Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Giving Thanks. I have so much to be thankful for. Why is it that we have to set a day to do this? I know it is not the only day that I am thankful, but it is one day where I sit and am amazed by how blessed I am and how much I am thankful for.

Things may not be going the way I would prefer right now, but I have adopted these verses in Isaiah 55 where it says,

"Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. "Your thougths are not my thoughts nor My ways your ways."

God is incharge and I am thankful for that. I am wondering where this is all going, but it is in His hands and I will follow Him!

Thank you Lord for your kindness, your challenges, your discipline along with your comfort, your love, your salvation, your character is so great it is hard to put into mere words.

Thank you Lord for your LOVE!

Ethics, Integrity and PS3

I was talking to my brother tonight about the black eye that Christianity has received thanks to the recent failings of a few local pastors. We discussed the fact that there is a growing lack of ethics and integrity in the American Christian church today. Where has it gone? Why do we live lives filled with "compartments" and compromises? How is it that men of God can stray so far from the God they say they serve? How do I live my life? Have I strayed and not realized it? Is my sin, not as public, just as heinus in God's eyes as theirs? My answer is YES!

Where is the integrity in the Church? Where are the basic ethics on a secular moral level? How do I put my arms around this? It really bothers me about the youth pastor. I commend him for turning himself in, yet I wonder what happened to cause him to walk that path. He was a person in trust and yet, he violated everything that I as a youth worker value even on a secular level. Am I capable of something simular? I can only answer "yes" IF I don't stay close to God and look to Him for life and guidance along with having good safe accountability.

This all brings me to the question that my bro and I were pondering together. Are we as followers of Christ (General Evangelical Church) conforming to this world or are we being transformed by the Word and Spirit of God? Is the church being transformed by the world or by God?

Am I truly being transformed by God and not by the world? How much time do I take to be transformed by God? How dedicated am I to truly become more like Him?

Tonight I had to run to Best Buy and then Wal-mart and both stores had a line of young men sitting outside in the cold. I asked the store clerk what was going on and she said, "Oh, the Play Station 3 is coming out on Friday. They are in line to have the chance to buy one." Okay . . . it is WEDNESDAY! and we are suppose to have rain and/or SNOW! Hello! Can we say CRAZY????

What would possess these young people to be outside in the elements, forsaking a job, school, family . . . for a plastic box filled with wires to entertain them. A box that costs up to $600! I remember how I waited for six hours to get into Star Wars, but 2 DAYS for a game machine??

As I was walking away I thought about the fact that I really am not sure how many Christians would be willing to do the same for newest translation of the Bible. Would we be willing to wait in the elements, forsaking everything in order to capture what God truly wants for us. I am not equating the two, but I do wonder what the Church would be like if all Christ followers lived in the same kind of anticipation for God to work in and guide our lives.

Do I look at my Bible and my time with God in the same way? I must confess (sadly), not with that much passion. Ah, the passion of youth! Lord, give me some of that! May I have the same level of passion that those young people have for this new $600 video game player!

I am alive, just not blogging lately

Hey all, I am alive. Honestly, I have not felt like blogging lately. I guess I am in a bit of a funk. I am fighting allergies and a constant sinus headache. Yuck! I hope to fill you in about what is happening in my life.

Two weeks of silence?

It has been two weeks since my last entry. Why the silence? Well, to be quite honest, I am in a bit of a funk. . . Things are not going as fast as I had hoped. I am running out ideas and to be quite honest energy to do any more fundraising. This is where God has to step in and give me the motivation and the drive to continue on.

I have heard nothing but silence from God lately too. So my thoughts are that I either am in a place where God is wanting me to listen more or to change HOW I listen. It is interesting how the ways that I have listened to God are either out of date or just not the way that He is wanting me to listen to Him. Is this more prep in returning to Poland? I think so. I have not fully thought or prayed this through, but as my discription says above, this blog it to honestly share what is going on in my life.

I am in a bit of a quandry as to what to do next. I know that it is also because I am tired from a very busy yet wonderful weekend. Next week I ha