Sin, it's ugly

This post is in regards to the recent events that have occurred concerning my church back home.

They start out small, yes those big green lizards we call alligators. In fact they start out small and cute. They are small enough and cute enough that some people, believe it or not, will try to keep them for pets. What harm will that do right? As it turns out, this cute little guy with the help of time and food can grow into a full size alligator. This is bad for two reasons. One, a full size alligator is much much harder to control than a baby alligator. Two, a full size alligator is much harder to hide from the people from whom you must hide it from.

This presents a problem.

But, not to worry, there are a couple of solutions. The first is very simple, but maybe not obvious, that is to not get a baby alligator in the first place. As cute and small as that little guy is you are better off leaving him be. But, if you already have a pet alligator the next best thing to do would be to starve it(metaphorically speaking only, I love animals and I would never actually starve an animal to death) . As hard as it is to watch this thing die, it is something that needs to be done. No food means no growing and eventually death to it. If you don't have it in you to starve it, the next best thing to do would be to tell someone about it. They would be able to help you take care of the situation.

Sin, no matter how pleasurable or inviting it is cannot be allowed to grow. It is like an inviting poison. It tastes good, but as you are drinking it, it numbs you. This numbness is to cover the pain it is causing. This freedom to choose to drink the poison will soon turn into chains. Maybe even physical chains. Most sin is not likely to lead to that point, but it takes away your freedom. When God saves us, we are free to do the only thing we really desire to do, and that is to be with Him. But, when we turn to sin we will be enslaved. God will discipline us if necessary, but most of the time that discipline works out in the consequences.

My prayer is that chains will be broken, blindness will be healed, and that the lame will learn to walk, even run.

John 5:1-15 ya read it

When Jesus asks the lame man if he wants to walk, the man begins go into excuses that are from his perspective. Please don't be like this man. Jesus is asking us if we want to walk. We should have faith that he can do that and say "Yes, Lord, I want to walk more than anything."

I hope that made sense and I hope all of that comes across like I wanted to.



With Love

Road Trip

Hello family and friends,
I know it has been a long time since I last posted a blog. I have been so busy lately, it's crazy.
I want to share with you a link to my friends blog who wrote about our road trip back to school.

http://gmarthe3rd.blogspot.com
or you can click on the "Beef Supreme" link on the left

He does a good job at describing our trip back, so I figure I could just link to his site.

I am doing well, but I am really busy. My classes are a little bit harder this semester. I am really having to study to understand the homework and not just do the homework. I like it though. I like being challenged. I just got over a three week cold last week. I think it lasted so long because of the lack of sleep. But, God has been good to me, and has been giving me restful sleep lately. I am hoping to go back home soon to visit. I wanted to come back before school but, as you will read, my trip back home took a little detour.

Thank you for your support
In Christ's love

"From the Inside Out"

"From the Inside Out"
by Hillsong United

A thousand times I've failed,
Still Your mercy remains.
And should I stumble again,
I'm caught in Your grace.

Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise

Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out

!!Everlasting!!
!!Your light will shine when all else fades!!
!!Never ending!!
!!Your glory goes beyond all fame!!
!!And the cry of my heart!!
!!Is to bring You praise!!
!!From the inside out!!
!!Lord my soul cries out !!

Dear Family and Friends,

Yes, I am still alive. I have been pretty busy lately with working at McDonalds. But I really needed to give y'all an update, so I took the time to sit down and write this. My job at McDonalds is going well. I like the people I work with a lot.

If any of you haven't seen the movie The Kite Runner, you should. It is the greatest picture of servanthood I have ever seen. While it's based in an Islamic conitation it definately has a certain similarity of Christ's sevanthood. Watch it.

Dear Family and Friends (and maybe people I don't know),
Yes, it is true. I am a McEmployee. Working at McDonald's is not so bad. I thought it would be a good experience. I am a person that has to be completely sure of how to do something before I will do it. I guess I scared of failure. I think God is using this job to push me out of my comfort zone. The first day was a bit different. The person I was assigned to learn from didn't really teach me that much. So it was mostly me guessing and then someone telling me I was wrong. This is not really how I am used to learning. I usually learn by reading about something and then doing it. I'm not really a trial and error type of person, but I guess sometimes you have to learn to adapt.
Also I think God is trying to humble me. Everybody I work with has more knowledge about the workings of a McDonald's than I do. I doesn't matter much how clever you are, if you don't know it, then you don't know it. So, I am learning that I need to be humble. Just because I have taken Calculus 3 and can do 3D Calculus and parametric equations, it doesn't mean I know something as simple as how to fry up some more frech fries. It is dumb for me to think that I am "smarter" than anybody. It's almost ridiculous to think I had that thought.

I just want to throw some prayer requests out there.

The ministry here-
There have been some really cool opportunities to talk with people lately
Direction in my life-
I'm still not sure what direction I am heading career wise and life wise
The church here-
The Manti Pageant time drains the Ex-Mormons in the church.

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I said I would try to update this thing more often, and I have failed. I was informed that people back home really do read this, so now I have motivation to keep updating. It's such a blessing to know that people care enough about me and about what God is doing to read my updates (I'm smiling as I type this).

Things have died down a bit since the Pageant. It was such an intense two weeks of training, studying, praying, and talking to people that everybody who is a part of the ministry here had to take a rest last week. Things are back to the norm now. During that week I recognized one of the Devil's traps. It seems that after an intense time of spiritual warefare many of us don't know how to rest in the Lord. Actually, I think the problem is that we think we need to take a rest from the Lord. This is one of the Devil's lies. It's so easy to say "Well I studied so much last week, or I prayed this many hours yesterday, I should be good for a while." This is far from the truth. God sees our hearts' and knows our motives. God is the one who renews our strength. We should be resting in him and not from him. We can trust that we will strengthen and renew our motivation and our drive.

Manti Pageant

Dear Family and Friends,

Honestly I am somewhat embarrased that I haven't posted about the Manti Pageant yet. It is one of the biggest wittnessing opportunities off the summer, and it is going on right now.
The Manti Pageant is a play put on by the LDS church depicting the history of the church, as well as exerpts from The Book of Mormon. The Pageant is held on the side of a large hill with outside seating, and the Manti Temple as a back drop. Thousands of LDS people show up each night to watch the Pageant, which is why it is such a great place to challege people to dive in and study what they believe.
We begin by eating dinner togather at the Thompson's house, and then spend sometime in prayer. After this we head for Manti and gather on the street beside the temple grounds(it's blocked so only pedestrians can get through) circle and worship for a while. Next comes more prayer in small groups, and then we head out ready to share God's love and truth with people. I am hoping to get some pictures to help explain this better. Anyways we just strike up conversations with people and let God work. It is so amazing to see God to set up divine apointments over and over again. God is so good! Amen. For LDS people prayer and worship are almost foreign. They do it, but when they pray it is almost like they are leaving a message on a recording machine to God. They don't know Jesus. From what I can tell talking to some of the former Mormons, it blows LDS peoples minds that we would be praying for them and that we worship God like we do and that when we pray it is like we really know who Jesus is. Many LDS people have a love for God, but they don't know him, because they are lied to. Please we need your prayer's for these people. They are opressed by the laws and ordanices forced on them. Their prophets have taken grace and twisted it to mean something totaly diffrent than the true meaning, which is a free gift from God. Grace you have to earn is no grace at all. Anyways I will try to keep you all updated more often.

Thanks