Bachelor Bowl 07

Wow.

I ache right now.
Played flag football yesterday with the bachelor and other people.
I never thought "the old guys" could make me hurt so much.
HAHA

I really ache. My neck hurts, My back is killing me, and my arm and leg have some major "turf burn" all over the place. I played my heart out, because "I just want that ball" as I said a few times during the game.
That's just the way I am

Now its gonna take me till the time I'm getting married to recover from my injuries!
I hope the rest of you do not have the same pains everywhere as I do.

Things to be learned from Veggie Tales

Have you ever considered everything you take for granted?

Recently, I have begun to.

My car died last week and I am now without a car since about 10 days ago, so its really funny how much I appreciate things, especially those things I have always taken for granted..

It's humbling really

On the way to my step-dad's parents house on Christmas day, I heard this song off my little brother's Veggie Tales CD and thought about the words and how much different my life would be if I though like this in my day too day life.

Artist: Veggie Tales
Song: The Thankfulness Song

Read it through, think about how it can apply in your own life,
I thank God for this day,
For the sun in the sky,
For my mom and my dad,
For my piece of apple pie!

For our home on the ground,
For His love that's all around,
That's why I say thanks every day!

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart!
I'm glad for what I have,
Thats an easy way to start!

For the love that He shares,
'Cause He listens to my prayers,
That's why I say thanks every day!



Grace to you all,
John

An awesome bible passage

Acts 8:26-40 (New International Version)

Philip and the Ethiopian

26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian^[a]eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."

30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.

31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth."^[b]

34The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"^[c] 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Can I just say this is one of the coolest passages ever?

If this was me I would be thinking to myself "Was this all a dream" or "Where the heck did he go", I'd start like a hunt for Phillip. I mean, who just disappears like that? I think its awesome. The interesting part to me, is that the eunuch never questioned (at least as far as the passage says) where Phillip went!!

The way God works is mysterious and quite amazing!

I Love it! :)

Peter Heals a Crippled Beggar

What Happens?

So what Happens when your goal is to live near the church you attend, get more involved in the church and community, and most of all, impact the people around you and the entire culture...but your instead stuck almost 1 1/2 hours away from the church and am just trying to get through a few college classes?

That's my life
I want it to change
Soon

For those of you ...

For those of you single , feeling alone at times, wondering if there's someone for you out there, wanting to cry...just let it out, I let the tears out, sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, sometimes its not something i think about at all, but it's still there. If your in this same boat today, just pray, not for ANYone to be in your life, but rather for THEone to be in your life, and make sure you pray that it happens in God's time, not your own. It's a hard prayer because it means putting everything out of your hands, and into his.

But do it

Yo need to do it.

Give it all to Jesus

John Schuchman is in need of JESUS

So after my last post, I was driving up to Allentown and thinking (because my long trips to Allentown are where I do my best thinking) and began thinking that I was so worried about "our culture" and not worried about myself, who needs Jesus just as much . . . no . . . more than everyone around me.

I have a problem. It has to do with my alter ego. See...there's a John who goes to Cornerstone, loves the worship, loves the friends, loves the community, and loves the tear he usually sheds during the sermon because the sermon hits him HARD. Then, that same John who puts on the nice suit ( or the jeans and Hollister t-shirt if he's lazy), gets in his little car, and spends 85 minutes on the way home thinking about it all.
Then John walks through his door a home ... and everything changes.

You all know what I'm talking about, and some of you have struggled with it yourself, but I'm not here to point out your sins, its all mine tonight.

So anyway, this John then goes through his weeks with a mindset of "how can I get my family to leave me alone and not bother me", wants his teachers to go pound salt, and wants his bosses to give him decent hours, oh and pay him better to....and he's willing to complain about it if need be.

Then John complains to his parents about the situation he's in (having a piece of crap car, having to be home all the time, having to go to community college) even though HE is the one who screwed himself and put himself in this position....

So the idea here is, I need to be the same person many of you know on Sundays during EVERY OTHER day of the week...because I'm not doing a very good job of that now.

The issues above aren't like day-to-day things, but they happen, they shouldn't, and that SUCKS.

No matter how nice you look on Sundays or how well you convince everyone on Sunday that life is perfect, you need to be that same person Monday through Saturday....

I guess this is why the church is the hospital for sinners aye?

our culture needs JESUS!

I often walk around just doing my normal thing when God shows me something through our culture. Today I was at school when I saw a guy walk into the cafeteria, get food, and sit down. Then I saw this cute looking Spanish chick sit down at his table and start talking to him. He obviously knew her. Then I saw his wedding ring (because I notice that kind of stuff I guess). I had to wonder where his wife was and what she would be thinking if she saw her husband sitting there with this 20 something girl. He was obviously "checking her out" and you could just tell it wasn't good. It reminded me a lot of the movie phone booth where the guy has this girlfriend on the side and takes off his wedding ring when he calls her. It's sad really. When are men gonna figure out that this kind of stuff ruins marriages, other relationships,ect. Don't expect to have a good marriage if you can't be faithful. So anyways.......then I thought of this verse "Ephesians 5:3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people". I wonder how different our culture would be if every man could just live by this verse. I think it would be much different. We Christians need to change the culture.


In other news, my step dad is home and its changing our ( my family's) lives. Its given me more patience, and is beginning to teach me the age old saying "You don't know what you got till it's gone" It certainly has changed the way he lives each day and is changing the way I live mine. Value your life


In other other news.... school is done in 9 DAYS!!!
I AM SO EXCITED

this is gonna be a tough week though...and guess I should register if (and when) Desales does not let me back... I guess I should get on that but right now I'm just excited...

My western civilization class is gonna be an A unless I like get a C or worse on the final (how can you do that on an open notes final? HA HA)

The other classes (Intro to Drama + Macroeconomics) should be OK (B or C grade though it really depends on how stuff do this week goes and how the final in Macro goes.


I am confident about the Intro to Drama (especially after seeing the following email from my teacher today)!!!

"
Message no. 21 [Reply of: no. 20]
Author: Judith Schum
Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 9:48am
John,Now you are on track. Make sure you develop that hero concept as much as you can and correct/add your citations. This is the kind of work I was expecting from you.'


SWEEEET
I'm just gonna pray about it... and let God worry
it will all work out

Thank you

Thank you Jesus for your forgiveness. Thank you for your grace and for the oppurtunity to pray to you sitting wherever I am, whether in the car, or sitting here right now at my desk. Thank you for your mercy. Thank for your eternal gift. Thank you for reminding me of all these things and thank you for your guiding in my life as I try to live it for you.

Just one more way God has changed my life

I'm sick of the fighting between me and my parents. Its not like it happens alot, in fact the arguments are few and far between. By God's grace we get along very well for the most part now, and its good to, because 15 months ago, I was ready to rip out all of my hair. But sometimes the arguments still happen and they just make me want to flip out. I have tried to leave the argument. For instance, Sunday morning I got up @ 7 AM, got ready for church, ect. and then went to my dad's house in Reading. Got there about 9 AM and tried to set up the wireless router I had (not exactly the best time to do it, right before going to worship God) So anyway... I start pulling stuff apart to plug in the router. So after taking some time to get it working, I couldn't get it and just put the computer back the way it was. So he gets on and is trying to get on his email, and starts flipping out so I tried to talk him into calming down and when he wouldn't I said "Ok I'm going then" and then he was like "don't make me feel bad now". The idea was never to make him "feel bad" but rather to avoid a fight. I spent the first 10 years of my life listening to my 2 parents argue back and forth and the past seven arguing with them to get my way. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to be the person to win every argument. Instead I'm going to walk out the door if need be. That's what I did and I stopped for a snack and cofee at sheetz and then I got up to Frieden's at like 10:20-10:30
if that's what it takes to avoid the arguments...I'm gonna do it


In other news, I ordered the book "When God writes your love story" the other day off of half.com and it arrived so I think I will begin reading it, because I know that after months of hope and now heartache, it's time for me to say "this is all yours, I'm done worrying about who I will be with and when " and just let go and live the life of a single person which is right where He wants me right now. I'm ready for God to write my love story, even if the final copy won't be "published" for a few years. I'm waiting
ok I'm done
I find myself rambling @ times.

Is GOD turning me into the man I'm supposed to be?

I can only hope the title of this is what is coming true. I want to be used to impact those around me. I am so happy from what he has taught me through everyone around me.

I have had a change of heart I have begun to pray for my (future)wife. It's something that I thought about a couple weeks ago that I had read in a book somewhere. Whenever I feel alone, whenever the feelings for her come back, I just have to pray for whoever my wife will be, and pray the God will keep her in his hands and for me until the time is right. It's so hard sometimes though. I just want the feelings for her to go away, and they have to an extent , but they are still there at times and sometimes I act so impatient. I expect feelings since February to go away in minutes, I expect someone who I thought about all the time, to just be someone I don't think about. It's not like that, but we are progressing in that direction.

I'm glad that the way I felt about her have not ruined our friendship but I feel like our friendship is actually better than ever before, because of the fact that it's all out in the open and I'm no longer sitting there "pulling flower petals" as it were.


I heard the idea of praying for my wife from I THINK the book, "Every Young Man's Battle" as well as this idea that also came from Harris' book where he says "Gentlemen, are you kind of friend to the girls in your life that you will one day hear from their husbands, 'thank you for being a brother to my wife'?

So anyways... I googled the topic and found this other blog OTHER BLOG

and found on it the following which I couldn't agree with more "I pray for my future wife. I cannot wait to worship You with her in my arms….at my side. I cannot wait to passionately pursue You with her in the midst of my tears. Jesus, I pray for my marriage. Ohh, the pain of today’s North American mindset of marriage and statistics. Jesus, I’m in complete wonder how you’ve given me such a beautiful wife. Help us to seek you out in praying together, reading the word together, being one in your spirit together. I ask, oh Lord, how did I deserve such a blessing?!? You indeed are good. God- Help me to pursue you in righteousness. Help in the midst of my impurities. I need you more than ever in this time of seperation. "

I love how the prayer is like, he's praying FOR her, and that its like halfway through (the part in bold) he's suddenly married to her, and praying for her as he always has been




Ok Im done

Pornagraphy has ruined our culture

So I was intrigued the other day. I picked up a copy of the USA today on my campus and saw the following front page article http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2007-10-17-porn-at-work_N.htm

So anyway, I read it and was shocked that people are actually looking at this stuff. It's just another way that Satan is choking our culture and its really upsetting me. And we wonder why the divorce rate is so high. Now technology has given these people (men mostly) the ability to "cheat" on their wives while they are at work bringing home the big salary for the new BMW. I honestly hate what pornagraphy has done to the lives of my friends, the lives of the people I sit in church with. Most of all, I hate what pornography has done to MY life. I'm thankful that through the help of many around me, its not something that is an issue in my life right now, though the temptation is obviously there at times. Christ really saved me from a downward spiral involving pornography which had been going on in my life for most of the last 3 years of my life until about 6-8 months ago.


For anyone struggling with this, please sign up for www.covenanteyes.com. It's $7 a month and trust me it's worth every penny. I'd be happy to be anyone's accountability partner. Ok anyway......



I truly think that we need to pray for the culture around. This isn't anything new though, as it (lust,sexual immorality) has been around since the beginning of the world and there are a few examples in the bible. The biggest story is the one of David and Bathsheba. This I believe, is why Paul wrote to the church in Ephesis "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." I believe WE need to change our culture. Regain for Christ what Satan has destroyed, the sanctity of marraige and the issue of lust and sexual immorality.

Since my thoughts are always on Cornerstone , please pray with my for every man there would not struggle with this addicting sin, and if they are, that they not hide it, but go to someone about it and get some help. Pray that this would not affect any marraige or relationship within the church!!!

Ok, I think I'm done for now.... now I have to go study YUCK

It's time for a vacation

Hi everyone. It's been a while. In that time I've dealt with a near tragedy as my step dad was in a big car accident. He is in the hospital in Baltimore and will be until early December. So anyway, I talked to a few of you at church. I am really fine but am so worried about my family. I don't want this to make us fall apart. My mom called tonight and was pretty pissed that I hadn't been down there to see my step dad, even though she told me not to come down until she told me, not to mention I work 49 hours this week between the two jobs as well as trying to work on a paper due next monday. I didn't argue with her or tell her that, because I could just tell she was totally drained and was just so tired. I figured she really wasn't even thinking straight and there was no reason to argue with her. so anyway... pray for the family. Pray for me as I try to get school done as well as working ever day this week which begins with a 13 hour day from 9:30 AM tommorow and goes till 10:30 tommorow night between the 2 jobs and ends with a 15 hour day on saturday.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers about my stepdad. Thank you also to everyone who has offered to do anything you guys can. I'm so thankful for the support I have received from everyone.


In other news, today began the apartment search for apartments near Desales. I can't wait till I have the chance to spend more time with people from Cornerstone, and maybe get involved in a small group. I'm excited just think about getting back, maybe a little to soon since I probablly will still be home for another 10 months.

so yeah, the other day I was at sears and walked up to this old guy and asked how he was doing. his response was "Miserable, how about you". I chuckled to myself and then said "I guess I'm doing ok" He then said "that's a shame, missery enjoy company". My first thought was "what a creepy old man to talk like that" and later thought about what he said. He must honestly be misserable and have no hope of anything except for making everyone else misserable as well.. I'm glad I'm not like this creepy old man, I'm glad I (and most of the people i know) have a hope of a future, beter than we could EVER imagine

ok I'm done

time to finish watching the RED SOX WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!


D-Y-N-A-S-T-Y

kbye

Will I always be alone?

Since JP has the topic of the week set on music lyrics, I popped in a CD tonight and heard the song "Enough"



"Chorus:
All of You is more than enough for
all of me For every thirst and
every need You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You're my supply
My breath of life
still more awesome than I know
You're my reward
Worth living for
still more awesome than I know

Chorus:

You’re my sacrifice
Of greatest prize
and still more awesome than I know
You’re the coming King
You are everything
and still more awesome than I know

Chorus:

More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough "



ok so anyway, I heard this song and said to myself "THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO BE!"

I am in a position where I'm never satisfied. Whether it be about the whole issue recently that happened when I discussed things with her or whatever. I think I am just scared. Scared of always being alone, scared of being single at 30. Scared of never being where or who I want to be. I have such a selfish mindset, but IDK I just have these bad visions in my head of my life not turning into what I want it to be. It's so hard to say , "God, you've satisfied my every want, and even if I fail out of college (again), don't switch to full time at my job like I want to, or if God have called me to live a life of singleness like I DON'T want to do, I am happy there" I just wish I could say that. I wish I had all the answers.
I'm to consumed with "John time" when all I should concentrate on is "God time".

I need to just let the unknown be that

John is not happy when he is not in control of every circumstance in his life.


Ok so I need to go read my bible now, It's been a while once again.
It seems like week after week I tell myself next week will be different and I will make it a priority...yet it never happens even though I want it to REALLY bad. I also can't think I am being judged or God thinks any less of me because I don't read it.

ugh. I have so many thoughts in my head. I wish I head like a thought vacuum that took everything away. It's not like bad thoughts, but just thinking to much I guess.

ok I'm done

Here I am

So here I sit. Once again I have failed before the Almighty Father,yet once again forgiven.

so yah...first entry of my blog

I used to have a blogger back in the day when I was like 15 (seems forever ago) because I sat there and thought it was cool.

I'm more of a facebook guy myself, but blogging is interesting, i often write things that I don't have the guts to say to people (Imagine that, I can't say it to someone's face but will say it to everyone in the world on the internet)

I sit here, 5 AM, can't sleep

I often find God gives me things to think about in the middle of the night that I never would normally think about during my busy day. I love sitting here in the witness of my home, with only the sound of a keys clicking in my ear.

My thoughts tonight are on where I've come form and where I'm going. I can only pray that I could just be who I am and let god handle the rest. Instead, I often second guess choices and always ask myself why I didn't do something else.

I wish I could change so many things about myself. first and foremost, I wish i was in my bible on a day to day basis. It seems so ridiculous that I've said that for so long and yet week to week, I do nothing about it.

Lord please help me want to spend more time with you, and help me to rest in your arms instead of worrying about everything.



"I lift my eyes up, to the heavens, where does my help come from?"

see ya'll later

John Schuchman