Christ Centered

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: 'Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips'
Hosea 14:1-2

Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16

I encourage you to check out this sermon series. its 5 sermons, u should be able to finish it over spring break.
http://www.gracechurch.org/crossroads/mp3search.asp
in the search box, type biblical masculinity

-Ivan

hey. rite down to it. Focus on God. 100% center of life. now walk the walk.
Luke 9:23
Deny yourself. Kill yourself. Follow God. Daily.

-ivan.

im praying for u. pray for me too.

Romans 12 - 13

oh wow retarded, i just posted like a bunch of stuff and my firefox crashed. ill do it later, its late right now and i should go to sleep. my firefox is crashing like crazy recently, lame.
finishing what i was saying

// i was like, what am i doing. Jesus told me to turnt he other cheek. "whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him tow. give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you..." (Matthew 5:41-42). So wasn't i suppose to give him the air pump, and the water too? lol. So I was like, "hey, you know what, sorry i blew up on you. you're late for work and you probably need it more than me." And this is a total stranger, so what i dont get is why i can be more loving to a stranger than to with us? When joe does one of his stupid crap, why cant i just let him take more? But as the brother I am also responsible to tell him what stupid crap he was doing. So that he doesnt experience "the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, i will repay, says the Lord." This is so hard because of his/our self righteousness and pride. what "people" said IS true, we are incredibly proud when we're all together. [tired finish tomorrow]

RE: Death

Yea, i know exactly what your talking about but in a sense its so far stretched that its sort of irrelevant. God placed us here to do his work, if we just simply follow that then death is not an issue. Why would He put us here and have us die w/o having anything done? You overcome the fear of death and love for material things by having faith in God on a more micro basis: daily life. All that you do and believe shapes who you are. In example us, exactly. We DEFINATELY are not afraid of death, or else we wouldn't be hanging out with Joe so much. But is our lack of fear a good thing? In the grander scheme, I don't think so. We do these things for fun and adrenaline rush, but oh well if we die, its over, no pain no misery. Or is there? Is our heart pure enough to enter the gates of heaven? Do we actually trust in God to provide or just neglect our responsibilities. Have we had a good relationship with God. Did we do our daily devotions..... Where is our heart located? From what your talking about, i mean theres nothing wrong with it and i totally agree but it feels like your basing your faith upon that belief. God allowed us to have pleasure and enjoy ourselves, so why not? I think this goes back to how you prioritize things relative to where God is in your heart.

On a further note, my sister came home tonight and we were talkign about college. Of course we talked about the "social life" of college. Yea, both you and I know that were gonna go to parties and stuff but I think parties are on a shady area if you have control of yourselve, but what if you dont? You see that drunk hot chick who wants to screw you silly, how do you act upon that? You're downing 3,4,5 shots and all your friends are egging you on for more, when do you stop? Here is what im struggling with: Is it better to know whats wrong and still do it (in moderation) or not even know whats right? So my sister pointed out a very interesting fact about colleges and fraternities. They see "eligible" candidates and they recruit them, sometimes with very very sly tactics. They want you in their frat. ok, sure, you tell them maybe frat isn't for you. What they do is they get their hot sorority girls to ask you.... WOH different story. What happens? That is the epitome of college dilemmas.

Death

So u kno that Resolved conference thing that alvina went to, well she told me to listen to the sermons... all 12 of them... online... today while i was packing i listened to the first one. it was about death. it was pretty good. the main point that i got out of it, is that until we face our death and are not afraid of it, we cannot live the way God wants us to. So pretty much, You cannot truly live, until you have died. funny thing, is that ive been talkin about stuff like this with my school friends recently. in Fight club, the author also says the same thing. Tyler durdin puts the main character in a life-death situation and tells him to let go and let the car crash. Accept the fact that everyone is going to die. "on along enough time-scale, everyone's survival rate drops to zero" only after you die, can u live.
This makes sense, because only after we face death, stare it in the face, do the unimportant things in life really become unimportant. material comforts, luxuries, deserts, fancy crap become unimportant. The truly important things will be God's kingdom. when facing death, people dont think "oh sht, i should bought that purse". instead they think "heaven or hell. i want mommy." In the end, God is what truly matters. so ya, i kno we pride ourselves with having breeched death on multiple occasions with Joe and stuff, but take a second to think about how to apply the philosophy of this to our lives. To die rite now, so that we can live for God.

-Ivan

My Attitude Lately

So in the story of jonah, God tells jonah to go to a city to tell them about God. This city is sinful, full of evil people that smoke crack and rape lil boys. anyways, Jonah thinks that they are stupid and wants them to burn, so Jonah doesn't go to the city, but runs away. God then forces Jonah to go back cuz jonah was wrong and blah blah. I kinda realized yesterday that i was being like jonah. i was talking to my mom and explaining to her how stupid everyone at AOK was and stuff. like people are so fking materialistic and stuff, its sickening. i told my mom that in AOK, people try to raise money for poor people, go on missions, sing songs about how they are going to be humble... but its all bullcrap cuz they are so fake and full of shit. like people are all pretending they want to help others, but then spend all this cash on shitty clothes and stuff. on top of that, everyone in AOk seems to immature and stupid. STUPID. there was another story in the old testament about the isrealites. so the isrealites are being stupid and just having sex and orgies with other unclean people and disobeying god. This one isrealite is like, raping some chick rite in front of a priest. so the priest gets pissed and takes a spear, and just kills the guy. God praises the priest. I told my mom that maybe we should just be harsher on people that are stupid and just pwn them. my mom responded by saying that priests were given authority over the isrealites, and that i God hasnt given me any authority over anything else. She said that if i see how stupid/immature aok has become, then its my job to tell them.
I think that ive just been stupid and blinded by the devil too. recently ive been thinking about how hopeless and stupid this world is. its all so crappy and full of crap. people are crap. i mean, fking highschoolers arent even making any money, but then they spend $80 to get their hair done, $400 on a dress, $100+ on dinner/limousines... and then they claim that they are good people that care about the world?! fuk, this money can educate half of africa and probably cure AIDS. i myself have started to become obsessed with detatching myself from materialism. Ive been heavily influenced lately by the philosophies behind Fight Club, where u gotta hit bottom and experiance chaos in order to break free from materialism/consumerism. you gotta lose hope in life first in order to break free from all this stupid selfish crap that society is full of. i got caught up in all this crap and hopelessness and forgot about what Jesus has done. i guess that i was running away from everyone i thought was stupid, similar to Jonah. ill try from now on to care about about brothers/sisters at church and not just ignore them and hope they burn. its kinda scary how anger and hate grows so fast and hardened my heart towards almost everyone in AOK. Also, after watching American History X, i realized how stupid hate/anger/wrath is. its all pointless. God loved us and saved us. there is no room for hate.

-Ivan (pray for me)

Philippians 2:3

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

This saturday driving home i got pulled over and was given a speeding ticket. I was pretty upset/depressed over this. Its gonna cost me a hefty amount of money AND a point on my insurance. So later that night I thought about my driving habit and attitude. Speeding... weaving... and other sorts of "dangerous" activities. Why do i do it? Because its fun, thrilling, improve my driving skills, etc. However, at the same time, i put many innocent lives at risk just for my own pleasure. what if i crash, what if i mess up? that would mean other people are going to take the tolls for my stupidity, for my mistake. So i have decided that from now on, i will drive in humility and in consideration of others. My actions reflect on my faith as a Christian. I am representing God, so i better do a good job at it huh?