Brent's Ruminations

Tough Times

2011-03-28T09:57:00.002-05:00

Last weekend held an amazing conference, "Creating a Passion for Prayer" which was led by Dr. Dave Earley. I can't stress how awesome it was. It really sparked a new passion for prayer in my life. We learned many different ways to pray and how to pray for an hour without falling asleep... which happens to me i'll admit. God really moved in that conference and I felt His presence there.

So tough times ahead though. With school coming to a close and other issues weighing heavy on my heart, I'm learning to rely on God more than I ever though possible... thankfully God is big enough to handle all my "big" problems. I am so glad I serve a God who is in control and if it will bring glory to Him take away all my problems.

Junior High we are starting our Bible Study April 17th!!! Get stoked! It's gonna be awesome :) Don't forget as well to have your deposit in for Falls Creek as soon as possible so you can reserve your spot!!!

Fast Approaching

2011-03-16T07:44:00.002-05:00

So graduation is just around the corner. Senioritis has completely consumed my body and their seems to be no cure... doctor's are baffled by the quick spreading disease and all tests have come back with less than stellar results...

FALLS CREEK!!!!!!!!!! As of right now we are slated to go July 4-8th. The cost will be 150 no matter what week we go, so start saving your money now! Mow lawns, babysit, wash cars, wash windows, do chores, walk dogs, do anything to start saving money. Until I get a bigger cabin there will be a limit on who can come and those who give me deposits first will be first on the list. $25 is the deposit, so get it in!

We're working on the life of Jesus now on Wednesday nights for awhile. Last week we discussed the calling of Matthew and the dinner with "sinners" that followed. Be sure to come tonight to see what the next life moment will be :)

Another Day

2011-02-16T11:16:00.002-06:00

Well, my new year's resolution of blogging more is not really happening... that's why it's a new years resolution I guess. Anyways, for those of you keeping track, I did preach a sermon on January 16. You can find it here. www.birchwoodchurch.com/media Then click on January 16.

It's the middle of February and the weather is starting to act like it's the end of March or early April. It's been gorgeous. My daughter is beginning to roll over from her stomach to her back and that has been pretty darn awesome to watch as she learns to do new things every day.

Youth has been going pretty well. We're starting to see visitors come and then come back for more the next week! I have been challenging my youth to actually bring their Bibles to church and while some are succeeding, others are failing miserably. I'm also going to have to start "encouraging" them to pay more attention during big church. I'm hearing too much from other people that they are too distracting during service, and that saddens me because I want them to get as much out of it as I do...

Anyways, tonight we will be continuing our discussion of Moses and the Israelite people. It will be a great time so I hope all my youth show up tonight :)

27

2011-01-12T17:08:00.001-06:00

No this is not post 27, at least I'm pretty sure it's not... Today is my 27th birthday :)

So with a new year comes new year's resolutions. Well I'm going to try really hard to keep this updated regularly... let's hope I can come through on this one.

I'm preaching on Sunday and I'm pretty excited and nervous at the same time. This is a great opportunity for me and I am ready!

I'll be speaking on prayer so come on out and see me :)

Sorry!!!

2010-10-29T08:54:00.003-05:00

Goodness! It's been a month since I've blogged!

I have been extremely busy, but at the same time have had free time, I just forgot about yall who read this! So my apologies.

Anyways, Lots has happened and is going to continue to happen for myself and the youth group :)

Flag football was a huge success! Thanks to all the youth for coming out and playing with us! It was a great time!!! Thanks to Mike Frasher for being my other adult to play! Hopefully next year we'll have enough interest to do a league of sorts.

High school Bible study is under way. We have 12 signed up and it has been tons of fun! Experiencing God is the study that we are doing and I encourage all of my high school students who are in the study to keep up the work and stay with the homework because it will be immensely rewarding.

We have our Costume Party/Bonfire this Sunday night! Come out and carve pumpkins, eat smores, and all that great stuff! It'll be tons of fun and you'll get to see my baby dressed up as a bumblebee!!!

So in my quiet time yesterday I found myself struggling with a question that I wonder if others do as well. How much does "feelings" affect the way we act/see/do Christianity? We say "we feel close to God" or "I don't feel close to God." Or, "I feel God is telling me to do something..." Obviously the only way to discern our feelings is to ask God for help in that, but do you ever think you have misinterpreted a feeling?

A New Calender

2010-09-20T11:58:00.002-05:00

Well we had a good turnout for the Parent/Student meeting yesterday. I passed out the new calender for the next few months and then quickly went over it. If you were not here for that meeting that's ok. I have extra copies and will pass them out to you as I see you.

Just a couple quick things. This Friday the 24th, we will be having Game Night from 6-9!!!! Bring your friends and be ready to have some fun and fellowship. Also, on October 9th we're having our youth car wash alongside the Deacon car care. People come to get their oil changed and we'll wash their car! It starts at 8 in the morning and goes until noon. Then we'll eat some pizza and go bowling until 3! If you want to bowl you'll need to bring $15.

I was excited to see a new face in the youth group yesterday! Yall are doing a great job of bringing friends to check us out and I pray that they like us enough to keep coming back! Keep on inviting your friends, because for some of them it may be the only invitation they ever get in their life!

Ania and I love yall and we're excited about all the upcoming months! If you have any questions or ever need to talk do not hesitate to call us :)

Exhaustion

2010-09-10T17:24:00.003-05:00

So, I'm tired! Having a baby has been killer on Ania and my sleep patterns. But it's worth it! Hannah is by far the best thing ever! She is so adorable and I absolutely love her to death!!!

Ania is still sick though :( So pray for her as she tries to beat whatever illness she has. We see a doctor Monday morning so maybe she can get some antibiotics or something.

Youth!!!! We have our quarterly parent meeting coming up September 19th right after service. Free pizza and pop so make sure you stick around with your parents so we can talk about what's going to be happening in the next few months!

Have you given anymore thought to the question I asked you Wednesday night? Let me ask it a different way. If you were a Christian in Saudi Arabia (a country who hates Christians and has banned the Bible from being anywhere in the country) and you were housing an underground church and some police came by and asked if you were having church or had any Bibles. What would you do? Lie and say no, or say yes and risk jail or death? Then if you lied, what would you say to God when you asked for forgiveness? Would you even think you sinned if you lied?

Miracles

2010-09-07T17:01:00.003-05:00

So, Hannah was born September 3, 2010. I cannot even begin to tell yall how absolutely amazing it was to watch her being born and to hold her in my arms for the very first time. God showed me a miracle on that day. He answered my prayers. He gave me a very healthy baby girl who is perfect in every way. Needless to say I am one of the happiest guys on the face of the earth right now!

I am extremely proud of you guys as well! God is doing some amazing things in our youth group and slowly but surely I'm starting to see some growth, not just numerically but spiritually! I really hope that you are continuing to read your Bible every day for at least 10 minutes and then spending at least that much time just chit-chattin with God. He wants to talk to you. He cares about you. Spend some time with Him!

I'm working on schedules for the upcoming months. If you have any ideas for events/activities let me know so I can get them on the calender. High school guys and gals get ready for a Bible study starting within the next month or 2. I'll keep you posted!

A Title Would Go Here

2010-08-20T11:54:00.002-05:00

August is winding down! Which means I'm about to be a father! Crazy crazy crazy!

Youth, yall are doing a fantastic job of inviting friends to come check out the church. I'm extremely proud of you for reaching out to your lost friends! Don't forget that the 27th (Next Friday) is game night! Daniel and MariaLe Watson will be there hosting the event, and depending on whether or not Ania has given birth we might be there as well. Bring your friends, and whatever board/card games you want to play and be ready to have some fun!

Also, I'm going to need to know if it will be at all possible for you guys to start saving for a spring break ski trip. The cost will be around 400 which means you'd need to start saving money now. I don't want to take 2 or 3 people, and I don't want 20 people telling me they can do it just to try to back out later. If I can get enough of a response then we'll set a time for deposits and stuff like that... just need to know within the next few weeks.

God has been showing me this week that I absolutely 100% have to rely on Him for my strength and well-being. I'm realizing just how frail and meek I am in comparison to Him and how easily he can bring me home.

You see without knowing it, we like to make ourselves seem extremely important on this earth. At times we wonder why God can't or won't do things the way we want them done. We think our way is better than His way. Those words may not be the exact ones we think, but thoughts like it often occur. I'm humbled by what God says to Job in Job 38-39. God is in control, and He knows everything that happened, is happening, and will happen. It's amazing and humbling.

Yet Jeremiah 29:11 also comes to mind for me. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."God wants to do great things in our lives... but first we have to step out of the way and let God do them.

Monday, Monday

2010-08-16T07:12:00.003-05:00

Hey guys and gals! So Ania and I have hit the single digits on our baby countdown! 9 more days til her due date... I can tell right now our little baby girl is stubborn, like her daddy, so she may not come on time. My guess is that she's comfortable and happy just chillin inside Ania. Too bad she's got to come into this sin filled world...

Anyways, I'm very glad to see our youth group slowly starting to pick up in numbers. It's encouraging to see so many people coming to learn about God. At least I hope that's what you guys are doing! I've always said it's never about the numbers. I still say that, but for your sakes I know seeing a few more people makes you happy. So I encourage you to invite your friends. If you can get them to church then Ania and I will do everything we can to encourage them to stay and continue to return.

You start school this week. My prayer for you is that you will continue to live your Christian life at school the same way you live it at church. It won't be easy, but you have lots of people praying for you. And if you ever need any help, Ania and I are just a phone call away!

Love yall,
Brent

2 More Weeks

2010-08-10T15:45:00.002-05:00

So tomorrow there will be 2 weeks left until our baby is born... if she decides to come on her due date. It's extremely exciting and extremely nerve-wracking all at the same time. Wow.... crazy how fast 9 months went by.

Youth!!!! I am so proud of you guys and gals. You are really starting to understand what it means to be a Christian and what it means to desire a life devoted to following Christ. It makes me extremely happy to see and hear your eagerness to dive into the Word and learn about what God wants to do in each of your lives.

Are there any topics that you feel like would be good for the youth group to study? I'm getting ready to start a study in the next couple months but before then I want to take time to go over some things that yall want to learn about. So now's the time to sound off and tell me what you want to learn!

Morons

2010-07-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

So I'm here to say that there are certain times where I find it extremely hard to love moronic people. I totally know the Bible on this one guys and gals, I'm just saying.

So how do you deal with moronic people? What's your strategy when it comes to someone who seems so hard to love that you just can't do it?

A Quick Reprieve

2010-07-27T13:02:00.002-05:00

So I'm off of work this week... (except on Wednesday night when I WILL be teaching!) I'm trying to go through everything that happened last week. It was indeed an amazing week and I cannot wait until next year as I'm sure most of you are thinking. God did some wonderful things in our lives this past week and I am very thankful for that.

So, we're moving on. August 6th is our back to school lock-in. It will be the first event that our new 6th graders will be allowed to attend! As we get ready for school to start back up I hope everybody is keeping to a regular schedule of reading the Bible and praying. Everybody enjoy this week and I'll see yall Wednesday!

BUSY!!!!

2010-07-15T13:20:00.002-05:00

Hey guys and gals! I am so sorry it's been so long since I've had a blog post. I have been extremely busy getting ready for camp and well my time is just pulled between places... yet Ania will tell you I can still find time to sneak a game or two in now and again. For those of you not going to Falls Creek you can skip this next paragraph.

Falls Creek is coming up next week!!!!!!!!!!! I am extremely excited and cannot wait to see what God does for our group. The theme for the camp is SENT. Jesus was SENT to save us, we are SENT into the world to spread the love of Christ. The theme for the in cabin devotional during the evening will be titled "What's holding you back." So I hope you come hungry for spiritual food, because we're going to be dishing it out like crazy!

Ok, so August 6, we're having a back to school lock-in here at the church. Invite your friends!!!! It's going to be awesome :) It's going to be 9PM - 9AM. So get ready for that! Don't forget about Sunday School starting at 9AM!!! Daniel Watson and Jamie Mediak are doing a great job teaching, so come back to hear them teach some more! Next week Daniel will be teaching Wednesday night, so if you can't or aren't going to camp then please come to youth group to hear him speak!

Be praying for the youth group for this week. Pray that God will open the hearts, minds, and souls of all the youth going and please pray for Ania as she will be very pregnant in a very hot town!

July

2010-07-05T15:51:00.002-05:00

Well, fireworks was pretty fun even though it was extremely rainy. Thanks to the Robison family for making Ania and I's 4th pretty darn fun! Ania mentioned it felt like we were on vacation, and I'll have to agree. Sam, Kyle and I got some much needed card playing in, and Daniel got to cheat and beat me at SSB Brawl....

Tomorrow is back to work and that means preparing for Falls Creek. It's coming up so fast and there's still quite a bit left to do!

Question for the week: Why do Christians tolerate so much sin?

End of another month

2010-06-30T11:35:00.002-05:00

Ok, so now that I have a grand total of 3 people following my blog I will now update more frequently.

Here's a question that was raised to me earlier this week. Let's look at Matthew 5:48. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." So now the question... What does it mean to be perfect? What kind of perfection is Jesus looking for?

Mid June

2010-06-14T15:30:00.001-05:00

Ok, so it's the middle of June and the summer is just starting to get hectic... well it's been hectic, so I guess more hectic now. FALLS CREEK!!!!!!!! July 19th - 24th. It's going to be absolutely amazing. Mark Matlock will be speaking and kids will be saved. That's just all there is to it.

In our cabin, we will have the always amazing Will Rupert leading worship! Ania will be leading the noonday devotion time and I'll be teaching in the evening during the evening devotion time. It's going to be so much fun that I can hardly contain myself.

Staying busy with the church website, the youth room, and so many other things. So I'll try to keep this updated, if not well... yeah.

So if you want to go to The Creek you better talk to me ASAP because spots are filling up fast!

Life

2010-05-24T09:58:00.002-05:00

Life is hard.

If you're living life by yourself and not surrounding yourself with friends who actually care about you then life will suck really hard. Having a network of Christian friends who will help you grow in Christ and will be there for you is pretty much the most important thing any Christian can have here on earth.

Thank God for my wife. And a few other friends I have on campus.

2010-05-04T07:53:00.002-05:00

What?!?!?! 2 updates in one month! Holy cow, what is wrong with me?

I feel like updating at 7:55AM in the morning!

My wife is amazing, just want the world to know. She's kind, caring, and most of all forgiving when I mess up or say something stupid. It's wonderful to know that you have the exact person God planned for you from the beginning. It took awhile to find her, and I went through a lot and caused a lot of heartache along the way, but finally here she is.

Ok, enough sappy stuff. The Chapel is almost done!!!! Hopefully by the end of next week it will all be completed. The tile gets finished today, with waxing tonight and we do some more painting then carpet comes in on Monday. Wow, so close to being done.

Ok, well got to take Ania to work and then go to work myself. I'll catch yall later.

May Day, may day!!!

2010-05-01T15:34:00.002-05:00

It's May 1st! Wow time is flying by. Probably has something to do with the fact that I am about to have a baby... well, not me personally, but Ania. Only 17 more weeks until I'm a daddy... wow.

For those of you who missed it, True Love Waits was a lot of fun! We had a great time talking about not only sexual purity but just purity in your life in general. If you missed it, well don't worry we will do it again sometime next year! Thanks for everybody who came out this weekend though!!!

School is almost over!!! Well for the summer at least. Hopefully I'll only have 1 more year after this and I'll be able to be done with school for awhile. I'm ready for a break. I need some time away from the classroom and worrying about assignments and things like that. And I'm pretty sure all you all are ready for school to be out as well.

We have a busy summer ahead of us! First on the list is that church camp was moved back 1 week. So now we are going July 19th - July 24th! So make sure you put that on your calender.
Lots of other things happening so make sure you check your calender and all that fun jazz.

Just finished putting some paint on the walls in the youth room. It's going to look so sweet in just a couple weeks. I cannot wait for it to finally be finished. A big thanks goes out to Todd Merriott for doing most of the work, and Renee Comtois and Aaron Armstrong for also helping out quite a bit in the whole process. It's taken a long time but it will come together soon, I promise!

Alrighty guys, I'm signing off for today, I hope God blesses you this coming week and don't forget to study hard for your finals!

April already

2010-04-07T11:28:00.003-05:00

So Ania and I are having a little girl!

Wow... I'm going to be a daddy. It's still hard to believe.
It has been a busy busy year. Obviously since i haven't updated since February a lot has happened. Ania and I had an appointment with the sonogram place to find out about our little baby. We found out her due date is August 25th, but chances are it will be a little bit earlier than that. Our little girl is so far very healthy and very active. During our last check-up she even kicked the ultrasound monitor pressed up against mommy because it was too loud! She's already got Ania's feisty attitude.
Spring break was a pretty good time. We went to see Ania's family in New Jersey and I got to spend a few hours in New York City one evening. I got to go to the Nintendo world store and wow... Talk about amazing!
The picture sucks, but the guy taking it couldn't figure out how to make the flash go.... so whatever. That's me in the store. It was a lot of fun! I ended up buying a onesy(or however you spell it) for our baby and an awesome turtwig doll for the baby (and me but mostly the baby).

April is here now and it's just one thing after the other! The youth room is coming along quite nicely and I am hoping it will be done within the next couple weeks. Wishful thinking on my part, but I really do hope it happens.

Tonight's lesson is going to deal with Kenosis. Basically do you believe that Jesus emptied himself of any of his deity-ness or that he willingly gave up certain attributes to become human, or did he just veil his being a deity?

Few and Far Between

2010-02-12T07:57:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm not very good at keeping a "consistent" blog, but at least I will be making posts! It's Friday February 12, 2010 and it's 2 days before Valentines Day. I've come to a few revelations recently that I have shared with my wife. Let's just say God is still good even when I'm not. And He always comes through even when I don't deserve it. God is patient and for that I am very grateful. God will always be patient and He will always be waiting for us to turn to Him for everything we face. Sometimes it takes me longer to turn to Him than it should but I'm slowly realizing that I need to be turning a lot sooner.

There is a youth I need everybody who reads this to pray for. She is dealing with a lot of issues and also doesn't know what she believes about God or Jesus or Christianity. So just keep this young girl in your prayers as God works in her life.

Hump Day

2010-01-20T11:36:00.000-06:00

It's the middle of the week... "Hump day." Like a mountain that you are on top of... tomorrow you will be going downhill towards the weekend and the end of one week and the beginning of another. An endless cycle until God calls you home.

What are you doing during this endless cycle?

A New Year

2010-01-12T15:09:00.002-06:00

Hello all and Happy New Year!!! I know this is a bit late, but today is my birthday so I am allowed to be late ;)

We have started NTX (New Testament Experience) at Birchwood this week and we will be reading through the New Testament by Easter. I am pretty excited about it actually and cannot wait to see what God shows Ania and myself.

The first day of reading, yesterday, we read Matthew chapters 1-4. I am always amazed at chapter 4, the temptation of Jesus. After spending 40 days and 40 nights fasting the Bible says Jesus was hungry. Let me just say... that has to be one of the biggest understatements of all time. After 40 days I am going to speculate, quite accurately I think ;), that Jesus was FAMISHED. I'm pretty sure that none of us can last that long, I know I sure can't. I start freaking out if I miss a meal. Well, let's just say my body starts getting angry at me if I don't eat something during "meal time".

After that long without food the body starts to shut down. Fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, stress, extreme hunger, possible hallucinations, etc. begin to ravage the body after not having anything for that long. Let's just say it is not a pretty sight.

Why would Jesus do that to himself? Let me hear your answers on that question...

Then after he finished with that Satan decided to step in and start tempting him. Now the funny thing about his tempting is that he's tempting Jesus with things that Jesus already has. Power to turn stones to bread... check, power to call the angels to His side, check, power to own all the nations of the world, check. Jesus has absolutely all that within His power. However, God doesn't work that way. Even thought He can force all of those things He chooses not to. God wants us to come to Him and be saved. Also, as Jesus quoted scripture quite impressively since he is the scripture incarnate... Man lives on more than bread alone, don't tempt God, don't worship other Gods... Satan was trying but Jesus was too strong even after being weakened by fasting...

How can I show that same kind of strength.... how can you?

Post Number 3

2009-12-15T12:23:00.000-06:00

I really am not all that good at thinking up titles for my blog posts. But when I start blogging on certain topics I'll start using relevant titles...

Technically at this point I doubt any youth are reading my blog. Once our website gets up however, I'm hoping that you all will read these posts as I do hope they will eventually be a help to you.

But for kicks and giggles I'm going to write stuff down anyway.

I have a new whiteboard in my office and I've got quite a schedule written up on it. For January we have a parent/student lunch on Jan 10th, We're going to go to the crown center in KC to go ice skating, and we're going to start a high school study. In February we have the Super Bowl Party, True Love Waits study, and hopefully another hockey game. We'll see how that goes.

Well that's it for today. My brain isn't really working all that well as I'm still busy cramming it full of information for my finals this week.

So I leave you with a Bible verse. "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." - 1 Timothy 4:12

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T17:59:00.000-06:00

It is that time of year again. Time to give thanks for everything that God has blessed us with.
After listening to the sermon on Sunday which covered 1 Thess. 5:18 which says, "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

It seems to me that giving thanks should not be just for one day only. Giving thanks is a year round, continuous thing. There are so many things we as Christians can and should be thankful for. For instance, Christ gave his life for us. That is the greatest thing gift we have ever and will ever receive. Everyday we should be thanking God for his mercy and grace.

My family just left to go back to Oklahoma this evening. It was very good to see them. I am thankful for my upbringing and the fact that I have a family who loves me as much now as they did 25 years ago. It is this blessing that God has provided me with that is so unheard of in today's society. Not many kids can say they have a loving home, or even parents who are still together. I am very thankful for what God has given me.

Ania's family is leaving tomorrow. It was also very good to see them. My wife is another person who had an amazing upbringing in a good Christian home. The love that they extend to me is just as much as my family and I am very blessed to be accepted into a family, a culture, and a way of life.

God is good. I have so much more to be thankful for. A nice apartment, nice furniture, food in my refrigerator, electricity, running water, heat, a car, nice electronics and appliances. So much that we take for granted that we just don't think about...

So... Happy Thanksgiving one and all!!!

First Entry

2009-11-23T12:39:00.000-06:00

So I'm sitting here ruminating...

And I'm thinking to myself....

Why is it so hard to live a Christian life? Why can't it be easy?

As many of you know I just got married 4 months ago this Thursday and let me tell you marriage is a great thing! However, it's not an easy thing. My wife and I are devout Christians who love the Lord with everything we are. So theoretically two Christians who are married to each other should have an easier time being married than say... two non-Christians.

It's amazing how we think sometimes. That was definitely my thought going into marriage. However, I have come to realize that I cause a lot of problems!!! I'm not a perfect Christian... granted nobody is, but it seems that my personality is not super compatible with anybody else on this planet, which makes living with me very difficult for my wonderful wife.

So what makes it so hard to be married?

The same thing that makes it hard to be a Christian.

Sin

Satan has this knack of sneaking into our lives when we are at our happiest or best. When we are really on fire for God, or we are really trying to live a better Christian life. He comes in whenever we're down and out too. Satan is just always trying to trip us up. This makes life really hard. It reminds me of a Relient K song called "Softer to Me" Basically the song is a question to God... "God, could you please make my life just a little bit easier?"

The truth is we will never be able to get away from sin. We will never be able to get away from Satan's temptations. He will always tempt us and try to make us stumble or fall, but it's how we deal with that temptation that really matters.

Seek God's face in everything that you do. Nothing is too trivial or too small for God. Cast all your cares, worries, and troubles on Him, because He can take it!!! He will help if you just ask. When we are at our weakest... when we are at our worst... never think that God can't take you back. God will always take us back if we sincerely want to return.