Whom will I serve?

The Spirit of Truth which dwells inside of me was starved in the shadows of what I wanted to do last week.  The war between Spirit and flesh that is constantly raging inside of me was dominated by my selfish desires last week.  Why?  I have no clue.  All I know is that I have to wake up every morning and have the discipline to put the Spirit in front of the flesh.  This is a timeless truth that will forever be applicable to me and every other Christian each day.  Galatians 5: 16-18 is pretty clear.  It says that the flesh and the Spirit set their desires against one another so that they are in opposition.  So where does that leave us?  Well, if we choose to try and fight the good fight on our own it leaves us with a big “L” on our foreheads.  But, if we choose to lay down our pride and call upon the great Power of our Savior then we cannot help but be victorious through our weakness and  His Strength.  I am seeing more and more each day how I am capable of doing nothing aside from sin.  When left to my own devices I have no hope.  My only hope is to feed the Spirit inside of me so much that the flesh is choked out.  How will you feed your Spirit each day???

Back

I got back to school yesterday, and as I stepped off the plane there was about 5 or 6 inches of fresh powder covering the ground.  A little bit different than when I left the 50’s of the North Carolina mountains.  I will be honest, I was not ready to come back to school in the least until I took off from Asheville.  For some reason, it just did not feel right.  I still cannot describe the feeling, but as soon as I left the ground the anticipation of being back in Iowa, playing baseball, and being around teammates began to build.  Since I have been back for about a day now, I can honestly say that I am ready for this semester.  I just do not want to miss anything that it may have to offer.  I know that it will fly by and be gone quicker than I can even imagine, but I do not want to miss glorifying God in any part of my life this semester.

Quotable Sweetness

“True spiritual direction not only challenges; it comforts”

-Douglas Webster

…that is sick nasty

Inspired Scripture

This morning I was in a Bible Study, and we were going over 2 Timothy 3: 16-17.  After reading through that and talking for a minute, I remembered something I found very interesting in the commentary in my Bible.  It was about the part that said “all scripture is inspired by God.”  The commentary said to remember the fact that it was the scripture that was inspired, not the scripture writer.  At first I was slightly confused at this.  After thinking for a moment it started to become a little more clear.  Scripture is the very WORD of God.  They are His words and not the writers.  The writers were God’s chosen vessels to deliver the message.  What an honor, huh???  Just a little taste of what I am learning right now…

 

Do you take pride in what God is doing through you?  I am guilty at times…just remember, whatever God is doing through you, it is His work and not yours.  You are the chosen vessel!  A true honor, because as humans, we deserve no such honor.  We are capable of nothing on our own.

I am selfish. In every way. With every thing

Lately I have just been straight up convicted of the fact that I am incredibly selfish!  I mean I started to think about it, and I could not think of one area in which I was not selfish.  I thank God for allowing the Holy Spirit to show me this.  I believe that it could be the biggest brick wall between me and God in my relationship with Him.  For instance, on a daily basis, I could read the word, or I could press the snooze button.  I could talk to random class mates I see in the hall, or I could open my phone and look at it; like I get a text every time I walk past someone!!! YEAH RIGHT!  The thing that convicts me the most, however, is the fact that God has granted me a huge opportunity to reach out to all of my teammates, and although I am building awesome relationships with the guys, I know that I could do sooooo much more…but only when I give up the life I want.

As far as being a leader, I have not chosen to be a leader.  What am I scared of?  Am I afraid that Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the Triune God are not with me always?  This is a real battle in my life!  It is rockin’ my world.  And I love every minute of it.  I never want to be comfortable in my faith…but always challenged and desiring to grow deeper.  I want to battle for my faith every day.

What’s on your blog today???

Lets talk about poverty…

What do you guys think is the major cause of poverty in todays world?  I do not even know if you can pinpoint one thing.

Be Real? Whaaaaat????

Lately I have been struggling with this issue….being real!  I mean, why do I always tell people that I’m “doin’ well” when I might be struggling on any given day?  I know that not everyone wants to hear what I am going through each day, but the people who I know want to challenge me and help me grow should get an honest answer out of me.  It has become second nature to me to just say “I’m doin’ good today bro.”  Why is that?  Am I worried that my closest friends will say something that will challenge me or might say something that I know is true but just don’t want to hear it?  I guess I just don’t even think about what I should say when I am talking to people.  My goal is to become more real and authentic today…tomorrow…hopefully everyday.

Check this and see what the Word says about it.  Let’s start being real!  How can we expect others to be a leveraging influence on us if we don’t tell them what’s up???

The Sox

Ok…so I think that as I grow older and I am around baseball more and more, I am starting to see that I like the way the Boston Red Sox organization is run as a whole.  I mean, they let their players go out and play, have fun while they are at it, and they don’t have any problem with guys who look like Grizzly Adams (Kevin Youkilis).  I love that.  As a player, I’m not gonna say I wouldn’t play for someone who has regulations on that kind of stuff (Yankees), but does it really matter?  I like the “free-spirited” ways of the Red Sox.