The Great Reversal

The rush and the stress that seems to come with finals time have finally settled on Greenvilles Campus. It's funny how all a teacher has to do is tell you that a test is worth 10% of your grade (and actually mean it, unlike high school, and all of the sudden, your education matters enough to study for it.
Do not worry. I'm not making fun of anyone. I'm actually in a way describing myself.

This however got me thinking about our scripture reading. And it also got me thinking about Facebook. And if someone who didn't know me was watching my every action, they would almost definitely say that Facebook is way more important to me then my spiritual life.

And that my friends, is a problem.

It's bad, because sometimes, when there's nothing to do here in 316 (which often times is the case, unless you want to sit around the virtual fire place) I'll go "Hey, I'll get on Facebook. Surely there will be someone to talk to on there!" And sure enough, there usually always is. While that's all well and good, sometimes, after I'm done talking to people, I'll catch myself STARING at the home page, looking at nothing. What in the world is wrong with me?

In Jesus' day, the children, by age 5, would be expected to have the Torah (the first five books of the bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) memorized. We say that we could never do that now. But is that really true?

We're going to do a little math here: I would say that on average, a teen spends about 3-4 hours on Facebook any given day. So, if you take that and multiply that by 365 (for days of the year) you get between 1095-1460 hours a year spent on Facebook. That's roughly 6 1/2 weeks a year spent on Facebook.

Wow.

Now, what if we were to switch the amount of time spent on Facebook and the amount of time reading the Bible? (which is - for the average person - is about 60 hours a year.) There are 31,173 verses in the Old Testament, and about...842 (really rough average) verses in the Torah. Statistics show that the average person reads about 275 words a minute. The average verse length (in the KJV) is 25 words. This means that the average person can read 11 verses a minute.

So, if one were to read their bible for a month and a half for 3-4 hours a day, they would be able to read The ENTIRE Bible about...10 times. You could read the Torah about...1,114 times.

Plenty of time to memorize it i'd say.

So how about we all do that for a month and a half? Switch the amount of time we're on Facebook and the amount of time we read the Bible.

Then we can start memorizing Gods word rather than memorizing our friends statuses.

ps - it's Bennetts Birthday today. :)

Rain Rain, Go Away...

Here in 316 (this is my dorm room number) we've made it somewhat of a tradition to always play and sing "Rain" by Breaking Benjamin whenever it's raining. It's kind of fun to do, maybe since it's a good song. Without fail, the rain has actually stopped every time. Knock on wood.

As I think about this song more, the more I feel like - in a way - relates with my post from yesterday. The chorus of the song is the old rhyme

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. All the world is waiting on the sun."

Isn't that what we're all waiting for? We want the rain to be gone, and the sun to shine. We want the rough times gone, and let the good times roll.

The bridge in this song goes on to say "To lie here under you is all that I could ever do"
I don't know about you, but I LOVE the imagery that creates, especially in a sort of worship context. In the song, this line refers to the sun, but what if we could relate it to the SON? The son, Jesus Christ, savior of us all. How great will the day be when all we could ever do is lie under the son? How great of a day will it be when we can say that to Him, face to face?

Haste the day Lord.

So, this one is shorter than my last, but oh well. If you haven't heard this song, listen to it (not even for the reasons I said. It's just good in general. Not your typical breaking benjamin either)
I hope what little my words have to offer bless you in some way today.

Always say Never

Hello.

Kinda nervous right now. I'm about to try my hand at blogging.

Who knows what's going to happen? Oh well, I guess we won't find out until I try.

I would give an introduction of myself and everything, but I don't want this blog to be about me really. While it will include things and events that happen in my life, my life is not really my own. I belong to someone bigger than myself, and I want my experiences and actions to reflect that. I want to be everything I'm called to be, but in order to do that, I can't let myself get in the way. SO I'm going to do my best not to, but I am human.

College. That's where I am now. That's what I am now, and I love it. I go to a very small college in a very small town called Greenville College in (you guessed it) Greenville County, Illinois. This place reminds me so much of home, mainly because of the smallness of it. The community is great, the staff is WONDERFUL, and the presence of Jesus Christ is right in your face. Just the way it should be.

Recently, I've heard a lot of sermons and pastors talking about high points and low points in our lives (usually referred to as "mountains and valleys") and how we can overcome those times. Friends, family, prayer, reading the bible, yadda yadda yadda. These things are common in every one of the sermons I've heard. (and when I say yadda yadda, I'm not trying to lessen the importance of these things. I just feel as though sometimes, people who are going through rough times want to hear something new, because they feel like that's all they have ever heard)

Yesterday though, my roommate Bennett Wilson (add him on facebook. Cool guy.) and I went to his church in Indiana to play at what they call "Ignite" (this is a monthly worship service they do to kind of...relight the fire within. Pretty cool.) and his dad spoke on this very subject.

It was probably the best sermon on this subject I've ever heard.

(Sorry Perry, you did well. But Bret has got you beat I think. Hahahahaha, as if Mr. Noble is going to read this! Hahaha..haha...ugh)

He mentioned that without valleys, there would be no mountains. Without hard times, there would be no good times, simply because we would have nothing to compare it to. He used a shepherd and sheep analogy. During the summer, he said, as all the snow melts off of the mountain, the shepherd takes his sheep up to the top, where the grass will be long and lush for the summer. The journey to the top is very, very hard, but the shepherd KNOWS this path like the back of his hand. He has done this a million times, and he would never take his sheep somewhere that he didn't know. He would never put his sheep through something that he wasn't sure he could handle. The shepherd knows every nook and cranny of the path to the top, and is with his sheep the entire way. Perry Noble says it very well when he says (here you go! I AM quoting you!) "That friday when everything seemed lost, when it seemed like God wasn't in control and Satan had won was when God was MOST in control, and three days later, on that sunday, His glory was revealed in the most radical of ways! He conquered death on that day!"

So what we can get out of this is God is NEVER going to get you into something that He doesn't know whether or not you can handle it. God is faithful, and will NEVER leave you. God will NEVER forsake you, and if you're going through something and you feel like there is no way God is in the situation, think again. Gods glory is reveled most through our rough times.

I think I'm done blogging for now. I want to leave you with some Crowder lyrics (I will probably do this often.) This is from a song called "Shadows" on his new c.d. "Church Music" Go out and buy it. Support the incredible things these guys do.

Life is full of light and shadow
O the joy and O the sorrow
O the sorrow

And yet will He bring
Dark to light
And yet will He bring
Day from night

When shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When darkness falls on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we're thrown and we're tossed
We remember the cost
We rest in the
Shadow of the cross

NEVER fear. Friday may be here, but Sunday's coming.