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. 

It's Been Awhile

It's been some time since I last made a blog post. A lot has happened since then, friends have visited, fireworks have exploded, relationships have been deepened, church has been rocking, these are just a few to mention. This past week I had the house to myself, the Robinson's had gone on vacation to the beach and it was definitely a lonely feeling to come home and to have nobody there but me. Some people love this feeling, I abhor it. I guess living in a 3 bedroom, sometimes 2 bedroom house with 6 guys really has changed me over the years. The week mainly consisted of me going to bed at 8, reading through the rest of Hunger Games Book 1 (don't judge, it was free on the Kindle, and it kept my attention, and I had to see what all the hoopla was all about), eating lots of steak, more reading, an episode of 24 in season 4, and some Summer League Ultimate Frisbee. The coming weeks will be a big change, the Olympics start and a family of 4 will be moving in with us as well. This will make a total of 9 people in the house, it's going to be a party to say the least. The family is from Sojourn and are looking to adopt and possibly move into the same neighborhood as us. Which would be a sweet dynamic; to be able to reach out to those neighbors around us with the gospel in a community. So for them to move in with us allows for them to save up for their adoption and possibly to save for a house as well. I won't go too much further into the situation, because we will be starting a blog about it soon. I will post the link when that thing is up and running. So big changes are going on in Huntsville, and I am looking forward to the coming months and years. And I will throw a little advertisement out; if you are a dude or girl and graduating soon and are reading this blog and you don't know what to do with your life, I can help you with one suggestion. Here it is and completely free: MOVE TO HUNTSVILLE. Make the leap and join with us in what God is doing in this city through us and through his church (all believers). I promise you will love it, and if you don't love it I will pay for your moving expenses, guaranteed.

Anyways, this week I took a little break from Ezekiel, and my heart was craving some Psalms. I spent a majority of my week reading, pondering, praying and thinking on Psalms 103; hands down one of my favorite passages in Psalms, if not the whole Bible. It encompasses a lot of what the whole Bible is telling us. That God is good and completely worthy of all praise, he is the Forgiver, the Redeemer, the Satisfier of Good, the Merciful Savior, the Just, he does not deal with us as he ought to, the Compassionate King, and much more. David states at the beginning and the end: Bless(Praise) the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is in him bless(praise) is Holy name. This Psalm is a remembrance of all that God has done in the life of David, and from all that he has known and seen God do he offers up praise. David makes some super powerful statements in this passage that strike me deeply. Verse 3, David says: "who forgives all your iniquity and heals all your disease." Verse 4, "who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy." Verse 5, "who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Verse 8, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Verse 10, "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities." Verse 11, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him." Verse 12, "as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." Verse 13, "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him." Verse 15 and 16, in light of this weeks events with the Colorado shootings, "As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more." Verse 17, "But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children." And verse 19, "The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all." These verses are incredibly powerful and make known a powerful God. I encourage you to spend time on this passage, it speaks deeply to the soul when you begin to meditate on the words that are spoken in this passage, and I guarantee praise will come forth from your heart, and if the words don't pierce you and strike a chord in your heart, ask God to soften your heart and repent of the sin that he can only forgive. These words will speak volumes to your heart, because God has spoken them. So Bless the Lord, O our souls, and all that is within us bless his Holy name. 

60 Seconds of Free Falling

These past few weeks have been great. I have been able to join Huntsville Ultimate (Frisbee) Summer League, which has been a lot of fun. Every Thursday I come home with a sweat laden shirt and tired legs, these are the perks of playing ultimate. I recently decided to start back doing Crossfit, which is a workout style that is extremely effective in building muscle as well as endurance. So I decided to go ahead and buy a small bumper weight system, a kettlebell, made my own slam ball/medicine ball, constructed a pull-up bar, and will be in the process in the next week or so in building a box jump. I was able the past two weeks to get my landlord/co-worker/friend, Eric, to join me almost everyday. Which makes Crossfit much more enjoyable and endurable.

Anyways, this past weekend I went home to see my family and wish my dad a happy fathers day. Very enjoyable time to spend talking with my mom and dad and getting to see my sister and aunt, whom I had not seen for some time. But it was good to be together with all of the family. And to see Chattanooga once more, a city I hold close to my heart. That weekend I was able to see a good friend, Greg, whom I had not seen since Christmas time, we grabbed dinner and the idea of sky diving got thrown around towards the end of the conversation. In my opinion it was more of a something that sounded fun, but thought it would probably never actually go down. Well Greg did his research, and on Wednesday apparently it was going down. So yesterday we went to an airfield about 50 minutes south of Huntsville, right after work, and at 5 we were up in the plane climbing to 14,000 feet, above the clouds. It was unreal being that high up and realizing, "Ok, I'm about to jump and I will be falling really fast out of an airplane that is not on fire towards the ground, and the airplane is perfectly fine." I was pumped to say the least. I get nervous with heights, but only when I don't feel secure. If I am strapped to something or someone securely I am fine. But if I am on the edge of a cliff not attached to something that is when I get light headed and step away from the edge. But everyone went before Greg and myself jumped, and then Greg and his instructor were next and before I knew it they jumped and then me and my instructor were next. We get to edge and I look out over the horizon, and it is breathtaking. It is super beautiful, the cloud formations are massive, and it is just an unreal feeling to be on the edge of the plane like that with 14,000 ft between you and the ground. We pumped forward once, we pumped forward twice, and on the third we were out the door. Yowwwwwwww, the thought of, "I am actually falling really fast right now," ran through my mind. Then I started screaming, "This is awesome, this is awesome." Looking at the horizon you really do not get a good feel for how fast you are falling until you go through or past a cloud, and you just see it zoom by. After 60 seconds of that the shoot deploys safely and you get yanked really hard. You definitely feel secure when you feel that thing yank and compress everything on your body. So on the 5 minute ride down, my instructor pulls a hard left on the chute, and we are almost horizontal to the ground going in circles towards the earth. You definitely feel a lot of force when you do that. But I liked it. We eventually land and Greg comes right behind us, we get unattached from our instructors and we were pumped for how much fun that was. Greg made the comment, "That is the best use of $140 I've ever spent." Anyways, it was tight. It is tempting to go for your jump license once you make that first jump. But that may not happen. It was a fun activity to end the week on, and looking back now I wish I would have gotten some pictures and video, but oh well.

This week has been great as well reading through Lamentations. I had made this transition once I had moved out of the book of Jeremiah. And now I am in Ezekiel, but I just started that today. But Lamentations complimented Jeremiah very well. in the transition from Israel continually rebelling against God, and God telling Israel that he would punish their disobedience with handing them over to other nations. This is the effect of sin. Whether you believe it or not, sin affects us in ways that we selfishly either do not see or choose to ignore. What motivates you to lie, to cheat, to steal, to lust, to disobey, to be apathetic, to covet, to worship the things you own, to worship yourself, etc? The motivation if it leads to sin, is self gratification. To be satisfied in stuff, image, religion, etc. Every human, since the beginning of the fall of man has been this way, myself included. And this is how Israel was towards God, the one who redeemed them from a life of slavery and gave them a land that he had promised he would, a land that was fruitful. And even though God had done this for Israel, Israel decided to bow down to things they created with their own hands like wood, stone, and metal idols. They decided to worship gods that other nation created. But even though they had been taken care of and blessed beyond need, they still decided to rebel against the one true God. And like I said in the last post God is holy and his holiness will not be profaned by sin. So he must punish sin, and so he gives his people over to other nations to rule over them, they lose their freedom of having their own king, their own land, their own houses, their own freedoms, their own lives. They lose what God had given them, because they willfully turned against God and turned to the things they and others had created. Is it not foolish to bow down to something you created with your own hands and to say I give you power to rule my life? Or better yet to turn to wooden idol that came from a tree you cut down, that you used it's own wood to burn to create the tools to form it, and eventually carve out a shape and bow down to it and say, "I want to be satisfied in you, I want you to bring rain for my crops, I want for you to provide for my family, I want you to oust the foreign kings that have ruled our land." How foolish, yet this is how Israel acted towards God, and this is the exact same way we react as sinful human beings towards God. We don't create wooden idols anymore, but we turn to anything other than God to sustain us. This all builds towards what happens in Lamentations. Israel rebels against God, God punishes Israel by handing them over to another nation. The writer of Lamentations recounts how painful it has been to see how God punishes those who willfully rebel against him. He talks about how things use to be when they were under God and how good it use to be when they were their own nation under God. How they have pretty much starved to the point where women are boiling their own babies for food. How the enemy has prevailed over them, and taken down all their mighty men. How they use to be comforted by God. This comfort is gone, because of their rebellion against God, their protector has now turned his wrath against them, because of their sin. All of these things are happening to Israel, yet one thing this man recounts in the third chapter is this, and he says,

"so I say, “My endurance has perished;so has my hope from the Lord.”
Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,  “therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
For the Lord will not cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men."

What is so great about this is that the writer knows and remembers that God is compassionate, and that he is loving. Even in his suffering for the sin of Israel he is making this known. He knows that it is the sin of Israel that has brought about this pain, death, and suffering. It is sin that brings about the justice of God. Sin doesn't prevail, God love and justice prevail. And at the end of Lamentations he makes this known:

Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old—
unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

The punishment of his sin does not leave him going on in utter rebellion against God, it leads him to repent and to seek restoration. This idea is foreign to the world. The question becomes, "Why would a loving God do this and allow this to happen?" "Why would a loving God give his own people Israel over to another nation?" "Why would he cause the one's he loves so much grief?" The answer is because he wants them to repent and turn to him. He wants to continually show his love to them. So I think the question should become, "Why would you want to sin against a loving God?" It should challenge both the believer and non-believer. For the believer to continually run and die to sin, and for the non-believer to understand God's holiness and love in a right way, and repent of your rebellion and your sinning against God. It is the love that Christ has shown the world by dying for the sin that separates from God. I must continually be challenged and reminded of the truth of, "Why would I want to sin against such a loving God, who laid down his life for me, and offer joy and joy abundantly?"

3 Weeks In The Hunt

So a lot has happened in the past month and a half. I have finished my Master's degree at Tennessee Tech, I have a job, I have moved to a new city, and have moved in with some good friends of mine. Quick change of this nature is hard for me, I enjoyed Cookeville where I had lived for the past six years of my life. There I had become apart of a church that I dearly loved, and I grew to love a lot of really good friends in that city, and I was able to see good friends come to know Christ as well as see good friends grow more in the likeness of the character of Christ. I have not experienced this type of change since I first moved to Cookeville, for my first year of college. That first semester was rough and I bucked it hardcore, but through it I came to know Christ by bowing the knee to him, I gained some incredible friendships, and I grew into the man I am today. As hard as the move was initially, I am starting to enjoy the city of Huntsville more and more. I look to spend a majority of the rest of my life in this city. I look forward to seeing what will happen in the next five years. To see the people God brings into my life, to hopefully see familiar people move to this city and join in all that God is doing here. It's going to be exciting.

I would ask you, especially if you are still in college and are looking for a job once you graduate that you would consider the city of Huntsville. It's a great city for engineering, bio-tech, teaching, really any type of science related field. There are great churches here to be apart of that seek to proclaim the good news of the gospel to this city. And eventually I may need a roommate, if you are a dude. Anyways it would be sweet to have fellow Christians move to a city that needs Christ.

I look forward to continue to write about my experiences in this new city and the things that the Holy Spirit teaches me through his word. And before I check out, I did want to share some thoughts I had on reading through Jeremiah this week. I am in the last 10 chapters of Jeremiah. I will be honest a lot of stuff has gone on in this book that I am not too sure what is going on, but there has been a lot of good truths that have been presented before me to dwell on. One of those was while I was reading through the sections where God is pronouncing his judgement's on certain nations. With one (Moab) nation he says that he will pronounce his judgement on them, not because they're innocent, but because they are like every human on this earth, rebellious and not wanting to follow God in any way (unless their heart has been changed). They spit and curse his holiness by going to other gods and disobeying what he has commanded. But there is something amazing that is said in chapter 48, and not just there but other places in the Bible as well. His judgement's are a product of his holiness and our sinfulness. But God says that his heart moans for Moab like a flute. The things they have gained will perish. And it causes him to be sorrowful, not because he regrets what he is doing, but because he wishes that Moab would turn to him as their God. He knows that their sinfulness must be done away with, but he wants Moab to repent and turn to him and he will remember their sin no more. But God is compassionate, he wishes that no man should perish, but men by nature are God-haters. But that does not stop God from extending his grace to broken men. And so I started to think more on the grace of God and how when Christ would look out on a crowd of people and have compassion on them. And how Christ knows the hearts of men and how they were bent away from him. He will one day judge all men, but yet he can still look out on a crowd of people and have compassion on them. I'm not sure how much that may or may not make sense to you. But the one who judges and rightful to do so, because he has been sinned against, still looks out on a crowd of people and his heart breaks to know that these people would not choose him, unless he opened their eyes to see how good he is. He is gracious, He has opened my eyes. And I hope that the whoever reads this knows and understands that Christ is gracious. He has grace and grace abundantly, to those who repent and believe. May you be encouraged to know that when you were dead in your sins Christ died for you. You are still alive today because he has shown everyone some amount of common grace to where you get to breathe your next breath. I pray that everyone who reads this gets to experience a grace that goes beyond this life and into eternity, where you experience the grace Christ wants to show you based on what he did on the cross. He is gracious, so come to him and experience the joy of the one who created and can/has save(d) you.

- Seth Anderson

Fight Club Talks

Here are some talks from the Acts 29 Fight Club Conference Taylor, Patrick, and myself attended. The talks are very good and exciting I suggest you watch them in order, the first two are dynamite. The first talk blew my mind, as Taylor has said, "When this guy speaks golden nuggets come out of his mouth." All this guy is is a vessel used by God and has a good deal of wisdom. Enjoy. Just copy and paste the link below.

http://www.jointhefightclub.com/media/

-seth

School supplies and fruit flies

Hi, this blog is coming fresh out of the corn fields of Ohio. I am in Ohio this week for a family reunion with family I have never seen before, and it is good. It's good to talk to people you have never met before, because they do not know who I am and most of the people I am meeting are old they are curious about the lives of young people. Which is sweet cause it allows to talk about God and his greatness. Which is even sweeter, because God has been changing my heart more and more on how to share about the cross and who God is and why he would want to die for us. Through the transforming power of the gospel it brings about a desire in our hearts to where we cannot hold this good news in and the beans must be spilt. God has been changing my heart on this, not just to go through a dry presentation of the gospel, but to share with excitement, because it is a very exciting truth. Jesus in his love came to earth to redeem those who hated him....Exciting.
Psalm 1:1-3 - "Blessed is the man... whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." Has been a verse of meditation these past few days. How I want the verses I meditate on to take root in my life, to meditate on the law and word's of God that yields fruit in my life that magnifies his name. Let his word continually produce healthy fruit in our lives.
The start of school is biting at most of our heels and we will all start back here soon, and I am excited to see every single one of yalls faces. See yins in the coming weeks. Feel free to come over to our house. Sam Metzger, Taylor Kidwell, Jeff Beckett, and myself have moved to a sweet house right next to the SOC House behind the stadium. Feel free to bring over friends and come and chill.

May the cross transform your life,
Seth

YOWWWWWWhat a week.

What a week it has been. Got out on the golf course this week with a guy who recently graduated Tech and I realized how bad I am at golf. Robert Pattison (Vampire from Twilight) and Reese Witherspoon were in Chattanooga this week, so the whole town was buzzing with excitement. Apparently every girl from the age of 12-28 in Chattanooga wants to meet Robert Pattison. I work near where he was staying and on Monday I was walking to Monday Lunch Prayer with some guys from my church and some teenage girl pulled the fire alarm in his hotel so that the 100 or so people waiting to see him would get to see him as he had to exit the hotel for safety reasons. I have to give props to this teenage girl for going to the extremes of wanting to see him. We talked about it at the lunch prayer and just talking about in general how we as people just completely idolize people in those positions whether its A-list actors or Christian pastors. Anyways today Taylor, Patrick Komisky, and myself went to an Acts 29 Regional conference called Fight Club X. Super convicting. Really unique outlooks on what discipleship looks like for these guys in their communities was very encouraging. And to hear how they go about it was exciting about what it could look like for each of us whether in school or post-graduation. There was one guy there from India and to hear what God is doing in India would blow your mind, and to hear what God was doing in Dr. Samuel Thomas life and his ministry was unbelievable. When the talks get posted on their website I will try to post the links to the talks. I think I can speak for all three of us in that we walked away challenged.


Top o' the morning lads and lassies,
Like Seth said, I pulled a fire alarm this week.... jk. This week was good. I turned 21 on Wednesday and got to go with my parents for my first beer and steak... delicious. Friday I went with some of my friends and my brother to a brewery called the terminal. I had a bison burger...also delicious and an oatmeal stout...not so delicious haha. My time in Chattanooga wraps up this week sadly but its been great. Ive been meeting with two of my best friends one who just recently became a Christian to talk about the bible. I've really enjoyed it and I think we are all growing in friendship and in our relationship with Christ through it. I have also been able to talk to my brother some about God. You better believe it has been awkward haha. But it is great to see God make plays. We also just got back from an Acts 29 conference...crazy. It was very convicting and challenged a lot of my thoughts about my life and goals. I am just praying that the things learned really take root and begin to shape my relationship with Christ. And dude should check them out. I say dude because it was a men's conference. That's all for now. Peace.
Taylor Batson Kidwell

Summertime

It has been a nice week, and a good week to catch up on rest. Like Taylor said last week we went to a church called Rivercity Church and it was a great experience. And encouraging to be around some of the believers in that church and get to know them and hearing them speak from their hearts. They are convinced of living in a missional community, which is sweet. It has been sweet walking into work and being dumbfounded and in awe of how God created the bird. You look at machines and how they operate and you see they are such simple machines. But when you examine the very nature of the bird, and try to wrap your mind around how the heart and the brain functions are in sequence to bringing the bird into flight, it blows my mind. And it points to God the Creator and how Great he is. What greatness, power, wisdom, knowledge, and creativeness it takes to create the bird. And not just the bird, but EVERYTHING. I challenge you to look at what God has created dwell upon the complexity of what he has created, and let it point you to who he is. Please pray for my co-worker who I will leave anynonomous, he denies the deity of Christ, beg God that he would proclaim that Christ is God, Savior and Lord. That he would surrender to one he denies.

-Seth

Bachelor Party.

Holla back youngin's,
It's ya boi. Ok sorry I got a little too fresh there. Good week. Found a new love... disc golf. This weekend Seth, Patrick Komisky, and I went to the obed river to camp out for Daniel Keaton's Bachelor Party. It was a lot of fun. Keaton has become a good friend over the past year and I was pretty excited to hang out with him and some other Golden Eaglets. As you may or may not know from Seth's previous blog title, I had some pretty sick nasty poison ivy this past week but I was too much of a wimp to get a shot. I know, I know, ridiculous. What could have been a three day ordeal was about a week and a half. SO moral of the story: Don't be a punk, get a shot. We got back from the party Saturday night and Sunday we went to the launch of a new Acts 29 church plant that's going down in Chattanooga. Acts 29 is a church planting network founded by Mark Driscoll. Check them out if you get a chance. I enjoyed it we went to eat at the pastor's house after. It's interesting because the pastor, Martin, is a state representative in Georgia (State Government, not federal) so it's an interesting dynamic I've never heard of before. Oh well that's all for now. Check out the CCP blog (http://ccp-2010.blogspot.com/) and pray for the family.
Taylor

A week of poison ivy

Hello it's been a pretty mediocre week, meaning that not much stuff has been going on in Chattanooga. World Cup is over and the Tour de France has just started, two things that are enjoyable to watch. Work has been going well and it has been tiring. One nice thing that this summer has offered is for a chance to be active and to get out and exercise, something that I lack to do during the school year. Today was sweet going to listen to one of our associate pastors speak at another church on evangelism. This pastor who does share his faith quite often was talking about how he does not have a passion for outreach or evangelism, but he does have a passion for Christ which leads him to share the gospel with the lost. What an intriguing statement, something to think about. Does our passion for Christ lead us to share the great truth of the gospel or are we compelled to share out of pride, approval, or rivalry. Let not the later be true for our lives.

-Sanderson (Seth).

Well hello, fancy meeting you here. What's up all? I hope everyone is
doing well, enjoying life and what not. This week has been sweet and
sour in a way. God has revealed some great sins in my life, a few
things were pretty straight forward. So do I now, by the spirit,
repent and return to Jesus or do I mock God's patience and continue
sinning? Dudes and dudinas praise Jesus for taking our sins on
himself bringing us to himself and equipping us with the spirit so we
can live a life pleasing to him. It's not the easiest thing in the
world no doubt. But man we reap what we sow. I can sow to sin (or even
spiritually neutral things that take my affections from God) and reap
death and corruption. Or sow to the spirit and reap life. If you guys
have time check out the end of Galatians do it and if you have any
more time listen to Mark Driscoll's sermon on it. Sadly Uraguay got
fourth in the world cup... I mean it's pretty good but Forlán can only
carry a country for so long. By the time this is read the world cup
will be over and hopefully the Netherlands will be victorious. In the
words or the apostles and Jacob Brooks "grace and peace."
~Taylor

Taylor finally posted

Ladies & Gentlemen,
It's been a while.... my apologies. I would love to say that Ive been super busy and just could not blog but really I just got lazy. I'm sorry dudes. Ok well the last few weeks have been interesting. First of all USA lost to Ghana... again. What the heck guys. Second of all, It's really hard to honor my parents. It's easy for me to lose respect for my dad because he isn't a christian or at least his life shows no signs of faith. I would like to think well I don't have to honor him because he isn't doing his job as a father. That's a load of crap. What it comes down to is that I don't want to submit and serve him. So this is good to see so that I can now repent and start to serve and honor him. Thirdly, a great friend of mine has been coming to the small group me and Seth are a part of and it's been awesome. God is definitely doing some work. The plan is to hang out with him and try to plug him in to the community at the small group so that he can continue when Seth and I are back at school. We both come from the same small christian high school and have similar experiences so I want to be able to talk with him about the wrong thoughts he may have about God that I am still working through myself. The question I have been asking myself is how do we establish someone else in their faith? What does it take/cost/look like? I would encourage you guys to think about this. I mean I know quite a few "right answers" but the practice of those are wholly foreign to me. You kids on project better eat up like a sponge the stuff they are telling you. That's hard though because sponges don't eat... Lastly, we lost one this week. Sean is o-u-t of Chattown for the next few weeks because he is going to The Zealand. It's been awesome having him around and super encouraging. We surely miss our scenic city brethren. Pray for my ability to honor my parents, my good friend, Sean and the other folks on CCP. More on church visiting and Uraguay's path to the world cup finals next week.


PS Listen to Driscoll's sermon on friendship and talk about it with your friends.


Well guys in one day flying to New Zealand!! I just wanted o say I am super excited about what God is going to teach me while in New Zealand, because it is going to be all application when I get about to the States, specifically Chat- Town~!! Thank you all for praying for me, and for all those in Chat- Town who helped me acclimate to a new city! Thank you Thank you thank you!! This is my last blog post, but now I will be posting on a new blog, dedicated for stories of our New Zealand trip! The blog site is http://ccp-2010.blogspot.com/. I hope you all continue to walk in the Lord Jesus.


Your brother,
Sean


Hello everyone, just a quick update. Work has been good, Sean has left our house, my mom cried a little bit, nothing out of the ordinary this week, oh yeah went to a drive in with some people, lots of fun. Hopefully next week I will have a better update, given the time.

-seth

Week 7, Noog

Hi there, I have not updated in quite sometime, things have been crazy busy here in the Nooga with work, family and friends. But it has been a good few weeks. It is so painful and good when God reveals to you idols in your life that you may not even see until his word convicts your heart, and breaks you open for him to make you more like Jesus. What joy there is in knowing Christ more when the idols are torn down. Work has been going great and I have been getting to know all my co-workers really well and I enjoy working with them daily. The small group that I go to on Wednesday with Taylor has been going sweet, learning a lot and have been growing in community with those guys. Last week we went through 1 Peter 5, and I have become convinced that I need to get around older men in the church, because they have much experience with life and have suffered at points in their life, and these life experiences have brought them closer to Christ. Please be praying for two guys I work with who are Jehovah's Witnesses, I was able to have lunch with them last week and conversate about the gospel and what they believe. Pray that God would change their hearts and bring them into a real and genuine relationship with him. Love you all and I thank God for you guys and gals. Let us grow together to glorify his name.

-Seth


Hello all in cyberville!!


What another big busy weekend! Let me tell you a little about it...
I got to go to Zach Rogers birthday celebration Friday and spend time with my good frien and other friends around Cookeville. Zach has led me in college for the last four years. Scriptures command for us to make disciples, and I am fortunate to have been instructed in the way of the Lord, and now I pray that I am faithful to all of God's commanded.
I also stayed at a couple of friend's house in Cookeville and spend some time with them. You can be praying for my friend Aaron. He got a sweet job with the FDIC (starts in like 15 business days), but I am worried because I do not know if he is going to have a community of like minded people. Pray that he finds a church with a bunch of ballin Christians, who obey the Lord's commands and give their life away. He is a good buddy, and I know the Lord will continue to grow him.
Saturday, me and Seth drove to Pigeon Forge, and visited our friends in SMP. It was encouraging to see 99 students pretty much give up their summer to be challenged, stretched, and extremely uncomfortable all for the sake of the glorious gospel. I hope all my readers cherish the gospel. It is a persons only hope. It was good to hear action Jackson share the gospel Saturday, and expound Col. 1:15-20, and we talked about the Great King Jesus. Anyway I will be praying for the church this week, and thus for you!




God Bless,


Sean


PS
Keep me and Patrick's apartment hunt in your prayers.
Pray for a guy named Ben, he is from Wisconsin and my friend Seth has been sharing the gospel with Him. Pray for his salvation, and for many others.

Update Week 6

Oh man what a busy weekend. And week for that matter. I had a phone call Monday after I got off work that my uncle was being taken by ambulance to Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. I wanted to see him, because to be honest at first I thought it might be the last time I would see him. I was fortunate enough to have awesome bosses and they let me off Tuesday so I could come and visit him, and try to be an encouragement to my family. He had open heart surgery Wednesday, and the operation went fine by God's grace. Please pray for my uncle because he is still in rebellion against the Holy God, and living for his self. My prayers is that he will surrender to the Lord, and begin to worship God as he deserves.

I had a great week at work, but God continues to show me my pride. Oh how I pray for humility. I want to humble myself under his mighty hand. My boss told me Friday I was being to loud, which is understandable, but I was thinking to myself, it is &:20 no one is here, but if I was distracting him that was enough and I should have not become angry in my heart. A man whom receives correction is wise, and I want to receive correction with open arms, and adhere to the correction as well.

Keep the church in your prayers, and ask God to humble all of His Chosen. If we want to be like the master we will walk in humility. "He must increase, and I (we) must decrease." John 3:30

Oh yeah I forgot to tell you guys last week... we have a new addition to Chat Town, Patrick Komisky. We will ebe rooming together when I get back from New Zealand in September. Pray that we find an apartment that is not full of comfort, but full of people who want to hang out! And we would have ministry where we live! I know God is going to do great things her through the church in Chattanooga, and the world and I am just excited to be apart of the great Kingdom of God.


May God be your all!
Your brother,
Sean


P.S.
Pray for my friends on the Summer Mountain Project. It is a 10-week training in godliness to sum it up short. Pray that their relationship with the Father is strengthened, and that they are changed by His presence.

One last thing... hehe My friends Drew and Caroline were married on Saturday. Pray that there marriage is beacon of light to lost people. All to often "Christian" marriages are more worldly
than that of pagans, which is a shame. I am hopeful and prayerful that these two will be be salt!

Sean's Update

Well friends and family and other bloginites,


Sorry it has been awhile on an update, but I will fill you in now. Here is the deal. Last weekend was awesome. I had CCP training (which is where we talk and think about New Zealand.) I wish I could write all that we did, but I will just sum it up by telling you all we talked Modernism, Post-Modernism, and post post Modernism. Oh yeah and I played Rugby that is right all 155 pounds of me played Rugby! I was sore the next day, you better believe it!
Then I went to a friends house. Her name is Ruthie. Her father is a pastor and I went to their church on Sunday. It was awesome because it was not about the type of singing or any or the bull but it was about Christ and His Word. It is comparable to Christ Community Church(CCC), but they have their differences. I then had a English tea time after church, and that was fun because I looked like a big goober drinking out that small cup, but it was really good. I left around five and me and Chris (who is an intern at the church I went to) had Cracker Barrel In Chattanooga and had a good time of fellowshipping over the greatness of Christ.

Now this week...
I am still learning a lot at work and really enjoy the people I work with. The job is challenging and requires you to use your mind, so the day goes by super quick! I can get down with that!! I went back to CCC for the men's study. We are reading about evangelistic conversations a pastor in the 1800's wrote down in a journal. In two weeks we will be going over Wayne Grudens book called "systematic Theology".I am super excited about being challenged and pushed to the word of God. My Friends Jonathan Mooney and soon to be Lindsay Mooney will wedded this Saturday so pray for their marriage. I went to their wedding dinner thing yesterday (Thursday) and had a chance to share about Christ with a guy named Ross who has become homeless recently. Pray for his salvation and his current situation.


God Bless,
Sean

Quote: "It's Time" - Lane Kiffin

YOOOWWW. What an epic week of goodness. Jammed pack week of work, weddings, and wonderfulness. On Saturday a good friend of mine got married, and being apart of the wedding party we did a lot this week. And what was great about that is another good friend came into town to be apart of the wedding and we were able to hang out all this week and catch up on what's going on in each others life. This week we also had a friend, most of yall know him, Jeff Beckett come and visit us in the Nooga, he stayed with Taylor and his family and was able to come and hang with us at the Bible study we go to on Wednesday nights. Bible study was sweet we went through 1 Peter 3:9-12, and talked about repaying evil for evil. Something that I found very applicable and thinking about my own life in this area. But anyways the week was great and spending time with Jesus was refreshing and convicting, pushing me to prayer. And I can't help but to thank God for the grace that has been extended to me, when I had my mind set on the flesh and I was in hostility with God, what good news it is to know that he has saved his enemies from his wrath. Please be praying for my relationships at work, I am seeing that I am growing closer to a lot of them, but some seem standoffish. Thanks family.

-Seth


Guys I have really enjoyed the fellowship with Taylor this week! (Sethro has been super busy with his friends wedding. You know I am real proud of Seth... He has been just going and going this week, and has not been getting much rest at all. I have not heard him complain either!) Taylors family too has treated me like their own, and it has meant a lot to me! This week at work has been really good learning experience, and God is building relationships with my fellow co-workers.
I really have enjoyed being at Christ Community's church the past two Sundays. I went to the Wednesday mens meeting, and we are reading a book by Ichabod Spencer. It has been really good. Also my good friend got married Saturday to his beautiful wife Anna. His name is Andrew Martin. Please keep this young couple in your prayers! Keep the church in your prayers, and may we continue to pray for peoples salvation for the glory of God and His kingdom. Thank you for your prayer support!


Treasure God above all else. Have a good day off Monday. I sure will!


Your friend and fellow laborer in the gospel,
Sean


Konichiwa! Another week down. It's been a good one. Work has been good. I mean it's been hot...and long... but for some reason It just been good. God has really been making work enjoyable. I get to do crazy mission impossible style painting. For instance I rappelled down a roof to paint a wall. Then got to go straight redneck and put a ladder in the back of a truck. I know... I'm awesome haha just kidding. Ok enough with that sorry. Getting up has been a little tough and my time in the word has suffered a little (still getting used to morning quiet times) but God is even blessing that. It seems I'm barely awake when I'm reading but God is for sure using it. He really does give us grace upon grace. One of my really good friends has been coming to the small group which is awesome and I'm praying for some good conversations. Ill try to not make this too long but I have to say guys cherish your fellowship with your brothers and sisters. I cannot say enough how tight it is to be home with Seth and Sean and to have one of my good friends Jeff who loves Jesus around. It is gangsta! They are for sure pushing me to pursue Christ. Things to pray for: Pray for all of our times in the word and that we really would just thirst for time with God. Pray for the death of Taylor. I'm realizing how much my life is all about me. Pray we could have an impact on those who God has put us around. And Pray for our fellowship with each other and the believers here.
Deuces,
Taylor Batson Kidwell

Chateau-nooga

"Week two in Chat town!!!"
I have a lot more respect for my parents since I have been waking up around 5:30am for the past two weeks! I am exhausted! It has been awesome having Seth and Taylor for encouragement. We talk about what we have been learning in the word, and we meet on Sundays for accountability time. I went to Silverdale Baptist church's small group Wednesday night, and it was really good being under Travis teaching. He was thorough in his explanation of 1 Peter 3:9-12, and I am just excited to be apart of the church! I will be visiting a Reformed Baptist Church this Sunday. Pray that God would give me and Taylor clarity of mind as we begin to decide on which church we should place our membership. We want to give and not take from the church which unfortunately so many people do these days. One last thing. I met a family Wednesday night that were out of money and headed back to Nashville. Pray for their safety. Their names are Bo, Tiffany, Cheyenne, and Cloey Lawson. Tiffany's dad was also with them, and his name is Al.

May Christ be your all in all! Love you all in the Lord.

-Sean Stallings.

P.S.
Work was great again this week. Thanks for your prayers"

"Work Week"
It has been a good week, and praise God that he has provided a job for me. This week I started a my job at TVA and it is awesome. I work with a lot of nice people and have been going out to lunch with some and getting to know them. Today I got invited by one of my co-workers to go and mountain bike with him and some other guys who work at TVA. It was pretty funny cause these guys had $2000-$4000 dollar bikes and I was riding my mom's Mongoose, but nevertheless the Mongoose held up and it was good spending time outside of work with some of the people I work with. I have started to see the difficulties of somewhat being out in the real world. It is tough and a struggle to get adequate time to pray and get in the word where it is quiet and away from distractions, but it's not impossible. But man is it good to keep my mind focused on God throughout the day and just praising him for who he is whether I am walking into work or driving home from work or just anytime when my thoughts aren't consumed with doing my task at work. Please be praying for my co-workers that our relationships would grow deeper and that I would share and live out the love that Christ has shown us on the cross.

-Seth Anderson

So the first couple of days home has been...well many things. It's taking to time to adjust to say the least. Hanging with my family especially my brother has been sweet. I would agree with Sean and Seth in that managing my time is a struggle right now. I am currently painting and doing remodeling work which means long days and lots of time to think...which can be dangerous. Pray that my thoughts would be of Jesus. Sean and I visited Christ Community Church today and it was pretty baller. It's a really small church that meets in an office building. It was very different than what I was expecting. The first 45 minutes was like a class on a survey of the whole bible and how it all points to Christ. If you've never read psalm 2, 22, or 110 do it (especially psalm 22 it's most certainly paints a clear image of crucifixion and was written long long before Jesus... straight up). Then they have like 15-20 minutes of just fellowship. Then one of the three elders teaches. It was rad. They are camped out in 1 Peter and today was on 5:6-9. It was about humility and it was raw. Then we sang, then prayed, then peaced out. It will be interesting finding a church with Sean because it's clear to both of us that it's an important decision and it will require much prayer. I could go on... but I won't for now. Pray that I would serve my parents and love my brother. More to come soon.

XOXOXO
- Taylor (yes the X's and O's mean hugs & kisses)

05/16/2010: Sean's Update

It has been exactly one week since I have relocated to Chattanooga. For those of you who do not know, I graduated Saturday and moved to Chat Town the very next day! I also started my first job related to my degree on Monday, so as you can see I have been super busy. I really like my job so far.
I work for a Firm called Matheney Stees and Associates. The partners are both Christians, and it really makes a difference working for people who know the Lord, or rather be known by the Lord. The office exemplifies grace, and hard work. The first day was really chill. All I did was fill out some paperwork and listen to a software tutorial (Prosystems fx). However on Tuesday I got my hands dirty. I am doing tax returns for a partnership primarily owned by one individual. It is headquarter in Cleveland TN, and the first day was super frustrating. I really did not get the hang of the software, and I felt like I was letting the boss down, because I was struggling with the program. I know that I had strong prayer support because God really taught me that I was just being impatient, and I need to give myself some grace.
Enough about work! I have attended Silverdale Baptist Church this past week, and have really enjoyed the fellowship amongst the believers. Me and my friend Taylor Kidwell are visiting churches this month in order to find the church that is solid. We have made a list of the things we believe the bible says a church is, and how it should function, so we are going to put our membership in the church that best fits our list.

May God be your joy and treasure. Keep me and the boys (Seth Anderson and Taylor Kidwell) in your prayers.

-Sean Stallings

P.S.
I am living with Seth's parents, and it has just been an absolute blessings. It is just awesome living with other believers in community! -God Bless."