January 24, 2024 • 38 mins
Struggling to juggle the demands of life and academia, I've found my rhythm, and I'm ready to share the revelations uncovered along the way. Brace yourself for a heartfelt journey into the crux of education, as I peel back the layers on why love and effective leadership are not just beneficial, but essential in shaping the future of our students. From personal anecdotes about my own transition towards a master's in education leadership to the surprising solace found in writing assignments, this episode is a testament to the unexpected twists life's path can offer.
Ever considered the profound impact of those who came before us, and how their stories intertwine with our own? Take a walk with me through the genealogies and the humble beginnings of Jesus, as depicted in Luke 1, where every name tells a tale of grace and redemption. It's an invitation to introspect on the silent workings of the divine in our daily lives, often unnoticed yet immensely significant. And as we explore these narratives, we find ourselves weaving our own stories of faith and purpose amidst the tapestry of history.
Finally, let us bow our heads in a collective moment of reflection and prayer, embracing gratitude for the blessings that frame our existence and seeking the wisdom to navigate life's complexities. It's a gentle reminder of the transformative and enduring love of God, a love that anchors us through every storm. Together, let's reaffirm our commitment to not just exist but to spread compassion and understanding through every word we speak and every action we take. Join me on this soul-stirring episode, where together, we unearth the power of our shared human experience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hi and welcome back to HFC.
I am so sorry that I've notbeen here for like two, three
weeks now.
I think Life has beenactic.
I started classes and that'skind of.
They've actually been becomingreally good.
It's just getting used to, Iguess, the schedule and I was
trying to figure out a betterday to do things.
(00:33):
So I'm assuming I continue tofind myself a time.
In most cases I'm assuming thatan episode be uploaded by
Thursday now instead ofWednesdays, simply for the fact
that I have to have all myassignments turned in by Tuesday
.
And Tuesday was when I used torecord.
So now having to record when Imight be doing some last minute
(00:57):
editing for my assignments, soI'd rather just say that I'm
going to move recording toWednesday and have things posted
by Thursday, or even just beingsafe and saying Friday or
something.
We'll look into that.
But for now just realize I'mgoing to be trying to read,
upload stuff, and that wassomething that honestly, I had
like an epiphany, I guess.
(01:19):
So I was trying to figure outlike I'm like.
I feel like I'm busy all thetime.
I feel like I have no days off.
I feel like I'm so stressed outNot in a bad way it just means
like busy.
I've actually really beenenjoying my classes and things
have been going really well.
So I mean, if you're prayingfor me, thank you for that.
If you're not, well you know.
I'm in classes now and I'm alittle bit nervous.
(01:39):
I'm normally anxious by natureand I think one of the most
interesting things so far isthat I don't know if I ever
talked about how I got intotaking these courses.
I was really struggling todecide between because I knew I
wanted to go for my masters.
I've always been one for, like,education and I always knew I'd
(02:00):
go for my masters at the veryleast.
I just didn't know if I wantedto go for my masters in reading
concentration or my masters ineducation leadership, which
education leadership is what I'mcurrently pursuing, and the way
it came about is my,essentially, my mom had a
(02:21):
meeting with, at the same placeas, someone from my past who
used to be my eighth gradeteacher, and so then my mom was
not supposed to have gone tothis meeting, but she went, and
so because she went, you know,because she went, it kind of
(02:42):
became the thing of like, well,she was covering for someone
else.
Because she was covering forsomeone else.
She was there at the rightplace at the right time.
People would call it coincidence, I call it God, and some of
this sort of talking about me Iguess that's what parents do
they talk about their kids andapparently he remembered me and
he was like, oh yeah, I rememberhim and, you know, have him
(03:04):
contact me if he's reallyinterested and we can discuss it
and talk about it.
And so I went through with thatand one of my main concerns
about going for educationleadership was I had no idea
what the program was like and Iwas really nervous about going
into program because I washaving struggling to get any
kind of information about out ofany advisor or anything like
that.
And so that was a definite Godsend, literally, and you know
(03:26):
phrase wise.
And so then, yeah, we had likethe best talk ever, which I was
super nervous about it, but thenI like it just seemed very
relaxed, very casual, and Irealized you know this person's
very friendly and really justhas very passionate about his
job, and so he helped me, giveme suggestions on where to go to
(03:47):
school and where to do, and youknow how to do things and how
to prepare myself for my futureand it just it took a lot of the
worry off and, like I said, itwas a God send, because that was
basically my only thing.
I was going to probably bestuck deciding whether or not to
do anything, had God notintervened and sent that person
(04:10):
in that situation to thatmeeting of my that my mom had to
happen to be covering forsomeone for and then, you know,
offered to talk to me, to speakwith me.
I thought that was awesome.
I thought that was weird in thefirst place that he remembered
me because, I don't know, Idon't consider myself very
memorable, but yeah anyway.
So that's why I got into mymasters, literally all about
(04:31):
through God, by God, with God,and so one of the things that I
think right now I was sofreaking out about starting my
classes no-transcript, I don'tknow.
I'm gonna say it's all God,because a lot of the assignments
(04:52):
that I've been doing right nowit's not even like I'm stressing
out about writing them.
It's I'm stressing out aboutsome parts of it.
It's mostly the AP and theformatting and stuff, but the
actual writing isn't somethingthat I find stressful.
It's almost like my I wastrying to say this to my color
worker, but it's almost like mybrain enjoys it.
It's like I, it's like a littleoutlet, like I've had all this
(05:15):
pent up thoughts and things thatI've wanted to say and it's
like I'm able to say them inthese papers and I'm able to say
them in these assignments.
I've had so far no troublegetting to the max the maximum
amount of pages allowed it inallowed in every assignment.
And so it's been pretty wildand I mean like yesterday I
wasn't even supposed to havetime today, so I call that a God
(05:36):
send again that I'm.
I had like four assignments duetoday, yesterday, after you know
working like Saturday andSunday to finish an assignment.
For some reason I got them.
I felt the need to check myassignments, like submitted, and
I had gotten a hundred on it.
So I don't know why I checkedit.
Normally I wouldn't even bother.
I was just like, okay, I got ahundred, don't need to worry
(05:59):
about it.
I checked it and he said thatyou know, oh, my professors
thought they should put morereferences.
So then on this paper I'd spenttwo days working on, I went back
and I added referencesyesterday which I was already
behind.
So I was like in my mind I'mlike I can't do this, I can do
this, I can do this.
I should be focusing on theother stuff that's not even done
and then I can go back and dothe references for this thing.
(06:20):
You know, once I have at leastsomething to submit for the
other ones.
But I was like I'm just gonnado it, I'm gonna fix it.
It's already started.
Might as well, do it.
And I'll just push a lot ofwhat I was planning to do today
To today.
So what I got done yesterdayshould have been I should have
been working on today.
Anyway, I finished that in likean hour, maybe even 30 minutes
or less, I don't know.
(06:40):
Then I stopped and I was like,okay, well, I'm gonna make it a
little bit easier on myself, I'mgonna do some of the my next
assignment, which wasidentifying like five courses
that I wanted to take of the ofthe more modules, modules that I
wanna take that were online,and I was just gonna like list
them out and like kind of typeout my general thoughts on why I
wanna take that course.
So that way it would be easierto write that paper today.
(07:01):
And as I'm typing it out, I'mlike you know what this is
actually really like let me justdo the AP for a minute.
And then I did the AP for aminute and then I'm like you
know what, let me just type outsome of this stuff, I'll just
stop and I'll stop here.
Nope, kept going, nope, keptgoing and it was just like
normally I feel like I get burntout and stuff.
And it was just like my brainjust like kept brain in, kept
(07:22):
thinking and I was oof.
I finished that.
I finished that assignment.
So not only did I alter myoriginal assignment and like
rewrite that and then do thereferences.
I did this assignment and thenI included references in this
assignment.
I did the research of thecourses I even talked about and
did the rationale, usingcitations from the module to
(07:43):
talk about you know why I wannatake those courses, why I
consider them important.
And then after that, I stillhad to do responses to a
discussion post which alsoneeded to cite and state you
know rationale for why I wassaying whatever saying.
And basically, even before Idid the spell check of the paper
(08:03):
and re went over or re alteredit, the paper that I had already
finished.
On Saturday and Sunday I did adiscussion post.
Then I was planning on doinganother one Tuesday and just
basing all my stuff up cause Iwanna like overwhelm myself, and
it seemed all very overwhelming.
So then, after I finished thefive courses thing, I was like,
okay, good, I'm done, I'm gonnatake a break, I'll do the rest
(08:24):
tomorrow.
But then as I'm sitting there,I'm like wait, I have a really
good idea for a discussion post,like a discussion reply.
So I'm like let me just type itout before you know it gets to
be too much.
And so then I type it out andbam, it's done way faster than I
thought it would be.
And then I'm like you know what?
My last assignment is literallyjust posting a picture of a
(08:46):
quiz that I took.
I'm like I might as well do it.
So I went online, had to gonavigate to find the quiz, cause
I was a whole ordeal, found it,submitted it, and so something
that I thought was gonna take meuntil Tuesday, like probably
last minute, I was able tofinish all yesterday,
essentially.
I mean, I did most of the workfor the big assignment, which
was a two to three page paper,not too much, but it's more of
(09:09):
right now the APA formatting.
That kills me.
I actually have no trouble,like I said, reading that
maximum.
So yesterday, to just kind ofrecount and summarize what I
said, I not only did, I did adiscussion post.
I re-altered a three page paper, rewrote a lot of parts and
cited new things and found newreferences and resources two
(09:31):
reference.
Then I did a essentially two,two and a half page paper on
five courses.
I wanted to take in therationale for that.
Then I did another discussionpost which was about another
paragraph and then I submittedthe screenshot of a test that I
took more of an inventory todecide, like where I was on my
(09:54):
mastery of understanding whatall the leadership standards are
.
And I did pretty well with that.
But I just found it funny ornot funny, but I feel very
blessed to have completed allthat stuff because it's fully
expecting to be L4W.
I'm fully expecting to beworking on a lot of that stuff
right now and I just find itinsane that, like, even when I
(10:17):
don't consider myself to be likeyou know I'm not like the best
Christian, I have my ups anddowns and even like in these
moments when you know I feellike I have my ups and downs,
that I still feel and see Godmoving in my life and I think
(10:38):
that's just meaningful.
One thing I definitely told Godthat I wanted to focus on this
year and that's not somethingI've really been able to discuss
is my kind of New Year'sresolution was I wanted to.
It wasn't control my anger, butit was more of check myself
more.
I really wanted to embody theidea of loving your neighbor as
(11:01):
yourself, of swallowing my pride, of swallowing my you might, I
don't know, I'm mainly just mypride of saying oh no, they
can't go insult me that way.
And just being loving andcaring and kind and deciding to
push my boundaries of what Ithink is comfortable as far as
(11:22):
how much I'm willing to go inorder to love on someone, to
care about someone, to helpsomeone and typically, like I'm
usually drained from that fromwork.
But I told God that's what Iwanna do this year, that's what
my goal is for this year.
My goal is to embody that more.
It's not that I think I'mincapable of being nice and
(11:43):
caring, just either typicallyit's like I'm like I'm just
tired, I don't wanna do it, orit's almost like I'm
uncomfortable because it's weirdasking people if they need help
.
It's weird asking people howyou can help to be thoughtful.
I feel like for so many years Itaught myself to not be
thoughtful because I'm like whenI was younger, people used to
think it was weird, and so now Ijust kind of like stop doing it
(12:05):
and I'm thoughtful to peoplewho know me and I'm thoughtful
in like small ways where I haveto like talk myself and build
myself up to do it.
But I just told God I'm tiredof living life that way.
I want to be able to bethoughtful, to be able to be
caring and not worry about whatother people are thinking, to
love to the utmost capacity thatI can and to see people as God
(12:28):
sees them, as people who arehurting, people who are needing
love, whether they're rude to meor not.
And I wanna say it was a bigask and it's kind of scary, but
I just, the more I spend time inworking with kids in school and
(12:49):
being a teacher, the more andmore I realized that a lot of
what kids need is love.
A lot of what people in generalneed is love, to realize that
there's someone there that caresabout them, that loves them and
that wants to see them succeed.
And that's part of why I wasalways so kind of on the border
about leaving the classroom.
It's because I know that I haveit in me to love on kids, to
(13:14):
tell them that you can besomething, you can do something
and work with them to figure outwhat they need in order to
succeed and to get to the dreamsand the passions that they have
and not everybody has that.
But at the same time I've,weirdly enough, felt myself
being drawn to leadership, whichis typically not like me,
(13:34):
because if you knew me in person, I'm very shy, I'm very quiet,
but it's like as I've spent moretime working with my students,
I've learned to speak up more.
I've learned to advocate more.
I get less uncomfortable insituations where previously I
would have been like heck.
No, I'm not doing that, becauseI learned that you know, if I
(13:55):
don't speak up for these kids,then nobody will.
And I guess a large part of whyI want to become any kind of
instructional leader is becauseI want to see kids know that
people believe in them, even theones who literally are little
butt heads and are rude and getupset.
I want to find ways because alot of these kids just don't
(14:18):
feel like they're love, don'tfeel like anybody's watching out
for them.
I want them to know that, yeah,you have difficulties, yeah,
there are issues, but if you'rewilling to work with me, I'm
willing to work with you.
That kind of thing and that's alot of what I try to do in my
classroom.
That's a lot of what I try todo building relationships and
creating a classroom where theyfeel included, being started in
(14:42):
the sense of okay, yeah, no, no,we can have bad days and we can
do this stuff, but that doesn'tmean that we get to push over
someone or be rude to someoneelse.
Our problem should not begin tocause problems for other people
.
If there's an issue, we talkabout it, we discuss it, we
think of together.
Okay, well, if you're notfeeling this or you're not
feeling that, well, what's a waythat we can make it work for
(15:03):
both of us?
Because there are things wehave to do, and I get that we
all have lives and that we'resick and that we're there's
things going on at home.
How can we make this work forthe both of us?
And discussing that with thekids and that's a lot of what I
wish I saw more of in otherclassrooms just being inclusive
and making kids feel needed andnot ostracized and not dumb and
(15:24):
not stupid and not handicapped,because I have heard people say
that and that's, like probablythe thing that pushed me over
into wanting to do instructionalleadership, being careful and
mindful about the words that weuse towards these kids, letting
them know that we're not upsetwith them.
We're just not approving oraccepting of the behaviors the
problem behaviors, mind you thatthey're displaying and building
(15:46):
in kind of incentives, not tomake them reliant on them, but
to build interdependence towhere they can start to do these
kinds of things for themselves,where they can say, oh, I
finished that lesson, oh, Ifinished that, oh, let me take a
break real quick because I'veearned it.
And learning to say things likethat because, honestly, that's
what I do, like when I'm doingthese assignments.
I finish part of it, I'm like,okay, what's a realistic amount?
(16:08):
I set it for myself.
I get there and I'm like, okay,I'm gonna take a break so I
don't burn myself out.
And this is kind ofinterdependence that I wanna
build for these kids.
I wanna be able to have thesekids feel supported and feel
welcome, and not just welcome,but like I want them there, not
(16:28):
like I wish you would go home or, oh my gosh, would you please
shut up or please just stoptalking, but welcome and feel
like you know.
Not only are they welcome, butthey're wanted, their desire
that that we want them, that Iwant them to be a part of this
school, that I'm glad thatthey're here, that I'm glad
they're part of this.
You know, conversation, thatthe part of this learning, the
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part of this classroom, that Ibelieve in them, that I see in
them the capability and thepossibility to learn and to
achieve and in all of thesethings.
And it's just weird how a lotof what I've been there is
taught me that, while I don'tdirectly don't want to be in a
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leader, a lot of the things Idesire are part of what an
instructional leader can do.
And I totally got off topic, butI'm just trying to say like
this whole thing has just feltvery like God led and and I
literally don't know how Ipulled yesterday off because I
(17:33):
finished everything I meaneverything and I did not.
I thought I was going to bebehind but instead I was way
ahead of my schedule.
I have a whole day free,because I was originally
planning to record this onWednesday because I'm like, well
, tuesday I'll have submitted mypaper, wednesday I can record
because it I mean I won't haveanything to do for another six
days.
But yeah, so sorry.
(17:56):
I really wanted to just updateyou guys and stuff going on in
my life, but the verse for todayis actually sorry I haven't
pulled up here on my computer.
The verse for today is comingfrom Luke and it's it's not
(18:17):
really a verse per se, it's moreof just like the conversation
about what's going on, takingthe verse and getting a little
bit out of what it saysspecifically and talking about
what this means, how thisimpacts us.
So I'm looking at Luke verse.
(18:38):
Luke, chapter 2, verses 6 to 14.
Verse 6 says and so it was thatwhile they were there, the days
were accomplished, that sheshould be delivered and she
brought forth her firstborn sonand wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a mangerbecause there was no room for
them.
In the end and there were, inthe same country, shepherds
(18:59):
abiding in the field keepingwatch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel, the Lord,came upon them and the glory of
the Lord shone round about themand they were so afraid and the
angel said unto them fear not,for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy which shallbe to all people, for unto you
is born this day, in the city ofDavid, a savior which is Christ
the Lord, and this shall be asign unto you.
(19:21):
Ye shall find the babe, wrappedin swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger, and suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of
the heavenly host praising Godand saying glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace,good will toward men.
Oof, I have weird chills.
I also feel like I'm comingdown with the cold, but I just I
(19:42):
love these verses.
I love this part of the story.
I also love the part I thinkit's Luke, chapter 1, the
initial part of Luke whenthey're talking to about the
genealogy of Jesus.
And it's just so impactfulbecause it's when you're going
through the genealogy of Jesuslike meaning who were the
ancestors of Jesus.
It's crazy when you look at allthe names and you see all of
(20:05):
these names of people who aretied to, not to weren't just
like regular people, who weren'tjust amazing people.
These were people tied to somebig.
What do they call that?
Oof, I cannot remember the wordwhen, like someone's caught in
like some big news thing, whenthey're in trouble, they call it
(20:25):
a C word.
It's not a, it's not acomplication, it's not a
coincidence, it's not aconspiracy.
Oh my gosh.
I cannot think of the word C.
Word for Okay, this is caughtup in snare.
(20:55):
No, I don't know C word for Inthe news in a bad way.
Sorry, I'm just gonna be soweird, caught in a bind.
(21:19):
No, it's not that Maybe.
C word that means bad news.
What is that word?
(21:58):
Oh my gosh.
C word that means controversial.
Oh my gosh.
Something that's controversial,oh my gosh.
So when you look at thegenealogy of Jesus, you see that
(22:18):
so many of the people in thegenealogy of Jesus were in some
very controversial situations.
I remember I had listed themdown and maybe we'll talk about
them next week, but just readingthrough that there's like a lot
.
There's obviously Abraham.
Abraham did some wild things,you know, lying.
(22:40):
I mean he didn't sleep withHagar because he just did it.
His wife sent him to do it butstill he did it.
The other people, oh my gosh,the two sisters who slept with
their father, that was the lineof Jesus, and that one I find
(23:01):
wild.
David was the line of Jesus.
Actually, david had a childwith Bathsheba, not the original
child that died because youknow it was all done evil, but
the child of David and Bathshebawas in a child of David and
Bathsheba was in the line ofJesus.
So to think that Jesus camefrom that is insane.
(23:22):
And, like I said, we'll talkabout that.
Maybe I don't know about nextweek, but I'm going to try to
figure out my schedule.
I promise Maybe every week,maybe every two weeks, but I'm
definitely going to startlooking at how I can make my
schedule work so that I'm stillgetting out something, but
anyway.
So this part of the verse istalking about Jesus in the
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manger, and one thing that hasbeen on my mind and I even said
it, or like our Christmascelebration at church, is this
weird and sane fact that, yes,it talks about the shepherds,
and they were in the samecountry.
Shepherds are biting the field,keeping watch over their flock
by night.
So they had no idea and so theysaid hello.
The angel of the Lord came uponthem and the glory of the Lord
showed around about them andthey were so afraid they had no
(24:04):
idea what was going on.
Said fear not, for behold, Ibring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to allpeople, for unto you is born
this day, in the city of David,a savior which is Christ the
Lord.
And so, basically, thisshepherds had no idea what was
going on.
But not only that, nobody inthis town had any idea what was
going on.
Everybody knew, or a lot ofpeople knew, that the Messiah
would be born.
And then, even then, afterJesus was literally there
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standing in front of them, jewsstill said that he wasn't the
Messiah.
And so I guess what I'm tryingto say is I find it insane to
think that people even wrote asong about it.
The first line was the streetsare quiet, the people didn't
know that in a manger the Son ofGod was born.
And I find it crazy to imaginethat in this manger the Son of
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God was born, literalmanifestation of God as a human
being was born, and nobody knew,nothing changed.
Everybody was doing everythingthat they had originally planned
, and it's crazy to me to thinkthat this happened and nobody
knew.
It's crazy to me to think thatthis was happening on the side
and nobody knew.
(25:12):
And I don't think, if we everreally take that into context,
we ever really understand thatthat's what's happening that
nobody knew.
Like.
When I was a kid, I alwaysremember hearing born in a
manger.
I'm like, oh, they were stuckin a manger.
But it's not.
It's not you know, I'm justsaying that.
It's saying not only were theystuck in a manger, they were in
the most like remote place.
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Nobody knew about it.
And I'm like, wow, that must becrazy.
Imagine like the Son of Godbeing born.
You had no idea that God wasdoing something like right there
, close to you.
And then I realized, like howmany of us go about our lives
when God is doing somethingright by us, right near us, and
don't realize that God is doingsomething?
I mean, how often is God doingthings on the side, preparing
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stuff for us, and we're justgoing out of our lives like
nothing's changed, nothing'sdifferent, right, I want, I'd
like to say that I'd hope to bea shepherd where God reveals it
to me and whatnot.
But we're not necessarilyguaranteed that there are always
people who see and know aboutthe plan of God and there's
people who don't.
And it all works to the gloryof God that he has some people
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know and some people don't.
But I just find it crazy toimagine that this kind of thing
applies to us even now.
Not necessarily that Jesus isgoing to be born in a manger
again, but the idea thatsomething amazing could happen
and you would have no idea aboutit, that there is a change
about to come, because that'swhat Jesus was.
It was a change that everybodyhad been waiting for and nobody
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knew about it.
Nobody had access to it.
Nobody right there, rightbeside you, right near you,
maybe in the next town, over it,could be the person or thing
that it could be being birth,whether it's an idea, whether
it's a product, whether it's acompany, whether it's an
invention, could be that's aboutto change your life, but we
(27:03):
have to be prepared for it.
People are always talking aboutyou know the rapture's gonna
come, and I've always been oneto say what does it matter if
the rapture comes?
That's not the goal of you know, a Christian.
Our goal is not to leave.
Our goal is to speak and tolove on people, and that's the
reason we don't know when therapture's gonna come.
If our goal was to be to therapture, god would have told us
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okay, you leave this in such astate.
Make sure you're ready to go.
That's what he would have toldus.
But our goal isn't that weshould be wary.
That's kind of something that'sgonna happen, but that's not
our goal.
Jesus said that he had a goodwork for us and that we should,
you know, be a servant unto men,that we should be loving and
spreading the good news.
The good news is not therapture.
The good news is that JesusChrist has died and taken his
(27:46):
sins upon himself so that youmight live and have a new life,
that you might be restored, thatyou might be renewed, that you
might have a relationship withGod and have things change and
be free from the sin that onceheld you.
I don't I honestly do not careabout the rapture.
I refuse to learn about stuffLike it's not important to me.
Why would that be important?
(28:07):
I could die tomorrow.
What does it matter when therapture happens?
The rapture could happen rightnow while I'm recording this.
What does it matter?
That is not my purpose.
God did not put me on earth tounderstand or to predict when
the rapture is gonna happen and,honestly, sometimes all the
rapture does is make me likequestion.
You know the validity of whatI'm doing right now.
(28:29):
My sense of urgency should comefrom.
There is somebody out there whomay not have multiple days to
live.
There is somebody out there whomay not have another day.
There's somebody out there whomay have years.
That my sense of urgency shouldcome to.
I need to get the word out tolove on those people, to care
about those people, because thismay be their last opportunity
(28:49):
to receive, you know, a messageabout God.
And I'm not saying there'sanything wrong with knowing
about the rapture.
I just choose not to, because Ilearned about it passively.
I'm never going to activelylike, try to find signs and
stuff, because I'm not lookingto leave.
I mean I don't mean in thesense of like I'm ready to go,
(29:10):
like I'm just ready to leave,because that's not my focus.
My focus isn't that and itnever should be.
God did not put us on this earthso that we could leave.
God put us on this earth.
That's not originally ouroriginal purpose.
My purpose on here is not toget myself prepared to leave.
My purpose on here is to sharethe word of God and to lead, you
(29:30):
know, to be shepherds amongstlambs, to share the word of God,
to be part of the body ofChrist that is going and
reaching and touching and lovingand holding and doing these
things to call people to Christ.
And I've told people thisbefore.
I don't ever think that mymessage would be to repent
because the end is coming soon,because I've been led by fear
(29:55):
and I don't want to fear the end.
When the Bible says the fear ofGod, it does not mean terrified
of God.
It means terrified of.
It means the fear of beingwithout Him.
And so to me that means whenI'm telling someone to repent,
it's repent because there is somuch love here for you, there's
so much caring, there's someonewho loves you beyond what you
(30:16):
could ever imagine.
In this world.
There are people who wouldjudge you and ridicule you and
put you down and belittle you,but he's not like that.
He only sees you, know what youcould be.
He desires you to be your best.
He desires you to love in thestrongest way possible, to be,
to have the most permanent peace, to be the fullness, or to come
(30:37):
into the fullness of what youcould become.
And so to me, it's never beenabout, you know, fear and oh,
repent because you're gonna goto hell.
It's repent because God haslove for you.
Is that love as simple as you'dlike to think no, it's
complicated, but it's beautifuland it's meaningful and it's
giving you the truth in waysthat people would never give you
(30:58):
the truth.
When people lie to you and saythey love you, they always have
an underhand.
We love you because ofsomething.
We love you because of that,but I never want it to be that I
want it to be.
God has a love for you, notbecause of any of those things.
He's gonna love you regardless.
He loves you even now.
He cares about you.
But it's because he loves youthat he offers you this
(31:20):
repentance, not as somethingthat you can purchase, not as
something that you have to earn,but as a gift freely given of
his heart to you that you mightexperience eternal peace, that
you might experience arelationship with him, that you
might be able to receive thiskind of love, this kind of peace
, this kind of joy that isever-present, that is eternal,
that permeates to every aspectof life.
(31:46):
And so when I talk about lovingJesus and wanting to repent,
it's not repenting so that Idon't go to hell.
It's not repenting Like that'snot my goal and that's part of
what I learned in school, like Idon't tell kids oh you better
study so you don't fail, oh youbetter work.
(32:08):
So I'm not telling them what Idon't want them to happen,
because that's not our goal.
That's a negative, that's aconsequence of what a
consequence we have.
It should be what are weworking towards?
I'm not working towards notgoing to hell.
I'm working towards having arelationship with God, because I
can easily not go to hell byjust repenting and just living a
(32:29):
very mediocre life.
But that's not what we'reputting here for.
Instead, I can work towards arelationship with God where I
push myself to reach othersbecause I know that's what God
would want me to do, or I pray,I read my Bible every day
because I know that's what Godwould want me to do, or I spend
time with him, or I learn, whereI become a friend of God more
than just someone who hasreceived his gift.
(32:50):
I don't know if I'm making sense, but that's what I see when I
think of repentance.
We're not repenting so that wecan get out of hell.
I mean that's a benefit, butthe true goal is getting to know
God, getting to have arelationship with someone who
loves you so much more than youwould everything possible, the
ins and outs of who you arebetter than you know yourself.
(33:11):
That's, to me, why we repent.
We repent to feel clean.
We repent to feel embraced.
We repent to be loved, notrepenting for negative things,
but repenting for the beautythat is the love of Christ.
We repenting for the beautythat is a relationship with God.
And I'm not again, I'm notsaying that there aren't other
(33:36):
ways to go about it, but for methat's what it is.
For me, that's what what, whatit was for me.
That's that's the true desire,because how many of us don't
need to feel loved?
How many of us feel lonely andhurt and broken and we don't
know how to fix it?
We don't know how to feel loved, we don't know how to feel
needed, we don't know how tofeel validated.
And here God says repent, not soyou don't go to hell, but so
(34:00):
you so you could have arelationship with me.
Move away from the things thatare, that are not of me, that
prevent him from having arelationship with you, and
instead move into a relationshipand move into believing and and
and and speaking with him andand communicating and being a
friend and and having that loveand having that validation, not
(34:22):
a validation that's, that's likesickly and needy.
And the moment that they stopsaying, oh you're beautiful, oh
you're amazing, it disappearswith the validation that God
sees you and he created you andhe has purpose for you and he
made you in his own image andthat there was a purpose and a
plan for you and that he valuesyou.
He sees a value beyond justtoday, beyond just a year,
(34:43):
beyond your physical parents,beyond your mental capabilities,
beyond your any kind ofcapabilities or what you may or
may not be financially capableof.
And I think that's the beautyof the message, that's the good
news that there is someone wholoves you.
And I don't mean love like theworld uses love, but loves you
(35:11):
like the Bible means love Lovesyou in a way that is patient,
that is kind, that is eternal,that is unbreakable, unmarble,
untouchable, that someone cannottake away, that someone cannot
make you pay for something thatis freely given and given out of
love.
(35:33):
Anyway, this message was kind ofall over the place.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I honestly had that message onmy head for a while.
I love what the love part thatkind of just came More so the
idea that Jesus was born in themanger and nobody knew.
And right now there could besomething going on that is your
(35:56):
baby in a manger, that is yourchange coming, but you're not
aware of it.
So don't lose hope.
There is a baby in a manger, inthis case, a possibility,
something being born, an idea, aphysical thing, a physical
person being born or whose lifeis being changed, who is being
saved, who is being reborn as aChristian, who is in place to do
(36:23):
something big in your life.
And you don't know, and theydidn't know back then, and
that's okay, but what we trustin God and when we lean on his
understanding, all things aremade right for those who love
him.
Anyway, as always, let's goahead and end with a short
prayer, because this has been along, long message.
(36:46):
Dear God, first off, thank youfor loving us in the way that
you love us, loving us in theway that no one ever could.
Thank you for waking us up todayand letting us hear this
message.
Thank you for having peace ofmind, for giving us peace of
mind, and thank you just forgiving us another day of life to
(37:06):
be surrounded by you andpossibly others.
Okay, thank you for theopportunity you gave us each to
come to you to repent, to notonly cleanse ourselves and avoid
going to hell, to have acloseness to a deity not only a
(37:33):
deity, but the only living God,the only God who created the
heavens and the earth, the veryGod that thousands and millions
of years ago saw us and loves usand has seen everything that we
will ever do, and loves us moredeeply than love could ever be
(37:53):
understood to be.
Lord, I pray that you forgiveus of our sins, lead us not into
temptation and you justcontinue to help us build our
relationship with you, that youcontinue to help us to seek you
out and just help us focus onloving one another, on reaching
out and touching and giving theright words and the good news
(38:14):
and filling us with wisdom andunderstanding, so that we can
move in the way that you desireus to move.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Hi and welcome back to HFC.
I am so sorry that I've notbeen here for like two, three
weeks now.
I think Life has beenactic.
I started classes and that'skind of.
They've actually been becomingreally good.
It's just getting used to, Iguess, the schedule and I was
trying to figure out a betterday to do things.
(00:33):
So I'm assuming I continue tofind myself a time.
In most cases I'm assuming thatan episode be uploaded by
Thursday now instead ofWednesdays, simply for the fact
that I have to have all myassignments turned in by Tuesday
.
And Tuesday was when I used torecord.
So now having to record when Imight be doing some last minute
(00:57):
editing for my assignments, soI'd rather just say that I'm
going to move recording toWednesday and have things posted
by Thursday, or even just beingsafe and saying Friday or
something.
We'll look into that.
But for now just realize I'mgoing to be trying to read,
upload stuff, and that wassomething that honestly, I had
like an epiphany, I guess.
(01:19):
So I was trying to figure outlike I'm like.
I feel like I'm busy all thetime.
I feel like I have no days off.
I feel like I'm so stressed outNot in a bad way it just means
like busy.
I've actually really beenenjoying my classes and things
have been going really well.
So I mean, if you're prayingfor me, thank you for that.
If you're not, well you know.
I'm in classes now and I'm alittle bit nervous.
(01:39):
I'm normally anxious by natureand I think one of the most
interesting things so far isthat I don't know if I ever
talked about how I got intotaking these courses.
I was really struggling todecide between because I knew I
wanted to go for my masters.
I've always been one for, like,education and I always knew I'd
(02:00):
go for my masters at the veryleast.
I just didn't know if I wantedto go for my masters in reading
concentration or my masters ineducation leadership, which
education leadership is what I'mcurrently pursuing, and the way
it came about is my,essentially, my mom had a
(02:21):
meeting with, at the same placeas, someone from my past who
used to be my eighth gradeteacher, and so then my mom was
not supposed to have gone tothis meeting, but she went, and
so because she went, you know,because she went, it kind of
(02:42):
became the thing of like, well,she was covering for someone
else.
Because she was covering forsomeone else.
She was there at the rightplace at the right time.
People would call it coincidence, I call it God, and some of
this sort of talking about me Iguess that's what parents do
they talk about their kids andapparently he remembered me and
he was like, oh yeah, I rememberhim and, you know, have him
(03:04):
contact me if he's reallyinterested and we can discuss it
and talk about it.
And so I went through with thatand one of my main concerns
about going for educationleadership was I had no idea
what the program was like and Iwas really nervous about going
into program because I washaving struggling to get any
kind of information about out ofany advisor or anything like
that.
And so that was a definite Godsend, literally, and you know
(03:26):
phrase wise.
And so then, yeah, we had likethe best talk ever, which I was
super nervous about it, but thenI like it just seemed very
relaxed, very casual, and Irealized you know this person's
very friendly and really justhas very passionate about his
job, and so he helped me, giveme suggestions on where to go to
(03:47):
school and where to do, and youknow how to do things and how
to prepare myself for my futureand it just it took a lot of the
worry off and, like I said, itwas a God send, because that was
basically my only thing.
I was going to probably bestuck deciding whether or not to
do anything, had God notintervened and sent that person
(04:10):
in that situation to thatmeeting of my that my mom had to
happen to be covering forsomeone for and then, you know,
offered to talk to me, to speakwith me.
I thought that was awesome.
I thought that was weird in thefirst place that he remembered
me because, I don't know, Idon't consider myself very
memorable, but yeah anyway.
So that's why I got into mymasters, literally all about
(04:31):
through God, by God, with God,and so one of the things that I
think right now I was sofreaking out about starting my
classes no-transcript, I don'tknow.
I'm gonna say it's all God,because a lot of the assignments
(04:52):
that I've been doing right nowit's not even like I'm stressing
out about writing them.
It's I'm stressing out aboutsome parts of it.
It's mostly the AP and theformatting and stuff, but the
actual writing isn't somethingthat I find stressful.
It's almost like my I wastrying to say this to my color
worker, but it's almost like mybrain enjoys it.
It's like I, it's like a littleoutlet, like I've had all this
(05:15):
pent up thoughts and things thatI've wanted to say and it's
like I'm able to say them inthese papers and I'm able to say
them in these assignments.
I've had so far no troublegetting to the max the maximum
amount of pages allowed it inallowed in every assignment.
And so it's been pretty wildand I mean like yesterday I
wasn't even supposed to havetime today, so I call that a God
(05:36):
send again that I'm.
I had like four assignments duetoday, yesterday, after you know
working like Saturday andSunday to finish an assignment.
For some reason I got them.
I felt the need to check myassignments, like submitted, and
I had gotten a hundred on it.
So I don't know why I checkedit.
Normally I wouldn't even bother.
I was just like, okay, I got ahundred, don't need to worry
(05:59):
about it.
I checked it and he said thatyou know, oh, my professors
thought they should put morereferences.
So then on this paper I'd spenttwo days working on, I went back
and I added referencesyesterday which I was already
behind.
So I was like in my mind I'mlike I can't do this, I can do
this, I can do this.
I should be focusing on theother stuff that's not even done
and then I can go back and dothe references for this thing.
(06:20):
You know, once I have at leastsomething to submit for the
other ones.
But I was like I'm just gonnado it, I'm gonna fix it.
It's already started.
Might as well, do it.
And I'll just push a lot ofwhat I was planning to do today
To today.
So what I got done yesterdayshould have been I should have
been working on today.
Anyway, I finished that in likean hour, maybe even 30 minutes
or less, I don't know.
(06:40):
Then I stopped and I was like,okay, well, I'm gonna make it a
little bit easier on myself, I'mgonna do some of the my next
assignment, which wasidentifying like five courses
that I wanted to take of the ofthe more modules, modules that I
wanna take that were online,and I was just gonna like list
them out and like kind of typeout my general thoughts on why I
wanna take that course.
So that way it would be easierto write that paper today.
(07:01):
And as I'm typing it out, I'mlike you know what this is
actually really like let me justdo the AP for a minute.
And then I did the AP for aminute and then I'm like you
know what, let me just type outsome of this stuff, I'll just
stop and I'll stop here.
Nope, kept going, nope, keptgoing and it was just like
normally I feel like I get burntout and stuff.
And it was just like my brainjust like kept brain in, kept
(07:22):
thinking and I was oof.
I finished that.
I finished that assignment.
So not only did I alter myoriginal assignment and like
rewrite that and then do thereferences.
I did this assignment and thenI included references in this
assignment.
I did the research of thecourses I even talked about and
did the rationale, usingcitations from the module to
(07:43):
talk about you know why I wannatake those courses, why I
consider them important.
And then after that, I stillhad to do responses to a
discussion post which alsoneeded to cite and state you
know rationale for why I wassaying whatever saying.
And basically, even before Idid the spell check of the paper
(08:03):
and re went over or re alteredit, the paper that I had already
finished.
On Saturday and Sunday I did adiscussion post.
Then I was planning on doinganother one Tuesday and just
basing all my stuff up cause Iwanna like overwhelm myself, and
it seemed all very overwhelming.
So then, after I finished thefive courses thing, I was like,
okay, good, I'm done, I'm gonnatake a break, I'll do the rest
(08:24):
tomorrow.
But then as I'm sitting there,I'm like wait, I have a really
good idea for a discussion post,like a discussion reply.
So I'm like let me just type itout before you know it gets to
be too much.
And so then I type it out andbam, it's done way faster than I
thought it would be.
And then I'm like you know what?
My last assignment is literallyjust posting a picture of a
(08:46):
quiz that I took.
I'm like I might as well do it.
So I went online, had to gonavigate to find the quiz, cause
I was a whole ordeal, found it,submitted it, and so something
that I thought was gonna take meuntil Tuesday, like probably
last minute, I was able tofinish all yesterday,
essentially.
I mean, I did most of the workfor the big assignment, which
was a two to three page paper,not too much, but it's more of
(09:09):
right now the APA formatting.
That kills me.
I actually have no trouble,like I said, reading that
maximum.
So yesterday, to just kind ofrecount and summarize what I
said, I not only did, I did adiscussion post.
I re-altered a three page paper, rewrote a lot of parts and
cited new things and found newreferences and resources two
(09:31):
reference.
Then I did a essentially two,two and a half page paper on
five courses.
I wanted to take in therationale for that.
Then I did another discussionpost which was about another
paragraph and then I submittedthe screenshot of a test that I
took more of an inventory todecide, like where I was on my
(09:54):
mastery of understanding whatall the leadership standards are
.
And I did pretty well with that.
But I just found it funny ornot funny, but I feel very
blessed to have completed allthat stuff because it's fully
expecting to be L4W.
I'm fully expecting to beworking on a lot of that stuff
right now and I just find itinsane that, like, even when I
(10:17):
don't consider myself to be likeyou know I'm not like the best
Christian, I have my ups anddowns and even like in these
moments when you know I feellike I have my ups and downs,
that I still feel and see Godmoving in my life and I think
(10:38):
that's just meaningful.
One thing I definitely told Godthat I wanted to focus on this
year and that's not somethingI've really been able to discuss
is my kind of New Year'sresolution was I wanted to.
It wasn't control my anger, butit was more of check myself
more.
I really wanted to embody theidea of loving your neighbor as
(11:01):
yourself, of swallowing my pride, of swallowing my you might, I
don't know, I'm mainly just mypride of saying oh no, they
can't go insult me that way.
And just being loving andcaring and kind and deciding to
push my boundaries of what Ithink is comfortable as far as
(11:22):
how much I'm willing to go inorder to love on someone, to
care about someone, to helpsomeone and typically, like I'm
usually drained from that fromwork.
But I told God that's what Iwanna do this year, that's what
my goal is for this year.
My goal is to embody that more.
It's not that I think I'mincapable of being nice and
(11:43):
caring, just either typicallyit's like I'm like I'm just
tired, I don't wanna do it, orit's almost like I'm
uncomfortable because it's weirdasking people if they need help
.
It's weird asking people howyou can help to be thoughtful.
I feel like for so many years Itaught myself to not be
thoughtful because I'm like whenI was younger, people used to
think it was weird, and so now Ijust kind of like stop doing it
(12:05):
and I'm thoughtful to peoplewho know me and I'm thoughtful
in like small ways where I haveto like talk myself and build
myself up to do it.
But I just told God I'm tiredof living life that way.
I want to be able to bethoughtful, to be able to be
caring and not worry about whatother people are thinking, to
love to the utmost capacity thatI can and to see people as God
(12:28):
sees them, as people who arehurting, people who are needing
love, whether they're rude to meor not.
And I wanna say it was a bigask and it's kind of scary, but
I just, the more I spend time inworking with kids in school and
(12:49):
being a teacher, the more andmore I realized that a lot of
what kids need is love.
A lot of what people in generalneed is love, to realize that
there's someone there that caresabout them, that loves them and
that wants to see them succeed.
And that's part of why I wasalways so kind of on the border
about leaving the classroom.
It's because I know that I haveit in me to love on kids, to
(13:14):
tell them that you can besomething, you can do something
and work with them to figure outwhat they need in order to
succeed and to get to the dreamsand the passions that they have
and not everybody has that.
But at the same time I've,weirdly enough, felt myself
being drawn to leadership, whichis typically not like me,
(13:34):
because if you knew me in person, I'm very shy, I'm very quiet,
but it's like as I've spent moretime working with my students,
I've learned to speak up more.
I've learned to advocate more.
I get less uncomfortable insituations where previously I
would have been like heck.
No, I'm not doing that, becauseI learned that you know, if I
(13:55):
don't speak up for these kids,then nobody will.
And I guess a large part of whyI want to become any kind of
instructional leader is becauseI want to see kids know that
people believe in them, even theones who literally are little
butt heads and are rude and getupset.
I want to find ways because alot of these kids just don't
(14:18):
feel like they're love, don'tfeel like anybody's watching out
for them.
I want them to know that, yeah,you have difficulties, yeah,
there are issues, but if you'rewilling to work with me, I'm
willing to work with you.
That kind of thing and that's alot of what I try to do in my
classroom.
That's a lot of what I try todo building relationships and
creating a classroom where theyfeel included, being started in
(14:42):
the sense of okay, yeah, no, no,we can have bad days and we can
do this stuff, but that doesn'tmean that we get to push over
someone or be rude to someoneelse.
Our problem should not begin tocause problems for other people
.
If there's an issue, we talkabout it, we discuss it, we
think of together.
Okay, well, if you're notfeeling this or you're not
feeling that, well, what's a waythat we can make it work for
(15:03):
both of us?
Because there are things wehave to do, and I get that we
all have lives and that we'resick and that we're there's
things going on at home.
How can we make this work forthe both of us?
And discussing that with thekids and that's a lot of what I
wish I saw more of in otherclassrooms just being inclusive
and making kids feel needed andnot ostracized and not dumb and
(15:24):
not stupid and not handicapped,because I have heard people say
that and that's, like probablythe thing that pushed me over
into wanting to do instructionalleadership, being careful and
mindful about the words that weuse towards these kids, letting
them know that we're not upsetwith them.
We're just not approving oraccepting of the behaviors the
problem behaviors, mind you thatthey're displaying and building
(15:46):
in kind of incentives, not tomake them reliant on them, but
to build interdependence towhere they can start to do these
kinds of things for themselves,where they can say, oh, I
finished that lesson, oh, Ifinished that, oh, let me take a
break real quick because I'veearned it.
And learning to say things likethat because, honestly, that's
what I do, like when I'm doingthese assignments.
I finish part of it, I'm like,okay, what's a realistic amount?
(16:08):
I set it for myself.
I get there and I'm like, okay,I'm gonna take a break so I
don't burn myself out.
And this is kind ofinterdependence that I wanna
build for these kids.
I wanna be able to have thesekids feel supported and feel
welcome, and not just welcome,but like I want them there, not
(16:28):
like I wish you would go home or, oh my gosh, would you please
shut up or please just stoptalking, but welcome and feel
like you know.
Not only are they welcome, butthey're wanted, their desire
that that we want them, that Iwant them to be a part of this
school, that I'm glad thatthey're here, that I'm glad
they're part of this.
You know, conversation, thatthe part of this learning, the
(16:50):
part of this classroom, that Ibelieve in them, that I see in
them the capability and thepossibility to learn and to
achieve and in all of thesethings.
And it's just weird how a lotof what I've been there is
taught me that, while I don'tdirectly don't want to be in a
(17:12):
leader, a lot of the things Idesire are part of what an
instructional leader can do.
And I totally got off topic, butI'm just trying to say like
this whole thing has just feltvery like God led and and I
literally don't know how Ipulled yesterday off because I
(17:33):
finished everything I meaneverything and I did not.
I thought I was going to bebehind but instead I was way
ahead of my schedule.
I have a whole day free,because I was originally
planning to record this onWednesday because I'm like, well
, tuesday I'll have submitted mypaper, wednesday I can record
because it I mean I won't haveanything to do for another six
days.
But yeah, so sorry.
(17:56):
I really wanted to just updateyou guys and stuff going on in
my life, but the verse for todayis actually sorry I haven't
pulled up here on my computer.
The verse for today is comingfrom Luke and it's it's not
(18:17):
really a verse per se, it's moreof just like the conversation
about what's going on, takingthe verse and getting a little
bit out of what it saysspecifically and talking about
what this means, how thisimpacts us.
So I'm looking at Luke verse.
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Luke, chapter 2, verses 6 to 14.
Verse 6 says and so it was thatwhile they were there, the days
were accomplished, that sheshould be delivered and she
brought forth her firstborn sonand wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a mangerbecause there was no room for
them.
In the end and there were, inthe same country, shepherds
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abiding in the field keepingwatch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel, the Lord,came upon them and the glory of
the Lord shone round about themand they were so afraid and the
angel said unto them fear not,for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy which shallbe to all people, for unto you
is born this day, in the city ofDavid, a savior which is Christ
the Lord, and this shall be asign unto you.
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Ye shall find the babe, wrappedin swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger, and suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of
the heavenly host praising Godand saying glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace,good will toward men.
Oof, I have weird chills.
I also feel like I'm comingdown with the cold, but I just I
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love these verses.
I love this part of the story.
I also love the part I thinkit's Luke, chapter 1, the
initial part of Luke whenthey're talking to about the
genealogy of Jesus.
And it's just so impactfulbecause it's when you're going
through the genealogy of Jesuslike meaning who were the
ancestors of Jesus.
It's crazy when you look at allthe names and you see all of
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these names of people who aretied to, not to weren't just
like regular people, who weren'tjust amazing people.
These were people tied to somebig.
What do they call that?
Oof, I cannot remember the wordwhen, like someone's caught in
like some big news thing, whenthey're in trouble, they call it
(20:25):
a C word.
It's not a, it's not acomplication, it's not a
coincidence, it's not aconspiracy.
Oh my gosh.
I cannot think of the word C.
Word for Okay, this is caughtup in snare.
(20:55):
No, I don't know C word for Inthe news in a bad way.
Sorry, I'm just gonna be soweird, caught in a bind.
(21:19):
No, it's not that Maybe.
C word that means bad news.
What is that word?
(21:58):
Oh my gosh.
C word that means controversial.
Oh my gosh.
Something that's controversial,oh my gosh.
So when you look at thegenealogy of Jesus, you see that
(22:18):
so many of the people in thegenealogy of Jesus were in some
very controversial situations.
I remember I had listed themdown and maybe we'll talk about
them next week, but just readingthrough that there's like a lot
.
There's obviously Abraham.
Abraham did some wild things,you know, lying.
(22:40):
I mean he didn't sleep withHagar because he just did it.
His wife sent him to do it butstill he did it.
The other people, oh my gosh,the two sisters who slept with
their father, that was the lineof Jesus, and that one I find
(23:01):
wild.
David was the line of Jesus.
Actually, david had a childwith Bathsheba, not the original
child that died because youknow it was all done evil, but
the child of David and Bathshebawas in a child of David and
Bathsheba was in the line ofJesus.
So to think that Jesus camefrom that is insane.
(23:22):
And, like I said, we'll talkabout that.
Maybe I don't know about nextweek, but I'm going to try to
figure out my schedule.
I promise Maybe every week,maybe every two weeks, but I'm
definitely going to startlooking at how I can make my
schedule work so that I'm stillgetting out something, but
anyway.
So this part of the verse istalking about Jesus in the
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manger, and one thing that hasbeen on my mind and I even said
it, or like our Christmascelebration at church, is this
weird and sane fact that, yes,it talks about the shepherds,
and they were in the samecountry.
Shepherds are biting the field,keeping watch over their flock
by night.
So they had no idea and so theysaid hello.
The angel of the Lord came uponthem and the glory of the Lord
showed around about them andthey were so afraid they had no
(24:04):
idea what was going on.
Said fear not, for behold, Ibring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to allpeople, for unto you is born
this day, in the city of David,a savior which is Christ the
Lord.
And so, basically, thisshepherds had no idea what was
going on.
But not only that, nobody inthis town had any idea what was
going on.
Everybody knew, or a lot ofpeople knew, that the Messiah
would be born.
And then, even then, afterJesus was literally there
(24:26):
standing in front of them, jewsstill said that he wasn't the
Messiah.
And so I guess what I'm tryingto say is I find it insane to
think that people even wrote asong about it.
The first line was the streetsare quiet, the people didn't
know that in a manger the Son ofGod was born.
And I find it crazy to imaginethat in this manger the Son of
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God was born, literalmanifestation of God as a human
being was born, and nobody knew,nothing changed.
Everybody was doing everythingthat they had originally planned
, and it's crazy to me to thinkthat this happened and nobody
knew.
It's crazy to me to think thatthis was happening on the side
and nobody knew.
(25:12):
And I don't think, if we everreally take that into context,
we ever really understand thatthat's what's happening that
nobody knew.
Like.
When I was a kid, I alwaysremember hearing born in a
manger.
I'm like, oh, they were stuckin a manger.
But it's not.
It's not you know, I'm justsaying that.
It's saying not only were theystuck in a manger, they were in
the most like remote place.
(25:35):
Nobody knew about it.
And I'm like, wow, that must becrazy.
Imagine like the Son of Godbeing born.
You had no idea that God wasdoing something like right there
, close to you.
And then I realized, like howmany of us go about our lives
when God is doing somethingright by us, right near us, and
don't realize that God is doingsomething?
I mean, how often is God doingthings on the side, preparing
(25:58):
stuff for us, and we're justgoing out of our lives like
nothing's changed, nothing'sdifferent, right, I want, I'd
like to say that I'd hope to bea shepherd where God reveals it
to me and whatnot.
But we're not necessarilyguaranteed that there are always
people who see and know aboutthe plan of God and there's
people who don't.
And it all works to the gloryof God that he has some people
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know and some people don't.
But I just find it crazy toimagine that this kind of thing
applies to us even now.
Not necessarily that Jesus isgoing to be born in a manger
again, but the idea thatsomething amazing could happen
and you would have no idea aboutit, that there is a change
about to come, because that'swhat Jesus was.
It was a change that everybodyhad been waiting for and nobody
(26:42):
knew about it.
Nobody had access to it.
Nobody right there, rightbeside you, right near you,
maybe in the next town, over it,could be the person or thing
that it could be being birth,whether it's an idea, whether
it's a product, whether it's acompany, whether it's an
invention, could be that's aboutto change your life, but we
(27:03):
have to be prepared for it.
People are always talking aboutyou know the rapture's gonna
come, and I've always been oneto say what does it matter if
the rapture comes?
That's not the goal of you know, a Christian.
Our goal is not to leave.
Our goal is to speak and tolove on people, and that's the
reason we don't know when therapture's gonna come.
If our goal was to be to therapture, god would have told us
(27:25):
okay, you leave this in such astate.
Make sure you're ready to go.
That's what he would have toldus.
But our goal isn't that weshould be wary.
That's kind of something that'sgonna happen, but that's not
our goal.
Jesus said that he had a goodwork for us and that we should,
you know, be a servant unto men,that we should be loving and
spreading the good news.
The good news is not therapture.
The good news is that JesusChrist has died and taken his
(27:46):
sins upon himself so that youmight live and have a new life,
that you might be restored, thatyou might be renewed, that you
might have a relationship withGod and have things change and
be free from the sin that onceheld you.
I don't I honestly do not careabout the rapture.
I refuse to learn about stuffLike it's not important to me.
Why would that be important?
(28:07):
I could die tomorrow.
What does it matter when therapture happens?
The rapture could happen rightnow while I'm recording this.
What does it matter?
That is not my purpose.
God did not put me on earth tounderstand or to predict when
the rapture is gonna happen and,honestly, sometimes all the
rapture does is make me likequestion.
You know the validity of whatI'm doing right now.
(28:29):
My sense of urgency should comefrom.
There is somebody out there whomay not have multiple days to
live.
There is somebody out there whomay not have another day.
There's somebody out there whomay have years.
That my sense of urgency shouldcome to.
I need to get the word out tolove on those people, to care
about those people, because thismay be their last opportunity
(28:49):
to receive, you know, a messageabout God.
And I'm not saying there'sanything wrong with knowing
about the rapture.
I just choose not to, because Ilearned about it passively.
I'm never going to activelylike, try to find signs and
stuff, because I'm not lookingto leave.
I mean I don't mean in thesense of like I'm ready to go,
(29:10):
like I'm just ready to leave,because that's not my focus.
My focus isn't that and itnever should be.
God did not put us on this earthso that we could leave.
God put us on this earth.
That's not originally ouroriginal purpose.
My purpose on here is not toget myself prepared to leave.
My purpose on here is to sharethe word of God and to lead, you
(29:30):
know, to be shepherds amongstlambs, to share the word of God,
to be part of the body ofChrist that is going and
reaching and touching and lovingand holding and doing these
things to call people to Christ.
And I've told people thisbefore.
I don't ever think that mymessage would be to repent
because the end is coming soon,because I've been led by fear
(29:55):
and I don't want to fear the end.
When the Bible says the fear ofGod, it does not mean terrified
of God.
It means terrified of.
It means the fear of beingwithout Him.
And so to me that means whenI'm telling someone to repent,
it's repent because there is somuch love here for you, there's
so much caring, there's someonewho loves you beyond what you
(30:16):
could ever imagine.
In this world.
There are people who wouldjudge you and ridicule you and
put you down and belittle you,but he's not like that.
He only sees you, know what youcould be.
He desires you to be your best.
He desires you to love in thestrongest way possible, to be,
to have the most permanent peace, to be the fullness, or to come
(30:37):
into the fullness of what youcould become.
And so to me, it's never beenabout, you know, fear and oh,
repent because you're gonna goto hell.
It's repent because God haslove for you.
Is that love as simple as you'dlike to think no, it's
complicated, but it's beautifuland it's meaningful and it's
giving you the truth in waysthat people would never give you
(30:58):
the truth.
When people lie to you and saythey love you, they always have
an underhand.
We love you because ofsomething.
We love you because of that,but I never want it to be that I
want it to be.
God has a love for you, notbecause of any of those things.
He's gonna love you regardless.
He loves you even now.
He cares about you.
But it's because he loves youthat he offers you this
(31:20):
repentance, not as somethingthat you can purchase, not as
something that you have to earn,but as a gift freely given of
his heart to you that you mightexperience eternal peace, that
you might experience arelationship with him, that you
might be able to receive thiskind of love, this kind of peace
, this kind of joy that isever-present, that is eternal,
that permeates to every aspectof life.
(31:46):
And so when I talk about lovingJesus and wanting to repent,
it's not repenting so that Idon't go to hell.
It's not repenting Like that'snot my goal and that's part of
what I learned in school, like Idon't tell kids oh you better
study so you don't fail, oh youbetter work.
(32:08):
So I'm not telling them what Idon't want them to happen,
because that's not our goal.
That's a negative, that's aconsequence of what a
consequence we have.
It should be what are weworking towards?
I'm not working towards notgoing to hell.
I'm working towards having arelationship with God, because I
can easily not go to hell byjust repenting and just living a
(32:29):
very mediocre life.
But that's not what we'reputting here for.
Instead, I can work towards arelationship with God where I
push myself to reach othersbecause I know that's what God
would want me to do, or I pray,I read my Bible every day
because I know that's what Godwould want me to do, or I spend
time with him, or I learn, whereI become a friend of God more
than just someone who hasreceived his gift.
(32:50):
I don't know if I'm making sense, but that's what I see when I
think of repentance.
We're not repenting so that wecan get out of hell.
I mean that's a benefit, butthe true goal is getting to know
God, getting to have arelationship with someone who
loves you so much more than youwould everything possible, the
ins and outs of who you arebetter than you know yourself.
(33:11):
That's, to me, why we repent.
We repent to feel clean.
We repent to feel embraced.
We repent to be loved, notrepenting for negative things,
but repenting for the beautythat is the love of Christ.
We repenting for the beautythat is a relationship with God.
And I'm not again, I'm notsaying that there aren't other
(33:36):
ways to go about it, but for methat's what it is.
For me, that's what what, whatit was for me.
That's that's the true desire,because how many of us don't
need to feel loved?
How many of us feel lonely andhurt and broken and we don't
know how to fix it?
We don't know how to feel loved, we don't know how to feel
needed, we don't know how tofeel validated.
And here God says repent, not soyou don't go to hell, but so
(34:00):
you so you could have arelationship with me.
Move away from the things thatare, that are not of me, that
prevent him from having arelationship with you, and
instead move into a relationshipand move into believing and and
and and speaking with him andand communicating and being a
friend and and having that loveand having that validation, not
(34:22):
a validation that's, that's likesickly and needy.
And the moment that they stopsaying, oh you're beautiful, oh
you're amazing, it disappearswith the validation that God
sees you and he created you andhe has purpose for you and he
made you in his own image andthat there was a purpose and a
plan for you and that he valuesyou.
He sees a value beyond justtoday, beyond just a year,
(34:43):
beyond your physical parents,beyond your mental capabilities,
beyond your any kind ofcapabilities or what you may or
may not be financially capableof.
And I think that's the beautyof the message, that's the good
news that there is someone wholoves you.
And I don't mean love like theworld uses love, but loves you
(35:11):
like the Bible means love Lovesyou in a way that is patient,
that is kind, that is eternal,that is unbreakable, unmarble,
untouchable, that someone cannottake away, that someone cannot
make you pay for something thatis freely given and given out of
love.
(35:33):
Anyway, this message was kind ofall over the place.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I honestly had that message onmy head for a while.
I love what the love part thatkind of just came More so the
idea that Jesus was born in themanger and nobody knew.
And right now there could besomething going on that is your
(35:56):
baby in a manger, that is yourchange coming, but you're not
aware of it.
So don't lose hope.
There is a baby in a manger, inthis case, a possibility,
something being born, an idea, aphysical thing, a physical
person being born or whose lifeis being changed, who is being
saved, who is being reborn as aChristian, who is in place to do
(36:23):
something big in your life.
And you don't know, and theydidn't know back then, and
that's okay, but what we trustin God and when we lean on his
understanding, all things aremade right for those who love
him.
Anyway, as always, let's goahead and end with a short
prayer, because this has been along, long message.
(36:46):
Dear God, first off, thank youfor loving us in the way that
you love us, loving us in theway that no one ever could.
Thank you for waking us up todayand letting us hear this
message.
Thank you for having peace ofmind, for giving us peace of
mind, and thank you just forgiving us another day of life to
(37:06):
be surrounded by you andpossibly others.
Okay, thank you for theopportunity you gave us each to
come to you to repent, to notonly cleanse ourselves and avoid
going to hell, to have acloseness to a deity not only a
(37:33):
deity, but the only living God,the only God who created the
heavens and the earth, the veryGod that thousands and millions
of years ago saw us and loves usand has seen everything that we
will ever do, and loves us moredeeply than love could ever be
(37:53):
understood to be.
Lord, I pray that you forgiveus of our sins, lead us not into
temptation and you justcontinue to help us build our
relationship with you, that youcontinue to help us to seek you
out and just help us focus onloving one another, on reaching
out and touching and giving theright words and the good news
(38:14):
and filling us with wisdom andunderstanding, so that we can
move in the way that you desireus to move.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
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