Random beginning comments:--I accidentally slept through church today.....woops--Kansas Jayhawks football are 2-0 (But i do have concerns w the running game and our alumni players who smoke weed).--My roommate (Brant Smith) always falls asleep with a book in his face--I twist my ankle just about everytime I play basketball--And my brother Sam got 25+ tackles his first game last Friday--My other brother Charlie hogs video games--I started reading the book of Genesis and am going straight though to Revelation so keep me accountable........
Whew, so now that thats over here we go....
Small groups are grand.......I have always loved the idea of small groups in the youth/church setting. I can't think of a better way to grow closer in community and closer to Christ. I had a small group seminar this past weekend with Jim Johnson and that heightened my excitement for small/D-Groups. Although the seminar took out a chunk of my weekend, it was a good time and really got me thinking about it. I loved it. What made the seminar more enjoyable was that Jim (a Canuck) made fun of David every 5 minutes about girls.....or lack there of....He also pointed out that I was the only one in the class that didn't have my books for class...that wasn't has funny.
We have our own D/small groups here at school. I am in one with Dr. Gary Zustiak and 5 other men from Ozark. We meet and talk about whats going on in our lives along with other important topics...like the emerging church.......postmoderism......and favorite college teams. Zus asked us a question and it really took some thought. He asked what scripture verse has impacked our lives the most. Seems simple enough right? Tons and tons of Bible verse flew through my head until I landed on my exagetical passage from Romans 12. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship....." This stuck out to me because of the importance of living your life as a living sacrifice or God. Gary hit me hard when he said " You know whats wrong with a living sacrfice? It always tries to crawl off the altar."
Needless to say, that hit me pretty hard. Jesus was more than willing to be that sacrifice for all of humankind.....and i just struggle on being a living sacrifice for God and to die to myself. I get in the way of what God wants to do through my life and thats going to be a lifelong struggle.....Enough talking about my myself....its time for Jim's burn...
JIM'S BURN
Camp teams sound like a lot of fun. You get a good sum of money straight to your schooling while you go around during the summer to Christian camps promoting Ozark Christian College. A lot of my friends participated in this past summer and i found out that relationships are effected in a major way. When people come back from camp teams are just the ABSOLUTE BEST FRIENDS IN THE WORLD...hear me out..its not like i dont expect people to become better friends through out the summer...but when they come back to school its like seeing 2nd grade girls meet up for the first time after a long summer on the playground.... cool, you guys are good friends. But you already told me about the time Phil fell off the roof, or the time you camp counselers clogged all the toliets. (although getting sent to a Pentecostal camp is pretty funny). Every story starts with..."This one time on camp teams..." or someone is always claiming that you wouldnt understand because you wernt on camp teams....or you can't hang with us, because you wern't on our camp team..... I love you guys....but sometimes you can really fry my cheese.
