I had a very busy past weekend, we went up north to see my sister in law graduate. Two funny things happened on the way home…

Funny part #1: We had pulled off just outside of Madison to a gas station to fill up my car and on the opposite side of the fueling station was this old lady who was struggling to figure out how to pop her gas tank cover. I showed her where it was and as we were pumping gas into each of our respective cars, she starts to strike up a conversation about how much gas was cheaper in Wisconsin than in Illinois, her driving up to a farm, etc. I finished before she did and ran inside to pay for the gas as I was picking up some coffee for the last leg of the trip home. Meanwhile, she paid at the pump, and told Haley who was waiting in the car, something to the effect of, “Your SON was such a nice young man…” (Now for those of you who don’t know, my wife Haley is almost 10 yrs younger than I am.) Hilarious! So I came back and the lady was driving off – she waved and I saw that she hadn’t put her gas cap back on and shut the gas cap door…I ran after her and even managed to tap her car a bit in an effort to get her attention but she kept on driving.

Funny part #2: Second funny thing that happened on the way home is what Haley said…. there was a group of motorcyclists driving past us… and a good portion of them were female… and Haley commented… “There’s CHICKS EVERYWHERE!”… I turned to look at her quizzically and we just burst out laughing…

Good times…

There have been many challenging thoughts in my mind lately. More self-evaluation of where I’ve been and where I’m going to.

One of the thoughts I’ve been challenged on is my future education. What are my motivations for attending Moody. Sure, I’m learning about God and I enjoy taking the classes, but ultimately where am I going with it? Will I be called into ministry? Am I ignoring something else that God has made me for? Ironically, it was during one of the classes that I was taking five weeks ago, Biblical Spirituality, that really challenged me on this thought. To use a phrase used recently, “Am I acting like a cup, when I should really be acting like a plate?”

Another challenge in my life is that my wife will be gone for about six weeks. This is the longest that we’ve been apart since being married. I’m going to really miss her. Not because she does the laundry, cleans the house, or makes the meals. I’m going to miss having her near me. I am going to miss spending time together with her and just hanging out with her. To borrow a phrase from a popular Chicago song… “Wanna have you near me, I wanna have you hear me sayin’, No one needs you more than I need you”…

One more challenge (last one for this post), that I’ve been thinking about is how God is. He is the great “I AM”. Our youth pastor recently did a message on God and how He is beyond time. I was talking to my dad about this on the way up to Appleton for my niece’s birthday party and he shared the following illustration from Norman Geisler that may help others in the youth group to wrap their head around last Thursday’s message. It’s like a football game being video taped. The tape has all the information on how everything is played out. God has the video tape. However we, the football players, don’t know how everything is going to turn out, so we need to do everything that God has called us to do in the game. God is outside of time as He has the video tape, however we are currently constrained by time within the game. So because God is able to be outside of time, this is how the sacrifice of His Son is sufficient for the sins that we have committed and will commit in the future. Does this mean however, we should freely sin? Romans 6:1-4 reminds us…”What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

If you’re feeling discouraged and you know you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior, yet you find yourself struggling with sin or the things of the world – take some quiet time with God and read this verse…. and talk to Him about it.

-brian

Why would an advertisement say…”Wanna see man boobs? | Best discipline technique ever” on a web site for baby care?

Titus 1:1-4 …and at his appointed season he brought his word to light…

God choses the time to illuminate His Word at the proper time through Jesus Christ – Paul is talking about the historical appearance (ministry, death and resurrection) of Christ. This is the basis of the Christian believer in which he can find hope within their eternal life.

Titus 1:5-9 …He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught…

Paul is asking that Titus takes his time in picking the leaders of the church. Paul wants Titus to ensure that the leaders chosen are committed to the doctrine of the church, which was the teaching of the apostles. In other words, leaders must affirm the Christian doctrine. Elders must not be chosen from among those who have been toying with new doctrines.

Titus 1:10-14 …teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain…

The false teachers were deceivers, disrupting families, and had their hearts set on money.

Titus 1:15-16 …They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him…

The spiritual condition of the false teachers were a bit of a paradox. They claimed to know God, but their outward behavior contradicted the words they were saying.

Titus 2:1-5 …You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine…so that no one will malign the word of God…

No wonder why Christianity gets a bad rap. We at times do not practice what we preach. When we fail to practice what we preach, then we become hypocrites and we smear God’s Word.

Titus 2:6-10 …Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything…so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

If we serve our earthly masters (boss at work, government) according to Christ’s will, He himself is being served. Never using for personal use what was provided to you by your workplace for work use. Never wasting what goods we were entrusted with. Showing all efforts to make better what a master has. If we can’t be faithful with our earthly master’s goods, how can God give you what is your own?