Tony

Today I met Tony, (one of the crazy people who live next door) he came up and wanted to throw the football around a bit. It was pretty cool! Also this was the first time I could understand anything coming out of this guys mouth! lol Normally its just "GWAAAAA MA GOO" and then one understandable word like "gremlin."

This evening a friend texted me and wanted to hang out so when he came we walked down to the coffee shop and walked back to sit on the porch and talk. It was such a nice day neither of us wanted to be inside. Well as we were talking I herd some grunts and sounds coming up behind us. I had a hunch it was one of our neighbors, when it's nice they kinda hang out by their doors. Now you see this made me a little nervous because most of the residents of these apartments next door have mental disabilities(you never know what the cray people gona do.) Well to my surprise it was Tony (didn't know his name yet). He stood there with a slowly deflating old football staring at me. So I asked "You want me to play catch with ya? " He smiled and shook his head and ran back a little ways so he could throw it to me. 

Now like I said earlier I never really had much contact with Tony. Most of the time whenever we see him he was opening his door and yelling impossible to understand words than slamming it and running back into his house. We would see him pacing in his apartment at night sometimes as well when we would come home after dark.  We would just shrug our shoulders and keep on with our day. 

After throwing around the football around a few times he pointed to my friend and made a few more grunts. So I asked "You want my friend to play?" He shook his head yes again and threw me the football. But right after he threw it he went back inside his apartment and left the door open. So me and my friend passed the old pig skin around a bit and a bit of time passed by and we soon realized that Tony was not coming back out. So I got the football and I told my friend that I was going to take the ball back and thank him for letting us play with it. So I went inside and Tony was sitting there is his chair seemingly just waiting. I said "Thank you for letting us use your ball." and then I herd the first understandable sentence from Tony he said "take a seat, sit down." I told him 'I have company so I cant sit and chat right now but I will soon thank you." then I asked "Whats you name?" and he said with a grin on his face "Tony" he said it loud and proud. Then he turned eagerly and asked "whats your name?" and I said "Shaun". I thanked him by name this time then turned and left to go back to my friend. 

It was really cool to meet Tony and I'm interested to see why the Spirit has brought us to together. I'm looking forward to talking to him later. It was a perfect time for applying what I read through today in Crazy Love, it talked about the passage in Mathew 22 about the day of judgement "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’"(vrs. 35-40) I looked at Tony and tried to see him as Jesus and welcomed him as a stranger. I saw a man seeking friendship and although he looked rough I was not about to turn away when as a believer I bear the image of God. I'm going to try to represent Jesus the best I can to Tony. So if you could would you pray for Tony? I don't think he knows very many people. Looking forward to possibly hearing his story and getting to know him a little more.  

Psalm

Crazy Love by Francis Chan lead me to read this today and just Loved it and made it my prayer 

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

 Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

 So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands.

 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

 when I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

 for you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

 My soul clings to you;

your right hand upholds me.

 But those who seek to destroy my life

shall go down into the depths of the earth;

 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;

they shall be a portion for jackals.

 But the king shall rejoice in God;

all who swear by him shall exult,

for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

A Day To Yourself

Well today I was all alone. I literally had no human face to face conversation, except my crazy neighbor who sometimes opens his door and yells some form of words at me.... I just smile and wave haha. But yeah besides that no real conversation. It really had me focus my day around prayer. As people came to my mind today I just prayed for them, thanking God for them. Now looking back on my day it kind of reminds me of Paul as he prayed and wrote to all these people and churches. Praying like this has shown me how my love for people is growing along side with my growing love for God.

Today was a nice day full of cleaning, singing, praying, and reading, all by myself. To be honest I didn't think I could sing all these worship and praise songs by my self without just wishing everyone was around to sing with me. But I did and it was joyful.

1st Thessalonians 2-10 "We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Highs and Lows

I have been on quite the spiritual high the past two weeks or so and it has been really great! But I have noticed I'm goin down a bit. The past few mornings it has been really hard for me to focus on God first thing in the morning and doing my devotions have been a bit harder to get into. I think these lows right after the highs are times where God is testing our faith. I believe like in Job God is allowing tests and trials "And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? " I think He dose this to test our faith past the "good" times. I welcome these tests! Lord may I show, or may I see, your greatness through my weakness! I love realizing that God is pushing and testing me, that means He is pushing me to be more like His Son Jesus Christ. Making me better to produce more fruit for His Glory. Realizing that my faith is being tested helps me continue on the right path and have Gods blessing. I know that even if I fail He will use conviction to discipline me and like it's said in Romans "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." But I think we would all agree that we would rather have Gods blessing than His chastening. Just trying to keep my gaze fixed on the things of the Lord.

Love God, Love the Word, Love people. Remember the goal of being more like Christ Jesus.

Just on Fire

The Lord has just been raising up fire and excitement in me lately! I have been in the Word and my prayer life has improved significantly. I've been reading in Psalm, Peter, Ephesians, Corinthians, Mark, I've been all over!! All of this is showing me how to better Love Jesus, Love people, and Love my community. Being intentional in my relationship with both God and man. Reading about biblical friendship in Ephesians, seeing a poetic expression of the Lords perfect law in Psalm 19. AHHH I LOVE IT! Screaming out worship of our Great and Holy God, and just boldly standing for Him. Having biblical conversation and really enjoying it!

On another note Kony 2012 has been something that I'm feeling a passion for. Kony 2012 is form an organization called Invisible Children, I fallowed them a few years back when they made their first trip to Africa and its cool to see their growth and progress. I have such a passion for the defense and Love of children that this issue really pulls at my heart. So spreading the word about this and doing what action I can.

All of this has just awaken a passion inside and my love for God and my love for people is growing like a fire! God is Good. I'm so excited while writing this so if nun of this makes sense I'm sorry. 

Up and Down

Some days are both mountains and vallies. the day can start off great and rool down hill and possably go back up the mountan. Just got to remember that God is good through all of it. I cant wait to simply bask in His  light and feel the wormth of His shining glory.

Revelation 4:8 .."Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!”

  

Awearness to Moving Action

This morning a friend of mine posted a video from Invisible Children called Kony 2012. This video sparked a fire that I haven't felt in a while. It sparked inspiration to how I can do so much more to impact the world and spread the Love of Jesus in so many different ways. Loving Jesus by showing His love to people. Any way it inspired me to do more than I was doing.

One I'm going to spread more awareness of such problems of this fallen world. For one of the enemy's biggest schemes is the evil that is just swept under the carpet unnoticed except by the people directly effected. When I see people who want to do something but just don't know what I want to be able to point them in the direction of a few organizations I support. (Orphan Outreach, Invisible Children, ect.)

Secondly I'm changing/restricting my wardrobe. I am only wearing shirts that I have from things I support or have supported. This includes mission trip shirts, bands I support, organizations I have worked with or supported, ministries ect. I want what I wear to start conversation talking about what I support or the experiences I had working with an organization or group. Spread awareness of these groups and to be a walking billboard for these things I support. Bringing a purpose to even my dress.

Now I have 4 or 5 exclusions I kept but my closet is cleaned out and I think I'm going to dress like this for the rest of my life. Its a small thing but I feel lead to do so. Anything to further inform the world of why I live or do the things I do. I do them to bring glory to Jesus because I love Him. I love Jesus and so I love the people he has created. I will do what I can to help people and to point them in the direction of Christ. There is so much more I want to say but it 1:00am and I do have to get up in the morning so I guess this will have to do. Watch the video and find something or someone to support. Help people help people. I know that sounds funny but do it.