we are LOAN owners!

Hey guys,

Mark here to say that we now have a place. You're all welcome anytime. The closing wasn't as crazy as I thought it was gonna be. The "stack" of papers people must sign was hyped up a little too much. Maybe it wasn't so bad because I had been practicing my signature...

Denise said I needed to do a better job of expressing my feelings on the blog...haha. I'm not laughing at her, but with her. But, to honor that request, and not to write mere itinerical entries I'll tell you a little about my feelings.

I feel like we're moving to the promised land. This is what I wrote in my Bible this morning while reading Leviticus. I laughed at myself b/c I'm ridiculous but I am just so grateful for how the Lord has provided for us. He has performed some of those freaky financial things for us that you hear about during "sharing time". He's really been faithful. And secondly, just the fact that we've been in this transition mode from this apartment to the house for about 2 months now its just really begun to wear me out. So I can't wait to open those boxes!

The Lord has really lifted me. He is so great and big. My language is so inadequate. Reading about these great leaders in our church history class has humbled me and made me realize how little I have done. (i mean, there are dudes in the reformation period that baptized over 100,000 people!) But that's where the Lord has filled me with joy, because I realized that I am only a worshipper, not some guy who's got something to prove or do. So that's helped me focus on him, and his greatness, the way he allowed those men to rough him up and laid his hands down to be nailed. Its so different from me, I use all my energys to save my own life, to make myself look/feel good. He aggressively lost his own life. That was his mission.

If you want to get a more clear pic of this, listen to Matt Chandler's podcast on his present series of Luke, he has totally re-opened my eyes to the way Jesus lived with the sole purpose of dying to himself. UNBELIEVABLE new stuff I've never heard.

Matt Chandler - the Village Church podcast