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We went to idaho springs with my brother in law and his family this weekend.  We had fun, but it was funny to watch people search for gold in this river next to the mine.  It is called the Phoenix Gold mine and its in Idaho Springs.  I was watching people pan for gold, including my family, and it was funny to see them sit on a log in a freezing cold stream for hours just for the possibility of finding something that was worth money.  We really need to let the world around us know the “gold” that there is in knowing Jesus.  Think about who you are sharing the value of Christ with today.  The people around you are always seeking for things of value but if they dont see how much you value Jesus then they wont.  You are the proof that there is “gold in the stream”.

So, I am giving myself a grade from my little experiment a few days ago.  It is a C-.  I didnt fail because at least i tried to talk less, but it was dang hard.  I had 2 meetings that I have a part of and i probably said too much in each.  I think the key with not talkng is to ask yourself if you are listening.  If you are just not talking then you are half way to learning an important lesson in life; if you can learn to listen to others then you can be a better communicator. Talking is easy.  Anyone can learn to be a great speaker and have lots of charisma and motivate people to be the best that they can be.  It takes a whole other level of greatness to be a great listener with people and also with God.  Listening does a few things; it honors the person you are listening to, it helps take the selfishness out of conversations and positions you to win by not saying something stupid and recting to a situation.  I learned that my natural bend is to talk, but I want to learn to do as much listening in my world as I do talking.

I am sure this post will get the most hits ever for anyone who knows me. I am doing a little personal social experiment today and its called “brian’s going to talk less today”. I was going to name it “making the sun not come up today” or “ask a person not to breathe” which are about the same thing. My mouth normally tends to get me in trouble every so often with just about everyone. It is one of the drawbacks of being a social butterfly. I will tell you how it turns out later this week.

There is only one place on earth I go the EXACT speed limit and that it in East Helena next to where i grew up.  It is such a small town that all they have to do is sit on that dang road and pass out speeding tickets.  Driving back to Helena this past weekend I had to drive through “the speed zone” (not “speeding zone”) and thought about all the tickets I had seen passed out through the years in that little stretch of road.  I am not kidding that I go exactly 45 miles per hour whenever I drive that stretch of road.  It funny to see people with out of town license plates speeding by and you think, “oh this should be good”.  As I drove it this time I thought about why it strikes such fear in the hearts of those who pass that way and its because the cops there believe that if the speed is posted at 45 then you better go 45.  Even if they are not there, you know that there is a chance you could get a ticket if you speed and that is enough to keep people from going fast.  When you know that God has told you something is wrong in your life and continue to do it, dont get mad at him for the consequences of your actions.  He has posted “a speed limit sign” for us to read called the Bible and its a great place to find out what the “speed limit” is for your life and how you can have true happiness in everything you do.  It is not a bad thing to have a fear OF the Lord, its just not good to have a fear FOR the Lord.  One is based on reverence and the other is based on igonrance.  God wants us to be “safe” along the roadway of life and he has given us the tools to navigate this crazy road so that we can live life to the fullest.

Yolanda and I are in montana until wednesday and that’s why I have not written any posts lately. I have some good pics to post and I will share about my trip when I get back. I will give you a hint though… it has to do with my dad just purchasing a new Polaris RZR four wheeler that is a two seater and it is sweet!! No pics now because I am typing this on my blackberry because my parents internet is messed up right now. will start writing again in about 4 days.

I have always been around people giving prayer requests and we even do them with CAST when we meet. I thought about when someone gives that kind of information to a group of people, what is the responsibility of the listeners and what we do, or dont do, with that information? That is why I came up with the 3 rules of prayer requests and here they are.

1. You have valuable information; so treat it that way.
James 5:16 – confess your faults…that you may be healed.

You need to remember that when someone asks you to pray for them that is valuable information that is not treated or taken lightly. You are petitioning heaven for someone and we need to remember that although prayer is just a conversation with God, its an important one and needs to be treated that way.

2. Pray if you say you will
Phillipians 4:6 – in everything, let your requests be made known to God

One of the greatest sins of the church body is people who say they will pray for someone and dont. You need to realize that the person who entrusted you with prayer is expecting that their needs are going to be lifted up by you.

3. Expectation in prayer is not getting what you want, but knowing that God heard your prayer
1 Peter 3:12 – the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, his ears are open to their prayers

We get mixed up in what we know or think that expectation in prayer is. It is really knowing that God hears us when we speak and that we need to live our lives to the best of our spiritual ability in a way that honors him even if we dont get what we want. Our service to God is not conditional on what we get or dont get from him and that includes our prayers.

I had 2 cases of worry this weekend. I watched the UFC fight Saturday night between Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson (which Forrest Griffin won by the way) and I was at the edge of my seat the whole fight, worried that Forrest wouldn’t win. The other extreme example was that I was watching Design Star with Yolanda Sunday night and was worried about who was going to get the boot (stephanie got kicked off the show by the way). I gave these two examples of worry because in the grand scheme of things the outcome of either of these events would never affect my life in any way. We dont need to let things that would never change our personal lives affect our attitude or personality. Take inventory this week of things like TV shows, Sports teams or certain athletes that we can let affect our personality and cause us to worry about things that don’t really matter in eternity.

I created a prayer request page for you to post needs in the comment box and have Yolanda and I pray for you. We all need to have prayer sometimes and no better way than to use the good ol’ internet to help each other. If you are a visitor on this blog and you are not a Christian you are still welcome to list your needs. Also, if you don’t have a need then let someone else know that I am doing this on my blog. Lets stick it to the devil (notice lower case?)

This is possibly one of my favorite star wars kid videos. Enjoy and happy star wars kid sunday.

Happy 4th of July. I wanted to post this video of the biggest fireworks shell in the world that is 48inches big. Holy Lord that is ridiculous but dang fun to watch. Also, listen to the dog barking in the background at the end of the video. I thought it was oddly funny. Have a great day all my blog buddies and Mike, if you are reading this, there is a “nugget” here somewhere for you I’m sure. 🙂