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