Final post: Moving to tumblr

It's been a while since I've posted. Life has definitely been crazy as of late. This will be my final Foosball Hero post since I am moving my blogging efforts to tumblr. I will still be writing on theological subjects, but will also be further broadening the personal post I already do and using my tumblr for a multitude of blogging purposes.

I hope you will check me out at slightsanity.tumblr.com!

A Faith Tested and Proven

If you are like me, or any other human being for that matter, you deal with struggles in life. Things are difficult and don't always go your way, and sometimes it feels like you are the only one. I often begin to have thoughts of doubt on whether I'm doing the right things because often times it can feel so hard just to go through the day to day.

I have posted before on my struggles with just time in the day alone. About how much of the time it feels like I am burning a candle at five ends. With college, work, and then my internship at First Baptist Clarksville (that I consider my real job, regardless of pay or not), it can begin to feel like too much. Sometimes I feel like I just want to be done with it all and be in full time ministry, but God has his subtle ways of keeping me humble in my place in life.

Just today I was supposed to preach to the high school students in our student ministry, but a kink was thrown in when I was scheduled to begin my new paying job during the time of the service. At first I was frustrated, getting angry at my situation and wondering why things have to be so difficult, but then one of those subtle reminders from God came. In the very passage that I was preparing to preach on tonight (1 Peter 1:3-25), through His word, God had a message for me.

In 1 Peter 1:6-7, I was reminded that trials in life are meant to test us, to strengthen our faith and give glory to God. I praise God for the reminder, that I seem too often to forget, and I pray that through the trails in life my faith is proven.

Rest in the Lord

I am grieved, yet also filled with joy that my great grandmother, Ruth Shipman, is now with the Lord. She was one of the strongest women I have ever known, and much of who I am today is due to her and the closeness between four generations of family members. I will always remember spending time at my great grandparent's land and all of the memories that were made there. Though she will be greatly missed, I hold my hope in Christ and her faith in him.

Love you Granny!

Isaiah 51:11

D3- Down and Dirty in the 'Ville (Louisville that is)

The past week has been a blast working with a group of the high school students from FBC. Starting Monday and running until Thursday, we took a group to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky for the D3 Youth Conference put on by their college (Boyce College). The conference used the facilities of the seminary campus and operated like a conference-camp hybrid.

The name D3 stands for the basis on how the teaching sessions work. We had general sessions every day involving everyone, but there were also three different track sessions that met 4 times for one hour sessions. These were three areas of discipleship, hence the name D3, and they were Missions, Spiritual Leadership, and finally Worldview. Students, along with adult leaders, were able to choose what track they wanted to take, and our group was mainly split by Spiritual Leadership and Missions.

This was honestly the first youth event that I have witnessed in a long time that was

immediately all about scripture. We checked in, took our stuff to the dorms they had us staying in, and right after that we dove into the first general session. Everything from the worship and teaching was deep in scripture and truth, lacking the surface teaching and concert worship I have become accustomed to seeing at youth events, and as the Conference Pastor Eric Bancroft started speaking we immediately started dissecting the truths of scripture on what discipleship is truly all about. He used The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20, and talked about how Jesus commanded the Disciples to take what he had taught them and take that to the nations. So it should be with us that to instruct others in the way of the faith, we must know the word of Christ ourselves.

There was even an intense game of Underground Church that we played to bring awareness of the persecuted Church to the students, using almost the entire seminary grounds where Jeff, Kyle, and I somehow found our way into the office of Dr. Russell Moore, the Dean of the School of Theology at SBTS, as well as a teacher of the word I greatly respect and look up to. We didn't touch anything, I promise...

So much more was discussed throughout the week and many great men and servants of the Lord came to teach (Jeff Struecker, Al Mohler) and lead in worship (The Hoffmans). We also had a "concert", which was more like another sermon through music, from the Christian Rap artist FLAME. I can't help but be amazed by these men and their hearts for the Lord and discipleship, as well as all of the others behind this conference, seeking to love on and teach these students.

Seriously! Check This Out

This is a blog that I read earlier this week. I tweeted about it, facebook-ed about it, but I still want to share it. There are so many great points about how in Christ we, who were once completely dead, are made alive. Rather than bad people that become good. The blog post is titled, God's Final Solution- by Pastor Tullian Tchividjian, Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

"To focus on how I’m doing more than on what Christ has done is Christian narcissism."

Click here to read!

Sermon Notes: Build Up the Body

Paul often uses the illustration of a race, or a runner, in his letters to the early church. The reason for that is that we as humans often associate with what we know. The idea of a race is a great analogy for the Christian life. For one, in a race you are trying to reach a goal, winning, but if we translate that to the life of a believer the goal becomes Christ, and we are trying to reach that. Hear me when I say that our actions do not make us closer to Christ, but rather our faith in him. It is in that faith that we strive to be more like Christ. On a personal level this may translate to study and prayer, letting God’s word encourage and move us forward. There is a great importance in building up our own spiritual “body”, but that is not the Body we are talking about tonight. We must not neglect the building up of the Body of Christ, that is to say “us”. As believers we are a part of the Body of Christ, or the Church. Going back to the analogy, a runner must work towards their goal. They cannot only expect to win, while not doing anything to reach that goal, but they must strive towards it, building in strength and endurance to achieve.

-To discuss how to build up the Body of Christ, we must first fully understand that we are the Body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-20

-As members of the body we must strive to be one/unified. 1 Corinthians 12:21-27
-Our motives must not be self centered (Philippians 2:1-5), but rather by a spirit of love. Galatians 5:22-24, Romans 12:9-13

-Do this so that we may together become mature in the Spirit that we may accomplish the task before us. Ephesians 4:1-3, 11-16

-To succeed in building up the Body, we must each set our sights on striving to bring glory to God. We present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God to serve his purpose. Romans 12:1-8

God's Word is Truth

The passing weeks, months even, have been filled with heavy discussion within the Christian community, much of which has been fueled by Rob Bell (Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church) and his newly released book, Love Wins. Debate like this is nothing new. For years we have seen debate, much of which is still going on. For example, just last night I watched a live discussion over homosexuality within the Christian faith on CNN's HLN station (too many acronyms, I know!). That's nothing new, of course, but still a highly debated topic, and I have seen more and more throughout my time within the Church (women pastors, Calvinism vs Arminianism, denominational/doctrinal differences, etc.). This post is not to discuss these, but as always feel free to ask and I'll be happy to let you know my thoughts according to scripture.

I don't know if it is the fact that I'm becoming increasingly tired of it all, or that being a college student makes me more "feisty", but I do want to say that God's word is true, and he is quite clear on where he stands. We should always return to God and Scripture when these debates present themselves.

With any book on the Christian Faith that we read, we must always match it up to God's word. This goes the same with our views on God Himself because it is in his word that he has revealed a glimpse of who He is to us. I do this with all books that I read, from authors/pastors like David Platt, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, and many others. Take a serious look at these, not just the face value of it.

Personally, I have not read Rob Bell's new book. That being said, I do plan on reading it and not discussing it until then. I have, however, read many reviews on it, both in support and criticism, and all are in agreement on what the book is about. Dr. Russell Moore wrote a thorough review of the book I would suggest anyone with interest in this read.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." -John 1:1-5 ESV