The important stuff!!

The most important facts of what I believe about Jesus being the Christ are found in Matthew chapter 28. Everyone just needs to reread chapter 28 for themselves. It contains why Christ is different and it contains our commission from Him. Man I love that chapter. Jesus isn't dead that's what makes the Christ different. Thank you Lord Jesus for being completely different than anyone that has ever lived. So I am challenging myself to be different. Not to walk around in a suit so that people know that I'm a "christian" but to look at the world like Jesus would have and to try to be different. I don't want to go with the flow any longer. I want to be known as a person who saw things through the eyes of Christ.

I DON'T WANT TO WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE!!!

Back again after to long of a hiatus from blogging. I just can't seem to wait any longer before seeing my girl. Living in separate cities is hard. In fact harder than I ever thought it would be. Of course when I do get to see this lovely girl it is awesome! How does God bring two people together in such a perfect way. It is not hard for me to completely believe that I am in love and that I will spend the rest of my life with this wonderful girl. In fact (transition phrase) we have a website on that very subject.
I am so excited to see you Ashley!!

Turkey makes you sleepy but Ham doesn't!

Yes that's right folks ham does not make you sleepy. Well from my personal experience at least it doesn't. I spent a wonderful worthwhile trip up in Tuscaloosa Alabama for Thanksgiving. We however did not have Turkey this year. I am happy we didn't though. Yes that's right crucify me if you would like but we had ham. I like to bump my traditions every now and again and just go crazy. Maybe I'll skip Christmas this year. No just kidding that would be horrible because I am going to have the best Christmas I have ever had. How you ask? Well I have invited my girlfriend to go with me this year, she has said yes, her parents have agreed to part with her, and my family is very excited to have the opportunity to have her with us. Do you get it I ask you? My family likes her they really do I can't believe it they really like her. Now I know what you are thinking. Her family probably hates me for stealing their daughter from them for the first Christmas she has ever been away from them. But quite the opposite they have been ok with the idea. So therefore I am going to have the best Christmas ever!

On the topic of robbery....

One minute you're sleeping in your deepest sleep in at least a week, and the next your alarm clock is nudging you. Ok you're right it's more of a slap in the face. It's waking you up out of your slumber, your wonderful dreaming bliss. Oh and it doesn't matter if you have a loud clock, a radio set on some soft rock station, or some noise maker that you have set to make the sound of rain. No No it doesn't matter it's still the worst possible thing you could be hearing at that time of day. That sound is the evil reminder that it is time for you to get out of your bed and say hello to whatever is behind door #1. Maybe someone will be at the door waiting for you from the Publishers Clearing House to give you millions of dollars completely free, after taxes of course. How bout a pizza guy who couldn't find the house he was going to and it's his last day so he doesn't care about giving you a free pizza. Hey who knows maybe you could walk out of your bed room door and your T.V. could be gone.... Wait that really happened to me... Or maybe let's say, just for fun, the same guys take your 200 dollar drum and your friends 400 dollar drums and your other friends 200 dollar drum ..... Oh wait that all really happened too. Gosh what conclusion can I come to from all this?
Well this may be hard to believe but my stuff really did get stolen. What am I feeling right now? Umm well I'm frustrated but after thinking about it and really praying about it... It's just stuff. That's right I said it, I am calm and disappointed but I know that every single thing in this world will eventually fall apart or rot or I will die. So yes I'm pretty put out that some jerks stole some pretty expensive stuff from me, but I know that it's just stuff and I'm not here on earth to save up stuff I'm here to praise my lord and savior Jesus Christ and to make sure that as many people as possible also know what He means to my life and what He did for them.
So if you rely on your stuff guess what... It's going to pass and so are you. So the question you have to ask is... What is going to happen when your stuff can't save you and when your life is passing from your finger tips. It will be that moment in life when you can't control a thing. Wouldn't you like to know that you don't have to worry about what happens after you die when your stuff won't matter. I'm glad I know for sure. STUFF DOESN't MATTER!!!!!

Patience.... Now... RIGHT NOW!!

Wow! Why can't I have a weekend like last weekend every weekend? Wow I just used the word weekend three times in one sentence. Marriage, hhhummmm, I just can't explain how excited I am for my two friends that just got married. They are absolutly perfect for each other. Weddings always make me start to think about the future. As if I don't think about it enough! Then I start telling God, "ok I'm ready for you to show me some more of my journey." As if I know what's best for me and as if by being in a wedding I have some how been made ready for more responsibilty automaticly. I'm so foolish sometimes. But I guess that's ok cause I'm not God.

Why would I ever want anything to be routine?

I keep telling people lately, "things are really busy, it will be nice when my new position at work settles, BCM gets into the regular stuff, and I get all the little things I've been meaning to get done, done." WHAT!!!??? What have I been thinking? Why would I ever want things to "settle" into a "regular" routine? The routine of things is exactly what I get tired of in my life. I apologize if I have said any of these things to you. I realize that some people say that it is good to get into a routine of some kind. Sometimes with lets say a "quiet time" or reading your Bible, you know for consistency. But I say that nothing should ever ever be a routine, not even and especially reading your Bible or spending time with our Lord. Gosh I hope that everyone can see what I'm saying and know that I'm really just preaching to myself and thinking "Jon why have you thought that a routine would make you happy?" If things were to settle down at work then I would just get really bored. If things with BCM would get back into the "regular stuff" then we would be saying, "God we don't want you to do new and exciting things in our ministry we like the same regular stuff." And will I ever get every little thing done that I need to get done? NO. Because there is always more. I'm not being pessimistic just logical. There will always be more to do, always. And you know what? That is ok with me.
Thank you Lord that my life isn't boring and thank you that things are never the same day after day. Please never allow my time with You to become routine.

Jon

Clarinet at the BCM?????

Let it be known in all the land!!!! I am now posting once again. Clarinet? In my home? What? How could I have let this happen..... Well when you live in the Student Center anyone and everyone can come to your house and study or watch TV or..... Yes it is now true PLAY the clarinet! She is playing her clarinet right now. At least she will admit that she's just learning and that she's not that good. SQUEEKKKKKK ... There she goes again... Well I think shies getting better at least. Well I have a long shift at work today . Not that any shift at work for me is hard. I work at a book store. What could be easier. Well except being an ice cream taster. I bet that would be pretty fun. Unless I had to taste really strange flavors. I still have to say that about the best job out there would have to be...... hummmm.... yep it's official ... Ice cream tasting astronaut yes that is definatly the best job ever.. well it's time for work.... bye.
Jon

And then God created naps!

Man my weekend has been...Nonstop, well except for this 45 minute section on Friday when I got to pack to leave town. Get this I got to... Sit yes that's right you may not believe me but it is true... I sat down. Please don't tell anyone because this may wash out everything that everyone I know thinks about me.
Here's how the weekend went. Thursday I went to band practice and afterwards we installed a video projector in the ceiling. This was a very interesting project that involved putting a foot long hole in the ceiling. Not by accident either. Any way it took until 4:00am only to end in finding out that we were misinformed about how far away from the wall the projector should be. Never believe anyone when it involves putting a foot long hole in the ceiling, even if he has a fancy little device that calculates how far away it should be from the screen!

Thursday: in bed 4:00am
Friday : breakfast w/Mike 6:30am
work 8:00am-3:00pm
sat down 10 minutes
left for Alabama 5:00pm
did concert 10:00pm
bed time 2:30am
Saturday :left for Foley 8:30am
Ashley's B-day 10:30ish
Times ashley's
mom hinted
towards hooking
up with Ashley : (Not able to calculate) LoL sorry I had to!
Left Foley 3:30pm
Work 4:30pm-9:30
cleaned up BCM 10:00-2:00ish
Sunday worship service 11:00am

And that my friends is why God created the NAP!!!

Suffering for the Lord?

I was recently given the opportunity to join a group of international students from the University of West Florida on a trip to Disney World in Orlando. I was completely open to going to Disney World all expenses paid for the weekend (suffering for the Lord) but I was a bit uncomfortable with the fact that they couldn’t speak my language very well and I didn’t speak their language at all. I gave in, and looked past my fears and American laziness to discover that God didn’t care who I was but about whom he was and what He can be if I make my selfish self available. I found out that I went on this trip to learn some new things that God wanted to show me about my walk with Him. God arranged an appointment for me to share my faith with one of my roommates, Pippen. I didn’t even have to try to start the conversation. The young guy, from Taiwan, picked up the Gideon Bible from the nightstand and asked me if I read the Bible. Completely surprised, I pulled out my Bible from my bag and thought; I can’t believe I almost forgot my Bible the night before. Since every Gideon Bible has John 3:16 near the contents section in many languages, I had him read the verse in Chinese and then I broke it down for him in English. He was very interested and asked many questions, but wasn’t to the point that he saw the big picture enough to want to accept Christ. One of the things he was interested in that evening was prayer and I did my best to explain to him what prayer was to me. The next day God decided to do something I didn’t expect. I call it a spiritual punch in the face, or a wake up call. Pippen asked me if I had prayed that morning yet. I thought, Prayed! What! It was 6:30 in the morning! I’m a college student and I never get up that early so why would I have prayed already! I heard the old Batman and Robin sound effects going off in my head. BAMM!! POWW!! My brain wasn’t even working yet, but I mustered up all the Christianized lines I could think of. I came out with, no I haven’t, but I will be throughout the day. Wow! Good save, I thought. But what did I accomplish by getting myself out of just saying, “No I forgot”. God was saying to me, Jon where were you this morning? Punch! Jab! Ouch God, that hurt! But that’s one of the reasons I went on this trip. I was allowed to go on a fun filled trip to Disney World, so that God could speak to me through a person that doesn’t know Him, and hardly speaks my language. I thank the Lord today for a spiritual punch in the face, and I hope there are many more to come.

OOL See there's no P in our POOL

And let's keep it that way too. I am going back to work at the pool. Wow I can't believe I'm saying this. You might be saying.... Hey what's the deal so you work at an indoor swimming pool as a lifeguard and you look at girls in swim suits. What could be hard about that ? And the answer is nothing, absolutely nothing. Except..... Old ladies in swim suits.... That's right wrinkles and all. I hope you all get a visual picture right now so that I don't have to suffer alone. Why do I work at a place like this you may be asking yourself. It's the money! They pay really well. So I find that I would rather suffer at the pool than flip burgers or wait tables. That is my rant story of the hour so just soak it in.

An Amazing Weekend!

Wow! I never thought I would ever be riding in a bus for ten hours straight with 33 other people, of whom two actually spoke understandable English. This was an experience. I volunteered to go to Orlando, all expenses paid, with a group of international students here in the USA to learn English. I was so nervous. Yeah I wanted to tell them about Jesus but I was so nervous. I mean they would probably talk about me in their language the entire time and I would just have to smile, laugh, and grin like the village idiot that I sometimes can be. Well It ended up being a great experience. They were so easy to get along with, and they always have questions about some of the most simple things in life. Of course I did not regret this trip at all. This trip got me out of a lot of comfort zones that I never really new I had. I do have to ask my self would I have been willing to go if I had to make more of a sacrifice? I mean come on free trip to Disney..... I'm not exactly suffering here. And I was only missing one day at work so no loss there. So to make a long blog slightly longer but conclusive. Wow thank Lord For opening doors to experiences that I never knew were out there.