Month: June 2003

So, this weekend has turned out to be absolutely amazing! What can I say; Lord it’s you I follow. For the past 10 months I’ve been focusing on just God, so I can prepare for Poland, a relationship was out of the question, I thought it would be unfair to me and to whomever to be gone for a year. Well, in the past month, God has been brining me closer to a friend, who has had remarkable similarities. She is an amazing Woman of God, both of us know that our relationship can only work if Christ is the central governing body. I never thought it possible for me to have a girlfriend at this moment in my life, I never in my wildest dreams imagine it to be this woman of Christ. She is beautiful on the outside as well as God centered on the inside, and has a wonderful smile which reflects Christ’s love. I ask for anyone of the praying variety to please pray for us, and if God is telling you anything about “this” please have no fear in telling me or her.

One thing that I am so happy I had decided to do, well before I was even thinking of engaging in any relationship, was asking someone of extreme importance for “their blessing” on me dating someone. In this case I asked her brother. He was, to say the least, surprised. But he was quite happy, and he said it was great. So, it’s official, Alexis Coho is my girlfriend, but our master is Jesus Christ.

We know that Poland will be a huge struggle, but at the same time we both have an amazing peace about it. There are many details to talk about, but you will get them as I put my mind back together.

PS. Can’t update the webcam picture, because our FTP isn’t working… I also have lots of pictures from this weekend, but can’t upload those either… rats.

Yep… sorry kids. I have decided to take a random trip to the Grand Coulee Dam in eastern Washington. Have a great weekend, and i’ll tell ya’ll about it when I get back. May God’s peace, grace, and mercy be upon you. God is good, and right now i’m really noticing!

This local news story caught my eye. Here were these trained firefighters, and an ambulance who ?just happened to be there? when this lady needed them the most. Someone was watching over her, this story is incredible. I wonder sometimes how many times a day things like this happen, to me, to you, with out us even knowing. I?ve been asking God to show me signs and wonders, small or big, this is for sure one.

[Yesterday’s post, my blog was being upgraded, YAY!, I like it]

Is it even possible to go outside of human understanding? Can we even begin to understand God’s grace and mercy? I say to you yes, yes we can, because Christ came to free us, to free us from this human world, and to be with him. Here I am at the end of the wetlands catwalk on the UW Bothell/Cascadia campus, and I can hear humans all around me, but you know what I feel? The absolute presence of God, thousands of creatures are within throwing distance of me at this very moment. The wind is blowing, and as the saying goes, I can’t see the wind but I can feel the effects of the wind. I can’t see God, but I can feel the effects of God, and I can feel his absolute love. Nothing is relative for God. Nothing can take away that feeling, just like nothing can stop the wind from blowing.

I was reading 1st Timothy four, five and six earlier before I biked out here. The thing that jumped out at me was in chapter five. Paul was telling Tim about teachers and leaders in the church who would argue over the meaning of words, that’s how I feel lately. I feel like so many people are quibbling over minute details, and not seeing God’s great plan for us, for you, for all. Thankfully the piece of the body I fellowship with, understands this, and realizes when they are falling into this trap. I just pray for the body to begin coming together, and worshiping together as one true body. I don’t know if this is right or wrong, but I really feel like “false teachers” like the ones Paul talks about on a number of occasions should be pointed out, and made aware to the unbelievers, that these people do not serve the God of the universe. I’m not sure how, and like I said, I don’t eve know if it is right, but there seems to be so many of them, and they for sure are not leading people to God. My heart breaks for those who have been hurt by the “church”, by “pastors”, by “priests” by “Christians”. I do not want to be one of those, I am a Christ follower.

God is so awesome when you give him the time of day?

And that is exactly what I did today, I gave him time. Time for me and him to just communicate, its like talking on the phone with someone, you actually have to listen. This little “program” of mine is working out great? well it’s only been one day, but I have enjoyed it a lot! During my first session, I realized just how out of shape I am, which I think correlates with my lack of communication with God these days. Then I picked up “The Plot” it?s a book that a friend sent me, the idea is give you the overall “plot” of the Bible, and see just how small some of the details which we Christians argue about are. So far, it’s been really good, I’m only in the first chapter, but I like it, so I’ll continue it. My bike trip was fantastic, it felt so good, and I got to visit with my good friend Jen who was working at Tully’s, we talked while I cooled down with a milk shake. During my ride, I was able to truly think about life and pray to God while listening to Worship music of all kinds, my MP3 player decided to play some very old stuff, and instead of skipping it, I listened, and heard the beauty. Any worship is AWESOME worship as long as you are truly worshiping God. So, this God time, showed me how hard work and determination is going to be my next lesson in life. Amen for that.

PS. I still havn’t been upgraded to Dano… it sucks… I want it.

Let the games begin.

Okay, so they are not really games, and they are not really competitive, but? I still have to get in shape for these games? What are these games? The games of life. Jesus told us to love the Lord, Our God, with all our Hearts (emotionally), Minds (educationally), and soul (spiritually). I have devised a system for myself to train my self in each of those areas. So what is a time with God and Travis going to look like?

20min of Push-ups and sit-ups ? This is to prepare myself for the educational area, plus a good workout always leaves me feeling more spiritual.

20min of reading the Bible/Christian readings ? This is the educational area, I think twice a week like Tuesdays and Thursdays I will read from some kind of Christian reading other than the bible, such as “The purpose driven life”.

20min of bike riding and listening to Worship/Christian music? This is the spiritual area and more physical activity to prepare me for the emotional activity, during this time I’ll listen to worship music and other Christian music w/ my cool MP3 player, this is actually the main reason I bought it, and I’ve never used it for this purpose.

20min of blogging ? This is the emotional activity, this is where I’ll write about what I really got out of my time with the Lord, this is the time I’ll truly see how I am suppose to do what he has said in this time. This is the time for me to open up and chew what I’ve eaten.

Total 80min w/ God? not bad, that’s like a class period in high school (we had a block schedule). Awesome, now I’ve got to actually stick to it, but because I’ve laid it out, I believe I can do it.

I know it’s been about four days since I’ve posted, sorry. I’ve been incredibly busy, but I’ve been learning a lot. I have a lot of planning and fundraising to do for Poland, and I have a lot of people I need to contact. Now that I’ve taken a small “vacation” from “normal” life, I’m going to hop back in at nearly full speed. I’ve got some things to take care of, like working harder at work, I need to talk to a couple of people about some serious stuff, and I need to really start a program of spiritual, physical and emotional workout. So, if you will, please pray for me, my friends and the relationships people seem to be getting themselves into, both friendships and more. Here is a quote I heard on Thursday, which I really really like; this is my memory recalling it so it is not verbatim, and I can not remember who said it:

“Love is serving, and fulfilling the needs of another person, and forgetting yourself. Lust is thinking only of what you can get from the other person, and expecting to receive something from another person.” – Jesus loved, he did not lust.

Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

I have observed something else in this world of ours. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise are often poor, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being at the right place at the right time.

People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a snare, people are often caught by sudden tragedy.

[Ecclesiastes 9:10-11]

We live in an unpredictable world. Because sin is what controls this world, because we each make our own choices, which lead to our own consequences, we must realize we live in the world which has been destroyed, it is no longer the way God intended. But God uses these failures, and consequences to teach us. God’s nature is for us to be with him, but because of sin we are separated from him. There is an opposing force, which we must fight. Pray continually for God’s plan, wisdom, and power to overcome, our prayers empower God’s Holy Spirit to continue the good fight. God has a plan to restore the world to his original plans. God wants us to truly love him though, so he has given us the choice, we can take it or leave it. One day every person will confess he is God, and one day every knee will bow, can you imagine? God has already one the battle, we just need to fight our own. This life is not fair, bad things happen to good people ? but we have something which Satan does not, we have everlasting life.

Warning Doctrinal Argument ahead, proceed with caution, or take this detour.

Do we go straight to heaven when we die? I did a google search on this and found 116,000 different answers. So, do we? There seems to be many different articles and opinions. I strongly recommended you go looking for your self. It’s an interesting question when you look at these verses:

John 6:38-40

For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life–that I should raise them at the last day.”

Daniel 12:1-3

“At that time Michael, the archangel who stands guard over your nation, will arise. Then there will be a time of anguish greater than any since nations first came into existence. But at that time every one of your people whose name is written in the book will be rescued. Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who turn many to righteousness will shine like stars forever.

1st Corinthians 15:22-23

Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised.

The jury is still out on this one, but just remember things like this do not change who we are living for or why we are here on earth. We are here to love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to love others as unconditionally as humanly possible.

So, another beautiful day in Seattle; I’m telling all you skeptics of Seattle weather, we have a lot of sunny days, and they are 100 times better than any sunny day in any other city. You know why? Because they are GREEN! Our winters may not be white, but our springs, and summers (which by the way usually continues through to early October) are green. I love Seattle, today I was fooling around at work (not much else to do today, kind of slow) and I ran upon a website which has pictures of 35 different pictures around the world, and the author of this website said that out of all the US cities he has visited in the States Seattle is the best, so far. See even non-Seattle natives love it here!

So today is Mitch’s 21st birthday, so I’ll be going to his place for a bible study, and then later on, a night on the town. I love Seattle. Party hardy, Christ style.