Journal//Belated First Day of the Year!

Just got back from Kansis City, MO!

We got back around 11, but I didn't fully settle down till around 12:15 so that is why this entry is overdue by about 45 minutes.

But anyway. Here is my shot at online journaling all of my notes, journal entries, and posts everyday. It's a long shot, and I will most likely fail (a lot), but I think it should be rewarding.

I think I should follow a structure for what I post during journal entries (btw, will be initially labeled as "Journal//"). Here's a roughie for what I'm thunkin':

-Daily Happenings

-"My Utmost for His Highest" Devotional reading thoughts

-One Year Bible Plan reading thoughts

-Other thoughts for whatever

This is a lot...but at least I know my quiet times everyday should be around an hour at the very least.

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Jan. 1st, 2011(!!!!!!)

2011 is finally here. Actually I think finally is a little unnecessary because it came pretty fast and I haven't even really given time to reflect what happened in 2010. I'll save that part for the "other thoughts for whatever" portion (I should really give it a name...). But like I said earlier in this post, our group has returned from Kansas City, MO from the One Thing conference hosted by the International House of Prayer!!! (huff)

I had started a post on my thoughts for the entire conference, but it seems like it has gone amiss and I will have to write it. Sad. And I"m quite sure it will be the longest post I will ever write.

But anyway, the car ride back was fun, uncomfortable, lazy, sleepy, and yada yada. I got to watch the movie Jerry gave me aways back when called, "To Save a Life". In this movie, the main character is your typical all-star basketball player/partier/popular kid. He's got his dreams set on his dream college, he's got his days focused on partying away with this party friends, and he's got his hormones driving him to (have sex) with his girlfriend. The movie starts with the recent suicide of his ex-best friend from childhood. A talk with the local youth pastor initiated a turn of events that called the main character to question his existence. This is where God begins to flip his life upside down. The movie had its moments, inspiring moments showing some of the mysterious ways in which God works in our lives. The movie stirred me even more to ponder my quest for the impacting crusade on campus (more on that in my IHOP post). Anyways, the rest of the trip consisted of sleeping, sleeping, napping, and eating fast food. Oh I also watched Sherlock Holmes. This character still amazes me and I still aspire to be like him.

But onto important things! Jan. 1st devotion in "My Utmost For His Highest" begins by presenting a model of the one person who gave his utmost for the Lord. I am speaking, of course, of Paul. The devotional refs Phillipians 1:20-21. The devotional claims that giving the utmost is a matter of will and not of "debating or reasoning". Later in the passage, it says that "before we can choose to follow God's will, a crisis has to develop". Now I'm assuming this is similar to the trials spoken in James 1:3, "because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance" (NIV). The passage says that we are to choose in that moment to be for or against Christ, and then says when that comes, we are to surrender our lives completely to Christ.

So I'm not sure this devotional really speaks to me. It says that God produces the crisis for us so that we can decide to follow God's will or not. I mean it just sounds straight-forward and I don't have the bell-ringing connection. I will keep my eyes open I guess.

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Genesis 1-3, Matthew 1

Well a review of the beginning of Man.

Genesis 1 included God creating the Earth and Heavens in 6 days. Beautiful.

Genesis 2 includes God creating a woman from man's rib (ha!) so that she can help him with cultivating the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3 was the fall of Adam and Eve. One of the speakers at One Thing, (I think Allen Hood) said that God's plan for redemption includes mankind. He said that in Genesis 3, God makes a prophecy where the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpant will clash, and the seed of the woman will bruise the serpant's head while the serpant's seed will bruise the man's heel.

In Matthew 1, it talkes about the genealogy and the upcoming birth of Jesus Christ. I recently learned that Rahab the prostitute was in the line of Jesus! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! That God would use a prostitute in the lineage of the Savior! WOW...just amazes me...

And of course, Joseph's shock of Mary's pregnancy while she's a virgin. Can't imagine what he first thought when he found out. What a guy though. Was able to choose to follow what the angel in his dream told him.

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So it's just as simple as that I guess. My devotions can either include summaries and thoughts or just one of either. I need to sleep now because there's a lot to do tomorrow.

I have to:

-Set up a prayer schedule for both on campus and at home

-Set up a fasting schedule

-Devotions for tomorrow

-Post my super, duper long post about One Thing '10

-READ THE BOOKS CORY GAVE ME

Good night!