Amberjoyj’s Weblog

In our last Bible Study we talked the big pictures of our lives. Some look at it like pieces of our puzzles, or for the more artistic brush strokes of the painting, or more techy pixels of the digital picture. So no matter what way you use to picture your life, there are parts that we can and cannot see as God lays it out in His good (sometime seemingly slow) timing.
Some pieces of the puzzle are figuratively full of sunshine or aka the good/easy times of our lives, the top of the mountain. Others like the season of summer are sunny literally, but also come with the added responsibility of freedom (at first glance oxymoron like, but looking broader it makes sense). Just like the yearly calendar we have colder and wetter seasons; there are also pieces of our lives that are more challenging, the valleys. Often when we are in these time we can only see the rain drops/hardships, but looking at the bigger picture we can remember “who pours the rain”. A real life example is the much avoided topic but very struggled with issue of saving sex for marriage. In the moment this may only seem like a “rule” meant to keep us from hard things like hurt, diseases, and unplanned pregnancies. But this is more like loving help from God also brings us to amazing things like being able to celebrate the pregnancy of a baby whole heartedly with a spouse and without the additional worries. God didn’t create this to simply keep us away from sex, but to give it to us in its Best form!
This is just one pieces of the intricate puzzle of our lives. There are many other parts of our lives we don’t’ understand & good chance is because we simply again need to offer to trust God is doing this and asking that of us, because our God has great things ahead of us according to His plan!

Sports Miracles Inspires Continued:
News clip this month:
Title: The Home Run

Address:http://www.tangle.com/
view_video.php?viewkey=569d94ed84155a658623           
Or go to Tangle.com (formally Godtube.com)
And Search :The Home Run” & click on the 1^st video

It is said that games played to enjoy, but also to win, and scores are kept to know who wins. Hits are memorable for the points they allow and how far they are hit. So why does the video quote above speak of more?

This game was like any other 2 teams, both dedicated to playing their best and giving it all in the hopes of winning the game. This game was for to determine the conference championship.
This is when this News Clip introduces us to: Sara Tucholsky. A senior playing her last chance to win a championship. She describes herself as a short line drive hitter. She never in her life had hit a Home Run. She comes up to Top of the 2^nd inning with 2 runners on, “she hit that pitch and it just went.” At the point of connection and the ball following it path, Sara hit her first and last possible home run ever! As she rounded 1^st base and stepped back to touch 1^st base her pivot foot didn’t pivot, and she collapsed on 1^st base as her ACL tour and ended her baseball career 3 bases short of her 1^st homerun and championship ever!
At that point the ref stares and heart breaks as he realizes and states to the opposing coach, you cannot substitute the runner or have anyone from your team touch her without forfeiting the homerun.
There was no way that she could physically finish the run and her team could not help her. As she crawled back to first base in pain the crowd was silent with the weight of the moment.

“That’s when Mallory Holtman, a player with more homerun than any player in conference history, a player for the opposing team stepped up and asked, “Could we pick her up and carry her?” The umpire stared strangely and said yes you can do that! The girls walked up and asked Sara if they could carry her home and said “You hit the ball over the fence, you deserve it, At that point the 2 players picked up the injured Sara and carried her around each plate stopping to touch her left foot to each plate.
*Continued onto the next page.

The players started laughing when they wondered what does this look like to those in the stands. When they looked up and found out how those watching reacted didn’t see they giant loud half crowd cheering, they saw the entire crowd filled with emotions and tear. Along with both of their coaches beaming with pride, and people brought to tears for a moment when someone stepped up and did what they thought was the right thing, even if that meant sacrificing for themselves and their team.

That day Mallory and her team lost the game 4-2, and Sara lost her season and career to an injury. But for the spirit of sportsmanship, a great victory; made on a long trot around the bases, a trip that truly touched them all”, and all that take the time to hear a story that has the power to remind us what it is all about and how love fits into it all.

What a story! What a video? What a testimony?
A testimony that rises above a single game, above rules, above it all to rise to the nature of love that surpasses understanding, and our own desires!
For some of us we automatically cheer in our hearts for it is so inspiring to see a time when the love within us challenges the games and rules we make up outside of us. Others of us, maybe more involved with sports blink at the choice that team made and are simply wowed that they let another team although according to the sports and its rules they didn’t need to do that in a game built around competition. No matter what our reaction was, we can be amazed by the story and revel in the irony that the player with the most homeruns ever in her conference sacrificed her game and so another player could get her first and last home run ever. In this act of selflessness, the team also gave their win and championship because they felt that this player had rightfully hit a homerun.

It is really easy for us to read and watch this story and think wow that is a really nice story. We may even tear up at the refreshingness of this self-sacrificing event. But we are only fooling ourselves if we see this simply as a nice story. We need to know that it is more, it is a reminder that everyday we live, or game we play, or day we work; we are given the chance to live out Christ’s self sacrificing love to all we encounter.
We can even hear ourselves give excuses about ourselves like sara said “At 5’2 I’m not very tall, I’m more a line drive hitter. But like Sara everyday, if we are willing God will and can use us to hit an eternal homerun. So although not all of our days are filled with homerun miracles, everyday is a chance to show God’s greatness in his HomeRun & beyond miracles of saving us! Us, the people that can’t even hit on our own, he saves, us uses us, and even allows us to be a part of His great game! A game that isn’t ever forgotten and will live on forever!  *be encouraged to watch the video, it truly expresses the wonder of the story better than typed words.

This month in Bible we talked about worship. We discussed small things to big things. Specifically about how worship wasn’t simply about a worship style or even person’s preference, it is an attitude we live and an act of coming before God. We serve a great God and we come to worship to give Him glory! God is also full of Mercy and allows us to be a part of it all!  In remembering that we come to worship with Joy for our God, we also come with a heart for worship that transcends personal preference. So no matter if we like this type and the person sitting next to us in the pew likes the other. We can worship together.
It feels against our human nature to let go of our desires,
but it is also goes against our sinful human nature to pick up our Cross.
A Football Game Gives Hope:  http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=b6c7b995da9705f7695b
Recap: This short news clip tells of a great story of two football teams. It is like any other fun Friday night game for the Faith Christian School. But a miracle that was ordained by God and carried out be a s high school coach. The team was to play the Tornados for the first time now that they moved up a class. The Tornados’ is a correctional incarceration high school. The teens on this team know that they are paying for their mistakes put simply speak of wanting a chance and to be looked at like human beings. The coach of the opposing team send out a simple email stating a simple but revolutionary and norm defying plan. He simply explained that these kids on this team never had people welcoming them to the field, cheering from the stands, or proud of them for their work. So he asked that half of their own fans go to the visitors stands, and cheer for the Tornados as their own! In the video above the kids go on to explain that they have never felt so overwhelmed with care and love, they almost didn’t’ believe it. Although the tornados didn’t win the game that night, to them they won anyway, as they poured their Gatorade over their coach (see above picture) out of joy for being loved & cared for!
I love this story! Because it can be so simple to make miracles happen. Simple, but also so contradictory to what the world has taught us. The Super Bowl wasn’t that long ago and state championships can so easily make us forgot what life is really about! Sharing fans didn’t give the other teams false hope or a fake win, it simply shared with them the love these people already had. Just like during a worship service sometimes we partake in things that aren’t about what we like, for the greater good of the body of Christ. Just like in life every day we are given chance to make miracles, whether that is smiling at someone normally overlooked or cheering for the forgotten of our society! (ironic how those are the people Jesus spent his time with)
So in Life, whether sports or worship, let’s change the world one caring act at a time!
* I would encourage you to watch the video, it truly expresses the wonder of the story better than typed words.

A lot of our lives we spend either”
A: absent minded that God is within & around us.
Or ….                
B: racking our minds trying to figure out where He is. One extreme to the other, seldom are we sitting peacefully in the middle knowing he is there and will intervene more blatantly if needed.
I am not sure what it is about human nature that makes us always on one far side or the other. Maybe it is the overwhelming sense of complete inability to be what we should be, in Sunday school they may call that total depravity. That weight keeps us down and out and unaware of the other side of the pendulum. The side of utterly amazing grace, that although we are depraved we are lifted far above that with grace; or aka Sunday school style Unlimited atonement(the 2^nd letter of tulip).
When I was in college, I wanted to rebel against the simplicity of folding my hands & closing my eyes before meals. I didn’t only want to come before God when I physically did those actions, but wanted every mental action to be coming before God also.
That phase did have good parts, it taught me that real Christians life is more than just Sunday school, church, and when you bow your head. Later on in life I realized this new form of prayer was keeping me from coming home to God. Life is so busy that along with every thought I also wanted that action to bring me back to God (both physically & mentally).
So in life God lets us see the extremes so we can use what He has given us to serve faithfully and steadily in the middle. It isn’t always easy to know where the middle is but His word guides us, the extremes in his world show us, and His voice tells us! It isn’t always easy to hear. If we can’t hear the voice of God, then we need to trust the voice he gave you within. Because no matter what extremes life throws us the Holy Spirit lives within us! So whether we are blindly searching or foolishly assuming, if we decide to
realize who our great God is, He is always near!

What does the church and or the CRC have to offer the world today? Today you can hear a lot of talk about where the church is going. As humans we see our two extreme options are birth or death.  Is the Catholic (universal) Church, our church, our denomination heading towards death or fighting our human nature and seeking towards rebirth, in continually becoming more like Christ. I found myself truly engaged and intrigued by this conversation when someone explained to me the options when you realistically figure in statistics of our culture today*.  We can either stand obstinately against the people of today’s and tomorrow’s culture and let ourselves of yesterday’s culture die along with our theologies and beliefs.
It pains me to tears when I hear grandparents stating to their children and grandchildren that they would rather the church die with them then open their doors to today’s children’s idea. My tears come from being a part of both worlds. Yesterday’s traditions hold value that your children, grandchildren, and beyond could really use from our rich and deep theology. That is what we have to offer, a high standard of teaching the Word as it is given to us by God. That is a virtue that is invaluable, to rich to simply let die!
From different perspectives I can understand the worries. No we do not want to change so much that we throw out our traditions that hold us to the Word, this is of no help. But if we let ourselves die because we are not willing to open our doors, then we are not only not helping we are ceasing to exist so that our values are now extinct with us. So let us open our minds, our hearts, and our doors. We don’t need to go to the extremes of dyeing with our traditions or totally throwing them out. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water! I believe that with open hearts the CRC can have something to offer today and tomorrow just like they did yesterday. If we are going to take the step and say we don’t want it to die with us, then we will have to let it live with more than just us, meaning we can’t just have it the way we always have done it, or we can’t just have it our way! We will have to be brave enough and confident enough in our strong theology to carry us no matter if the song was written by a Christian 300 years ago or 3 years ago. The implication is that we can no longer dismiss our children’s desires in worship as whims of childhood and then be surprised when they walk away as soon as adulthood knocks on their doors. It isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be, if we open our minds to other views it doesn’t mean you have to close the doors on our own.  Our children don’t want you to forget the way you prefer to worship they just want respect to be given to their view, just like they are demanded to respect yours. I was once told that respect isn’t respect if you have to demand it, it is something you earn.
So let’s respect the past for the lessons it has already learned and can pass on to us.
Let’s respect the future for the freshness it adds to our ritual and the new challenges it add to our learning.
So if the question is what does the CRC offer the world today? Will it be around to offer anything tomorrow? I guess the answer to those questions is something you ask yourself, imagine yourself in front of the mirror asking what this church has to offer themselves and the world around them? Then all your reflection needs to do is ask back? What are you, will you let it or make work of it to offer? Will you let it die? Will you make do the hard work of uniting the generations in mutual respect and, even someday maybe, admiration. Nowhere in the bible does it say the organ is the best instrument for worship, just like nowhere does it say the guitar is best. Actually if we are honest with each other, not that long ago the organ was thought of to be just a frivolous and unnecessary as the guitar is now.
So, what will it take to keep the CRC around today and tomorrow? It will take some serious examining of our traditions what do we do because the bible says and what do we do because we say? It will take some serious openness, to embrace each other in Christ’s love. I once heard that we would not need to fight over style if we truly have Christ’s love, because it would transcend personal preferences to the higher goal of communal worship of our one Great God! In my mind I scoffed at this idea, knowing its important truth, but doubting our full application amidst our fallenness. What does the CRC have to offer today? We have to offer a full deep biblical understanding of Christ’s love! Won’t that be enough to unite us into the future?

I heard for the first time, some who said that Thanksgiving is becoming a favorite holiday for many because it does not have the added stress of large expenses & shopping. I think because of our faith Christmas will always have a higher meaning behind its celebration. Although, Thanksgiving can be given a higher meaning then simply for our nations heritage. Also in conjunction to that, realizing that the blessings of a year and God’s eternal faithfulness.
If you look at one or both of these holidays you have to address what being a national, as well as religious, holiday morphs this time of celebration into simply a special time. The clichés abound in stories & songs. One is only being able to say Season’s Greetings out of political correctness.  In reaction to this all Christians chime in with their saying, “Jesus is the reason for the season! For me, even as a Christian, I get most taken away from the real meaning of Christmas in my love for my family & time together (& maybe the gifts a bit too;). When trying to explain how Christian’s fail to give meaning as well others, I said “even Christians”. When we realize how great our God is and how desperate the devil is to win our souls battles, since he has already lost the war, we realize I should not just say even Christians, but “Especially” because we are Christians, the devil is fighting against our Reason for the Season”

Thanksgiving:
go around the table and say way you are thankful for
AND go around the circle and say what you are thankful for spiritually (because often we just say physically things)
Christmas:
-Start a new tradition: 1 idea each year make a Christmas ornament (end up with a tree full of memories)
- Add a member to your family – I mean sponsor a compassion child (if you have one, write a letter, send a gift)
-Challenge each other to give a gift to someone that benefits someone in need:
-buying from stores who sell handmade items from struggling villagers.(Ex:hand around the world in the OC)
- buying for people in need (& then give something to represent what was given, as your gift that keeps giving)
  Ex. Worldvision.org –buy a goat for a family in Africa & give a stuffed goat showing what you gave in their honor
- Giving smaller gifts & using what would have been spent on something together (to benefit family or others)
- Fighting the consumerism (that is pushed the instant Halloween is done)  by:
- Making (1 or more)
   -homemade gifts
    -Avoid buying new (thrift) or expensive items
   -Not giving gifts
                - using that money to provide for a family time away to focus together on the real meaning
               - using that money to give Christmas dinner’s or necessities to those without

Tonight I saw a question of what people were thinking when they voted: I thought to myself….. People wanted change and hope, so bad! A promise was good enough (even without a follow through or experience, as some doubt)! HOPEfully we can learn that change starts with ourselves and real hope can’t simply be in a nation or any man to lead it! Too bad that’s kinda far away! Because it is so easy to want change, demand change, be given change; what is hard, is to be the change and to keep on demanding it even when the devil keeps it from us.
For those excited in today’s results: may we hold our new president to his word of seeking change in ways that keeps seeking this country’s best.
For those disappointed in today’s results: may we give this president a chance and support like the republicans wanted the democrats to do 8 years ago(that doesn’t have to mean agreeing on everything, but acknowledging who won our democratic process(aka stop booing and start praying-the crowd as McCain made a humble speech). “Giving the current president a chance is important. I think there are certainly roles that we need to take as we move forward with a new president. Part of supporting someone is being loyal enough to step out and say “I think you are wrong” and “that may not be the right direction.” I believe ‘hope’
the American people will do that when necessary with any president, with any senate, with any house of reps.”(a friend in response to this) 
I don’t think you can talk about this election without looking at its historic context, no matter who had your vote, it is great that we have come so far and removed ourselves so far from discrimination that we can celebrate this first of having an african american president. Tonight i saw another question (from a different party person), What would martin luter king junior say? This may be included in his dream..I don’t know our president elect well, but i know i haven’t seen an candidate or party get our people to rally and care about the process so well before (no matter why that was, it is still a wow).
May we all pray for our country and its leaders! May we remember no matter what party we are in, that God is always in control!
And when we, as American citizens work toward change and hope!
All of us! I have the privledge of having many friends from both parties,
May we know that God is neither one or the other, he is above it, and praise God in control of it!
May we realize that it is something we live and create! That can’t be given to us by a country or a president.
May God bless America, but more importantly may God bless our world!
But for us, May we be a blessing to God!

Living out on the farm I rode around on the 4wheeler a lot. If it was the right time of the year, there was no limits just ride! So we would take out the farm 4wheeler and explore the world. One normal day of exploration led to a bit of a sudden halt. I was speeding through a field at full speed ahead and fell into a bit of a crick. I went from speeding along to jilted to a stop with the nose of the 4-wheeler in the water stream and the back sticking up at an angle with the wheels a couple feet up on the bank yet. I didn’t really see it coming and honestly I’m not sure if that’s because I wasn’t paying attention to detail ahead of me or if it just wasn’t really visible. Well it
occurred to me the other day on one of my rides home, that this embarrassing  experience actually reminds me of lot of what happens when we run into sin and dealing with its consequences.

A lot of the time when we sin we just want to fix or get rid of the consequences and  forget it. But the beauty of our God’s Grace, is that God allows sin’s consequences to teach us lessons, and even through that can use our mistakes to bless us (usually in ways we could never see ourselves).

For me this is parallel to our lives in a lot of ways: First, we are on a vehicle that allows us to go faster than our bodies could move us. A lot of times in life we get moving so fast that we are not even able to comprehend where we are going, or what we are really getting ourselves into. Second, let us not fool ourselves; the devil can use the busyness to blur lines. The blur can be on a 4wheeler so you don’t notice when the alfalfa turns into grass as a warning to the drop off or in life when the right we were fighting for is right next to something wrong. It is so amazing to have a God that gave us laws and rules, because he loves us and wants for us to be able to avoid the mess of sin and life away from him. The sudden stop of falling into the creek was the consequence that forced me to realize that I had gone too far crossed the line. I was no longer in the field I thought I was, just like when we cross the line of right into wrong. We are asked because of our faith to abstain from sex until marriage, illegal substances, making idols of our things, and more. God doesn’t ask us not to do things to keep us from fun; he gives us the proper way of doing things so that we can experience it in Full when the time is appropriate! But as fallen humans we try our way in these things and then are mad & hurt when the consequences God tried to protect us from hurt. A lot of the time when we make mistakes we need to realize what we have done and humbly ask for help. I had to walk back to the house and tell my dad. As Christians we need to come before our God bow to our knees and ask humbly for forgiveness and help to once again seek his direction not ours. Thank God, that he loves us, he picks back up the pieces and gets us going again! So when you fall in life, don’t give up! The consequences may dent a 4wheeler or even affect your life. Look around you, learn for your experience and use it to better serve Our Amazing God in your life!

At one point, in one of those road trips that usually lead to good talks with old friends, “I was asked, Why did you stay?” Why did I stay in our denomination? Why did I stay in church? When the trend currently seems to be turn your back on where you came from, if not the entire church together, why did I stay? I believe if we went through this congregation we would find many interesting stories hidden beneath our everyday friends. So if you can share your story about why you stayed send it to me, and spread your story about God’s greatness.
It took me a while to know how to respond to that question, and am probably kept working on it while I continued to ponder the trend and my supposed different response.

I realized that in my life despite the hardships I had come upon I had also come upon great hope. I had parents that loved me through the hard times and a college experience that helped me understand what fully living your faith could mean. Upon my four year journey in college I feel in love with a fuller version of Christianity then I had ever saw before. I wanted to bring this all life encompassing faith back to the people that I had come from. I knew the mistakes I made as a youth and the people that had helped me along the way, I wanted to bring share the exciting hope that I had found with those most looking to put their identity into words.

But if this is the reason I stayed, what is the reason that others are leaving? I was challenged by this a night watching my favorite show when it ended with a song I had loved in high school. Love is the Answer, a song that I can shut my eyes to pray with the words. The song talks about love being the answer and the way, But it also talks about how poverty has spread worldwide and money is our incentive now. I believe the tension between church and the average church go-er lies in average good and evil of everyday. Life itself naturally has the hard times and media highlights to us in mass quantity. As humans, there is something in us that hurts and yearns for more, for better. Thank God we can find that more we are looking for in the Bible, from our God, and hopefully in our churches. So if you put in an equation: you have the negative of the evil in the world and the positive of hope in love being the answer then we should get a battle of love fighting against the evil (- Evil + Love=war against the devil). Although if we are educated in our hope theology, we know on this side of heaven we can’t extinguish evil, but we can persevere in the knowledge that Christ has already done that through His death and resurrection. This philosophy is great when in action. So if we are honest with ourselves the problem of people walking away from the church and even our amazing God is when the equation isn’t really in use. It is so easy to see the evil and if we really look we can read about the Hope Christ offers with his amazing love. The problem lies is that often it stops there! People, not just young, see the problems and the little we often do to make a difference. Instead of fighting against world hunger that kills a child every 15 seconds we fight against each other on what types of songs can be sung. Instead of love being the answer, for new neighbors, we fear their new languages and the jobs they take. We can’t even together embrace the beauty of our historical songs along side of the fresh challenges in the new songs. Knowing that at one point all these songs were new and God uses them all! I believe what the people want that are walking away is simple, is for the church to be the warrior that Christ called it to be. To live the message of Christ, by letting the love of sacrifice transcend and come above any differences around us. So let us take their leaving as a challenge, to make better of ourselves. To not only see injustice, hear the message of love, but also Fight against evil so that love is the answer, until Jesus comes and make love the only way!

Love is the Answer: (Lyrics for song by building429)

Walk blindly to the light and reach out for His hand
Don’t ask any questions and don’t try to understand
Open up your mind and then open up your heart
You will see that you and me aren’t very far apart

‘Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe love will find a way
I believe that love is the answer
I believe love will find a way

Violence has spread worldwide and there’s families on the streets
We sell drugs to children now, well why can’t we just see
That all we do is eliminate our future with the things we do today
Money is our incentive now so that makes it ok

But I believe that love is the answer
I believe love will find a way
I believe that love is the answer
I believe love will find a way

Walk blindly to the light and reach out for His hand
Don’t ask any questions and don’t try to understand

I believe that love is the answer
I believe love will find a way
I believe that love is the answer
I believe love will find a way

Jesus is the Answer for the World Today
Above Him theres no other
Jesus is the Way
Jesus is the Answer for the World Today
Above Him theres no other
Jesus is the Way
check the song out on youtube.com @>>>
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=AVQaEiWk3es&feature=related