Christmas is almost here!

Hello to everyone.  This week is almost officially over.  I only have two classes left to sit through and them I am north bound.  I have the car packed up so I can take off right after classes and head for the sweet life of Nebraska.  Speaking of my car, it cost me quite a bit of money this week.  Last weekend it decided to spring a leak and leak out all the coolant.  So I took it to the mechanic.   They had to replace two gaskets, a gasket cover, the water pump, and drive belt.  It was not cheap; however, they did give me twenty percent off for being a seminary student.  They have a seminary student who normally works for them, but he is on vicarage.  Also, many students and even professors go to this mechanic so they have decided to do the discount which is really nice.  The guy at the front desk who I got to talk to several times told me he and his wife are LCMS Lutherans.  It is also nice because I feel like I can trust them to do a good job and be honest about it.  It is fixed and ready to make the drive home and Lord willing nothing else goes wrong with it for a very long time. 

This week has been a really good week with friends.  I spent most of the week playing board games, hanging out, and watching movies with the guys.  This meant that I had a lot of homework to get done yesterday and today.  However, I did get it all done and done well in my opinion.  I think I did really well on my test I had today.  I also had to write four essays for it outside of class, which I did last night and this morning and feel they are very well written. 

Tomorrow is FINALLY moving day for Bill and Jami.  For those of you who do not know this story, let me fill you in.  I met Bill through working maintenance and grounds at Concordia, Seward my sophomore year.  We worked together almost every day and got to be pretty good friends.  It was not long until I was helping him outside of work with whatever he needed help with.  He has been remodeling an old house he moved onto a new foundation for six years now I think.  I started helping him on Saturdays with mostly demolition, but also most of the new construction too.  I helped him shingle it two summers ago too.  I eventually grew to know all of Bill’s family and was slowly adopted by them all.  They are the family I go hunting with every fall.  They have been a blessing in my life.  Well this last summer when I lived in Nebraska while working for the state, Bill and Jami, his fiancé, gave me a free place to live.  I lived in the basement of this house they are remodeling.  There was power and water in the house; however, no air conditioning, no toilets and no showers.  It was literally a gutted house that over the summer got dry walled, painted, plumbing and electricity ran officially, and everything else done.  However, the basement was cool enough without air conditioning, and all the construction upstairs never bothered my bed in the basement.  Bill always laughs when he can say he let a broke pastor-to-be live in the basement of his abandoned house for a summer.  I would go to the house where Bill and Jami are renting to shower, eat supper, and hang out with them.  Literally all I did in the house that was being remodeled was sleep and store my clothes.  It was quite the experience and definitely a story I can tell my kids when they think times are rough.  Well anyways, now that you know that whole story, the exciting part is the house is officially finished and they are moving in for good.  They also just so happened to time it the week I came back to Nebraska.  But I really don’t mind helping them move and am excited to see them living in it finally. 

The rest of the week I am excited to see many of my friends in Nebraska that I didn’t get to see at Thanksgiving because I was hunting the whole time.  Monday I am going to run out to Grand Island and see my friends Ben and Shalee whose wedding I was in two summers ago.  They just bought a new house and are fixing it up too, so it will be good to see them and their progress.  Then Tuesday night I plan to go to York to see my friends Robbie and Jen, whose wedding I was in this last summer.  I worked with Robbie at grounds in Seward, and he is the one who got me the state job.  I also hope to see my friends Ally and Matt whose wedding I am fortunate enough to be in this coming fall.  It will be a busy week, but definitely good to see so many friends I have been missing. 

My thought for the day may seem simple, but it is a message that can never be expressed enough.  As Advent winds down and Christmas quickly approaches, do not forget the true meaning of Christmas.  Christmas is not just the birth of our Lord.  It is His birth, but with that we must remember all that this includes.  Jesus was king reigning in Heaven on His throne, but left to be born of a virgin, taking on flesh, becoming the incarnated Christ.  He lived a life on this earth among God’s people, being tempted by the Devil, teaching and preaching to people who did not accept Him.  His life from birth to ascension is the story of our salvation.  It is not two events, Christmas and Easter, but one solid story for thirty-three years from the birth to ascension.  It is the one event of Jesus walking this earth for so many years that is the entire reason we are able to be claimed as children of God.  So December 25^th will come and go.  You may spend it with family or friends, eating good food, and enjoying the day.  This is indeed a great way to spend the day once you get out of the glorious church service praising our God for sending His Son.  However, December 26^th please do not think Christmas is over.  Do not forget the story of our savior until Lent and Easter.  We must daily remember what our gracious God has done for us, His sinful children.  Christmas is a day of celebration as we praise the Father for sending us His Son as our Redeemer, but each and every day of our lives should be a day of celebration that we are forgiven, baptized children of God, who do have the hope and promise to one day be home with Him in Heaven.  All Praise be to Him who decided out of His love and mercy to save us through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

These three prayers were one essay I had to write for my test so I decided to include all three of them.

Dear Heavenly Father,

You created this world, the whole universe, and even the great heavens all with Your words.  You formed man with Your hands in Your own image, and gave him life with Your own breath.  When man destroyed his relationship with You, it was Your love and mercy that set forth to restore the bond, rather than wipe man off the face of Your created earth.  You restored the relationship with the use of Your One and only Son.  He paid the price man never could.  Not only did Your restoration include complete salvation through Your Son, but You also gave man Your Spirit to strengthen his faith in You.  Your creation continues through the power of the Spirit, through Your Son, bringing man back to You.  Amen.   

Dear Jesus Christ,

You were sent by Your Father to His creation.  You were born in the flesh.  You lived amongst creation, teaching them Yours and Your Father’s ways.  You through the power of the Spirit, whom descended upon You at Your baptism, healed the sick. You knew man could never repair the broken relationship between him and Your Father.  So You came to be the Ultimate Sacrifice, the perfect Lamb that would pay the price for all sins.  You were beaten, nailed to a cross, and died for the sake of all sinners. Then You arose again by the power of the Spirit and ascended into Your Father’s kingdom, where You reclaimed Your throne.  There You sit and wait for Your second coming when You will rise all of us with You to take home all who have believe in You.  Amen.   

Dear Holy Spirit,

You who have been sent by the Father and Son dwell in the hearts of all believers.  Without Your presence, no man can ever believe in the Father who created all things or in the Son who came to earth, died, and arose again to save this earth from sin, death, and the devil.  You descended upon Jesus at His baptism, just as we received You through our baptism.  The men at Pentecost could not understand the disciples until You came down as flames on their heads and opened the hearts for all to believe, just as we did not know the Father, Son, or You until You opened our hearts to believe.  It is by Your power that the Son is our Savior who restores us back to the Father.  Amen.  

Just keep shoveling!

This is my second thought for the day as I promised in the last blog. I received this in an email from my friend Aaron Hannemann.
The ox analogy: 

This is a story of a man who wants to get into agriculture. He starts cultivating the soil and realizes that this is a lot of work. So to take some ease off of his shoulders he buys an ox. He then has to build a barn for his ox. He puts his ox in the barn. Everything is great until the man realizes that the ox’s poop is piling up in the barn. So he grabs his shovel and starts to scoop out all the crap. He then realizes that this is a lot of work too and that it won’t end any time soon.
What is the man to do?
He could avoid the situation and leave the ox to his shit. This is what a lot of men do today with the shit in their life. They take long “business trips,” go to the bars and the clubs while their wives and children are at home. Or maybe he is consumed with his fantasy football league, video games or some other hobby. Does this take care of the shit?
He could abuse the situation and beat the ox with the shovel. Many men will try this out. The shit will pile up at work or in the home and they will verbally or physically abuse their family or destroy their body. Is this going to take care of the big heaping pile of feces?
What has God called us to do?
God encourages us to keep shoveling. He said that we would toil in this life. And when you are about to complain about all the hard work, just remember the crap, i.e. sin we have piled on God and His creation. Thankfully he doesn’t avoid us. Thankfully he doesn’t hit us over the head with a shovel. No. He sent His Son to die for our sins instead. Thank You Jesus!

Definitely thought this was worth passing on to all of you.  The "shit" of daily life seems sometimes to be unbearable, but remember Jesus' words, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matt 11:30).  Jesus wore the hardest yoke and heaviest burden of all, EVERY SIN OF EVERY SINNER, and He wore it proudly knowing that we could never handle it, and thanks be to Him we never have to.  All Praise be to Him!

LSB Collect 172

Gracious Lord, we give thanks for the day, especially for the good we were permitted to give and receive.  The day is now past, and we commit to You.  We entrust to You the night and rest in Your peace, for You are our help, and You neither slumber nor sleep.  Hear us for the sake of Your name.  Amen 

NY's resolution

Greetings to you all.  I know it has been almost a week since I wrote last.  I do apologize.  Also, I was looking at my old posts and realized that I only had three posts in November and only three posts so far in December.  As I come up on a busy week and then another two weeks of break, I am realizing it is going to be hard to keep up with this for the rest of the year.  However, my goal of this blog is going to change slightly in 2012.  I really did enjoy it when I was writing daily, but it is not really practical with my school work, work, and time with friends.  So my New Year's resolution is to shoot for at least twice but hopes for three times a week.  That is my plan of attack.  Hope you guys continue to enjoy this blog.   

This last week has been a pretty good week.  I got through all my classes and homework last week, minus a few reading assignments.  This weekend was really fun, just spent most of it with friends.  Then this week has had its ups and downs already.  I worked a bar tending job last night and it was a very high profile event.  However, we pulled it off very successfully and got many compliments.  Then after we cleaned up, we sat around with a few bottles of left over wine and champagne, some left over plates of food, and we ate, drank, and just had a good time.  We laughed the entire time and it was a blast.  Then today I didn't get much accomplished, other than taking my car to the mechanic.  It was leaking coolant, so I took it in.  Then at six o'clock tonight my phone decided to finally receive my voice mail that the mechanic had left at four.  Some times technology makes me so angry.  So now I will have to call them back in the morning and find out what they know about my car.  Hopes and prays are that it is something simple.  

So I have two thoughts for the day.  One comes from an email from my friend.  The second one comes from my own original thinking.  I will put the second one in its own post right after this one.  My own thought for the day is from a comment that I made to a friend.  He was talking about being ready to go out in the world and start sharing the Gospel.  He wants to see if he can get a job with a church, and all his job would be is to go out, meet people, share the Gospel, and recommend the church he is working for.  He made the comment that he doesn't need a four year education to witness to people.  I told him that if that is what he wants to do, good for him.  I also told him I do not feel adequate and prepared to be out there working yet.  Then I thought about it to myself.  How lazy could I be?  What an incredibly terrible excuse for me to hide behind!  Here I am writing several times in this blog, and telling people I meet that it is EVERY Christians' duty to be a witness and spread the Word of our Lord.  And yet, even still I find an excuse to not go out and do it myself.  I use my education as a wall to hide behind instead of a tool for bettering my spreading the Gospel.  I tell myself I am not ready just because I haven't finished my classes here, when ninety-eight percent of all Christians never take a single class here.  I just wanted to look in the mirror and say, "Satin, get behind me."  But that doesn't work since I am Satin in that scenario.  I am the one who is hindering the spread of the Gospel, when I am suppose to be doing everything in my power to support and increase it.  So my thought is this, you do not have to be an ordained pastor, you do not have to be a theology major, you do not even have to be a highly educated person to tell others that Jesus loves them.  Any Christian who knows that they are a forgiven, baptized child of God can and should tell everyone about our Lord and Savior, including me.  It was a good reminder that as a pastor, if I really expect people to listen to me, I must be a witness to it through my actions first.  I do not want to be a hypocrite or Pharisee telling others to live a different way than I do.  So I am ready to be out there telling others about Jesus, because by His Spirit, I do know His love and forgiveness.  I love what I am learning here, and I do need the education to be a good pastor, however, to be a good Christian I just need to remember all my Lord has done for me and have the courage to tell others.  All Praise be to Him who has forgiven me and does indeed love me.  

My prayer is a hymn I love:

LSB 826

Hark the voice of Jesus crying, “Who will go and work for me today?

Fields are white and harvests waiting- Who will bear the sheaves away?”

Loud and long the Master calleth; Rich reward He offers thee

Who will answer, gladly saying “Here am I, send me, send me?”

If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul,

You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say He died for all.

If you cannot rouse the wicked With the judgment’s dread alarms,

You can lead the little children To the Savior’s waiting arms

If you cannot be a watchman, Standing high on Zion’s wall

Pointing out the path to heaven, Offering life and peace to all

With your prayers and with your bounties, You can do what God commands;

You can be like faithful Aaron, Holding up the prophet’s hands.

Let none hear you idly say, “There is nothing I can do,”

While the multitudes are dying And the Master calls for you.

Take the task He gives you gladly, Let His work your be;

Answer quickly when He calleth, “Here I am, send me, send me!” Amen.  

Not Quite a Monk

Greetings to you all in the name of our loving Father.  Today was a very busy day, I am just now sitting down in my room for the first time all day.  I had my four classes, chapel and lunch, work, Inter-mural basketball, and then Preacher basketball.  Worship class was good this morning.  We covered vestments and then moved on to prayers.  One fun fact I never knew happened during Sem X happened here in the 70's, (if you don't know what this is, I can explain it more to you but it was not a highlight in our history here at the seminary), but I guess when the walk out occurred they took with them our campus vestments, chapel Crucifix, and several pieces of art work from all around campus with them.  We have one cope, which is a vestment, left from before the walk out.  Not really life shattering news, but a fact I didn't know until today.

Confessions was great again.  We continued to discuss the Trinity and how the seven councils effected the creeds.  I got a letter from one of my Adopt-A-Student donors, and I was so excited to read it, that I read it during the first five minutes of class.  The letter was a great letter and I am so glad to be communicating back and forth with several of them now.  Also, the first five minutes was only review so I didn't miss anything.  

The afternoon classes, Missions and Reformation, went well too.  Missions is still a struggle to get anything out of his lecture, but I think I am getting all the important stuff.  Reformation is more time covering the most random side topics one could imagine, however, it is pretty cool to see how the professor is able to relate those random topics back to the Reformation to get us back on track.   

Then I went to work, which was really not much at all.  I had to help the mail room deliver some extra packages and set up chairs in the Presidents room.  Nothing hard at all.  Plus I got it all done in time to make our IM's basketball game.  I didn't get to play a whole lot, but did get several rebounds while I was in.  I think I impressed my teammates if nothing else.  I don't know when all of a sudden I became half way decent at basketball because I haven't played since sophomore year of high school.  However, playing both pick up games and IM's I have been able to at least hold my own out on the court.  Maybe I'll tell myself I will try out for the team next year just to push myself to get into shape.  

Then after IM's and a quick walk over to Subway for a small bite to eat, we watched the Preachers actual basketball team.  They lost, but played very well against a really good team.  They are a really fun team to watch.  We try to make most home games and support them.  I know they put in a lot of time with practice and games on top of there classes and studies.  

Now I am writing this quick, need to do some reading of course, and then hit the hay.  My thought for the day   is from my Worship class's extra credit project.  Our professor gave us several different ways to get extra credit in the class.  Not because the class is hard, but because more or less it is his way of challenging us to try some of these things.  Some include attending chapel everyday, which most students do anyways, or else go to other denominations services, or chanting through the service for him.  The one I am specifically doing is reading all 150 Psalms in the quarter as personal payers.  His extra credit only requires us to read all 150 once through the ten weeks of the quarter.  I am personally raising that challenge to as many times as I can in one quarter.  In two days I am already through 20.  Now I do take the time to pray each one in a very sincere, prayer to the Lord.  However, it only takes a minute roughly for each one.  It is not hard to find time  between classes, first thing in the morning, or last thing at night, and make five minutes to pray two or three of them.  Luther as a monk used to pray all 150 each week.  The reason he knew Scripture so well was because as a monk he spent the majority of his time reading it over and over.  After a year or two of saying every Psalm every week, I bet he had all 150 memorized.  I am not trying to memorize them, and am glad I am not a monk in a dark cell reading only Scripture.  However, one thing Luther and the monks got right is, one can NEVER spend enough time reading the Word of the Lord. So I am not trying to memorize them, but if I can get in the habit of reading them regularly and daily as prayers, I could get to know them much better.  I am also using the half hour between class and work or between lunch and next class to just open my Bible and read.  I use the excuse that thirty minutes is not enough to pull out my texts books and notebooks and read very much of the assigned reading while taking notes in only thirty minutes.  However, today I got through nine chapters of Exodus in a half hour break.  If I train myself to use every free second I have to stick my nose in my pocket Bible and just read, I could possibly make my way through the entire Bible once or twice a year.  If I can do that starting now, by the time I am thirty or even forty I should know Scripture very well.  It is something that I am realizing is very easy to do, a great way to spend that time instead of wasting it, and a great way to always become more familiar to my Lord's Word.  I am setting the bar high and hoping I stick with it.  All Praise be to Him who gave us His word and revealed Himself to us in it.  

Since I am talking praying Psalms, I will use Psalm 20 (ESV) for my Prayer:

 May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!

May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

May he send you help from the sanctuary 

and give you support from Zion!

May he remember all your offerings 

and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices!

May he grant you your heart's desire 

and fulfill all your plans!

May we shout for joy over your salvation,

and in the name of our God set up our banners!

May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with the saving might of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of our LORD God.

They collapse and fall,

 but we will rise and stand upright.

O LORD, save the king!

May he answer us when we call.

Amen.

Pastors are human?

Hello again, so I know I could have just included this post in with the last one, but for length reasons I decided to break it up. Plus, I am trying to keep up with this blog as best I can with my busy schedule, but since this week I didn't do that well with it, I decided two posts looked better than one. 

Today was another great Sunday. Tim, the fourth year at my field work church, and I went to church together. James, the second year at our church, is in Nebraska for his Grandpa's funeral. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Since it was communion Sunday, I read the readings. Pastor gave a great sermon on the Old Testament Reading, about how God gives us double pay back for all of our sins. However, the point is the double pay back is not negative or revenge, but double blessings that we don't deserve for all our sins which should condemn us. The Gospel is always so good to hear each week.
Then after church, the Sunday School was preparing for their Christmas service so we just sat back and watched. The ladies group of the church did stop us after church and give us an early and very generous Christmas present. They told us they truly appreciate having us as a part of their church, which is always nice to hear. I really have been blessed by being assigned to Hope Lutheran.

Then we had lunch with Pastor like always.  We began discussing one kid who comes to Youth group over lunch.  He has had a rough home life, and now lives with his Grandma who is his legal guardian.  She does not come to church, however, she does fortunately bring him for church on Sundays he is an acolyte or for youth group other Sundays.  Pastor was telling us how the youth group were working on the Ten Commandments.  They were specifically looking at the last few commandments by the end of the session.  Pastor was explaining how according to these commandments even our thoughts can be sins.  This boy looked at Pastor and said, "Wow, Jesus really did A LOT for us when He died for us didn't He."  It hit a soft spot in me for a second as I silently gave thanks for this boy understanding the Gospel.  We all agreed that as Pastors it is always nice to have those moments when you see the light bulb turn on and someone really gets all that unfolds with the Gospel.  Here is this teenage boy who only comes once in awhile, is really just now working on his faith since he was never given the chance as a younger child, and the light bulb clicked on for him.  He understood that Jesus died for ALL of our sins.  Even a single bad thought that crosses our minds, even if we never once speak it or tell anyone else, it is still a sin that should make us imperfect and send us straight to our death and to Hell.  However, the Gospel lets us know that Jesus died for every sin, no matter how small or how big, they all fell on Jesus' shoulders as He hung there nailed to that cross.  That is definitely A LOT Jesus died for.  Thanks be to Him who makes us 100% pure and blameless, and because of His victory over the sin even our thoughts are forgiven and forgotten by Him.   

After church and lunch, I came back, changed, and Chris and I went to the gym. We played three games of one-on-one basketball. I beat him the first game, but then he went on a hot three pointers streak and beat me the next two games. We played some pool and ping pong on the stage which is the temporary game room to cool off. Just as we finished ping pong, two other guys showed up so we decided to play them in two-on-two basketball. Tennis Thursday, racquetball and tennis Saturday, and now basketball Sunday, I am exercising more this quarter than I have the last year. I also plan to play basketball for Inter-murals every Tuesday and volleyball for IM's every Thursday. So hopefully, just maybe, I can actually start losing some weight and be in a little better shape for once.
Tonight I am working on a bunch of Thank You's, these posts, some reading and homework, and then hopefully a good night sleep after playing so much basketball.
My other thought I wanted to include is an issue I have been thinking about a lot lately.  As I sit in class and look around the room, or when I am eating at the cafeteria and I scan across the faces, or even the other night at the faculty party as I watched the many professors all mingle together, I realized a huge fact.  Even though we are all here to worship one God, even though we are all taking the same classes, even though we graduate with the same degree, we are all our own individual self.  There are roughly six hundred students attending the seminary here in St. Louis, and several hundred more at Fort Wayne.  And yet, every pastor at every church is still his own unique self.  We use the same liturgy every Sunday, and we preach on the same text each Sunday, and yet no two services are exactly the same neither are any two sermons exactly the same.  God has given us each our own gifts and talents to use to be our selves as pastors.  So yes it is true, pastors are humans.  They have their strengths and weaknesses just like anyone else.  However, that is a pretty amazing thing in my view.  The fact that six hundred different people, who have had different back grounds and different up bringings, can all come together and work together to all serve one God.  I really appreciated it as I began mentally listing each professor's strengths.  They are all such amazing, intelligent, faithful men and yet each have their own gifts in teaching us.  Each class is its own class, offering its own education partly because each class is taught by a different man who uses his gifts to best teach us students.  Just as pastors use the gifts God has given them to best serve and guide the faith of their congregation.  Church would be pretty boring if each pastor came out of this institution a robot trained and programmed to say the same thing.  It is the personality and humanity of pastors that allows them to make personal relationships with their congregants which makes the Gospel personal and more meaningful.  If a robot tells you the Lord loves you and forgives you, or a pastor who has known you  for years, knows your whole family on first name basis, and has watched your children grow up, been there in times of death or times of celebrations like weddings and baptisms tells you the same thing, which one will actually make you feel loved and forgiven?  I think it is pretty awesome the Lord can use thousands of individuals to make up one body of believers.  All Praise be to Him that He loves us each enough to make us a special individual child of His.  

Dear Heavenly Father, 

You created every animal, bird, fish, and plant by your Word.  You created Adam and Eve with Your hands and breath and made them in Your image.  Thank you for also making us Your special children in Your image.  Please never let us forget who our loving Father that provides for and sustains us is, never let us forget ALL that our Savior, Your Son did for us as He died and rose again to forgive ALL of our sins, and keep Your Spirit with us always, that we may remain strong in the one true faith.  In Jesus name, who we worship with You and Your Spirit forever and always. Amen.  

Getting Story Time Straight!

Hello everyone. I started this post Thursday, but left the computer and never finished it. Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day here in St. Louis. It was sunny with just that perfect cool crisp air, but warm in the sun light temperature. I had my one class that morning, and then had to work lunch again. Then to celebrate the beautiful weather outside I played tennis with my friend Chris. It was an enjoyable afternoon. The rest of the day I spent reading with short periods of resting my eyes.
So far this quarter looks like all my classes are going to be enjoyable, and I think I only have three or four tests. However, I do have two or three projects/papers per class and enough reading to last me all of 2012. For most of you who know I do not enjoy reading at all and have spent all of my life avoiding these things called books at all costs, this is definitely a challenge and new experience for me. I am trying to keep up with it all and actually find the time to indeed do the readings.
Friday was another nice day, but I only knew from looking out the windows. Tuesday's and Friday's I am in class from 8 A.M. until 3:30 P.M. so I don't get to spend much time outside. Friday morning I did thoroughly enjoy one of my classes more than the rest. Lutheran Confessions 1 was the class. We started with the Seven Councils, and then began to fully dive into the Trinity. I really enjoyed it because it felt like a real theology class. I felt like I was finally attending the seminary. I mean Lutheran Mind was a good class for that, but it never covered anything as specifically as we began to cover the Trinity. I was fascinated with the entire lecture. Then that night I bar tended for the Faculty Christmas party with my friend Mark who is a second career Alternate Route Student. It was a blast because I got to introduce myself to many of my professors I had not yet met, while serving them wine and beer. Then the president's wife, who was in charge of the whole thing, sent food and a bottle of wine home with each of us.
Saturday I got up "early" (by my definition on a Saturday morning) and played racquetball with a friend. Forest Park, which is right next to the seminary, has free courts so we played over there. Then my funny story of the day began. Right as Jason, the guy I played racquetball with, and I got back to campus and were walking to the dorms, a couple stopped us and asked us where the Re-Sell It Shop was. So instead of trying to give them directions, we both led them down there. Since both the Re-Sell It Shop and Food Bank just moved into their new locations, the Re-Sell It Shop wasn't open. However, now they know where it is. The funny part of the story starts here. As we walked by the Food Bank, I saw a few students inside. Since I never went to shop at the Food Bank last quarter, I decided I would give it a try and pick up a few snacks for the room. So I walked in, and the lady who runs it met me at the door. I said, "I have never done this before." I meant I had never shopped there. She said great and led me to a huge pile of canned goods and told me they all needed to be sorted by vegetables, fruits, etc. I didn't realize they weren't open, and the students who were there were volunteering to help them get organized. She took my statement, "I have never done this before," as meaning I had never volunteered there before. That meaning was also true though. So rather than admitting that's not what I meant and feeling embarrassed, I just decided to sort those cans like a champion. I got through the whole pile and moved on to the Jell-O and pudding pile. I ended up spending two hours there helping them out. It was actually kind of fun and got to work with a great group of volunteers spending their Saturday morning helping out. I don't know if you can actually call it volunteer work though because I did get a few items of free food, plus a gift card for helping. The side scene in this story was played by my friends. They were all at brunch thinking I was supposed to be working and something might be wrong since I was skipping work. They kept calling my phone, but I wasn't getting a signal in the basement where the Food Bank is located. So I never answered which only made them more worried. When I went upstairs to eat and saw all of them, everybody new that I saw made some kind of "Glad your OK, we were worried about you, the guys are all looking for you" comment. The point of the story, I learned volunteering at the Food Bank is a pretty good way to spend Saturday mornings, and I have awesome friends who do care about me. Oh, also I really wasn't supposed to be working, so please don't think I missed work.
My thought for the day Thursday was a good one and I still want to discuss it, so I will say it here. I think I will write another post right after this with another thought or two. This thought comes from Hermeneutics class. One of our Reading Focus Questions, which is the daily questions over the readings, was from an article about how to properly interpret Scripture. The question was this, "Discuss the difference between making Scripture's story a part of your story versus making your story a part of Scripture's story." Now since you are reading this at your own pace it is OK if you want to stop here and think about that yourself before you continue reading how I took it and what we discussed in class.
My answer that I turned is was as follows: "If we see Scripture’s story as part of our story, we are making our personal story larger and more important than Scripture’s story. We are taking God’s story from creation to the second coming and trying to shrink it and cram it into our limited years of life. This doesn’t work. We must remember that the Bible, even though it is a book that is completed and published already, is the story, the whole story from creation to the second coming. The Bible is God’s story of what He has done, what He is doing, and what He promises to do. Our story is a part of this whole story."
This is pretty close to what we discussed in class with a few added ideas. One point Dr. Oschwald made that I really liked was that when we try to make Scripture's story fit into our lives, we look at the Bible and its stories specifically trying to make them fit into our lives. Rather than reading and learning the Bible as real events that did happen and show how our Father works, loves, and takes care of His children, we try to reach each section as if it has answers or keys for our lives. Also, when we remind ourselves that we are a part of Scripture’s story, it reminds us that we are indeed characters in His story. We matter to Him, because we are His children, we are a part of His story and that makes us pretty special. Not only does it give value to our lives, but also should remind us our Lord loves and takes care of us, just like He did for King David or Apostle Paul. We are His children; we are part of Scripture’s story that is still being told, because we are a part of God’s story. Even though our lives and stories will not be written down and added to the Bible, we can know we still matter greatly to our Father. It is the greatest story ever told, and each and every one of us has a lead role. All because we have a Father who loves us, forgives us, and claims us as His own. All Praise be to Him. 

Dear Heavenly Father,
You spoke at Jesus’ baptism saying You were well pleased with your Son, please let all of us as Your children live lives that are pleasing to Your sight as well. For we strive to be witnesses of Your love so all may come to You. In the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You and the Spirit, one God now and forever more. Amen.