I bow my knees

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21

This week I was reading this prayer Paul wrote for the Ephesians. Before I got past the first line I found myself already challenged. He says 'I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It made me think about how often I humble myself before the Lord in this way. So many times I work God into my life instead of working my life into God's plan. It's the constant struggle between wanting to be the center my life and making God the center. This week I am making it my priority to hand over the reigns of my life to God and making him the center.

An encouraging Reminder

Last weekend after completing my first week back to school I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I have not had such a demanding schedule in awhile and I knew it was going to take some adjustment to get back in... but man, I felt like I had been hit with a ton of bricks. Luckily I had Monday and Tuesday off school which gave me some time to relax, reflect back on my week, and spend some much needed time with God. During this time I was reminded of one of my favorite verses.

"To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me."

Colossians 1:29

It was really encouraging to to read this verse.

"To this end I labor..." In this life we are going to labor for Christ, trying to spread the Word and balance our everyday lives and responsibilities.

"...struggling with all his energy..." Sometimes it is going to be a struggle as we are constantly pulled in the opposite direction, but we have his energy to rely on as we could not do it on our own.

"...which so powerfully works in me." It is His energy we must rely on as it will powerfully work through us. It is not by our own ability but His coming through us.

One week down fifteen to go

As I anticipated it has been hard to keep up on posting once a week. I am back in school now with one week down and only 15 left to go... not sure what that says about me that I'm counting down already. But I am enjoying school so far this semester, which is kind of odd for me. I have never been a person to enjoy school and have always done anything I could to get around having to go but this semester I have wanted to go. I'm not sure what did it but a change has happened in my attitude towards learning. I guess that it's not really so much the change has happened towards learning as it has toward attending classes. I always had this philosophy in High School that I could pass without attending classes so why should I waist my time with them. Now, for whatever crazy reason, I want to go to class so that I can learn as much as possible and not just get by.

Other then that I have been downtown for a couple months now and have really gotten settled in and back into the routine of life. I love living downtown and can't wait for spring to roll around so I can get out and explore the city a little more.

Well... I'm at school and class is about to start so I should probably go.

MCC Launch

So it's been a little more then a week but not too much more... So here I am to try and keep up on my posts. I have actually been meaning to post about last Sunday... Well... since last Sunday but am now just getting to it. So here it is.

Last Sunday during our Core Team Meeting for the launch of Midtown Community Church we discussed our quickly approaching launch date. The launch has been planned for March 8, 2009. As we looked at where we stood with everything that needed to be accomplished before launch date we realized how unprepared we were. The pastor let us know that after much prayer and wisdom seeking he had made the decision to push the launch date out one year. I think everyone agreed it was a wise decision.

It's going to be interesting to see what God does in this community over the next year to help better prepare us for the launch of our public services next year.

Some General Life Updates...

I am approaching one year at Citi Bank January 14th. It's crazy to think that I have already been there for a year. It's up and down and can sometimes be taxing but overall I think it has been a great experience.

I am also moving forward with school this semester. As for my ultimate plan with school I'm not really sure. For now I am just planning on finishing my associates degree, which I'm on track to finish December 2009. Some programs I have thought about are Church Planting and Urban Planning & Development. I have also thought about creating my own hybrid of the two... I guess we'll see.

I know you're all dying to know so I'm gonna go ahead and put it out there. There is no girl in my life.

Reviving a blog.

If you have read my blog in the past you will notice I have made some changes, all to reflect the revival of my blog. I have not posted in about six months... well a little over six months and a lot has happened in my life during that period. I'm going to try and briefly catch you up on what's going on and then commit to keeping up with atleast one post a week... maybe I should say one every other week.

So for starters I'm going to pick up where my last blog left off. The decision I had been struggling through was to leave Restore Community Church, the church I had moved to Kansas city to be a part of in the first place, and move downtown to be a part of another church that is planting March 2009. This was a n incredibly hard decision. When it came down to making the decision I could not deny the calling God had placed in my life to be a part of this church that was going to be planted in the urban core of Kansas City.

In August, I made the decision and began my transition passing off the reins to my college small group at Restore and beginning to attend Midtown Community Church core team meetings. In November, I moved downtown and am living just a few blocks away from the location we are planning to launch our public services in. I am excited to get to know this city better and see what God has in store for me on this next part of my journey.

Some time with God

I have been struggling through some decisions in life and seeking God's guidance in these decisions. Well... I've been saying I had been seeking his guidance and would occasionally pray about it but had not been intentional about seeking his guidance. So I decided to do that this past Tuesday morning. On Tuesday I got up from 7:30 to 9 and spent some time away from everything with God. I also asked a few people to be praying with me that morning to hear God's direction for my life. What I found in that hour and a half was not really any more clarity but it was good time with God and as I went throughout my day I realized how it had really set me up to hear from him.

The number one thing I heard was not what I was seeking but is possibly more relevant. God asked me what I was doing. My last post describes a little more of where I am at. What I realized was that I am not doing anything. I have no doubt in my mind that God has called me into ministry. But instead of pursing that I have been going to school to get a degree in... I don't really know what and been working full time. I have not placed my trust in God and have been trying to do it on my own... trying to make sure I had all the safe blocks in place before I went into ministry. God did not call me to that. He called me to trust in him and give everything over to him. He called me to step out and lead in ministry. And now I am ready to give up the petty things I have been pursuing and pursue the vision God has in store for my life.

I still have some figuring out exactly what this means for everyday life but I am committed taking the steps to do that.