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Well I have a confession to make. I am officially a fan of Twitter. I have had one for over a year now, but have not realized what it actually does until today. They always say that you learn something new every day. Now if you don't know what it is let me explain. If you have a Facebook or a Myspace, there is a space on those where you write your status... People typically write what they are doing or how they are feeling. Well Twitter is just that... it is a bunch of people that are writing "one liners" on how they are doing or what they are doing. But even that in and of itself seems a little boring to me, UNTIL today, when I realized that the majority of the people that use Twitter, use it from their mobile phone through text messaging. Once I turned on my phone in Twitter, I instantly was connected to the world with not only what I am doing, but what they are doing as well. And the cool part is that they can comment on what you wrote and you get it immediately through a text message. Anyway, I was a little slow hopping on the band wagon, but I really have enjoyed the day being able to connect with so many friends on such a different level. You should definitely check it out at Twitter.com. I even told my mom today to get one, so that will be fun. Well let me know what you think!!

this last week was Caleb Rogers 1st birthday. I was thinking a bit about this unique day in the fact that he has only 1 first birthday. It was so cool to watch how much this "little man" has grown. It seems as if it was only days ago when he was born and now here we sit watching him blow a single candle out on his birthday! Anyway, for his party we had to carve pumpkins. So Marie Hunt and I both worked together to make the #1 most creative pumpkin that I have ever seen. anyway, it was a great night for the first of many birthdays for little man.

Today I had my small group at my house, and this week is one of the guy's birthdays, Brian Cox; aka McLovin. What can I say about this guy. He is one of the sweetest guys you will ever meet. I could tell you story after story about how much he has made all of us guys laugh. He has gone through a lot as a young man, but has so much life and color. Josh Kennedy and I can't even be in the room with him without laughing. He is a great guy that has such potential for great things. Anyway, today we celebrated his birthday with our small group. We surprised him by having a party for him. Half way through the night, about 10 girls from another small group came over and sang him happy birthday. After they left he looked at me and said, "this is the best birthday I have ever had... and I have never had this many girls at my party!" I about fell over with laughter. Anyway, it is moments like this when you are glad you have people around you that care more about others than they do themselves. Well here's to you Brian. Happy Birthday!

It is so funny how our lives start out "learning to read", and then as we progress, we "read to learn." I am finally at that place in my life where I am reading to learn. Even in high school, it was more like reading because I had to. But now I am finally there. Anyway, I have been reading this book called 'Jesus wants to save Christians' that I highly suggest and I thought I would share with you just a glimpse of what it is about. Here is the excerpt from the back of the book...

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building.Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.

This is a book about those two numbers.

It's a book about faith and fear,
wealth and war,
poverty, power, safety, terror,
Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity,
It's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's a priest, it's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.

It's about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.

The ripple effect is that feeling you get over and over again as something moving continues to run over your heart, just like when a drop of water hits a pool of water and you watch the ripples continue out way farther than expected. Repossess was just that. The moment you think Repossess is fading, I hear another story or feel another ripple of God's presence in it all over again. I think all of us here in Washington were not only blown away at what God did, but are now amazed at how far the ripple of His presence has gone. Today I watched the recap video and am still captivated by what God did through undeserving but willing hearts. All I know is that when you can get out of the way, and let God move, He is then able to take the gospel way farther than you could ever preach, change hearts that you could never reach, and bring hope to those who seem lost. The ripple effect of Him moving is way more powerful than the ripple we try to create on our own. Let God lead and watch as He ripples through your life, and changes a world through you.

I was teaching this weekend and was so hit by the message that is taught to us by the life of Joseph. I was teaching out of Genesis 39:7-12. If you read, you see that Joseph was a man that was able to say no to the hardest of sins. At this time, Joseph was approached by the king's wife to come and lie with her and Joseph refused. Then if you look in verse 10, it says that this woman came to Joseph everyday and Joseph continued to say no. I mean this guy was just like us... sin tempts us every day. Yet, Joseph had a heart for purity and righteousness. Then one day, the woman came to Joseph and grabbed him by the garment, and he ran.

You know I was thinking of the things we are faced with every day; temptations, sins, thoughts. I was hit by the thought that we say yes to a lot of little things; we compromise many times in the simplest of sins. Maybe it's movies we compromise to watch, or music we allow ourselves to sing along with, or maybe even just an attitude that rules our actions. I don't know about you, but I am convicted in the fact that I don't say no enough. See, Joseph said no every time, and when the sin grabbed him by the shirt, he ran. If our hardest temptation grabbed us by our shirt could we run?

The Lord desires for each of us to pursue purity and righteousness every time, so that when our greatest temptation is right in our face, we know when to run. What are you saying yes to, and if you were faced with your greatest temptation, could you run? Resist Compromise and Pursue Purity, and when the time comes... RUN!

You know I think we all have heroes in our lives. It is that person that we look up to or are inspired by; and many times we model our lives like them. This weekend I found my new hero. He isn't a colleague, or a long-time friend, and he really doesn't even know how to speak. He is a little boy we call, "little man." This week when I was away at a conference, I got to spend a lot of time with one of my newest heroes, Caleb Rogers. As we got to hang out at the mall and eat at restaurants, I was so taken back by this little guy. First and foremost, I was amazed that this little guy had so much life and energy... all of which was given to him by Jesus. Anyway, one of the things about him that I love so much is the confidence that is displayed on his face through laughs and smiles; knowing that he is Shane's child. He didn't have to prove anything to anyone... he just had to be himself. It is the same way with us and God... we don't have to prove anything to anyone... We have an audience of 1. Be who you are and be confident that we are God's children...

Cheer's to you Caleb...