Witnessing for Christ

I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but I had a long discussion with the guy sitting next to me at work about religion. I work as a video game tester, so there is just row after row of people testing games, and conversations aren’t exactly private. The guy I was talking to is interested in learning about different religions, but doesn’t know which one he wants to follow.

I thought it was really cool that we had this big long public discussion where I was able to talk about why Christianity is different from all other religions, some of the reasons why we can know it’s true, and various theological points that he had questions about. Apparently he’s had a lot of negative encounters with Christians, such as judgmental and condemning churches and people whose whole explanation as to why they believed in Jesus was “because I do” or “because I was raised with it.”

I was able to hold my own quite well during the conversation and came up with intelligent responses to his questions. I think I was able to provide him with a really positive example of a Christian who knows what they believe and why they believe it.

It was a really wonderful experience to be able to be an ambassador for Christ like that. God has really been preparing me for this situation and hopefully similar situations in the future. Being used as a witness for God has given me even more of a hunger for his word, and I’m going to continue to pray that he will use me to accomplish his will.

Harvest Crusade 2008!

I went to my first Harvest Crusade today! It was wonderful! It's late right now and I'm tired, so instead of trying to write a full report, I'll just make a few random observations.

1. Greg Laurie is awesome.
2. Leeland's "Tears of the Saints" is beautiful and never fails to make me teary.
3. I really need to get a Marty Goetz CD.

On to the pictures!

Waiting in line.

In the stadium with David's mom.

Pastor Greg speaking.

The best part: 3,704 people came forward to accept Jesus tonight! (The total for all three nights is 11,084!)

Grafted In

I used to see Jesus and what (relatively) little I knew of the Bible through the filter of my own experience and culture without even knowing it. It would never have occurred to me that it might be good to learn about Jewish history and culture. After all, what's the use of that in the here and now, right?

However, at that point my knowledge of God's word was somewhat less than intimate. I had heard sermons all my life and had memorized some verses for Sunday school, but that was basically it. Now I'm only about a month away from finishing my first full reading of the New Testament. (And then I can't wait to get started on the Old Testament!) I like topical messages in church as much as the next person, but it just doesn't replace actually reading the Bible all the way through in order. For me, reading it through makes it less about what I want to get out of a particular passage and more about what the author is really saying. When you're looking at it from this perspective, it becomes obvious that the more you know about the history and culture that the Bible deals with, the deeper your understanding of God's word will be.

In his book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey says,
"Alone of all people in history, [Jesus] had the privilege of choosing where and when to be born, and he chose a pious Jewish family living in a backwater protectorate of a pagan empire. I can no more understand Jesus apart from his Jewishness than I can understand Gandhi apart from his Indianness. I need to go back, way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew with a phylactery on his wrist and Palestinian dust on his sandals."

In addition to the fact that understanding the Jewishness of Jesus will lead me to a better understanding of Jesus himself, my interest in this subject is also inspired by what the Bible says about Gentiles being "grafted in" with the people of Israel to receive God's promise to Abraham and his children.

Romans 11:17 (NLT)
"some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—-some of the people of Israel—-have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree."

I like how this site puts it:
"The words ‘Grafted In’ memorialize the affirmation of our true identity as a people, Jew and Gentile, securely rooted in the finished work of Yeshua HaMashiach. If you believe in Yeshua, you are Grafted In!"

I even got a new necklace because I'm looking forward to learning more about these things.

Music!

Some of my favorites...

Bands/Artists












Julie Andrews
Favorite song: She's my favorite singer of all time, but I have no clue what song is my favorite.

Fireflight
Favorite song: Unbreakable

Lifehouse
Favorite song: Everything

Big Tent Revival / Steve Wiggins
Favorite song: BTR - Please Forgive Them / SW - Adoni

Spoken
Favorite song: September

Styx
Favorite song: Renegade


Musicals












The Sound of Music
Favorite song: Edelweiss

The King and I
Favorite song: Hello, Young Lovers

West Side Story
Favorite song: Tonight

My Fair Lady
Favorite song: Without You


Soundtracks












Indiana Jones
Favorite track: Theme

Hook
Favorite track: Presenting the Hook

Star Wars
Favorite track: (I can't decide!)

Lord Of The Rings
Favorite track: (Not sure)

More than a dork?

It's been a while since I've been a complete and utter spaz in front of someone, but today I managed to pull it off. The question is, do I resign myself to the idea that I'm just a dorky loser, or do I rise up and take it as a challenge to show people that I'm capable of more than what they expect of me?

Here's hoping I choose the latter.

Little Rushed Entry

Right now I'm working on balancing being away from home 13+ hours a day (working and driving to and from work) with still having interests and hobbies. And also cleaning, which is always important. Poor Leora is by herself all the time now.

One thing I am maintaining is my daily Bible study. We always get to work early and David and I both read our daily chapter in the morning. By the end of next month I will have read the entire New Testament for the first time! I'm really excited about that, and I'm also eager to start reading the Old Testament.

Well, it's late and I have to get up super early again tomorrow so I don't have time to write anything thoughtful. This entry was rushed. Like I said, I'm working on balancing. In the meantime, I'll be updating Twitter, which is easy because it doesn't require any thoughtfulness whatsoever. I also replaced my photo slide show with my TwitPic badge, so at least those things should get updated regularly.

Messy :(

It's pretty sad how messy everything gets when I work all week. I leave the house at 6:30 and don't get home until anywhere from 7:30 to 11:00, depending on if there's overtime. Today's project is to clean up. The first thing I tackled is my desk. Check out the before and after pictures.

Picture Time!

Twitter is so addicting. I wish I knew more people who used it. Add me if you have a Twitter! (If I know you, that is.)

Here are some random shots from the last few days. David's mom colored my hair today, as you'll see from the last two pictures.