Amazed

Last night Third Race went really well. We had a few new students which is always a plus, so we are staying right around the 35 student mark. I love coming to church on Wednesday nights. There is so much energy and positivity, that I think God is really moving within the student's lives.

Last nights message was about the clearing of the temple (Mark 11:15-19). Usually when people read that or you might hear it preached, you hear all about the actions of Jesus rather than the intent of why of he was mad. I used the word "amazed" as the jumping off platform into the reason for Jesus teaching. The Jews were amazed at his teaching, why? Because Jesus was opening the way for all people to come and worship God with no strings attached.

I wanted the students to walk away with a sense of amazement at what Jesus had done for us on the cross. That this story is a picture of grace and that is why the Jews were amazed. So we talked about grace for a little bit. Also though I gave a warning that we can be like the Pharisees and other leaders too, we can place things in people's lives that hinder them from being able to worship God!

To drive home the point even further, we broke off by ourselves and we wrote letters...either to ourselves or to God. Asking God to remove whatever we may place in our lives or others that hinders them from coming to worship God or about reflecting on the grace that God has given us. It was a good night of worship, in a good community, with good students! I couldn't ask for a better place to be serving right now!

Magic—the problem with Romeo

1). In a paragraph or two, right down some assumptions you have about Jesus?

2). Theologians, philosophers, scientists, and everyday people have all grappled with what C.S. Lewis called “the problem of pain,” that there is some great conflict in the universe with which we are interacting. Many have struggled with the fact that pain exists but doesn’t have a traceable beginning. What do you think loneliness, addiction, price, war, and self-addiction reveal about the state of humanity and the millions of individuals who are a part of it?

It reveals that we all have something in common. Sometimes we try to focus on our differences rather than see what we have in common. That could go a long way in seeing God’s hand in the world and see people reconciled to himself. I think it also shows us that there is something that we all feel and we all try to fill it with different things. Whether it drugs, alcohol, loneliness, addictions, we use those things to fill the void that is common to man. A void that only God can fill and a void that God wants to void.

3). “I couldn’t give myself to Christianity because it was a religion for the intellectually naive.” Does this statement resonate with you, make you angry, confused? In your opinion, does Christianity offer a substantial and believable answer to the problem of pain?

I’m a pastor and I have had to deal with this and wrestle with it. There are times that it just doesn’t make sense to me, and than at other times it is the only thing in the world that makes sense. It’s not that we are naive, but that there are many evangelical Christians who have made a subculture all there own, who can’t see outside of it. They make it seem like something for naive people because they can’t carry on conversations with people without getting defensive. They won’t dialogue with others and invite them into their story.

I think once we get past this, Christianity does offer a response to the pain in the world. A God who loved us so much he came to earth to take that pain away from us and then entrusted us to share this message with others, to help God, to partner with God in reconciling the world back to him, healing the hurt, comforting the lonely. That is a faith I want to be a part of and that I will gladly proclaim.

4). Is the Navy SEAL story a more appealing hero than what you know and believe about Jesus? Why?

Any time we can see a story of redemption and salvation that we resonate with as humans, we are more apt to like that. The story of Jesus seems like something we know happened but happened so long ago that we can’t truly wrap our minds around it. We want to believe it but we have cultural differences, 2000 years of historical differences, and 2000 for His story to become mystical and all most fairy tale like.

Problems—what I learned on television

Imagine that you wake up tomorrow morning as the best version of yourself. What would this look like in a normal day of your life? Write it out as a brief story. Then, imagine that you wake up the following day as the worst version of yourself. What would this look like? How would you behave? What decisions would you make? Write a brief story to describe what this day would look like.

If anyone reads this blog, i encourage you do just as this paragraph asks. I am not going to write it here…

1). How did you respond to the statement that “the soul of man, unwatched, is perverse”? Do you agree of disagree? Why?

I totally agree. We have to constantly check ourselves, if we don’t we will live a perverse life. Why is it you have to teach a child what is good, not bad? We never grow out of that. We must always be constantly being checking ourselves, seeing if we are living perverse or a life that God would be pleased with, liberating others and seeing the Kingdom move forward here on earth.

2). What is the greater problem in the world, corrupt politics or you?

I think everyone would like to say that the answer if corrupt politics. We, as humans, think too highly of ourselves. We think we are good, that God likes good people. We fail to see ourselves as depraved, lost and lonely with out God in our lives. We think we are fine, but really we aren’t.

The question that begs to be asked is who makes corrupt politics? The answer, people who are no different than you and I. Sure you could say the system made them corrupt, but yet again who made the system, people. We are all depraved and when we leave God out of the picture our systems of government, business, schooling, etc are all going to reflect this corrupt and depraved nature we all have. We are all capable of being corrupt, but with Jesus in our lives, we are able to overcome this.

So ultimately I AM the greatest problem in the world!

3). If you could sum up all your thoughts, motivations, and actions in a day as a total 100 percent, what portion of that amount is spent on yourself and how much is spent on others?

I know I am selfish. I am a minister so my job requires me to do things for others and plan things for others, but I still think a lot about what I like, what I think we should do, how I could fix the problems. So probably the percent that actually goes to thinking of others is no more than 5%.

I spend 95% of the day think selfishly about myself! How ridiculous…

Beginnings—God on a dirt road walking toward me

1) What’s your gut response to the following statement? “Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as ‘Father’ at all. This, to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake.”

At first, you have to wonder what Miller means—a marketing mistake? But when you sit back and reflect on what this means, he has a point. If God wants people to come to know him, why would he want people to call him Father, if almost every human has had some struggle with their earthly Father. Getting over our image our dads can be a hard thing to do. It takes some people a long time, but when we finally do it is a great experience. When we can truly experience God as he was meant to be experienced is truly an amazing thing.

2) What significant memories can you recall that you believe influence your approach and assumptions about Christian spirituality? (I realize this is one of those “can-o-worm” questions, so take as much time as you need.)

I grew up in a conservative Lutheran church and attended there until I was 18. My memories from here mainly deal with how Christianity is a system of do’s and do nots. There are certain things that you must do to “worship” and other things are not “real” forms of worship. You put all this together it is easy to see how people thing Christianity is all about morality and nothing else and that we make it a system rather than a relationship.

Then when I was 18, I started going to a non-denomination church. It was here that I found a group of believers who still were conservative but were willing to acknowledge that faith if more than a system, it is about a relationship.

3) Where does guilt come from?

Guilt is result of sin. Once sin entered the world, we were all given the capacity to feel guilt. We all, whether Christian or not, have some sense of right and wrong. Where does that come from? We all know when we do something wrong and when something is right, thus we have sense of guilt when we purposely do wrong over right.

4) Does Christian spirituality seem more like an aspirin to alleviate guilt or a Godlike slot machine with a lever to pull rather than a relationship?

In the area where I minister, I would answer with God is a slot machine. We want him to fix our problems, we want him to help us, though we are not going to do anything for him, we go, and go and go again to him hoping that the result will come out in our favor.

Blue Like Jazz

Yesterday I went down to Rogers, AR just to get away for a little bit.  I ended up going to Barnes and Noble and walked around.  I have been wanting a new book to read and I stumbled upon Blue Like Jazz.  I have only heard good things about it so I decided to give it a try.  I bought the version that had a study guide with each chapter.  So I thought I would read a chapter a day for the next 20 days and answer the questions here on my blog.  Don’t expect anything too complex, or deep or insightful, but I hope my answers will be truthful and honest and that I can grow in my faith by taking time to digest the book and and examine the topics he will discuss.  For any of you who read this, hope you may find something encouraging as well.

Three questions to ponder while reading this book…

1).  Do you wonder if the Christian faith is still relevant in a post-modern culture?

2).  Do you thirst for a genuine encounter with a God who is real?

3).  Do you yearn for a renewed sense of passion in life?

Hosea

Hosea from Wesley Brainard on Vimeo.

Who Do You Say I Am

This week we are looking at Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah (Mark 8:27-9:1). I think we can all relate with this passage because of Peter's big mouth. He makes this great claim about who Jesus is, which is correct, but then proceeds to tell Jesus that means. Jesus then calls Peter Satan and goes on with his teaching of what it means to be a disciple of the Christ.

In our society today it is so easy to honor God with our lips, to give him lip service, but not to fully engage our whole being into his will. We will say the right things about him, but we define God in our terms, we want him to be and do what we want with a blatant disregard for his character.

The question, "Who do you say I am?" we all must answer, and how we answer determines what we truly believe about Jesus. C.S. Lewis has said their are only three things a person can say about Jesus. Either he was a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. Jesus either lied about his mission and ministry on earth, or he was crazy or he truly is the Christ, the savior of the world.

After Peter makes the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus starts to tell them that he is going to suffer and die but he will rise again after three days. Peter, who thinks he knows what the Messiah is going to do, refutes Jesus. He tries telling Jesus what he is or is not going to do as the Messiah.

How often do we do this or does the world we live in do this?

We try to tell Jesus what he is going to do or how we want him to work in our lives. We don't want a Jesus who is in control of our lives, we just want a Jesus who will be there when we want him too and do what we can't do on our own. Other than that he is just another person or thing in our lives that gets no priority.

Jesus doesn't get bogged down though with Peter's refusal. He continues to teach his disciples. He teaches them what it will look like to follow him if they truly believe that he is the Christ, the Messiah. He says that we must pick up cross and follow after him. He wants us to die to ourselves and our desires and let him take total control of our lives. He says a profound statement in vv 35-36. He says "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel, will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Jesus is saying that we, if we are to truly follow him, if we truly believe in his mission to come and save the world, that we will have to give up our selfish desires and follow his example of going to the cross.

So what does the cross look like in our lives? I was listening to a sermon the other day about how being a Christian and facing persecution go hand in hand together. If we are truly Christians, we will face some kind of persecution. This is one way of picking up our cross. If we truly believe in the message of Jesus, we will have to tell others. People may ridicule you and you may be standing on the outside as life passes you by, but you will be living for Christ.

Maybe it looks like giving up something that you love to do because it is coming between you and your relationship with God. Maybe it is changing friends because those who you were friends with now ridicule you. These are just examples, but Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and if we say he is the Messiah, the Christ, then we have to live this kind of life. There is no other way to live.

The Butterfly Circus

You have to watch this short film The Butterfly Circus.

Tombs, begging, and Jesus

I am sitting in Mocha Jo's, a coffee shop in a nearby town, working on my message for this Wednesday. We are currently in our fifth week in our study thru the Gospel of Mark. We have had some great turnouts and some great responses to the messages. It is definitely God working, not me. This week we are going to be studying the healing of the demoniac (Mark 5:1-20).

This is a very interesting story. Here are a few observations that I have made. First, the word "tomb" shows up three times (vv 2, 3, 5) in the first five verses. This is significant because it is all centered around the man. This man is living in death. He is trying to kill himself, but he is not able too. The demons are forcing this man to live in the tombs because he can't live in the city, and now he wants to commit death...interesting. Secondly, the word "begged" shows up four times (vv 10, 12, 17-pleads, 18). The demons beg Jesus, the crowds beg Jesus, and the man begs Jesus. The sense of persistence is prevailing here. Jesus answers yes to the demons and the crowds, but no the man. He was bigger plans for the man. Jesus is not about giving out the easy options, but instead the man is to stay and share his story with the crowds who want nothing to do with Jesus.

So what is the message here for teenagers?

I think that we all can relate to this story. We probably have all been in a position in our life where we just want life to be over. This man ostracized and was forced to live by himself. He didn't see anything worth living, he wanted to be dead. He tried cutting himself, and other self mutilation tactics. Have you been here?

Most teenagers have been or are currently in this place. But there is good news. Jesus didn't leave the man in his condition. He released him from his bondage and changed his life forever. The message is simple...Jesus is worth living for and thru him we are able to be released from whatever is holding us back.

But the message continues too, it doesn't end here. Jesus tells the man to embrace his old identity, to use it as a witnessing tool. He wants to go with Jesus. He wants to leave the past behind, but Jesus says no! He wants the man to use this as an example of mercy and grace that was shown, to show people the message of God.

When we get cleaned up, when our life is changed, we should be like this man and everyone should know it. No two people's stories are the same. Use your story as a witnessing opportunity. God wants to use you where are you are and where you have been.

Called

Do you remember when you first had that moment when you knew God was calling you to do something for him? It may have been a simple friend telling you should do something, or it may have been a big time speaker that challenged you to do it, so you did. The reason I ask is because, one of my high schoolers used the word "called" about his life. Let me explain...

Trevor is one of those guys that you wish you were like in high school--the strong Christian, great friend and athlete, just an all around great guy. The other night we were hanging out at my house, just shooting the breeze and we were talking about the youth ministry and stuff. He comes on Wednesdays to Third Race, but on Sundays he stays at his home church. I thought it was because his parents wanted him to stay there, but he said that he feels "called" there. He helps out with his small youth group and tries to make an impact with them. He recognizes that it is hard. He doesn't fit in with them, but he still tries.

What blew me away was that he used the word "called." It is not frequent that you meet a high schooler who uses that word about their position in life and who is willing to forego what he would rather be doing to do what God has called him too. He admits that he wants to come on Sundays, to participate in our D-Groups, but he feels called to be at home. How awesome is that! It is my prayer that God will use me, my talents and passion for youth ministry to raise up more Kingdom workers like Trevor.

Kingdom Worker Challenges

The last night of CIY, the staff put out a challenge. Each student was given a card in an enclosed envelope. The challenge was that the students had to do whatever was written on the card. There was no obligation to do open, but the understanding was if you opened one, you were committing to accomplishing the task on the card. Some of the challenges are hard and can't be done my oneself, others are easy to do and don't need a lot of planning. The purpose of these was not to see failure, but to see a community of believers gather around one another and accomplish the task together. Here is a list our students and their challenges...

Jessica Lueckenhoff----to go on a mission trip and encourage a missionary on the field

Kaleene Lanham----Find a church and get plugged in before September 15

Kristi Whitcomb----Build a playground in the community where you live

Aaron Jamieson----Take a religion class and get a discussion started on Christianity

Maranda Johnston----To collect and distribute 500 coats/hoodies

Jordan Bailey----Teach a child something you do well

Breanna Miller----Skip a school dance and use the money that you would use and help a girl that you know wouldn't be able to go otherwise

Stephen Nunley----To collect 500 turkeys for Thanksgiving

Trevor Shumaker----Fast one meal a week at school and pray for teachers and students

I thought I should do a challenge too since I was asking them to do one...my challenge is to fast every Wednesday for a school year and spend time praying (this is ironic since we have Wednesday night meals at Third Race)!

This fall should be interesting and exciting to see these challenges start to take place and to see life change start to happen.

The Gospel Realized

It is that time of the year again. Time for student ministries to pick up in full swing and for students to start returning to school. As I prepare for this fall, I can't wait. It is going to be a great time of learning what God has planned for our lives and where he is leading us. We will be spending the whole semester focusing on the Gospel of Mark. The series is going to be entitled "The Gospel Realized."

We are going to spend 16 weeks studying and learning what the gospel truly is and what God wants for the students lives. I anticipate there will be some intense weeks and some lighter weeks, but God is going to be moving and I can't wait to partner with him to see life change.

As comes the territory I am struggling with finding youth sponsors who can commit more time to the ministry then they already do. It is hard, but I know that God is a God who provides and in his timing he is going to provide us with the sponsors that are needed. I have some in mind already and hope that they will be interested. God only knows. Please be praying for the ministry and for sponsors. The ministry can't survive on my efforts alone.

Back to Mark...This week I hope to start planning out the specifics of the lessons. I know that I will be focusing on one chapter a week. I won't be able to cover all of it, so in D-Groups we will cover the rest in a group driven bible study. This will be the first time that I have studied this gospel, so it should be great. Please be praying for my studies and preparation that I can bring the gospel to the students in a way that they can hear and understand.

CIY MOVE Video

Here is a video of summer conference! We had a blast. We took a total of 10 students and God was definitely moving among his people. Some real life change happened and God is moving...watch and enjoy!

A Job Description for the Church

"Our job is not to bring more people into the church building. It is to be what the church should be in the lives of people where they are."

--Rick Bundschul

What is our job? So many times it is easy for us to think that our job is to get people to the church building. We think that maybe, just maybe they will then hear the Word of God and become Christians. This mindset is definitely present in the small community where I minister. The church still believes that it is the minister's job to get people into the church building. They want to the church to grow and place sole responsibility on the shoulders of the ministers. Evangelism is seen as the minister's job and the congregation gets off the hook, but is this really what the church's job is? Is it our job to get people in the building or is it something more?

Rick has a great point, the job of the church is not to build bigger buildings and better programs (both which are sometimes necessary), but the job of the church is go and meet people where they are with no preconceived ideas of who they are, or what their story is. Evangelism is not about church attendance, and really I could care less about who shows up on Sunday. I know everyone that comes are Christians and have a relationship with God. I care about those I see in the park who I play basketball with, or those I meet on the running trails who are seeking out God. It is these people who we are called to meet, to come to them and share with them the good news of Jesus.

This is not just my job as a minister, but the whole congregation's job, the Church's job. We who profess Jesus are all called to be priests, to be ministers. The Church must learn this, or else the church is going to continue to decline, especially in smaller communities. We must learn to make inroads to the community, and not expect them to come to us. We need to find ways to go to them, to take opportunities that God has alread given us, rather than ask for more. They are there if only we would look.

Ministry

I am about to finish my second week as the full time Associate Minister at First Christian Church in Cassville MO. It has been interesting...adjusting to living on my own, working in an office, living in a small town where the largest city is an hour away, learning what ministry truly is and why I do it...and much more. I have had moments of excitement, confusion, lonliness, and disappointment. Through it all, I have seen God already working in the student's lives. I know that God wants me here for a reason, and it is my prayer that I serve him to the best of my ability. I yearn to see these students transformed by the Gospel and to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

Taken

Last night my sister and I watched the movie Taken.  I know that it came a few months ago, but I thought I would still make a few comments about the film…

The movie is about a man’s daughter who gets kidnapped and sold in the the sex trafficking business.  The father goes after her and rescues her before she is forced into the trade.  The movie, though the content is awful, was an excellent movie.  The best thing about it is that it is incredibly accurate in how the trafficking begins and how girls are sold into this awful trade. 

The movie even shows how the corrupt nature of governments.  In the film, it is a French man who works for the secret service that allows the crimes to continue because he makes a profit from it…sadly, this happens all the time.  And America is not immune to this either.  Girls are trafficked everyday, and America is included.

If you have not seen this movie I encourage you to see it, not only because it is a good film, but because it will open your eyes to the atrocities that are taking place everyday, often without us even knowing it.

542

The other day I was doing my devotional, and I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount. I was trying to read it afresh, with new eyes. To see if I could find anything that I might have missed when reading it before. There were some connections I made and more verses that I underlined, but one verse in particular really stuck out to me. Matthew 5:38-42 says

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other side also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."

This paragraph could be applied and taken many different ways and I could go into the differing opinions, but those are not what stuck out to me. It was that last verse, verse 42, that struck this time. I really think that it puts the icing on the cake when it comes to applying these verses and I don't remember anyone ever taking about it before. People will always remember "Turn the other cheek," or "Go the extra mile," but seldom do people discuss the actually giving of our possessions to one who is in need.

Mark Moore, in his The Chronological Life of Christ commentary, writes "Jesus assumes that the needs are genuine. We are not obligated for instance, to give a buck to a derelict to fuel his habit, or fill the tank of a panhandler...At the same time, we are not authorized to ferret out fakes. It would be better to be duped than to neglect genuine needs."

Mark hits the nail on the head. We are to give to people with genuine needs. It is always a struggle to decide who is and is not in need, and at times it is easy to judge a person before we even attempt to help them. I have been guilty of this time and time again. We see a person on the side of the street and we tell ourselves "The only want money for alcohol...drugs...illicit acts..." We all have done this, but Jesus says to give to those who ask and do not turn away such people.

This verse touched me, and I am going to do something about it. I am hope to remember this verse when people ask me for things or when I see people who might be in need. What are you going to do about it?

Countdown to June 1st

Today has been a great day. This morning in worship, I was announced as the the new full time associate minister at First Christian Church in Cassville, MO. What this means is that I will be charge of the middle and high school youth ministry, be an active participant in the children's ministry, help Jared in the adult ministries and lastly be in charge of the Sunday morning worship service...basically I am taking over!

The youth and worship will be my main places of emphasis. With the youth averaging well over 50, in our church of about 100, this will be a huge ministry. So many kids who are hurting and broken, kids who need someone there to come alongside of them to get them through the little bumps of life. My involvement with the worship will be an interesting challenge, one that will get me out of my comfort zone. Currently we have 3 hymns led by a member of the congregation, a meet and greet time, then 3 worship songs and then communion/offering and the sermon. It is very butchered and doesn't flow very well. It will be my job to work on making a blended service and being the one who leads the service. As well as blending the service, we hope to bring some more creative and engaging elements to the service. Whether this be special music, or sets on stage, time will tell!

The other two responsibilities are not as clear and dry. I will be the point person for our children's ministry, be the one people come to for questions, as well as working on children's church. Helping with Jared on the adult ministries will involve small groups and adult Sunday School. It will be a lot, but it will be worth it!

I will assume these responsibilities on June 1st, while in the mean time be part time. My countdown as begun...

Shorts, Snow and Corona

Over spring break I went snow skiing with my college/career age group from my home church in Wichita. We went to Boulder, CO and had a great time. The weather was perfect...nice and sunny! At times I had to laugh to myself because I saw people all around me skiing in t-shirts or wearing shorts in the lodge. Shorts and snow, don't seem to go together, but they did this week.

Well on the last run of the first day, our group decided to go down a black diamond together. I had been skiing on blues all day and doing great. The only times I fell, which was twice, was when I just sort of fell over on my side, they were not wipe outs by any means. Well I told myself that I would go down a black at least once, and I was planning on doing it on our last day but...I got convinced otherwise, not only with coercing of words, but when my sister says she is going and then I see a little 10 year old girl going, one is left with no choice. I decided to tackle "Corona" --the black diamond run we went on.

So we get to the top of the mountain, I am definitely scared, excited all at the same time. Here is a picture of our groupSo our group gets going...some snow plow the whole way down, others "S" their way down, some fast, others slow. I was taking my time going very slow and just trying not to fall...it was a long ride down to the bottom! Andrew decided he would bring up the rear, just an case anyone fell or lost anything. Andrew and I were going slowly down the mountain and I was getting better and better, but something happened. Something rather unexpected.

It was at this moment that I started to freak out in my head a little bit. I was gaining speed and momentum and I wasn't able to slow down. As I was about to wipe out, I saw before me a big tree to my left and a big tree to my right and in the middle was as small tree. I decided to take the small tree. I wiped out, hard, and I side swiped into the tree. I cut my ear with my sunglasses, bruised my leg and hurt my right knee. After I hit the tree, I continued to tumble violently down the mountain with my skis still on for about half of my fall.

The next day I sat out on the deck of the lodge in shorts, close to the snow, and far away from Corona!

Now, two weeks later, I have found out that I have to get surgery. This will happen on April 10. They will repair my meniscus, my ACL and my LCL.

Thanks Andrew for encouraging me to go down CORONA!!!

Full Time Ministry

Have you ever found yourself in an interesting situation? One that you never thought you would be in? That has been my past few months...I have now been interviewed and talked too about going fulltime at the church where I volunteer. The position is over the youth, worship and children's ministry. It should be quite interesting to be in charge of as a 22 year old, recent college graduate. The minister I will be working with though is an awesome guy. He is 25 and we agree on most facets of doctrine and ideology. Needless to say, the interviewing and the "getting to know you" process has been an interesting growing and learning experience.

New Year and New Beginnings

So here we are, at the beginning of a new year. A time when everyone starts to make new resolutions for themselves. Resolutions like to eat better, to spend more time with family, to make it to the gym and get in shape. We have probably all been down this road at one point in our lives. We all want to wipe our slate clean and start over and what better time then a the beginning of a new year. I, personally, have decided to make this a year of new beginnings...

A new beginning to life--I graduate in May! I don't know exactly where life will take me in May or what I will be doing, but it will be something new. I get a chance to start my live over in places were people don't know me and where I can make new impressions on people. Graduation is a new beginning.

A new beginning in relationships--time to start my walk with God and make it the best it can be. Every one wants to have a good relationship with God, but sometimes it is hard and we hit a slump. At this time of new beginnings, I have decided to become more dedicated to my spiritual health. To make serving God an even bigger priority in my life. New Year brings new beginning.

Lastly, a new beginning to health--I hope to make 2009 a year of eating healthy and exercising. This is a resolution that so many make, but with the help of some friends, I believe it can happen. I think that we need to take care of our bodies and this is one way to do that, we only have one so we had better take care of it.

So these are my resolutions, my new beginnings. I hope that you too take the time to find your new beginnings!