Journey Part-1

I have been on a crazy journey lately in life. Sarah and I just got a dog. His name is Hurley and he's an Australian Shepherd/Heeler mix. He's super chill and is the friendliest dog I have ever met. That's the most recent exciting part of my life.

Here's a look at what my life has been like lately:

• I am on my fifth week of school. It's all good, fairly easy, just very time consuming.
  
• Sarah and I have been trying to attend a Wednesday night Bible study at our church Palm Vista Baptist Church. You can visit their website @ palmvistabaptist.com
• My Tuesday guys group has recently made the jump into podcasting our meetings. The official name is Three Guys and a Bible. Our website is threeguyspodcast.com. The idea is that we discuss topics that the viewer would like some answers or clarification on regarding Christianity. We are 3 episodes in and I am very excited. We're just 3 ordinary guys serving an extraordinary God. You can also subscribe to us on itunes.
  
• Work has been crazy, mostly busy. We are expanding our aftermarket bumpers to include cattle guards.
  
• I have been reluctantly learning a lesson in patience regarding my calling to become a pastor. I have been told by almost everyone I have shared this with that a call to become a pastor is a call to prepare. So I am praying and seeking God ordained opportunities and, while I have not seen any, that doesn't mean they are not there. I need to focus on God and get my radar in tune with what God want's me to detect. Again, patience in this matter is very hard for me. I want more than anything to be able to quit my Job and focus on what God wants me to do. But I have to be patient, I have to slow down and know that He is Lord.
  

That's about it for now, of course there is more going on in my life but I have not blogged in so long it would be impossible, and too time consuming, to catch up. On that note here is a picture of our new pup Hurley :0)

Politics

I want to start this by saying that I first started paying attention to the news and politics after 9/11. In the years that followed I have found where I stand politically, what issues are important to me, and I love being informed.

I say that, to say this. I am sick and tired of all the hate / fear emails! “Obama is the devil”, or “The government is taking ‘In God We Trust’ off of money”, or “The Ten Commandments are being removed from public buildings”. These emails / conversations are not productive (Titus 3:9). Most of the time they do not accomplish anything except spreading anger and disrespect. Another reason these things bother me is that half of these emails are false! Please, do some research before you hit the forward button and add me the list, or at least insert a disclaimer if you aren't sure what is fact or fiction.

Christianity in Politics

I believe that we as Christians have an obligation to do the right thing, to do what is good. We are told this numerous times in the Bible (Romans 12:17; 1 John 3:10) So please by all means write your congressman, vote in the elections, participate, PLEASE participate. But DO NOT come to me and tell me how much of a jerk you think the President is. You know what? If you voted, awesome, if your guy didn’t win… Guess what? It’s probably because God didn’t want him in office. Look at Romans 13:1 God places people in power for a reason. It’s not our place to try and understand why (Isaiah 55:8-9.)

You know personally I don’t agree with our President, AT ALL! But I respect him. I respect that God put him in power. I remember when G.W. was in office and receiving all kinds of emails about praying for the President, praying for our leaders, for guidance. Let me ask you this. When was the last time you prayed for Barack Obama? Have you ever prayed for Barack Obama? (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

I write all of this knowing that I have been in that place of complaining about the Government, and talking trash about elected officials. Guess what? Titus 3:1-2 tells us that we are to “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men”. This is a verse we skim by and don't live by, but then agree with when in the company of other people. I hear it all the time “… but seriously I respect the president…” then two days later, another email, another complaint.

Do what is right. If you or I have the opportunity to vote, or to participate in something that will ensure the rights and freedoms we enjoy in this country, that we have been so blessed to be a part of. Do it! By all means do what is right, but don’t slander people. Don’t talk so negatively that it brings your brother or sister in Christ down, or sets a bad example to non-believers.

If you disagree with me, please write me and let’s open up a dialogue, and talk about it. Let’s find the truth and above all else let’s love one another.

Thank you,

John Popovich

P.S. I am not writing this about a particular person, or group of people. If you feel like I am writing this about you and are offended, I apologize, but maybe you should re-examine yourself, take a step back and ask yourself “Am I doing this? Do I complain all the time without ever having a solution? Does my attitude bring others down?” (Heck, I'm guilty of that sometimes!) I would also like to ask that if you are going to forward something to me that has information about an evil or injustice in the world, please give me the contact information for the senator or representative I can call, or the time and place of a town meeting. Give me information we can use to stop the bad, and enforce the good. Let’s make a difference and give the glory to God.

New Favorite song/music video

I have a new favorite song right now. It's "Oblivion" by Mastodon. These guys are great, very good musicians, the story behind this song/album is crazy, very deep. You can read about it here.

Check out the video for the song Oblivion!

Back To School!

So... I have been praying like a crazy person about what the next steps are in my calling to become a pastor. I have decided that I am going to go back to school!

I had been praying about my next steps and had mentioned to Sarah that I was thinking about maybe going back to school. Well, a few weeks later Sarah comes home with a folder with some information about GCU's online courses and more specifically about the BA in Christian Studies program. So I checked it out, did some research, compared other schools and well... I sent my application in on Wednesday, filled out my FAFSA stuff and signed a bunch of paperwork and it looks like I will be starting on August 31st at Grand Canyon University.

How crazy is that! It just felt like a God thing the way things started to fall together, how cool the enrollment counselor guy is, Just how perfect it is. I give all the glory to God. Sarah and I discussed that taking on debt (by way of student loans), to ultimately fulfill Gods calling on my life is an "irresponsibly, responsible" thing to do.

My Grandpa sent me this passage to encourage me and I pass it on to you.

Psalm 37:3

3"Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. 6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday."

Short Film

This is a video Sarah and I made... I think it speaks for itself. It is a short film (very short 0:54sec) I love it cause the end product made Sarah laugh so hard. It is a bit French and artsy ha ha! And just for the record, "Bon Chance" is french for "Good Luck".

It Burns!

This was an email Sarah sent me. I love her perspective here

Ok, so I woke up this morning and for whatever reason brought my cell phone with me in the bathroom. As I am getting ready I started hearing a lot of noises. Like a lot of little noises that sounded like they were in the backyard or in the house or something. I of course got a little freaked out and, phone in hand, was thinking about calling you. I decided to say a little prayer.

"God, if I need to be afraid right now please overwhelm me with fear. If not, please overwhelm me with peace. I trust you God."

After that I didn’t hear any more noises (for the rest of the time I was at home!) but that normally doesn’t necessarily make my fear go away. I did however burn my thumb on the curling iron – which I have never burnt myself before. And you know what? The physical pain wasn’t that bad, but it did distract me from the fear. I said another quick little prayer

"God I trust you, help me to have peace."

And I walked about the house confidently after that. And…strangely enough, I am very happy to have burnt my thumb. Physical pain does not immobilize me like fear can, and God took away my fear. God burnt my thumb…so to speak :o) Or I am looking too deeply into it all, but I would like to think I had it right the first time.

God is good. He works in the big things and in the small things. He hears every prayer of His children. How special does He think we are? How much love does He have for us? God doesn’t just scoop up His children when they fall, He sprinkles them with love and comfort to take away the pain and He bandages them up to heal the wound. God is good. Today is a great day. I love you, and I thank God that He loves me enough to entrust you, His precious child, with me. I thank God that He chose me to be one of the people that gets to express His love to you. God loves you. And so do I.

Isn't that a perfect picture of how God works in the most mysterious ways. She felt overwhelmed with peace when she gave her fear to God.

Philippians 4:6-7
"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

No title...

I have been praying about next steps in my calling to become a pastor. I do not think I am anywhere near qualified, in regards to being a pastor. But it doesn't matter what I think, God can use me just the way I am. God can do amazing things with so little.

I think I have been putting God in a box and that isn't right. I have been trying to be the puppet master to God, turning Him into more of a genie than an all knowing, powerful, loving God. I have grown so much in my relationship with God by having more of a 'relationship' with Him. I have been trying to keep the perspective that He is my heavenly father. (Josh Burcham wrote a very good fathers day post. You should definitely check it out)

So I want to "cut the strings" if you will, and give God even more control of my life. I want to abide in Him and I want to do whatever, whenever, however, and I want to give Him glory and praise in my walk and my relationships in life. I want to be a true Christ follower. Someone who gives without asking for anything in return, loves for no other reason than to love, as God loves me. I want to be last, so someone else can be first, I want to see joy and hope in other people's lives and I want to see God change those lives. I want to rely on my heavenly father to provide for me and give me comfort in troubled times. I want to bring the GOOD NEWS to other people. The good news being, that there is a God, who loves us and wants to be with us. He sent His only son to die for us on a cross, and all He asks from us is to believe that Jesus is His son. To believe that someone perfect came and died for an imperfect people. To believe that we cannot do it on our own, but that we need Jesus.

There is so much going on in my head right now. I am definitely going to write more this weekend. As well as change the rotors out in Sarah's car, they are warped and that's why her car vibrates when she puts on the brakes. ANYWAY... I have to go. Later

Near Death Experience

So this is totally a true story... I went to the river with my Wife and some friends (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent ha ha) Anywhoo we were floating along in a group of 7 and we hit a fast current, that's not so bad except that the current was taking us toward a rock wall. Again not so bad except there were people there who had already got stuck. So we collided with them and besides my best efforts to stay a float I well, fell overboard. Of course I corrected my position and start to head up to the surface except I am going nowhere and the dark silhouette of the recently vacated tube started to disappear, I then realized I was being sucked under by the current colliding with the wall.

I was struggling and kicking like crazy, but I wasn't getting anywhere. Well many things ran through my head, one being "do I swim sideways, no that's the ocean... crap what do I do?" then I started thinking "well I guess this is how I go... sucking in salt river pee water!" then it hit me... the rock wall, no literally I hit the rock wall, hard! Then I grabbed a hold of the wall, planted my feet on the side of it and pushed up and to the right. Then I started kicking, and grabbing, and pulling, then I see the dark ring again, and this time it's getting closer and closer. Then I break through the dark, green, hazy water and find myself in the middle of a different group of people. I hear a voice say "did he pop up yet" I look around and see that there were rescue people at the top of the rock wall just looking down in the water, waiting for me to pop up. No problem, it's not like I could have used the help, sheesh! I then swam over to my group and saw my wife crying, it was so sad I felt horrible for scaring her like that.

So there it is, my brush with death, it could have been a lot worse, and it wasn't so thank God for that. I just remember the desperate feeling of "I need air now, and the surface has completely disappeared" like for a second I had accepted the fact that I was going to drown and my limp body would be tossed around the under current, then pinned against the rock wall. But surprisingly, I never panicked, I just kept trying, and if it wasn't for hitting that rock wall, I don't know...

At the end of the day all I know is God is good. I have no doubt He helped me out of that scary situation.

My week in Images

So... here are some images from my week. We have some kinda crazy designs that are completely original artwork (done in Adobe Illustrator) then we have a nice little icon that I'm not 100% about yet. Then a nice photoshoped/vector image of myself (cause I'm cool) then a picture of me today going to Circle K for a snack. Then last but not least my Smokin Hot Wife! We went to her parents house on Tuesday as soon as she got off work. I helped hook up a TV and sound system for them. Anyway I had a Great week so far, Later Gator.

Christian Music (part II)

You know I realized today as I re-read my last post that... I may have come across the wrong way. I am simply saying that I do not like the Contemporary style of Christian music. Much in the same way I do not like the Country style of secular music.


The issue for me is that the Contemporary style is what is being represented AS Christian music. There are other good bands/groups out there, but it seems that we (as Christians) bring forward this very cheesy... almost fake side of Christian music. That style of music conjures up a picture in my head that Christians are hypocritical, or ridiculously out of touch with reality*. It also makes me wonder what non-Christians think of us. I know of a few good bands and I want to know what else is out there. I know I came across harsh, it was the heat of the moment. I hope this explains a bit more of my frustration.

*the reality being, we live in a harsh imperfect world and we have peace and joy through Christ despite our circumstances. It's like they are in a bubble of happy land and are only willing to share that with themselves. I personally believe that a non-Christian would be more willing to listen to someone they can relate to, and I personally want to be all things to all people for the Glory of God. 1 Corinthians 9:22

please note that I realize this is a sweeping generalization and there are of course exceptions.

Christian Music...

I need help. I have an issue I am going to share with you. I mean this is a problem I have and I am admitting this is a problem I need to fix.
Every time I hear the words "Christian rock band" I cringe. Then when I actually hear "Christian Music" I get agitated and pissed. I think Christian music is terrible. There I said it. It sucks (to me). It all sounds the same, it's cheesy over the top "I love Jesus THIS much" music. Even the names of the groups sound the same Chad-W-Micheal-Hall-David-Smith or whatever and it's like they are all covering the same song! Now praise music during worship, that's different. When I sing a song to my Lord it can be whatever (as long as it's not distracting). But "Christian Music" just all sounds like its ripping off secular music. There are bands out there that are outstanding out there that just so happen to be Christian. These band tour with secular bands and get a bad rap from the "Christian Music" world... last time I checked even Marilyn Manson needs Jesus. I remember P.O.D. got crap from everyone when they toured with Manson and Zombie and some of those other guys, even Chevelle (who I love by the way) just happens to be Christian.

I need to get over it. I need help. I'm just irritated. The same way I am irritated that "Christian Movies" usually suck!

I need you (who ever reads this) to recommend some GOOD Christian bands that don't suck. I have been turned off by Christian music for so long I havent even had the patience to search for any. So I am looking for some recomendations of music that's so good, and NOT over the top that I could have it on at a party and say "hey interesting fact, these guys are a Christian Band" and the reponse would be "WOW! But these guys are really good"

Peace out

Denzel Impression

I don't know how I came across this video but it is great. I love Denzel Washington and when I saw this I about died.

Enjoy:

Answering the Call

The following is a modified email I recently sent to my family:

I have had a very interesting past couple of years. I got married and bought a house with my wonderful wife Sarah, I tried planting a church with a good friend of mine, I was promoted at work to the department head of engineering, and I have worried about my company going out of business. But one of the greatest things that has happened is that in the past few months I have been meeting with a couple of guys in accountability and discipleship. I have been challenged, and I have been examining my heart and where God wants me. I have been struggling with wanting to know what I have been called to do on this earth. One thing for sure is that I am called to live a life with Christ in his love, to Love God and to Love others, and to go and make disciples of men.

I think I have always known what it was that God has called me to do, but it's almost as if I kept avoiding the subject. I have never thought I was good enough, talented enough, or anywhere near what I think is the standard by which most people judge this calling. The truth is, I am right, but, God can use the least of us to do amazing things.

I was asked on a Friday night (May 29th) by a good friend of mine if I thought I was called to be a Pastor. My gut reaction to this question (that has never been asked of me FLAT out like that) was yes. So here I am, finally accepting the FACT that God can use me to do amazing things. I told Sarah this when I came home that night at 2 in the morning, and she asked me how I felt about that. I was honest with her and I will be honest with you. I told her I was scared. I am scared because I am trusting God but that is also why I am not hysterical, or quitting, God has given me the strength to face my fears and be a Pastor.

Now you may be asking, "Well if this is new to you then what was the whole church plant thing about?". Well when I had teamed up with my good friend Josh Burcham, I was joining him as the "creative arts pastor", to me that was just a fancy name for the guy that did the graphics and artwork and creative stuff for the Church. My Calling to be a pastor is more than that. I know now that I was no where near where I needed to be to help plant a church. I have learned so much in the past couple of years about me and my relationship with God and where I was and where I needed to be.

I have found that God has been speaking to me through My friends in my Monday night Bible study, the guys I meet with on Tuesdays, Sarah (of course), and my Family. These are people I trust, people I know are rooted in the gospel and have amazing relationships with God. So now I ask God. What do I do now? What is my next step?

I am asking for your prayer. Prayer that I might be patient in waiting for God to tell me what to do, prayer that I might be listening when He speaks to me, and prayer that I will be obedient to what He asks of me.

Try to keep up

The following is a list of stuff that has been on my mind:

1. I have decided to change my path and follow what has God has called me to be.... a Pastor (Believe me I will write more on that later)


2. In the last month I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator, 17 Again, and they were all decent movies, I really liked Star Trek it was great.


3. Work has been great, not very satisfying, but it will do for now...


4. I want to do more artwork, I have a canvas sitting on an easel in a room all to myself with no inspiration. I have done some computer artwork in Illustrator and photoshop but no hand illustaration


5. I also want to do some photography, it's been a while.


6. I am loving my Monday night group and my Tuesday afternoon group, this monday we are bringing food and playing games.


7. My little Neice isnt so little anymore! She is so cute, My Sister and Adam have a site up with all kinds of pictures and videos @ http://www.lessland.com/


8. I love my Wife so much!!!

Been out of the loop for a while

I have been... gone. For a while. Take that how you will. I have been meeting with some friends on Mondays, going through 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and meeting with a great group of guys on Tuesdays and growing a lot spiritually. I want to share more of what I am learning, and processing. A good friend of mine Josh Burcham does that over on his Blog a lot, and I want to join him in sharing my experiences. I am going to try and keep up on this blog a bit more.

No Title... No Need

I'd like to make a toast to not posting to my blog in over a month... way to stay current John-Boy!

I'm so lame, I promise I will have more blog post soon. Pics, stories, videos, etc

Here's your hope and change!

This has been all over the news... it's about time somebody said it!!!

Brent's stop motion

Brent made an awesome stop motion video. I HAVE to make another one.

Why is this happening to me?!?!

I found this video on my lunch break... SO funny!!!!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Just bought a new bike

I went out and bought a bike last night. Sarah and I want to ride bikes so I got mine. It's a 26" Jeep Compass Limited comfort bike.... yeah. It's pretty cool. I like it. It's not like a "serious" mountain bike, but it will work for me, for the time being.

Cant wait to hit the trails with Schuyler!

First Stop Motion

My first attempt at stop motion animation... what do you think?

More Pictures Of Abbey and Family

Pictures From Christmas and New Years

We Have Internet!!!

It has been oh so long since we last the internet. At last woo hoo!!! Let the party begin!

Oh what shall we blog about.

We had Becca and Adam and the baby Abbey visit us for Christmas and New Years! We had my Grandparents in town as well, lets see ummmmm Brent and Stephanie made it back from Germany in one piece... oh I'm getting a Shotgun tomorrow (very exciting) I uhhhh had a great past couple of weeks. I will be posting pictures and things soon. I will probably be spending most of my time this week online catching up with profile pictures and blogging, and downloading songs (legally), and paying bills and basically destroying my brain cells with senseless internet videos of dogs riding skateboards, and previews for Star Trek XI and Wolverine.

I'm so excited:

See you later!