okay so let me apologize first for the disorganized pictures of my board. i still don't totally understand how to put pictures on this thing and have it be neat and tidy. i like neat and tidy. i know my parents probably don't think that, judging by my overwhelming clean room (HA!) that i have when i'm home. but i really do like things neat and tidy.
i am so proud of myself. i finally did my laundry today after a month of not doing it. AND!!! and i finally used up my first bottle of laundry detergent (or whatever the liquid stuff is called that you put in the washer). isn't laundry detergent the powdery stuff?
i was just going to post real quick 'cause i want to go to bed. then i realized my laundry's not done and i have to wait to put it in the dryer before i can go ten toes up on my bed. sad.
today's ted's birthday. i'm pretty sure he'll never see this in his life, but ted, if you ever do, happy birthday buddy. i had a party for you in my heart. okay not really.
on a more serious note, i read a really interesting (and good) book this past week. and what proves that it's a good book is the fact that i read it in under a week. i'm still working on other books that i started over a year ago. and those are really good ones too (like Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper - can i get an amen on that one, anyone?), i just don't finish them...haha :) but this one was short and totally what i am going through right now.
it's called Stop Dating the Church - Fall in Love with the Family of God by good ol' Joshua Harris. you know, the guy who wrote all the "i kissed dating goodbye", "boy meets girl"...all those relationship books. :) i saw this book in the LU bookstore about a month ago and wanted to read it so bad but didn't want to put up the money for it. it's really not expensive, it's like $10. but sometimes that just sounds like a lot more. anyway, i'd been thinking about it a lot since i saw it, and the other night i was waiting for friends to meet me at Barnes & Noble to get coffee and so i decided to find the book and sit down and read a few pages. but by the time people got there, i was too drawn in so i HAD to buy it. :) i like to justify it by thinking "well who really would want to buy that book now anyway, now that i've had my hands all over it?" good reasoning, i know.
okay so do you think i could just get on with this already? sorry. ANYWAY, this book totally summed up when i've been doing in regards to the church. well, not totally, but i could relate a lot to it and indeed label myself as a self-admitted church dater. i'm not going to summarize the whole book, but there's this point/question i want to bring up real quick. josh harris says you can boil down all the points you're looking for in a church into these 3 broad catagories. You want a church that: teaches God's Word, values God's Word, and lives God's Word. so i took that and looked at how my church back home matches up with that. it matches up pretty stinkin' well. and one thing this book brought up that made me thankful about my church back home is church discipline. a ton of churches have disregarded that. so that's something i learned to value in that church.
the question is...so...okay, a church matches up with those 3 catagories. great, right? but like...what if the church lacks passion for Jesus Christ? is that a reason to leave a church? so the church has a ton of knowledge about the Word and about theological stands and doctrine. that's all important (well, to an extent)...but what if it doesn't have a passion for just simple yet profound things - like Jesus Christ and His desire for us and His desire for us to desire Him back? and the joy and excitement that comes along with that? is this a valid reason for leaving a church?
anyone who reads this, any thoughts/ideas/opinions/facts are welcome. :)
alright i'm going to check on that laundry. i want to go to bed. jack johnson rocks. he's playing in my room tonight and is keepin' the atmosphere laid back and relaxed. rock on, jack johnson.
keep it real.
~jen~
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