Work it out!

So I don't know why, but I feel like all I ever do anymore is work.
Oh, wait...I do know why I feel that way...BECAUSE IT IS TRUE!!
Off to class and stuff.
Thanks,
-Joshua

Oh baby!

So with the baby coming so soon, and the added hours of work, I am starting to wonder when I will sleep.
Just what I was thinking about right now!
Hope to update you all soon!
Thank you,
-Joshua

So whats next?

I am really wondering what Kristin and I are going to do about getting her to the hospital when it is time. You see, I got this job, and now I will be like half an hour the opposite direction as the hospital. So if Kristin goes into labor while I am at work it will take me forever to get to her, and then we will have to get to the hospital. I just don't want her to be alone and in that much pain when I'm not with her. Well that is all I was thinking about just now...that and I don't know how I am going to be able to get all of my homework done on time from now on!! Have a great day!
Thank you,
-Joshua

The Lord's Child

So Monday I will be starting my new job. I went tonight to "interview" for a position with The Lord's Child, a humanitarian outreach program that a local church has started here in the area. I walked in and Dave May the guy who runs the program asked when I could start and even offered to let me stay tonight and get some hours in. Kristin and Kozy were with me, so I said I would have to start Monday and he said "OK just take an application with you and fill it out and bring it with you on Monday night!" Then we left. That was it. It took us more time to find the place than the interview took! But hey, that was okay with me. It pays $8 an hour and I will work just shy of 16 hours a week, so that is going to help in a HUGE way! Thank you all for your prayers and all of that, I think that this could be called a "God thing". The timing and all is just to coincidental to be a coincidence!
Thanks,
-Joshua

Miller for President

So recently I finished reading a book by author Donald Miller called Through Painted Deserts. It is the third of his books that I have read and I enjoyed it terribly. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to go on a road trip from Texas to Origon, read this book! But I must say that while the whole travel info and story line were great, that is not what made me love this book as much as I did Blue Like Jazz or Searching For God Knows What, both of which brought me to tears and made me laugh at the same time. No it was the way that Miller ties in spirituality and belief in God with the whole travel narritave thing. He tells the story in a way that makes you feel you are there in the cool morning air, in the cramped VW van, hiking the Grand Canyon. And he tells it in a way that makes you feel you are watching someone see God for the first time. You are looking through someone else's eyes at their world as it changes; as it all shifts ever so slightly, as it always does when we encounter Christ in a real and living way, and you get to experience the joy and the excitement and the fear and the surrender right there with the author who lived it.
If you have never read anything by Donald Miller and want to, I suggest that you read Blue Like Jazz first, then read any other book he has written! You will not be disappointed. You will see how your life should change when you open your eyes to the reality of a loving, present, life changing God and how your life will change when you show that love to others around you, even those who are not like you. I think if the church today; I mean the universal church, the believers around the world, would take a real look at their lives and start to love and serve and think and act like Christ, that this world would not know what hit it. Things would change for the better if we would all change our own thinking and embrace Christ, and be Jesus to the world around us.

My eyes are opened. Are yours?
Thanks,
-Joshua

$3.24

So it occurred to me today when it was raining outside that it was raining outside. I know, I know, I don't make any sense. Its just that it got me thinking about rain and how a lot of times when it is raining outside I wish that it wasn't and I wish that I lived somewhere where it never rains. Then i started thinking about how miserable it would be if it never rained and I was glad that it was raining. Then I started thinking about that verse in Matthew that says that God, who is our father, makes the sun to shine on the good and the evil, and He makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Then I started thinking about the fact that Kristin and I only have $3.24 in our bank account right now, and my next paycheck won't come till Monday (or if we are lucky...tomorrow!) and that Kozy only has 2 diapers left, and we don't know what we are going to do, or how we are going to get by, but we know that God brought us here for a reason and He won't just leave us here to fend for ourselves. Thinking about this makes me smile. God holds the universe in His hands. If He should want to tilt them just so and have a few million dollars land my way I won't complain. If He wants to tilt them the other way just so and take everything I have in my bank account away to teach me how to manage His money better when He gives it to me that's okay too. So I say...let it rain! Let it all come down and let us all just trust that God is good, and that He knows what He is doing and that He will work it all out.
Thanks,
-Joshua

Colossians 3:12-17

This letter was written by Paul to the Christians (or “God’s holy people”) in the church in Colossi. I don’t know if I spelled that right or not, forgive me. He starts this particular passage by telling the believers that God has chosen them to be His people so they should be tenderhearted and kind and merciful and humble and gentle and patient. He tells them that they should forgive each other. He goes on to say that the most important thing, the most important characteristic that they could have is love. He says next that they should live at peace and that they should always be thankful.
I think that this is a familiar theme. It would seem that this may be an important idea that Paul is trying to get across to the believers and followers of Jesus (just look up: Ephesians 4:1-6. Galatians 5: 13-26, Romans 12: 9-21, Romans 15:5-9, and many more!). He is telling the church over and over again to be forgiving to each other, to allow each other to make mistakes that it is ok when it happens, that it will happen and that we should forgive and live at peace. I think that again this passage speaks directly to the modern church. I have seen firsthand what happens when the church decides to shoot it’s wounded. I know that as Christians we give up on our fellow believers from time to time. I don’t think that it is right, and I think that it needs to be stopped, just as this passage tells us.
There cannot be real unity in the church until we realize that “the most important piece of clothing you can wear is love.”(Col. 3:14, NLT) Until as a church, as a people group, as a family we understand that by condemning our own when they falter and when they fall is not only hurting them but our “religion” as well we simply will not change this world. Until we love as, Christ loved, the hurting and broken and outcast we will not see the change that we long for, we will not impact this world for Christ.
Thanks,
Joshua

The Summit

Mount Everest has a height of 29,002 feet. By the start of the 2007 climbing season there had been a reported 3,679 climbs to the summit of this great peak. At the same time there are a reported 210 lives that have been lost in attempts to reach that awesome summit. There are few mountains that are as respected and sought after as Everest. Every climber knows the risks. Every climber knows the sacrifice and still they climb, pressing on toward that mythical peak. Every climber dreams of the glory that accompanies a successful climb, and every climber dreads the fatal consequences of failure.
In this life we are all faced with an Everest. We all have risks that we need to take to succeed in business or family or life or faith or relationships, and all of us dream of successfully scaling those summits and all of us fear failure. I think a lot about this new church that Kristin and I have been blessed to be a part of, most of the time I think of the name: The Summit. I think that there are times in every person’s life when we are on “The” summit. We meet that special someone and for days or weeks or months we are on this relational high where nothing can touch us; the summit of relationship. We get that raise that we have been dreaming of, or our first child is born, or we figure out what we were meant to do in this life, or how to help someone or how to help ourselves and all of these things bring us to a summit. But I know that in this life we were all made to worship God, the one who made us. We were all designed with a gift or ability that the bible tells us to use for His sake; and I think when we really start searching for that summit, the one that will make us feel like we belong or that we have arrived or that we are loved, we will be lead to a place where we can worship our Creator the way we were made to. So when I think about our new church and the name that the leadership has decided to give it I think of Everest. I think of reaching the highest point I possibly can, or attaining the Summit of life, and I rejoice that this church exists. I rejoice that every Sunday we gather together, a group of imperfect humans who are weak and tired and stressed out; and we can be lead to the Summit, to the peak of worship, to the Throne Room of God, to the feet of Jesus. Only when we hit our knees, when we fall on our faces before God, only then can we reach the summit in this life, in this fallen world. Only then can we really see the world around us.
I imagine the view from the summit of Everest as being simply breathtaking. I imagine that you could see for miles and miles and that eternity wouldn’t seem so far away. When we humble ourselves before our Lord and Savior, when we are at His feet, when we are raising our hands to worship Him; that is when the view will take our breath away. And that view, from THE Summit, will erase the panoramic view from the peak of Everest from our memories forever!
Thanks,

-Joshua Mott

Another day.

I love mornings.
I really do. I mean I don't like getting up early or anything like that, in fact I would rather sleep until noon for crying out loud, but I am growing to love mornings. Today I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, and my daughter laughing and saying "Wake up daddy! Wake up mommy!" This is why I love mornings. Not because of the sunshine, not because of the fact that I have another day to live, but because of my daughter and my wife. Because I know I am loved, and because I know I can show love.
I don't think it really matters how bad my night was, or how little I slept, I know that if I can wake up and use the new day that God has given me to show someone love...that will make getting out of bed worth it!
So sleep on world!! I'll be busy loving those around me!
Thanks
-Joshua Mott

Hey Jesus, Lets do Lunch!

• If you could have lunch with any famous person, either living or dead, whom would you choose and why? Describe your conversation at lunch.

Who would I pick if I could have lunch with any famous person in history!? This is a tough question to answer. There are many people I would love to sit down with and talk to, many that I could choose simply because they were or are famous, many that I could choose because they made a difference. I think of Gandhi or Mother Teresa and the impact that they had on what we now consider modern culture or civilization. I think of Pope John Paul or Martin Luther both “famous” religious leaders. Then there are the movie stars: John Wayne, Brad Pitt, Bogart or Hepburn. The movies that these few have made have touched thousands of lives and shaped our culture in every way, from the clothes we wear to the words we speak to the way we vote. Then there are men of science such as Einstein or Alexander Fleming or Isaac Newton. How I would love to pick the brains of some of the most intelligent men and women in history. The choices are as vast as our imaginations, to pick just one seems almost impossible!
But for me, if I could pick anyone from the whole span of history, there is only one man who I would want to spend an afternoon with talking about life and love and freedom and faith and change, and that would be Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I am a student at Johnson Bible College, and I would like to think that I am following the path that Jesus has set out before me. But I would love to ask him some questions, measure his responses and see the glimmer in his eyes as we discuss deep theological ideas and secret personal ponderings. “Jesus,” I would say “why is there pain and suffering in the world? Why is the sky blue? Why do we as humans long for acceptance and relationships, but at the same time value our privacy so deeply? Why are there wars? Why does our society so devalue people that there have to be homeless shelters and soup kitchens and welfare? Why did you plant the desire to know you in every human’s heart and then not give us the capability to comprehend your ways and plans in our heads? Why did you let me go through all of the pain I went through growing up? Why at times do I doubt your existence when I know you are there?”
At this point Jesus would put up his hand slightly, just enough that I could see the scar in it, and silence me. He would smile, and whisper my name, and with tears in his eyes he would say, “I love you. I love you all I mean, the whole of humanity, with its stains and all. I love mankind so much that I made all you can see so that he could live, I made all that you can’t see so that you may be comfortable and comforted, I made it all so that you could know me. Deeply know me. There is pain and war and destruction and death and hurt and weeds and smog and greed because men are sinful, and even this world pines for Eden. I built all of you to want, I mean deeply crave relationships so that you would seek me out, so that you would ever be drawn to me. And I made you all value your privacy so that you could worship me even in your solitude. You cannot fathom my ways because I am infinite and you are finite, because I am holy and you are fallen, yet I placed the desire to know me in your hearts again so you would seek me out and find me. You will never be able to wrap your heads around me until you meet me in heaven where you will know just as you are known. Your personal struggles in childhood were there as a result of this fallen world and sinful men. Your painful moments and depression were mostly caused by selfish and sinful actions and decisions. But I let you go through the pain because I knew it would be like a purifying fire that only makes you stronger. You were drawn to me weren’t you? This world stinks, it isn’t what I intended, but someday I will come again, and on that day the whole of the world will be made new through me. You see all of it; the pain and suffering, the death and the wars, the famine and the flood, the murder and rape all of it is evidence of humanities need for me. And all of it, if you are really looking, points to my love. I don’t cause pain. I bring comfort. I don’t cause famine or flood, or murder or rape, or hate or envy, or separation or desertion. I bring restoration and healing and love. Don’t get me wrong Joshua, I am a God who judges, but I am also the God of love. And one day the whole world will know my love.”
We would talk like this for a while and he would ask me about my life (even though he already knows) and I would ask him about his (because I don’t know much about the first 30 years of it) and we would laugh and cry and sit in silence and contemplate works of man such as poetry or skyscrapers, and the works of God in nature and the ultimate act of love on the cross. All of these things would pass between us, and there would be no awkwardness like there is when men sit and talk together. There would be only openness and honesty and acceptance.
I can imagine Jesus Christ then standing to say good bye, and me begging him to stay just a moment longer and tell me that story about John the Baptist again, and he will just smile at me and say, “Josh, this has been great, but there is someone else who needs to sit down with me now, there is someone else who doesn’t know me yet who I need to go see. We will see each other soon. Keep going the way you are, and take care of your family. Love your wife like I love you, show your daughter what it means to live a life for God, and let those around you know about me.” I think that we would hug, and I would watch through tears as he takes his coffee and walks toward the door. I would get up to follow but he would already be gone, on to the next person in need, on to the next lost soul who is crying out to know his power.
That would be what I would wish for. I guess it may seem strange to want to sit down and eat and chat with Jesus, but when someone has changed your life, you value them more than you can even express. And to have the chance to sit with that person for a few hours and see what they are like and really examine who they are would make such an impact, it would be life changing. So while I would love to sit with Hepburn or Steinbeck or Hemmingway or Luther or Gandhi, these are only men and women. They have all impacted my life, but none of them have changed it the way that Jesus has. That’s why I would choose Him. “Jesus is all the world to me!”
Thanks,

-Joshua Mott