food for thought

Romans 8: 15-16

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out "Abba, Father."
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

We are not slaves of God and He does not treat us as slaves under a tight whip. He has granted us free will to do as we like. We are adopted by God. He has taken us under his wing as His children to show us the love He has for us, and the love we are to show to others. We were not brought under his wing for us to fear him, but to love him and be loved bu Him as his children. :-)

bible study is great, I tell ya what.

HEY

Hey people, post something. I haven't heard from some of you in a while.

Love you all,
Jordan M

being called to ministry

So - ive decided that i might become a pastor. Ive been getting this insane call to ministry. There are tons of circumstances in my life that just are coming together too perfectly. If you had told me i would be considering a religion major last year i would have called you crazy. At this youth conference i went to there were people there to talk to you about the path to becoming a pastor. Then at WPF, my fellowship group they talked about ministry and where you are being called to. Then my mysticism class fits perfectly and is so much fun. Then today I was told that I was being the top person considered for a ministry deciphering group - and i didnt even sign up for it. So cool...im amazed.
Petra

In Response

This morning as I was checking away messages, I came across one from a former Rockfish staff member that really disturbed me. It was about how he couldn't stand "Southern Baptist, fundamentalists" and so on, who have a problem with homosexuality, among other things. I did not have a chance to respond to him (he signed off), but this is what I wanted to say:



In defense of the scripture, homosexuality IS a sin; our world has distorted the Biblical definition of manhood and womanhood to the point that it perceives same-sex relations as perfectly alright. There is a great deal of scripture to back this up, Old Testament and New Testament. True faith in God comes in trusting in the inerrancy of the Bible - that is, God means what He says. We can't try to twist the scripture, we can't take it out of context just to justify something that the world tells us. Giving into full faith in God and His word requires a leap of faith, as well as sacrifice; but it is that sacrifice of what the world wants you to believe that brings you closer to God. There is no 'reading between the lines' with God - no guessing at what He means, no "well, I think..."s. It's His way, or the highway.



JMM

Boys who know the "Mixed Company" Rule

I was out at dinner last night for our last New Leaders' Meeting for Crusade, and I ended up at a table with two (who are married) of our West Campus staff members and some fellas that are in Rich's (the husband) Bible study or discipleship or something. Anyways, as they are sitting down, one of them says "Oh, Rich, I have a story to tell you" and the other guy laughs a little and then they said "well, it will wait...mixed company." And they didn't make a big scene out of it; in fact they said the entire conversation in a quiet enough manner that it was possible that I don't think my co-leader heard anything of it.

But, I was so glad to hear that - that there are boys out there that are very aware of who is around them, what is appropriate to say and when they can say it. And I'm sure that the story they had to tell was not some terrible, perverse event, but it was just something that was better left in the company of men.

It was such a relief especially since I often feel as if the guys on my staff have not seen the importance in this rule. My co-RA is the worst - he has no concept of respect for women, and breaking the mixed company rule is almost the least of his problems.

And, it made me glad that someone else says "mixed company."

love
jmmmmm

no class, and thoughts on Katrina

Heck yea buddy... No class tomorrow, wednesday the 14th of Septemeber. Ophelia may be weak, but Katrina has scared some people.
And you know what, I do feel bad for all the people down there and the city, and am praying for every1, but I don't think this hurricane "just happened", I think it may have happened for a reason. I mean look at the two main cities, Biloxi and New Orleans. In Biloxi ALL the casinos have been thouroghly destroyed. New Orleans also lost ALL the casinos and Bourbo street is destroyed. In the pictures I have sen one of the few things left standing.... were the churches whihc now tower over the other biuldings. In Biloxi I saw a picture with everything destroyed except for a small little wooden church biulding whihc somehow managed to survive Katrina.
Just something to ponder on. I do have family in Biloxi and I just want every1 to be praying for every1 there, and that everything will be ok.

stephen

The Ads are getting annoying

I would like to say that the comment ads are getting to be obnoxious. So with everyones permission i'd like to turn on word verification.
jordan c

An amazing weekend

So I just got back from a retreat with west minister presbyterian fellowship. I had a ton of fun - and I've found people who I can hug! I love getting hugs - i find it necessary. I think I was on hug withdrawl. I think i have found a group that is going to challenge me in my faith but accept me for my short comings as well. I am still going to try out crusades, and probably stay involved in both - but man what a great weekend. I climbed to the top of a mountain and it was gorgeous - all i have to say is praise God. It was sort of weird because lately I've felt the call to maybe becoming a minister (which i dont feel the least bit capable of right now)..but i guess we will see. Weird circumstances just keep coming up involving that. However, I have to make sure Im not just listening to myself - I have a while to decide though - its no big deal. Just want you all to know that it is getting better here. While i dont have a massive group of close friends - I'm finding a close group of a couple friends sufficient. Are any of you doing dads lads and gals?
Love and miss you oh so much!
Petra

Looking back in my journal...

So, this evening, as I was beginning my devotion time, I decided to flip back in my journal (this particular one goes from the end of April until the present). An entry not of my normal format caught my eye. It read:

Friday, May 27th, 2005
Staff training draws to a close.

Summer begins.

I am going to run a race; I can already feel my heart beating hard and my breath gasping in and out of my lungs.

Summer begins. Praise God.

Now, after having a giggle at my attempt at being somewhat poetic, I realized that I had made a good point about the summer. It wasn't going to be a long trek like past summers had seemed - it was going to be a race. Like that 20K I ran. Even when I got tired at mile 11 (well I was tired well before then) and I thought it would be nice to walk for a short distance, my muscles kept twitching and jumping and I was forced to keep moving. Like this summer, we were tired since staff training, but even towards the end, if we had tried to slow down, we couldn't. God kept us twitching and jumping even though we thought that our bodies should be ready to give out. God sustained us. There is no doubt about that.

In any case, I just wanted to share that, and I would share other things I found in my journal that are really quite funny, but this is turning into a much longer post that I intended. And it's late. So, goodnight all.

Jordan M

So...

So i dont know how well i'll really hold to this....but i really think i should give up internet use beyond email and homework. I've been pretty messed up with God lately (and by that i mean extremely messed up), and too much internet use certainly doesnt help that. Like while aim has its good sides in keeping me in touch with folks i dont get to talk to too much...I think one thing i've realized lately is that sometimes i put too much hope in relationships and friendships....only to be disappointed each time and feel like people dont care as much as i was lead to believe (which is childish and often untrue, but it still gets me down nonetheless). I also just waste a lot of time on the internet looking at dumb things. Plus, i think that spending more time than necessary on the internet, even if you're not getting into negative things, is just bad for us.
Anyways, decreasing internet time has been something i've thought about for a while and gave half-efforts to improve upon, but hopefully this will really happen this time.
If you have the desire or need to get up with me, go for the email or telephone for a while....and keep me accountable if you see me online or posting or something.

Luke

Where'd All the Good people Go?

Well...I'm pretty much obsessed with Jack Johnson now - i feel like such a mini jordan cauley! Other than that, I'm being successful at meeting some more people - and have decided on joining campus crusade and west minister presbyterian fellowship. I think I have met what is going to be my best friend at school - she is like 3 doors down and her name is allison - she goes to the ministries with me, and we go uber crazy together doing random stuff (she is just what a petra needs). However, despite my small group of friends - while people here are nice it still shocks me how much corruption there is in college. People are getting drunk all the time - and almost everybody on the hall is in the process or has hooked up with people. Im flabergasted (spell check on that one) at it a lot of times. I still am really enjoying myself though - its just hard to live a different life then them when it is expected that you follow "the code." Thank goodness I'm finding strength in Christ. "Where'd all the Good people go?"
Petra

Woohoo

So tonight I was topping off a nice evening with some random shooting of the Bball with Ivandario on the outdoor courts next to the gym. Firsrt of all it was nice because shooting hoops is just an excellent time to shoot the breeze. We had an excellent conversation about God that was very encouraging. I'm always glad to be able to talk to Ivan about Jesus.
Also, when we were shooting, which was between like 12:40 and 1:40, a random trio of girls was walking by along the sidewalk. At first we didn't even really notice they were there, but then I heard one of them shout "Lets go play basketball!" So I dont know what gave them the idea that should throw basketball in mini-skirts into the middle of their partying. I also did not feel that they were very welcome at first, because the were obviously not the types of ladies i typically hang around....but i remembered the scriptures and chose to be as kind as i could. Anyways, they were just kinda crazy girls and talked a lot about crazy stuff. Then after their one minute stop in which we barely got past names and where they went to school and lived, they took their leave, telling us to come party with them sometime, and chose to give us hugs before the departure. This I just dont understand....we should all be loving and kind, but I at least am not the type to go around giving people hugs all the time, especially people that i just met. Although, i did realize that a lot of guys really would try and come find them to party and try to hook with them...which is sad.
But anyways, as i wrote this i realized that nobody probably cares about that story because its pretty pointless...but it added a little spice to the night i suppose. Anywho, i'm off to do stuff and sleep...then looking forward to a great day of duty tomorrow, involving being stuck in the room all day (sarcasm). Catch ya'll later and everyone let me know how you're doin!

Luke

When You Believe

that God will do BIG things, God will do BIG things....Just like we trusted, we knew God was going to explode at camp this summer, we knew it about Crusade...I just want to report, we had 60 pushing 70 people at Crusade tonight. Guys, for Winthrop thats HUGE!!! AND the guys small group had like 22 males presents...that kind of proportion doesn't occur here much. It's so exciting.

God delivers.

brooke