This is always a fun time of the year.  So much is going on that it is hard to keep up with the pace for very long.  Last night, we had our big grill out at the Regent while Paul Lefeber’s band played.  It was an epic evening!  We figured out that we went through over 600 hotdogs so way to go bringing your appetites. Life groups opened up last night and lots of people signed up to be in groups for the semester.

Tonight though is the 1st CAM of the year at 8PM in the basement of the Regent on the west side of the building.  Don’t worry if you don’t know where that is in the place.  We will have our peeps all over to show you where to go.  Tonight we will be starting a 3 week series called 101 that Kayla Dunnum and I will be teaching together.  The idea of 101 is getting back to the basics of a relationship with God.  We have done a great job throughout time making it very complicated.  But if you look at the life of Jesus and what he was about, we realize that he came to make things simple, basic, foundational….101ish.  So that is where we are starting tonight.  We’ll look at the life of Matthew to get there as we see how Jesus encouraged Matthew to follow him…..

If you want to read ahead, take a look at Matthew 9.

Hope to see you there tonight!

Remember your first days on campus? My first days on campus are when I first felt real freedom. I remember being in our college’s cafeteria and thinking I could eat ice cream for dinner and no one could stop me. I could stay up until 2am when I had class the next morning. And not only could my parents do nothing about it, there were many others who would stay up just as late. College for me was a time of new friendships, falling in love, broken hearts, failed exams, aced exams. It was a time of figuring out the most important things in life and what decisions I would make without my parents watching my back. It was my first step into adulthood and really discovering who I am as a person.

I also remember being terrified. I went to a small school 3 hours away from home. I only knew one other person on campus and I was worried about making friends. It wasn’t since kindergarden that I had to make an entire set of friends and back then the hardest thing about it was sharing my toys. Well, I ended up making some wonderful, life long friends throughout college. I was very blessed to have some wonderful Christ followers step into my life and invite me into their community. It forever changed my path and who I am today.

I bring this all up because another school year is about to being. Hundreds of new students in the Madison area will be going through the same excitements and fears in the upcoming weeks. And this is what CAM’s Welcome Week events are all about – so join in! Meet some new people – get involved – find a community! CAM is all about being a community where you can get connected, ask questions and explore your faith! You could change someone’s life! Here are the events – come to one or all of them!

Aug 30th: Sand Volleyball & Ice Cream @ the Regent

Aug 31st: Game Night

Sept 1st: First Football game (go to the game or watch it at the guy’s house)

Sept 2nd: Frisbee & Bonfire

Sept 3rd: Farmer’s Market & Picnic

Sept 4th: Coffee before Downtown Church

Sept 5th: GRILL OUT!

Sept 6th: First CAM of the semester

Check out our facebook (Blackhawk CAM) for more info, dates and times! Hope to see you there!

This coming Sunday, August 14, we are making a big move in the way that we do church at the Majestic theater downtown.   Up to this point, due to many different reasons, we have had to watch sermons from the week prior at Brader Way.  In other words, we have been one week behind what has happened at our church on the west side.

Well, as of this Sunday, that will no longer be the case!  We have been able to upgrade technology and make some moves as a church that have made it very feasible for us to be on the same schedule as our church on the west side.  This is great news!  So now, if you are in a life group, it will not matter which site you attend.  If you decide to visit our church at the Majestic, you will no longer be seeing the same message that you did the week before out at our Brader Way location.  It will give us the ability to feel more like one church with different locations rather than 2 separate churches.

Needless to say, we think that this is a great move and we are stoked to see it happening before the school year begins for college students.  I believe this is going to unify us as a college ministry in a great way.  So regardless of where you are attending a service at Blackhawk, we will all be on the same page.  Yes!!!!

Since my sermon that I preached a couple of weeks ago, I have been asked by people about more information on the books I mentioned.  Here are the titles and authors.

AW Tozer – The Knowledge of the Holy

John Piper – Desiring God / (He also has a small version of the book called The Dangerous Duty of Desire)

Francis Chan – Crazy Love

All 3 of these have been great resources for me that have affected my life at particular times and helped me to remember the true gift we have been given in Christ.

People have also asked about the video clip I used about monster wave surfing.  It is from a movie called the Billabong Odyssey.  The surfer’s name is Mike Parsons.  It’s a ridiulous wave in a pretty incredible movie.  If you haven’t seen the clip, here is the link.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPxLs0Cv4zY

“I want you to imagine you’re walking through the woods on a quite narrow path, and you go on that path for quite some time, and all of a sudden it comes to a Y, and there’s a path going off to the right, and there’s a path going off to the left, and there’s a sign right down the middle…  The marker leading to the left, says simply, PLEASING GOD! The one leading to the right, reads TRUSTING GOD! It’s hard to choose one over the other because both roads have a good feel to them. We discover there’s no third road, and it becomes obvious that we need to choose one… We are not able to jump back and forth, only one, and the one we choose will indelibly mark the way we live.”

-TrueFaced, by Bruce McNicol

I read this on another blog written by Pete Briscoe (you can check out his stuff at www.tellingthetruth.org). It was intriguing to me. And he goes on…

Which way is the right way? Which road would I choose? Am I trying to live a life that is pleasing God, or am I trusting God?

It really came down to trust, faith, and whom I was placing my trust in.

1. I can choose to trust in myself and in my own efforts in order to earn God’s pleasure.

2. I can choose to trust in Christ, living His life through me, to enable me to live a life that is pleasing to God.

Consider Hebrews 11:5-6

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Do I choose to “please God” or will I “trust God?” …

The road of trust leads to both. The road of attempting to please God leads to neither.

Alright everyone – It’s Quiz Time!

Can you name the person who said the following quotes: Justin Bieber or Mohandas Gandhi?

• Peace is its own reward.

• I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

• If a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

• All people are equal and all people deserve respect.

• If the Lord can forgive so can I.

• Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

• Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed.

• Hate is a funny thing.

• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

• My prayers go out tonight to the people of New Zealand.

• Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

• When you smile I smile, and when my friends hurt I hurt.

• I’m not dead. I had to check on this one, but it turns out I’m alive.

• My life is my message.

• The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

• One in eight people in the world lack access to clean water.

• Their hate can never stop you from chasing your dream.

• Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

• Before you criticize somebody, walk a mile in their shoes. That way you are a mile away and have their shoes.

• Even last week they had me scolded on a plane in the news because I wasn’t in my seat fast enough.

• In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

• The act of giving is so much better than the act of taking.

Write your answers in the Comment section – Can anyone get them all right?? I will post next week with the answers

Something that has been on my mind lately is how to “take delight in the Lord,” and see God as our “all in all.” On the one hand, it cans seem pretty simple: be happy for who God is.  But on the other hand, this seems to take a concious effort to take time and praise God….a little more challenging to do all the time. 

I think what God is revealing to me, however, is that He really is in everything.  We sing the song ”All in All” that has the line “You are my all in all” in a peotic description of how important God is to us, but do we ever take the time to meditate on how vast and powerful that phrase is?  God means everything in all situations, all stories, all ideas, all of creation!  And we are to recognize and depend on God truly in all things.  God is our satisfaction for all of our desires.  ”All in All” starts to take on a deeper meaning when we start to grasp at this idea.

One product of this meditation process  for me has been trying to be more thankful for all God has created and all he is doing.  So whenever a thought crossess my mind about anything, I have been trying to express my thoughts to God by praying a simple prayer for whoever or whatever God puts on my mind.  It has been a good practice for me to try and praise God for things like tasting food, beauty, feelings, the people in my life, having a job, being alive, etc.  This practice has helped me focus more on God throughout my day and see how He is at work in our world.

Peace.

On July 17 I will be giving my next sermon at Blackhawk at Brader Way.  The part I get excited about is then being able to give the message again the next week to our Downtown Church at the Majestic.

In this new series that we are starting, we are looking at the parables of Jesus and what He wanted to teach us from them about the kingdom of God.  The particular parable I get the chance to unpack is actually 2 parables….in 3 verses of scripture.  These parables are short on wording and large in meaning. The parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price found in Matthew 13:44-46.  Feel free to brush up on them ahead of the 17th if you want to….

As I’m studying these passages, I’m blown away by the idea of duty verses desire for God.  The crux point in my opinion of these 2 parables is in 3 words found in the middle.  “In His Joy.”  The man who finds the treasure in his joy sells everything. Why?  Because he knows that what he has found is worth so much more than everything he owns.  It’s a rational decision on his part.

Jesus is painting a picture of God’s infinite worth to us.  In other words, if we knew how valuable a treasure God truly was, we would joyfully sacrifice everything for him!  May we understand this more and more in our lives that our relationship with Jesus would be less about duty and more and more about joy!!!

Kayla Dunnum talked us through an awesome talk about the Holy Spirit last night at CAM, and it really hit home for me just how much we fight His guidance. As Kayla said, it isn’t exactly natural for us to want to submit to the Spirit even if He is technically acting within us and through us at all times.

I’ve found a few resources for us as we all continue to try and learn more about the Spirit! First, Francis Chan has written a book called “Forgotten God” where he discusses more about the Spirit than he covered in the BASIC video we saw last night. The book covers a lot of basic info about the Holy Spirit, as well as the main idea that the Church has largely forgotten Him.

Second, I’d recommend a Rob Bell video called “Breathe.” It’s part of the Nooma series, which was actually done by the same people who created the BASIC series we’ve been watching at CAM. In “Breathe,” Rob touches on a lot of scriptures about the Spirit, and he has a really different style than Francis so I think it’s worth checking out both! (Pssst…technically you have to pay to watch the Nooma videos, but you may or may not be able to find them on Youtube if you do a little searching.)

Lastly, below is a devotion by one of my all time favorite authors name Henri Nouwen on the Holy Spirit.

“When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we speak about the breath of God, breathing in us. The Greek word for “spirit” is pneuma, which means “breath.” We are seldom aware of our breathing. It is so essential for life that we only think about it when something is wrong with it.

The Spirit of God is like our breath. God’s spirit is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. We might not often be aware of it, but without it we cannot live a “spiritual life.” It is the Holy Spirit of God who prays in us, who offers us the gifts of love, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, peace, and joy. It is the Holy Spirit who offers us the life that death cannot destroy. Let us always pray: “Come, Holy Spirit, come.””

I’m praying that after looking at these resources and reading God’s Word, we’ll all be more mindful of His Spirit working in our daily lives. I definitely know that I ignore Him way more than I should.

Love!

I am currently reading Donald Miller’s “Searching for God Know What”. I appreciate his writing because it makes me laugh out loud one minute and sit back a ponder the next. (My favorite book of his is still “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”). This book (Searching for God Knows What) has really challenged me on how I read the Bible and probably more importantly, where I get my value from! The Bible isn’t meant to be read as a ‘how to’ book full of formulas and tips on living. It’s a narrative; a love story about us and God really. Donald’s insight on particular verses don’t always fit with the ‘norm’ interpretation and makes you think. I don’t know if I completely agree with all of his thoughts, but I think its great to be challenged!

And as for where my value comes from… I really like his lifeboat analogy. A teacher once gave him and his class a list of people on a lifeboat (like a doctor, lawyer, child, old person) and they had to decide who gets thrown off to save everyone. Donald compares our lives to this lifeboat. He observes that we always need to be better than someone so we don’t get thrown off. Meaning we’re always comparing ourselves against one another and looking for validity from other humans instead of God. As I reflect on my own life, I can see that I am this way without even realizing it! This is definitely something I plan to work on.

If anyone would like to sit and chat about this book, let me know! I’m almost done reading it

“…evolution may explain how we came from apes, but it does nothing to explain why we wear clothes.”