new blog idea

In this new year, I'm challenging myself to take more pictures.  I've always been horrible at it... I figure everyone else will take the pics and I'll just make copies.  I don't think I'm creative at all... I don't "see" great scenes, or views, or angles, or whatever you need to be a great picture-taker.  So I started a 'photo-a-day' challenge.  It's been really fun and definitely challenging.  A lot of times I feel my life and the world around me is boring BUT this picture challenge has been helping me see the beauty in the everyday things!  Woohoo!

To take things a step further... because why not?!?!  I decided to start a picture blog (of sorts).  I plan on studying a book of the Bible each month.  Then each week take a picture that is inspired by what I've been reading/studying/learning/etc!  January was Titus... that proved to kick my butt!  I only did 1 picture... drum roll please... and here it is!

Titus to me is all about how we live and how we show/teach others to live!  My favorite (and probably most known) chapter in Titus is chapter 2. Paul is explaining to Titus that the church should be teaching each other.  Older men and women should be instructing the younger ones in how to live a godly life.  Every church member should be leading by example!

Every 3rd  Sunday, my church serves a meal to the needy at Fiesta Domingo (church/soup kitchen/food pantry/clothing closet).  We serve, chat, laugh, and comfort every person we come in contact with.  Every church member is welcome to come, young or old!  This is a great way for older members to lead the younger in godliness!  I love that my church doesn't just give lip service to God but actually lives out biblical truths.

I will try to do better in February!  I will get a picture blog out every week!  February's book is 1 Corinthians!

No place to lay my head...

I’ve been in the States and back home for about 7 weeks now.  I traveled to Lubbock, Texas a couple weeks ago to return to my previous job for a little bit before I head to Australia again.  Once again I am not in a place I call “home”.  The only stuff here I have that’s “mine” is what I could fit in a suitcase and small carry-on bag.  Oh yeah, and my car… that’s still mine!  It got me thinking more about Jesus’ life.  He had no house, no duplex, or apartment.  He didn’t have those comfy suede couches to lounge on wrapped up in his Texas Tech Snuggie.  (That’s right, I went there).  It reminds me of the verse in Luke 9:58:

 “And Jesus said to him ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’”

 The heading of this section in my ESV Bible is “The Cost of Following Jesus”.  Wow.  Is having no physical house and no comforts to call “my own” really one of the costs of following Jesus wholeheartedly??  Am I ready for this??  The last 7 weeks of my time in Australia, my team and I traveled to a different town each week, which means a new bed every week.  (And the term “bed” is used loosely… we praised God when we got an actual bed but many times we slept on the floor with sleeping bags.)  I have been living out of my suitcase since July 17^th and will continue to until I return to Australia in April.  Not to mention I lived, ate, slept, EVERYTHING with the same 8 people for 21 weeks.  I’m assuming Jesus had some “invasion of privacy” issues also.  At least that’s what I like to tell myself! 

My first Sunday back, the pastor’s message mentioned Mark 6.  The beginning of this chapter has Jesus sending out the 12 disciples.  Verse 8 says “He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff- no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.”  Oh wait… so I’m thinking about my lack of my own house, my own bed, this, that BUT Jesus tells the disciples to have NOTHING with them??  That makes me feel incredibly blessed!  Who cares about what I don’t have when I have God and His provision!  Here in Lubbock I have brothers and sisters in Christ, I have “second” parents and grandparents, I have support and encouragement, I have accountability, I have prayer warriors, I have a roof over my head (even though I don’t own it), I’m part of a church body… the list is endless. 

 So, I count it an honor and privilege to live my life in some way similar to Christ’s.  Isn’t that what we as Christians strive for? To live like Christ? To model His life in ours as much as we can?