Blog of Teh Voges

Sorry I missed last week in my sandals blog. This is week 3 on the Series Refuel. Preventative Maintenance. What does that mean? Well Pastor Matt brought up America’s habits are out of control. Which habits you might ask? Eating. Well since I don’t have a problem with my eating I (at first) kind of brushed this off because its something I don’t struggle or deal with. Granted I’m thin, but that’s a mixture of choice and genes. I was talking about this in my smallgroup this week and decided to go deeper with it. We came to the conclusion that we need to look at the issue directly because this is specific part of the issue. What is that issue? Self-Control. Not with just food, but we need to have self-control in every aspect of our lives. Whether it is with food, T.V. or even our sexual desires, we need to have self control. Usually this goes with gluttony, which is the need to avoid pain. A lot of you know of some of my past problems of self satisfaction through video games, well I began thinking of what other things I’m self-fish on. Basically everything I’m selfish on but the difference now is that I don’t do it now to avoid pain, I do it because it’s in my nature. So I think its time to take responsibility of my own self and bring my focus toward others. I’m going to start seeking ways to be self-less and give to others. I need a lot of prayer. lol.

(ht: Snap)

At Pipeline our new series is Treasure Quest! Its a series we got from another church, that was suppose to be like a jungley explorer type of series. Now we thought it was kind of cheesy so we decided to spice it up. So we replaced the jungle exploration to pirates looking for treasure! It’s going to be sweet. For this new series im going to be Jack Sparrow in it, which I wont be to involved in the storyline but I’m going to set up the story and let the ‘Main Characters’ do the rest. Now the map. Since we are having pirates, this means we have to have a treasure map. So this is my first treasure map that I have made. Normally I would put a path to go and an ‘X’ but the story will tell them were to go hence me not having to put it on the map.

P.S. This series is going to rock!

Well, the last few months I’ve been super busy. Way to busy. An excuse? Yeah … Probably. What I have found that writing things out help my understanding and make my enthusiasm about things greater. Strange huh? I never used to be a writer and now I’m almost 6 months into my first official blog. I been writing things for I think over a year now from the encouragement of my Small group to help understand things and I have slacked the last few months. Forgive me. In light of this new series, I am doing to work my best to get back into the swing of things so that I can understand Christianity better for myself. I’m not doing it for the reader’s benefit, I do it for my own.

Refuel. This message is a call to be ‘Refueled’ with God. What does that mean? I need to trust in God and to not just wait on Sundays to ‘Refuel’ my spiritual tank. There are two major contributors to this. Trust in myself and my trust in things. The Bible says Cursed to those who put their trust in mere human and rely on human strength … (Jeremiah 17:5). This is a huge issue for me, because I live in trusting myself. I have trusted myself way to much in my life and it has got me nowhere. The kicker is I seen what trusting in God does and it’s truly amazing. Yet I rather trust in myself than God. Why? I’m dumb, that’s why. Like Pastor Matt pointed out, we can’t even breathe by ourselves. Also I trust in things. I think that’s a big downfall for me also, I live like I make everything move yet God makes everything work in our lives. What I like to do is plan things out. Does anyone else do that or am I just weird? I want to plan my entire life out. From start to finish I want it planned out. Time and time again God shoves me into a totally different direction, and I get so frustrated only to realize that it’s so much better. Last December I was going to move out to Fullerton. It was my number one goal, not to get away but to be closer to school. God made it that every lead was a dead end and so I decided not to go. A few months later I met Michelle, who I wouldn’t have met if I moved out and thus it changed my life for the good forever. Trust sucks. It’s so hard. I have a hard time trusting others I see much less a God that I can’t see. Pastor Matt said this on Sunday and in the Remix series, “We need to learn to trust God, because he is TRUST worthy!” I know He is but in the dept of my being, I want to be selfish.

What does trusting in God look like? “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:8-9) A life that trusts God is blessed. Do I want that? Of Course! Why can’t I just do it? How can I do that? This is what I love about Sandals; they not only give you what you need to do but the means to do it. Application has changed my life. This is what we need to do. First we need to know God (or get to know Him). There are three ways to know God.

1.) Daily Prayer

2.) Daily Worship

3.) Daily times in the Bible.

Looking at this list I realize that I don’t do all three everyday. I’ll do one to two of them a day but never all three. Its making me think how much more work I need to be doing, and how I need to not just think about how much work but WANT to do much more work. I need to learn to become ‘deep rooted’ in God, not just in ourselves or things. I need to get to know God better.