Anotha Update!

I figure that I may as well give a life update to ya'll while I'm on blogger right now...

My plane tickets just came in for my Christmas trip to Chi_a!!! I'm heading over there for 2 weeks during my Christmas break to see mom and dad and I'm really excited. I'm also really looking forward to Thanksgiving! Justin and Beth and the girls decided to stay in Ohio for this Thanksgiving and I'm ever so thankful. Crissie and I were going to come home for a day or so anyways during Thanksgiving break, to see Chris, Laura, and Maddie. Now Justin's fam. will be here too so ya can't beat that! I love my brothers so much. With my parents away in "that country way over there", they mean much more than I can ever express to each of them. To be able to spend Thanksgiving with them will be an enormous blessing. I am thankful for my family. I've been blessed with an amazing one, despite distances apart from each other.

School is crazy right now. I try to load the middle of my day up with as much as I possibly can so that I don't get stressed out. This rarely works, but the end of the semester is inevitably nearing...this is both good and bad as I have a ton of work to finish before the end.

All is well. This weekend, Damon (chief of staff, Spring Arbor University--we [ me + six other dudes] live in his big house) is taking us to Indianapolis for a night and a day. We'll stay in the Indy WESTIN 4-star hotel, dine finely at the best restaurants that are offered there, see the new bond movie somewhere, hang out, and have an AMAZING time of fellowship. I went with the house last year, too, and it was such a great time! We leave Friday at 3pm and don't get back till around 9:30 or 10pm on Saturday, when we will be having a guys poker night!

Love ya'll...

I would just like to point out that this picture is of ME PINNING JUSTIN in West Virginia. It's proof bro. You may have had a couple more drinks than me, but fair and square I kicked yer @$$. :) Just thought everyone should see this. And once more, I am stronger than Justin King.(haha, just kidding....but seriously I am)

On Being Saved thru Faith...

Looking through some more of John Piper's video's, I simply can't get enough. This man is annointed. I can see it on him. I can feel it when I listen to a freaking online video. Here's another video about why God chose for us to be saved through faith. SO good. I pray and hope that all who watch this will be blessed and convicted as I am. If you don't agree with this stuff. I'm sorry :) and I love you :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBYsWwk2410

Click above link to watch video...
sfk

Prosperity Gospel...

Here's a video from a sermon from John Piper. John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I don't know much about him besides that he schooled at Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Munich. I do think this video is crazy convicting and that there is a lot of truth in it. I'll warn you that at times it is intense...but I'd say worth it. He is briefly talking passionately about what has been grown to be called the prosperity gospel-telling people that all events and life will be completely better and okay if you just start a relationship with our Lord. But I think as we all know, there is suffering that takes place in our lives. There are hardships. Painful situations. Bad health. Financial struggle. Health and wealth are incredible blessings. The Lord uses each of these, whether its financial abundance or healing in his name or just a clean bill of health for someone who hasn't experienced much sickness. This all is AMAZING and the Lord uses prosperity no doubt. But to tell someone, especially in a third world environment, that earthly prosperity is what they'll inherit upon calling on Jesus' name--we need to stay away from this. I can't say it well, but I think that Piper has a great outlook on this topic and I think you should watch this video...
love ya'll...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s

Click the above link to see video by John Piper.

A Beautiful Day...

Today outside is beautiful. Truthfully, it's been like this for several days now and gone by relatively unnoticed by me...and what a pity it is to let beauty go unnoticed!

As I type this I'm sitting on my house's front porch watching people go by on walks and watching the bright yellow and orange leaves blow in the wind. It sounds like a magical place putting the scenery into words, and to be at all honest, it is a little magical.

How do I get so caught up in my selfish desire to be concerned about stressful work, homework, and whatever else--that I would miss such a display of God's creation? I don't know, but today, as I write this, I simply am saying [and thinking], "Thank You, God!"...
I think that sometimes God makes days like this happen in order to tell some of us, "lighten up, will ya?" Lay the stuff you're worried about at my feet and enjoy me! Do what you need to get done and look out there at what I'm doing and what I've made...it's for you! and for me! Enjoy it!...

Haha...what a good day. I hope that a slice of the joy that I've come to understand today will pass onto you. Here are some pictures to smile at in case it doesn't :)

All i have...

SAU's chapel speaker today was some guy with an impressive track record of teaching and presiding over seminaries and universities. Most of what he said seemed OK but that at best. And then he quoted a woman, dying when she said, "I'm the  best I've been in my whole life." He asked why and she replied that, "Jesus can't be all I need unless He's all I have." 

That is truth.

I'm always telling myself that complete submission to Him is 'where it's at'...But I rarely arrive at a place in life where I can find that all I want and all I need is Jesus' presence. I think hearing that quote this morning made me realize how much I want more of a DESIRE for the Lord and all that comes with him. I've been in places where all I have is Jesus...where he's the only thing I feel safe thinking about...the only thing that could possibly save me from the situation I'm in...the only presence that can take away my twirling hurts and emotions...I've been there and it's an amazing step to be on with Him. I want that more. I want it all the time. He has to be all I have. "All I have" seems confusing...but speaking abstractly to have Jesus be all I have doesn't always mean becoming a vagabonds and punching myself in the face. I can get to that place by proclaiming...recognizing coherently and out loud even...that nothing satisifies and cares for me more than he does. I can get there by actually living dead to my desires. All that matters is the Lord's presence, wrapped and nuzzled around me, guiding me to LOVE. That's all I want to have. Because once I get there, my relationships will change. I'll have even MORE to give out to the amazing people in my life: my girlfriend, my parents, my roommates, my unknown and unmet people that he wants to use me for...

Obviously I have SO many things. I'm not saying give them up. I'm just saying that we need to live in the fact that God is the only presence that could possibly fulfill us completely.

That's about it today...hopefully some of this made sense :)

~General King~ (inside joke...prophecy...whatever you wanna call it..ask me about it later :])

Thoughts on acting "different"

So this weekend was amazing.
I got to see some family that I haven't seen in SUCH a long time.
I got to see a best friend of mine's new living environment in Georgia.
I got to hang out with people I love.

It's interesting how relationships differ. Someone recently asked me if they think that one should be the exact same person in every relationship setting and situation. I thought about it, almost said "yea, dude", and then realized that I don't really believe that anymore. This concept is something that I think somehow we were taught in youth group or something...the notion that we should be the same all over the place...

At the core of this, of course, it's true that the goal of our lives should be moving towards Christ's will and each individual's character should stay true and untainted by one another. However, I've seen people using this idea against others and creating guilt in someone else because he or she acts a little different around different settings of friend groups. That's just wrong...I think, for what it's worth, that it's natural and healthy to act differently [of course to what extent is a sensitive and crucial factor in this...let's be careful with that because obviously we shouldn't become different personalitys 'round different friends...that's just crazy talk].

I came to this while thinking about the variety of friends that I have. My BFF Ryan (don't tell ANYONE I used that term, even if it was jokingly) and I have a different relationship with each other than we do with others. Our conversations are not always filled with deep thought. Our conversations tend to focus on joy and experiences that we're having/have had. We relate to each other in this way. Not that we stray from other talk, it just so happens that we're pretty softspoken around each other and focus on experiencing together rather than talking about it.

My girlfriend and I are able to have a much different kind of relationship. We're not going to sit in the front seat of a car and be silent for a whole trip just because we're experiencing it together. No, we act differently around each other than we would around others. Not DRASTICALLY different, but I would say noteably.

We feed off of each other's personality traits, and they feed off of ours. I just don't see it as irrational to say that it's okay to be a little different around different people. All of this said and I still believe that, should I or Ryan want to talk about something important or deeper than normal, that opportunity is completely there, open, and not discounted. Should my babe (:]) and I want to sit in silence and just experience the changing colors of the trees while in the car, that is completely normal and not discouraged.

Obviously there are plenty of exceptions which I'm sure you'll bring up if they must be addressed :) But that's what I think about that...

In other news, skool iz harde and I'm excited to get into and finish grad. school so I can just work and do what I want! Hahaa...haa...ha.....h....anyways...love you guys, talk to ya soon

REST...

So I was thinking today about rest. It's been a huge topic in discussions about faith especially between my parents and I...and a topic of thought today as I was sitting in a pew. My mom optimistically comments very often that, "we're just trying to learn how to rest in him". This simplicity is essential in developing intimacy with the Lord, I think. It's similar to saying "I just need to love...and if I truly do this, then everything else will follow". Maybe it's even the same idea... But how true is this concept? So true...

The word -rest- can be defined in several ways:

1. refreshing quiet [...]
2. relief or freedom [...]
3. cessation or absence of motion [...]

and more...
But what I take away from this, applicable to my faith, is that there is a release of responsibility in rest. A stop to what WE are doing. A tranquility that falls in this...A submission. Submission seems to be the essence of a healthy, loving, and genuine relationship.

Then there truly is freedom in learning to rest in Him. It's an amazing concept. The root of this whole blog started when a pastor today said, "let's pray"...and as I closed my eyes...I sighed a long sigh of relief.
"Finally," I thought, "I can't wait to just release my thoughts into his presence. I can't wait to just let my mind wander in his greatness instead of the trashy stress and confusion of living here on earth."
I realized that, looking back on the past, I sigh A LOT right before I start to pray...and this is because it's SO relieving to be in His presence and to REST in Him. This all stems out of my desire to be in a great relationship with my savior and creator. I want to be closer to God. I feel the NEED and PULL for this to happen. I'm sure you feel or have felt this before, too. EVERY SINGLE DAY I get caught up in a confusion of a faith that is theologically perfect, knowledge-infused, and legalistic. But I think its much more simple than that...To find that relief in his presence I need only to seek that presence as often as possible. To sigh in his presence. To cry in his presence...to submit and give my life truly to him because of that...

So yea...moral: take a chill pill and make some time for God if you want to get closer to Him. He's not limited to time we make for him, but it sure is a good way for us to contribute in the relationship, eh?