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Skimike02
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Name: Michael
Location: Davis, California, United States
Birthday: 5/7/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: skiing, biking, hiking, God, reading, kung fu, cooking, eating, languages, guitar, shooting, chilling
Message: message me
AIM:  Skimike02
Member Since:
1/30/2003
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| So, if you read steph's xanga, that was out of context... somehow... Yea.
Oh, and Spring Break, and the fact that I am now on xanga, and random other things, have prompted this post.
Spring Break! 400 students this week, 1200 next week, then iono for weeks 3 and 4. Pretty amazing. The hardest part has been finding work for them to do. Almost all the houses here have been gutted. There is a huge bottleneck with electrical, plumbing, and permits. A random thought. I don't much care about the city as a whole except in as much as it affects the individuals living in it. As a group of individuals, it matters, but as a city, well, whatever. Its good to know that the city is coming back, but what matters more is each person we put back in a house, or on the way back to being in a house. I hope God uses so many people and so much work for His glory. It's easy to just try to get a lot of work done, on our strength, to show how good we are. But I hope humility has its effect, lowering us and giving all the glory to God. Without that, having a lot of people is worse than having nothing at all. Yea, so we shall see how it goes.
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| What is going on?! Two posts in a month?!?!?!
All
I have to say right now... www.Mchamp.smugmug.com will be
updated... regularly, at least compared to this. Also, God is the
reason we do things. Do all things to His glory, motivated by His
love and grace shown at Calvary. (Why do we say Calvary?
Isn't it Golgotha?) Anyways, anything done from other motives or
to accomplish something other than the glorification of God is
powerless and meaningless. Just something I've been learning
lately.
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| So this isn't the New Orleans post I meant. I
went last spring, and it was awesome. Now I am here for a
year. Much has been done since last I came. Cars and street
lights are out from under the freeways. Trailers are in yards
that were once abandoned. But still, there is darkenss in this
city. Next week is "Southern decadence," a Mardi Gras size
celebration of gay pride with... bad things going on... Yea.
However, I am told that there is still much
hope. Campuses that were once closed to Christian groups are now
open. We went to UNO and many staff and student leaders on campus
were very supportive of us. We have opportunities to talk at
student government and greek student meetings. About 60 people
signed up to help gut homes. People we meet tell us that it seems
the Christians are the only ones who care. So I suppose there is
much work, and much darkness, but there is also hope. And our
hope is in a God who is more powerful than we can imagine. He
desires to pour out his blessing. If only we would repent and ask
His forgiveness and blessing.
Looking forward to people here experiencing more
than cultural Christianity, wanting more than back to normal, and
knowing the one true God. Please pray. I miss you all. = /
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| Chris Tan is making me do this, so he better post too...
Regarding kickoff week for Crusade interns:
So, not to sound all "crusadified" or anything, this last weekend was
really awesome. A road trip with friends is cool, but what was
really amazing was the weekend itself. I went in looking at
support-raising as something both scary and somewhat selfish. To
ask people for money so that I can do missions without doing "real
work" while making it necessary for others to work to support me was a
little annoying. However, God has shown me some things lately
that changed my viewpoint.
Its always good to look at good biblical examples, and here we ahve
Jesus and Paul. I always loved how Paul offered the gospel free
of charge, but it says in 2 Cor 11 that he was able to do this by
"robbing" the Macedonian churches. It is interesting now to look
at support raising as an opportunity to minister to others, to share
with them how great God is, what He is doing, how He is moving, and to
be praying for them. It is awesome to be able to give others the
opportunity to give, not to me, but to further the kingdom of
God. I want other people to be able to show God's love to the
people of New Orleans. In their sending me, I can show the people
of New Orleans that it is not just me who sacrifices for them, but it
is each and every person supporting my ministry. In fact, the
glory does not belong to any one individual, but to God through the
working of the church.
The unity of purpose I saw this weekend was also awesome. We
could talk to each other and see the passion to go into this
world. Being united in purpose, having the sae goal to reach the
lost, the same obstacles of support raising and, well, more support
raising, and also having the same faith that God can provide
exceedingly more than all we ask or imagine... this unity was awesome.
It was also incredible the sense of protectio nI had the first day
there. When we began to worship, I felt so free from much of the
hardening of my heart over the past few years. I felt able to
truly appreciate God's love once more. I could feel the prayers
of others for us. We seemed protected by God from dischord and
selfish attitudes for the time. Later I heard that there were
indeed many who had been praying for us.
One thing happened while I was there that was especially
noteworthy. I liked playing the piano in the hotel entryway, and
one night, two other interns, Chad and Mike were with me. Mike
was playing piano and we were about to go to sleep. (It was 12) But
then some people randomly came up and asked us what we were doing in
Irvine. We got to tell them that all of us were there preparing
to go out into the world to bring the message of the love of God to
East Asia, Japan, Australia, France, and many campuses of the US.
At first they thought we were mormans, but later, they figured it
out. With one, we had the opportunity to explain God's unending
love and forgiveness, and that no matter how much we sin, or how long
we go without confessing, He is still faithful to forgive us when we
turn to Him. So it was great to pray with them and for them and
to see God working already. I hope that throughout my internship
and throughout my life God may show me grace and let me be an
instrument of love. Because it is awesome. And a little
late, but a New Orleans post is coming.
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| So Job is a cool book. And St. Augustine was a cool guy.
Job, after all his flocks, servants, and wealth was taken from him, and
after his sons and daughters died when a storm made ther house fall on
them, "fell to the ground and worshiped." Job 1:20,21
He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return
there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name
of the LORD." Job 1:20, 21
St Augustine says as regards Christian and non Christian suffering:
"For even in the likeness of sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in
the sufferers, and though exposed to the same anguish, vice and virtue
are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow
brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is
beaten small, while the grain is cleansed... so the same violence of
affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins,
exterminates the wicked. And thus it is that in the same
affliction the wicked detest God and blaspheme, while the good pray and
praise." City of God
Yea, almost makes me want more troubles in the world, both fom me and
everyone else... It reminds me of the song "Blessed be Your
Name" the verse "Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to
praise. When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say,
Blessed be the Name of the Lord."
From talking with Jason... yea, I know God's will is perfect and I have
faith that it will come to pass. So if I can just put His will
before my own, no matter what affliction comes, whether pain and
suffering to me, my friends, my family, the church, whatever may
happen, The peace of God will guard me. Rom 8:28, 12:2, Isa 26:3
So, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also
with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has
ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 1 Peter 4:1,2
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