All I know...

Your faithfullness endures always Where mountains fall and reason fails And You calm the raging seas And You calm the storms in me, again  

All I know is I find rest in You 

All I know is I find rest in You

-Rest In You-

Hillsong United

A Love[ing] Realization...

Spring Break was pretty dang good.

I actually spent (i feel this way at least...sometimes my mom throws in during a conversation something like "I feel like we've barely seen you since you've been home"...And then she kind of laughs a little tiny bit so as not to be sharp about it but to bring to attention that our time is a little limited so WHY AM I NOT SEEING THEM THAT MUCH. haha. She's normally right, but not always :) This time she didn't have to say that though) a considerable amount of break with my mom and dad. On Sunday our entire family went to a HUGE indoor waterpark and I had a blast with all of my nieces. 

...there's just something about my niece Lainey grabbing onto my neck for her dear little life when the huge waves from the wavepool came crawling towards us...made all of the exhaustion from phrases like "Uncle Seth! come to the slide with me! Uncle Seth! Uncle Seth? Wave pool? Uncle Seth?!" completely worth it and fine...My nieces, I've said this before, are such a huge blessing to me!

I spent the rest of break either talking with my parents or hanging out with friends from Ohio. It's always really meaningful to me to be able to see all of my friends among the different friend groups that I have; and I think that is why I let myself get stressed, because its worth it to be able to see each one. (Obviously there were definitely some that I missed out on, which is sad...but I made my rounds)

On Monday morning before I left to drive back to school with Austin, I had a very strong and significant realization about my parents and why I completely excited and supportive of them, but at the same time, really struggling with the anticipation and reality of them being gone for such a long time...

They were praying for me for all sorts of things before Austin and I took off. I was sitting in that chair, listening--agreeing--with the prayers that were lifted up and analyzing like I tend to do fairly often...and I realized why I possess such strong emotion about them. 

I realized this: my parents love me more than anyone other [person...human] loves me on this earth. I hear it in their prayers over me whenever we pray. I see it looking back on their disciplining me and sharing wisdom with me over the years. Such an amazing thing was it to realize that in that moment...to realize at least a glance of how they love me.  Their care for me...and actually now that I think about it, for those in the culture they're about to immerse themselves in and most people around me.... seeps out from them. I could go into more detail, but I think I'll keep that to myself. I just really wanted to share that with whoever is reading this right now. That my PARENTS love for me is overwhelming when I actually can catch a glimpse of its truth and reality. 

In the bible there are many verses that attempt to describe God's (the father) personality a little bit. IN doing this, there are several verses that end with "[...] and so how much more will the Lord God reward you" or "[...] how much more, then, does your heavenly Father love you"

This became at least partially evident to me this Spring Break. My parents' love for me is incredible and seemingly unconditional even. How much more does God, my creator, savior...desire me and love and care and seek after me? SO much more...we should all keep that in mind. 

The person that you feel loved by the most in this world does not possess even a tiny fraction of the amount of care and love that our God has for us... Believe it. Because this is true.

and if that's not encouraging to know then I don't know what is.

Love ya'll...

sfk

I just thought I would try this out....except...from now on I'm only going to post a video blog if I have something to actually say. How about that, eh? 

Love ya'll

sfk

Give Money To The Least of These...Stop Buying Unnecessary _____ ____

"Society, you're a crazy breed[...]"

-Vedder-

I've been thinking a lot lately about some new things...lots of things

-why, if as one of my dear friends pointed out to me that a soundboard that a church in our local area uses costs between 150,000 and 300,000 US Dollars...um...why are churches spending money on these things? How in the world is THAT being the church...don't even get me started on this one...

-how can this traditional religion that I've been used to for all of my life up to the past year be living for a God that sent a part of himself to die for me? Looking back on journal entries, even some of the recent past, time and time again I see entries that I vaguely remember but have taken no action on the inside provided to me then by the Lord. Yet I see some of my peers taking action. Praying as they feel the Holy Spirit leads them. Praying for healing..for peace...for deliverance...

I think I'll join them. Yes. Yes I will. This is clearly a strong desire that has been put on my heart recently and I'm going to follow it.

--just to name a few--

My parents are leaving soon. They have blessed me so much in an incredible array of ways. But again, I pray that they'll actually get to leave by when they want to. I can't imagine what it's going to be like for them over there for this next portion of their life. I can't imagine what it's going to be like for me over here for this next portion of my life. The Lord is taking care of everything, this I know. Everything...

much is still fresh on my mind. more to come soon ya'll. God Bless

sfk

Beard Progress

So this is where I'm at with the beard right now...

 (1) crazy then (2) normal ...

Akourdantz...

Romans 8:1-8 [NIV]

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

Romans 8:1-8 [NIV]

This is just some stuff that I was reading the other day that truly spoke to me.  I guess I'd just like to share some of the stuff that resonated inside of me after meditating a little bit on these verses...

Firstly, it seems that God has been constantly throwing me insight about forgiveness and His grace. It is something that I will never understand. However, as much as I try to claim forgiveness and freedom, a lot of the times there is a deeper part of me that just doesn't agree with the reality of it...and so I pray. I pray that the Lord will somehow teach me and reveal to me the truth, being that He seriously, genuinely, and unconditionally loves me and forgives me each time I pursue love with Him by asking forgiveness and living apart from sin. 

The first verse of this section flat out states: "There is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus [...]" (emphasis added). This is a theme that not only God reveals to me but has revealed to the authors of much of the New Testament, so we need to accept its truth. I need to learn from this that, WOW!, I am "in" Christ Jesus...and therefore all of this guilt and agony I sometimes go through must be [IS] a lie from the enemy.

accordance                  n.

    1.  Agreement; conformity

    2.  The act of granting.

Why do I, when making a decision/doing an action, do what I hate and not what I love? This is the train of thought that everyone must have had at some point in his or her life, right? I see all of the things that I do that I hate directly as "what nature desires". I experience this so much, to the extent that much of the time I completely do not realize then when I am living "according" to that sinful, human nature, it means that I am agreeing, GRANTING sin the passwords to control over me! 

It says that the mind of the man with sinful nature controlling is DEATH; whereas, the mind of the man led by the Spirit isn't just LIFE, it's LIFE AND PEACE. I don't know about you, but I can't think of what I wouldn't give to obtain control over the chaos and confusion within my mind and experience and express life through my actions and have peace over my mind. So here is an alternative given, a choice that we should be making. The alternative as presented: live in "accordance" with the Holy Spirit. 

Does that mean that I have to agree that the Holy Spirit is real?  Yep

Does that mean that I have to conform to examples that the Lord has shown us?  Yep

Does that mean that I have to grant the Holy Spirit access to my thoughts and be open to the fact that He may be more real than I ever thought...that His presence may use me above and beyond expectations I've ever had?     Heck yep! (ha...that sounds awkward, doesn't it?)

Later in chapter 8 of Romans... "if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." (v. 11)

So yea...my thoughts on that :)

Give up and away to Him...

When?
...will I just give up this stubbornness,

idiocracy, these thoughts down, angry, not content with anything, unjoy


these shields that just don't hold up...



and leave control of my life to some bigger hands than mine
i mean my hands are callused and pretty strong...but they just screw everything up...

so yea...

and here are a couple lovely pictures to complete my thoughts:

Great Lyrics....

there could be nothing after this
-=underoath=-

In the end we tend to think of how it began
I could never explain the picture it painted, and how it made me feel
Now the ceiling is in motion
The light centered and overlooked
You want to see me disappear? Well, so do I

Such a quiet evaporation

We're nothing but hollow vessels in search of what makes us alive
I never said this was my revolution when you looked me in the eye
Oh, how I've walked this white line so many times before
What a feeble attempt just to feel alive

This is for you and your hopeless case
You never would leave me in your wish to fail every time
Every time I try

So talk about it
At least it makes you feel something inside

Who have I become
Oh God, everything all around me is crumbling at my feet

I stare so delicate and ashamed
At the shelf I've shed myself from

In the eyes of my ghost
And I will never look back again

Sickness...

For some reason...I really enjoy putting "ness" on the ends of words that I use. Like dude-ness...anyways

Wow...so much has been happening in the past couple of months. and I just want to say I'm sincerely sorry for not posting stuff frequently like I've hoped to...And you may say [if anyone reads this anymore even] "Well why is he sorry? It's not a big deal" I suppose I'm apologizing equally to myself as I am to anyone who chooses to read my thoughts... It's been such a great facet of life to be able to just write stuff and post it.... And I will try again to stay consistent...


I've been gone for awhile now...again
I've not yet been able to figure out exactly what is driving my actions or thoughts lately...all I know is that I'm coming back

I think I shall save the deeper bits for tomorrow

My family get's to go to Kalahari resort on the Sunday after my Spring Break starts. The Kalahari resort is a MASSIVE indoor waterpark...and somehow in God's grace my entire family is going to be there for a couple of days and one night. Justin & Beth with Sarah, Lauryn, Lainey, and Audrey; Chris & Laura with Maddie; my mom and dad...and finally me... I can't even express how excited I am to just be able to spend my last few days with my parents for awhile with my bros, too! It will be incredible to hang out with all of my nieces and wear them out in the different pools and water toys...and then chill in the hot tubs at night and talk about life.

Chances are things won't necessarily work out PERFECT with all of us there. But I pray that it will and that it will be a blessing to my parents to spend some quality time with all of us before they take off...On that note...i've been thinking a lot lately [still] about my parents leaving soon. I've decided that it would be better sooner than later, because I feel like it gets harder each and every time we get closer to the date that they leave. So, and not for my benefit, I pray that the Lord takes them into His arms and somehow provides the finances for them to be able to go over to Chi-country somehow WITHOUT anymore stress... I know He will take care of them. I know it.

My band, Come On Come Here, has some really amazing new tracks up that we've received back from our recording time in Atlanta. The stuff came out pretty dang good quality so that's amazing. This past Friday night was perhaps our best show ever...Here are a couple pretty cool pictures from that show with Bringing Down Broadway and Left Among The Ashes...