Atlanta May 31, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: fights, food, friends, me
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Yesterday was a great day. And I’m gonna tell you about it. WITH bullet points!
- Slept in. No alarm clock. Woke up about 10. Glorious.
- Stayed in bed. Read. 1Chronicles. Simple Church.
- Got out of bed cleaned up the house, some. Then did nothing. Watched Judge Judy and Divorce Court.
- My boy Russ came by and we headed down to Atlanta to celebrate the anniversary of his birth. Amazing conversation. REAL conversation and accountability. Tough questions.
- MARTA. Parked at Doraville. Vortex at Midtown. Then Philips Arena. Always a fun experience.
- The Vortex (scroll down and read the burger descriptions, I want to try them all. Except maybe the Elvis burger, it sounds a little too weird.) I had the Great Big Jerk Burger, he had the Rajun’ Cajun’ Burger. Our waitress was Elizabeth, great conversation. Love the Sweet Potato Fries.
- American Fight League at Philips Arena. This was great because knowing that there was no way that the event would sell out, we decided to ride down and get tix at the door. As we were walking through the scalpers, a guy walked up and asked us if we had tix. We told him we didn’t. He handed us two tix and told us we could have them for free. We thanked the man, took the tix and headed in. No joke. This really happened. We sat right above the tunnel where the fighters come into the arena.
- More MARTA. Great conversation. I’m leaving out a lot of the details about getting off at the wrong stops on the MARTA.
- Home at 2:30 am.
See, I told you it was a great day!
What’s been read. May 30, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: books
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These are four of the best books that I’ve read so far this year (not all the books, but my favorites) – in no particular order.
And the next two I will read…
Any suggestions?
Friday Favorite from YouTube May 30, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: Friday YouTube
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I love the musical creativity involved in this one. Originally found through Joshua.
The Lion and the Bear May 29, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: bible, thoughts
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What makes a person attack a lion to remove a sheep from its mouth? Why was David so passionate about saving sheep from lions and bears?
- He had been keeping his father’s sheep. He knew that he was accountable for each and every sheep. He knew that the sheep were not his.
- He knew that letting one sheep go, would lead to him letting more sheep go. By not confronting the issue the first time, there would undoubtedly be more sheep lost to lions and bears.
- He did what had to be done. To him, the sheep were important to his father and therefore to him. Death by lion or bear was more acceptable than living knowing that he did nothing to protect what was important to his father.
- He knew the Lord was with him.
David was unquestioningly passionate about his calling to shepherd his father’s sheep. David’s zeal over the smaller things led to him being in charge of much bigger things. But wait. David didn’t know about anything about Goliath, or being the king of Israel when he was a shepherd. He wasn’t killing bears for future glory. He knew only the sheep. He was protecting the sheep.
I wish that I was as passionate about anything as David was about sheep.
What are you passionate about? Is a shot at death more appealing to you than failure at that one thing?
The story of my tattoo. May 28, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: church, me
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I never thought that I would get a tattoo. I just didn’t think that I would still like whatever tattoo I got 20-30 years down the road.
I was wrong.
Here’s what my tattoo is about.
First of all, the Rhino. The Rhino represents the church. Thick skinned. Top of the food chain. It can only see what is right in front of it. It has amazing hearing. When it charges, things either get out of the way or get destroyed.
The Rhino is charging through flames. This represents the purpose of the church – to rescue people on the road to hell. Notice the ears forward, listening intently, even as it charges.
The logo in the back is the NewSpring Church logo. The church where I met Jesus at.
Finally, I had the word Church put above it. I believe in the church. I believe in the power of the local church as the hope of the world. I believe that Jesus has many many more miracles that He wants to do through his body of believers, the church.
I was rescued, by Jesus, through the local church. My tattoo represents my passion, to see others rescued through the local church as it focus’ on making the name of Jesus famous.
I got the tattoo on the top of my left foot, mainly because I have a friend who has a tattoo on the top of his foot, and I liked the way it looked when wearing jeans and flops.
I have plans for other tattoos, but am still praying through them. Please understand also, that getting inked was not an impulse occasion.
Do you have a tattoo? Do you have a cool story about it? Tell me.
Success May 27, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: church, me, thoughts
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When I first started working at NewSpring, I struggled a good bit trying to figure out my job.
I was hired to do something that I really hadn’t done much before. Construction? Never. Helping people in need? Only as much as I wanted to before.
The only thing that I had done a lot of before I began working at NewSpring is lead volunteers.
I struggled trying to figure out how to do construction. I struggled trying to find projects and organize them for the volunteers. I struggled with my purpose and vision for why I was now working at NewSpring. (just being honest.)
That is, until the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly one day. “On your own, you have a 100% chance of failure. You cannot do it alone.” After that, I began seeking out skilled volunteers in construction to actually lead the projects. I connected with outside organizations who were in touch with hurting people in need. I started empowering and pouring vision into volunteer leaders. (I would have thought that this would have been easy for me, seeing as though I had been a volunteer leader for the previous FOUR YEARS.)
The team started to grow and we began taking on bigger projects and challenges. The Handyman Team has done some amazing things in the Anderson community in the past couple years. But much of that success can be traced back to that one lightbulb moment in that small whisper from the Holy Spirit. It still resounds to me weekly, if not daily, “On your own, you have a 100% chance of failure.”
Success in anything in my life HAS TO revolve around helping other people succeed.
What is your “lightbulb” moment? What stories has that led to?
Gifts May 26, 2008
Posted by Jamie in Uncategorized.Tags: church, thoughts
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On Sunday, Daniel Harper, the Student Ministry Worship Leader, spoke at NewSpring. It was freakin’ amazing.
The quote that is still hammering me that he said was, “As a parent, would you rather your children give you gifts, or obey you?” I can only imagine, as I am not yet a parent, that a parent’s response would be something along the lines of, “Yes, that’s nice, but obedience is what I wanted.” Eventually I would think that I wouldn’t even like the gifts anymore, I would just want my kid to obey me. Gifts are great! – AFTER obedience.
And how much more does God get so incredibly bored with my “finger painting masterpieces” that I continually present to him, when all that He really wants is for me to obey him.
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Dang.
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” Ouch.
“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands.” Ok, I get the point.
Check out the whole deal here.
One of the things that really convicted me was the way that I am treating my finances. I develop a monthly budget, but don’t really even attempt to stick to it. I’ve developed emergency savings, but savings have slowed and I have yet to aggressively attack my student loan debt. The story that Daniel spoke on from 1 Samuel 15 about Saul attacking the Amalekites definitely resounded with me. Saul was obedient half way. Me with my finances, I have been obedient half way. Luke-warm.
What has God been saying to you lately?
