Oh epic road trippin’..part 1

So the first part of our trip has been pretty sweet! nothin like not having to worry about crap thats going on like school or life for that matter.  The boys got to my house sunday night and we just grilled out around 11 when they arrived and went to bed pretty early because we were leaving at 10 am the next morning.  We got into charleston that night and found a good deal on a days inn and split that for the night.  We went out in downtown that night which was pretty sweet because it was just pretty much us at the pub called o’malleys.  we just hung out there all night and got be pretty good friends with the bar tender.  The next morning we left for miami.  after 10 hours in the car we made it to my uncles condo in key biscayne.  what an amazing place/free.  We just hung out here last night and then went out on the beach today.  I’m still getting over the 80 degree weather on new years eve.  tonight should be crazy out in south beach but hopefully it will be really fun and not too expensive.  The trip so far has been great because our patients is really being tested with eachother and using God to over come that.  Spending hours upon hours with  5 guys in a car is bound to cause conflict but its been great seeing God use this trip to allow us to make impacts in each other’s lives as well as the people we meet.  check back in the next couple days for an update on new years in south beach, a night in key west, and a night in palm beach.  hope everyone has a great new years.

cheers,

Brandon

Better Days

I love Christmas music.  I love the holiday, and I love the meaning behind it.  I love the fact the we celebrate the day Jesus was born to come save us, that even when He was treated like crap He led an amazing earthly life to serve us and die on a cross for us even though we are so undeserving.  The sad part about Christmas is that it is so easy to miss that meaning, to commercialize it and to make it all about presents and santa.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that part of Christmas, because its fun and I love seeing people receive gifts I give them, and I also love receiving them as well.  But because of this I sometimes lose sight of what Christmas is all about.  This is where presents and trees and decorations take my focus off Jesus.  But a buddy of mine told me that they did this song at the Christmas Eve service at her church and it took me a while to realize why.  “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls is such an AMAZING song.  The message is great and so true. Even though the GGD’s arent a “Christian” band, they did a great job of summing up this holiday, and how it should be viewed.  The whole songs is about just loving and caring in hopes that we will find “better days”.  I attached the Christmas version of the video I found for it, so I hope you take a couple minutes to watch and enjoy it. 

 

 

on another note, I’m leaving for Florida in a day or so to roadtrip with my boys for the new year.  This is the closest I have come to going on a “faith led trip”.  We have no solid plans.  We have a car, a tent, cities we want to go to, and hopefully people we know in those cities.  Really there is no telling what will happen on this trip but I am confident that God will use this in our lives to encourage us and make us stronger.  I have no idea who we will meet, what we will do, or better yet what God will do.  So it should be fun and look for a post in a week or so to hear more about it.  After all Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians to “live by faith, not by sight”. 

Cheers,

Brandon Thomas

Temporary

Latest new discovered thoughts:

I really think God has been working alot in my life lately and really making me appreciate it more.  The other day I went to go help out my uncle and help him move some furniture from the basement to the main floor because he just had his house remodeled, new hardwood floors, kitchen, doors, banisters, etc.  Now as we were moving these huge leather couches through a tiny door opening (how they got through it unscathed the first time is beyond me) we ended up putting tiny little marks and damaging the top of the sofa.  No big deal, right?  When we finally managed to get everyting throuh to the upstairs he evaluated the damage and started flipping out.  You would have thought his dog just died and he was yelling at the guy who ran over it with his car.  Bottom line; he was legit upset.  Now normally I could relate in this situati0n, but I just sat and stared.  I couldn’t help but think, “its just a couch, JUST A COUCH!”  After about 5 minute ramp and being pissed off he finally chilled out and we finished the move and me and my dad left to go back home.  I just couldn’t shake this from my mind though.  Why was this experience such a big deal to me? After thinking about it I realized it was God letting me know how I look when I worry too much about pointless things.  I’m not knocking nice furniture and having quality things, dont get me wrong.  But when we idol earthly temporary things, we are losing sight of whats important.  One of my favorite verses talks about “not storing up earthly treasures but focusing on eternal things.”  Ya the new J’s and Nike’s would go awsome with that new $50,000 car and iPhone.  But what I’m finally understanding is that those things cant fill a void in our lives, they wont satisfy, and they wont stay with us when we go to chill with Jesus for eternity.   So i am trying to be more mindful of these little things, and see how that can transform my life today.  If we all started to think and act on this, maybe more homeless kids will eat, maybe more diseases would be cured, and maybe this entire economic crisis can dissappear?  like i said, just thoughts…hope you enjoyed reading.

 

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” -Matthew 6:19-20

 

cheers,

Brandon

“If I Were a Boy”

Fellas….I love this song but at the same time I dont.  I think my girl Beyonce does a great job of explaining how bad we suck sometimes.  But I also think this is a challenge to all men, to stop being so bad at life.  Girls dont realize its hard being a guy.  We got a million different things goin on in our lives and our girlfriends are part of that.  Behind God, I would say our girlfriends/fiances’/wives deserve that second spot in our lives,  alongside with our family and close friends.  So good for beyonce for this song.  Granted she prob didnt write it, the message is pretty close to true.  However, I also plan on writing “If I Were a Girl” and recording that so look forward to that post, because I think we deserve to write a song as well. anyways I posted the video, its pretty well done. let me know your thoughts

Cheers,

-bhavas

Crazy Love

So for starters I havent posted in a while, so for the 3 1/2 people that do read this blog, I apologize. Just a quick update on life; I’m in Frisco, Texas and we’re here playing in the final four for soccer. Pretty exciting stuff. Today was the first time in a while that I have gotten a chance to sit down and spend some intentional time with God, and it was great. I finished the book “crazy love” by Francis Chan and it was great. More on that in a second. Some more big news is that I turned 21 the other day, how exciting that was. The best part about my birthday was not getting to consume alcohol or go to the bar, the best part of my night was seeing God show up there at the bar with some of my teammates. When some of them arrived they were talking about a bible study topic from earlier that night. My first thought was that the conversation would last a second and then we would move on. But something happened, that conversation lasted almost an hour. We had a mini bible study right there in that bar with great conversation and it came out of no where. Why tell this story? I’m starting to learn about God’s faithfulness in no matter what the situation. It was great and even to see their hearts are being worked on is an encouragement.

On to crazy love. This book is pretty much amazing. The whole book is about living a life dedicated to Jesus. The part I liked most about the book is that its not one of those books that says to serve God you must sell all your possessions and move to Africa. Its main message was to live your life totally in love with Jesus that everything you do reflects Him. Like any other great book, it wasn’t all health and wealth. It challenged and convicted me to see where I was at in my relationship with God and to evaluate the way I have been living. Needless to say I fell pretty short of the Godly standard. Basically I would really recommend this book! On a scale from 1-10 it definitely receives a 10. If you want to borrow it or dont have the money to buy one, I’ll hook you up.

holla,

-Bhavs

Hypocrisy-We Sorry

This is a post to everyone who thinks Christians are hypocrites. I wanted to let you know that we are, and we are sorry, and its not intentional. We acknowledge God with our lips then speak completely differently with our actions. The problem with following Jesus is that it is hard. We mess up. we duff it. we blow it. we lose sight of God. We choose ourselves over Him. We are changed by the world. We are worried about image. We live for the moment. We dont think eternally. There are two points I want to get across here:

1) I am sorry for being a hypocrite, I’m not perfect and never will be.

2) God’s grace is so much greater than any of our mistakes and mess ups.

When we accept Christ into our heart, we are given a new one. We are made perfect and clean in God’s eyes. Yes you will sin, mess up, make mistakes and even blow off a God who loves you, but He will never stop pursuing you and He promises forgiveness if we come to Him with a sincere heart to change. This doesn’t mean you’ll never blow it again, but it means you have a safety net to fall in to if you do.

So as a Christian, I’m sorry if I have been a hypocrite. The worst feeling in the world is knowing people think less of your God because we cant represent Him right.

I would encourage you to live a life worthy of HIS CAUSE, and see how that radically changes things for you.

Holla,

-Bhavs

“This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’, and I am the worst of them all.”-1 Timothy 1:15

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”-2 Corinthians 12:9