I was on the Christus Victor website reading some of Greg Boyd's essays. One in particular about baptism. I am not going to give an in depth study about baptism...today :) Reading this essay reminded me of my walk with Christ and when I devoted my life to Him.
On December 17, 2003 I dedicated my life to Jesus Christ. I said yes to His invitation of love and forgiveness. I said yes to the Holy Spirit and let Him in my life to purify me and teach me. I said yes to being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
It was a long journey that led me there and led me here, but I took a little time to reflect on where I have been and where I am heading. I just wanted to give a thanks to everyone who affected this walk.
First off, I need to thank my parents for teaching me Christian morals and Christian ethics. For showing me love and grace. Teaching me obedience and teaching me how to see things as they really are. Their influence in my life can not be calculated or fathomed. They helped lay the foundation of where my faith is today. I cannot thank them enough.
I want to thank the 5 Parish Catholic church. The first 18 years of my life were strongly influenced by the teachings and beliefs of this church. Even though I didn't recognize it, I was being formed and shaped by this group of people. They also taught me devotion, obedience, hope, faith, love, forgiveness, and much more that cannot be written here for the list is far too long. It is through the Catholic church that I heard the gospel for the first time at the Steubenville North Conference. I heard Revelation 3:20 and did not forget it even to this day.
I want to thank the Covenant Church in Upsala for offering the youth group that changed my life forever. Through their ministry I was brought to my knees before the Lord to surrender to Him. They continued to feed the good work that was happening inside of me.
I want to thank Toni Ripplinger for being persistent with me. I learned so much through her. She invited me to the youth group that changed my life and continued to be a part of my life after which inspired so much growth in Christ.
I thank Rocky for making Christianity fun and exciting, while also challenging and thought provoking. The Lord used his life to grow mine.
I thank Wanda Erickson for giving me my first bible. It was a NIV study bible. That helped me really draw near to God.
I thank Eric Roering for being alongside me the whole time while I was developing and changing. Together we devoted ourselves to Jesus and together we grew. It was this companionship that helped me relate with someone to feel more comfortable during our growth. Because he was going to youth group, I finally decided to go to.
One last shout out is Campus Crusade for Christ. There are numerous people in this movement who played huge roles in my life and who still play major roles in my life that I have neither the time nor the space to name here. This ministry took my devotion to Christ and multiplied it ten fold and more.
There are probably many people I am forgetting, but because I included ministries I hit a lot of them :) There are many many things on my journey that influenced me which led me to where I am now. The greatest influence is God Himself. Without Him, I would never have found Him. He is the driving force in my life. He is the one I surrendered to. And He is the only I follow today and try and imitate. He met me where I was in my sin and unrighteousness and he forgave me and told me that He loves me. That changed everything and I could not stand here today without the strength He provides.
Thank you!
One Love,
Danger
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Fatherly advice
I made a mistake in the last post. My calculations missed a couple very important factors. I forgot to subtract the interest paid and the principle paid. Oops! Hehe, well the real numbers come out to around $40,000 profit, which is still pretty good. $13,333 per year. Comes out to around 23% on investment. Regardless of my erroneous calculations, the investment beats most investments.
The reason I have been curious about numbers is because a friend of mine offered me a whole life insurance program. I have always assumed that life insurance is insurance for a loved one if I die. Hence, I am not married so I do not need life insurance. It pays off your debt so your loved one does not have to worry about how to pay a mortgage or pay for the kids' education or whatever. This is true, but not the whole picture.
There are 2 popular types of life insurance, term and whole. I described term above. It's only purpose is to protect your loved ones in the case of your death. Whole life insurance has an interesting twist to it. It covers your family in the case of your death, but it also has a part of it that acts as a savings account. Every monthly payment you make has a portion that goes into this account. You are then given a certain interest rate on this money which helps it grow. The numbers I saw were 6.15% now and the last ten years it was about 8% interest. This is a pretty good rate. The way most investments work is that you pay a lot now to receive a lot more later. This kind of account does not break even until about year 15-20. Keep in mind it is a "retirement account" yet you are free to access this money at any time you desire. It does not make sense to touch it for a long time because of the ROI, return on investment, and you are charged when you take this money out by the company you invest with. The kicker is, when you take this money out, there are no taxes on it! It is tax free. That is different than your 401k which is taxed upon withdrawl. When you are older and in a higher tax bracket, you do not want to pay the way higher taxes on your retirement funds.
It works similar to a Roth IRA. The problem is, there is a $5000 limit on a Roth IRA. And when you make too much, you are not allowed to take out an IRA. That is when this program comes in handy. When you are making a lot of money, and are limited on where to put retirement funds that are not taxed like crazy. The difficult part is making the high payments for this life insurance. For it to make the most return, you need to have a very expensive plan. I am talking over $250 per month. Term life insurance can be about $20 or so per month. Significantly different, but remember that term life insurance is just insurance, there are no additional accounts with it.
Going with whole life insurance is not a bad thing. Overall it is a respectable investment. I would promot it for someone it makes sense for. It is not for everyone however. The way I see it is , if I plan on being paid over $100,000 someday, with inflation this is not as big as it seems, and want a lot of money in retirement, then this is a good idea. The reason my salary matters is that it affects if I can put money in an IRA and it bumps up my tax bracket for when I withdrawl my other retirement funds. If I will be in a higher tax bracket, this will help me save because I am not taxed on the withdrawl of this money. I am taxed before I put it in. Having a lot of money in retirement I will address further down. There are a few difficulties I have with it. I don't like insurance. I will avoid insurance at all costs. If I had the choice, I would not buy car insurance. It seems to be more of a headache than it is worth. Could I invest in something else and come out ahead?
When you google whole life insurace, you will quickly become aware of the debate between whole life insurance and term life insurance. The argument for term life insurance is you can make out better by investing in mutual funds. You will not have the large monthly payments that you are tied down to with whole life insurance. Now mutual funds are taxed at every point possible. Before, during, and after. However, the dividend can be higher than whole life insurance. If you subtract taxes, they come out very close to one another.
A few questions I need to ask are, how much it costs to take money out of the account and what the stipulations are on that? How much is the insurance aspect actually costing me? What happens if I drop the coverage? If I lose my job, one of the first things to go will be life insurance.
The last difficulty is the monthly payment. I talked to my dad about this topic for a while last night. He made some very good points.
1. If I max out my Roth IRA and 401k each year, I will have plenty to live off of in retirement based on my lifestyle. I don't live in luxury and don't expect to ever. I want to have nicer things and recreational things, but I can't justify expensive jewlery a luxury car, huge house and all that jazz. Not in my desires. My liquid assets, IRA's, and 401k should sustain me in retirement.
2. I will not need life insurance my whole life. It is good to have life insurance when you have debt or liabilities. For instance, a mortgage, credit card debt, car payments, and especially kids. If you have kids, you need life insurance for your loved ones. Just in case. However, there is no reason to leave your family with more money than you have ever lived with. It can get to people's head and they can lose their work ethic. I want my kids to earn what they receive, not free load off of my success. They will be much stronger people in such a case.
3. "Enjoy your money now." My dad said the mistake he made was that he was so tight when he was young that he didn't enjoy what he had. Granted he is financially successful now, but that could have been achieved had he loosened the reins a little and enjoyed life too. (This being in the context that my dad knows that I am very conservative and do not find it hard to save and sacrifice some things in order to save) This for me is a big point. I don't know if I want to be tied down to a large monthly payment so I can be wealthy in retirement. There are other ways to save for retirement that aren't as large of a committment and can receive similar payouts. Whole life insurance may be the best move financially, but in my case I would pay more for freedom than I would to avoid paying more in taxes later on in my life.
I will repeat. Purchasing whole life insurance is not a bad move financially. Actually, it can be a good move financially if you get started young enough. At 23 it is still worth it for me to get it. If I were 40, there is no way I would even consider this. But in my case, I think I can make other financial decisions that will allow me freedom in retirement and allow me freedom at 23. When I have a family with kids, I will buy term life insurance. Until then, I will make investments in mutual funds, real estate, IRA's, 401k, and other possible investments that come my way. Retirement should be on my mind, but it shouldn't dictate all of my financial decisions. I think I need freedom to buy things for my pleasure, such as a boat, cabin, etc. and allow me freedom to be more generous with my money to tithe for certain ministries. If I buy whole life insurance, I will be tied down when right now I need freedom.
Hope this helped someone. I don't mean to promot one way or the other. I hope I didn't paint a bad picutre of whole life insurance because it is a good thing. I decided that it is not for me. Perhaps it fits better in your situation. You need to research it for yourself.
One Love,
Danger
The reason I have been curious about numbers is because a friend of mine offered me a whole life insurance program. I have always assumed that life insurance is insurance for a loved one if I die. Hence, I am not married so I do not need life insurance. It pays off your debt so your loved one does not have to worry about how to pay a mortgage or pay for the kids' education or whatever. This is true, but not the whole picture.
There are 2 popular types of life insurance, term and whole. I described term above. It's only purpose is to protect your loved ones in the case of your death. Whole life insurance has an interesting twist to it. It covers your family in the case of your death, but it also has a part of it that acts as a savings account. Every monthly payment you make has a portion that goes into this account. You are then given a certain interest rate on this money which helps it grow. The numbers I saw were 6.15% now and the last ten years it was about 8% interest. This is a pretty good rate. The way most investments work is that you pay a lot now to receive a lot more later. This kind of account does not break even until about year 15-20. Keep in mind it is a "retirement account" yet you are free to access this money at any time you desire. It does not make sense to touch it for a long time because of the ROI, return on investment, and you are charged when you take this money out by the company you invest with. The kicker is, when you take this money out, there are no taxes on it! It is tax free. That is different than your 401k which is taxed upon withdrawl. When you are older and in a higher tax bracket, you do not want to pay the way higher taxes on your retirement funds.
It works similar to a Roth IRA. The problem is, there is a $5000 limit on a Roth IRA. And when you make too much, you are not allowed to take out an IRA. That is when this program comes in handy. When you are making a lot of money, and are limited on where to put retirement funds that are not taxed like crazy. The difficult part is making the high payments for this life insurance. For it to make the most return, you need to have a very expensive plan. I am talking over $250 per month. Term life insurance can be about $20 or so per month. Significantly different, but remember that term life insurance is just insurance, there are no additional accounts with it.
Going with whole life insurance is not a bad thing. Overall it is a respectable investment. I would promot it for someone it makes sense for. It is not for everyone however. The way I see it is , if I plan on being paid over $100,000 someday, with inflation this is not as big as it seems, and want a lot of money in retirement, then this is a good idea. The reason my salary matters is that it affects if I can put money in an IRA and it bumps up my tax bracket for when I withdrawl my other retirement funds. If I will be in a higher tax bracket, this will help me save because I am not taxed on the withdrawl of this money. I am taxed before I put it in. Having a lot of money in retirement I will address further down. There are a few difficulties I have with it. I don't like insurance. I will avoid insurance at all costs. If I had the choice, I would not buy car insurance. It seems to be more of a headache than it is worth. Could I invest in something else and come out ahead?
When you google whole life insurace, you will quickly become aware of the debate between whole life insurance and term life insurance. The argument for term life insurance is you can make out better by investing in mutual funds. You will not have the large monthly payments that you are tied down to with whole life insurance. Now mutual funds are taxed at every point possible. Before, during, and after. However, the dividend can be higher than whole life insurance. If you subtract taxes, they come out very close to one another.
A few questions I need to ask are, how much it costs to take money out of the account and what the stipulations are on that? How much is the insurance aspect actually costing me? What happens if I drop the coverage? If I lose my job, one of the first things to go will be life insurance.
The last difficulty is the monthly payment. I talked to my dad about this topic for a while last night. He made some very good points.
1. If I max out my Roth IRA and 401k each year, I will have plenty to live off of in retirement based on my lifestyle. I don't live in luxury and don't expect to ever. I want to have nicer things and recreational things, but I can't justify expensive jewlery a luxury car, huge house and all that jazz. Not in my desires. My liquid assets, IRA's, and 401k should sustain me in retirement.
2. I will not need life insurance my whole life. It is good to have life insurance when you have debt or liabilities. For instance, a mortgage, credit card debt, car payments, and especially kids. If you have kids, you need life insurance for your loved ones. Just in case. However, there is no reason to leave your family with more money than you have ever lived with. It can get to people's head and they can lose their work ethic. I want my kids to earn what they receive, not free load off of my success. They will be much stronger people in such a case.
3. "Enjoy your money now." My dad said the mistake he made was that he was so tight when he was young that he didn't enjoy what he had. Granted he is financially successful now, but that could have been achieved had he loosened the reins a little and enjoyed life too. (This being in the context that my dad knows that I am very conservative and do not find it hard to save and sacrifice some things in order to save) This for me is a big point. I don't know if I want to be tied down to a large monthly payment so I can be wealthy in retirement. There are other ways to save for retirement that aren't as large of a committment and can receive similar payouts. Whole life insurance may be the best move financially, but in my case I would pay more for freedom than I would to avoid paying more in taxes later on in my life.
I will repeat. Purchasing whole life insurance is not a bad move financially. Actually, it can be a good move financially if you get started young enough. At 23 it is still worth it for me to get it. If I were 40, there is no way I would even consider this. But in my case, I think I can make other financial decisions that will allow me freedom in retirement and allow me freedom at 23. When I have a family with kids, I will buy term life insurance. Until then, I will make investments in mutual funds, real estate, IRA's, 401k, and other possible investments that come my way. Retirement should be on my mind, but it shouldn't dictate all of my financial decisions. I think I need freedom to buy things for my pleasure, such as a boat, cabin, etc. and allow me freedom to be more generous with my money to tithe for certain ministries. If I buy whole life insurance, I will be tied down when right now I need freedom.
Hope this helped someone. I don't mean to promot one way or the other. I hope I didn't paint a bad picutre of whole life insurance because it is a good thing. I decided that it is not for me. Perhaps it fits better in your situation. You need to research it for yourself.
One Love,
Danger
My house...on the corner of the street...my house
Since I now have a blog, I think it is good to update people about what I am doing in my life instead of just talk about theology (which I really enjoy doing). As some of you know, I bought a house this summer. It was a foreclosure at a really good price. There is a ton of potential in this house, except I need to bring this potential out into the buyers market :) I am saying this is a fixer upper house to the extreme. Just to give you an idea about what kind of house this is, I will give you a list of some things I want to do:
1. New Roof
2. Paint soffits and fascia
3. finish siding
4. knock out a load bearing wall to connect the kitchen to the huge family room new addition
5. redo entire kitchen
6. finish new addition
a. instal gas fireplace
b. redo electrical
c. redo HVAC
d. insulate attic and other small holes
e. drywal / paint
f. hardwood / carpet floors
7. blow insulation in attic
8. finish bathroom in basement
9. master bedroom in basement
a. build walk in closet
b. move existing furnace
c. electrical
d. carpet
e. paint
10. refinish old hardwood floors in BR's and LR
11. paint outside
12. build deck
13. patio
14. LANDSCAPING
15. Redo old basement
16. laundry room remodel
17. cut down tree / replant maple or birch
18. new driveway
19. CRY!
20. decorate
21. rest
This list is a general list and does not go into detail about the specifics of each part I want to do.
So far I have remodeled my bathroom, painted the BR's and LR, replaced the front door, nearly finished siding, trimmed a lot of trees, torn down old ugly chimney, repaired roof, fixed soffits.
In the near future:
I just bought a window for my living room. I plan on blowing insulation in the attic of the old part of the house before it gets too cold. When I put the window in, I can finish siding the front of the house. Then I am off to finish the electrical in the new addition. This requires me updating the box to circuit breakers. Right now I have 100amp fuses. I plan to update it to either 100 or 200 amp circuit breakers. Then I can put a fireplace in the new part.
This is what I do with my "free time." It is a big investment though. I bought the house for $137,000 and plan to put $40,000 - $50,000 into it. If things go right, I could sell the house for $260,000 when I am done. Fingers crossed. It will be at least 3 years because I am receiving $8,000 from your tax dollars so that I can buy a house for the first time. This program requires you to live in your house for at least 3 years or you need to pay it back. Therefore, I bought my house for $129,000!
Not to get too into the numbers, but lets say I sell my house in 5 years. Lets say the market recovers to a "non-recession" level. The tax value when I bought the house was $242,000 as the market was collapsing. If the market grows 10%, the value of the house is $266,000. When I sell it, the realtor gets 6% of sale price, $15,960. That leaves me with $250,040. Say I put $50,000 into the remodel. I am down to $200,040. In 5 years I will have about $95,000 left on my mortgage, that brings me to $105,040 profit! However, I will be taxed on $266,000-$137,000=$129,000 income. Say I spend 3 years remodeling, that is $35,000 per year as a "part time job." That is pretty good! Counting for miscalculations say I make $30,000 per year. That is still pretty darn good if you ask me! The best part is I enjoy doing it. That is what really matters. Money is x amount of dollars. Enjoying what I do. Priceless.
One Love,
Danger
1. New Roof
2. Paint soffits and fascia
3. finish siding
4. knock out a load bearing wall to connect the kitchen to the huge family room new addition
5. redo entire kitchen
6. finish new addition
a. instal gas fireplace
b. redo electrical
c. redo HVAC
d. insulate attic and other small holes
e. drywal / paint
f. hardwood / carpet floors
7. blow insulation in attic
8. finish bathroom in basement
9. master bedroom in basement
a. build walk in closet
b. move existing furnace
c. electrical
d. carpet
e. paint
10. refinish old hardwood floors in BR's and LR
11. paint outside
12. build deck
13. patio
14. LANDSCAPING
15. Redo old basement
16. laundry room remodel
17. cut down tree / replant maple or birch
18. new driveway
19. CRY!
20. decorate
21. rest
This list is a general list and does not go into detail about the specifics of each part I want to do.
So far I have remodeled my bathroom, painted the BR's and LR, replaced the front door, nearly finished siding, trimmed a lot of trees, torn down old ugly chimney, repaired roof, fixed soffits.
In the near future:
I just bought a window for my living room. I plan on blowing insulation in the attic of the old part of the house before it gets too cold. When I put the window in, I can finish siding the front of the house. Then I am off to finish the electrical in the new addition. This requires me updating the box to circuit breakers. Right now I have 100amp fuses. I plan to update it to either 100 or 200 amp circuit breakers. Then I can put a fireplace in the new part.
This is what I do with my "free time." It is a big investment though. I bought the house for $137,000 and plan to put $40,000 - $50,000 into it. If things go right, I could sell the house for $260,000 when I am done. Fingers crossed. It will be at least 3 years because I am receiving $8,000 from your tax dollars so that I can buy a house for the first time. This program requires you to live in your house for at least 3 years or you need to pay it back. Therefore, I bought my house for $129,000!
Not to get too into the numbers, but lets say I sell my house in 5 years. Lets say the market recovers to a "non-recession" level. The tax value when I bought the house was $242,000 as the market was collapsing. If the market grows 10%, the value of the house is $266,000. When I sell it, the realtor gets 6% of sale price, $15,960. That leaves me with $250,040. Say I put $50,000 into the remodel. I am down to $200,040. In 5 years I will have about $95,000 left on my mortgage, that brings me to $105,040 profit! However, I will be taxed on $266,000-$137,000=$129,000 income. Say I spend 3 years remodeling, that is $35,000 per year as a "part time job." That is pretty good! Counting for miscalculations say I make $30,000 per year. That is still pretty darn good if you ask me! The best part is I enjoy doing it. That is what really matters. Money is x amount of dollars. Enjoying what I do. Priceless.
One Love,
Danger
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
To be, or not to be?
"And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God." -Luke 12:8-9
This is a very scary verse to me. I think about the times where I have had opportunities to acknowledge God before men and I was afraid. I diverted the conversation or I played off the opportunity. Granted, there have been conversations with co-workers and clients where I seized the opportunity and was proud to proclaim Christ as my Lord and Savior. I have heard it said that it takes one lie to make you a liar. Jesus was disappointed with Peter after one denial, even though he went on to deny Christ 3 times.
I am saddened by how easy it is for me to avoid acknowledging Jesus. If Jesus is so important to me, and I am in love with Him, then why is it so hard to talk about Him. You would think that my love for God would exceed my desire to avoid the risk of making someone uncomfortable or being uncomfortable myself. If I am so in love with God, you would think that I would be seeking for opportunities to acknowledge Him before men. Especially because this is what He desires. 2 reasons, 1. it shows that we are proud of Him and 2. it allows other people to get to know Him more, that they may see my faith and want to have a faith like that.
Now I am not saying that I want to turn every conversation into a gospel presentation. I don't think that would be right. If someone wants to talk about it, I will talk. If they are not comfortable, I will not be as forward. The point is not to force people into choosing Christ. No, the point is showing them Christ and hoping that they will choose Him freely by God's good nature. I have found that most people are comfortable answering questions about what they believe and generally want to talk about what they believe. If I am interested in what they believe, it can be a comfortable conversation. Just by opening the door to what someone believes allows God to be working in their hearts.
The funny thing is I know this to be true, yet I still fear talking about Jesus. I hope I can search for opportunities to acknowledge Christ before men more frequently. I want to be bold for Christ and not fear man. I want my love for God and God's love for me to be more observable than my desire to be comfortable. I pray that I would not cover my candle under a basket. I tried to cover my candle with a basket and now the flame is burning the basket. I don't want to burn my hand!
One Love,
Danger
This is a very scary verse to me. I think about the times where I have had opportunities to acknowledge God before men and I was afraid. I diverted the conversation or I played off the opportunity. Granted, there have been conversations with co-workers and clients where I seized the opportunity and was proud to proclaim Christ as my Lord and Savior. I have heard it said that it takes one lie to make you a liar. Jesus was disappointed with Peter after one denial, even though he went on to deny Christ 3 times.
I am saddened by how easy it is for me to avoid acknowledging Jesus. If Jesus is so important to me, and I am in love with Him, then why is it so hard to talk about Him. You would think that my love for God would exceed my desire to avoid the risk of making someone uncomfortable or being uncomfortable myself. If I am so in love with God, you would think that I would be seeking for opportunities to acknowledge Him before men. Especially because this is what He desires. 2 reasons, 1. it shows that we are proud of Him and 2. it allows other people to get to know Him more, that they may see my faith and want to have a faith like that.
Now I am not saying that I want to turn every conversation into a gospel presentation. I don't think that would be right. If someone wants to talk about it, I will talk. If they are not comfortable, I will not be as forward. The point is not to force people into choosing Christ. No, the point is showing them Christ and hoping that they will choose Him freely by God's good nature. I have found that most people are comfortable answering questions about what they believe and generally want to talk about what they believe. If I am interested in what they believe, it can be a comfortable conversation. Just by opening the door to what someone believes allows God to be working in their hearts.
The funny thing is I know this to be true, yet I still fear talking about Jesus. I hope I can search for opportunities to acknowledge Christ before men more frequently. I want to be bold for Christ and not fear man. I want my love for God and God's love for me to be more observable than my desire to be comfortable. I pray that I would not cover my candle under a basket. I tried to cover my candle with a basket and now the flame is burning the basket. I don't want to burn my hand!
One Love,
Danger
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Time goes fast, how to keep up with the changes?
It occured to me today that I don't keep in touch with nearly as many people as I did in college. One very obvious reason for this is that I am not in college anymore. I am now a working adult. Yikes! I am not ready for that step :( I know I own a house and have been working at my job for the past year and a few months, but being a working adult is a scaring thing to say. I think I will continue to title myself a college graduate. That sounds less scary and more versatile. I am a man of many opportunities after all.
I am also a man of many tangents. Anyway, I wish I were able to keep in touch with more people I was close to during college. When I see them now, I feel as though I have nothing to say. It is a sad thing to me. I wonder if this is part of growing up though. Not that being a grown up means having less relationships, but kindof. Being grown up means more responsibilities which means less time, which means less relationships. Sad but true, at least it is for me. Seems like just yesterday that I would go to Cru and meet about 5-10 new people, talk to old friends, and still have time to talk to the girl I had a crush on.
Maybe I just need to find my niche as an adult. In college I had a niche, why not find one as an adult. Thinking about it, I am not sure every adult would say the things I am saying because adults have niches too. Hmm...where can I find that. I think I will email that person from Woodland hills church about small groups. Maybe I can find a niche there. If you haven't noticed, I like the word niche. It is a fun word. I will let you know how that goes...
I am also a man of many tangents. Anyway, I wish I were able to keep in touch with more people I was close to during college. When I see them now, I feel as though I have nothing to say. It is a sad thing to me. I wonder if this is part of growing up though. Not that being a grown up means having less relationships, but kindof. Being grown up means more responsibilities which means less time, which means less relationships. Sad but true, at least it is for me. Seems like just yesterday that I would go to Cru and meet about 5-10 new people, talk to old friends, and still have time to talk to the girl I had a crush on.
Maybe I just need to find my niche as an adult. In college I had a niche, why not find one as an adult. Thinking about it, I am not sure every adult would say the things I am saying because adults have niches too. Hmm...where can I find that. I think I will email that person from Woodland hills church about small groups. Maybe I can find a niche there. If you haven't noticed, I like the word niche. It is a fun word. I will let you know how that goes...
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Spark of Nature
I had a very peaceful and serene morning. I was in a very calm state for some reason as I was driving to work. I was listening to Shawn McDonald and enjoying my drive. I saw several geese fly overhead and I was just captured by the beauty of nature. This moment was excited by the song "Beautiful God" which encouraged me to be thinking about the beauty of God.
Oh boy did I experience it this morning. I was just blown away by the grace of the birds flying overhead that I saw God as this masterfully beautiful creator. I love these moments, when the business of my day is paused to admire the beauty so meticulously placed around us. It is moments like these that make me want to move out of the city and live in the country. Quit my job and just live off of the beautiful creation of our God. How nice would it be to not have to worry about money? That is one of the biggest concerns I am faced with each day. We need money to live and have the important things in life. I can not raise a family without money. I can not heat my home without money. I can not have a home without money. I can not even drive to church without money. Such a sad life we live. I can not wait until money is no longer a thought or a need. I am excited for the day where our currency is love and we are sustained by a loving God. What a beautiful place this will be. There shall be no one in want. No one in need. There will be no poverty, or famine, or disease. The concerns of this world will be no more and I can not wait for that day.
Until that day comes, I hope I can be wise with the resources God has placed before me. I have many opportunities to serve others daily, yet I do not view these opportunities as such. Rather I view them as a deterrent for the work "I need to do." "I have my business and I do not have time for someone else's business." I don't like this mindset that I have far too often. I pray God that you would remove this from me and place in my heart the mind of a servant like your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
One Love,
Danger
Oh boy did I experience it this morning. I was just blown away by the grace of the birds flying overhead that I saw God as this masterfully beautiful creator. I love these moments, when the business of my day is paused to admire the beauty so meticulously placed around us. It is moments like these that make me want to move out of the city and live in the country. Quit my job and just live off of the beautiful creation of our God. How nice would it be to not have to worry about money? That is one of the biggest concerns I am faced with each day. We need money to live and have the important things in life. I can not raise a family without money. I can not heat my home without money. I can not have a home without money. I can not even drive to church without money. Such a sad life we live. I can not wait until money is no longer a thought or a need. I am excited for the day where our currency is love and we are sustained by a loving God. What a beautiful place this will be. There shall be no one in want. No one in need. There will be no poverty, or famine, or disease. The concerns of this world will be no more and I can not wait for that day.
Until that day comes, I hope I can be wise with the resources God has placed before me. I have many opportunities to serve others daily, yet I do not view these opportunities as such. Rather I view them as a deterrent for the work "I need to do." "I have my business and I do not have time for someone else's business." I don't like this mindset that I have far too often. I pray God that you would remove this from me and place in my heart the mind of a servant like your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
One Love,
Danger
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