M.C. Hammer the Prophet?

So I've got something I've been meaning to post for a while, but events today just added to guilt of not already writing about, so here goes. Basically this post is just a testimony to God's faithfulness in answering prayer. I hope that it encourages you even just a fraction of what experiencing the actual answered prayers has for me. God is good and gives us all good things; and He only gives us what is best for us. Period. So, here begins the list of answered prayer in the last month or so.

1. God has been providing for me financially in very great and humbling ways. I began praying that God would help me to get rid of my debt on top of raising support for the mission field, and He is actually doing it. He gave me a huge amount (huge to me and the couple that gave it, at least) through a couple who were themselves just beginning on a faith filled journey. They gave me the money specifically for my debt. Amen. Also, God has begun to provide for my trip to Spain as well. Just tonight I talked with a couple who want to support me monthly--despite my poor presentation of what I'll be doing, etc...

2. God provided jobs for two very good friends of mine who were just married and moved off to seminary. You would think it might be a bit difficult for a teacher to get hired a few weeks before school starts, right? Well, God is even Sovereign over school districts, no matter what those flaming Armos say.

3. God sold my friends Dave and Kristen Martin's house.

4. God brought a friend of mine who has been out of church for years and years back to church. Now I pray that the fruit of this will show up in my friend's life, especially in the form of joy.

5. Today, I got to catch up with a friend who I care a great deal for but haven't seen in a long time. She has had a rough go of it the past few years, but is seemingly experiencing a bit of green pasture again. A great husband, beautiful daughter, baby boy on the way. But the greatest thing is that she has been praying for God to show her something more about Himself. I happened to be the instrument that God used to answer her prayer. We talked about the Bible and Christ's sacrificde for quite a while. We talked about why the doctrine of justification is so freeing. We don't have to try to work our way to heaven, and we would never be able to anyway. The righteous life has been lived by Christ himself, and that righteousness is imputed to us. But we still have motivation to grow in likeness to Christ, as we demonstrate our love for Him by ungrudgingly keeping His commandments continuing to die to the old man by living in the new man God has made us.

Anyway, I'm sure this isn't everything, but God has used these especially to remind me that He is working to answer prayer. He is personally involved in our lives and concerned with our welfare, even when we forget about Him in our near-sightedness. Even when the temporal so overwhelms and engulfs us that we can only think of earthly comforts and circumstances, God is there, moving every atom to bring us closer to Himself. He is in everything and every situation, demonstrating His immense love for us despite our lack of regard for Him.

God help me not to forget to see your loving hand in everything--be it physical, emotional, enjoyable, painful, special, or common. And should I forget, thank you for always working to repeatedly re-open my eyes to that truth. Amen.

Joseph Smith Meets Mike and Mike

Today was a half day at work because, well, we are just running out of things to do. So, I went to the bank then headed to my Mom's house to see if she wanted to catch some lunch. On the way there I ran into a guy from my church named Mike (great name), who just happened to be on his way to do a little street evangelism at the University. It turned out my Mom couldn't do lunch so I went evangelizing with Mike--very cool, very fun, very encouraging.

First of all, Mike is very eloquent and a gifted evangelist. I, on the other hand, am very shy and easily frustrated during street evangelism. We ran into a couple of ex-mormon missionaries who knew all the tricks of the trade, side-stepping every question they could with other questions, which is a very common problem for lost sinners who don't want to see themselves for who they really are in the mirror of God's word. Mike took all this in stride, finally bringing them back to the key issues of sin and salvation in Christ alone. Of course, they dodged this and took off, but I am really thankful that God was able to use this encounter for His glory. They put so much stock in the 'impressions' that 'God' gives them. They don't care about logic and reason. They really don't believe that "...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god". They really want to do everything they can to save themselves, and then Christ can finish what's leftover.

As a believer this astounds me. How can they keep believing these things and claim to have the Holy Spirit? They must feel a terrible amount of guilt and conviction every time they sin, knowing that they must not have truly repented and therefore are not forgiven. Any person who reads the Bible and honestly looks in their heart must admit that they are a filthy sinner and always will be until God finally changes them at death. If you don't see these things, then you are lying to yourself and ignoring what the Bible says.

DW Day: 10 Days and Counting...

Just letting you know that Derek Webb's latest album, "Mockingbird", will be available for download on September 1st. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's FREE? Just go to www.freederekwebb.com on Sep. 1st to enjoy the goodness. This album is a bit controversial, very thought provoking, and a great way to start addressing some of the sins that plague American Christianity. When you download the album, please join the discussion there as well. These are things we all need to talk about if we are going to grow as Christians and come to biblical, orthodox convictions in these areas.

"Can't stand ya'!!"

I just finished putting together my first batch of support letters. I feel like George Costanza's ex-fiance Susan, who died from licking all the envelopes for their wedding invitations. I licked too many envelopes. I hope I don't die. In other news I cut myself with a saw and stabbed myself with a rogue screw today at work. Fun stuff. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit less exciting.

Right now my Dad's girlfriend is watching "Murder by Numbers" on AMC. It has given me a new idea--"Support Raising by Numbers". Who says you have to know the people supporting you? Tomorrow I am going to start finding random names on the internet and sending them support letters. It will be a sort of modern day money raising urim and thummin. So, if you randomly found my blog and are reading it, excpect a letter in about a week, then a phone call soon after. And make checks payable to World Harvest Mission.

Today was (is) a great day...

So today has been a great day. I haven't fully achieved any of the goals that I set this morning, but it rocks all the same. I spent a good portion of this morning sleeping, then I had a chance to catch up with an old friend. Subsequent attempts to catch up with other old friends were unsuccessful, but hey, not everybody can be home at once. Next, I rolled down to the coffee shop where read and thought a lot about James 1. God is really using that book to show me my sin, and for that I am grateful. I have needed that for a while. I have spent the rest of the afternoon locked away in my home "studio" recording a song. I'm not nearly done with it, but by the end I think it will really rock. Right now I'm sitting in front of my computer typing this to the five people (I like to be optimistic) who read my blog, which is giving the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese in my stomach a little time to digest. Plus, the longer I stay out the the studio, the less it will smell like McDonalds when I'm done.

Back into the dungeon...

That's Racin'

I feel like my blog has been moving in a much needed new direction. Instead of posting about life and its struggles, I'm going to just start reviewing movies. Shaun of the Dead, War of the Worlds, Under the Tuscan Sun, and now Talladega Nights.

I just got back from the theater and honestly, the movie was pretty funny. And it was a lot cleaner than I heard it was or expected it to be (or maybe I'm just completely desensitized). I went with my friends Dave and Josh. Josh is just on his way through town, but hopefully we can wrangle him into staying for a few days. Actually, it would be great to sit down and play some guitar with him. We are going to try and play at a coffee shop in Riverton, Wyoming sometime in the next month, so it would be good to pick a bunch of songs and practice them. Sorry, that was a rabbit trail. Anyway, Talladega Nights was worth the five bucks--I got to turn my mind off for a while and just laugh.

Okay, I've decided that writing movie reviews would be depressing because they generally aren't very edifying, so I'm back to my original focus: networking in the hopes of finding free places to eat and sleep no matter where I go in the world. I mean: writing about meaningful things that effect my life and will encourage others to examine their lives in those same areas.

Have a good day.

War of the Tuscan Sun

Today was a fairly uneventful, but satisfying day. I woke up late and then played some guitar before catching lunch with Jeff Brown. Then, I bought three tons of sand and shoveled it out of the back of my Dad's truck into a huge pile in the backyard. Dinner was a barbecue in honor of my Dad's girlfriend's son and daughter-in-law complete with some fancy desert that tasted really good. So good that I had two servings.

The night is being closed with a few movies: "The War of the Worlds", and "Under the Tuscan Sun". I wouldn't have chosen either of them, but that's alright, I'm learning to watch a couple of crappy movies every once in awhile. They can't all be "Shaun of the Dead", I guess. Anyway, tomorrow I've got to do some stuff for support raising and then I'm going to do some recording with my friend Dave. I don't know what song he wants to record, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.

A Zombie Reunion at Bass Lake

Well, I just got back from the Martin family reunion in Minnesota. I had a great time even though I wasn't related to anyone, hurt my knee on the camp's waterslide (a very "Jackass" like moment with the Martin brothers), and can't sing eight trillion part harmony like every Martin to ever walk the earth. Seriously, they are born for singing. Anyway, I met a lot of great people and got to catch up with others I hadn't seen for a while. I enjoyed the trip thoroughly.

Also, I got a copy of the movie "Shaun of the Dead" at a Wal-Mart while in MN. It's a spoof of zombie movies like "Dawn of the Dead" or "28 Days Later". The short of it is that I love it. It is so funny that I almost undied laughing--pun intented. If you pay attention, you find so many little details that carry through in the plot, or the same language coming up from previous dialogue (not counting the F-Bomb, which gets dropped a lot, unfortunately). The only down side is that it is a bit gory, and the language is very crude (British humor), but I think if you can watch "Snatch" or "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" in good conscience, then you can watch this one.