A few of my favorite things...(cheesy songs)

I simply LOVE cheesy songs! There is something special about a great cheesy song, that just makes everything bad disappear.

Favorite 70's cheesy song: "How can you mend a broken heart?" the Bee Gees version- Ah, the Bee Gees... the kings of disco and cheese...

Favorite 80's cheesy song: "Mr Roboto" by Styx- Three words: "I am Kilroy!!!" Not really a cheesy love song, but it's oh so good!

Favorite 90's cheesy song: "Goodbye " by Air Supply- so cheesy it's actually yummy!

Favorite cheesy songs of ALL TIME: it's a tie between "Keep on loving you" by REO Speedwagon and "I would do anything for love" by Meat Loaf...

They don't make songs like these anymore... How sad!

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Elom reflects on Scott's reflections: Joyful!

What keeps me from leading a joyful life? Simple: my sinful nature…

As much as I want to believe that my life now is closer to the one intended by my Heavenly Father, I still sin. The enemy of my soul is desperately trying to steal, kill and destroy the hope and joy I have found since I decided to hand my life over to Christ. The enemy is planting seeds of doubt and fear along my path, but he is not the only one to blame; my own emotions also gets in the way.

By letting the Holy Spirit take over my life, I think I have been doing much better at fighting the desires of my sinful nature.

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Galatians 5: 19-21

That’s a lot of grounds to cover… The good news is that, I can really see the Holy Spirit working in my life. It’s a hard thing deny. For instance, I have this almost insatiable desire to serve others; anytime I read or hear “Just show up” I take it as a personal invitation! I signed up for another volunteer opportunity the other day, and someone asked out of concern if I was doing it out of guilt… I don’t think ANYONE should sign up for anything out guilt. I try to be very careful about that…

This podcast also marked the end of the “Getting off the emotional roller coaster series”. What have I learned? Trust! Trusting God can be a challenge sometimes; I am still tempted to just “get things done”. It works sometimes, but more than often, I just end being dissatisfied with the results, and end right back to where I started. Trusting Him, means trusting Him with every areas of my life, not just the obvious ones… I read this as I was driving today:

“Exercise daily. Walk with Jesus”

Still learning… still walking

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Elom reflects on Scott's reflections: Guilty?

How do I know that my sins and my guilt are washed away?

The reference to Leviticus chapter 23 was certainly interesting. The Old Covenant required a series of feasts and rituals to ensure the forgiveness of sins. I could not help but imagine myself during the Feast of Weeks, bringing “two loaves made with two tenth of an epah of fine flour, baked with yeast” with seven male lambs, one young bull and two rams as offerings to the Lord (Lev 23: 18).

These rather complicated sacrifices had to be completed on a regular basis to ensure the forgiveness of sins. The priests, who were anointed to offer these sacrifices also had to live by very strict rules to safeguard their holiness (Lev 21). Despite all these regulations and strict rules, the forgiveness of sins was not guaranteed.

“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins”. Hebrews 10:11

By shedding His blood for our sins, the Great Priest, Jesus Christ, provided the clean slate we so desperately longed for and needed.

“and since we have a Great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10: 21-24

His gift to us is our Salvation. In other words, I could try to “win” His forgiveness by accomplishing good deeds, but this will not take me very far. My good deeds are certainly not a way for me to obtain Salvation, or else I would have to volunteer every second of every day. Instead, I can be thankful for the sacrifice He has made for me, and all of us.

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Ps 118:8

Dear Father,

Thank you for your comfort. Please Father, don't let my heart be troubled by things I cant control. I thank you for showing me the cause of all the confusion. Please help me remember this verse, and practice it every time I feel disappointment creeping into my heart.

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord,
Than to trust in man"
Ps 118:8

SO BE IT.

Giving (originally posted on my Myspace account)

You can give so many things away, your time, your money, your energy, your heart, presents, good reviews, tips... For a very long time, I would give thinking that I was doing it unconditionally, but I was always secretly hoping to receive something in return. A compliment, a good review, a simple thank you...

The older I get (-yes, older-), the more I realize that giving REALLY needs to be unconditional- with no strings attached. You may not get the "thank you" you think you deserve, or the pat on the back for your efforts, but that is the essence of giving.

Of course, I do forget that sometimes... I am only human afterall, but everytime I think I did not get enough credit for something I did from the bottom of my heart, I sit back and try to rememeber why I did it in the first place...

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I am back!

A group of us came back to Dayton on Sunday morning around midnight. As we were unloading our luggage from Jon's van, a car pulled into the Church parking lot, and the driver asked "Is the first service at 9:00am?" We all looked at each other, and said "Yes". The two people in the car said thank you and left. How strange...

Almost every thing about this trip was strange, and amazing! I have learned a few lessons and met some great people. We would get to the site at 7:00am, have breakfast, and work until 6pm or later, with lunch and dinner breaks of course. I spent most of my time there on either a scaffold, or a scissor lift (or just ladders sometimes), insulating, mudding, taping, sanding ceilings or high walls. I even learned how to operate a scissor lift! My body was covered in fiberglass for 2 days...ouch!

My lessons started as soon as we started driving down to New Orleans. Here is a list of a few of them:

• Lesson: Don't judge people by their appearances, we all have different stories.

I should know this by now, but I am sometimes caught off guard when I meet people who seem to have it all together, only to realize that they also carry their own set of problems. All I could so in most cases was to offer them my undivided attention, but I am always amazed to realize how a few words of encouragement can make a difference in someone's day. I could tell that some people were not used to sharing their problems, but it was as if being stuck in the same car for 15 hrs, working and sweating together made it safe for us to talk freely about our lives.

• Lesson: humility.

We all needed a good dose of humility to survive the week. We all had so many different personalities, but we all tried to remember the reason why we were down there. Of course, it made me feel good when Rick, my partner in crime, started calling me "Boss", but I tried hard not to let it get to my head. I started joking and called him "My best employee ever!". I think we did pretty good overall.

• Lesson: stop when you need to stop. Listen to your body.

I learned that the hard way. We started working on Sunday, and by Wednesday afternoon, my body decided to shut down for the day. It just shut down, and I simply could not do anything! It felt really scary, but my body is not really used to 4 straight days of manual labor under the hot Louisiana sun. I had to take it easy the rest of the afternoon, and came back stronger the next day.

• Lesson: perseverance

Perseverance almost came easy for us because we were working to rebuild His Church, a gathering place for His followers. When we realized that only a very small group was able to come down for the second week, we unanimously decided to stay and work an extra day, some people even stay 2 days! It was really amazing!


I will try to post some pictures later...technical issues with Blogger...

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My New Orleans friends

Thank you God for all the wonderful & inspirational people I have met and got to know better on this trip:

Thank you for honest Darlene,

Thank you for sweetest Peggy and her faithful Mike

Thank you for soul searching Victoria, hard working Janet and curious Emma

Thank you for wonderful Rick,

Thank you for supportive and unstoppable Josh, Jon, Ralph, Ron, Jim, David, Derek, and Terry

Thank you for talented Pat and Gregg's leadership

Thank you God for using Mark to send me these words of encouragement:

"You can do it all! I've seen you do it all week. You can do anything you set you mind to, and NEVER let anyone tell you otherwise"