Running

So as many of you know I have been training for a half marathon on Oct 16th. I run different lengths each day. Thursdays are my long run day. Well last Thursday I was running and I had a bad urge to go to the bathroom. I thought that it would go away or pass. I passed one bathroom, thought that it would go away. Then I passed another one but it would be fine. Then a few miles later I really, REALLY needed to go. (#2) It got to the point that I needed to find a place ASAP! But I kept thinking to myself that I needed to do the paperwork. Then I came up with what I thought was a great idea. So I then found a safe place on the side of the path that I could relieve myself. That was safe and secluded. I did my business and used my boxers for the clean up. No one came by and not one saw me. I left them there and got back to my run. Later I went back and picked up my undergarments. So that way I wouldn't liter. I feel like I should come up with a moral of the story... so here goes. "When the going gets tough...Don't be tough just Go."

OREO TRINITY

For the third year with the Jr high students we are talking about Christianity and Chocolate. Now don't get me wrong. God is not Chocolate and Chocolate is not Jesus. But we are looking at it as a illustration. To help understand something better. Jesus often times used Illustrations to help understand things. Like the Salt of the earth, or Light of the world, and vine and the batches.

Well I am not Jesus (By far) but i am trying to use a way that Jr high students can grasp a difficult concept of the Trinity.

So I came up with a Oreo.

How many parts are there of a Oreo?

Do all of them make up an Oreo?

If one part was gone would it still make up an Oreo?

I see it as Three parts

Cookie outside

frosting inside

The other cookie outside

The Trinity

Jesus is the outside cookie

Holy Spirit is the cream

God is the Cookie that is attached to the cream

The bible say in John 14 about who Jesus is.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6:-7

Jesus explained that if someone has seen Him they have seen the father as well. So they look a like similar to the outsides of a Oreo Cookie.

Part of Jesus' role was to come down and make Himself nothing to die for the sins of the world.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— 
even death on a cross! Phil 2: 5-8

Since The Father and The Son are the outside cookies all that is left is the cream filling which is The Holy Spirit. Some call him the Holy Ghost. (ghosts on the cartoon are white) But He is also called counselor or helper.

Matthew 3:13-17 talks about the three parts of the trinity and how the Holy Spirit came down like a dove.

The Baptism of Jesus

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

What does that mean for us?

God that sympathizes with our needs (Heb 4:15)

Someone to intercede to the father (Rom 8:26)

Loves us to send his son (John 3:16)

So back to the original questions:

How many parts are there of a Oreo? 3

Do all of them make up an Oreo? Yes

If one part was gone would it still make up an Oreo? No

One God in Three persons. One Oreo in Three parts.

Wipeout

Over the last year or so I have really got into the show wipeout. For those of you that do not know the concept of the show let me explain. The show gets about 20 contestants and they give them nick names and have obstacle courses that they run through and fall and flip as they go through it. Each round the contestants get eliminated but "all will Wipe Out." The contestants get blind sided by silly obstacles. My favorite part of the show is the announcers. They work in nick names and work in puns with those names.

Well today two 3 year olds came by the church (Quinn and Hannah) and they wanted to go to the nursery and play on the padded slide. They call it the wipe out slide. They will jump off of it and slide down it and even summersault down it. I can only imagine that they just love the show enough to talk about it after show. They had the funniest time.

As I watch the show I keep thinking that I could do really good at this show but maybe i am a armchair wipeout contestant. Wipeout is for all those adults that just never grew up and that want to recapture the fun that they had as kids. At least that is what I feel when I watch this show. Also as you get knocked down you can get back up again.

Bigger than a building

This week we had our Churches Bigger than a Building kickoff. It was on our new property and we had a roasted pig and a pepsi truck come and sponsor the event. Yes it was a pepsi truck. It helps to know someone. I need to get to know someone at coke. But i digress. The church had the weeds mowed all but a outline of the church and a cross. The building looks kinda small but in comparison of our current property it fits our entire property into the new building. It is BIG! For the program we had three testimonies of Kelcy, ross + charity and Polly. They did a great job. Del McKensy was our honored guest. Paul wrapped it up with the story of where we have come from and a glimpse where we are going.

Polly was the one that surprised me. Polly like she said "Has the gift to gab." She read her testimony and the surprise is she talked about sacrificial giving. To set an amount to give and stay to it or to give till it hurts. We set an amount and it has been hard to stay to that amount. I really am glad that we have. But it hasn't been easy. We are still going to be able to live and we are not going crazy. We are only going to eat one meal a day and it is ramen but we can eat. I am just kidding we are stretching but not till a break.

The ground was dusty, the sun was hot, the shade was small and flocked to, but our church turned out in droves. 250ish were in attendance. It didn't seem like that many probably because the property is so large.

Where I am at in my head with the new church is I am starting to think about the decor in the youth room and how big it will be. Space to do all the things that we want to do and room to grow. Sunday school today was insane! We had 48 parents and kids in class today. It was our kick off of our Generation Change class. Which goes hand in hand with what the church is doing the Treasure Principal.

God has provided so much with this all. He has provided the money for the land, a peice of property that came in under budget and even small things like a beautiful day yesterday. It rained today which is needed but glad it was today not yesterday.

Blog phone

40 Days of Blogging

Over the last few years I have not blogged. I have kinda forgot about it and have put my time towards different things. I enjoy blogging and sharing my thoughts but life is busy. I thought that I would spend some time before Cassie gives birth to our child in March and start this habit again. So over the next month and a half I will be writing about life as a future dad, daily experiences, life as a youth pastor and things God is teaching me.

I would like to just share today about how excited I am to be a dad. I have been watching parents more closely lately. Seeing how they deal with parenthood. We have started thinking of names for our baby. I personally like the names Rainn Coats, Leather Coats, and Fur Coats. LOL not really. It is funny how people come up with names. My dads side of the family has a tradition to name the middle name after the OBGYN. It is kinda personal and I think it is kinda funny. I know people name after family members and even people that have had significance in the life of the parents. Some people go off of the meaning of the name or the way it the name rolls off the tongue.

What I am most excited about is holding our child, teaching it, playing games and watching it grow. It is going to be a big adjustment but the closer it gets the more I am excited.

Kids will be Adults

I read a article today that was discussing how the state of Idaho is going to start paying high school students to graduate early. As you can see from my lack of blog postings I don't get passionate about much but this one i think worth it.

Students are so often encouraged to grow up early. The media portrays high school students in the light that they are adults and they can make make grown up decisions. Don't get me wrong I am all for people acting their age and taking on more little by little. I am sure students are all for this. Just students are all for lowering the drinking age and the driving age. The way I see it the way things are set up now it is just right. At 16 students can drive. At 17-19 they graduate from High school. At 18 can gamble, smoke and enter the draft. At 21 they can drink alcohol. These ages were chosen based on developmental stages in youth, decision making abilities, and I am sure that they have something that they can look forward to.

Here is my rant for the new year. If you would like to check out this article click the link below.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hMyjdWG670FdForgcXMTVOa4MY1QD9E7AU780