My day

You know, I posted that entry this morning and then I had a totally mixed up and crazy day that ranged from talking to a man about his marriage, to doing palates and cooking stuffed mushrooms. So I guess you are probably thinking, How in the world can you do that in one day?

I woke up this morning (at 5:40) with all these great intentions to study and get ready for my test tomorrow in Introduction to New Testament and to work on a paper. So I woke up, came over to the church building and started cooking eggs (we have men's breakfast every Monday morning). We all ate and all the old guys made fun of me of course (at least they think they make fun of me). They say these things to me and all laugh while I am in the dark. I really have no clue what joke they are making. It makes absolutely no sense to me. And I know that if I were to make a remark back, nobody would laugh because they would have no clue what I was saying! Oh the joy of fellowshipping with people three times my age. Anyway, they have a great time picking on me and I don't mind. I am usually too tired to understand what they are saying even if they do make sense. Even though they are three times my age, the are surprisingly chipper at 6:30 a.m.

So we clean up after breakfast and I come to my office and start working on homework and about that time a man from my church walks into my office and sits down and wants to talk. So I give him my attention and come to find out he is going through a major family crisis and his wife is threatening to divorce him. So I talk with him for THREE hours and I recommend a book that might help them and make sure that they are continuing there counseling and then I look at the clock and realize it's lunch time. So I go home and Jen reminds me that I had promised to cook stuffed mushrooms for lunch (something she doesn't do, No I'm not talking about the cooking part, just the stuffed mushrooms).

So I cooked, we ate, and I looked at the clock and realized that I didn't have time to go work out like I planned. Well, Jen suggests that I try Palates (I don't think I am spelling that right) with her (she has never tried it and is borrowing the DVD from mom actually). Now for all you guys who think that Palates is increadibly girly and somewhat pansy-like...it is, I will never do that again (though my abbs are quite sore). The funnest thing about the video was making snide remarks about the comments the chicks made to each other and looking at the toned buuuuu....iceps of the instructor lady (I'm sure I'll get smacked for that one).

So now, here I am, sitting at my computer and writing this instead of studying. In the words of Napolean Dynamite..."IDIOT!"

Josh Out

Tons of Stuff

I wanted to take a little bit of time to apologize to all of you who may be looking for new posts on my blog. I have been super busy with school and ministry and have not had enough time to post regularly. I still have three weeks of school left and until I have taken my finals I don't predict anymore posts.

By the way, the Broncos are doing awesome! I am looking for their Turkey Day clash with the Cowboys.

Poor Broncos

My boys have lost...Eli Manning had to pull some kind of magic and march the Giants up the field in a last minute drive to score with only 5 seconds left on the clock.

I have really been on the up lately. We had a great hayride on Saturday night. We had tons of people there and we had a lot of fun. Here is a picture of all of us before we left. I really don't know how we fit this many people on the trailor. If you know who my parents are, they were here this weekend for a visit and you can see that they rode the hay along with everybody else. We had a wonderful visit and got to play some games, and eat together. My sister and her husband were here also. We had a great time.

God has been working on my heart lately. He has also been speaking to me through His Word and others. He has shown me that it is very good to be humble but being humble does not mean that you always assume others to be right in their criticism. I have always been one to take the criticism of others very seriously. As soon as I am criticized I would often try to change immediately regardless of the source so that the person would have nothing to criticize. I want everybody to like me. However, I have found that people's criticism is often wrong even though it may come from somebody twice my age. I hate to admit that sometimes people that I look up to may be wrong, but it happens. I was taught to respect my elders by my parents. However, while the person is older than me, that does not mean they are more mature than me. There are people who I can trust their criticism to be sound and evidence for a needed change in my life (my parents are a good example for this). There are other people whose criticism holds less weight. They are less in touch with God and their view is somewhat skewed from what God wants it to be. The hard part is judging which type of person is criticizing me.

A Silly Song

The following song is a poem who's beginning came from one of my friends in highschool (Anton, for any of you who might know him). After the beginning, me and several other guys at camp this summer turned it into a silly song that our cabin sang for the talent show this summer.

Back in the days of old
When men were bold
and toilets were not yet invented. -Anton

You found a tree,
And paid the fee,
And it was very well vented

Leaves were a penny,
Pine cones weren't any,
But make sure and wash in the stream.

The girls went south,
The boys went north,
And the animals, they went were they wanted.

Once there was a horse named Newman,
All he wanted was to be human,
He found the tree,
And paid the fee,
And put that tree, out of commission
Oh he put that tree out of commission.

The girls went south,
The boys went north,
And the animals, they went were they wanted.

-Cabin B3 at Quartz Mountain Christian Camp session 10

The Clouds are Clearing

Lately I have been having such a hard time. Though I didn't take the time to sit down and think about why I thought this was a hard time. All I could think about is that I am really upset right now. Yesterday, I finally figured out what was going on (at least I hope so). Whether it was Satan, or just my human nature attacking me, I don't know. The problem was/is things that are completely out of my control. I work hard on my job and I work hard on my school work, but even when I was working hard things seemed to not go according to plan. I have been known to not be a very hard worker in the past and I paid for it. I guess that the problem here was that I was working hard, but I seemed to be paying the price for not working hard. Kids were leaving the youth group, I was not getting all of my homework done, and it seemed very rare indeed that I could formulate a plan in my mind and stick to it. Therefore, everytime things failed to go according to plan, I thought of myself as a failure.

All this came to spilling out yesterday to my preacher, my wife and my God. Once it had all spilled out though, I realized that all of these things are out of my control. If I am doing my best, it is near impossible to improve on that. Sure, other people might be able to do better than me, but I cannot compare myself to them. I must realize my limitations and let God work where I cannot. I am trying to take to heart what Christ said in the Gospel of Matthew, "Don't worry about tomorrow." I am just going to do my best and lot God handle the rest.

I am so thankful to God that he revealed this to me. I just hope that he continues to reveal little jewels of wisdom to me so that I can continue to grow.

A breakthrough

Lately I have been really down on myself for several reasons. Mostly because I just feel so overwhelmed with grad school and working as a youth minister. I love my job and I love these kids here in Cordell. There have just been so many things running through my head when it comes to youth ministry. My original idea was to do a lot of fun things to attract kids and then try to teach them the Bible. But I slowly found out over the past few months that the kids that are attracted by fun stuff are kids that are here for the wrong reason. The most common name for these kids is church-hoppers. They go wherever the most fun is. I admit, I was getting several kids here, but they were not being affected by the Word of God. I tried to set up Bible studies with some of them, but to no avail. They would just come to class once and be a problem and not come back except for the fun stuff.

The problem with fun stuff (like lock-ins, 5th quarters, and anything else fun) they take a lot of time to plan. That time cuts into my teaching preparation. So I was showing the visual Bible on DVD and doing very little preparation because I had events to plan. The kids were bored with class but loved the fun stuff because I prepared diligently for it.

I finally realized that this is kind of backward. I should diligently prepare for teaching God's word and put events second on my planning agenda. This may seem like common sense, but it was not readily apparent to me in the heat of the moment.

So the reason I was overwhelmed is because all of these church-hopping kids brought tons of baggage with them and I felt like I was not getting anywhere with them here. So I started preparing diligently for class and devotionals. I have been doing this for only the past few weeks and I see a difference. Not as many kids are here but the kids that are here want to learn and worship God (for the most part, they still have their moments). The church-hoppers are not here to disrupt the class, and there are actually a couple of them who have continued to come and my hope is that they will be changed by God's Word.

There's always something

Well, I thought I would have it easy this week. I only had about 210 pages of reading to do and a test to study for. Well, yesterday, I came down with a cold and amidst popping vitamins C and B and drinking liquid echinecea (not sure if that's how you spell it), I was blowing my nose and had a splitting headache and could not read all that well. I feel better this morning thanks to the vitamins and echinecea but that does not make me able to study any faster. Oh well...once again, I'll just do my best.

From one point to another

I seem to be jumping from here to there. I was all set and ready to drop my class at one point and then I thought well maybe I can stick it out. Then I started working on stuff again for class and realized that I was so far behind that I could in no way catch up. Well, I called my advisor to drop my class and by being sent to several different people, I realized that if I drop my class, I would end up having to pay over $400 dollars. First there are no refunds if you drop a class 3 weeks after the beginning of classes. Second, they would drop my scholarship because I would not be enrolled in 6 hours (my scholarship is $50 per credit hour), so that is $300, and $150 of it would be money for a class that I am not even taking. Last, I would have felt obligated to pay the $120 that my church paid for the class that I was going to drop. All that equals, $420. Wow! Who would have known that I would end up paying that much just to drop a class!

The long and short of it is, I am going to stick it out. I am just going to work as hard as I can to make it through this semester, and then, I am going to take only one class a semester from now on.

The news on my test that I had to take on Tuesday is that it was not too bad. I didn't do great, but I don't think I failed. I'll just have to do better on future tests. I also finished my paper on time and I think it actually was a pretty good paper.

Well, time to start on my school work!

Great Intentions

I have great intentions but sometimes they don't work out. There are so many things that I have planned on and still plan on doing. I planned on learning guitar and becoming good enough to bring it to a camp out and play camp songs and get people to sing along by the fire. I plan on staying in shape so that whenever I do get a chance to climb a mountain or go snowboarding I can enjoy it. I planned on finishing undergraduate school. I planned/plan on being a minister of the Gospel of Christ. Most of those things I have done and still plan on doing. But one thing lately that has not gone as planned is my graduate school experience.
You saw my frustration last week in my previous post. Well, I worked so hard on trying to get all of that stuff done. I was in my office close to 9 hours a day, (starting at 7 and ending around 6 with a two hour break for lunch and some exercise) studying for my test, reading, putting youth classes together and working on an essay. I have spent nearly 15 hours working on graduate work this week and my work is barely half-way done. I thought maybe I could just do it if I made a plan and stuck to it. But it just didn't work. Great intentions. Maybe I am just a slow reader, or maybe I don't understand as quickly as others. Maybe I need more sleep than others. Or maybe I am not cut out for graduate work. I don't know. All I do know is that I am not going to quit. I may have to drop one of my two classes this semester and go at a slower pace, but I will not quit. I have quit in the past but I no longer want that to be part of my personality.

Misery

There are very few times in my life that I have been miserable. The first time was my first few days at OC. My parents dropped me off and I had no friends and my roommate was a jerk.

Another time was when I had food poisoning. I could not eat normal meals for four days and I lost about 10 lbs. I could not stand up without feeling slightly dizzy and nauseated.

The third time was when I twisted my ankle so badly that I could not play sports for 2 months. (I had to take up bike riding instead! Yuck!)

Another time was when I could not poop for 5 days! Yikes. I felt like I was going to explode!

I have officially run into another time like those. This week, I have about 200 pages to read. This is not just any reading either. This is reading in huge books in which it takes me an hour to read between 10 and 15 pages. I also have a test to study that covers over 600 pages of reading (of which I have only read about half). Plus, I have another 100 pages of reading for my other class and a 2000-2200 word essay to write. My life is in the pit of despair! (not really) But man, I am going to have no time at all this week.

The only consolation I have is that next week at this time, it will all be over. Whether it results in failure of test and a late paper is yet to be seen. You probably won't be hearing from me in the next week...

Josh out

Why are things important to us?

This is a question that has haunted my mind for some time. Why do some guys prefer blond, burnett, or in my case strawberry blond? Why do some people play golf and others go fishing? Why do some people spend so much time and money working out, putting on make-up, getting the right clothes, etc., while others are perfectly content with just looking normal? Why do some people love sports so much that they watch ESPN sportscenter non-stop, and when they are not watching that, they are watching a game of some sort while others really do not care for sports or sportscenter for that matter. Why do some people keep their houses clean while others live in a pig pen? Why do some people love God, but others hate him?

This is a very tough question that I have raised, and I don't even know if I can answer it, but I am going to try and maybe with the input of you people out there, we can come to a conclusion. There is a huge amount of factors that go into the importance of things in our lives. The first factor is our culture. Culture seems to have a certain set of norms that it tries to place on everybody. It seems to tell us quite often that the tanned and toned, skinny body in which you can see every rippling muscle is better than the the regular every day body. Most of us do not have a regular membership to a tanning spa, nor can we spend 2 hours a day working out in a gym.

The second factor is our background and how we are taught. There are certain things that brought us joy all through our younger years. Maybe it was sitting down and watching sports with your dad, then watching sports brings back those times just beneath your subconscious. Or maybe for you ladies it was primping with your mom. Maybe you would sit down with her sometimes and she would put make-up on you and you would "fix" her hair. Maybe in your past you had a memorable experience, whether good or bad, with an adult after which you vowed to either pass the tradition on or never to act that way to another human being as long as you live. Maybe your parents sat down with you every night and read the Bible to you and prayed with you. They showed you what true Christianity could do for a family. Or maybe you grew up in a home in which religion had no part and your parents taught you that you don't take no crap from anybody, period. All these experiences in our backgrounds contribute to what we see as important.

The third factor is payoffs. You may wonder what I mean by 'payoffs.' I will try to explain. Anything that caused good things to happen to you, or at least things that you viewed as good, is obviously something worth repeating. And anything you did or tried to do that caused pain or hurt is not something you want to repeat. In other words, if you went out on the football field during your freshmen year of high school and you got pummeled, you may decide to never lace up your cleats again. On the other hand, if you got out there and you ended up being a cotributing factor on the team, you might just play all four years of high school.

I am sure that there are many other factors that contribute to the amount of importance that we assign different things in our lives. However, I believe that these are probably the main ones (please feel free to comment on this idea). But while looking at these factors, I come to one conclusion. There are no absolutes in any of them. Our culture, our background, and what brings us a payoff could all be wrong (I feel that no further comment needs to be made considering this statement, however, if I need to expound let me know). I am reminded of the first graduate class that I took at Oklahoma Christian University. While in under grad, I could usually wait until the last minute to start working on assignments because I was a hard worker, a fast reader, and I could accomplish rather large things in small amounts of time. I entered graduate school and I found this not to be true. I tried to read seven books in 3 weeks and it just didn't work! All this brings us to one question: How do we find out what the true importance is of all things if these three factors that all of us experience are imperfect? I believe that this question inevitably leads us to a higher power. In my case, I believe that through a combination of prayer, reading the word of God, and fellowshipping with the People of God I will always be learning more about the most important things in this life.

I hope that through these three things, God's Word, His people, and prayer, that we can constantly evaluate and examine the things that we assign importance to. Make sure that you are not a slave of your culture, your background, or your payoffs, but instead be a servant to Christ. Paul writes this about himself and other great preachers of the faith, " So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God."
-1 Corinthians 4:1

Random thoughts...

My wife and I just returned from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on Saturday night (actually 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning). We had a wonderful time. After returning I felt well-rested and re-energized. I was ready to get back to work and I was actually excited. I haven't been excited about work for a couple of months now. I was sick of the teenagers and their problems and complaints all of the time. I was emotionally drained. I didn't really realize how tired I actually was until I was driving home on Saturday night. I felt aware and awake. I was ready for anything and I had lots of energy. I felt like I could drive all night. It was at that point that I realized I hadn't felt that energy in myself for some time. Vacations are a needed part of a minister's life for recuperation and restoration. I hadn't had regular times with God for about 2 months because I was just so exhausted all of the time. I can't believe how worn out I was. I have decided from this point on that I am going to be careful about how much strength I dole out. I used to believe that I had an endless supply but I now realize that I do not. But on the other side of that issue, I know that I need to trust in God when I don't have the strength. Sometimes I don't have a choice.

There has been an issue on my heart lately that I have been wanting to express. The issue is sin. How do we in our individualistic American culture deal with sin? The answer is obvious. We deal with it individually! We sin and then we think, I need to deal with this. So we pray, read God's word and ask for forgiveness. This is incredibly Biblical, yet, it is also incredibly unbiblical. God's Word clearly states we are to use His Word, and His Spirit to overcome sin. But that is not all we are to use! We are also to use each other! We must confess our sins to each other. Only then is God's plan of overcoming sin fulfilled. We cannot overcome sin unless we confess to each other and God, pray for forgiveness and use his word as our spiritual sword. This plan is so simple, yet the application of the plan is near impossible for prideful, individualized Americans! If churches would follow this Biblical model the church would be revolutionized. We would be more unified, less hypocritical, and more empathetic of sinners. There would be a common theme of a church full of sinners saved by God's grace and mercy! I think this vision is something that more people would want to be part of and participate in.

Well, there, I got it off of my chest. Time to do homework! Yeah buddy.

Sadness...what do we do with it?

One of my friends from college, Blake, has been involved in a very traumatic few months. His mother, Marcia, was diagnosed with cancer in June, and passed away on Thursday. I ache for him. At the same time I am thankful for his confidence that his mother will be in heaven. I hope that he can always look forward to that day when he rejoins her there. If you want to check out his blog it is at blakewell.blogspot.com

During times of sadness and joy, it seems that poetry is always a good way to express how you feel. This may not be good but it is how I am going to try to express myself in this situation.

Good things come,
Good things pass away,
Bad things come,
Bad things pass away,
But one thing remains the same,
That our God loves us forever.

We have heard of the miraculous signs he performed.
He performed great feats in order to protect his people.
He healed the lame, cast out demons, and freed people from sickness.
Therefore, I ask this question.
Why not this time?
Why are innocent peoples lives cut short?
God, they had many years of service to you in them yet!

Lord, I know that this world is imperfect.
That is why people live and die,
And suffer pain and hurt,
So please help me to remember,

Good things come,
Good things pass away,
Bad things come,
Bad things pass away,
But one thing remains the same,
That our God loves is forever.

Josh

Singing...

Here I am sitting by myself, getting ready to read a book for grad school and I just have this urge to tell about an inspirational story. I told you that Satan, was on the attack in our youth group. He is also attacking me personally. He has caused an old temptation to rear it's ugly head and try to bring me down! But between me and God, we won't allow it to bother me (God doing most of the work obviously). Anyway, back to the story.

So last night, I had to drive the church van to go pick up kids and we had so many that I had to drop one load off and go get some more, but that is not the amazing part. Anyways, I told one of the older guys in the youth group that I would be late because I had to go get some more people and to just start singing. Well, I walked into the youth room and wow! They were singing! It was so awesome. Now I have to let you know, that I grew up in music, I played the piano and the clarinet and I also play the guitar, I also took voice lessons and was in choir in junior high and high school for a combined total of 5 years and I also was in choral at Oklahoma Christian University for one year. I know what good singing is and what it isn't. And this was not it! At least not the physical part of it. It sounded horrible to my trained physical ear, but it was the most beautiful thing to my spiritual ear. They were singing out, smiles on their faces...wow...I just can't say how awesome God is. He has been working on their hearts. It's nothing I did.

Praise be to God!

Josh

Satan is on the attack

A lot has happened since my last post. My youth group had a wonderful, relationship building, spirit-strengthening summer. I saw this group go from about 10 to around 20 members. I saw them go from surface friends to Christian brothers and sisters. It is after all of this success that Satan tries to take us down. Rumors and bitter words have been flying around like leaves in a whirlwind. Satan's demons are stirring up trouble. He does not want us to have success in this community. I fervently ask that all of you out there who read this; please pray for this youth group. Pray for God's protection and Satan's defeat.

I became fully aware of the situation yesterday though I had seen little warning signs before then. Two sources came to me confirming my suspicions. Then last night, I addressed the youth group directly after church. I read them 1 Peter 5:8, 9 about Satan being like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Then I read to them from Ephesians 4 about unity and what all we have in common even though we have conflicting personalities, and different points of view. Then I read to them from John 17 and Jesus' prayer for future disciples and showed them that they are going against Jesus' wishes and prayer for us. Then I told them to cut it out and work it out. I hope that I did the right thing.

When evening services started yesterday, I was undecided as to what I needed to do. Yesterday, we as a congregation had time to just spend singing praises to God. I got up to take requests and lead some songs. Somebody requested God's Family by Lanny Wolfe. The refrain got to me, "And sometimes we laugh together, sometimes we cry; sometimes we share together, heartaches and sighs; sometimes we dream together of how it will be. When we all get to heaven, God's family." I was standing up there trying to mask the tears. I don't know if anybody noticed, but I truly felt the Spirit talk to me through that song. I felt the itch and knew I must scratch. I knew what I had to do and I know that God will bless it.

Josh

My last three weeks

Well, it has been quite a while since I have written on this and the reason is because I went to two different camps and Six Flags in Arlington. Black Mesa Bible Camp was the first one I went to. I have to say that it was probably one of the most exceptional church camps I have ever participated in. I could feel God moving in everything there. I even felt him move in me when I gave a talk in chapel. I made many friends that I can hardly wait to see again next year and I had time to just spend with God. The only down side was that I had to be reading books for my grad class that is due on Wednesday but there is no way I am going to make the deadline.

The second camp I went to was Quartz Mountain Christian camp. It was very good also. We had good times singing, hiking and just getting to know people. Seven people made the decision to follow Christ and were baptized. One was a girl from my youth group. I have several pictures from QMCC also (I forgot to bring my camera to Black Mesa).

The Six Flags trip was nuts. We left on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. and our plan was to go to a Texas Rangers game that night at 7:05 p.m. Normally, to get to Arlington from here would be less than a five hour trip but with the youth group along and potty breaks and all, I figured it would take us about 6 hours which would still put is into our hotel around 4:00. Plenty of time to get settled in our hotel and then go to the baseball game. Well, things did not go as planned. First, the air conditioner in our 18 passenger bus went out. So we stopped and tried to get that fixed in a couple places only to find out that first, somebody didn't know how to work on it and then at a chevy dealer we found out they had 25 cars ahead of us and could in no way get us in in time. So, we went to Walmart and bought a fan and told the kids to tough it out. Second, about 2 miles outside of Decatur, Texas I was driving along in the church van (we had a bus and a van) and all of a sudden, thunk thunk, boom!!! Jen thought we had run over one of those tire treads laying on the road because she saw one flying up behind us. Well, we stopped and looked and low and behold it was our tire tread. The tread had ripped right off of the inside of our tire and somehow it didn't blow. So what should have been about a six hour trip, took about 8 hours and then by the time we got to the Fort Worth/Dallas area, we got stuck in traffic. Needless to say, I learned a lot of patience this week. I could also see God's hand working in it despite all of the annoyances. The tire accident happened about 2 miles from a tire shop and if it had happened about 40 miles down the road we would have been smack dab in the middle of Fort Worth. Plus, the simple fact that the tire ripping off didn't cause it to blow is a miracle to me, especially since I was going 70 miles an hour. God was looking out for us and holding us in his hand. I am very grateful.

Well, I hope you enjoyed getting caught up on the last three weeks of my life.

Josh

Camp was lots of fun. Here are some pictures of some of the kids in my youth group.

A girl in my youth group decided to give her life to Christ at QMCC

When you're not sure what to do, go fishing!

Wheew!

Summers sure are tiring for a youth minister. That's why I haven't posted in a while. It seems like there has just been no end to activities this summer (which I planned of course). Plus I am working on my graduate class (in which I am way behind). Tonight I have a Bible study and a men's business meeting. Of course I had to prepare for both of those today plus we had men's breakfast this morning at 6:30 a.m. Rediculously early especially after a long night of playing basketball and winding down from my biggest work day of the week (Sunday).
There is also an added stress to the whole summer. One of the kids in my youth group decided to make some really bad decisions at home and probably will not be back for the rest of the summer if at all. DHS is involved and it's just a huge mess. I don't want to put any names out there, but if you read this, please pray for this family I have mentioned (God knows who they are). This kid's life is a string of bad choices that are now going to have to be paid for.
On a lighter note, our Cordell Christian Camp went well and I have just sent out letters to all of the campers' parents informing them of our dates for next year and encouraging them to come and visit our church. The picture in this post is a picture of us playing a game outside.
Also, some great news, a week and a half ago, we had a teen service week (we did all kinds of odd jobs around town from yard work to running a concession stand). We got about $1200 in donations from it and the kids no longer have to pay for our Six Flags trip coming up in August.
Well that's about all I have time for.

Josh

I Love God!

It's crazy what God does to lift your spirits. Sunday morning was one of those mornings that Satan tries to use and get ahold of your Spirit. I had four kids in class to start out with and then two more came in 30 minutes late. so I had 6 out of our normal 20. It wouldn't have bothered me too much except that this week we have our first annual teen mission week. We have all these jobs that we are planning on doing for members of our congregation and all the teens know about them. Satan seemed to kind of suggest to me that maybe nobody wanted to do them and that's why they weren't here. Plus, I was just made aware of a concession stand that we could run Friday and Saturday for the Cordell Class Reunion to put some money in the youth fund but we needed good numbers to run it. Then, on top of that, I really had a hard time leading singing, because our normal number of 100 people on Sunday was depleted to about 60 and everybody was just really down and didn't feel like singing. And even more on top of that, I had to prepare a sermon for the evening because our preacher, who has MS, was having complications with his optic nerve and was having lots of trouble preparing for sermons.
Yesterday afternoon I should have cried out to God for strength. I should have handed it over to him, but I didn't. Yet, God took control of the situation despite my lack of faith. Last night, we had more at church than we did in the morning (around 70). The singing was spectacular, and there were about 15 of our 20 teens there (the other 5 are out of town). They expressed the desire to work this week and do the concession stand. Wow...I just cannot express more thanks to God for answering my unprayed prayer.
And on top of that, I prepared for my sermon for about an hour and a half and of course I am never comfortable with that but God spoke through me using the book of 1 Thessalonians. Paul commends the Thessalonians over and over again in this letter. So I used those things he commends them for as a blueprint for us.
1. Be imitators of the Lord and of Holy People (1:6) which will make you well known. (1:7, 8)
2. Stand firm in the Lord (3:7, 8)
- Special note: The same town where Paul had to escape and a mob dragged Jason out into the streets (Acts 17:5-9)
3. Love one another and all Christians (4:9, 10)
- Why? to earn the respect of outsiders (4:12)
4. Be ready for the day of the Lord (5:1-8)
It was powerful.

I love God.

Josh

It's Monday Again

Every Monday the men of my church have a men's breakfast where we get together and discuss prayer requests and eat some good homecooked food (though all is cooked by men so you can imagine it doesn't look very pretty but it tastes good). I am the official bacon cooker. Anyway, it starts at 6:30 a.m. in the morning (and I usually get here around 6:00 to start cooking) so it's always pretty rough on Monday mornings after a long day of ministry on Sunday (and I was up til about 11:30 last night counseling kids, and talking to parents), but it is always such and uplift. God has blessed me greatly this morning. I was really needing some encouragement this morning and he provided it through this bunch of men.

For camp, I have received over three hundred dollars now in donations to give kids scholarships so that nobody is turned away on account of cost. It is so awesome. God is really working through these people here in Cordell. Of course, I could choose to look at the bad and say that God isn't working but I prefer to look at the good and give the bad over to Him.

Right now, I am dealing with two families in particular that have a lot of problems. They are both blended families, and in both instances, the oldest child is rebelling against the wishes of the parents/guardians. It just seems like every step they take forward they take two steps back. I hope and pray that God will work on my teens' hearts.

Thank you for your prayers for our camp. We are getting more last minute sign-ups so I am very thankful.

Josh

Memorial Day Weekend

I had a great Memorial Day Weekend. I went fishing three days in a row and caught quite a bit of fish. With Jen and I combined we caught 6 Sand Bass and 4 large mouth bass. Now we've got some fish in the freezer.

Then we went up to Alabaster Caverns near Woodward, Oklahoma with Jen's parents. A guide takes you through the cave and it's all lit up and really pretty. The tour lasts for about an hour, but it is really cool. We enjoyed it. Then we went to Mazzios Pizza for the lunch buffet. Needless to say, I had a very relaxing weekend.

Now, I've got to get back on the ball and work hard. I have a few loose ends to tie up before camps starts in a couple weeks. Everybody who is reading this, please pray for our camp that we get plenty signed up.

Josh

Finally!

I have been trying to post something for about a week and my post page would never load up. I don't know what's going on but I hope that these blogger people fixed it.

Things have been going fair since my last post. Our Cordell Christian Camp will be here soon. It's less than three weeks away. The only thing I am worried about is the fact that we don't have very many signed up. I got my signs up all over town and an advertisement in the paper 2 and a half weeks ago (5 weeks before camp starts) and we just haven't had very many kids sign up. Maybe I should have gotten it out a little earlier than that. I'm not sure. Next year I may try to get it out about 8 weeks before camp starts.

I preached last Sunday because my senior minister was gone. It went really well. My sermon was entitled, "The Perks of Kingdom People." It was a sermon geared towards uplifting people to strive to be kingdom people because of all the Perks we have! The perks were: 1) Our names are written in the book of life (Luke 10:17-20) 2) We are powerful even though we seem insignificant at times (Mark 4:30-32) 3) We are sowers not growers (Mark 4:26-29) and 4) We are rich (Luke 6:20). I think it turned out to be a really good lesson.

Right now, I am struggling so much with number 3. I tend to think that the harder I work that more people will grow. But the only thing I accomplish is to wear myself out. Though I know that I cannot be lazy or allow my testimony to fail (which will sow seeds of discord), I have to realize that I cannot grow people. That is God's job and I need to leave it at that. God, give me strength to let you do the work that I cannot do.

I hope you are all having a blessed week!

Josh

hello

I didn't post anything last week because I had a week long class that lasted from 8-4 every day and then I had to go home and do homework. The class was over Managing conflict and Transitional change. It was a very thought provoking class. I am very thankful that I got to take it. In the future, I may reveal some little jewels of wisdom that I recieved from the class, but not now. Now I have to get back to my house to do some yard work before I have to go to Cordell High School Graduation.

Josh

It's hard to let go

As a minister, sometimes I get really down. It seems that for a while, everything is just going awesome. The kids seem to be getting somewhere and they start taking steps in the right direction. Then you find out that some kid is not who they say they are. They are doing things behind my back like smoking, or they are hanging out with kids that are a very bad influence. They know what's right, but they just don't do it. I guess it's just hard to let go and let God. It's hard to let go of my pride, and do my work, not expecting rewards and just let God make my work meaningful.

Yestereday, Wednesday, I decided to do a class on music. I looked up MTV's Bilboard top 20. I recognized and had heard many of them from some of our teens and my own radio and MTV and VH1 experiences. Then I decided to look up the lyrics on lyrics.com. It was eyeopening and very sad. Those top 20 songs were about such unholy things that it made me sick. And it made me sicker to know that I had listened to some of them and enjoyed it. God put a great burden on my heart yesterday and I really let our kids and myself have it for listening to that crud. I saw the sour looks on their faces which said, "I'm not giving up my music!" It broke my heart. Sometimes I really don't know how to get across the idea of giving up everything for Christ. I got really hard on myself, questioning whether I am doing a good job or not. Am I showing them a good example? I started examining the way I live my life. There are many inconsistencies. I looked at my music and movies and my TV shows. Are they what a Christ himself would be listening to and watching? I think not. Do I take every chance I have to spread Christ? I think not. I need to let go. Lord God, Father, make me let go.

The other question I have about being a youth minister is something I heard in one of my graduate classes. If adolescence is all about finding out who you are and Christianity is about denying self, how can I ask these kids to deny the self that they haven't even found? I think that is why I disagree with baptizing kids early. I believe that my job is to equip them for the time when they realize what they want and they have to choose between that and Christ. Lord God help them to make the right choice when the time comes.

Josh

I'm back!

Well, I finally have my computer back online. It was a long and painful process and it's still not over yet. I've still got to get my antivirus program back up and running. I also need to get an anti spyware program put on my computer.

It is a wonderful, rainy day here in Cordell. I had an amazing trip to Oklahoma City last week for my anniversary and my sister's wedding. For our anniversary, Jen and I stayed at a bed and Breakfast called the Arcadian Inn in Edmond. Jen and I very much needed the break. We did a little shopping, saw a movie, and slept a whole lot! It was great! We also took a little spin into OC (Oklahoma Christian University) to watch some of my friends graduate on Friday.

My sister's wedding was beautiful. They are now in Mexico for the honeymoon. I hope that they are having a great time. I would put pics of the wedding on my website, but during the whole process, I dropped my camera and broke it. Now, I can't even unload pics off of it. I'll just have to take my memory card to Wal-Mart and get them off that way.

This week, I am mainly working on Cordell Christian Camp (CCC). Every summer, my church does a camp where 3-6 grades stay the night and 1-2 grades are daycampers. It's a mad house with those ages, but it is very rewarding and if you have the right attitude, very fun. Everybody out there please pray for our camp.

Next week, I will be taking a week-long summer course about managing conflict. I have already started reading for it and I think it promises to be very interesting. Well, I've got to get back to work.

Josh

I hate viruses!

I'm sorry for all of you who have been waiting on the edge of your seat to see my next entry (ha ha ha, yeah right). I have been experiencing problems with my computer. It had spyware and a virus. Well, the virus was imbedded so deep that I could not get rid of it even with my anti-virus software. And the spyware was causing pornography sites to be put on My Favorites list. So I called my local computer guy and he told me I needed to wipe my system clean and restart from scratch. Well, it has been a long and painful process, but my computer is almost up to par now. The final thing that I am lacking is getting it back on the router (what our internet comes through) and I'll be back in business. I am actually writing this on my preacher's computer. I love you all, and hope that you will have a blessed end to the month of April. And everyone come out and see my little sis get married!

Josh

Awesome

I never did talk about our ski trip that we went on a couple of weeks ago because I didn't have any good pictures on my computer yet. Well, our ski trip went awesome. A group of about 30 of us went up to Loveland Ski Area near Loveland Pass in Colorado. We stayed at the Summit County Church of Christ where Stan Johnson is the minister. We skied for three days and every minute of it was amazing. They had great snow and the mountain was 100% open. We got a little bit of snow every day we were there which kept the runs nice and powdery. Also, the mountain was very uncrowded and there were no lines (which was hard to believe because it was Spring Break!).

The spiritual side was awesome also! Stan gave some outstanding lessons which challenged us. We had a devotional every day before we went to the ski area and then every night before we went to sleep and some of our young men stepped up and gave the talks. They did great and they are now desiring to do more! It's really wonderful. God is blessing us beyond measure. I hope that all of you will keep us in your prayers that God will continue to touch people's hearts.

God also blessed us with safety. We had 12 brand new skiers and not one of them got hurt. We had great traveling weather there and back which was amazing because all through the week we had snow, but it cleared up for our driving. God is great.

I just went up the highest lift in the whole world. It's at 12,700 feet.  

Jen in Action 

Our whole group 

Jen and I in the bus 

Feeling Better!

Well, I am feeling better now. I actually got a good night of sleep. I got up at 6:45 did my Bible reading (in Ezekiel) and now it is almost 8 and I am ready to get busy. Thanks for your prayers.

Josh

Sick...

Yesterday and today really stink (of course my nose is so stopped up I can't smell any of it). I got sick yesterday so I stayed home from work. Today I am not much better but I have so much to do that I went in anyways. Not fun. I hate being sick.

I have got to do so much stuff. I've got to start getting ready for Cordell Christian Camp, get our Newsletter put together, and write a puppet skit for our upcoming Super Saturday. I hope I get done.

All you people out there who read this, pray for me that I get everything done.


Josh

Sick...

well that was annoying...I published a post and then it said there were errors or something.

Anyway, I was just saying how my last two days have stunk because I have been sick. I stayed home from work and today I don't feel any better but I have to go in anyways, because youth ministry doesn't wait for you if you don't work. Things just keep happening (Pause...to blow my nose) and if I don't guide them along, nobody will and it will turn into a disaster.

This week I need to get several things ready for Cordell Christian Camp (in June), plus finish the Newsletter, write a puppet skit, and get ready for class on Sunday. Oh boy. Lots to do.

All you people out there who read this, make sure and pray that I get to feeling better so that I can get all this stuff done in record time.

Josh

Sometimes...

Sometimes being a youth minister is awesome, but sometimes it's really lonely. Sometimes, I really get tired of being the strong one. Sometimes, I really just want to depend on someone else to get things done. And it's at those "sometimes" that I try to remember that God is the one that I need to depend on.
Sometimes, it's so hard to depend on God when I cannot see him or touch him. I really wish that he would come down and talk to me like he did to people in the Old Testament. It would be so much easier. But when I have these "sometimes", I have to remember how He has touched my life and blessed me far beyond what I deserve.
When I get these "sometimes" I can feel God's comforting hand on me, whether it's through my personal study time with him or whether it's through somebody at His church. God, I thank you for you peace and love and hope that you give me. May I never lose it.
The other thing that's hard about ministry is the lack of real friends. You have all these people that put on their church faces around you because you are a "minister". I want so badly for people to know that I am just a regular person like them who messes up just as much and sometimes worse. I want them to know that I am made holy and righteous not by my own life but by Christ and his life and death, the same way they are made holy and righteous. And I want them to know that I do not judge them for their shortcomings. I love and care for them, not because it's my job but because they are God's creation and he sent His Son to die for them.

Father God, I ask for real friends in my ministry.

Josh

Another Answer to Prayer

The youth group I have been working in is mostly made of junior high kids and freshmen in highschool. The reason being I am new in town and when I got here there were only about three people 10th grade or older in the youth group and highschoolers just don't seem to be interested in new things. They are pretty much set in their ways and do not want to try new things. Well, as you can probably imagine our singing has been quite off since I have been here for several reasons. One, they just don't know any of the songs. And two, the junior high girls' voices have just not matured enough to sing out and sing loud. So anyways, I prayed to God to improve our singing though I'll admit I did it with somewhat of a doubting spirit. Well, last night my prayer was answered. There is a girl, an 11th grader, who goes to the other church of Christ in town where they have even less in their youth group than us and they don't have a youth minister. Well, she decided to start coming with one of her friends last Sunday. And now she tells me that she has decided to come to our church permanently. Now to the best part of the story. Last night in youth group we sang a couple of songs and I almost started crying. This girl has got an awesome set of lungs on her! She was belting it out! And with her singing, the other girls were encouraged to sing out and the girls were almost outsinging the boys! It was so awesome! These type of things seem so small. But the main lesson I have learned is the fact that God works when you ask him and give him the chance. I can hardly wait to see what he does when I ask for something big.

Josh

Travis being Travis... 

Chris and Jen at the going away party for Gavin and Lindsey and Travis 

My Family 

Bye to my friends who went to Japan

A couple of weeks ago I went to a goodbye party for a few of my friends who are going to Japan to teach English. They'll be over there for two years and boy am I going to miss them. Gavin and Lindsay (Not sure if that's how you spell it sorry if that's wrong) and Travis. We all had a great time at the goodbye party and Travis even showed us some Aboriginal Jujitsu which he created from the various defenses of Australian animals. Although I did get somewhat sick from Chris and Lindsay's cat (we had the party at their house). Anyways, I'll really miss you my friends. I hope that everything goes well in Japan and God bless you.

God is Working

God is working so much in this youth group. I am constantly reminded of my shortcomings and weaknesses. I see what I have done wrong, and I know that no matter how hard I try, my feeble human attempts at doing ministry will not succeed on their own. But God works. And when he works, get ready because things start to happen. For example, one of the teen girls in my youth group who really had a huge problem with lying, stealing, being angry, being rude to others, and probably more stuff has just recently turned into one of the most stable and at times, most caring member of our youth group. One other girl came in crying one night and this previous girl went and sat with her and missed out on a fun class activity. Wow! God is working!
On Wednesday nights we have all of our young men lead our worship service. Last night they led it and wow! THey did awesome! There were two guys that did something they had never done before. God is working. I love HIM!
Josh

Last weekend

Last weekend I went to my parents house. It was a lot of fun. We played some hand and foot (great card game), the guys dominated of course and I got to see my cousin and most of her family. My parents live in Sparta, Missouri which is just south of Springfield and just North of Branson. We went to a show in Branson which included dinner and music. The dinner was awesome, the music was OK. It was probably geared more towards an older crowd but it was still enjoyable. While I was there though, I got woke up on Friday morning at 6:40 with a call about one of my kids in the youth group. It was one of my girl's grandmother. The grandmother felt really bad because she had hit her granddaughter and now the granddaughter was threatening to run away. Well, I called the other minister at my church and told him about it and he went and picked the girl up from school and talked to her which helped to calm the situation down. But it was just an all around stinky situation.
God really amazes me sometimes. I was just thinking about these situations that are going on right now. One is the fact that one of our younger kids in the church was going to come on our ski trip and I was going to be responsible for him. His dad was going to go, but then made some bad decisions that made some other parents uncomfortable with him going. Well, we were going to take his little boy anyways and not make the boy suffer for what the dad did. I was really worried about it because this boy is not easy to handle. In fact he is very hard to handle. Well, God just answered my unprayed (is that a word) thought. The dad called me yesterday and told me that the boy didn't want to go. This may seem very insignificant, but it was causing me a small amount of stress. Because when you are planning a ski trip, there are many other things you need to be doing other than watching out for a small child. God takes care of us and watches out for us, even in the small things.
Josh

Well, Valentine's day was pretty awesome. My wife and I had a good time celebrating our first one as a married couple. One thing that I do for her is I write her a continuous story. There have been many past stories but they are all about a beautiful red-haired princess (Jen) and a handsome prince (me). I know most of you are like, that is so cheesy, but hey, cheesiness gets the girls! Here is the latest addition to the story. This particular story parallels our wedding.

Wedding Plans

The beautiful red-haired princess of Sholom was so happy and excited. The handsome prince of Alpine had finally asked her to marry him. She had been waiting for oh so long while he fought his battles to earn the money and the credentials to be worthy enough for her hand. He had slain many dragons and led many campaigns during the three years of their courtship which earned the respect and the blessing of the king of Sholom.
The prince and princess made many plans for the wedding. They had to choose a courier to go far and wide among all the kingdoms and announce their upcoming wedding ceremony. They chose a courier dressed in the color periwinkle and adorned with flowers in order to grab people’s attention. The princess also had to choose a dress. She went to many different seamstresses and finally decided on one with a strange name, David’s Bridal. The princess was never quite sure what to call her, David or Bridal but either seemed to work. The Seamstress was quite happy with the red-haired princess because she was perfectly formed and the dress needed no modification.
The prince then had to choose a special suit of armor for himself and his supporting knights. For himself, the prince chose shining silver. For his knights, the princess helped him decide to do periwinkle to match the princess’s ladies in waiting.
The last decision they made was about the music during the ceremony. There were many traveling minstrel’s available, but not just any would do. The prince and princess listened to many and found only one that would suffice. His name was CD Player. He was the perfect man for the job. He played every note perfectly, and he never changed a bit.
As the wedding drew closer, the beautiful princess and handsome prince grew anxious. The prince was fighting the last of his battles against “The Finals” before he and the princess could be wed. The princess on the other hand was counting down the days and putting the finishing touches on the wedding plans.
Finally, the day arrived. The prince and princess had a beautiful story-book wedding. The princess was so very beautiful in her gown and the prince looked very handsome in his shining armor. The two stood before the good friar, Kent Hartman, and made their vows before God and before men. Afterwards, there was a huge feast with all of the commoners and nobles alike. There was no discrimination. After the feast, the prince and princess embarked on their journey to the far-away land of Gatlinburg. They rode into the sunset on the princess’s faithful steed, Mazda Protégé. Now some may wonder why they did not take the prince’s steed and the answer is, they both had to take turns at the reigns and the princess could not handle the reigns of the prince’s great warhorse, Standard Transmission.

To be continued…

I hope you enjoyed it!

Lots of stuff

Lot's of stuff has gone on between my last post. I have really been trying to figure out a way to become known in the community. My theory was to go to sporting events and get to know people there. So I went to quite a few sporting events. The mistake I made was to do what I wanted to do and that is just sit there and watch the game with some people from my church. It's good to get to know people from church but if I am sitting and watching the game, I am not meeting new teens to try to bring them into the youth group.
This last Thursday, I did something a little different. I went to the basketball game, but not with anyone (not even my wife). I went and picked up a couple of kids from the youth group and we sat there and watched the game. Although, I didn't do much watching. I was talking to the kids, and whenever I saw a kid from my youth group I went and talked to them and tried to meet their friends. This is not as easy as it sounds. When I did this, I realized that I was not in control nor responsible for how these kids acted. Sometimes this is hard for us minister types to not be in control. So I really had to get out of my comfort zone and just hang out instead of control. By the end of the evening, I was wiped out yet satisfied. I got to know a few kids and hopefully that will have an effect on my ministry.
God also provided me with another opportunity to get to know kids from the community yesterday (Friday). The high school/Junior High called me yesterday and asked me to substitute. It was great. I got to see most of the kids that I had just met the night before and strengthen the relationship. If you are the praying type, I hope that you will be praying for this ministry and what God is doing here. God is working.
Josh

Josh 

My first post

This is my first post in this thing. I've never done this before so you'll just have to bear with me. I am creating this because I am a youth minister and I experience many things every week that are worth writing about and reading about. This is called Josh's Juice because that is just the first wacky thing that popped into my head. I hope that you people out there who read this will enjoy it. If not, I guess I'll just enjoy reading it myself.

Josh