THE RUCKUS JOURNAL

I woke up this morning feeling much better then I was feeling yesterday. My throat is still a little sore but the fatigued feeling has gone away. I was planning on working all day on the DVD in hopes of having it all finished before the new track of ATC starts tomorrow but Z told me to take the day off.

I don’t like resting. It has always been a tendency of mine to push myself to the extreme , then crash and burn. I want to learn how to not do this all the time. I think today is a great day to start.

I woke up today with a sore throat thinking I could just drink some Emergen-C and maybe shake it off by getting on with my day. Throughout my time sitting in front of the computer chopping through footage my body has felt progressively weaker and weaker. I was able to get some good food in my belly a little while ago, so maybe that will help me fight the fatigue feeling. My only goal right now is to finish this DVD for the teens before a fresh 350 come here on Monday afternoon.

Peace.

The third night of camp YWAM’s team extreme paid us a visit. I was able to get up close with the camera, even to the point of getting soda sprayed on me and the camera…thanks guys!!! After watching these guys I was inspired to bulk up a little…..

Brent and KJ Steeno have done an amazing job leading everyone this summer. Either Brent is preaching in this picture or telling a very ridiculous story about himself……..

A brilliant mind of the 21st century, that’s all I have to say about Jackson. For 15 years old this kid has taught me much about life, God and creativity. I forget that he is so young. I am looking forward to becoming his best friend.

Who doesn’t love Dave Sliker??????? I first met Dave when I was leading a prayer room team back in the days when they were first beginning. When I stopped leading a team I was bummed because that meant missing the Monday meetings with Dave and a bunch of other amazing peeps. I am just glad that I get to see him everyday now and hopefully I am invited to the fantasy football draft again, cuz we all know how last year went??(just ask Joel)

As I have been working as hard as I know how to on filming and editing I am starting to see what it takes to really make quality videos. I have always had the desire to learn how to do it well but now it is happening and I am actually doing it. Right now I am going through all the footage that we have filmed of the camp in the past two weeks and formatting it to a DVD for the teens to take with them.

The above picture was taken while I was filming Stephen, a counselor for ATC. Thanks Andrew for the pic!

The first annual Fascinate conference is happening right now. The goal of this conference is similar to all of IHOP’s conferences, we desire people to encounter Jesus Christ. I have been spending much of my time in the last two weeks surrounded by zealous teenagers who are unashamedly going after God. I have been inspired by these young ones who are laying down their summer to sit at His feet.

As I wrote the other day about getting back to the basics I think being fascinated by God is a “basic.” If we are satisfied in God then what else are we going to do but choose Him over everything else that doesn’t satisfy us. Our road to freedom is through the beauty of Jesus.

Ps. 119:37 “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.”

Allen Hood is speaking this morning. I pray that God would cause every dead heart to come alive in the name of Jesus .

Friday June 27, 2008 9:25 am

It took just three hours for the dentist to give me a root canal and a couple of temporary crowns. Two weeks from now I will have the permanent ones in place. Here’s what I appreciated about today’s operation: numbness in the mouth. Here’s what I didn’t appreciate: the nasty taste that was left in my mouth from all the weird stuff I had to bite down on. That flouride tasting stuff that is overly sweet and tingly when it hits your mouth.

It also looks like I am going to be taking a couple weeks off from hockey just until the crowns come in and lesson learned: always wear a mask and mouth guard.

You are probably wondering why I would post a picture of a women’s mouth on my blog. Its just a really good picture of strong, healthy, white teeth. Recently, while playing hockey, I caught a stick to the mouth. This caused both front teeth to chip. I will show you later what that has done to my life. Like most things that happen to me I run with it. I’ve had the best time of my life taking goofy pictures of myself and talking with a lisp. I am getting a couple of crowns and a root canal tomorrow morning, so it shouldn’t be long before I have a normal smile like the one you see in the picture.

I’ve been considering this verse in 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

Paul’s pastoral heart, in this verse, is discerning where he feels the minds of the Corinthians are at. They are not just struggling with their carnal desires, but in the midst of working out their salvation Paul feels they could be making “relationship with God” a complicated matter. This verse strikes a chord with me because I feel as if God has been doing this in my life. People of God, get back to the basics of your faith.

The reason why God would call us back the simplicity of following Him is because He knows our tendency to want to perform, earn and strive for His attention and favor. This is why Jesus spends much of his ministry presenting to people what He is looking for in the hearts of men. The harsh rebukes to the pharisees reveal to us that God is not impressed with “spiritual disciplines” nor does He say we shouldn’t do those things, i.e pray, fast, worship, give our money, but rather he is looking for the surrender of our hearts to Him.

Conclusion: the first and foremost basic principle of our faith is love. Let everything you do today be out of a heart that is hungry for the Love of God. Make it your aim to love those that God has put in your life. Love your spouse, your friends, co-workers and family.

I wish I had some video footage available of my dance moves as a seventh grader. It was like watching the over confident kid take a few steps forward and move his feet, only to find that in the midst of his courage he was still the only one dancing in the crowd. I wish you could look forward to watching this but I don’t have that available now but sooner or later I will post some video footage of ATC and all the stuff we’ve been working hard on.

I have tried to set some blog goals for myself but haven’t really stuck to anything but since I am on a week long roll of blogging everyday I am going to go ahead and tell you what to look forward to.

- I am crafting story number one of the Mitsubishi 3000 tales. After writing about the mileage hitting 170,000 I said I would start telling some classic car stories.

- I will continue to write on the Fear of the Lord and Forgiveness. Both of these I believe are vital to our walk with Christ.

- The Pursuit of Happiness. I will write some more posts on happiness and the tensions we face in our culture today about this pursuit.

-VIDEOS: Just be looking for them. That’s all I have been doing the last couple of weeks is making videos for Awakening Teen Camp.

Much love to everyone who still reads this blog.

Thanks for all the support.