Inklings...

Alright, time to write down all the "amazing thoughts" I had while I was stored-up inside this week.

...um...

Oh! Did anyone else think it was amazing when the snow came, then the ice, and then more snow, and we ended up with an ice sandwich? I loved walking on it. Soft-crunch-soft.

...uh....

Some people announced their favorite album of 2008- Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, which ironically was released in 2007, then re-released in 2008. You should check it out if you feel like some indie folk singer-songwriter stuff.

...so...

President-elect Obama announced that he would be having Rick Warren give the opening prayer at his inauguration. Many people were in an uproar about it, seeing it as a "slap in the face of the LGBT community". It is interesting to see how the language of tolerance and openness and unification is supported by almost everyone, but when it comes to action, and these values are made into facts...well not so appreciated or taken into thought then.

...ya...

I hope you will be continually praying with me for peace and reconciliation in various areas of the world. Tension between India and Pakistan seems to be increasing there, especially after the terrorist bombings in Mumbai. The war between Hamas and Israel continues into its fourth day today, and will probably only get worse. In the US we heard of the tragic murder of several at a Christmas party, and several hundred were massacred at Christmas celebrations in the Congo.

...hmm...

I miss everyone, and I pray that each of you had a wonderful last couple of weeks. Definitely looking forward to the New Year, what God is doing, and how we can join in!

-John

P.S. What amazing thoughts did you have over the last few of weeks?

Merry Christmas!

Today in the town of David
a Savior has been born to you;
He is Christ the Lord!

This Christmas we want to wish you all the best as we celebrate the birth of Christ - the gift of God’s own son to a world in need – a gift given for you and for me.

I am so thankful for the birth of Christ, the birth of life. A life not just of God's own son, but a life, a new life for you and I to be lived out in and through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christmas is not just a day, a holiday, a season, a time of the year, a tradition, or a happening. Christmas is God's gift of love, grace and life to a world, a desperate world, in need of a savior; the SAVIOR.

THE PROMISE
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will bge on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace".
-Isaiah 9:6

OUR RESPONSE
"Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods".
-Psalm 95:1-2

"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."

Luke 1:68-79

Come, Lord Jesus

Come, Lord Jesus

advent conspiracy - check it out

Christmas can [still] change the world

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.

So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.

And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?
Welcome to Advent Conspiracy.

[Worship fully]
[Spend less]
[Give more]
[Love all]

For more, go to: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

Because it does not seem to want to stop snowing outside, I am considering some of my favorite things. Imagine what the next blog will be if the snow keeps comin'

After checking out my favs, we'd love to hear about your favorites too...

Candy bar: 5th Avenue

Artist growing up: Boyz II Men

Music: Jeremy Camp & Hillsong

Movie: Remember The Titans & The Pursuit of Happyness

Beverage: Coke Zero

Television show: House & Ultimate Fighther

Childhood memory: Riding bikes @ Sun River

Book: Wild Goose Chase & In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day

Verse: Romans 5:3-5
Doing right now: Watching the snow fall








Post: Andrew Anderson

Funky Friday: SNOW DAY!!

Alright kiddos, we sure have had a bizarro week. First snow, then more snow, a little ice, lots of ice, warming, cooling, snow snow snow, and more of it all coming soon!

With that in mind, here's your FUNKY FRIDAY quests:

Choose one of the following:
1. Write a haiku (5-7-5), about the last week.
2. Post a snow/ice/cold picture you took during the week.
3. Tell me your favorite Christmas tradition and why.

I will start by doing all three!

-My haiku:
The R.V. was cold.
My shepherd chased a poodle.
Christmas in six days!

-My picture is two posts down!

-Favorite Christmas Tradition:
Getting up at like 6AM check my stocking, then watching A Christmas Story on TBS till everyone else gets up. Then watching A Christmas Story another 3 times during the day because it's on for 24-hours!

Grace and peace,
-John

I hate snow...but it makes for an awesome chase shot.

The shepherd is my dog, the furball-poodle is my sister's.

Enjoy the weather, stuck inside, chasing poodles, or otherwise.

MAKE SURE TO POST YOUR SNOW PICS!

-John

The Inn Elves!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/0Yw9l1Su8LQ6BmvFFShp

Thanks to Kristin for this wonderful gift!

P.S. Andrew is the angriest looking Elf I have ever seen!

Funky Friday!! Time to philosophize...

Well, it's Funky Friday again!

Today's quest? Reflect on this quote from Tim Keel in his book "Intuitive Leadership":

We desperately need to discover, recover, learn and live out the ancient Christian practice of hospitality, which is the postmodern means of evangelism.

(Postmodern: of, relating to, or being a theory that involves a radical reappraisal of modern assumptions about culture, identity, history, or language" Basically it is the culture we live in now, after questioning the "progress" of the enlightenment.)

Do you agree with the statement that hospitality could be the means of evangelism in our postmodern culture? What other avenues do you see for evangelism in our particular context?

Also, make sure to try and see the moon tonight, it's supposed to be huge!

-John

ponder

exciting - these are exciting times! we serve an exciting God who is in the business of doing exciting things.

focus - much like daniel in the karate kid, i am interested in the art of catching flies with chopsticks; in other words, finding focus for the things that matter.

passion - paul says that it is good to be zealous about the things of God. it is amazing to me that we as people can expel passion about things that are trivial - sports, clothes, music, shoes, etc. passion is a gift from God and when put to use in and for the things of God...buckle up and hold on tight because i believe that we're in for the ride of our lives.

desire - desire to live life in and through God. after all, he is the author (creator) and perfecter of life. what better way to live life then in the arms of the one who knows the ins and outs like the back of his hand, literally?

persistence - "if at first you don't first succeed, try, try, and try again". paul says it best in romans; "not only so but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope". amen

~Andrew

Funky Friday

Every Friday in one of my classes we celebrate Spieltag, (which supposedly has something to do with sports or games or something); the gist of it what it means for us is that it is going to be a different type of class.

We don't celebrate Spieltag here at the Inn though, cause it's not a sweet alliteration like FUNKY FRIDAY! Guess what! TODAY IS FUNKY FRIDAY!

Today's Funky Friday task:

Come up with an amazing metaphor, story, object lesson, allegory, analogy, simile, symbol, idea etc. about/for unity that doesn't revolve around the body or a house.

I will start. The unity that Christians should have with one another is like a rainbow. We can see all of the individual colors, and yet the edges between them aren't definable, and ultimately they all come together to create pure white.

Funky Friday...go!!

-John

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (1) This is the scripture passage from Paul's letter to the Roman church that has continued to rattle around inside my head for the last 48 hours or so. What does transformation look like? What does it mean? What form(s) does it take on? To help flush out this idea in my mind, I turn to the literary definition first.

transform |transˈfôrm|
verb [ trans. ]
make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of : lasers have transformed cardiac surgery | he wanted to transform himself into a successful businessman.
• [ intrans. ] undergo such a change : an automobile that transformed into a boat.
• change the voltage of (an electric current).
• Mathematics change (a mathematical entity) by transformation. (2)

Now that's a mouthful, no?! It seems easy enough and yet we can make it so complex. To take it a step further, I sought another vantage point. Academia per my five year old boy.

One of my son, Kaedon's favorite movies in recent years is Transformers. When asked, his favorite part of the movie is, "Pretty much...how they shoot. Um. I also like how Bumble Bee is frozen at first, but then he breaks out and is changed and they win over the bad guys." (3)

Transformation is more than a Total Money Makeover (4) or being The Biggest Loser (5). Although these things are the end-goal, they themselves are not the means to an end. The transformation, while the results may produce fruit externally, must first begin internally - a process that begins with making a decision to be transformed - a process that begins in the mind.

So, what does this idea of transformation look like? Where and when does it begin?

We ask you to weight in...


(1) Romans 12:2 - NIV
(2) New Oxford American Dictionary
(3) Transformers; DreamWorks Pictures, 2007
(4) Total Money Makeover; Dave Ramsey
(4) The Biggest Loser; NBC Television

It's Wednesday somewhere

It's Wednesday somewhere...what are you doing?

Right now I am at Lil' Cooperstown; an amazing utopia of mostly autographed sports memorabilia that just opened up in Oregon City, near my office. It's one of a few, and how I didn't know about the others before now is beyond me. I do believe that I have officially found my second office...

I'm working on planning for The Inn tomorrow night. The message is mostly a lot of creative thoughts and interesting ideas - a bit of a mosaic - that I am trying to reign in on paper. Beyond that I am updating the blog, hitting people up on facebook all while trying to not allow myself to get too distracted by the wonderful beauty that surrounds me, aka, a bit of sports heaven.
I just got off of the phone with my buddy Chris Harrison after a ridiculously cool conversation about post-holiday workouts at the gym. Love ya, bro!

I am actively procrastinating about a whole bunch of administrative tasks that need to be done back at the office, namely processing & submitting receipts for the month of November, reading a text book for my licensing, organizing my filing cabinets, blah - blah, blah -blah, blah - blah. In the event that you were unaware, I don't necessarily care too much for most things administrative.

This week I finished the book, Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. What an amazing book full of challenging reminders, phenomenal thoughts and what I would consider to be a touch of literary genius. In the realm of reading it tends to take a lot to keep my attention. Mark, on the other hand has done it not once, but twice - first with his book, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day - love it!

Lately I have listening to Hillsong United. The lyrics, melodies, beats and the like have captured me for years, and so, like any faithful favorite I find myself repeatedly drawn to their bright, brawny music style.



One of my goals for the week is to follow through with the things that I say I am going to do. Man, if great ideas and good intentions could pay the bills I will be a rich man. In the midst of my mind, I far too often forget the finite details of what needs to be done or what I've committed to do. So, my goal for the rest of the week is to make a laundry-list of what I have before me, and to execute a follow through plan.