Rest

I decided to try something that is pretty hard for me over the next few weeks: not playing video games, watching tv shows, or any of the other ten things that I could do to entertain myself. Instead, I am going to spend time with other people to relax. This will also help reduce spending many hours wasting the time that is God's.

I think God has recently been showing me how 'little' things can have a hold on me and keep me from seeking Him. How can I want anything but to know Jesus better after what He did for all of us? I remember last year when me and Matt made the choice to go on an "entertainment fast" for a week, which we both blogged about. I was expecting a change, but not a big one. This time, I expect a BIG change.

I have noticed one area of my life where I once was very undisciplined change drastically when I let God be first... when I choose what I think Jesus wants instead of what I want. It required stepping out of that situation and listening to God. The situation was a romantic relationship. Once I was no longer in the relationship I was able to seek God and grow. After a while, I was thinking about relationships again, but this time free from what had a hold of me... my desires. I still make mistakes, but they are easier to see and correct now.

I expect the same outcome with this challenge: not entertaining myself for at least until the end of May. By entertaining myself I mean playing video games, watching movies, reading, or other things that have no spiritual benefit by myself. As one of my goals in this is to spend more time with people, doing these things with people is fine. Obviously so is reading the Bible, etc.

Contentment

Over the past few weeks I have had a couple unexpected fines. At first, I was really defensive and wanting to argue them, etc. It took some time to remember that all that I have is God's, and I should not be worrying about how things will work out. I have also started respecting the laws that our city and country have, so when I break one I understand that there is a chance of a fee. As it turns out, I had a check from one day of substituting come in and also apparently I never received my deposit back from applying to University Village. I have come to trust God to take care of how things will get paid. When unexpected payments arise, another unexpected income shows up that I had no idea about (or at least forgot about).

Matthew 6:25-27 (New International Version)

Do Not Worry

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^"?

Mark 12:41-44 (New International Version)

The Widow's Offering

⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴²But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,^"worth only a fraction of a penny.^"

⁴³Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Are we giving everything to God? What does this actually look like? Should we give all of our money/income to our church and expect God to provide, or simply be prepared for God to have it go elsewhere? My current view is sort of a mixture of the two. I think it is good to support our church and what God will do through it. I also think that KNOWING that God will likely ask for some of our income, or rather His income, to go to other places is important. It is a crutch if we expect God to only work through a group of believers that meets at a building...

Challenge update: I failed my own challenge from the last post. :(

I make the same challenge this next week. :)

The Body of Christ

In the search of a good co-op game to play on the PlayStation 3, I found Army of Two.  It is a first person shooter with strong co-op elements.  You absolutely need the other character, whether or not it is another person playing or an AI player.  It got me thinking about how much we need each other in our spiritual war.

Do you feel like you are in a war?  I used to not feel like I was, in fact there were times when I did not know of anything that I needed to work on spiritually.  Being in the prayer committee this year has opened my eyes to a lot of things going on 'behind the scenes'.  I have begun to notice the areas in which I am basically walking through a trench ignoring the guns firing above me.  We must get involved in the war on God's side.  Prayer has an effect on people's lives.  Talking to something about Jesus has an effect on their life.  Giving to people who are in need when are you in abundance has an effect on their lives.  This takes time and care.

One aspect of being involved in this spiritual war around us is being part of a team with the other 'players'.  Just like in Army of Two, we NEED each other.  

Proverbs 27:17 (New International Version)

 ¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron,
       so one man sharpens another.

Many of us are in a study at Northeast Church called every man's battle.  The entire reason for doing the group discussions is to assist each other in growing closer to sexual purity.  I have experienced many times over how when we do not talk about what we are struggling with, Satan can trick us into giving up.

We also need to talk to each other about what we are strugging with.  This is a two way friendship, and I bet that if we were to talk to our close friends about this half of the times we saw each other, we would become closer to God as well.

I have a challenge... talk to atleast three guys this next week (or until we meet next Wednesday) about what they are struggling with.  I do not mean asking and expecting an answer and being done, but actually spending time to talk about it and pray about it.

The Sabbath

I have been thinking about what rest we need, and what is us just being lazy. One excuse that I had at some point caught myself using was that we need a day of rest just doing whatever we wanted. I asked one of my roommates, Brad, what he thought about the idea. He reminded me that we never read about Jesus having time to just relax. While this is not saying that Jesus did not relaxed, I decided to look up what the bible says about the Sabbath.

Exodus 20:8-11 (New International Version)

⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Keeping in mind that we are under the new covenant, it seems as though the spirit of the Sabbath is about the LORD. I know that when I take a "day of rest" it usually means that I played many games and did not think about the LORD. I think that the danger in this is that it keeps us from becoming close to God. If our rest is becoming an idol, something that has higher importance than our LORD, then it is not beneficial at that extreme.

What would it look like for our week to be centered about Jesus, not just Sunday and maybe a couple of other days?

Entertainment Fast

Last week Matt asked if I wanted to do an entertainment fast. We decided that for a week we would not watch movies, play games, or general pointless things on computers. Even though neither me or Matt did perfect on our fast, we did learn from it. It made it much easier to critically analyze the use of my time. I normally would spend a minimum of 10 hours a week wasting time on my computer, just entertaining myself. I blew off time that I spent an hour here or there as 'relaxing', as a break between studying. This past week I instead would spend time with people as breaks or take a nap. It was also much easier for me to set aside time to spend focusing on God, without a game in the back of my mind. It all came down to other things, in this case games and entertainment, taking too big of a place in my heart.

Although the fast is effectively over, I am deciding to spend much less time with games and movies. There are many times, like right now, when I would normally be playing a game instead of listening to what is telling me that I probably shouldn't. I know there were many times when Matt would be playing a game, and I would think 'well, if he is, then why shouldn't I?'. But that was letting him inhibit me, and in turn likely inhibiting him.

I do not think that I should stop playing games or watching movies altogether, and there are times when I expect to relax with friends using those things. I just notice in myself a potential (and history) to entertain myself to where God has less priority in my mind, and things of this world have more priority. I consider the loss of a little happiness well worth it in consideration of what God has promised those who follow his ways.

Volunteering Update

Jeff, Justin and I decided to have one monthly Saturday project this semester that would be the same organization each month. For spring break, we decided to have 3 bigger projects, one for each of us. The projects would likely be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of that week.

In the mean time we wanted to get the monthly projects going. I just heard back from Shoes for Orphan Souls that they would not be able to have any shoes to handle until April. This means that we need to find another consistent project to start in February.

I am very excited about these projects, and I look forward to maybe leaving class early on Saturday occasionally to attend.

Proposal

My proposal for an outreach project this semester is doing five service projects monday through friday of spring break. This will entail working with the organization on planning the project, and other needs the organizations have. Due to the planned extra involvement (other than just showing up), me and Jeff plan on working on this together. We will also help with the weekly projects when needed.