"Rewind and Fast Forward of 2006"

I have a couple of things before I start my blog. One is I am sorry for those of you came on last week looking for a new thought by me. Again I am sorry I was busy with Christmas and the power went off, at my house for a bit 2 hours. Second is I am changing the mean of lol which means laugh out loud to lots of laughs. I want to change this because it would be funny and also because no one laughs out loud when they lol on msn or yahoo or whatever you use.

As we are coming up to the new year. Tomorrow night is New Years Eve in case you did not know, or just forgot.

When we come to this time of year, we look back over the year that was, the things we did, the fun we had, the lol we had. This year has been an awesome year for me. I did a lot I do not even know were to start. I finished another year of school. I saw changes in my own life. I saw God keep doing things in my life, and I saw myself grow in different areas.
I saw a lot of things happen at Rainstorm at the start of 2006, we started a road trip. Not a real road trip this was just the wording we use to talk about what we were doing. We saw people join us on this trip. We saw people leave on their own road trip of life. It has been a great year. We saw young people start relationships with God. We saw young people keep growing in their relationship with God. We saw young people get baptized which was sweet. It was awesome to play a part of this. (There is so much to write here but I do not want to have to long of a blog)

We have add something new to the road trip this year. We added "Share Moments. Share Life" I talked about it in my last thought.

Now I have some questions to get you thinking about your year:

What will you remember from 2006?
What was your best moment of 2006?
What was the worst moment of 2006?
What did God do for you in 2006?
What did He teach you in 2006?
What will you 2007 like look for you?
What things will you do?
What things do you have planed to do?

I can not wait to see what 2007 will look like. I am starting 2007 off with a bang. I am going to Guatemala in February. I fly out on the 14th and return on the 26th. This is a missions trip. This is my first missions trip and also my first time in a plane.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"Moments that define our lives"

This is a talk I did last night at Rainstorm. It had to do with moments that define our lives. I have had a few moments this year that has help to define my life. We talk about about two stories in the Bible that talk about define moments for the People of God. These two stories are found in Exodus 14:1-18 and Joshua 3:13-4:7; 21-24. These two stories talk about the People of God, crossing over bodies of water on dry ground. These were moments that defined their lives. We take a few these of out those stories. God does moments in peoples lives to show His Glory, God is about moving us from moment to moment and He does not want us to get "stuck in a moment." This is a song by U2 and the line says "You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it"
God wants us to remember the moments we have with Him and when He does stuff in our lives. In the second story we read He told the people to take 12 stones out of the Jordan river to set up a permanent memorial. He wanted the people to be able to remember what He did for them. I loved to parts in read in this story yesterday. The First is:"Select twelve men from the people, a man from each tribe, and tell them, 'From right here, the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are standing firm, take twelve stones. Carry them across with you and set them down in the place where you camp tonight.'" (Joshua 4:2-3 MSG) He wanted them to set the stones up where they camped that night, He did not say take them with you and set up each time. It wanted them to keep going and get ready for the next thing He was going to do, but He did want them to remember it. Some times when we have a moment we just stop and want to stay at that moment and never move past that moment. We can remember it but do not get stuck in the moment.
The second is: "In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, 'What are these stones doing here?' tell your children this: 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.'
"Yes, GOD, your God, dried up the Jordan's waters for you until you had crossed, just as GOD, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong GOD's rescuing hand is and so that you would hold GOD in solemn reverence always."
He also wanted the stones to be set up so the next generation would know what He did for His people. I think that is so awesome. We do not go around setting up stones like this anymore it might be a bit different to see that. But we take pictures or make videos of the moments we have. Then we can share moments with people. Kodak has a line it is "Share Moments. Share Life."

In January 2006, at Rainstorm we start a road trip to see young people start relationships with God or get back to a relationship with God. We saw this happen. In 2007 we are going to keep going on the road trip and we are adding "Share Moments. Share Life" This idea came out of something that was said by one of the young people that started a relationship with God in October. We were sitting in the office on Friday after Acquire the Fire and she said I wish I had camera to take a picture to remember this day or something like that I do not remember it word for word.
What have been "moments that have defined your life? This year or past year?
Have you handle on to that moment that you ended up missing other moments?
In another blog I will talk about those moments from 2006, that happened at Rainstorm and in my personal life.
We have seen God to some great things this year at Rainstorm, and we know we can remember the moments and talk about with other young people so they know what God has done in the group, but we know that God is moving us to another moment in 2007. The first talk I am giving in January 2007 is going to be entitled "Why can't things be like they were before?"
Let your comments about "moments that have defined your life"

"For Kids Only"

Today I was part of an event. Know as "For Kids Only", I was on the team that helped plan this event. My role was to bring the elves and also get the elves. I was able to get the best group of elves ever. They did a great job. What was this event you ask? Let me tell you. It was an event put on by a few churches in the Dundas area. It was done at St. Paul's a church in Dundas. We had children come in from the Salvation army. These kids were between the ages of 5 to 12. They were going to pick out Christmas gifts for their mom or dad, or both. It was a long day for me on my feet, and I also had Rainstorm the night before and we had a coffee house. So I am tried, but it was worth it. To see this kids come out of the gift store and walk over to where their parent or parents, and see the look on both the kids face and the parents face. I did not know what to say sometimes. I would like to say a big huge thanks to all the elves you came out help. When doing this event today I was drawn to a verse in the Bible. The first is found in Matthew 19:13-14 "One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these."" (MSG)
Remember that each one of those kids we helped today that God's kingdom is made of people like these children.
For some of these kids you made their Christmas by helping them pick of a gift for their parent(s). And you have played a part that down the road can help them start a relationship with God. But they will remember how nice the elves were to them and helped them with their Christmas as kids to give good gifts to their parent(s). You also meant the needs of people and Acts talks about that the sold what they had and meant the needs of people, so their was no needy among them. I just want to say thanks for all your hard work with the kids today. There is nothing great then meeting the need of someone who can not repay you. What will you do this Christmas to meet the needs of someone?
Christ came and gave us the best gift His life and we can repay for what He did.

Here is a picture of the elves.


Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"Freedom Speakers"

I would like to say thanks for taking the time to come to read my thoughts. I hope you get something out of them as you read them.
Well this Friday, at Rainstorm Youth Ministry I talked about sharing your story. We then gave the chance for someone to come up and share his story. This guy has been coming out for four months now. He had been in a relationship Christ for about four months. This Friday was his last week with us. The family that he lives with moving to B.C. first they are going to do some traveling down in the U.S.A. (that is not the reason for the picture, I will explain later) It has been a great honour to get to know this family, and they youth. They will be missed.
Before we had him come up and share his story. I just talked a bit about sharing your story. There was this verse in the Bible I came across as I reading someone else's blog this week. She had Psalms 107 down at the bottom of her blog. So I looked the verse up and I used verse 2. It says:

"All of you set free by God, tell the world!
Tell how he freed you from oppression" (Ps. 107:2 MSG)

When I read that this week I was like that is awesome we need to share that God has set us free, and we need to tell the world this. So the U.S.A has freedom fries and they have freedom fighters, we can be known as freedom speakers. People that go around telling the world that God has freedom them from different things and the relationship we have with Him. I want to be known as a freedom speaker what about you?

We have to say goodbye to this family this week. And this Sunday we are going to be baptising three from the family 2 girls and one guy. Not only we will be baptising these ones but also two more (one guy and one girl). It has been great getting to know this youth and young adults and seeing some of them start a relationship with God in the past few months, and seeing some of the continue with the relationship they have with Him. It is great to see these youth and young adults doing this, it is a honour to know these young people and to have been a part of this it have been awesome. So this Sunday I will be getting in a hot tub (much like this one)
and hear about their relationship with God and then I will get to dunk of the guys. I found out today it will be awesome, because the guys I am dunking, started coming out to Rainstorm when he was invited to Undertow, which is a faith-club I lead at a local high school in Dundas. He was then invited out to a event at Rainstorm a coffee house we did at the end of June. It started coming out on a week to week after that. He also attend Ignite our young adults small group. He then left and went to Ottawa to attend a school their. So we have not seen him since he left. We have talked to him on msn. It will be sweet to see him again. It is awesome to see when people start a relationship with God and you talk to them about it. After this guy left he sent a card to the church, the card was read by the pastor on Sunday morning during his talk. The guy said my name and the impact on had on his journey towards starting this relationship with God, and how me and another lead helped him with stuff about God. When I heard this I started crying. He talked about the impact Rainstorm had on his journey too. So this Friday at Rainstorm we celebrated that he is coming home to do this, and the other people that entered into a relationship with God the past few months. It is great to see when young people do this, and we at Rainstorm can fulfill our mission statement: To produce young people of passion - pursuing Christ!

Maybe you have read this and you say to yourself I have not started a relationship with God yet, that's cool each person is on a journey. I want you to know that if you have question feel free to email me and ask away.
If you are in a relationship with God but you it has broken down somewhere I would like to get together with you and talk about it, you can also email me.

Sorry for the blog being so long, I know the last time have been short. I want to try to keep them short so I am sorry. But I think you know why it is so long.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"Rain Gutters"

I did not know what to blog about. So I thought about it for a bit. I came to the idea that I would blog about something I did today. I helped my dad clean the rain gutters out today. Well I held the ladder when he went up and cleaned them. I thought as he was up their cleaning them, that our lives can be the like the rain gutters. Once every few months we clean the crap out of them, so that the rain will follow out. We need to let God come in to our lives and begin to start cleaning the crap out in our lives, but much like the rain gutters do not clean themselves. We as people need to say I think it is time to clean the gutters. We need to say it time to let God to come in a clean the crap out of life. So that He can follow out of me so when people push my buttons the grace of God follows out not the overflow of my own self. This is hard because we need to say to God, come in a search my life and begin to clean the crap out. I did this a few weeks ago and He has started to clean the crap up, and when I started to see what He was clean up in my life I was like no. Why are you clean that out? I also thought if this is what it takes to get closer to God, then I want this crap cleaned up. So God can follow out of me much like the rain follows out of the gutters once they have been cleaned and do not have the crap to block it. I am not saying I will be perfect once this crap is cleaned up, there will be more to work on after.
Questions: What is the crap in your life that God needs to begin to up? When He starts to do this will you have a problem with what He is cleaning up? If so how will you deal with it?

Emotions are elastic

Hey I am sorry for those of you who came on last Saturday to read my blog, I had one of those weeks. Where I did not get around to writing it Saturday. I attend an event on the Saturday and was really tried went I returned home. The event was Promise Keeps. It is an event for men. Some of the men at my church wanted me to attend so I went. I had a great time the speakers were really good. It was great to hear what they had to say.

Now on to the blog this week. It is not going to have to do with Promise Keeps, nor what I learned them. This weeks is about a song on C.D. I have been listening to in my car, so I have been driving around. The band's name is 311. I only own one C.D. by them so I do not know to much at their music. The C.D. I have is entitled 'Evolver', released in 2003. The one song I really enjoyed this week is #10 on the C.D. it is entitled 'Other Side of Things.'

There is one line they repeat a come during the song. The words go like this:

Emotions are elastic
they stretch out and back
stretch out and back
sometimes they just snap
they don’t go back
they never go back

What I like about these words are, our emotions are like elastics we stretch them so far and sometimes they come back to normal. And we can keep stretching our emotions. I also like how it says something they just snap, they don't come, they never come back. We stretch our emotions so far that sometimes they snap and never come back. I do not know about you but I use to wear elastic for the fun of it, on my wrists. I would have friends that would stretch them so far back and then let go of them and they would snap down my wrist and it would hurt. We stretch our emotions sometimes far like that and then we they snap back they hurt. I also pulled the elastics myself and sometimes they would brake on my and they would snap back at me and hurt to. We stretch our emotions like that when they snap back they are going to hurt us.

I am not saying do not have emotions. Emotions are good things to have. But when we make decisions based just on our emotions, sometimes our emotions get stretched and they don't come back.

I think sometimes in the Christian life we make decisions, based on our emotions. I do not think this is the right thing to do. A lot of people make the decision to have a relationship with God based on a emotional feeling. Jesus was about people making decisions to follow Him. He did not use emotions to get people to follow Him. He just said come and follow me, and people would follow Him and when they followed Him they say the difference He made, and decisioned to follow Him based on that.

If we base our whole relationship with God on an emotional feeling. What happens when things get things go wrong, because things are not perfect, we are going to have hard times in life. The emotional feeling might get stretched like the elastics and it might snap and never come back.

So do not base your whole relationship with God on a emotional feeling, because some days you might not feel Him, but He is still there. So base your relationship on what He does and who is He. Not because of an emotional feeling someone created in a service you attend. Let God do that.

Please leave your comments. I love reading them.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

“Pause Button”

Do you ever wish sometimes in life you could hit the pause button and stop everything? It was one of those weeks for me. I just need to slow everything down. I am in the middle of reading this book on pray entitled “Too Busy Not to Pray” by Bill Hybels. It has really made me think that I need to slow life down. So this week I have tried to slow life down a bit. I had a few talks with people who feel the same way; life feels like it is going 1000 miles an hour. Thursday at band practice for Sunday worship, we decided as a worship team the four people that were there, would slow life a bit and spent the time praying instead. It was a great time I believe we all need it! After leaving there I wished I had a pause button to push everyday and do that. When thinking about slowing life down I was drawn to the Bible.

"Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything." (Ps. 46:10 MSG)

I like how is says step out of the traffic. We need to pause life, and take a long loving look at God. We need to hit the pause button and look at God to hear what He wants to say us. He is above everything and I need to look to Him.

So will you hit the pause today and look to God? I know I will and more than once a week.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"Sleep"

I know some of you might have come on my blog site to check for my new blog yesterday because I told you that I post a new one each Saturday. I am sorry, if you did come and did not find a new one. I was at event with Rainstorm youth ministry. The youth group that I lead. The event was Acquire the Fire the whole theme of the weekend was "Branded by God – The Mark of a Warrior."
I am not going to write about the weekend right now. I am going to write about why I did not post last night I needed some sleep. So day it is about sleep. Do you ever feel like the guy in this picture sleeping on the subway. That you are so tired that you fell asleep on your way home.

There is a song by a guy named Riley Armstrong and he talks about sleep. I went and saw this guy play before with my sisters and brother. It is a funny song. This is what he says:

looking straight at the light
it never used to be that bright last night
but it's a new day with fuzz in my eyes
alarm is still ringing when I open the blinds
how do these people do it
they are like driving around like there's nothing to it
I imagine it's like the medication their on
or probably just the coffee but
one thing is certain in life

and that is that today I'm going to eat cereal
I mean come on let's get our priorities straight
but before I know it I'm out the door late
just trying to catch some rat or some race
or something I'm not quite sure what it is
so for now I just best keep moving
and by nine a.m. my brain and my body
finally decide to meet
and we come to the same conclusion as yesterday
that I never get enough sleep

CHORUS:
sleep, no I never get enough
always waking up tired
sleep, no I never get enough
if I don't show up I might get fired
sleep, no I never get enough
always waking up tired
sleep, no I never get enough
if I don't show up I might get fired

they call it commuting
but I think they should call it intravenous
cause it's what I need every time I get
stuck behind a truck, just trying to turn left
just trying to turn left, why are you trying to turn left
why don't you park your silly cube van
hop in I'll drop you off

cause at this rate we'll both be late
but I'd rather be late than sitting here doing nothing
and by nine a.m. my brain and my body
finally decide to meet
and we come to the same conclusion as yesterday
that I never get enough sleep

BRIDGE:
sleep go on and sleep some more
sleep go on and sleep some more

Do you ever feel like what the chorus says that you never get enough sleep. Sometimes I feel like that. I wish there was more time for me to sleep. I feel tired sometimes and wish I just could get more sleep. Sometimes we do not get enough sleep because we are taking so much on and we are thinking about it all night that it keeps us up. When I thing about this I am drawing to a verse in the bible that says:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

I like it when I read that when I am tired and worn out about thinking about life and what to do and things in life. I can go to God and He gives me a break from thinking about and He shows me how to recover my life and how to take a real rest.

How do you handle things in your life that have you thinking about them each night so you do not get enough sleep. Do you say well I fell asleep at 12 it is better than last night when it was 1. And I only need a couple of hours it do what I need to do. That might for a bit but they is going to come a time when you can not handle it anymore, and you might start doing stuff that you would not do before. Like failing tests at school, getting mad about stuff faster then normal. But when we turn to God and say I need rest, I am tired, He says I will show you come and follow Me, but we need to choice to say that, and He wants us to do that. So this week will you say I need so rest I am tired with life right now, and will you do that and see what God for you?

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"Waiting on the world to change"

Today blog is a bit different. I am going to talk about John Mayer's song entitled "Waiting on the world to change." When I first heard this song on the radio I thought it was a good song, well at least the music part was cool. Then I really listened to the words, and we are going to unpack the song about. I wanted to make this one shorter this week, because I feel the last couple have been a bit long. I hope you enjoy this one.

This is what he says:

So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Its hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

Let's unpack this part, if we keeping waiting for the world to change on its own it will not do we as people need to stand up. Find areas were we can get involved and make a difference, Rainstorm did this last night by going to a place called Sew-on-Fire Ministries and they put together gift bags that are going over to Africa to be given out to people. They are trying to make a difference in the world not sitting by waiting for it to change on it owns.
“It is hard to beat the system” if you are “standing at a distance” you need to get there and do something.

Now to the next part about waiting, he sings about waiting for the world to change again. He also says “It’s not that we don’t care We just know that the fight ain’t fair.” Yes the fight is not fair but maybe we still need to fight even if it is not fair.

“One day our generation Is gonna rule the population.” This is true and the type of world you life in well be the one you help create with the people living now. If will be hard to change world once you reach “an age” you think is the right age, you can make a difference now. Stop waiting and start marking a difference.

So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Know we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change.

Stop waiting for the world to change and make a difference, somehow and somewhere. You change make a difference.

The Bible tells a story between Jesus and his fellows after he died and rose from the dead and had spent some time with them it is found in Acts 1:6-8. This is what it says:
“So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."”

They were “waiting on the world to change” and they thought it would be done at this time; however God had a different idea He would send them out and they would change the world, with the power that He gave them and with the message of Jesus Christ. If you read the Acts 2 you know that they did spent some time waiting and then they got this power. Went out and changed the world with the message of Jesus and 3000 people received this message, and it changed the world. As Christians we still have that same power and we do not have to wait for the world to change, we as the church can began to make a difference and change the world.

I do not want you guys to think I am out to attack pop-culture music. I just thought that we listen to this song and we might believe the words of John Mayer and wait for the world to change with out doing anything. If you felt this is attack against him and his song, I am sorry that is that last thing I wanted. Please leave a comment, even if you do not have a blogspot name you can leave a comment. Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

“What am I to do for the widows and orphans?”

This blog comes from the talk I did at Rainstorm Youth Ministry last night. I hope one day we ask this question to ourselves and answer it for your self not just because it is important to someone else, but because it is important to you. And I will give you four things I found at the end of this blog. Putting together this blog (or talk if you were at Rainstorm) was a bit more of a difficult for me. But I hope it all works out in the end.

The talk was entitled “what am I to do for the widows and orphans?” There as a couple different reasons, I talked about this here are the reasons:

1. Next we are going to a place called Sew-on-Fire Ministries. It is a ministry based in Burlington. This is a ministry that puts together bags that go to other Countries to meet the needs of people. They will have things that we have here in Canada and they do not have them where they live.

2. I wanted to give Rainstorm a reason to why we are going to do that next week. To give is some purpose, because we think having a purpose behind something we do is great.

3. There is a thing coming up in early December entitled For Kids Only. Where children will come to St. Paul’s (a church in Dundas) on Saturday and they will be able to get Christmas gifts for their families. This event is going to include a few churches from the Dundas area, and I helping from my church. My job is to get youth to be elves to help to kids with their gifts and stuff.

4. When getting ready to do the talk I did on “The Power of the Tongue.” I came across a really cool verse that you can read near the end of this blog. That changes the way I view of what I am to do for widow and orphans.

So there are a few reasons that led me to ask this question. “What am I to do for the widows and orphans?”

When I asked that question, I thought I would look at what the Bible had to say about the topic. Here are a few passages that I came across and this not all of them.

The first one I found was in Isaiah 1:17 it says:

“learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.”

This passage tells us to defend the cause of the orphans (or fatherless) and pled the case of the widow.

The next passage I came around was found in Job 31:16-23 it says:

“If I have denied the desires of the poor
or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
if I have kept my bread to myself,
not sharing it with the fatherless-
but from my youth I reared him as would a father,
and from my birth I guided the widow-
if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,
or a needy man without a garment,
and his heart did not bless me
for warming him with the fleece from my sheep,
if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
knowing that I had influence in court,
then let my arm fall from the shoulder,
let it be broken off at the joint.
For I dreaded destruction from God,
and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.”

Now to get to the really cool verse I found in James 1 and we are going to look at verses 26 and 27. If you read “The Power of the Tongue” you might remember vs. 26, but this is just to help us understand the verses.

James 1:26-27 says:
26 “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

This passage tells us that pure religion that God look for is one that looks after the orphans and the widows. This changes the way I look at life now

One more verse I came across is found back in Isaiah 1:23 is says:

“Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves;
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.
They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
the widow's case does not come before them.”

This passage tells us that rulers are busy chasing after gifts to care about the widow’s and orphans. It tells us to defend the cause of the fatherless.

Growing up I always, thought oh someone else will look after the orphans and the widows that’s not my thing. The Salvation Army they do a great job with that I will not worry about that. After reading that verse in James it changed the way I thought about that. And I think we as a group (Rainstorm) need to at least twice a year right now, we need to help meet the needs of the widows and orphans. We do have them here in Canada too; you do not need to jump on a plane to someone else to do it.

These verses in James become very real to me this week when talking to my brother and mom. My brother has a friend who died. This friend had a girlfriend and she was pregnant when he died. Since then she has given birth to the child. My brother has been home for almost two weeks now, and he has been hanging out with the girl and the kid. One day after hanging out with her he came home and was talking about how great the kid is and stuff. Then he went on to say that my mom and him are going to open up a bank account for this kid so that when he is 21 he will have some money. I said to my mom so I heard you are opening another bank account. She was confused. Then I went on to say more, there are a couple reasons she is doing this. One to get my brother to save money but we can not tell him that. Number two because my brother and this guy were really good friends and she thinks it is a good idea. Number three she believes it is the Christian thing to do. She sees the need of this girl and her child and wants to meet it. She is putting James 1:27 in to practice and might not even know it.

Finally there is one more verse I found in Exodus 22:22 it says:

“Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.”

Last night I did not try to take advantage of orphans or widows, I did not use any pictures to make you emotional and get people crying. I wanted to get you to think about this topic and make the right choice and let God lead your heart to meet the needs of the orphans and the widows.

“What am I to do for the widows and orphans?”

1. Pled their case

2. Not to take advantage of them

3. Give them a voice

4. Look after them

I tried my best not to make this a social talk I would to keep it as Biblical as I could. I hope this make sense to you. I hope you understand you have something to do for the orphans and the widows. I hope you found some where were you can do this. This is what made it so difficult for me.

Next weeks blog. I will have to think about because I am not doing the talk Rainstorm. If you have any ideas. Leave them with your comments.

Thanks for reading please left a comment!

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"The Power of the Ask"

This past Friday at Rainstorm this was the talk that I did. I talked about two other topics leading up to this one those two were "The Power of the Tongue and The Power of Words" This one was number 3 in "The Power series."

I am going to narrow it down even more to a question we can ask people. That question I will give you at the end so just stay with me to the end. It will make sense in the end I hope.

On a leadership cd I listened to a couple weeks ago said that leaders have the power of the ask, and not to say someone elses no for them, before you ask them to help you something. Most of the time we say someone elses no for them before we even ask them to help. We say things like that would not want to help out with this or that, and who knows maybe they would like to help. After hearing that on the cd, it made me thing of this thing called "The Power of Ask" and I moved it from just leaders to everyone. And then I moved it even more to people asking their friends and family matters to church. How often to we say their no for them before we ask them. I know I have done it in my own life.

Now back to what I asked the youth at Rainstorm. Here are a few asks I asked them:
When thinking about being asked a question, what type of question do you like to be asked?
What types of questions do you ask people?
What is your answer to the question "how are you doing today?"
What is the answer most people give to you when you ask them that? (how are you doing today?)

Did you know that the Bible has Asked questions in it too?

One of them is found in Joshua when he asked the people who they will serve (Jos. 24:14-15)

Jesus also asked people questions here are just a couple: "When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"" (John 5:6); Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"Peter answered, "The Christ of God." (Luke 9:18-20)
There are more a lot more. I just picked those two.

What types of things do you want to get asked/invited too? and why?
Who do you want to ask to those things?
How do you feel when you are not invited to something?

How do you feel whgen you plan something invite people to it and they don't show up?
What do you do about it?

The Bible tells a story about a guy we plans a party and invites the guests. He tells his servant to go and get the guests because the party is ready to start. Here is the story: Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'"Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' " 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' " (Luke 14:16-24)

The Bible tells one more story about a man named Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to see Jesus when Jesus was coming to his town. Things in his life lead him to climb that tree. This is what it says: "Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham." (Luke 19:1-9)
Maybe it was the change he saw in a guy name Levi who was a follower of Jesus and he was a tax collector like Zacchaeus. Luke 5:27-29 says: After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
Maybe Levi asked Zacchaeus to the party and maybe he invited him out when Jesus was coming to his town. Then Jesus asked him to come so he could stay at his house. Maybe there are people in our life who are "climbing trees" to see God.

Have you ever wanted a place to find Support, Teaching, Outreach, Reconnecting with God, Ministry. This is what Rainstorm is about and if you are looking for a place to have this in your life then Rainstorm could be that place for you.

Here is the question I talked about at the start of this blog. "What are you doing this Friday? Would you like to check out Rainstorm with me?"
We can keep asking this question to our friends or we could start to ask our friends. Some might say yes and some might say NO!!! But do not say their NO for them before you ask them then let them say their answer.

Could it be as easy as asking that question, once you have talked about what a great time Rainstorm is?

That is "The Power of the Ask" You can invite people to something where they could meet the living God.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

The Choice is Yours...

I know this blog is later than I said I would put them up on Saturdays. But I want you to know that I will be returning to the Saturday blogs tomorrow. Wow two blogs in two days that is crazy I know. But I hope you will enjoy them.

This blog is all about choices, this is what we talked about Rainstorm last Friday night. This was not my week to do the talk at Rainstorm, but I liked what we talked about so I thought I would write about it. And I have really been thinking about choices. I have made in the past. And I thought it would be good for people read about.

We make choices everyday. We choose what we will wear, what we do for the day, how we will treat people that day, what we will talk about that day, what will watch on TV that day, what we listen to. We have a lot of choices in life. As young people we more choices which we talked about at Rainstorm last week. There are: Studying or hanging out with friends? How to spend your free time? How to spend your money? Which friends to hang out with? What clothes to wear? What movies to watch or not watch? Who to date (or whether to date)? Choosing your course?

With some more chooses in life. I something have difficulty making up my mind, on what to do sometimes. I also feel I have too many choices in my life? Sometimes I do not consider the consequences of the decisions I make before making them. I often change my mind after I have made a decision, because I think I did not make the right. Even if I know it is the right one.

The Bible tells a story of a guy named Joshua and he was infront of some people, and he asked them to make a choice. He said "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:14-15)

He gave them the choice to follow the gods of their forefathers or to follow the LORD. This is a choice that is still being asked to us today. Will we follow some other gods or will we serve and follow the LORD. This is another choice we have in life.

So with this choice is one we need to make. If you would to talk about follow this LORD more, let me know and I will talk to you about.

Next blog coming tomorrow. This one is entitled "The Power of the Ask"

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

The Power of Words

Words are powerful things. Growing up as a kid there was a thing we use to say "stick and stones my break my bones, but names (words) will not hurt me."

I have been thinking about that when putting together my talk at Rainstorm entitled "The Power of Words." And I thought I would like to be hit with sticks or stones then have someone say something about me or call me a name. The Bible says that words can "torment and crush" people; also "the words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts."

In grade 2 I had a teacher write on my report card that I talked to much in class. (I know to some of you that seems abit weird because I do not talk that much), the words of the teacher we something powerful to me. I wish the teacher did not say that about me, it affect my whole life because I let the words do it. Maybe she could have hit me with a ruler and it would not have been as bad.

However words can be used in different ways too first they can by used for good. The Bible says: "Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.";"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.";"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" So we know words can be used to build people up. But it can be used to bring people down too and the Bible talks about this side of words too, it says: "They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows."; "His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more
soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords."; "The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful..." What we that words can build up or bring down it is up to us, what we use our words too do. We can build people up or bring them down. I want to be known as someone who uses my words to build someone up. But there are days and times during a day, when I do not do this but it something I am working on.

When words are said to people it can make people do some different things. In my story in grade2. I stopped talking in school as much, I thought it you think I talk to much in class I am not going to talk anymore. I made the wrong decision about that one. The Bible talks about what some people do when they hear words. For some reason a lot of people tear their robes and put on sackcloth. That means about weird to me. But we do the same thing we just do not tear our robes we tear the inside of ourselves, I did this to my self when I decisioned not to talk anymore in school.

The Bible also challenges us about the words that come out of ours mouths. It says: Let my words and my thoughts be pleasing to you, LORD, because you are my mighty rock and my protector. Are the words we use and say pleasing to God?
My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn't right. Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring? Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?
This asks us about the words that come out of our mouth. In one min we can say nice things about God and then turn to our friends and put them down. We are the words that come out of your mouth when you talk to your friends? Build up or bring down?

Remember I am still working on this too. Some days I can build people and praise God too. And some days I am praising God and bring people down. But I would like to get to a place in my life where my words are building people up and praising God. I hope you guys can help me with this.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

A Change in Life

Today's blog is about something new in my families life. Today we got a newer car. Our other car's motor died a couple weekends ago. So we went out and bought a newer car. We ended up with a 2004 Chrysler Concorde LXI, it is like the one in the picture but it is not the same colour. But it looks the same.

When I drove this car today it started my thinking for my blog for today. Because of this car people are going to look at me differently because it is a bigger car then we had before and it has leather seats. I think people will look at me when I drive this car, but it will be o.k. It will be fun to drive this car to school next week. There is going to be more room for the guys that drive to school with me. And there will be more room when I drive some of the youth around from Rainstorm. (This time I will try to make sure it is cleaner when you get in o.k. Katie)

Now back to the point about people looking at me differently. I think when we get new things in our lives, people in our lives notice them and sometimes they say something and sometimes they do not. This also happened to me with my new glasses. It is awesome when people notice something different in our lives and they say something about it.

The Bible talks about when we get in a relationship with God though Jesus that we are new creations. When we start spending time with God we start to change and our lives start to become different and we do different things. People start to see the change and they might say something and some might not say anything, but they will see the differences in you.

So much like how my parents looked around to find a new car and then had to wait for it. We need to check out this God thing that can make a cahnge in our lives, and it will take some time to see the diffence He can make in our lives, but it could be worth it in the end.

Just like my parents asked questions about the car they wanted and we did research about the car and test drove it a couple of times, before we said yes this is the one. We need to do this with God.
What are the questions you need to ask about God, Jesus, the church or live?
Before you say yes this is what I want in my life.
If you have question about any of this stuff you can email me at mattsmusic15@hotmail.com or you can come and check out Rainstorm Youth Ministry on Friday nights at 8 p.m. I will take questions there too. We also talk about live and how God goes with it.
And I will try my best to answer them.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"The Power of the Tongue"

Today, as I thought about my blog and what I would post, I thought and thought. And came to this idea as I was driving around in my sister's car. That I would post the talk I did at Rainstorm the night before, if it was a good talk and if the people enjoyed it and thought it was good. So this is the start of that. There with be weeks when I do not do the talk at Rainstorm and the blog will be about something different then. Hope you guys like that idea.

So to start it off we are going to look at the tongue and the Power it can have.

First to those of you would did not come to Rainstorm
I opened the talk off with a clip from Seinfeld season 2 the Heart Attack. Elaine dates a doctor she met at the hospital. He shows off his knowledge of tongues by holding Elaine's tongue and pointing the different parts of it. Next I came back and read something about the tongue and here it is: The tongue is the large bundle of skeletal (I changed to very thin because I could not say this word and it means the same) muscles on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. It is one of the organs of taste. Much of the surface of the tongue is covered in taste buds. The tongue assists in forming the sounds of speech. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, richly supplied with nerves and blood vessels to help it be moved.

We moved to look at what the Bible says about the tongue. And yes the Bible does talk about the tongue. Here are are the verses we looked at:
...my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. Psalms 45:1
Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor... Psalms 52:2
...men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Psalms 57:4
They sharpen their tongues like swords... Psalms 64:3
hey make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's... Psalms 140:3
Their tongue is a deadly arrow... Jeremiah 9:8
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body... James 3:5

The Bible talks pretty hard about the tongue. I hope people do not talk about your tongue the same. As something like a sword that can cut people; or like a razor that can cut, or can be shot like deadly arrows. Let's hope people do not say that about you. But it also does give good pictures of what the tongue can do.

Now we are going to look what it does and how people use it. And we turned to the Bible to see what it says. Here are the list of verses we found:
My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long. Psalms 35:28
The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4
As a north wind brings rain, so a sly tongue brings angry looks. Proverbs 25:23
...So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says." Jeremiah 18:18

People can use the tongue to praise God and speak his righteousness. It can also be used to bring healing or to crush people. It can get angry looks. It can be used to attack people. It is up to you how you will use your tongue.

Finally we are going to look at the challenge that Bible gives us about the tongue. Here are the list of verses we looked at:
...but a man of understanding holds his tongue. Proverbs 11:12
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. James 1:26
These verses ask us to hold our tongue which can be hard. But we can do more when we hold our tongue.
He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity. Proverbs 21:23
We need to be people that guard our mouth and our tongue and it will keep us from trouble.
but no man can tame the tongue... James 3:8
We can not tame the tongue but we can choose what we are going to let come out of it.

One last challenge is found in Proverbs 18:21 it says: The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. The tongue can bring life of death. You need to choose which one you will let come out of your tongue. I want to be known as someone who uses his tongue to bring life and not death.

I hope this blog challenges you to think about your own tongue and the way you use it. In two weeks the blog with be about the power of words and what they can do. We would love you see you at Rainstorm one night to add to the talks we have. You can also add to this by leaving a comment.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

"Snap, crackle and pop"

Today's blog is about Rice Krispies and they sounds they make. This blog I just started thinking about today. I hope if it is not good that you will forgive me. I think it will be hard to follow up my last few blogs but I am going to try with this one. This one is a bit different Enjoy.

"Rice Krispies (called Rice Bubbles in Australia) is a brand of breakfast cereal that has been produced by Kellogg's since 1928. They are made of a rice mixture which is shaped into the form of rice kernels and toasted. These kernels bubble and rise in a manner which forms very thin walls. When the cereal is exposed to milk or juices, these walls tend to collapse suddenly, creating the famous "Snap, crackle and pop" sounds. This is in contrast to puffed rice, which was introduced in 1904." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_Krispies)

"Krispies are marketed with the phrase "Snap, crackle, pop", which is supposed to be the sound made when milk is poured over them. The elfin characters of Snap, Crackle and Pop appear on most Rice Krispies boxes. In the United States and Canada, opinion varies concerning Crackle's occupation, but Snap is always portrayed as a baker and Pop as a soldier. To demonstrate the marketing penetration of this brand and contrast it with American political ignorance, pollster Kellyanne Conway reported in 2002 that while most Americans could name the three elves, they could not name any three of the nine sitting Supreme Court Justices. Considering the age group involved, this may have been due to the very famous commercial aired in the 1960s using the music from the tenor aria in Pagliacci with the words "No More Rice Krispies" or the fact that the same jingle was used for decades its other commercials." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_Krispies)

I would like to talk about the sounds the Rice Krispies make when you add milk to them they make snap, crackle and pop sounds. And if you have ever eaten Rice Krispies, they make the sounds when you chew them too.

Now if someone came up to you and said I like Rice Krispies. But I would like to take away the pop sound or maybe the crackle or maybe the snap, each person might want to take away a different sound they make. And you might think they are crazy the sounds is what makes Rice Krispies, you can not take away the Snap, Crackle and Pop, they would not be the same. And then what would be the point of them. And we would be missing out of something that has been around for a long.

The same can be said about God. Some people want to remove something that God has or does and limit Him much like how they want to limit the Rice Krispies, and the snap, crackle, and pop. People want to take away the love that He gives, some the forgiveness that He offers, still others the relationship we can enter into with Him, and some want to take away that Jesus was His Son and just say that he was just a man that lived, some might say if he lived.

Finally, just like taking away the sounds from the Rice Krispies would not make the cereal the same. When removing these things about God He would not be the same. But what is great, He is does offer us things like: forgiveness, relationship, love and so much more and all we need to do is ask Him for these things, and He gives them to us.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

Let me have one bad blog please!!!!!

No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later!

As some of you know by the main title on my blog, I am student youth and young adult leader. Going in to the job field that I am, I know I have student in the ministry I lead for about 4 years max. Then they move up to an older group. But how ever some of them leave and go to school, some where outside of the Hamilton area. And then we have to say goodbye to each other. This happened last night as one of the girls from my youth ministry is leaving to go to Africa for a year of school and ministry her name is Jade (this is a picture of me and her). Because of this it could me to think about goodbyes. And as you can see from the title of this blog, No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! (This is quote from the movie John Q) I knew I heard this quote before but I have not seen John Q before so it is not from this movie but I could not find the one I was looking for so I went with that one. The quote says no goodbye, you know I don’t like goodbyes. I wonder why the kid in this movie does not like goodbyes. What about you how you feel and handle goodbyes? I think goodbyes can be the hardest thing to handle sometimes. I know it was hard to say goodbye to guys at work, because you spend 8 hours a day with one person and now you have to say goodbye for at least 8 months. But I like the second part of this quote. See you later! We now live in a time when it is not really goodbye it is more like see you later, because of things like the phone, msn, email and the internet. We might not be able to see the person but we can write them an email and get an answer soon I know it is not the same as seeing and talking to the person, but it only might be for a time, like a year. But it is still hard and that’s ok. I do not like goodbye were meant to be easy. We are people of relationship so when we say goodbye we feel like we are saying goodbye relationship.

Now time to bring the God part in I know you were waiting for this part. I started thinking about this whole goodbye thing. And I was led to think about when Jesus left his Father to come to earth as a baby what kind of goodbye went on in the heavens. Maybe something was said like: No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! Maybe it was hard for him too say goodbye but the idea of see you later was maybe always in the back of his mind. I do not know I am just thinking here. Jesus had to say goodbye twice in his life that most of be the hardest for him. The first was when he left the Father to come to earth the second was when we had to say goodbye to his follows and return to heaven. He had spend at least 3 years with these people travelling around and spending 1095 days at least together you get to know someone and you are going to miss them when you leave. So he might have said something like: No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! (This is not in the Bible word for word it is just an idea I have)

Therefore goodbyes can be hard and I do not want to down play them. But let’s try not to hold on to the goodbye but the see you later part, because we will see them again and it is ok to miss people and it ok cry when you miss the people you have said goodbye too. Try too holding on the memories you have with that person, but remember No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later!

So who is the person you will say No goodbye, you know I don't like goodbyes. See you later! To this week? Or maybe a friend going off to school? Or maybe you are saying it to your friends as you leave to go to school? Maybe parents as you leave to go to school? Or maybe you will just start saying it in general?

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

Jones Soda

This blog is a bit late. It should have been done on Saturday sorry to those of you who checked the site on Saturday, but I hope you will forgive me and I hope you will like this one. Even though it is later than I said.

So this one is about Jones Soda as you can see by the title. I am going to talk about two bottle caps, if have gotten on my Jones Soda’s over the past few weeks.

First I do not drink a lot of soda because it does weird things to my body when I drink it. But I do drink Jones Soda, but not all of them really only Cream Soda and Blue Bubble Gum Soda.

The first cap says this accept a gift graciously, I think this is good advice. Have you ever gotten a gift you never wanted? Like black socks for Christmas. Do you accept the gift graciously or you say something like great socks. What about when someone gives you gift when you do not want anything? How do you accept it? What about if someone gives you gift when you do want it? What do you say? How do you accept it?

The one I would like to talk about is accepting a gift when you do not think you need a gift. This guy named Jesus came to the earth, he said he was the Son of God and that he would die and then rise from the dead. Because of this he offers this gift called forgiveness and relationship with God. Some people feel they do not need this gift. God is offering it us a gift, so the question to think about is when God is offering this gift will I accept this gift graciously? Or will you think I do not need this gift, much like I do not need those black socks you get at Christmas time. But one time you might need to use those black socks and you will be happy you have. One day you might need this thing called forgiveness and a relationship with God, and it is nice that this gift was offered to us, but we need to accept a gift graciously. Jesus offers more gifts than just these two.
But we must be willing to accept them graciously.

The next cap says a new chapter in your life is being written, this is cool because I believe new chapters are always been written about ours. A lot of you guys are writing new chapters of your lives by moving up in high school now. So what will you chapter of high school be about? When I first read this cap, I thought to myself I wonder what this new chapter is going to have in it. Maybe it will have me growing my leadership in area a live that does not have any leadership going on or my it will involve an road trip to somewhere I have never been before, maybe it will involve new relationships. I can not wait to see what this new chapter is going to have in it. I have always joked around with people that are taking writing classes in school that they need to write a book about my life. The title of the book would be the life and times of Matt Howden. But who knows if it will get done ever.

Now I am going to bring God and Jesus in with bottle cap, who thought I would do. When reading this cap about a new chapter was being written in my life made me think, that when I enter in a relationship with God that a new chapter is being the Bible says that we are made new when accept the gift God gives. Out of that we have a new chapter being written about our lives and what we do since we have been in relationship with God. And the fun we have with new people we meet in this new part of lives. We are writing new chapters to our lives. Chapters that have relationships, road trips, love, helping people, forgiveness, peace, joy, fun, laughing, purpose, a reason to live, and not to say you do not have these things in past chapters of your live, but these are new things you might not have had before. So what is this your new chapter going to say? What will it involve, who will be in, where will it take you, and how long will it be?

I want you know I just look at these bottle caps a just ideas, I do not want you think I look to the bottle caps for answers to life. I look to the Bible for that.

I am sorry if there are spelling mistakes, I was half a sleep when I wrote this. I hope it flows and you get something out of it.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

So close yet so far

I thought I would post another blog, so here it is. This not the blog I was planning on writing today, but I have been thinking about this all week, and I fought against to post it but as you can see I lost the fight and this blog won.

As you can see by the title, I am talking about something that is so close yet so far at the same time. Have you ever had something that was so close but yet it was so far at the same time? Maybe it was school for some of you this year it was so close to summer yet still so far away. You could see the end but you will still away from it. Maybe you have done a race before and you see the finish line and you begin to think I am so close yet so far. And you start to think when will this be over I can see the end, but I am still so distance away from it. Personal this is where I am in life. I gave my two weeks notice to my summer job that I will be done on August 17/18 because I work the night shift it is going to carry over to the 18. So that means I have one more week of work, I can see the finish line in the distance but I am still far enough that it is not close yet.

Now this is when I am going to go on my tirade, not a lot of my blogs will be tirades. I like my job it easily, you can get away with not doing a lot of work (which a lot of guys do). And one guy on the day shift thinks I am lazy and do not any work. But now to reasons why I am happy to almost be done work:

1. I will get to sleep normal hours

2. My weeks will not be messed up any more

3. It will be time for school again

4. I can get my life back in order

5. My body will be warm again (I work in a freezer and refrigerator)

6. I will get to watch baseball games

Another reason I am happy to be leaving my job, is I get the chance to work with someone who likes to talk all the time and has to be the center of what everyone is talking about and he adds his stories and tries to one up your story. This is more the tirade part, I am sorry if you do not like this part. So yes I work with someone who is older than but acts younger then my which is weird, when you say that. This guy needs to be the center of everything when you talking to people in the lunch and if he not part of the conversion he makes himself part of the conversion. Have you ever met someone like that? Have you had them in your class at school? I do not know about you but they bug. It was alright when he worked 6:00 pm to 2:30 am I only had to listen to his stories for one 15 min break, but now he is on my shift. So I get to hear about them from 10:30 pm to 7 am. And at 3 am I do not like to hear for 10000 times what you still need to do to your car to get it on the road. I came to a conclusion over the past couple of weeks he bugs me and I do not know what do about it. I have tried my best but I can only handle so much. So I am happy that the end is so close but yet it is so far.

Finally when thinking about this so close yet so far. It made me think of the return of this guy named Jesus Christ; this guy was the Son of God, he died on a cross and rose from the died 3 days later, spent some more time on earth and then returned to his Father (God) The Bible says that the Son of God does not know his return but only the Father in Heaven does. However Jesus did talk about signs that would point to his return. Some of those signs are going on today. And it makes me wonder does Jesus still not know his own return but he is seeing the signs that point to his return. And there is the Father maybe saying to himself so close yet so far. So close for my Son to return and to fix the world we live in and yet so far for his return. He can see the finish line it could be so close yet so far at the same time. But He does know this that there is coming a time when it will be close and not far, and then it will be finished. Much like this Friday at 7 am I will be done another summer of work at Maple Leaf till next summer when I do it all over again. So what is the thing that is so close yet so far for you? Maybe like me it is the summer job. Maybe it is a relationship with the Creator of this world (God). Maybe it is the end of summer and the start of the school. Only you know what your thing is. Try to find it today but do not let it effect the way you live your life, let it add to it. When Jesus saw his thing that was so close yet so far the cross he let it add to the way he lived his life here on earth and he completed his thing that was so close yet so far. Will you?

I am even though this week with be hard, last week was to sometimes, I was really to walk in to the office and say I QUIT and I knowing I am so close, I can be come lazy in doing my work, this happened when I was close to finishing high school, I went back after I was finished for what was going to be a year, I only did one semester. But never the Christmas break I stopped caring and did not want to be there, after the Christmas break and I did not want to be there even more, I would go to class and sleep. I did not care about the work; I just wanted to be done and my marks were affected because of that. So I learned that I need to finish it all the way to end. Let doing a race you will better when you finish the end strong with your hand up and feeling good about your self, not when you are dragged across the finish line. So finish you're so close yet so far strong, you will feel better about it.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

Good News

As some of you know, I work nights (10:30 pm to 7 am) at Maple Leaf Meats LTD. in the Burly town. When today I was driving to work I do not remember the exact date so do not ask please, but it was a couple weeks ago (and I was going to blog about it then but I did not have the time). I thought I would put in a CD that I had not listened to in a long time. It was Something Corporate and the song that made me think was Good News. Here are some of the words from the song:

I wanna read good news good news
I wanna be innocent again
I wanna read good news good news
But nothing good is happening

nothing good is happening
nothing good is happening

I wanna read good news good news
I wanna be a little kid again
I wanna read good news good news
But nothing good is happening
I wanna read good news good news
I wanna go to sleep at night again
I wanna read good news
But nothing good is happening
But nothing good is happening
But nothing good is happenin

As you can see by the words of this song, you can tell what I was thinking. I was thinking about reading good news again. When you read the news papers now, which I do when I am in the washroom at work. Not to much good is being printed. It seems every page you turn it is about kilings, war, death and stuff like. However I do know of a book that does talk about good news, that book is the Bible. It talks about this guy named Jesus we came and died so that we might be able to be in relationship with this thing known as God who created this world and also created us. He did this by dying on cross to give us something known as forgiveness, and because of that we can ask God to forgive us when we have done something wrong, and like the words of this song say: I wanna be innocent again you can be made innocent of the wrong things you have done by asking Jesus to forgive you. I do not know about you but that is an awesome feeling.

Now back to the song it goes on to say:
I wanna read good news good news
But nothing good is happening

nothing good is happening
nothing good is happening

So thing good could be going on in your life you just might not know where to look, because we are blinded by all of other stuff that is going on around us that we miss the good news. Something good could be going on right now just like at the world around us God is always working in it, and His good news is being talked about almost every of world, and people are getting hope from it, people are getting and giving forgive, people are getting back into relationship with God, people are finding their purpose on the plant, people are finding joy, people are becoming alive, and new things are being created and life is happening all around us. I do know about you but that sounds like good news to me, I think reading about that kind of stuff. It would awesome for someone to make a newspaper like that people can buy and read about good news happening around the world.

What is the good news you are going to read today? Maybe you will read about the good news of Jesus Christ. Maybe you will read about forgiveness, and maybe you will start giving and getting forgiveness? Maybe you will read about joy? Maybe you will read about something and find your purpose on this plant? Maybe you will read about something new being created? Or maybe you will create something new?

But remember good news is out there when you look for it. The Bible says that is you look for something you will find. What is the good news you are looking for today?

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden

26 Heroes last night

Last night the youth group I lead put on a coffee house. We had 26 people come out that’s great for a long weekend.

To me those 26 people are heroes, why heroes? You might ask yourself as you read this. They are heroes to me because they showed remarkable bravery to come out to a coffee house at a Church. You might say a hero is someone who has powers and saves people, which might be true. I looked the word hero up on the Encarta Dictionary in Microsoft Word, and the first one that came up was someone with superhuman powers. The second was a remarkably brave person. To me those 26 people are remarkable bravery for coming to a coffee house, a lot of those kids are not in to God and they showed great courage and strength to come and check out what was going on at the youth group last night.

I think we need to encourage people, for coming a checking out a Church service or Church event, because they can be scary if you do not know what is going on or what will go on when you get. People that come out to events and services to me are hero’s because they show that remarkably bravely to come and check it out. They might not superhuman powers but they are heroes in my way of thinking of heroes.

So how many heroes will you meet this week when you attend your Church service this weekend? Or maybe you will be that hero by going and checking out a Church service this weekend!

Thank you
Howden Matt Howden

Hello everyone

If anyone is even reading this.

I do not have to much time to write but I will one day. Just wanted to say way to go Germany. In the World Cup, another win down.

I most end my blog for today, because I need to get ready for the coffee house/ end of the school year party at the youth group I lead. I need to go pick up the sno cones thing we rented.

I will write all about it later in here.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Howden Matt Howden

Hello

Everyone this is my first blog. More to come later.

I hope you enjoy it.

Matt Howden