Seananigans

Tomorrow I have the privilege and opportunity to preach at the First United Methodist Church in San Marcos. This will be my first time to preach... ever. Pray for me!

Jesus Looks at the Heart

Story: Recently, I was talking to a student on campus who was telling me that they didn't have science when the Bible was written, and thus the Bible is outdated and not very useful. I replied, "while certainly science has taught us a lot, the Bible is not contrary to science. But it is not written primarily as a scientific textbook. However, the Bible is more concerned about the human condition and the heart, and it speaks very wells to this issue."

Theme throughout the Bible: We see this idea throughout the pages of Scripture!

“For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

“For the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.” 1 Chr. 28:9

“Blessed are the pure in heart.” Matthew 5:8

In fact, when Jesus is talking with people and addressing their different issues, he is almost always addressing the deeper issues of our heart, and not simply external behavior. His constant rebuke against some of the established religious leaders of his time, the Pharisees, is the attitude of their hearts, not in how much they knew about the Bible.

So what is meant by the heart? In most cases in the Bible, it is not referring simply to the human organ, the heart. But to our inner self: our mind, emotions, and will.

(SLOW!!)

Introducing the Story:

1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat."

This is a good question! If you have or work with children, I think you would all agree that you probably can't wash your hands enough. Germs exist. So, is Jesus saying we shouldn't wash our hands? No.
And for the Pharisees it wasn't likely about germs (I don't know if they even knew about those yet), but it was one of their traditions that they had been following for so long that they probably didn't even know why they did it. And when they saw Jesus' disciples not following their tradition, they tried to challenge Jesus because that was just something they always did.

Are there things we do simply because we have always done them? Maybe Jesus is challenging us to return to the heart of why we do these things.

Continuing on we see Jesus speak about...

(SLOW!!)
Commandments and Traditions:

3 He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 6 So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

We see that Jesus, as he often does, doesn't answer their question directly, but uses this as an opportunity to discuss a deeper and more important issue. The Pharisees had something close to 600 additional observances and traditions, on top of the numerous biblical commands.

It is important to note that Jesus does not condemn traditions, but does place them as secondary compared with God's commands. Right now we are in the lenten season. All denominations of churches have traditions they follow.

Story of Martin Luther and Protestant Reformation (which Methodists are a part of!) responding to the traditions of the established church and the practice of paying indulgences to buy salvation for themselves or relatives, despite this being contrary to the Word of God.
Our own John Wesley writes that there are four primary sources for coming to theological conclusions: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, & Experience - but emphasizes that Scripture is primary and the sole source for truth about God. Tradition, reason, and experience are guides to help us interpret the Scriptures.

(SLOW!!)

Where is our Heart?
8 "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'”

Part of my testimony of becoming a Christian relates well to this passage. I grew up going to the Methodist church in Wimberley, Texas where my parents still go to church to this day. It is a great church! I was there pretty much every Sunday morning, as well as Sunday and Wednesday evenings as I was always involved in the youth group. I participated in Bible Studies, Mission Trips, and even confirmation class. But my heart was far from God.

In High School my friends around me were getting swept up into heavy drinking, stealing, among other things, and I was getting pulled in with them. Through God's prevenient grace I separated myself from those friends. But I came to college with a lot of heart level issues: pride, bitterness, depression, anger, among others. Church and God had always been just an activity that I attended. I was following the steps, the traditions, but I lacked the sincere heart behind my actions.

Jesus Teaches: We all have heart level issues

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."

*The Bible clearly teaches the fallen condition of mankind, from the first book of the Bible onward. We clearly see it in the strife filled Old Testament with wars, adultery, murder, etc. We see it with the Pharisees and Jesus' own very imperfect disciples.
*We see it in our world.
* We see it in ourselves.

So the question I think Jesus would be asking, and IS asking, is WHERE IS OUR HEART? Where is MY heart? Where is YOUR heart?

If Jesus words are true, and as Christians we affirm that they are the very words of God, then we all have issues in our heart that ONLY God can fix.

(SLOW!!)

Gospel: But there is good news! The Greek word for gospel, evangelion, literally means GOOD NEWS.

We all have heart level issues... (pause) But Jesus is called the Great Physician and can heal our hearts. Accepting Jesus for who he said he is and following Him begins the process of changing and healing our hearts. It is the process that has been gradually changing my heart. The Bible calls this process sanctification.

(SLOW!!)
What specifically does Jesus do for our Hearts?:
The Bible writes that Jesus is the only person to live on earth without sin. In Hebrews 4:15 he was "in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin". So while we all sin, accepting the sinless Jesus Christ begins the process of transforming us.
He urges us to be born again, and offers us the free GIFT of the Holy Spirit. And while we can't heal ourselves on our own, when we accept Jesus and his HOLY Spirit lives in us, he begins to change us from within.
Jesus urges us to pray to Him, release our thoughts to him and pray through struggles and temptations, ask for forgiveness when we make mistakes, and confess to God and godly friends.

(SLOW!!)
*When we worship, let us remember God is looking more at our HEARTS, than how we sound.
*When we take communion, God wants our hearts to be seeking Him.
*When we tithe God is examining our motives.

How does this message tie into Lent:
*Lent is a tradition. It is not mentioned in the Bible, but it is a great tradition!
*It is about remembering our Savior and what he has done for us. Some people choose to give something up, or some people choose to do something new (like our great Seeds of Hope program!). But the important thing is not simply in adding something into your life or taking something away, but the heart behind our actions. Let us today again remember what Christ has done for us in redeeming our hearts.

And AS we remember, let us GO TO Jesus with our heart issues because THAT is what God is concerned most about, the attitude of our hearts. Let us go to Him with our STRUGGLES because that is the Good News of Christ. He listens and He helps.

Let us love the Lord with all our HEART, all our soul, and all our mind. Our inner person. Amen.


Lets go with the strength of this blessing: God sent his one and only Son to redeem us. Let us turn to Him so he can begin the process of healing our hearts and transforming us into godly women and men. AMEN!

I just got back from the Northeast where I spent 6 days traveling and visiting many amazing sites. I stayed the first three nights in Brooklyn, New York with my cousin Amanda who graciously let me stay with her in an extra bedroom in a typical northeastern city apartment for FREE :). Then the next two nights I stayed in Baltimore with my travel partner Jiao's married friends who used to go to Texas State, but now live in Baltimore where the wife is teaching as a professor of Geography there. Also for free :) The main expenses were for public transportation which is relatively low, so we made out pretty well.



My friend Jiao approached me more than a month ago and invited me to go to New York. She had found a way to travel very cheaply! $200 round-trip plane tickets. Can't beat that. We flew into Philadelphia on Tuesday, December 16th. I seem to knack for always getting into good conversations / discussions with strangers on long trips that I take.

I spoke with a flight attendant named Robert who was a very nice gay man who was recently married in Palm Springs, Florida. We talked for awhile and he gave me many ideas for things to do while in New York.

When we arrived in Philadelphia we quickly got on to a train bringing us into inner city Philly where we were to catch a bus to go to New York. On the way to New York on the bus I sat next to a man named Scott who was an interior architect who helped transform peoples existing home into a more luxury abode. He talked extensively about his iPhone and his love for it. To him and his work, it was absolutely essential. He used it to take photos of his work to send to perspective clients, he checked his email, set calendar events / reminders, and no longer had a need for buying a newspaper as he could get everything for free through the internet (particularly the New York Times). He is the boss of his "company" and has about 10 workers under him.

New York - 2008
Winter in New York City, New York. Average temperature 37°F.


This was my first time in New York! My time here gave me only enough to realize I would love to go back. Our bus dropped us off in Chinatown in Manhattan. It was snowing! And I had no idea where to go. There were lots of people and lots of foreign signs. When I got off I noticed a guy leaning against a building on the corner of the street we were on. He must have been there for 10 minutes. Just as we started walking he got up to walk off. But almost as if he knew we were lost, he turned to ask if we needed help. We were hungry and he pointed us to a restaurant nearby where we were happy to get inside out of the cold and eat. And he was right, it was very good. We sat next to a group of Asians who looked like they were possibly Vietnamese and another group of New Yorkers who were having a jovial time. I found out people in New York are very nice and friendly. Not what I expected. People greeted each person and gave hugs and kisses. And it is a very culturally diverse area.

After dinner we connected with my cousin Amanda who just got out of her last final for the semester. She explained to us how to get to her apartment. Thus began our experience with the New York subway system--something we would become quite acquainted with over the next 3 days. At first it seemed quite confusing, but slowly we got the hang of it. We had to get on one subway, go several stations down then jump onto another train and make sure it was going in the correct direction.


When we got off it was still snowing. We sort of knew where Amanda's apartment was but we didn't know how far it was. We ended up walking for about 25 minutes while it was snowing decently heavy on us carrying 20 pound luggage. Finally we made it! Amanda greeted us and we entered in to her WARM apartment and she showed us the room we were to be staying in. We unloaded and Amanda's boyfriend Ben was there. They are both excellent! Very warm, friendly and we chatted and joked around for about 25 minutes. Amanda's apartment is like the ones I see in TV. You enter in through a high staircase, leading inside a building where there are about 3 floors each with a set of three rooms on each floor belonging to an individual tenant. Amanda had the 2nd floor with 3 bedrooms. She occupied one, a guy she leased to named Emil (a student of acting from Denmark) occupied another, then there was an empty bedroom where her french roommate recently moved out. We got to occupy that one! We were very blessed to get to stay there for free. A hotel in New York is extremely expensive. Jiao and I made plans for the next day, then we crashed. We had been up since 5AM and traveling all day.

The next morning we woke up around 9. I went to a nearby corner store and bought some cereal. We eventually got out of the apt and heading to the Natural History Museum in Manhattan. We were guided by a short French woman who was awesome! She gave a fantastic tour and we got to see a lot of dinosaur fossils which I haven't seen much since I was younger and it is SO fascinating to me.

Later we strolled through Central Park a HUGE park right in the middle of the city. Very pretty park and very different terrain - rocky and moderately forested. We saw squirrels, but definitely not Texas squirrels. These little guys has a nice gray coat to go with their brown. I guess because of the colder terrain. Also lots of birds bopped all around us. Both squirrels and birds were moderately tame. One squirrel came right up to my hand and checked for food before scurrying off. The birds would also come within a foot of us.

Next we decided to walk down 5th avenue, which is kind of of like the "main" street that runs thru new york city. We stopped at several stores where everything was way to expensive. We saw a plastic key chain decorated with lots of dangling pendants being sold for $350. Probably costing less than $10 to produce. Ridiculous. A guy outside was collecting money for the homeless population. I gave him what change I had, and I told him how crazy the prices were. He agreed and expressed his sadness and frustration that people can buy hundreds or thousands of dollars on merchandise but would not give a quarter to the homeless fund - people turning a blind eye. It is very sad. I should have given more.


Next we stopped in the glorious Saint Patrick's Cathedral - the largest church I have ever been in - beautifully adorned and outlined by huge 100 foot plus arches with hundreds of candles surrounding the area. I am slightly bothered by some of what I consider material excess, but overall it was a spectacular sight.


Afterwards we went over to Time Square - the center of lights and activity. Huge 50+ foot electronic screens displayed different advertisements and people all around snapped photos - including me.

We took lots of fun photos here, but by this time it was dinner time and we were to meet my cousin Amanda, her boyfriend Ben, and brother Emerson at a Indian restaurant called Amin's. I ate some good chicken and curry dish and learned how to say "thank you" in Indian. It sounds like "So-korea".

Afterwards, Jiao and I got dropped off at "Super Food Town" a nearby grocery store, to get some fruits and foods for the next days. We got back, planned for the next day then crashed. Another full and long day.

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates

I believe this is a true statement. I do these blogs to help me examine my interesting life :)

December has been an interesting and good month. December 1st marked my dad's 58th birthday. We celebrated by going to Los Cucos and ate of this giant platter of fajitas and toppings. That night was also very interesting in that we had a smiling moon. Two planets neared the moon - venus and jupiter - for a couple of days, and gave us a very interesting a beautiful view.

During these first few days in December I also participated in a dodge ball tournament, set up by my friend Clay Smallwood - Team Dominate. Although we failed to dominate, we did make it to the quarter finals, knocked out by a team that was likely less physically able, but played much smarter. They played back and not as aggressive. They caught our balls and didn't allow us to hit them by staying back. We tried to rely on our athleticism which had got us through the first through games successfully.


This December also brought three cool experiences. The progressive dinner, where we joined several other campus ministry leaders and went to their respective buildings and ate food together and got to know each other a little bit better. What a great idea! We need more interaction b/w our ministries. Also we had our yearly Snow Ball banquet at the UCM. I went as Sherlock Holmes. I got a neat jacket from good will and borrowed a pipe from my friend Austin Dykes (which I still need to return). Also Sights and Sounds, a yearly San Marcos event and carnival where they decorate with beautiful lights, have a live nativity scene, music, food, and rides.

December has also brought about my final classes for this semester and at Texas State University. Tomorrow I will take my last final! My final final, one could say. At least for my undergraduate degree. While I am not graduating until May, next semester I will be embarking on my student internship, which is another very important topic!!

I will be working at an elementary school with a program called Communities in School, or CIS. My placement will be at Rahe Bulverde Elementary school, under the guidance of Kyle Jankowski, who I am really exciting to be working with. Kyle is young, energetic, very good with the kids and staff, and has his masters in counseling which is a subject I am very interested in and wanted to learn more. He incorporates counseling and group play therapy sessions with kids on a daily level working on behavioral issues (character building), social issues and social skills, kids whose parents are divorced, etc. I am very excited about the learning opportunity this will provide. Kyle was apparently a former youth pastor and has a huge heart for kids.

What will I be doing? I will be working with all age levels at this school from Kindergarten to 5th grades! The kids in the CIS program have to qualify for the program which includes they are on reduced price lunches, have had significant behavioral issues and more. Basically kids they label "at risk" - which as one person asked a pertinent question, "aren't all kids at risk"? Other activities will be homework tutoring and help for all ages, 1st grade spelling, kindergarten divorce class, and lots of continual documentation. I am excited! I start on January 21st. The downside? The commute is an hour, and I have to be there at 7AM. This means I have to leave by 6 which means i need to get up around 5AM!! But this is when both of my parents wake up, so this means they will feed me breakfast! Got to look at the positive.

Ahh! And this brings me to another major point. Another transition... moving back in with my parents. As part of my awesome internship experience, I get $0 cash for a semester of work. This means I will have no income, as I will have to quit my actual, wonderful, paying job in order to have time for this 5-day a week internship, plus all the school work I have to do as part of my field class requirements. Fortunately I have parents who live so close. And I get along with my parents pretty well -- most of the time :) I will get to play a lot more tennis at our neighboring tennis courts, and get free and delicious home cooked meals. That is positive. And hopefully this will give me time to work out possible issues with parents and get to know each other and learn to care more for each other on a daily level. This will be new.

Tomorrow at 2PM I have my last final - Practice III with Gerald McKimmey - my favorite teacher at Texas State University, and likely that I have ever had. I will miss this class! I will miss being very plugged into the UCM-Wesley and getting to daily hang out with friends.

Tuesday, Dec. 16th, I leave to fly into Philedelphia where I will spend 6 days visiting New York, Washington DC, Baltimore, and surrounding areas. This will be my first time in that area. I went to DC as a kid, but remember little. I have never been to new york city. I am blessed with family and friends up there that will allow me to stay for free. Baller! I will likely spend 3 nights in New York and 2 in Baltimore.

I come back on Sunday evening, Dec. 21st. I will work, spend Christmas with my family, and new years in texas. Then January 5th I get to go snow skiing with a group of friends! Yeah! I am excited.

I've decided to try to begin weekly photo journals / blogs on things going on in my life. I have a great camera and love to take photos, and I love to write and reflect on my life. So put these two together and this is what you get :)



Me and J-Pizzle-dizzle (aka J.P. Burchett) have a good conversation catching up on significant things going on and what things we got coming up.

My social work Practice III class breaks into small groups in order to talk about GROUPS :) Our groups focus was to highlight the negative aspects of groups / groupwork. I really like this photo. I just did a quick snap almost without looking and I think it captures a lot.


These 2 pictures are in the Practice III classroom. We are writing what each of our respective groups came up with on different characteristics of positive and negative aspects of groups, and leadership traits we thought important in leading groups. Good discussion!

Texas State University's new rock walls / bouldering wall @ our NEW Rec center. Pretty awesome!!!






Me familia! Thanksgiving pictures at my grandparents house (mom's side) in Austin, TX. We had about 15-20 there. I am blessed with a big and good, caring family.

For some reason, I decided to learn all of my cousins middle names. I never learned them before, and was curious.. Middle names include: Katherine, Marybeth, Nathan, Whitney, McAfee, Wade, and Austin. Middle names are fun to learn. Furthermore, I am trying to develop the habit of remembering people's names and greeting people by their name (how they prefer to be called, or how they introduce themselves to me).
















My Chinese family! :) I was graced with two Thanksgiving meals. I am thankful for that! This was traditional thanksgiving food - cooked Chinese style.


This is a picture of a cactus that I thought looked like a heart. Pretty cool!

This morning (Sunday) I went on an early hike in Prospect Park / Purgatory Creek! A new friend, Nikkye Vargus, invited me and another guy named Marcus McMillan (who randomly happens to be a close friend of my fathers) to go on an early hike. And it was a beautiful day for it. It started off cloudy, and we saw a pink and blue sunrise. We had to crawl between some fence lines because they have CLOSED access to a huge portion of prospect park in order to build the highway they have intended to cut over from Wonder World Rd to some point over on RR12. Not a huge fan of that idea... Prospect Park is a wonderful and beautiful place where you don't even feel like your in San Marcos. It was established by the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance (whom I found out also that I know the president of the club, Todd, and Marcus mentioned he helped in the early construction of the paths!). We ended up getting a little lost while in attempts to go around the new fence and we were obviously on someone else's property.

Below is a cool picture of a photo of another camera's screen taking a picture. Nikkye's idea.


Give peace a chance!

This was an interesting weekend, and I think it is worthy of writing about and exploring what happened for me to better understand and to share with others...

My spanish tutorial lab that I spend a lot of time getting help in my spanish classes...






In my hunt to take pictures of all the different state liscense plates, I found a car with a BLANK liscense plate! hmm...








A very fascinating Jewish woman named Nili who i've interacted with a little this summer. She is from Israel, and is often found striking up conversations with 65+ year old men.









Mexican hat blankets... need i say more.







A very exceptional young girl from a kids program i've been volunteering at.

Capturing a great full laugh :)

Love, peace, and lemon-lime

A picture of the entire Jewish group who have spent there summer down here as missionaries

Pastor Bob says, "Give peace a chance"

I decided to enact an idea i've been thinking about for along time, but have been unable to do... until now.

I recently acquired a wonderful camera, and I am taking it with me... everywhere. Every Sunday (time permitting) I plan on blogging on my weekly events, complete with pictures. In part to remember, in part to reflect, and in part to share with others my life.

--> A kid drawing during a childrens program the church hosts during the summer that I've been helping out with. Every day we do different fun activities, games, etc..


--> My new friend Brittany who came down here on her own free will (at least the last week) and helped with pretty much everything.


--> One of my Spanish profesors. I think he is propbably wondering what he is going to teach today... he often is not prepared.




Some cool pictures of candles I took when the power went off after Hurricane Dolly hit.








<-- I've decided to try to take pictures of all the U.S. license plates. So far I have about 10. Why not?


Birthday girls

<-- All-spanish Bible Study group. Tu compredes?





The rest are pictures of a prayer vigil in response to the border wall being built. And YES, those are actual pictures of the beginning contruction of the wall that I took today.