Dealing with Offense part 1

How important is respect? When I asked this question in youth last night, nearly everyone in the room gave it a 4 or 5, on a scale of 1 to 5. As I was mulling over last nights activities, I thought of a few other examples of what we talked about, but rather than dragging this series on for another 3 weeks I figured that I could just say what I need to in a couple blogs. But before I get to the topic, here are a couple quotes on respect:

My uncle's dying wish was to have me sitting on his lap. He was in the electric chair.

I tell ya when I was a kid, all I knew was rejection. My yo-yo, it never came back!

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.

When I played in the sandbox the cat kept covering me up.

If you're breathing, respect is probably a big deal for you. Last night in youth we talked about the how hurtful offense is, and how it gives the enemy a foothold in our lives. I'm convinced that this is one of the number one ways that he attacks us, because it makes us ineffective in the Kingdom of God. Ephesians 4 says this:

²⁶"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold.

When we allow ourselves to harbor bitterness, we give the devil a chance to attack us without even realizing. The problem with offense is that often times we have the "right" to be angry. If someone hurts us, we feel justified talking about them behind their back. But that's not what God wants for us.

I'll explore this more in later posts, but this one is getting too long.

-Jeff-

Comments

Sometimes the most innocent posts can end up with the strangest comments...

I laughed for quite a while about this! If you're having a hard time reading it, click on the image and it should get bigger.

-Jeff-

She has no idea

I don't know why, but for the last few months my kids have been doing a lot of complaining about the work distribution in our house. Usually, the biggest problem is with Tiffanney folding the laundry and then asking them to put it away. They see themselves running all over the house, while Mom gets to sit there and watch Dr Phil (nevermind the fact that she IS making a human!).

I got to thinking about this as I was reading this post from Perry Noble. Here is an excerpt:

She has no idea what I am capable of…or the things I do behind the scenes of her life that she benefits from…but remains unaware of.

• She wants a cup of milk…but I am making preparations for her to attend college one day.
• She wants to go outside…and I am working hard to buy toys that she can play with while she is out there.
• She wants to go to bed…and I do all that I can to make sure we have a safe house to live in so she can sleep.

We see the immediate needs and how God provides for us, but what about the things we don't see? Because God is constantly working on our behalf.

-Jeff-

Blogger Love-Hate

I'm going thru a bit of a love-hate relationship with Blogger right now. For some reason I can't change parts of my blog layout, which sucks because my other site, www.realityyouthonline.com, looks pretty messed up with no way to fix it (unless I delete everything and start over). I've tried searching the help forums but it seems like there are waaaayyyy more people with questions on there than there are people to answer them. So, what should I do? Maybe the answer is to scrap it and start a new blog somewhere else. But that takes a long time. So I guess I'll just sit and wait for them to fix the problem, whenever they get around to it.

BTW, my blogger error code is: bX-gcjf62, if you're getting the same code, let me know and maybe we can talk through the problem together.

-Jeff-

USS Enterprise vs the Death Star

I saw this and just had to post it! Have a Happy Monday!


-Jeff-

Mother's Day Video

It's not too late! If you're looking for something to do for your wife or mom for Mother's Day, here is a great idea from Animoto.com. All you do is upload 12-15 pics and select your music, and they do the rest! You will need to sign up for an account before making the video and at the end you click send as Mother's Day video. Here's how our video turned out.



-Jeff-

What I learned while swinging.

My daughter just taught me something interesting. We were out on the play ground and I was pushing her on the swings. Suddenly, she turns to the girls next to her and says, "Haha girls, I'm going higher than you!" BUT I WAS DOING ALL THE WORK!!!

As I stood there thinking about what she was doing, part of me wanted to walk away and see how well she could do on her own! But in that moment God spoke, "How often do you take credit for the things that I'm doing?" And it's so true, I'll spend time praying and fasting for a sermon, and then when it goes well I take the credit! Like I made those people get saved! Let's just say it was a humbling experience.

And in case you were wondering, I typed this whole blog while pushing her on the swing (she thought I was texting!).

-Jeff-

Using Twitter beyond Status Updates

Hey there Tweeple! So maybe you've made the jump into the Twitterverse, and maybe you're still sitting on the fence. Here are 10 reasons why you should be on Twitter!

1) Imagine being able to update your Facebook status via text message.
2) Imagine never missing a status update because they're sent to your phone via text message.
3) If everyone was on Twitter, we could send out announcement reminders to help you plan things easier.
4) If you own a blog, you can set it to update your status everytime you post something to it.
5) If you own a blog, you can set it to update your blog everytime you post something on Twitter.
6) Youth Pastors/Leaders can quickly update parents about changes to events, or let them in on things that are happening on a retreat or missions trip.
7) Twitter is an easy way to get pictures on the internet (check out Twitpic).
8) Twitter is a great way to stay up on current events (go to search.Twitter.com).
9) Twitter is great for networking. Maybe you'll never get a reply from @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher), but many interesting people in different fields use Twitter, and they're ready to talk.
10) Lastly, Twitter is fun when there are a lot of people on it. But do me a favor, post jokes or things you find interesting, not just what you're eating for lunch. Do that, and Twitter will be fun for everyone.

Hopefully I've convinced you, if you have questions about how to do any of the things listed above, leave me a comment.

-Jeff-