4.5 Months In

So it has been close to 4.5 months living in Huntsville, and it has been awesome to say the least. There have been few normal days in living with two families made up of two kids in each family under one roof. The 3 older kids (ages 3-5) are a joy to be around and I have learned so much from them. Mainly in seeing how they respond to authority has been challenging. When I see them disobey it is so easy to sit back and reflect on their disobedience as being absurd, but the same disobedient heart comes out in my own life as well. The grace of God has been lavished on me abundantly and I am coming to understand more and more how much God loves, he's gracious, and merciful to me in my disobedience and that pushes me to want to run from my sin. What has been awesome about the kids is the thousands of nicknames they have given me over the course of a few months. Some examples of are: Sandy Pants, Sethy Methy, Sanderson, Sander Pants, and Sweaty Seth (after I workout). As much as I initially hated Sandy Pants (most common) it has grown on me, and now I have legally changed my name to Sandy Pants, changed the license and everything. Jk, but seriously.

A few weeks ago there was a pretty tight conference here in Huntsville, it was the GCM Collective National Conference. Some of the teachers there were Jeff Vanderstelt, Caesar Kalinowski, Hugh Halter, Jonathan Dodson. The focus of the conference was Missional Living, and one of the main things they were hitting heavy on were Missional Communities. So Missional Communities (generic name) are kind of like your small groups that are typically found in most churches today, but they go a step further, and as a community you are on mission to make known the greatness of Jesus. This type of community has really challenged my views  on the church fulfilling the Great Commission. *Before I write these next few sentences I am not trying to slander the church and point a finger*. But I was challenged with a thought that was posed at the conference and that was really kind of posed in a question, that question being along the lines of: How much effort and money do we put into Sundays ( the day most Christians go to church) and Wednesdays? And is this effort and money taking away from the church itself really fulfilling the Great Commission. I am not a pastor, but I would imagine a lot of preparation goes into Sunday mornings. I am not against Sunday gatherings, in fact I love them, and I love coming together once a week to meet as the church together in a big setting. So long story short, one of the big nuggets at the conference was really focusing on taking the gospel to your community as a smaller group (I'm not sure if anyone wants more clarification on this, but I would be more than happy to talk about it.). Anyways I was challenged greatly by the conference on many levels. 

Recently I have been extremely challenged by the book of John and I have recently been reading through a book called "Note to Self" by Joe Thorn. The book focuses on preaching the gospel to yourself in different areas of your life, and to really start a practice of letting the gospel daily infiltrate your life in every situation. I'm going to try and make this short, but I have been challenged to rejoice more in Christ. I was challenged, because I do not always rejoice in Christ, in fact I find it easier to rejoice in other things at times that rob me from rejoicing in Christ. My affections are split, and so I was challenged by Psalm 100, and mainly with the verse that says, "Know that the Lord, he is God!" Remembering who God is, remembering him brings out the characteristics of his nature that he has shown me. Know that Jesus is God, he is the one who suffered and died on our behalf for our disobedience. So letting the gospel infiltrate all sides and angles of my life does bring about joy, and from that joy I rejoice in God. 

Again it truly has been a blessing to live in Huntsville and to be apart of a church that is passionate about Jesus and his mission, to go into all the world proclaiming the good news of a just and loving God redeeming sinful man to himself. Praise God. 

P.S. - if your looking for a city to move to, Huntsville is the place, jobs and jobs galore.