Has it ever been Christmas but it doesn't feel like Christmas?

Has it ever been Christmas but it doesn't feel like Christmas?

I know for me this has become a common thing the past couple of years. I love christmas and all, but it has slowly become more and more meaningless. I love the presents, getting together with friends and family, the presents, Christmas songs and lights, the presents but there just seems to be no heart anymore.

where is God in it all?

i know for me, that our traditions have become meaningless and they no longer bring my thoughts and heart back to God. Instead they take my heart and focus away from God and bring them to focus on meaningless things that help me forget more then remember.

How do our Christmas traditions both inside and outside the church point us back to our messiah? I know some do but most of them seem like they don't.

this past year we decided as a community not to celebrate Easter but instead to have a messianic passover. IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME! We had a ton of fun celebrating but at the sametime enjoyed being able focus on God using all the symbolic type foods, drinks, words, teaching etc. to truly get our hearts, minds, and thoughts focused on God. this gave true meaning and excitement towards our celebration. It was incredible!

But, as I focus on christmas I wonder what our christmas tree means, or the candles in the candle light service, or the reason we have it on this day, or decorations etc. So much of it points towards meaningless and empty traditions.
Last year Sarah and I even skipped Christmas eve service to study up on hanakka to see if there was a cooler heart behind that jewish custom but even that holiday didn't have much that pointed toward God.

and so I came to the conclusion...I don't want to celebrate Christmas in the same way anymore. I want to create a tradition (yep... I know I said tradition - but not forever just until it loses its heart and then start a new one) that helps us to truly celebrate the heart behind Christmas. that brings our thoughts, minds, hearts back to the true reason we celebrate Christmas. To come up with symbols, decorations, foods, etc. that will bring us back to why we celebrate as God's people.
I don't know what this will look like yet, but I want to study more about our traditions of Christmas now and then pray about what things God puts on my heart. I am excited and I think it will be a lot of fun. prayfully others will join us in this celebration and that we totally have a ton of fun celebrating and worshiping God in crazy ways next Christmas!

Not about Me

I have been taking some history classes so that I can begin to go and get my licence to teach. I only need a few so I signed up for them over at Northern Kentucky University. Both of these history courses start with the beginning of time and go up until the 1700's.

With that in mind,
A couple of weeks ago I had really been struggling. Since the beginning of time, every civilization or group started with a focus on the idea that gods or a god must exist. As I thought and prayed about that I was really struggling because i thought about what truly makes Chrsitianity different from all of these other gods and religions. These people truly believed in their gods or their divine being just as I believe in Jesus. What makes Christianity different?

As I thought and prayed through this I thought that it was really cool. because it totally shows that there must be a god out there.
Why?
because we as humans are built with that desire for something greater the desire to be in contact with some sort of divine being. it is built into the way we are created, the way we think. there is no way that anyone can look at history and say that this is not true.

The next thing that i thought was that throughout time the belief in a god has always been selfish. It has always been a selfish desire - as to how god can help me. what do i need to do to make god or the gods happy so that they bless me. what do i need to do so that I have good crops? I need to not make them mad or I'm screwed! or the gods are selfish and do as they please. they party and we try not to get in the way? or we serve the gods for our own benefit... I could go on...

But...I realized that the heart of Christianity is far from selfish - in fact it is very much selfless - has nothing to do with us at all. (we have made chistianity to be all about us but in the true heart of where it started it does not)

A teacher asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was and Jesus responded in matthew 22:36-40
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Here Jesus says all of scripture (our faith) comes down to 1. loving God and 2. loving others. It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with loving God and loving others. It is very much selfless. As love God and love others we are truly worshiping God, obeying his commands, living the best life we could ever imagine (crazy that life is so much cooler when we focus on others and not ourselves).

I don't know if this makes sense... but I truly find it cool to imagine how much cooler and different our faith is then any other one out there. I also think it is kind of cool to see that it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with loving God and loving others.

What would happen if christians truly lived this way? if the world truly lived this way? how would life be different?

having fun as a passionate follower of Jesus,
scott sulek

SEX!

Recently I have started working for a non profit organization called "Healthy Visions". Through this organization I have an opportunity to travel to different Jr.High and High Schools to talk about sex within marriage or sexual abstinence. It is actually I lot of fun and a great opportunity to talk about truths that are important to our lives.

Anyway, I recently went to speak at a local high school and recived a bunch of thank letters in the mail. I want to thank everyone that had sent me a thank you letter but wanted to share a few letters that I thought were either funny or creative in their response.

Thank you letters:
1. "Thank you so much for coming into our class and talk about sex and abstinance. YOu have made me realize that sex is way better when you are married. so, i decided to talk to my boyfriend. We have decided to stop having sex and wait till marriage. Its really hard but I think we can do it! thank you so much! - I was very impressed with the decicision that this person made with her boyfriend. It may be hard but they are willing to go for it - way cool!

2.Thank you for coming in and talking about human sexuality and related topics. It revealed a lot to me. It revealed a lot to me. I could talk about it more, but I could also draw a picture. i chose the latter. (he drew a pic of some kind of sperm octopus looking thing) - this made me laugh

3. This person said "Thanks" and drew me a picture of something that looks like a penis rocket called the cockroach and on the back is a pic of cockroaches talking about needing to repopulate the world :)

4. Another person commented on my ninja turtle back pack - i really like this person

5. thanks for coming and speaking to us...you did a great job getting through, not even considering it was only your second time speaking! Regardless, anybody who takes time out of their life to try to improve the lives of other people and speak up for what they believe in is nothing short of extrodinary... thanks again bro. - a very wise man, i hope he takes his own wisdom and lives as an extrodinary man!

6. I think what your doing with healthy visions is awesome, you were an awesome speaker! you're a pretty cool guy, your wife is lucky - i saved this one to remind my wife incase she ever forgot :)

7.Thanks for comming and speaking. Your had a good presentation. Have fun not abstaining any more since you are married - i liked this guy too, he is a good encourager

Not so haunted house part 2

Here are just a few more stories that connect with my first post:

1. God gave me a band-aid: I had an allergic reaction to my deoderant and had a huge bump under my armpit and it hurt really bad. i had to go to work but it was hard to move around. So, i searched our entire house for a band-aid with no luck. So, as I was walking around and praying I ended up going to where I would usually chill with God in the morning and on the pillow where I would usually lay there was a band-aid. It was a band-aid that was shaped like I had never seen before. Not to mention i had been laying on the pillow just the night before - i was even the last one awake. I then asked everyone in the house to see if they had band-aids shaped like that and no one did. God showed me that he takes care of my needs, no matter how big or small, even when I don't ask. God taught me this during a time when I really needed to hear that.

2. God united us with new and old friends. allowed us to worship with these friends as we lived life together, asked tough questions, encouraged, challenged, prayed, partied, hung-out together and so much more. We were able to celebrate a messianic passover together as we focused on Jesus and what he has done for His people, experienced healings of the heart, ate together, shared life together, laughed, cryed, creativly worshiped, fed the poor, stuck by each other when we were in pain or sick (kidney stones - lol) and soooooo much more.

thank you God!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for loving your people and teaching us to live life as the church as we love you and love others :)

Not so Haunted House

About a year ago we thought that G-d was calling us to start a church in cincinnati that looked differently then any other church. In the beginning of this process we figured there was no way we could start a church without a house...so we logically bought a house. But, Little did we know that the church was not going to turn out the way we expcted! Throughout this past year we have expereienced life as the church in ways that we would have never imagined a year ago. We have learned and are still learning what it means to live life as the church and part of where this life as the church has taken place is under the roof of a house where a family developed - a family of friends, disciples of Jesus, and random people who found their way to the front porch and even beyond.

These past couple of months I have been frustrated with this house. I have been frustrated with the work that we have had to put into it (i am not a fix-it man), the things that go wrong with it, cutting myself open (not purposly) trying to fix it, and the time that it has taken away from other things that I find more important. I even questioned whether we had heard from G-d when we bought it or whether we were just "stupid little kids" but God has recently kicked me in the butt and showed me that he has used this house to teach us what it means to live life as the church, used the house and us to impact people's lives, to be a light in a dark place, and to have a lot of fun as we worship Him through our lives!!!!!

Here are just a few of those stories:

1. When we first went to look for houses: sarah found a realtor who she thought would be able to help us out. Our realtor was incredible. she put up with the tons of houses that we wanted to look at. many of them were nothing but junk and other ones were more than we could afford. Not to mention we had it set in our minds that we were going live in norwood but G-d had other plans. Sarah finally found a house in clifton (which was not where we thought we were going to move) and so we walked in this house and we knew that this was the area and the house we were supposed to move to. But, with discouragment and fear from our parents we chose to keep looking. We looked at a ton of houses and then found another one and so I mentioned that we should pray (knowing our realtor was not a christian and curious to how she would respond). We prayed and felt that the orginal house that we walked into in clifton was the right house and then I got a word for our realtor. it was way cool! our realtor then said that she was greatly impacted through that prayer time - felt that the other house was the right house, said she had never really been "relgious" but felt she needed to talk to G-d more, said her husband was going through surgery and he needed prayer, said her friend has been telling her to talk to G-d more but she has not listened but felt because of this that she should do so. From the beginning God was moving.

2.There was a family whose car broke down right in front of our house. I walked outside to offer assistance. They said they didn't need any but I offered for them to ring our bell if they did. They later rang the bell to use the bathroom and we got to talking and found out that their six year old granddaughter, who was in the back of the car, had cancer. so, we gathered a couple of peeps around her to pray for her and her family.

We had continued to pray for them as a community and found out that Adia's Cancer is in Remission!!!!

3. Pat (our next door neigbor). An older man in his late 40s early 50s. We have had some strange conversations and some of them have been about G-d. he had mentioned that most people don't care and Christians are one of those type of people. He had lost his job a bunch of months ago, was struggling with money, was close to eviction, had contemplated suicide many of times and was about as down as you could get. We would get opportunities to talk and would check up to see how he was doing. Even helped him out with money at times but recently he stopped me in passing and excidetly told me that he got his old job back. he hugged me and thanked me. he said most of the time people say they care but their actions don't show it and then thanked G-d.

4.Mike and jillian - a couple who was introduced to us through some mutual friends. felt they needed to move in with us. This led to an adventure of questioning, learning, growing, challening conversations and situations, healing, friendship, life as the church, community, learning about Love and so much more. Crazy!

5. Nancy - she was a 60 something year old woman who lived 2 houses down. We had a few conversations with her but didn't know much about her. then some dude landed on our front porch who went by the name billy. billy told us she was going through a hard time so we invited her to dinner. We all went out to dinner and nancy became a part of our group (kind of). she would always stop by, we would pray and talk with her, we would listen, we would protect her, be there for her, feed her etc. at times she would even admit she didn't want to be here but she couldn't help but show up, had some wierd spirtual stuff going on but it was incredible how G-d worked on her life. she later on became more alive, credited her life change to Jesus, was excited about sharing Jesus with everyone around her, was happier and more lively, wanted us to pray for her, etc. very cool!

6. Billy - don't know where he came from or where we went but hope that we had some impact on his life. he taught us some interesting things about people that God was going to bring to us and even already had!

WOW! the more I think back this house has been an incredible blessing. I will continue with more stories later on this week. In my selfishness I have forgotton the incredible ways God has used us and this house to impact our lives and the lives of many people around us.

THANK YOU GOD! for being absolutly incredible! words can't describe!

R.I.P. Ghetto Booty

it is official - Ghetto Booty has been totaled and is no more. (my toyota echo - car)

I am now going to take this time to remeber Ghetto Booty and his past brothers and sisters (past cars that have moved on).

GHETTO BOOTY - 2000 toyota Echo
- Was named Ghetto Booty due to its enourmous butt! I always said that I would ram a car if it had a butt as big as mine - someone else had the same goal.

SNOT ROCKET - 1996 toyota tercel
- was named because it was snot green and was a manual (I felt cool and like i could drive fast because it was a manual - i couldn't - but the squealed tires made it sound like i could.
*died by a head on with a buick (i am just sorry it had to be a buick - tear*

CU-SNEE-FAR-GO-BU - 1988 chevy nova
- This car was named because it was the kid of smurf poop and a go cart. smurf poop was a chevy malibu and when i first drove it I pulled onto the expressway next to a truck and pretty much shit my pants (it was so small - i felt like i was driving a go-cart).
*Nova means "no go" in spanish. This was true much of the time - she was given to someone else in their adventures of go-cart fun and the stubborness of moving only when she wanted to.*

SCICK - 1989 thunderbird
- was named as ricky and I ran out of the house singing our superhero theme song as we were headed out to go and resucue a friend. this car had every gadget that you could think of and every gadget worked the opposite of what it was supposed to :)
*Scick died of F.O.R.Dness(fix or repair daily*

SMURF POOP - light blue 1978 malibu classic
- the best car a man could own. was named becasue of his light blue color. Brought many fun, crazy, and exciting adventures. a car that truly turned heads, that people tried to by off me constantly, cruise before cruise was invented - people would stop by wherever I was at just to say hi because of smurf poop. all it took was a coat hanger and needle nose pliers to drive. (VERY BIG TEAR)
*died by drunk driver - dumb grand prix*

God is Good - Ghetto Booty Hurt

After a week of interesting relaxation, enjoying the beach, sleeping, eating, more sleeping etc. we were headed home. Our vacation was over and we were leaving the island and getting ready for a 12 hour/650 mile drive home. We weren't ready to leave but we were ready to be home.

We had left the place we had been staying at about 9:30 and had just left the island and was now on mainland, driving down a two lane highway getting ready to get on the expressway when all of a sudden you hear the screeching of breaks, a crunch and then another crunch as sarah and I get jerked forward and then i find myself slamming on my breaks and trying to gain control of our car so we didn't hit keith and betsy who had been driving ahead of us. WE HAD BEEN HIT! 650 miles from home and we had been in a car accident that caused Ghetto Booty (our car - the toyota echo) to become undrivable. There had been a big toyota SUV that had slammed into a Ford Explorer that slammed into the back of my car.

I had been in an accident in cincinnati but never this far from home. I didn't know what to do. So, sarah had called AAA - they weren't helping us out and so we allowed ghetto booty to be put on the rotation to be picked up by a random toe truck. The toe truck man (preston) had given us and our car a ride to the local car rental place where I called my insurance company, who was being of no help at all, and found out we were standing in front of a car rental place that had just closed. yeah! we were afraid we would be stuck in hilton head until monday.

**But this is how cool God is**
Preston (our toe truck guy) knew some of the people that worked in the car rental place and had convinced them to stay open so that we could rent a car. They stayed open for at least 45 min. longer then they had to so that they could help us out and try and work things out with the insurance company. Then once we got a renal car, preston toed our car to the carriage shop which is where they were going to look at the car and fix it. Well, they had also already closed but preston had called and asked them to re-open. They ended up reopening so that we could bring our car in and leave it so that they could look at it on monday. The lady at the carriage shop was very loving and motherly - it was a family owned shop and she was very concerned for us and not our car. she said they would try and fix it but not to the point that it would affect our safety.

During that time preston slipped us a $100 to help us on our journey. he said that he wished he could have helped more. AFter that the lady from the carriage shop said that she didn't want us driving home in our condition and told us to go next door to a local food place to eat and that she would pay.

WOW! God took a bad situation and made it good. he showed us that he is always there. in fact i was frustrated at first because sarah and I had just prayed and asked God to keep us safe and to keep us out of car accidents and then we get hit. i wasn't mad at God - just a little confused. But, I see that God really does love us and was really watching out for us. he was very much present and I am very grateful. he really has never let us down.

we can't deny how much God was moving that day
our safety - could have been a lot worse

a free meal

extra cash to help us with crazy expenses

a loving/motherly woman to help and bless a couple of younger people trying to get home

a toe truck driver who helped us get into closed places and bless us with some crazy stories and a lot of help - a man who helped us smaile and laught - who spent many more hours then he had to helping, talking, and sharing life with us

great friends who stood by us and were comforting - keith and betsy

the opportunity to be a witness who had seen God's hand move but might not have realized that it was God

THANKS GOD!

LOVE?

God has been teaching me a ton as to what it really means to love someone or what it really means to love.

Background: A little bit less than a year ago we invited a couple to come and live with us. We thought it was to help them financially and later found that not to be the case. One of them recently moved out (moved away from her husband)and it didn't seem right. Her actions and words didn't make sense to how God works or the commands that God calls us to obey. We went to confront her about her actions or at least gain understanding but she would not take the time to share that understanding. So, we let her know that we loved her and wanted to still be there for her but that we could not allow her back into our house because we felt that the reason for us opening our house was to help and it didn't feel that she was open for us helping her. We also didn't want to encourage what we understood and felt in our hearts to be wrong. At the same time though we have always been open towards listening to her heart and gaining understanding if we were wrong.
This is when she told us that we were not loving her and that we were not being obedient to God!


OUCH! we really felt that we were trying to love her the best that we could but didn't want to encourage what we felt was wrong. It seemed that she believed love to be equal to agreeing and we couldn't do that. This really led me to pray and contemplate over the idea of what it really means to love someone

the Journey:
as I prayed and contemplated over what it means to love someone I realized that many people, the church (generalized comment), and myself had kind of a skewed idea of what it means to love. We have the idea that "to love" means you must agree or allow but I don't believe that to be true. (this was rough ground for me to jump into because I didn't want to be a judgmental Christian) But, after a lot of prayer and contemplation I realized that you really can - not agree with someone, love them, and still not be judgmental.
If a Christian is not obeying God's commands I don't think that it is right for us to encourage or agree with that person's actions. You don't have to judge them and tell them they are going to hell but if they are truly follower of Christ then I would guess that they would desire to live passionately and obediently for Jesus in all that they did - especially if it is true that one way that we show God that we love him is by obeying his commands (john 14:21), or if Jesus says he came to bring life to the full (john 10:10) then by obeying his commands we are living the best life possible. If these are true then I would assume that as their friends we would want to encourage them to live this way (I would assume that anyone would want the best for their friends and for them to live the best life possible). As I thought and prayed about this I really felt that for us to agree with actions that didn't seem right to what God commands it would be wrong or not loving to agree or encourage these type actions. It would be the opposite of love instead of true love. I mean God loves us even when we are not being obedient but that doesn't mean he will agree or encourage those actions. I mean we see a pic in Hebrews 12 to where God disciplines us because he loves us (I don't know if it is our job to discipline but at least be honest and real with them - right?) or see a TON of pics in the gospels of how Jesus loved people but didn't agree or encourage their actions - so if we are to follow his example then loving someone and agreeing/encouraging are not the same. correct?

I have no clue if this makes any sense - God is still teaching me. But, I love when he does that. I just hope and pray that I am being obedient and truly loving as God has called me to love

Questions, a journey, life as a christian and the church?

about a year ago I started to really question what it means to be the church. It didn't make sense to me anymore. I would worship the same way (sing worship songs), listen to some dude speak for 30 min. and then go home. OR as a youth pastor I would pimp this same structure out but the reality of it was - it started to make less and less sense. Was God truly a part of this worship experience? Why did I feel numb and bored with church?

God then put in on my heart to really dig into the heart of the church. Was this biblical? Is this really what God had set up the church to look like? did it have to look this way? Why do we feel guilty if we don't "go" to church? Why do I feel like I don't belong in the way church looks?
then i discovered that there were other people who felt the same way and so we began to study what it means to be the church. (check out the-table.net for a very brief look into our adventure). I got excited!!! It was really simple! this pic of the "body of Christ". The more I studied and prayed the more God revealed. The more God reavealed the more excited I got. The questions kept rolling in:
What about the role of the pastor? is the church really an organization? if we are going to be organic then can you plant a church or does it just happen?

What about worship? wasn't the style of worship as we know it orginally a pagan thing and then God set up the tabernacle/temple as a means to please us? God told me once that as I do the things I enjoy - that is my worship. Should people feel pressured to worship (church style - thats the way it feels sometimes) OR should worship just naturally occur? - this is a part of my most recent adventure but the other part of my adventure deals with what it means to be a Christian.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Don't get me wrong - I am not questioning my faith but I am questioning the way I live out my faith - the way I live as a disciple of Jesus. I know what I have been told or even what the church culture has told me it means to be a Christian but to tell you the truth this doesn't make sense. It doesn't seem right to - it doesn't feel like i am living the way I was created and the way he has created His Church to live. I don't know! I just seem to get more and more excited the more I dream as to what it means to live passionatly and radically for Jesus and then even more excited when I think about a group of God's people living this way. Oh yeah, then what if we trusted God to use us in crazy ways. we looked to him to be the head of the body, to lead us, to move in our lives and other people's lives. I get so freakin excited the more I dream but I get incredibly bored the more that I play church or play Christian.

So, What does it mean to be a Christian (a disiple of Jesus), to be the church, and have our lives truly be a life of worship to our God?

Does this make sense?

I Picked Up a Hooker

IT WAS A VERY STRANGE MORNING!!!!!

I was headed to work and stopped by BP this morning so that I could pick up some caffine (mountain dew)to get me started. As I pulled into the BP this woman walks up to my car and asks for a ride. i apologized and told her that I really didn't have time because I had to get to work. she asked me which direction I was going and when I told her she walked around and jumped into the passenger side of my car. (guys, its not safe to keep your car door unlocked)
as I tried to explain that I was not headed very far she said that it would be awesome if I could just take her at least as far as i was going and then she would get a ride the rest of the way. So, I had a weird feeling already and decided not to go into BP (I wasn't just going to let her sit in my car as I walked into BP and got a pop).
As I was driving we began to talk. she said she was from florida, i told her about my wife, she said she wanted to get married someday also, etc. As the conversation continued she asked me how far it was to where I would drop her off. she said that was great and that we could have a little fun on the way. she then began to feel up my leg and went for my crotch. I told her to get the HELL off me and she continued. This time i stopped the car and yelled, "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CAR!!!!!" she then kept saying, "what is wrong, aren't i pretty." and then kept trying to feel me up until i came to a stop and pushed her out my car and sped off.

it kind of freaked me out. I was shaking. not that I was afraid, I was in shock!
So, I called sarah (my wife) and told her the story.

As I thought about it throughout the day. I began to feel bad. I wish that there would have been some way that I could have gotten her to stop and then encourage her and tell her that she deserves so much more.

BUT... what else do you do when some strange woman starts going for your crotch?

Could I have been a better example of Jesus's Love? I don't know. Maybe, me pushing her away gave her a different picture of men. I don't know. I prayed for divine appointments this morning. didn't expect this, but I hope that God is able to use this adventure to impact this woman's life!!!

I began to pray for her - if you all can do this too, please do!

Authenticity - quick thoughts, response to another blog

What does it mean for a community to be Real or Authentic?

I have been learning a lot recently what this really means. I have noticed that there are a lot of people who desire to be real and authentic or that commend various people for being real and authentic but many times they don't truly live that out. many times even when people claim to be Real they are still only choosing to be partially real or authentic. they are willing to disclose enough to sound that way but are still not totally being real?

What happens though when people aren't real with each other?
I have noticed that with me I find myself still dealing with issues on my own. I lose the freedom that comes with being able to share my struggles, share my questions, share my thoughts or my life with others. there is something powerful, healing, and freeing about truly being able to be real and authentic with a group of people.

I have also noticed that others are afraid to be real and authentic. they choose not to be real because they are afraid of how people will respond to them and many times this fear becomes a reality because people slam them or respond to them poorly for their true thoughts or feelings. Or people arn't completely honust with each other and then people's feelings get hurt or someone feels like others don't care. But, how was the other person supposed to know if you don't tell them.


So, what would happen if we all lived as God had intended - openly sharing our lives together as a community


Here is a comment that I wrote to a blog that I have been reading. It is a comment to a group of bloggers who all desire authenticity but have been arguing and fighting more than living out the jourey together. I never posted the comment because I just didn't feel that I had the freedom to do so. but maybe it will get us thinking?

I find this thing of authenticity very interesting. People desiring to be real or authentic and yet, i wonder, are these people being 100% real or choosing just how real they want to be and yet still claiming to be 100% real and authentic? Also, is autheniticy a 1 or 2 way road? Just as one person shares their life and heart openly shouldn't someone else listen and respond openly and yet without a judgemental heart?

I then look to our journey as Christians or disiples of jesus. shouldn't we all be on this journey of life and faith together? Desiring to grow, learn, challenge, encourage, ask questions, and seek out God's heart as a family or a gathering of God's people? Through this journey, shouldn't others be enticed and excited about jumping into such an exciting spirtiual and life adventure? So, i then wonder what we are doing here. Is this a blog/conversation/life that allows for true authenticity? Is it a blog that allows for people to ask tough questions and for people to agree and disagree - and then journey together to find and discover answers that are true to life and God? If people post anounoumously, does that say that people are afraid to post? is that a good thing? Even if this is a blog for controversal topics do we as people and as bloggers allow for these contraversal topics to be discussed or do we slam people for their ideas or thoughts.
At some point we must ask and discuss tough questions together with the intention of finding truth or real answers. there must be some truth for the world to exist and continue to work. And if Jesus claims to be truth then through him we will find truth and answers that are true to life and faith. But it seems that it must be an adventure and a journey taken together.

A REAL CHURCH?

What makes a real church?

Many times I feel that people don't look at us as being a real church. We do look differently. We are not real big, infact we are tiny because we are only a couple of months old. We are about radically living life as disciples of Jesus. We are not about encouraging spectators but encouraing an adventure lived together for Jesus. An advenutre that encourages the life of a disciple as we passionatly live our lives for Jesus and we live out our God given gifts and dreams. We don't like to specify exactly what we look like because we want the people who are a part of our community to shape that (the idea of the body of Christ).

We get people who come to "check it out", or people who come after they have already gone to church, people who expect church to be planned out for them, etc.
but...
I feel that many people are stuck in a box of what church is. Even people that think outside of the box still see a box. I know what scripture says that church looks like and it always points to a gathing of God's people.

So, what makes a REAL church? What is church supposed to look like? Are we a Real church?

I know what God has taught me it means to be the church or live life as the church or what God has shown me through scripture.

What do you think?

Fasting

God has really put it on my heart recently to begin to fast. Not just individually but as the church - with my community of passionate followers of Jesus.
But, I was struggling because i didn't understand what it meant to fast. Yeah, i was taught what the traditional heart behind fasting was but it seemed like more to me. I knew that you were supposed to not eat or drink for some period of time. or that you could choose to give something else up for a certain period of time. I was told that we need to fast, but why? I mean Jesus really doesn't talk much about fasting in the new tesament so why do we tell people that they need to fast. what is the heart behind it. so, i decided to study the heart behind what it means to fast.

what I have discovered is way cool and i am having fun on this adventure but i don't want to take it alone (God calls us to seek him out together as a community - so i want to encourage you to join me on this adventure of learning the heart of the fast and then fasting together and seeing how God moves.

I will be starting a message board section specifically dedicated to learning the heart of the fast and also for seeing how God answers our prayers and moves as we fast together as a community.

check out www.the-table.net and go to the message boards to join me on this adventure

God gave me a band-aid

This God sighting seems small but impacted my life huge!
I have recently developed a bump in my arm pit which was hurting really bad this morning. I was going to teach gym today so I went to find a band-aid so that I could put it over the bump to keep it from getting sore and hurting a whole lot. i searched the entire house but could not find one. So, i finally gave up and went to go and chill with God. AFter i read a little i got up to pray and then went back to the pillow that I had been studying on (and I had layed on it the night before - and with my ADD i totally don't sit still - which means the pillow get tossed around a lot) but when I went back there was a band-aid right on top of the pillow. It was way cool. I kind of felt bad that I didn't immediatly ask God for a band-aid but later God revealed to me that he really does take care of our needs - even when we don't ask!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sooooooooooooo, GOD GAVE ME A BAND-AID - WAY STINKIN COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Want to be: A Child

I've been struggling!
Not living life to the full!
I have allowed things, frustrations, conversations, worries keep me from living in the freedom of who God has made me to be. i have allowed these things to keep me from laughing, keep me from radically loving others, keep me from enjoying each moment that God has blessed me with, keep me from living freely, keep me from using my imagination and creativity, keep me from taking risks, going on adventures, loving others and so much more - I hate that.

I ask that you guys would be praying for me!!! God has me on a crazy adventure to reclaim this joy, lauhter, and child like faith (LIFE TO THE FULL)!

He has put on my heart to study his peace (shalom)and to spend time just enjoying Him, listening, and praising Him) - So far it has been a cool study and enjoyable to pour my heart out in song and in creativty. I want to once a again live passionatly with a an inexpressible and glorious joy. (1 peter 1:3-11)

Better at blogging

Hello everyone,
sorry it has been so long since i have posted. I have been absolutly horrible at keeping up with my blog. So, I have committed to writing at least one blog a week. I have a lot to talk about or share but am just so bad at taking the time to sit and write out my adventures. so, I ask that you help to keep me accountable if you see that I have not written anything in awhile.

thanks