Baseball and Persecution

So I'm watching the Giants play the Marlins and waiting to see history made by Barry. No matter how you feel about him, etc. you have to respect how, despite all the criticism and all the distraction, he can focus and just go for it. But regardless I was just curious: how many of you guys read these things? Just leave me a quick comment if you can; just curious. See you guys later.

Geoff

Rejoice In Your Chains

So I'm excited about studying Phillipians with you guys. I really think that if we stick with it, we'll all be blessed with something we can take with us out of this study. Last night, in case you missed it, we started diving into the first chapter of Phillipians in which we find a good case of Paul turning the worst for the best.
We can be inspired by Paul's example of servanthood through suffering and learn to turn the not-so-good parts of life into an example of Christ's love in us by the reaction we show to these aspects in life. From his jail cell, in one of the worst times in his life, Paul is able to be cheerful in his service to God and calls on the Phillipians to do the same. Paul also shows us that while he is a respected theologian and Biblical author, he has his struggles as well. He recognizes that it would be far better to die and be with Christ but that he is here on Earth for a purpose. He recognizes a lost world's need for Christ and stresses that "to live is Christ, but to die is gain." Paul concludes that in order to reach people here on Earth, we are called to be "children of heaven here on Earth." In order to reach people for Christ we need to strive to be like Christ, even as we are sinners in a sinful world. I encourage you to come out next week as we explore more in Phillipians and more about ourselves.

Until then,
God Bless.

Geoff

So you know what today is...

I know I'll see all of you at our service tonight, right? Just kidding but if your interested swing by for our College & Career Service in the sanctuary at 8. Tonight we'll dive into the third part of our patriotic series "Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness". (In actuality the title serves more as a springboard into the topic of free-will rather than be an actual patriotic service....come by you'll see) Following up our talk about God's greatest gift, freewill, from our lesson "Liberty" last week, this week we will examine America's obsession with "the Pursuit of Happiness". Hope to see you all there tonight for some good worship an bible study. And as always I'm sure we'll grab some food after. Later!

Geoff

Summer Update

Ok, I'll make you guys a deal. I'll post more if you guys take this and apply it. Deal? Deal. So first of all Fuge was great, as if that was ever in doubt. I've really taken a conviction to journal and other spiritual disciplines. I believe, this Fuge more than any other, was a time of submission rather than conviction. God really showed me the importance of being obedient to him daily and forming good habits in my relationship with him. In the end, it was a great time.

In other news our College Service on Wednesdays has been going on strong and I hope to see all of you guys there at 8 on Wednesdays in the sanctuary. You can check back here for updates on the series we are going through at the moment.

To end, I'm going to figure out how to post pics on this thing. Get ready for some funny stuff. Later guys.

Geoff

UPDATE: I've got it now. Here you go.
P.S. The guys are getting shaved because the kids reached a certain goal with their missions offering at camp.