Well, it's getting close to the end of my junior year and my first year at the Unversity of Indianapolis and I realize that I still miss Spring Arbor. Not that Uindy isn't a good school. There are some good people here and it's nice to actually be close to a city. However, socially and spiritually, they can't even begin to compare. Along with missing the social life in general, I miss the specific people as well. I got to talk to Crystal online for a while last night and started to feel really nastalgic.
I also miss Ormston. Not even so much living in Ormston, but just knowing that there exists a place like Ormston. The dorm were punk rockers, geeks and nerds all came together in one crazy place. Playing assassin, Porchfest and just the general craziness of it. I don't think that there's any place like that here. There's just no campus life it seems. Technically, I think that there's more campus wide events that go on here. I just don't feel connected to them at all. Perhaps it's just me, but there doesn't seem to be much community here. I miss Spring Arbor with it's community and I miss Ormston with its insanity.
I also miss the spiritual life. I know that it's not the job of the school to make sure that my spiritual life is doing well, and I know that you can begin to become stagnant and fall away at Spring Arbor as well. However, it is much easier to get yourself up to go to church in the morning when 90% of the rest of the campus does as well. It's a lot easier to know what church to bother going to when there are 30 other kids from school that go to the same church. Here, I feel like I don't have any clue what church to go to and since I don't know what church I want to go to or where I would fit in, it's near impossible to get myself up on a Sunday morning in order to go to a church.
Perhaps most of all is that I miss the specific people: Crystal, Josh (even though he's not going there anymore), Janet, Rachel, my B2 brethen, my O4 ontorage, yes, I even miss Karen. I miss playing poker with Eric and Wooster. I miss playing Halo 2 with Kevin and Nate and all those guys (there is no way you just make that shot!). I miss ultimate frisbee and late night runs to Steak and Shake. I miss all the friends that I got to know and love at Spring Arbor, and I never want to stop missing them.
I feel a bit better now. I'm going to get back to school here at Indianapolis and have a good time. Hopefully, I will get to the point where I really do feel comfortable down here. We shall see. I'll post again in hopefully the not to distant future. God bless.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
ACTS (Adoration Confession Thanksgiving Supplication)
Adoration:
Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
abover the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands'
you put everything under his feet.
All flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic jis your name in all the earth.
God, you are, simply put, awesome. The Psalms do perhaps the best job at capturing this. Father, may I come to the point in my life where praises and adoration pour from my lips like the Psalmest because you are all this and more. Father, I love you. You are infinitely merciful even when I mess up.
Confession:
Father, I come before you now in one of the easiest parts of the prayer. It can be difficult to think of things to describe your glory and to thank you for, but it seems that I never run out of things to ask forgiveness for. Father, you know all and are willing to forgive if only we ask for forgiveness. Well, today I come before you asking for forgiveness. I have sinned. Lust is as much a matter of the heart as it is any action and I have been lusting a lot. Father, please, take my heart and wash it clean of all the filth that I have been putting into it.
As much as committing a sinful action is a sin, so is not doing what we know to be right. Father, I have been neglecting to do what I need to do. I have withheld the truth. I have neglected my devotions and the direct conciquence has been falling farther from you. I have not been a shining light, perhaps a small red ember, but nothing noticable. Help me to shine for you!
There is so much more I could put here. So much more I need to work on and so much more I have done wrong. Father, you know my heart and I pray that you would look in there and find my issues, and that you would teer them out.
Thanksgiving:
Father, you have done so much for me. You have provided me with a good alternative to living on campus next year and paying money out all parts of the body. You have provided me with a car that runs well and that I really do like. You have provided me with friends, a warm bed, food, life itself. Most importantly though, you hvae provided me with Salvation. You have formed a relationship with me, saving me from the person I need to be saved from the most, myself.
God, my father, you have provided me with a purpose in life. Through your word and prompting you have given been a guide through the rocky times of life, a companion in the good times, a disiplinary figure when I have am going in a direction that will surely end me in a worse situation than when I started. Father, you are my all in all. You shine through me where I am not strong enough. Father, may I become weaker, so that you may become stronger and, in doing so, I may become truly strong.
Supplication (requests):
Father, I could spend all day asking for things, but you know what goes on in the word and for me to pray for something that my heart is not truly in is pointless.
I would like to start off for myself. Father, I know I have been making a lot of mistakes as of late. I pray that you would help me to move away from them so that I might better be in tune with you. I pray that I may be in tune with you so that you might shine through me and that the people I interact with will catch a glipse of you and be drawn in. I don't mean street evangelism, door to door, although that is good. I am surrounded by many people who do not follow you though. Help me to show those people your love and to be a becon for you.
Father, I pray specifically for my friends that don't know you. That their hearts may be opened and that I might be able to share you with them. God, bring about a curiosity in their hearts, and a willingness in mine, that they may come to you.
I pray for Jen. I don't know exactly what she's going through, but I know that there is something. God, please help her through whatever it is she may be going through. She is such a cool girl.
All other requests I will sumit off the internet to you in the form of a letter. lol
Thank you for your infinite love and mercy. May your will come to pass and may I be so in tune with you that all of my prayers line up with your will.
Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
abover the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands'
you put everything under his feet.
All flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic jis your name in all the earth.
God, you are, simply put, awesome. The Psalms do perhaps the best job at capturing this. Father, may I come to the point in my life where praises and adoration pour from my lips like the Psalmest because you are all this and more. Father, I love you. You are infinitely merciful even when I mess up.
Confession:
Father, I come before you now in one of the easiest parts of the prayer. It can be difficult to think of things to describe your glory and to thank you for, but it seems that I never run out of things to ask forgiveness for. Father, you know all and are willing to forgive if only we ask for forgiveness. Well, today I come before you asking for forgiveness. I have sinned. Lust is as much a matter of the heart as it is any action and I have been lusting a lot. Father, please, take my heart and wash it clean of all the filth that I have been putting into it.
As much as committing a sinful action is a sin, so is not doing what we know to be right. Father, I have been neglecting to do what I need to do. I have withheld the truth. I have neglected my devotions and the direct conciquence has been falling farther from you. I have not been a shining light, perhaps a small red ember, but nothing noticable. Help me to shine for you!
There is so much more I could put here. So much more I need to work on and so much more I have done wrong. Father, you know my heart and I pray that you would look in there and find my issues, and that you would teer them out.
Thanksgiving:
Father, you have done so much for me. You have provided me with a good alternative to living on campus next year and paying money out all parts of the body. You have provided me with a car that runs well and that I really do like. You have provided me with friends, a warm bed, food, life itself. Most importantly though, you hvae provided me with Salvation. You have formed a relationship with me, saving me from the person I need to be saved from the most, myself.
God, my father, you have provided me with a purpose in life. Through your word and prompting you have given been a guide through the rocky times of life, a companion in the good times, a disiplinary figure when I have am going in a direction that will surely end me in a worse situation than when I started. Father, you are my all in all. You shine through me where I am not strong enough. Father, may I become weaker, so that you may become stronger and, in doing so, I may become truly strong.
Supplication (requests):
Father, I could spend all day asking for things, but you know what goes on in the word and for me to pray for something that my heart is not truly in is pointless.
I would like to start off for myself. Father, I know I have been making a lot of mistakes as of late. I pray that you would help me to move away from them so that I might better be in tune with you. I pray that I may be in tune with you so that you might shine through me and that the people I interact with will catch a glipse of you and be drawn in. I don't mean street evangelism, door to door, although that is good. I am surrounded by many people who do not follow you though. Help me to show those people your love and to be a becon for you.
Father, I pray specifically for my friends that don't know you. That their hearts may be opened and that I might be able to share you with them. God, bring about a curiosity in their hearts, and a willingness in mine, that they may come to you.
I pray for Jen. I don't know exactly what she's going through, but I know that there is something. God, please help her through whatever it is she may be going through. She is such a cool girl.
All other requests I will sumit off the internet to you in the form of a letter. lol
Thank you for your infinite love and mercy. May your will come to pass and may I be so in tune with you that all of my prayers line up with your will.
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