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."