GRAN TORINO ROCKS MY SOCKS

Clint Eastwood is one bad-ass white man.... the movies really good. you guys should check it out.

Like Sams sermon a few weeks ago, after the famous parable of the son and father, most people dont know about the jealous younger son. We have all been there. Especially us who have siblings. Sometimes it seems "unfair" how they are treated, but this chapter really gives perspective.
Also i thought it was cool how Jesus gives three different parables about the same subject. The coin one was my favorite mainly because thats what i do... yes i crawl on the ground looking for a single dollar that i misplaced so what?

see you guys tomorrow!

E-Sek OUT!

jacob did his devos. Hes going to post it up tomorrow. his internet is down now.

ADOPTION
15:11-32 sums up everything I've learned...

I learned one additional thing after reading the Parable of the Lost Son:
The older brother, who stayed with his father, could not be happy about his younger brother's return because he did not love his younger brother to start off with. If he did love his younger brother he would have probably tried to beat some sense into him before he left their father's estate after asking for his share of the estate before the death of their father.
I learned lack of love clouds the eyes and makes only the good work you do (and things along that line) seem as something that should be rewarded for. If you truly love somebody, you should reward them on all occasions - special or not.
God obviously loves us so, and he rewards us everyday with many things. I really want to take on this spirit of loving, and practice it, since it's the only thing I can do for God.. =]
LET IT ROCK TMR GUYZZ

i have the most EPIC STORY IN THE WORLD
haha except not really
ive been doing some research on cults for my french presentation.. and i found a lot on scientology.

and i just realized that a scientologist tried to convert me at the CNE! ahhhhhhh and i totally didnt realize who they were until now!
me and my friend were browsing and we came to this one booth where they had these cool looking meter things and they asked me if we wanted to 'find our true source of stress'. We knew it was proabably a total scam but we thought itd be fun to try. So we each got a separate scientologist and a separate machine, and they gave us this metal bar to hold and they told us to think about different things and whenever the meter went up, apparently it meant that it was a source of stress for me. then they tried to delve into our personal lives.. And then they tried to selll us this book called Diatonics. And I specifically remember it because it had this epic picture of a volcano on the cover. I looked it up just now and it is like their scientology BIBLE! They made me read some and asked me to buy it but i said no. I got away pretty quickly but my friend had to talk to her scientologist for like. 30 mins until she finally got away
We thought they were just scam artists but they're so much more they were SCIENTOLOGISTSSSSSS! DUM DUM DUM DUM

Scientology is messed up, yo. if anyone ever calls our faith a cult again, i am so telling them off and showing them what actual cults are like. my reseasrch on cults has really strengthened my faith in christianity.

Anyhooo
LUKE 14:
THe whole chapter deals with one theme - the fact that God rejoices in the finding of the lost, and that he never stops loving them and trying to bring them back to him. I liked the parable of the lost sheep the most, because I think it's a bit more applicable to my life. Jesus says that the Pharisees were judging him for eating with sinners like tax collectors. But Jesus replies with the parable, which demonstrates the importance of finding the lost and bringing them back to God. Like Jesus says in another part of the Bible, Jesus came to help the weak and sinful, instead of thsoe who were already faithful. I think that sometimes we find ourselves being like the Pharisees. When people around us are HUGE SINNERS we tend to judge them and sometimes avoid them because we're scared that they'll take away our own holiness. But we should follow in the footsteps of Jesus and really put ourselves out there to help the lost find Jesus.
I hope those scientologists find Jesus one day.

Let's ROCK TMRW!

Sorry for the very late devos.

Luke 15

I think all three parables in this chapter tell one message, that God cares a lot for each one of us. It's true that sometimes I feel like God might "kind of" know me because there are so many people in the world that he has to look after. But in this chapter, it's clear that He rejoices when even one person is saved.

v.10 "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
There is one friend for whom I've been praying for years now to be saved. Sometimes, I wonder if I should move on to other friends because it seems as if there is no spiritual progress in her life. By reading Luke 15, I realized that I should be patient with my friend because, just like God, once she is saved, I will be so so happy.

Luke 15

These parables all speak of the lost and they convey two things to me:
1. Our God is a caring God who will never ever give up on us. I was envisioning the parable of the lost son, and realized that sometimes we're that lost son who eventually comes back home...just to drift away again and squander all of our father's blessings and money again...and with a little time we'll come back to God, where it is good. Could you imagine having a father who still loves you even if you keep hurting him like that? Even if you keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and he puts on a grand feast every time you recognize you've screwed up and come back running? We serve an awesome, loving God. Whooooo.

2. The parables spoke of how we should be towards our non-believers. They kept emphasizing how important it is to abandon the steady, strong believers if it can mean the salvation of one. I think to me, it prompted thoughts of how important it is to not fall into the misunderstanding that Christians need to hang out with only Christians. Not to say that hanging out with Christians is bad by any means, but only so long as you're also showing a concern for spending time and reaching out to non-believers. We need to make sure that we spread our "light", seeking out the lost. It also spoke of how joyous and beautiful it'll be when you bring that one lost individual into Christ's light.

- H