Visit to Seminary Hill

Last week i decided to take a field trip to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. I have been mulling over in my brain and my prayers the possibility of going to seminary so i decided a practical thing to do was to go visit... and i am glad i did. I had a couple of presuppositions about seminary/people who attended seminary that i was hoping to see refuted on my trip. It started with a quick tour of some of the main buildings on campus and then our tour group went to chapel at 10:45. The board of trustees was present and one of the board members gave the message, which was definitely to my liking. He discussed the problem that many christians have about what they should be doing with their life, and the fact that many feel like they are not having a "clear picture" about what God wants them to do. His sermon text was Acts 5:20 and he basically said that God gives us an answer to this question in this verse in Acts. The Apostles were teaching and performing miracles in the town and the temple, and the high priests rose up and put them in the public jail (5:17-18). Then an angel of the lord came and released the men and charged them to "go stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this life".

So as Christians, he said, we should do 3 things:
1) We should GO... we are charged as Christians to share the gospel and to do it. The angel did not say "wait until you feel comfortable", he said go.

2) We should STAND. When we get to where we are going, we should stand up boldly for Christ in this world. We should also be able to rest in the sovereignty of God in the situations that we are put in. He talked at length about what contentment and peace should look like to a Christian.

3) Finally he said that we should SPEAK to the people the whole message of life. This involves not only speaking the word from the pulpit or other office, but speaking about life, a godly life, always. He referenced Deut 6:6-8 which is an awesome text... "talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up". In sum, ALWAYS.

But yes it was a very good message and afterwards we consumed some free lunch and i got to chat with a professor about life in general. Thats the one thing i really liked about it... the sense of community that was displayed by everyone i ran into. Everyone from the students to the staff seemed genuinely interested in the lives of others. It was refreshing. We went on a tour of some housing options and that was the end of the deal. I had a great time on my visit and it was worth every minute. I am going to mull over in my brain the possibility of going to seminary, not necessarily for the pulpit but more so for youth and college ministry/missions. We will see...

Jesus is a Cowboys fan

For those of you who stayed up past 10 o'clock last night, you should have been glued to the TV watching America's Team bungle their way to the first loss of the season. Tony Romo, the pride of everyone south of the Red River, proceeds to throw 4 interceptions in the first half. He looked like that guy who threw 4 ints against kansas state last week, only whiter (is that even possible?). Well i all but wrote of the boys until Romo fumbled in the second half. Then i really lost heart. So i began flipping through the channels, watching my yanks lose. Then, for some odd reason, i turned back and saw that dallas was kicking a fg to win it..... and it was good! we yelled and screamed, i sounded like a girl who just got a my little pony for her birthday. Then tony k brang me back to earth and said that Dick called a timeout. Tha got me thinking about how absolutely absurd it was that a coach can tell the ref "i want to screw this team over... so the split second before he kicks it i want a timeout" This has already happened twice this year, and they were all done by dirty yank coaches who act like girls when they are about to lose. Anyways Dallas kicks it again and makes it! I think i saw TO go over to Dick J and whisper some sweet obscenities into his ear. O by the way did anyone see ol' wade "jump" after the game? check it out, as well as the last part of the game, above.

Anyways this gets me to my point, and that is that i always chuckle when athletes "pray" before games. If they both pray for a victory, which one does God choose? See these are questions i will be asking when i get up to heaven and get to have dinner with the trinity. Good times.

Whoa

Good gosh its been a while since i have put anything up here, but hey i was never good at keeping journals of anykind, never good with a planner, never really cared i guess. It always seemed like a waste of time to write something out for everyone to see. Sometimes i equate blogging to talking to someone on the phone, mainly a woman. It always seems like they can almost talk to someone on the phone about anything really... flowers, unicorns, makeup, etc. Dudes cant really hang with that...we have purposeful conversation that has a point, and when that point is over, so is the convo. We usually dont call people "just to talk", just like we dont go to the mall to "shop", we go there to buy something and leave.

Anyways, i am currently in Fort Worth and living with my sister's boyfriend in a corporate apartment. I am living here for free and sticking it to the man because i shouldnt be in his apartment to begin with, but what the heck. I have also been looking for a job for the last two months and let me tell you.... its probably been THE most trying time in my entire life. However, the Lord has been so faithful to me during this time that it shocks me. I have been able to spend large chunks of my day in the word and during this time the Lord has laid bare to me the sin in my life and the need for repentance.

I have also been in search of a new church. It has been quite hard because the only ones that i have gone to that i like are located in Dallas, which doesnt seem so far away until you realize that 35 miles just isnt right down the street. I have been to Park Cities Pres and i absolutely loved it... very much in line with what i beleive. It reminds me of Dayspring in Austin but about 100 times bigger and better dressed. Gosh i miss the typical dayspringer...

I have also been to a church called Watermark community church, which is ok too. It reminds me alot of Austin Stone, but with a tons more peopel as well. They had a presentation the other day about the amount of giving they have had this year... 34 MILLION dollars. Think about all the hunting gear you could buy with that, plus 3,000 acres of prime south texas whitetail habitat. I am thinking about joining here...we will see.

Well that is the update in my life. Ill try to be more disciplined with the timliness of the updates, but i aint promising nothing.