Hallelujah

Creation Museum

The first week in November I took a trip with several friends out to the Loving and Leading Conference in Milford, OH. This is an excellent conference for any children or youth workers. This was our second year at the conference and once again we learned so much. We left a day early to visit the Creation Museum before the Conference started. If you haven't had a chance to visit the museum yet, I would encourage you to make an effort to visit it. I think you will get more out of it if you visit in the warmer months though. It was a bit cold to see the outside part. Here are a few pictures:

Thought Provoking Thursday

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Elbert Hubbard

Thought Provoking Thursday

God can't have the result without the process.

Hudson Taylor

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful THANKSGIVING!!!

Thought Provoking Thursday

"Reading Christians are growing Christians, when Christians cease to read they cease to grow."

-John Wesley

Thought Provoking Thursday

"Great opportunities often get passed by because they're dressed in overalls and look like work."

Trip to Natural Bridge, VA

On our way to visit my brother at Crown College, we stopped by the Natural Bridge in VA for some sight seeing. Unfortunately, I lost most of my pictures due to a fried memory card. Here are a few though:

Thought Provoking Thursday

God's greatest blessings come from following His will, in His way, and in His time.

Thought Provoking Thursday

"The things that make God dear to us are not as much His great big blessings as the tiny things; because they show His amazing intimacy with us; He knows every detail of our individual lives."

~ Oswald Chambers

99.9% Committed?

As consumerists, we expect perfection from services rendered or items purchased. Near perfection or half-hearted efforts don't satisfy us, and many times we complain if things aren't exactly as we want them. The Canadian company Syncrude Canada Ltd. desired to motivate employees to strive for perfection, so they published a list of near-perfect results in their company publication Insight:

If 99.9 percent is good enough, then...

- Two million documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
- 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes.
- 1,314 phone calls will be misplaced by telecommunication services every minute.
- 12 babies will be given to the wrong parents each day.
- 268,500 defective tires will be shipped this year.
- 103,260 income tax returns will be process incorrectly this year. - 2,488,200 books will be shipped in the next 12 months with the wrong cover.
- Two plane landings daily at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago will be unsafe.
- 3,056 copies of tomorrow's Wall Street Journal will be missing one of the three sections.
- 18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour.
- 291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly this year. - 55 malfunction automatic teller machines will be installed in the next 12 months.
- 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written in the next 12 months.
- 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped this year.
- $761,900 will be spent in the next 12 months on tapes and compact discs that won't play.
- 107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day today.
- 315 entries in Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language will turn out to be misspelled.

If we wouldn't allow a company to send us a defective product or mistaken order without complaining and demanding a replacement, why do we offer God less than 100% of our lives? 

Too many Christians give God parts of their lives without wholly committing themselves to Him. They accept parts of God's commands and follow His will partially, but don't give up total control to God.

Paul is a perfect example of what a wholly committed Christian can accomplish for God's glory. Just before his death, Paul wrote Timothy to encourage him in his Christian journey. Paul starts off his second letter to Timothy by assuring him that no matter what Paul faced, he was confident in God's will: "Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Paul had wholly committed his life to God.

Have you ever given God your life? God doesn't simply want parts of your life, or areas you're comfortable giving away, but every idea, goal, dream, aspiration, behavior, and desire. God gave you all He had when He sent Jesus to die for your sins; don't you want to give Him everything you have?

To learn more about the ministries of Lancaster Baptist Church and Pastor Chappell, please visit lancasterbaptist.org, paulchappell.com, or follow him on twitter.

Thought Provoking Thursday

"You can borrow brains, but you can't borrow character."

Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

Thought Provoking Thursday

"No man succeeds in life who does not learn to finish every job he undertakes."

~ Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

Back to college...

So...just a random quick update...I have been accepted into West Coast's online Master's Program. I will be getting my master's in education. This will be keeping me busy along with working and the rest of life...

Thought Provoking Thursday

 

"Prayer is not our trying to persuade God to join us in service for Him. It is our joining Him in His service." ~ T. Epp

Quotes from Teen Camp Preaching

"God can use you to influence the entire world, but you must be yielded to Him."

"There is no time for serving the Lord like the earliest days of youth." ~Spurgeon

"Godly character begins with your heart. Our character reflects what's in our heart."

"Fearing God comes from a walk with God."

"Your human relationships are a reflection of your divine relationship."

"A life that is spent for the eternal will matter forever."

"If God is going to use our life, we must be tender in every area."

"It doesn't take a lot to serve God - He wants to take the little we have and multiply it...Don't worry about what you don't have...We need to live with our talents in an open hand. God will take the little we have and do a miracle. When we give everything to God, He will multiply it more than we could ever imagine."

Teen Camp

Well...teen camp was awesome! I had a blast and got to play paintball for the first time...most people were shocked that I played including my brother when I told him. I would totally play again! It was great to see God work in the lives of the teens. They shared some great testimonies the Sunday night after camp. I got to be the official photographer for camp as well as the camp nurse - being nurse was quite interesting...definitely made for some interesting memories...

I took close to 3,000 pictures...don't worry I am only going to post a few...