8 Crazy weeks

Wow, so it's been quite some time since I've blogged so I have lots to say. These past few weeks have been crazy busy, fun and enlightening in so many ways. I'm now in the last week of my internship in CO and to say that this summer has been amazing would be a huge understatement. I've learned a ton about myself, God and ministry that I know will stick with me for a long time. It's really been an extremely positive experience but before I get more deep into some seriously important things, I have some super funny stuff to share.

First of all, I turned 21 about a week ago and Englewood Assembly was so good to me for my birthday. I got cards, an ice cream cake and lots of hugs and well wishes. Oh yeah and they all sung to me during service which made me feel great. It was hard being away from my family n friends but my family here made it a great day. Most 21 years old do the regular things like get a beer or go to a casino but for me, I was just happy to drive the church van which brought another funny experience last week. I was taking a few of the youths to subway about 5 minutes away from the church and all of a sudden I ran out of gas. haha. It was super funny to me because TJ, my boss at the church had just given me the keys a few minutes before. So he gets there and I joke with him about not telling me that the van had no gas and he says "Dude, I just drive man, I don't know." I can honestly tell you that TJ is bar none one of the funniest guys I've ever met. TJ, myself and the rest of the staff here crack up all day in the office about the most random things. It makes the days so much fun.

Another funny thing that is funny but also needs to go on your prayer list haha, is I'm leading a youth camping trip tomorrow in the mountains. Wait for it, here comes the funny part....I know nothing about the mountains or camping. LOLZ! No worries though because luckily we have some other staff guys joining us on the trip that will make sure we don't die or anything. I'm so excited for this trip because some of the youth that are going haven't really been connected with the youth this summer so it's awesome that they want to come and be with us. It's going to be awesome. This week is going to be awesome in the sense that there will be tons of fun, food (a couple of barq's and a huge potluck) and just really a ton of time to just be with these kids that I have grown so close to this summer. On the other side, its sad because I have to leave to the Midwest Sunday. I'm going to miss everything about Colorado. It's been a straight up blast! So many memories and good times, so that brings me to the serious part of this post.

Leaving on Sunday has brought on a lot of questions in my mind. It's very clear to me that Colorado is a place that I can come to when school is over and be very happy but at the end of the day, I know that it has to be a God thing and I can't selfishly jump into a cross-country move without God's full blessing and it has to line up with His will for my life. SO right now, thing that I'm working out with God are whether or not if this is what He has for me? Whether it is or not, my desire is to be connected to this body of believers in some way. Man the doors that God is opening in the city of Englewood is like crazy cool. TJ, Brandon, the kids pastor at EA and myself all have been hanging out at the high school with the football team. TJ and Brandon are coaches and I just hang out and attempt to lift weights and get to know the players as much as possible. Think about that, 3 church dudes, just hanging at the high school, being positive influences to tons of young men. That doesn't happen everyday. There are so many other things that EA has been blessed with as far as the community goes, its crazy legit.

I love it here but I know that the Lord has so great things for me in IL this next year with school and everything, its going to be great but pray for me for clarity for the Lord as far as the next step after that and also for me to be obedient with whatever He says. I feel like the Lord has truly been preaching patience in my life in every area. I have the tendency to want things to unfold quickly and sometimes it becomes easy and convenient to take things into my own hands. My heart to wait upon to the Lord for complete direction of my life. This is a very exciting time in my life and I'm pumped to see what God has planned for my life in the next couple years. It's gonna be amazing! Blessings to you all and until next time...

Blessings
Joe
2 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Currently Listening To-
I Heart Revolution-Hillsong United

Currently Reading-
John Maxwell Leadership Bible

Expectancy

"A spirit of expectancy is the breeding place for miracles"

The above mentioned quote is something that one of my dearest friends, Nina Daniels spoke over a camp of about 1000 a few years ago that I was on staff at. Nina, was leading worship with a team from Rockford Masters Commission and when she spoke those words on the stage as we all were entering into a time of worship that week, in my mind, I was like "Whoa, that is straight up profound." It's not even profound because of the words but really I see it to be powerful because of the truth that is behind it. Think about it, when you think about miracles, you think about the impossible happening. Jesus performed so many miracles in the bible especially in the gospels and in so many cases, the people who he healed or delivered were brought to Jesus by someone else or they came to Jesus by themselves, knowing who Jesus was and expecting Him to move and make something happen. People followed Jesus by the masses because they knew that He could move the mountains, they knew and believed in his power. The spirit of expectancy was evident in Jesus's followers from the bible. It was crazy the things that Jesus did. Walking on water, healing the blind, etc.

I'm kind of on expectancy kick because of a few things. Number 1, is that I'm about half way through my internship and as I was spending sometime with the Lord today, I marveled at the many things that He has already done, but I felt as if I need to expect Him to do so much more in my life and the lives of the teens that I'm working with for the remainder of the summer. Seriously, the things that have been happening around me have been amazing in every way. People are getting called to Englewood and Englewood Assembly because of the serious move of the Holy Spirit that has hit this church over the past few weeks and months. There are kids in my youth group who I know are in completely different places in their lives than they were days ago, weeks ago, months ago. God is so good. Crazy. Earlier, I read a blog post from my buddy, Jordan and he was talking about how he wanted people to pray about the youth service that he was leading at the church that I serve at when I'm at school on July 11th. His words were this "I know something crazy awesome is going to happen at Fusion Vandalia on July 11th" Jordan is expecting God to move in radical way. I close with this. Are you expecting God to move in your life? To change the hearts of your friends? To help you get that new job? There is power in expecting the Lord to work in you. In my life and for the rest of the summer here is my prayer and I hope that it can be a prayer for you life as well.

"God, you are good and I know that whatever you have for me is your will. I'm expecting you to do what you want and have your way in me, my friends, family and whoever else you place in my life. Show me Your ways and that I may walk in them each and every day."

Bless you guys and I love the 4 people who read this on a consistent basis. Until next time.

Blessings
Joe
Isiah 30:18

Currently Listening to:
The I Heart Revolution-Hillsong

Currently Reading:
Communicating for Change:Andy Stanley

Run Joe Run!

WOW! My life has been incredibly busy since my last post. Friday was a great day as myself and many other members from the church went to Aurora which is a community about 15 minutes away from Englewood to move in the Garza's. Alfred, Christine and their four kids are re-locating to Colorado from Illinois. I've known them for many years now since they attended Living Water Church in Da Brook when I was a member there. It's pretty cool to be able to hang with them all while I'm here this summer. Good people for sure. After we got done moving their many trucks of stuff, into their house/garage, myself and some of the youths went to see Toy Story 3. I have to say, the movie is probably the best movie I have seen this year. That's saying a lot since I saw the A-Team last week. The A-Team was pretty amazing but Toy Story 3 had such a great story (no pun intended). My favorite part had to be Buzz LightYear en espanol/"You got a friend in Me" en espanol. CLASSIC! After the movie, myself and my youth boys and gals went back to the church for some pizza and hide and seek. It was a super long day but tons of fun non the less.

Saturday was another long day as we had a great church wide work day at the church. It started at about 8:30am and we got lots of things done, including laying down carpet in the youth room, which is next to the church. The youth room is now closer to being ready for the youth to meet in there for the rest of the summer and beyond. This is huge because now the youth meets in the main sanctuary on the Wednesdays but in the fall, the adult bible study on Wednesdays will start up again, leaving the youth with nowhere to meet. I'm so excited to finish the youth room. Put some game systems in, posters, t.v.'s, everything youth will be in that room (hopefully). The work day was super tiring and right after that I had to be back at the church for worship practice. At about 9pm, my energy level was at about 0 so I crashed pretty hard. It felt good. Sunday was of course Father's Day and it was kind of sad for me because it was the second straight year that I wasn't with my dad for Father's Day. I got to talk to him briefly but it still wasn't that legit. My parents divorced when I was pretty young but my dad has been in my life despite this which is cool. As Pastor TJ, talked about in his message, being a dad is tough stuff. A lot is expected from dads, sometimes more-so with dads than moms. I truly appreciate my dad and the influence that he has had on my life.

To honor the dads of Englewood Assembly we had a picnic at a park near the church. I can't tell you how much fun it was. My friend Kim, how is the Englewood Assembly grill master and myself, discovered a few weeks ago at one of his family barq's that we are basically unbeatable at Bacci Ball so Sunday was a perfect day to continue our dominance. We went 10-1 on the day which is pretty impressive especially considering the fact that we played all of our opponents either 2 or 3 games in a row. Yeah, we are da champs. Volleyball, Basketball and Football was also played. We won't talk about those. haha. I also met a ton of new youth kids that hopefully will be at youth tommorrow. I'm pretty excited about that as the group has really grown a lot since I have been here which is cool. It also worries me a bit because I'm not really sure what's going to happen when I leave in 6 weeks as far as the youth group goes. I honestly devote abotu 90-95 percent to all things youth at the the moment. It's really clear to me that no one else here has that type of time and energy. It's not that they don't want to, its just the fact that school, other jobs, family, etc. really limits the things that can and will be done when I leave. That worries me a ton but at the same time, as I have told some of the kids this morning, I know that their Jer 29:11 goes way beyond my time here and so does this youth group so I know that God has a plan for them and the youth of this church and this city. It surely doesn't stop on August 1st. So the direction of the youth group from the name to the week to week activities has really been on my heart the past couple of days because I'm starting to really care about all these kids and I believe whole-heartedly that without a youth group and a solid youth/leader or pastor, these kids and any teen for that reason will miss out on some serious good times, times of teaching, times of worship and ultimately times of worship as well. God is always good and always faithful so I know He will work in whatever way he sees fit as far as the youth of EA goes. Glory to God. The youth in the church are love doing things, whether its spiritual, fun, or whatever cause for so long, they were bored so I just hope I can spend as much time pouring into their lives as possible, starting with this weekend as we are going camping in the mountains. So pumped about that!

Lastly, I'm really excited about getting back to 24 fitness. I finally got my IPOD fixed last week and made an amazing play list called "Workin on my fitness" complete with everything from "Amazing" by Kanye West to "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. I need music to run to more than I need during my weights workouts because running in silence is pretty terrible. Later today will be interested because I haven't ran since school got out. Yep that was a month ago. I actually hate running but i hate sweating like a pig more so somethings got to give. Yesterday, I got my 24 hour fitness membership card after waiting for 2 weeks so I figured that might be a sign that I need to get my act together, so hopefully I will see someone I know on my run so they can say "RUN JOE RUN" well maybe not but it was a good thought I guess. Well, time to start getting ready for youth group tommorrow. Prayin for tons of youth to come. You can pray too! Until next time, love you all!

Blessings
Joe
Philippians 4:13

You can't fight fate!

As I'm writing this blog post, I am fighting back tears as the Lakers have just won their 16th NBA championship. Oh they won last year as well. HAHA! I love the lakers and my main man Kobe so today is a pretty awesome day. Boston played well and almost won but at the end, they learned a valuable lesson....YOU CAN'T FIGHT FATE! This past week has been a great one for as I've now been in Colorado for 3 whole weeks. They have flown by. Tommorrow is Friday? Seriously? I've been having a blast. I spend just about every day hanging with the youth at Englewood Assembly. They truly crack me up. Jody and TJ, are even funnier than the youth so needless to say, I have been laughing up a storm with some amazing people.
God has really been doing some cool stuff in the church and specifically with the youth and myself. This Tuesday was the start ofi the youth internship that I am leading here at the church. It's a time where we study God's word, pray, serve the church and the community and of course have lots of fun as well. Right now, we are studying the book of Ephesians and today we talked through the first chapter and it was cool to see that some of the teens that were with me actually understood what Paul was speaking to the Ephesus church. The fact that we were choosen by God to live out a certain purpose for him still amazes me at times. Ephesians is a legit book in the new testament and its a book that has one of my favorite verses that the Lord has been working on me with and that's Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." I have to remember this like all the time because of my ability to be mean and say things that don't need to be said. Thank goodness the Lord is gracious and compassionate cause there are times when I'm not and I have to say to myself "Ephesians 4:29" haha. I fail a lot but its all good, God still loves me. Praise God! I'm pumped to dive into chapters 2 and 3 next week. I'm also pumped to see how God changes some lives through the internship and the many different experiences that my group has.
Wednesday was great because the group of youth interns and myself sat in the senior service at EA and man was it awesome to witness. The seniors in are church are super spiritual and are straight up pray warriors. As I told the teens, they are full of wisdom and Sister Barbara brought the word for realz! It was really cool. We also had a pray walk around Flood Middle School which is a big closed down school building that might be the future home of EA. I thought it would cool to pray over the building and claim it for God's purposes if its his will. It was good for sure. Youth group was great as we had so many new faces that came. I was really encouraged by the turnout and I hope to see more people show up next week. I had 3 brave youth souls compete in the happy meal challenge which tests a persons ability to drink a disgusting cheeseburger, fries and Hi-C orange drink all blended together to become an appetizing protein drink. It was nasty. My man Steven destroyed his personal drink and then finished off the other 2 competitors drinks as well. Needless to say, his stomach was hurting like something fierce later. We ended the night by playing some awesome basketball outside of the church. I was on fire all night but TJ says that it was a fluke. By the end of the summer and everyone else in Englewood will respect my game. That is da truth! This weekend will be fun as tommorrow some of the youth and I are going to see Toy Story 3. Saturday there is a big work day at the church and Sunday is the father's day picnic. That reminds me, gotta get my dad a gift. Oh shoot! lol. Well, I guess that's all for now. Time to order my lakers championship shirt and call it a night. Until next time...Love you all.

Blessings
Joe
I Thessalonians 5:16-17

Crazy Week

So, it's crazy to think that I've already been in Colorado for a week now but i have and its so far been amazing. I've done all kinds of sweet stuff. Swimming, basketball, buffalo wild wings, Chipotle, hilarious moments of laughter. The coolest part is that it's all involved youth. The kids that I have in the youth group that I'm working with this summer are all awesome. It's been a blast hanging out with them all and getting to know them. Hanging with young people allows me to be a kid and really not have a whole lot of worries when I'm with them. It's like super legit!

This week has been crazy in the sense that I feel that it's been going by really fast. It started with a nice 4:50am wake-up call to go pray at H.O.P.E. which is the prayer house here in Englewood. I don't care what it's for, waking up that early in the day is not fun at all but meeting with the Lord is worth it. I was telling Jody, one of the other interns here at Englewood Assembly this morning that a few months before I came out here to CO that I started to wake up like 5 or 6 in the morning to run and get some devotional time in before class and I thought that it would be something I could keep going for the summer. Well, so far, not so good. I hate mornings with a passion and despite my honest intentions, I haven't been doing good with the workout/devo early morning time. Today was a semi-start as I got up at about 5:45 to go to a small group bible study that Jody is apart of and that was pretty awesome, so maybe I can get my early morning deal going again. A guy can dream, right?

So many cool things have happened since Monday. The lead team from EA met with some other churches in the community and Randy Penn who is the head of the Englewood Chamber of Commerce to talk about how the churches could collectively reach the city of Englewood. That was pretty cool to be apart of. All the churches in this city have the heart to be apart of the community and to be outward focused which is really amazing to me. Love it! I also got to hang out with two of the guys from youth at Buffalo Wild Wings Tuesday to watch the Lakers-Celtics game. We had a great time since the Lakers won and we pounded 50 wings! My stomach was pretty pleased about that. haha.

Last night was the first youth service of the summer and the first service that I was in charge of. It was fun to get to hang with everyone together. I did my message on Potential and I think that the kids were impacted by it which was encouraging. After church we had a crazy basketball game with some of the staff at EA taking on the youth. Pastor TJ, our lead pastor at EA played which increased the level of fun by 100 since his trash talking ability is absolutely hysterical. It was a great first night that was quite different from what normally goes on during Wednesday night youth services. I'm excited to see what God does with over the next couple of weeks. Worship, silly/gross games and some real spiritual growth amongst the students are things that I want to see incorporated into Wednesdays so we will see what happens. Well, time to get to work on some stuff and figure out my plans for Game 4 of the NBA Finals tonight. (No one cares about the Redhawks.) That's all folks for now. Love you all.

Blessings
Joe
Matthew 22:36-40

Potential

Man, what a great week this has been. I'm so happy to be in Colorado. I feel like my summer has finally begun and it feels great. Yesterday was an awesome day as I went through my first staff meeting, helped out at the food pantry, lunch at chipotle (so good!), worked on my first youth service next week and saw the Lakers roll the Celtics at buffalo wild wings with a couple of youth along with TJ, Jody and Ron. Such an awesome day. I have enjoyed every moment of CO thus far because of the great people that I have met and the experiences that I have been apart of. One of my favorite activities has been laughing. I can't even begin to explain how funny the people here are. it's unbelievable. I laugh at literally everything but here, everyone else laughing so I don't feel so dumb. haha.
So basically next week will be the dawning of a new era for the youth at Engelwood First and I say that because until this point, there hasn't been a ton of spiritual development in the youth group gatherings and that is changing because I get to bring the word every week. I'm so excited. I was inspired by the Lord and a message that Pastor Paul gave at Metro last week to talk about potential for my first message here. Think about it, as Christians and humans in general, we all have the potential to do amazing things. Potential very simply is the capability of something becoming an actuality. Maybe that wasn't a simple difinition (haha) but I think you all know what I'm getting at. For Christians and believers we have the potential to do some amazing things for the Lord but there are some things that get in the way. The main 3 things that come to mind to me is sin, our influences whether it be friends, family, entertainment, etc. and lastly ourselves. Adam and Eve, God's first two humans ever. They had the potential to live in God's perfect image, to live amazing lives but what happen? Adam disobey God with the help of Eve and their lives were forever changed and ultimately they didn't live up to their full potential. One error in judgement, ruined their lives. See what happened to Adam and Eve can very well happen to us if we aren't careful. Adam sinned, listened an influence in his life instead of God, and allowed his actions to get into the way of God's plan. This is so applicable to our lives, especially in the lives of teenagers because of the seriousness of peer pressure and the outside influences that are in young peoples lives.
Honestly, this topic has got me thinking about my potential in my life but more specifically about this summer. There is great potential for this summer to be amazing for me and the people that I will be working with but at the same time, I have to be sure to keep sin out of my life as much as possible, be careful with what and who influences my life and also make sure my ways aren't getting in the way of God's way. Serious stuff there folks. Despite the challenges that I might face over the next 8 weeks, I'm very excited to see what God does through because I know I have the potential to do amazing things and you do too. so I close with this challenge, are you living up to your potential? If not, what do you need to change to get there and for God to use you the way he wants to use you. Cool stuff will begin to happen when the performance-potential gap is narrowed in your life and more specifically your relationship with the Lord. Well time to break down this message some more so that's all for now. I will leave you with a funny picture of me "gettin down" at Jered and Jordan's wedding last week. Peace and chicken grease.

Blessings
Joe
Col. 3:1-3



Currently Reading -

Currently Listening to-

Colorado! I love this place!

So my summer has finally begun and I say that because I arrived in Colorado today to start my summer with my Englewood Assembly family and I couldn't be more excited. I started my trek west yesterday at about 12pm and got here today at 4pm. Now I know what you might be thinking but NO! I didn't drive for over 28 hours. I drove from Chicago to Kansas City and stayed with my friends Mari and Ephrain and then I left out at about 630am this morning to finish the trip. Since last Friday I have put about 1500 or more miles on my car. Crazy! Well after a long boring trip (except for KC!) I ak finally in Colorado!
Once I got here, I went straight to the church and hung out with Jody, Ruth, Matt and some of the youth for a while and then I headed out to the Moreno's which is where I am staying and I'm sure I will be blogging a lot here as well. Leroy and Mae are seriously some of the nicest people I have ever met. For them to open up their home to me for the summer is awesome. I'm so glad I get to stay here. Youth was fun as the kids got to know me better through asking me lots of questions. Shoe size, favorite thing to do in the summer, what I would do with a million dollars (buy a lambrogini), yep we covered it all. Haha. I love the group. They are awesome kids
Wow, today has been a long but great day. God is gonna do some amazing things in my life and the life of these students this summer. I'm so pumped to be apart of it! Well tommorrow, will be filled with cool stuff like staff meeting, food pantry stuff and hopefully some nba finals action with some of the youth. I'm so excited. Now its time to get some sleep. Peace ya'll!

Blessings
Joe
Jer. 29-11

What a beautiful wedding!

As I type, I am in the conference room of the church in which Jered and Jordan are getting married. I have about 5 minutes to get this post done so I will make this quick. Jered has been my roommate at GC for the past two years and let me say I couldn't have asked for a better roomie. It's amazing the I'm standing at his wedding (first time ever). I'm so pumped for him and Jordan because of the big time future that the Lord has for them together. It's gonna be legit for realz.
Can't lie though, all this wedding stuff has me thinking many thoughts...

1. I'm not looking for to all the weaksauce stress that comes with getting married.

2. I'm kinda excited to see who I married.

3. I leave for CO in 3 days. YIKES.

4. I hope my wedding can be as cool as Jered's. For realzies!

5. Gaylord has been here since 10am and I'm sure he's pretty tired and hungry. Haha.

Okay well time to pray for my man Jered. God Bless Jered and Jordan!

Blessings
Joe
"Greater things have yet to come, greater things will still be done in this city."

Hometown love!

School is out and I'm back in Da Brook for the summer! Well, not exactly. See my last day of school was on Friday and after a weekend of catching up with old friends, watchin the magic struggle in Bean-town and doin my normal Metro routine, I moved all my stuff out of my house into my new place for next year on Monday and headed home for a few days. FYI? Driving 4 hours without air conditioning is a definite no-no. It was so hot outside! I made it though and thankfully my mom had the air crankin at home. Monday and Tuesday were filled with times of catching up with all the people that make my hometown once of my favorite places ever. Luke, Ben, Nina, Ms. Cathy, Brezie and so many more. Oh man, its been a good time. Yesterday I went to my old youth group and it made me smile to know that Fusion was still alive and kickin. I miss the place since I am who I am today largely because of it but Colorado and so much more is calling my name over the next couple of months and I couldn't be more excited.
I'm home until Friday morning and I have been savoring every moment here because I only get to be home about a few weeks out of the year. I love being home because of all the memories, all the laughs, all of the great people that have invested time and energy into my life. I could blog for days about all of the amazing memories that I have in Da Brook and still not be able to get all of them in. I just love this place. I will close with this, no matter where you go in life. Who you marry, where you work, the friends that you make, never, ever forget where u came from and where home really is cause the events and moments in time experienced in the place where u grew up and spent the first many years of ur life are what make u who you are. Never forget! Well that's all for now folks. Until next time. Love you all!

Blessings
Joe
Psalms 100

Our God

Wow...well it's Friday and to say that this has been a tough week is an understatement. With school coming to a close, I have been under the gun to get everything finished which has meant some late nights and some serious stress but I think I worked it out for the most part. On top of that, I've really been struggling to get over some stuff in my life and the crazy part about it is I don't fully know why? That's the craziest part. The devil really knows how to get me down at times. It sucks. Sometimes I really just want to go back to a month ago and do things differently and maybe I wouldn't be feeling all of these terrible emotions but then I realize that there is no way I would be where I am now without the experiences that I have been thru over the past few weeks. I thank God for the unbelievable presence that he has been in my life through all of this but that doesn't mean that life doesn't suck sometimes. In the end though, I have to believe that the Lord is gonna bring me out of this storm and everything is gonna work out. Something that always makes me feel better about everything is hearing songs about the greatness of God and "Our God" by Chris Tomlin is one of those songs. It really speaks about how amazing God is. i mean honestly we serve a God who turned water into wine, opened the eyes of the blind and has done so many things. He's higher than any other, yet I stress and worry about things like like when I'm gonna have a girl to share my life, when I know that the Lord has an amazing plan and purpose for my life including an amazing woman. Man, trusting God in situations sometimes can be really hard but God is greater and stronger and higher than any other so everyday day I am called to trust him through the good and bad times. I have a ton of praises that far outweigh any struggles and worries that I have

Getting a great education
My amazing mother
Awesome friends who speak truth into my life
Awesome summer to spend in Colorado investing in the lives of young people
Great family who I love to death
Sweet Car
Place to live next school year
Two great jobs for next school year
Amazing church that allows me to play drums and be a youth leader. two of my passions
Great health

Man there are so many other things that i can put in here that God has truly blessed me with. It's really amazing. I'm so pumped for the future that God has for me and the doors that I know he is going to open in my life. I have some things to work on in my life to be fully ready for the plan and purpose that he has for my life but I know with the Lord's help my life is going to be amazing and it's gonna be all for the Glory of the King.

This weekend is going to be exciting as tomorrow I get to hang with some old friends. One of them is Jordan! haven't seen him since Xmas! Such a good dude. I also have a ton of cleaning and packing to do but I also get to play drums for Metro as well. I can't forget about graduation on Sunday. All three of my roommates are graduating. It's gonna be a great weekend. well thanks for reading this. I will leave you with my hearts cry right now and its "Our God" by Chris Tomlin. Love you all. Until next time...

Verse 1
Water you turned into wine opened the eyes of the blind
there’s no one like you none like you
Into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise
there is no one like you none like you

Chorus
Our God is greater Our God is stronger God you are higher than any other
Our God is Healer Awesome in power Our God, Our God

Bridge
and if our God is for us then who could ever stop us and if our God is with us
then what could stand against

Chorus
Our God is greater Our God is stronger God you are higher than any other Our God is Healer Awesome in power Our God, Our God

Blessings
Joe
Matthew 28:19-20

That's why I need you

So I'm sitting at work and I'm thinking about my day today and I just realized that my day today has really sucked. Despite the suckyness of my day I still wanted to blog cause I gotta keep my streak going. This song kinda sums up how i feel right now but the Lord will for sure mend my broken mess of a heart. I'm sure of it. well that's folks. Hopefully tommorrow is a better day and I actually start using this blog to drop knowledge on the 2 people who read it. haha. peace.

Sanctus Real-I'm not alright

If weakness is a wound
That no one wants to speak of
Then “cool” is just how far we have to fall
I am not immune
I only want to be loved
But I feel safe behind the firewall
Can I lose my need to impress?
If you want the truth, I need to confess

I’m not alright
I’m broken inside, broken inside
And all I go through
It leads me to you, it leads me to you

Burn away the pride
Bring me to my weakness
Until everything I hide behind is gone
And when I’m open wide
With nothing left to cling to
Only you are there to lead me on
Cause honestly, I’m not that strong

I’m not alright
I’m broken inside, broken inside
And all I go through
It leads me to you, it leads me to you

And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you
And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you
And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you
And I move, and I move, and I move...

I’m not alright
I’m broken inside, broken inside
broken inside, broken inside
And all I go through
Leads me to you, leads me to you

I’m not alright, I’m not alright, I’m not alright...that’s why I need you

Blessings
Joe
Psalms 37:4

A picture is worth a thousand words!

So Finals and paper prep now is in full effect right now since I have literally 3 days left in the semester to get everything done. It's crazy right now! I'm taking a break right now to blog about some things in my life. First of all, is it June yet? Second of all, did anyone see the Lakers game last night? Kobe got loose on the Suns! haha. Third of all, I just realized that I really don't have to much to say for this post but I'm gonna keep going with my random thoughts anyways. Five random thoughts, ready, set, go...

1. Kristian Stanfill and Sanctus Real are two of my favorite music artists right now
2. The air conditioner at work is extra loud right now
3. I'm so ready to move into my new apartment
4. Sometimes God allows his people to go through some hard stuff so he can get the glory at the end. (yup, some hard stuff in my life right now)
5. I'm gonna miss my family and friends this summer but my new family and friends in CO will carry me through for sure.

Well, I feel better now that I have kinda taken a small break from my work that is staring me in the face. if your still reading, I will leave you with a few pictures from my trip to Colorado last week. To see the rest you can go to my facebook page and check them out. Love you all, until next time folks

Blessings
Joe
I Thessalonians 5:18

Colorado, see ya in a few weeks

Kim, Anthony, Anna, Christopher, Steven, Caleb, Ron, Jade, Mark, Sue, Leroy, Mae, Andy, Gail, Paris, Ryan, Opal, Joe, Bob, Kay, Don, Dave, Joseph, Darren, Lance and Julie. These are all the great people that I met at Englewood Assembly yesterday. Sunday was my last day in CO and it was really a great day. We had church in the morning and I got to play drums with TJ, Mandy and the band. It was just like old times to me since I honed my drumming skills under the leadership of those guys for years in Da Brook. Loved it! Service was so powerful as TJ spoke on the holy spirit and man was the spirit in that room. Two of brother Leroy's(one of the elders at the church and whom I will be staying with this summer) daughters prayed over the youth near the end of the service and that was so cool to be apart of. The youth is such a big part of what EA does and where they want to go. It's gonna be great to be involved with them this summer. After service there was reception for me to meet and fellowship with all of the elders, deacons and leadership of the church. We have some characters at EA for sure. One of them is Kim, (not sure if that's how you spell his name). He is super funny. Can't wait to hear all of the crazy stories that I'm sure he will tell me this summer.
I've had such a After a good flight and a not so good 2 hour wait at the airport for my ride, I got back in Greenville at about 1:30am this morning. This week is gonna be super busy as I finish up the semester with finals and papers but Thursday is gonna be awesome since I'm taking my mom to see Donovan Mcnabb film his ESPN homecoming special in Chicago. It's gonna be great. Well that's all for now folks. Next post should have some awesome CO pictures. So pumped to share them with all of you. Love ya'll. Until next time

Blessings
Joe
Proverbs 10:19

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Lazy Saturday

Yesterday was a nice and easy day. I got up at about 9am. (That never happens!) It felt great even though I haven't ran in since thursday. Shoot. Haha. I went to the church to get some work done and I ended up hanging out with my new bro, Jody. He is a funny dude! I also got some chipotle for lunch. It was delish!
One of my favorite parts of today was getting some insight on some of the youth from one of the parents here. The weight of my influence and oppertunity to invest in these youths lives this summer is pretty large and really extremely important. It makes me realize that I have to be fully devoted to what im here for in June and July. I am so ready to hang out, disciple and really love on these guys and gals because the more I hear about them, the more I understand that they have not been getting and it breaks my heart because I know how important these years are in the life of a teenager. Junior high and high school are the years that shape the rest of ur life and thse kids desperately desire to be influenced by Godly people who want to love them. Man, I feel so blessed to be apart of the shaping and molding of minds for these teens. June please come quick! Haha.
I went over to TJ's house for some pizza and call of duty. Needless to say, I enjoyed the pizza way more than the video games. Anyone who knows me, knows that sports game are my speciality but games like halo, call of duty and modern warfare absolutely kill me. I am the worse. I still had a blast though despite my terrible skills.lol.
Tommorrow is my last day in CO but its gonna be awesome because of the fact that I get to go to a EA church service and I get to meet the rest of the church leaders. Oh yeah and I might even get to play drums for the worship team. SWEET! Tommorrow will be great, minus getting back to Greenville and studying my life away for finals next week. Gross! Haha. Well time to sleep some more before church. Love ya'll! Until next time...

Blessings
Joe
Jeramiah 29.11

Mighty Mountains!

Oh man, Friday was a glorious day! I went into the Colorado mountains for the first time with the guys and needless to say, it was amazing! I absolutely loved it. Matt rented ATVs for everyone so we all loaded up the truck and trailer and drove a few hours for a day of amazing fun.
The mountains were absolutely beautiful! It was unreal to be up in them at the altitude that we were at (12,000ft). I also saw some ducks and turkeys, oh yeah and deer! It was legit for sure. I did learn pretty quickly that ATVs/four wheelers are powerful machines as it took me a few hours to get the hang of using them. I got stuck a few times, lost control many of times and I even went over a bump so hard and fast that it almost broke Matt's back. Whoops. Minus that and TJ's fall off the Tyler driven ATV, we all had a great time just being together, eatin dogs over the fire and doin some sick ATV jumps (I have video to prove it) I took tons of pictures that will find there way on here when I get back to Greenville.
When we got back to Englewood, I showered since I was wet and everything from the many streams and mud puddles that we crossed. It also snowed a lot in the mountains which made the experience 10 times cooler, literally. Haha. Dinner consisted of some awesome pizza and I chilled for the rest of the night with Matt. CSI and Fringe are legit shows. For realz yo! Matt told me some more stuff about the youth group at EA and everytime I hear about them, I get more and more excited about the summer. Apparently, they are excited more me to be here as well. Sweet! I can't wait til June comes. Its gonna be an amazing 2 months! God is gonna work like crazy in my life and the lives of the youth! Glory! Well its time to sleep some more. Lazy Saturday! Love you all Until next time...

Blessings
Joe
"The tongue, has the power of life and death..."

WOW, I laugh a lot.

Today was really an awesome day. Except for my morning run. I've been running a few miles a day for the past few weeks and today, running at about 5,000 to 6,000 feet in the air really was not fun. The air was really thick from like reallt when I took my first step. Matt and everyone told me that this will go away once I get used to the Colorado air. I hope they are right because I felt like I was gonna die. Haha. Jody, another staff guy for EA is super funny. We literally laughed all day long. It was so great. He might be the fnniest guy I ever met and I know a lot of funny people. Like super funny people. Jody had me rollin. Unreal!
I also had breakfast at the church and Matt cooked probably the best biscuits and gravy ever! So good. Breakfast was cool because I got to meet Darren and Don. Matt, TJ and Jody have talked everyone up in the church to be great people and it was cool to finally meet some of the people that I have heard so much about.
Matt, TJ, Jody and I talked about my internship a ton today and it was really a great meeting. I threw out so many ideas and they liked most of them. Haha. I can say now that June 2nd is when I will become a temporary resident of Colorado. Its going to be sweet! I have so many cool ideas that I want to implement with youth and everything and I basically have free reign to do a lot of awesome things. I'm so ready just to get out here and get to know all of these kids. God has such a great plan for this summer and today was a day where the Lord really started fleshing what He wanted to see me do with my time over the next few months. It's so cool!
Lastly, we had a cookout at Matt's house and I saw so many old friends and new people from EA. It was a real fun time to just fellowship and hang with the people that I will see everyday for the next 2 months. Real exciting. It's super early right now. Like 5am so sorry if I haven't been more specific with my thoughts.
In a few hours, I'm going ATVing and hiking in the mountains with the guys. It's going to be amazing. Today is going to be a sweet day. I have to make sure I get batteries for my camera because these pictures will be must-see for real! Well time to spend some time with the Lord Almighty. Until next time folks.

Blessings
Joe
Proverbs 10.19

TV in the air!

So today my day started super early because of the serious load of homework that I have with the year winding down so Im really tired right now but today has been an awesome day so I have to blog about it. Class was class, work was work but after all that I got to head out to the St Louis airport to go to Colorado. Yep bloggin from Colorado folks. Haha. The airport experience was kinda cool, kinda not cool. Here's what I mean...

The security checkpoints are extra annoying. I have to take my belt off? Really? But I do know that the likelyhood of someone stabbing me or taking over my plane is pretty low

The food is real good but why did I just pay 12 bucks for a fast food meal?

Why is it so hot in airports!

See you get the good and the bad at airports but when I got on the plane, things started to get better. Frontier airlines will be my airline of choice from now on since they have Direct TV! Yep folks, I watched American Idol, the yankees game, womens bowling and minute to win it while 30,000 ft. In the air. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Matt, my intern director picked me up at the airport and we talked about Englewood Assembly which is the church I will be interning at all summer, the whole way into Englewood and let me just say this. I know the Lord wants me here. EA is all about the broken people, the convicts, the drug addicts, I mean you name it, they want to touch their lives for the Lord. I'm pumped to meet them all over the next few days. I'm also really excited to really grow in my walk with the Lord this summer. This will be a huge preperation period in my life and its really is gonna be a great summer.

After some great burgers and tons of laughs (mainly by me) at Freddy's with TJ, Tyler and Matt its time to hit the hay. Tommorrow is gonna be a great but long day but I'm pumped to see what God's gonna do this trip. Glory! Until next time...

Blessings
Joe
Proverbs 10.19

Miracles

Random thoughts from today

1.School is almost finished and I'm gonna be swamped with stuff until next weekend
2.I'm going to Colorado tommorrow, so that will be a legit break
3.Lakers are in the Western Conference finals
4.Running after not running for a few days sucks
5. Life without facebook and twitter makes my life 10 times more productive

So today in my COR class, we talked about miracles and it was honestly one of the greatest class periods I have ever experienced for this class. My prof, Dr. Iller asked the class if anyone had any "miracle" stories to share. At first everyone was playing it scarred and not saying anything but then the stories started to flow like crazy. One guy said that his dad got electrocuted and lived thru it. Another girl said that her best friend had water on her brain and was supposed to be brain damaged for the rest of her life but instead she is an amazing singer and dancer. She also is going to college next year. Another guy said that he was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease when he was six and it almost killed him. The disease was supposed to prevent him from playing any sports. Well he plays soccer at GC. One girl said that her father was on life support for 4 months and her friends prayed for her dad everyday at church camp and he was somehow healed. Now all I can really say to this is, GLORY TO GOD. Science tries to tell us that these events can't a possibly be more than a coincidence but the Lord is not a God of chance at all.
I started to think about all of the miracles in the bible. Jesus turning water into wine. Healing the blind man with spit. Raising Lazurus from the dead. I mean really there are so many unexplainable occurances in the bible that can be classified as miracles. It's amazing. In the mist of thinking about miracles, I thought about the fact that, so many times in life we are faced with things in our lives that seem impossible but God can make anything happen. Maybe you need a miracle to work in your life and if you do, keep praying because God works in mysterious ways and ultimately God always shows up and makes the blind see or turns water into wine in your life. Whatever way that needs to be done is up to the Lord. I'm writing a term paper on Miracles so I'm pumped to get to learn more things about miracles and how it affects and relates to my life.
Colorado is tommorrow and I'm so excited to hang out with my internship director and all of the other great people that I will be hanging with over the next few days. I'm even more excited because I have my mom's digital camera so I will hopefully be uploading some sweet pics for all of you to see. I'm looking forward to really dialoging about the internship this summer. If you don't know I will be interning at a great church near Denver. I will mainly be working with the youth so it will be a blast. I'm pumped to say the least. Well I gotta hit some serious homework so that's all for now. Until next time everyone. Love you all


Blessings
Joe Canady
Proverbs 10:19

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Who are you Lord.

So first of all let me just say that this weekend was so great since I got to be at home with my family for mother's day. It was so refreshing to be with my family and really just get to hang out with my best friend Luke as well. I hadn't seen anybody from back home in almost 2 months so it was awesome!
Sunday was a great day since I told my mom a few weeks ago that I wanted to bbq at the house. My mom or any of my other family members knew that I could cook let alone bbq so they were all putting an entire mothers day dinner at stake without knowing the outcome. I suprised everyone though with my amazing ribs, chicken, burgers, brats, pork chops and hot dogs. I was extremely proud of myself and happy that I could bless my mom, family and some of our closest friends. It was such a great day. Especially since the Cavs lost, much to the delight of my mom. Haha.
Well today I made the long trek back to Greenville and during the 4 hour trip, I thought about this question that my pastor, Paul proposed a few weeks ago in a message on doubt. The question is "Who are you, Lord" I really thought about who God is to me and here are some of the things that came to mind...

Healer
Redeemer
My Everything
True judge
God of Justice
King of Glory
Amazing
Lover of my soul

Now really God is so much more than what I can put into words and I've been really realizing this more and more over the past month. I've been going through a serious storm over the past few weeks and as I said in a recent post, God has really been moving in my life in an incredible way through this. I hate that I can't be super specific about what's happening in my life but I hope in the future I will be able to cause its really amazing.
But what I want to end with this...my Lord is really someone who can't even be put in words. It's really unexplainable how God works and I have no clue what's gonna happen in the next few months but it has to be HIS way and not my way. I know if its his way, I will be fine and he will get the Glory in the end. That's what its about, guys and gals. I truly believe that if we are obedience to the Lord and fall into his plan and desires for our life, God will supply your every need and he will be glorified in your life. I have to rememeber that all the time, these days because of how hard, painful and difficult it is to just be silent and helpless in my situation at times. Obey and God will get the Glory. When times are hard, Obey and God will get the Glory. When it becomes too much to take, Obey and God will get the Glory.
It's pretty easy for me to say that but its hard to do at times because when you want something so bad, its hard to not have it and not know whether or not your going to have it again but its getting easier because of how great my God is. We serve a God who will never leave or forsake us. A God who is always right. A God who loves us more than we can every imagine. I know the Lord always has my back so I have to choice to obey his will for my life. Every single day is a choice. I thought about this a few days ago and its so true and its how I will say goodbye to you all til tommorrow. Love the 3 people who might read this...
"Everyday is a battle, but my Lord fights for me"

Blessings
Joe
Psalm 37.4

MOM-Oh yeah, I love her.

So this weekend is mother's day weekend and I'm so excited to go home and see my mom and grill out for her and all that good stuff. It's gonna be amazing. I truly have to say that my mom is the best mom ever. See she raised me and my sister by herself for the most part and I would say she's done a good job. Don't ya think? (shoot, that was corny) So many things about me can be attributed to my mom. I love meeting new people and hanging with friends. Like for real its super awesome. My mom is the queen of having friends. She knows everyone! My mom's laugh is extra, extra loud. My laugh is loud but my mom's laugh blows mine out of the water. I know its hard to believe but its very true. My mom also loves the Lord and really kept me in church all of my life. It's great because she supports my career path and my relationship with God. I kinda realized this a few days ago when I was thinking about going home, and honestly my mom was one of the main reasons why I never missed church all thru high school. Despite us going to 2 different churches from when I was about 11 til now, she would always get me up for church cause I would be super dragging from my usually long Saturday night. "Terrell (my middle name), you goin to church?" I can hear it in my head now. She would always make sure that I wouldn't oversleep. I didn't realize at the time how important that was for me and how much my mom has always supported me. Every sermon, i've ever preached, she has been there in the front row. Every bowling competition (yes, I was a beat bowler growing up), she was there. Football games, band performances (sometimes on the same day), she was there. I think about it and I realize how blessed I am because of my mom. Through the Lord and my mom, I want for very little things and for that I am eternally grateful and this weekend and everyday, I want to show my appreciation to the Lord and also my great mom.
I want to encourage everyone to truly take this weekend to honor the special mom in your life. Bottom line, is if it wasn't mothers, we would exist. Dishes wouldn't get done, laundry wouldn't get done, kids would get nurtured. Moms do alot and really are probably the most important part of a successful family. It's such a blessing to have strong mothers in this world that sacrifice for their kids and their families in every way. I LOVE YOU MOM and I can't wait to be home with you this weekend. Well hopefully, my next blog post will come from Da Brook but if not I will give a weekend recap on Monday. Until next time...

Joe Canady
Ephesians 4:29

Uncomfortable

So this will be a bunch of random thoughts that have been rollin through my head over the past few weeks. You've been warned. I think they all come together at some point.

So the past few weeks have been unbelievably challenging. I've had to walk through things that I have seen others around me walk through and really I've worked extra hard not to have to deal with but hey at a moment of weakness, I straight up opened myself up. I don't regret it but at the same time I don't wish the feelings and emotions that have ran rampid in my life on anyone. For Realz.
I never thought of myself to be an emotional guy at all until a few weeks ago and even now my desire is to never be vunerable and never put my self in a position to look weak. It's crazy how God breaks you down and works some crazy healing in our lives. Broken, confused, rejected, striaght up feeling worthless, I mean it was all me a few weeks ago but through the love, grace and mercy that God showed me over the course of a few day I started to realize how I have failed the Lord in a lot of areas in my life and he had to break me to get me on track in my life. Tough stuff to say the least but in the end, I'm so thankful for the last month of my life. I've learned so much more about the plan and the purpose and the calling that the Lord has on my life. It's so crazy. God is good.
What really has been on my heart the past few days is the fact that alot of my life the past few weeks has been super uncomfortable. I mean, I am honestly helpless in the situation that I'm in right now because when God delievered me from the brokenness and the terrible place that I was at a few weeks ago, I promised Him, some of my friends and myself that I would give the situation and everything else that is going on in my life, completely to Him. WOW, I can't even begin to tell you how this makes me feel from day to day. I second guess what I'm doing everyday, but then I have to say things to myself like, "God is in control" "He is seated on the throne" "If its meant to be, it will be." "If it's not God's will, then let His will be done" Now I can't truly say that this makes everything 100 percent better what it does do is it makes me realize more and more that if I can't trust God to take care of me in every way then He isn't who He said He is. And I know that ain't true at all
God is the ruler of everything, He makes no mistakes. He loves me more than anything and he has a plan for my life. (Jeramiah 29:11) I mean in the bible God promised Abraham and Sarah a boy and then Issac came along. Later on God, asks Abraham to sacrifice Issac and Abraham is willing to obey God. How uncomfortable is that? For real? Your gonna kill your son? WHOA? How in the world can I not be obedient to the Lord in this situation when people like Abraham would give his son, in obedience to the Lord. I am humbled beyond measure by stories like this all over the bible and what I know for a fact is that God never leaves us, nor forsakes us and though this situation is hard and difficult I know that God has a plan and I have to fall into it with reckless abandon. Easier said than done people.
I will close with this. I was on my morning run yesterday and I felt God speak this to me...."When are you gonna start being uncomfortable?" You know what in life, especially as a Christian at a Christian school, there aren't to many times were my life requires a ton of uncomfortableness. These past few weeks have been real tough but outside of that, what in my life is uncomfortable. I sit in the front row in every class. I sweat hard in front of girls at times. See what I know that these next few months will bring for me is a level of uncomfortableness. This summer I'm going out to Colorado to intern at a church and I will not be comfortable. I;ve already decided that. My life is not my own, and it's really time to start acting like that. You want to know why people cry about things like the health care bill or gas going up, or tithing? it's because we believe that what we have on this earth is our own and we don't want to be uncomfortable. For some of us, not knowing about what healthcare is going to look like in the future is uncomfortable. Having to pay more money for gas or paying our tithe to the Lord instead of going out to dinner those 3 times a week or getting that extra game for the xbox on a given week, its uncomfortable.
The bottom line guys is that God has called us to live uncomfortable lives. Jesus lived an uncomfortable life all the way up til he dies on the cross. Eating with tax collectors, loving on people no matter what. Jesus was perfect but in all reality we can look at situations like that to be uncomfortable. Not the norm. Jesus died for us. He dies on a cross for us. Uncomfortable. I'm not by any means a legit uncomfortable guy but I'm working on it every day. For me, holding my toungue right now about certain things is super uncomfortable because for so long I have just said whatever to get a laugh or looked down at others when I'm no where near being perfect. Now, I throw out Ephesians 4:29 and God is working to move my uncomfortableness to a feeling of being unstoppable. Folks when we start being uncomfortable in our lives, we become unstoppable because the Lord empowers us to do things that we never even dreamed or could have ever imagined. The Lord is God and I live each day to serve him and praise his name.
I'm so glad I'm blogging again because I really love it and I pray that I can continue to pound out one a day. My thoughts are really what gets me through every day because God speaks and downloads some crazy things in my life and I pray that it really starts to move me into action. well I gotta attempt to do some homework now. until next time...

Joe Canady
Ephesians 4:29

Lukewarm

So as you already know if you've read my last few post posts, I have been reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and it's really been working on me a lot this week. Last night I read chapter 5 which entitled "Profile of the Lukewarm." "Here's some interesting thoughts that Francis lays out in the chapter...

" Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for 'extreme' Christians, not average ones. Lukewarm people call 'radical' what Jesus expected of all his followers. (James 1:22, James 4:17, Matt 21:28-31)

Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbours, co-workers or friends. They do not want to be rejected, nor do they want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private issues like religion. (Matt 10:32-33)

Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, part of their lives. But only a part. They give Him a section of their time, their money and their thoughts, but He isn't allowed to control their lives. (Luke 9:57-62)


Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven. Daily life is mostly focussed on today's to-do list, this week's schedule and next month's vacation. Rarely, if ever, do they consider the life to come. Regarding this, C. S. Lewis wrote, 'If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.' (Phil 3:18-20, Col 3:2)

Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and taking risks for God. (1 Tim 6:17-18, Matt 10:28)

Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens - they have their saving account. They don't need God to help them - they have their retirement plan in place. They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live - they have life figured and mapped out. They don't depend on God on a daily basis - their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God. (Luke 12:16-21, Amos 6:1)"

Now Chan laid out a ton of other things that lukewarm people struggle with in their lives in Chapter 5 but these really spoke to me and my life personally. I mean I haven't had to live by faith a lot in my life because i feel like God has blessed me in so many ways, for example I have been pretty tight with money over last few weeks basically having to depend on my parents for cash a lot and I have been looking for another job. So today, I get an opportunity to earn some cash doing some work that was completely unexpected. Things like that I think enables me to not live so much on faith. I'm moved by stories all the time of people doing unbelievable things for the Lord but most of the time, I don't act for many reasons and it was really shown to me through reading "Profile of the Lukewarm" that I need to change all of these Lukewarm tendencies that are in my life. Let's face it, we all have times in our life where we aren't giving God everything we got in everything we do but God desires for us to recognize when that's taking place and fix your heart. Revelation 3:16 "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Thald be would be terrible for God to spit my out of his mouth, therefore I'm gonna take Chan's call to examine my heart and life and change whatever is allowing me to be lukewarm towards God and Christianity. I think you should do the same so I am going to do the same so I'm going to leave you with this question the Francis raises about our lives as Christians.

Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words half-hearted, lukewarm and partially committed fit better?

Think about it and act. See you tommorrow.

Blessings
Joe
Revelation 3:16

Joe the Time Maximizer

Whaddup World! So all day yesterday I was thinking about what I should name my next blog post. Here are some of my ideas

Lookin like a Fool with your Vans in the Snow

What a Day

WOW(not world of war craft)

My life without Facebook-Day One

Haha, now I know that all of your favorites out of all of these has to be the first one and until I realized how great these past few days have been because of my improve time management, it was the obvious choice. It snowed like 6 or 7 inches on Sunday and yesterday as i was walking, I thought about how silly I am for not having a pair of boots to walk through the snow in. I love vans so much and the checker pair that I have now are my shoe of choice on most days but on a snowy day like yesterday I kind of wished that I had some boots so my feet and socks wouldn't get wet. I also would look more like a person from Northern Illinois who has a handle on how to dress in the winter with snow. Today was much better for my feet so the vans will be sticking around for now.
Now the next 3 titles are what I really want to talk about. I absolutely love not being on Facebook, the web and not watching lots of t.v. as I did up to Sunday. I have gotten so much stuff done over the last two days, its crazy and super great. Yesterday after work and class, I came home to study for about 3 hours and then I took a test while I watched One Tree Hill, one of my favorite shows ever. After this I left home to do some homework in the library with friends which was fun and then come home after an exhausting day to hit the hay.
Okay so this might not sound like a super cool day but I'm very proud of myself for not wasting my day away like I have the tendency to do at times because as Francis Chan talks about in "Crazy Love" James 4:14 reminds us that our lives here on earth are "a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away." I think that everyone knows this but they don't take it to heart. That's why facebook, tv, video games and so many other things can be detrimental to people's lives at time. I read an article for one of my classes in which a girl talked about how much time she wastes on Facebook. Sarah checks her facebook a dozen times in a given day. That's so crazy but I have to admit that I wasn't far behind her. There are so many distractions in life that are hard to overcome at times but if you do, your life can end up being so much better. I've been learning that over the past two days and it's been great. I write for the school paper's sports section and usually I procrastinate to the point where almost everyone else on the staff has their articles in and I'm still scrambling to get all of mines in on time. In the absence of Facebook, t.v. and all of the other distractions in my life, I was able to pound out all of my articles that I need for tomorrow TODAY!It feels great and I know that my colleagues will appreciate it so much.
I've been finishing my reading of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and its pretty sweet! I haven't gotten too much farther than I was on Sunday but I'm going to read a few chapters tonight so my next post will definitely include some Chan words of knowledge. Good Stuff. Well I gotta get going since I have small group and some other things going on tonight. Much Love folks and see ya next time.

Blessings
Joe Canady
Philippians 4:13


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WHO DAT!

Okay so for some reason its been over a week since I last blogged on here but I have good reason for the aforementioned blog neglect. My computer has been giving me issues so I couldn't use it for a good chunk of last week and I also have been pretty busy lately with school stuff and life in general. I will admit that laziness has factored into it as well but I have to start blogging regularly because I want to stop wasting time on FB and other sites that are super time consuming and I feel like a lot of things are going to be going in the next few weeks that will be "blog worthy." That brings me to a major thing that happened this week. First off, the Super Bowl happened and the New Orleans Saints showed that they have come a long way since they were called the "aints" and beat the Indy Colts for their first Lombardi trophy. I have been telling people that I wasn't really too into the game because the super bowl has lost its mystique in my life. I loved watching because I was surrounded by some hilarious guys who happen to be some of my best friends. I went home last weekend for my niece's birthday and also to watch the super bowl and something totally unexpected happened. Spring Break is about a month and really I was planning on going on a fun trip with my friends from back home and just have a great time with people that I love but God changed that. Saturday while I was sitting at home watching t.v. before the big party for my niece Tanaya, New Orleans popped into my hear. Not Reggie Bush and Drew Brees, but the people of New Orleans came into my mind and at the time I really didn't know why. I mean I had remembered the email that I had gotten the week before about a missions trip to NO for spring break but I had never considered going. I knew that God was trying to tell me something so I ended up praying about it for a few days and it had become clear to me that I had 2 spring breaks and they both went to doing things that had nothing to do with God and it was all about me and this trip was an opportunity to give Spring Break 2010 to God and allow myself to be used by him to touch the lives of a lot of people in New Orleans. After I made the decision on Tuesday of this week, I had to act fast because my application, deposit and 35 fundraising letters were all due on Friday. I got everything turned in and now I will be going to New Orleans for a week to work to continue to rebuild the area. Hurricane Katrina was 5 years ago but there are still so many people who are still recovering and I'm excited to go to lend a hand. It's gonna be great.
Despite this trip happening, I've been feeling a bit distant from the Lord and I know part of the reason why. Life has a way of being so busy and so full of distractions that God can quickly drop down on the priority list and that's exactly what has happened in my life. When your too busy for God, that's a big issue and I have decided that that can't be me anymore, so this week, I'm gonna restructure my life to make sure that God is number 1 again. One of those things will be getting away from Facebook and all the other social networks that I do on a regular basis. Another will be limiting my T.V. watching to about an hour a day or maybe less. I really only want to see Biggest Loser. LOVE THAT SHOW.
Earlier today I picked up a book that I have been wanting to read for a while and it's called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I have so far only read a few pages and it is already blowing me away. I am gonna read it this week and I'm sure I will have at least one blog about it this week. Well, tomorrow starts another week and I'm pumped to see what God does in it. Until next time folks.

Blessings
Joe Canady
"just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matt. 20:28
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All good things must begin...

Okay so since the new year started, I wanted to start back with the blog thing since it was awesome doing it last summer during my internship but I never got around to it...until now. So earlier I got a ridiculous email that caused me wanna punch someone. Instead of getting in trouble or going to jail, I thought I would just blog to release some steam. This isn't how I planned on starting the blog back up but I'm glad that I'm finally back. So many things have happened since the last time I have sung my life song on here that it would take me a long time to go through everything so over the next few weeks, I will probably be talking about some of the cool things that have been going on since last year but the main reason I feel like I need this blog is to really put my thoughts and desires and everything that is Joe. I'm hoping this replaces Facebook and all of the other things that make getting on the internet so addicting and time consuming but who knows. So starting now, Joe's Lifesong is back.
Last week marked the start of second semester and it was exciting for because among other things, classes started, the newspaper is back and this is semester 6 of my college career which is crazy. Soon I will start getting overwhelmed with homework, work and everything else that always comes at a more than steady rate after the first few weeks are done but right now, life is good. I'm excited to see what God is gonna do in my life over these next few months. I sense that these next few months are gonna be some of the best of my life. Now clue what that means for me but God is in control and I'm ready for whatever he brings my way. So I work at the computer repair office on campus and while I work I always listen to music. One of my favorite CD's to listen to is Fee's Hope Rising. Please listen to it because it is awesome. Much love and see you tomorrow!

Blessings
Joe
Matt. 20:28
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