LARGE PRINT

it was awesome.

i was sitting in church on sunday, listening to a sermon as usual.

an elderly lady was sitting next to me... she was there alone, she was dressed in her best and was carrying more than it looked like she could carry... i hate to see old people struggling to carry things... it gives me a wierd feeling in my arms and stomache, like i am watching someone struggle and not doing anything about it. but, nevertheless, there she was, sitting there in the third row listening to the sermon.

she was beautiful.

not in the ense that i thought that she was lie...sexy, or hot or anything like that... she was just... beautifull. the kind of beauty that comes from living a long life... like an old piece of furniture has beauty... like an old photograph is beautiful because it just is.

she was beautiful because she was.

i remember looking over at her during the sermon, watching her, how she moved, how she listened intently to everything that was being said. how she smoothed her dress out when she looked down, or how she pulled out a package of tissue neatly and tidily folded in a zip-lock bag.

the thing that stuck out to me the most wasn't how she listened to the sermon, or how well she was dressed...
the thing that really stuck out to me was her bible.

it was a bib bible, on the front it said LARGE PRINT, and it looked to be wethered from years of use. it was so cool, though, to watch her as she read it... she looked like she was drinking in the sweetest milk she had ever had after a long days work... and shen she closed it after we were done reading... i have never seen anyone hold on to a bible that tightly before. it was as if it didnt matter what happened, if she lost anything else in the world... she was holding on to that bible, to Gods word with all of her might.

how amazing is that?

this little frail 5'4 woman holding as tightly as she can to her bible... her fountain, not of youth, but of love.

The light shines in the darkness...

soul mates?

i love my friends, i really do. i love it that i have friends. i remember looking back at sophomore year in high school and how i thouht that i would never have friends, i would never have people around me that loved me for who i am... that even cared enought about me to ask how i am doing and truly want to know, or to invite me to something because they want me their, not just because i happen to be there when they decide to go.

i love friends.

They hae become my family.

i love my family.



its like... i get this feeling every day, like i am in the middle of a really awesome dream, a dream where things are great and it seems too good to be true, that i am loved by a friend.

and i live in fear every day that something will happen, and the dream will go away, i will be wrong and reality will set back in and i will be alone and desperately misunderstood...

i've heard it said that Christians are the only one who are living in a true reality. that everyone else out there is living in an altered sate of reality because they are not recognizing the one true god as being the one true God. i am living in this new reality, i a living in this dream world of life where God rules and is soveriegn.

this is my life.

this is my dream.

this is my story.

this is my reality... the best part is....

this is real.

Our god Lives, and our God Reigns!

Martin Luther...

...is a wonderfully amazing man who, it seems, turned the entire world on its head.

he suffered the pain done to others, he loved God with all his soul and heart.

here are some amazing things that he said.

"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. "

"Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake. "

"Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding. "

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. "

"For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel. "

"Forgiveness is God's command."
-Martin Luther

strength will rise?

today was long. im not sure if i like this whole getting up at 6:00 to go to work. we'll see how it goes... i do like the whole getting the night to myself though... so we'll see what happens.

thought about something today. i go throguh a lot of crap... even today, my stomachewas killing me all day... i really hate it when it happens. but i was thinking about ho wwe always want to let life be great... be smiley... be pain free, and when its not, we get really depressed and its as if our very way of life is threatened.

i was reading in acts 16 today, and it talked about how paul and silas and luke were walking and a demon-possesed girl who could tell the future was walking behind them and eveywhere they went, the girl yelled out "these people are here to tell you about the Lord Jesus christ and how to be saved!" over and over again... loudly.

well, paul got really REALLY annoyed and after about 3 days, he turned around and screamed "in the name of Jesus christ, i order ou out of that girl!" and the demon left. the people who owned the girl and were making money off of her future telling took these guys to "court" and the magistrate ordered them to be sent to prison.

now, look at tht... this person ran a demon out of that girl... and he got sent to prison.

how lame. it seemd like God was letting bad things happen to good people for no good reason.

but... if you continue reading... they end up witnessing to the people in the jail and to the jail-keeper and he gets saved.

god uses bad things... for good reasons.

kinda makes suffering... kinda awesome...right?

im back at home...
and its wierd. i've learned to be ok with who i am at this school... im not even trying to get people to like me... or get people to think im cool. im just being me... the person God wanted and made me to be.

i miss my friends at home...

but I'm glad i have my new family back to.

:)

blessings,
-Josh

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no heart can fully know what god has prepared for those who love him. -1 cor. 2:7

Thoughts on changing the world

Love is the pinnacle.

it is the apex.

everything revolves around it and is effected by it.

when love is present, everything is effected,
when love is absent, everything is effected.

love is the most influential thing that we have...

i have been on a friends benge lately... Monica, Pheobe, Chandler, Ross, Joey and Rachel. they have become my best friends, always there when i need them, or want them... always able ot get my mind off of the hard things in life... and like the theme song says... they'l be there for you. its really fun to watch, always wondering what kind of dumb situation ross and rachel get into, or the next bad joke chandler tells, or what monica cleans next and what pheobe will play on her guitar and joey is going to make a stupid yet hillarius comment.

i love friends.

i love waiting to see whats coming next... i love the humor, and i love the story. but, now that i've been throguh all the seasons and see where they all end up... i was thinking about what brings me back to wanting to watch the show, and i think i know what it is. its the love that they have for eachother.

yes, its funny, and yes its fun, but i love seeing the love that they all have for eachother...

we, as a species, are drawn to love. we are drawn to peolpe who we love and who love us, we are drawn to movies that have some sort of love of people in it... we love love!

god is a great and awesome and terrifying God. the ancient hebrews, it seems, were terrified of Gods power and strangth and might... the tried to appease God by offering sacrifices and living as best and they could because god is terrifying and powerful.

but just when they thouht all hope was lost, just when life seemed hard andterrible and appeasing god seemed like the only thing they could do, God showed up and showed them something that they deperately needed tohear.

He showed them that He is Love.

and because of that Huge move of God, life for them and everyone else in the world is changed forever.

how awesome would it be if we lived every day showing love to everyone around us just as Christ shows love to us.

how could our world be changed?

book reader?

so i used to be a book reader. it was what i did... and what i do... but now, for some reason i fine myself watching people more and more. like, when i go out with friends... yeah, i like to talk and have fun like everyone else... but i always tend to find myself standing back and watching how people interact with eachother. wierd... huh?