graduation

mandy is graduating college this week! im so proud of her, so has accomplished so much, when the odds were stacked against her. she is the first person in her family to graduate a traditional highschool, and the continue to college. on saturday may 2nd she will graduate with a BA is Church Leadership and a minor in youth ministries. she makes me so proud. some of my family is flying down from alaska to celebrate and then next weekend we will be doing to north carolina to visit the church we have been interviewing with.

anyway, take care

God's unconditonal love

Since Good Friday, I have been just engulfed if the fathers love for me and this whole universe. we mere humans love each other with conditions or with high expectations and here is a God who is the highest expectation and we doubt him, we doubt that his love, his mercy, and his unconditional ways are not enough for our situation. God has been working on me to get out of my selfishness, where i end up only thinking i am the one that is struggling, i am the only one enduring hardship, when i may have only experienced a slight ramification of "hardship". I struggle with this because life hasn't been the easiest journey for me, but i know that i know, its all for His glory and like King David waited 15-20 years for the fulfillment of Samuel's prophecy, i can wait, because i know that my God will never forsake me, and he wouldn't bring me this far to leave me. He is always faithful in his timing, and his timing always turns out to be the best anyways, so why don't we just wait, and be patient, because the Lord knows what is best, because he knows us more than we know ourselves. God is teaching me to relax and slow down, and enjoy everything i have learned and live it out.

saturday and hurricanes.

i have blogged more than i thought i would, today was a great day! oh man, God is so good, and i mean that. i think sometimes we employ "christianeese" out of routine or whatever, and thats wierd to me anyway..... my wife and i visited a church this morning that is right across the street from our house, since we stepped down from the ministry position we were in, we just felt like we needed to go somewhere neutral and just allow God's love to just peace just restore us.

i have learned lately that sometimes the blessing from God looks and feels more like a curse, and it doesnt make sense to other people, (or ourselves for that matter). i am a huge believer that as a christian life is not easy, and there are valleys and more valleys, and the some mountain tops. something God has been teaching me is too trust even in the valley, and that there is blessing in the valley. i think a bigger blessing than most of us realize, our hearts just have to be open to it. my mom is a nurse and she delivers babies and she made a cool connection a few years ago, that i was reminded of. for every gift/blessing/new season, there is a 'birthing season' of season of struggle, and pain, and desperation, before the blessing. God uses the valley to take us to the mountain top, to restore our vision, to give us a taste of what is to come. i know this sounds funny coming from a guy, but this past 4 months my wife and i can totally relate (no, we dont have children yet haha knock on wood).

today at church the pastor talked about how our life is like a canvas and that we can struggle with the artist all we want but, in the end we are going to look like his plan for us. and for some of us the artist is painting our lives the way we want, and at the same time things are not going as well for others... and some of us are in between a good day and a bad day. he sumed it up with this cool thought...

for some us we are like the early church and followers of Jesus, something new and fresh has arrived, and it is what we are made for, and we dive right in and before we know it, its gone (Jesus's death). We dont understand, we are left in the dark, life has thrown us a curve. Those days are called friday.

then for some of us, our friday has already come, we have seen the initial promise of God, we have caught a glimps of how things are going to be, and we are left hoping and doubting that sunday's promise will happen, and we are kinda left stranded it feels like. we feel lost, out of place, and completely flat, but there is a small amount of hope stirring inside of us. this day is called saturday.

the only thing left to come, is the day when everything is made new, the stone is rolled away and the glory of God is relvealed, that is our mountaintop. this day is called sunday.

today is a saturday for us, friday happened about 4 months ago, the sun has not totally set, but we know sunday is on its way, i can smell it in wind (Ps. 104:4), its like are alomst over the top of the sand dune, and we can roll down into the oasis! i cant wait!

"his love is like a hurricane, i am tree, bending in the waiting of his mercy- John Mark McMillian"
one of my favorite lyrics, and we are ready.

currently listening to : "blood bank": by Bon Iver

new iphones

oh and my wife and i finally got iphones, goodbye alltel, hello at&t. they are super fun! and i suggest everyone get one...


check out a good friend of ours blog
www.yardonahill.blogspot.com

Psalms 103

I really love the Pslams, there is so much power in those words, and it really encourages me as a worshiper and a follower of Jesus to just let it all out. everything with in me, anyway.,,
i was reading psalms 103 and i came across a verse that really flooded my heart with grace... "he does not treat us as our sings deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities" (ps. 103:10) how beautiful is this? i was overwhelmed with love and grace, and a peace just rested on me. it was really interested. the rest of the chapter goes into further detail of how much God loves us and how through Jesus all things are forgiven, and how great his love is for us.

i also began to think of as christians how many times have we shown the opposite to wrong us? we sometimes live in this conditional world, that is quick to react towards someone who wrongs them, or cast judgement. i think since we have been set free, we should begin to set others free, i really think we can liberate the world aroumd us, and Gods grace and love will flood the earth. its what im praying for, and lately God has been giving me a lot of opprptunities to forgive.

currently listening to : "make you move" by john mark mcmillan

happy reserection weekend!
go out and love the world!

doors.

so it is april now, wow time has really flown by. over the past month we have been in such a huge state of transition... i think we are always in transition, we are all moving from some place to the next and somethings just happen at a faster rater than others. for the past year and a half my wife and i were youth pastors at a church in town, and we had poured so much of ourselves into the ministry and the families there. we have the best friends there, and some really great memories, and some really bad ones too. reciently in the past two weeks our position was cut (we actually stepped down a few weeks early just to help the resolve the situation). as hard as it was knowing that we were not going to have a job anymore, it was even harder being there when we knew our hearts were somewhere else. about a month ago, it was like God just turned out the lights inside our hearts for that ministry. we love the kids so much, and their families, but we felt like something was up.

it is funny how God works too, he closes doors (sometimes it feels like he slams them in your face) and he opens doors. the day after we stepped down, an opprotunity for a pastor position opened up effortessly right in front of us. we feel a strong peace about the entire situation and are continuing to seek God's face for this next season of our lives. we do not have anything burdensome holding us back, and we havent quite got that sense of adventure (but i feel it coming). i love the relationships we have built here, some of the greatest friends ive ever had, but i know that a friendship cant be measured by miles....

so we shall see what happens in the next few weeks, ill keep you posted.
currently listening to: Josh Moore on myspace

-zh