a full life on earth, he would have just come and died). It has to be Jesus. He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. The WAY he lived out his life, revealing to us the TRUTH about the way things are and granting us LIFE through his death

Home

My mom and beautiful sister
I have been in Texas for nearly 3 months and I went home for the first time this weekend. I spent Friday through Monday in Clemson. It is a true statement that home is where the heart is, not in a cheasy door hanger kind of way, but in a real and familiar sort of way. There is something about the familiar that breaths life into us and allows us the luxury of breathing out deeply.

I was reminded of so many things.

I spent time with or at least saw everyone I could have possibly wanted to see...
Sitting beside my Mom at the game...Much meaningful time with my beautiful sister and Trey...Icecream with my good friend Mark...Breakfast with Jenn...Quality time with Focker at non other than Mcdonalds...catching up with Justin Brock...random fun with Sherman...Pomping the float with people younger than me...tailgating with the Brothel girls in celebration of Carla's soon to be matrimony...tailgating with my girls Beth, Jenny and Focker and their families...hugging Katie Hogue...talking with Sarah, Sandy and Stephanie just like old times...standing with Jennifer now Foster wrapped around my neck and screaming in my ear...seeing one of my students from the summer....fellowshiping at my church DCF through worship and a friendly kickball match...you name it...I did it...and it surely blessed me.

I miss community, my community. It was a truly amazing weekend!

10.16.2006

Pictures from the weekend

I have some really great friends that I have made here. We went to the Texas A&M game this weekend and I thourougly enjoyed myself...it was a small precursor to what next weekend is going to be like when I make my way back to Clemson Homecoming. Woo Hoo
This is my roommate!!
Me and Willis
Willis, me, Melanie and Brady
Me and Brady the man!

10.13.2006

Things I have learned since coming to Ft. Worth...

1. The grass is greener on the other side.....total lie, its not green on any side.
2. Hispanics always have the right of way
3. Anything goes in a Tortilla
4. "G" is not just a letter of the alphabet. It is actually a state of being.
5. Beauty school haircuts are cheap...for a reason
6. Cowboy hats are not just "a trend"
7. Yard sales are a Hispanic profession
8. Fall is a mere figment of my imagination
9. The dinosaurs have ancestors...the Armadillo and the Hornytoad
10. The Alamo really was a big deal


And to think...I"ve only been here 2 months. Stay tuned for more!

10.10.2006

Too long

Hmm. Its been too long. It feels like years since I have written on here. It feels as if a years worth of events have unfolded in my world and the world around me in that time. The phrase that keeps ringing in my ear comes from a David Crowder song and I know I have posted on this before, but it says, "I feel the depth of our fall and the weight of it all." Man I love life, but life is heavy. LIfe is hard. Life is not what it was intended to be. That saddens my heart when I think about, that this wasn't supposed to be like this. We must pray for each other. We just can't make it on our own.

On a lighter note, chapel today was led by the Korean student fellowship and if you didn't know Southwestern is 40% yes, 40 % Korean. Its crazy. Well the Korean praise band led the music and all I could think about the whole time was the scene in the movie "A Christmas Story" in the Chinese restuarant and the guys are singing, "Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra." And the guy goes, "No, its la la la." It made me laugh. But jokes aside, they led the best music we have had in chapel all year. Chapel music is not a Southwesten high point for me. Bring it on Koreans. I'll worship with you anytime!

10.01.2006

Broken cisterns

Jeremiah was called out of the territory of Benjamin and given a message from the Lord to take to the people of Israel. In a nutshell God says to him, "I chose you! I set you apart! I appointed you!" Jeremiah protests on the grounds that he is not skilled enough and only a youth. But God says (again in a nutshell), "This is not about you and your skill. You will go where I SEND YOU and speak whatever I TELL YOU TO!" God says through Jeremiah, "My people have exchanged their Glory (My glory) for useless idols. Be horrified at this, heavens; be shocked and appalled. This is what the LORD says. For My people have commited a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water."
My heart breaks when I read this because I know I am exactly like the ones Jeremiah was speaking to. I am so full of holes. I am leaking out every good thing that is in me because I constantly dig for myself broken cisterns. I am never full. I am never satisfied because I know all too well the pattern of life the Israelites followed. Broken cisterns, brokeness. When will I ever get it? When will we ever get it?