//Speechless

Last Tuesday, my beautiful wife and I had our first ultrasound. The doctor told us we were having a girl!

.::I am speechless.
I am at a total loss for words.
All of my mistakes and shortcomings, still God has given me this blessing.
Just the thought brings tears to my eyes.

In this world of hate, oppression, disease, war, and pain,

my little baby girl will be born.
But she will know my Father.
For He is with her now, as He crafts her body, and shapes her mind.
On that day she will breathe in His breath and Spirit.
She will be born with Hope.
Hope that God conquers death, and creates new life.

.::Father, give her life.
Let her be a beacon of Hope and Peace to your people.
May she not stray from Your path,
But humbly Follow your will.
Let her prosper in Grace and Truth.
Let her grow in your Love and Comfort, learning to Comfort and Love the Lost.
Let your Glorious Light shine and light her path.
Cast away and Destroy all evil that comes near her, keeping her pure.
Teach her now, as she grows, your laws and decrees.
Bless her way.
My purpose is found, O'God of Mercy.
Let me be a father to her, teaching her your Holy Ways.
Heal me, so that I may offer her strength and wisdom from You.
Jesus, be her Savior.
You are the Truth, the Life and the Way.
Thank you.

Proverbs 11:25-28 (NASB)

25The generous man will be prosperous,
And he who waters will himself be watered.

26He who withholds grain, the people will curse him,
But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

27He who diligently seeks good seeks favor,
But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.

28He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.

//Intentional Community

"It is not a bad thing if your community is in transition, it is a good thing. It means it is alive."
-Words spoken by Shane Claibourne at the Q&A time after Wednesday's chapel.

Well...
Our community is definatly in transition.
These words spoke Truth to me.

For the past six months me and a couple of my best friends decided to try to do the community thing. We lived in one house, shared all of our possesions, attempted to eat together, pray together, and live together.
I don't think I have ever learned so much in that short amount of time.
It has been amazing...
Until now...
We are moving on.
We lost focus.
We forgot why we started.
Wes and Kelly moved out today.
Josh is moving out soon.
It looks like the end...

But I believe it is the Beginning.

God is teaching me what True community looks like.
This is not the end of our Community.
It is a transition...
It is Alive.
We will continue striving for community and following where God leads us.
My wife and I are not giving up, and I am sure that Wes, Kelly and Josh won't either.
Community is not about sharing a house, it's about sharing the amazing Love and Grace of our Father.
.::Grace and Peace

//Stuff

Why is it that when we exspirience being around people of such great poverty or people that may lack the basic needs for survival, we come back to our over cluttered existance and are thankful for all our stuff?
We so often are thankful for all of our things.
Yes...it is incredibly important to be thankful, I praise God for the food, water and a place of shelter he has so graciously blessed me with.

But I believe that Christ invites us to ask a new question, one that isn't easy to answer.

.::Why do I have all of this stuff, when others don't even have food?

When will we see the hurt in our world, we need ask ourselves that question...
It is not a guilt thing, guilt gets us nowhere.
It is not about pride in doing good, pride is death to us.
It is not a works theology, for we are saved only by the Grace of God.

.::It is about following.

Following the God of compassion and love, of grace and peace.
We are His followers.
He leads us to the homeless, the sick, the rich, the hungry and the thirsty, because they are his children too.
And he desperatly wants them to come home.

Next time we come home to our warm bed with all of our stuff (we americans like to call this stuff "blessings") consider and contemplate the words of Paul:

You will be made rich in every way
So that you can be generous on every occasion,
And through us your generosity will result in
Thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:11

//Grace and Peace

//Silence

Silence is something we so quickly forget in our culture.
In silence we may have to contemplate what our life actually is.
Such stillness opens us up to hear the whisper of our Abba.
I think it scares us.
So we fill our lives up with material and stuff that clutters our mind and keeps us busy so we don't have time to pause and listen.
I do it all the time.

I long for silence.
No music.
No cars driving by.
No talking.
Nothing.
I long to just be.
To exist without the pressures and contraints of this life defining who or what I am.
I yern for the embrace of my Father.

.::I long for silence.