What I can't get out of my head this week...

Share In The Blame - Caedmon's Call

Don’t blame the bullet for the wars you have sown
Don’t blame the winter when you’ve forgotten your coat
When you make the same deals for a hundred years
and you wanna make a change
You gotta hold up the mirror and share in the blame

Don’t blame your brother for the color of his skin
don’t blame your neighbor for the house he lives in
from the same cloth, we are made of, we are just the same
you gotta hold up the mirror and share in the blame

(chorus)
like a coming of age, I am learning how to say
all the failures I’m dragging behind
Finding freedom to speak, freedom to release
Oh tonight I wanna make peace with you

Don’t blame the writer for the doubts in your head
Don’t blame the preacher for the lovers in your bed
When you find out that the world is round, everything is rearranged
You gotta hold up the mirror, and share in the blame

(chorus)

Don’t blame the president, don’t blame the king
Don’t blame your history for what might have been
we will be free where the grass is green and the lion is tame
if we just hold up the mirror now and share in the blame

This song is off their new CD Overdressed. The whole CD is wonderful, if you are looking for some new tunes I would recommend it.

Whew...

Where has February gone? In the midst of all the craziness I haven't (well we haven't, it is still weird for me to talk in we sense) been able to keep up with our new blog. Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks:

21 Day Challenge Highlights
- Jesus burned with passion for the church (John 2:17)
- Jesus is bold...
- Jesus didn't try to hide who he was, He is the Good Shepherd (John 10)
- Reading all the fulfilled prophecies blew my mind
- John 15: 9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.
- Jesus cooked the disciples breakfast (John 21)

These are just a few of the many thing I pulled from the Gospel of John.

Friends:
I had a few friends from high school come up a couple of weekends ago. It was such a blessing to see them all. We have got to see each other more in the last six months ,because of all this wedding nonsense, than in the last 3 years. We want to keep it that way. Nothing is better than a good chick flick, pizza machine and chocolate fondue, yum!

Finished:
Last night, Jenny, Hannah, Erin and I finished our first bible study book (I say first because I hope there are many more to come). God so is good and wise. I started my internship praying to be challenged, praying I would still have community even though most of my time would be spent without my normal crowd, praying for a small group that I wasn't going to teach. He provided three of my best friends to spend one night a week with while looking into our purposes. We are all in different places right now and he used our different experiences to challenge us and create great conversations. It only took us 5 months to meet 8 times but we made it!

Started:
Small groups at UIS started a couple weeks ago. I am teaching a relationship study with my friend, Amelia and David. We have some great resources: Louie Giglio's audio series Boy Meets Girl and Craig Groeschel's book Going All The Way. They are funny, truthful, and challenging. More on that later...

Finally, Retreat!

This weekend is the Illinois Campus Ministry Retreat at Lake Springfield complete with Don Chafer of Waterdeep. David and I are both excited to hear some great music but more than that we are excited to retreat. My prayers this week have been, please let us feel the retreat. I am doing the registration for all the campus ministries for this retreat. I was worried at first that this was my time to shine and if I mess up they will think I am weird and my dreams of campus ministry will be washed away in a single weekend...yes I know it is silly. However, I decided this week that I have a choice going into this weekend. I can go in on edge or I can enjoy doing this organizational work (which I love) and then leave it at the door as I walk into the retreat. I pray this will be a great time to connect with my students and that I will be refreshed with them.

Ok this is really long...I only have one more thing. My amazing, husband bought me tickets to go see Derek Webb and Caedmon's Call on Saturday, April 19 in Chicago. I was so excited and he had all the CD's in my car so I could start jammin' out now...alas two days later all my dreams of musical wonders were crushed. I can't go that day. If anyone is interested in the tix let us know.

el desafío

or, "the challenge" according to an online translator. The 21 day challenge is still underway so I thought I'd post some thoughts from the latest reading.

As I've been reading John, I'm continually being struck by how Jesus was so much about God. I know this sounds pretty simple, but when I think about it in my life, I have this view of Jesus in mind a lot of the time as a rule-keeping, rule-teaching guy who is pretty lame and doesn't do much except frown and say "follow God" and "for God so loved the world..." The more I read John, the more God continues to show that Jesus was simply and wholly about God. God Himself. The real, living and active God. The One He continues to say is who we should love, and honestly, might just find we want and need to love Him anyway. Not some set of rules or certain actions.

So I was reading John 10 with that in mind. Jesus is talking about sheep and the master. A couple things that hit me

The sheep know their master's voice.

Just like Jesus has been saying that the ones who will choose to follow Him are those who are really desiring to know, love and experience the presence of the living God. He keeps telling the Pharisees that the reason they don't recognize Jesus as being from God is because they don't really have any idea what God is like. They haven't really desired to experience and love God as much as earn some sort of recognition for good works that God claims to despise.

The shephard lays down his life for the sheep.

I'm not sure I have(I don't know if I ever will) ever understood Jesus' sacrafice. I can't put a theological statement around it and I can't seem to fit words together that describe what it means. Every time I return back to His willingness to die for His sheep, I find something else to consider. Is this what people mean when they say the "depth of His love"?

This time I thought about His death. I thought about it in the context of the recent loss of my sister and last week of my grandma. It's not a secret to anyone ever that it hurts really bad when people die. It makes me wonder as I'm typing this just how much pain God felt about His Son dying.

The sheep flee from other voices

Jesus describes His sheep as being those who recognize their master's voice. They are able to distinguish between the real master and the other voices.

Do I know my Master's voice? Do I really recognize God when He speaks or moves or acts? What does He sound like? How do I hear it? Am I listening? After writing these questions that came from my journal, I thought of another question--How can I listen better?

I think my prayer right now is that God would just help me in the midst of all my doubts, questions and challenges to hear His voice and know Him above everything and everyone else.

have an awesome night!!!
-dave

I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Ok not really....but I did want to play in the snow!