Author: lesabrackbill

Team Tunisia…

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Wow…what a weekend!

I spent Friday and Saturday with my Tunisia team, in Corona, CA…and it was amazing. It was great bonding time, getting to know each other on a much deeper level…learning about our strengths…it was so awesome! This team is truly amazing, and I am so blessed to be a part of it!

We hiked this beautiful ridge (Pictures below), and took Communion up there…we ate Tunisian food tonight (SOOOO good!!)…and we have all gained love and appreciation for one another.

I am so excited to see what the Lord does through this group in the coming months…it is going to be awesome!

Crumbs From Your Table

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Wow…talk about a convicting song! As I was listening to this today, it just hit me like a rock…Please take the time to think about the message in this song! WOW!

Crumbs From Your Table
By U2

From the brightest star
Comes the blackest hole
You had so much to offer
Why did you offer your soul?
I was there for you baby
When you needed my help
Would you deny for others
What you demand for yourself?

Cool down mama, cool off
Cool down mama, cool off

You speak of signs and wonders
I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But Iā€™m waiting on the crumbs from your table

You were pretty as a picture
It was all there to see
Then your face caught up with your psychology
With a mouth full of teeth
You ate all your friends
And you broke every heart thinking every heart mends

You speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But Iā€™m waiting on the crumbs from your table

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die

Three to a bed
Sister Ann, she said
Dignity passes by

And you speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
Iā€™m waiting on the crumbs from your table

Oh yeah…

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Since I have been labeled a “redneck” by certain people for liking NASCAR, does it make it worse that I am actually related to the Earnhardt family? šŸ™‚

I am NOT a redneck, by the way!

Daytona, Here We Come!!

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So, I was supposed to be in Ensenada this weekend, but due to the rain and the other weather problems, the roads are far too dangerous for 200+ APU students to travel upon. The executive decision was made yesterday that our retreat will instead be at a church right here in Azusa. This is actually a good thing, just because none of us were looking forward to sleeping in tents in the mud, in the cold, for four days. Now, we will be sleeping on the floor of a church for one night. I’m really looking forward to the team time!

One of the additional points of excitement for me is very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but…still great! I now get to watch the Daytona 500 on Sunday, after church! šŸ™‚ This is something that my family has done every year for as long as I can remember, and originally I didn’t think that I would be able to watch it. This makes me happy–it truly is the little things!

Funny thing is, I will probably get more comments on this post about NASCAR than I will on the other two posts about the Church and U2…I know my friends like to think I’m a redneck because I enjoy the wonderful sport of racing!

By the way–my favorite driver is #21, Ricky Rudd and #41, Casey Mears. May they do well this weekend!

Another Thought for Discussion…

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The more I read this book about U2, the more I feel like I’ve finally found someone who feels just like I feel about so many different issues…

Here’s another thought I’d like to open up for discussion…please give me your comments, opinions, etc. This passage really makes me think about how I view people!

“Bono speaks of grace being the great attraction to Christianity. Then he says he’d like to be a Christian but could never shape up or that he is a bad example of Christianity. Either he is trying to deflect the press’s ability to pigeon-hole him, or he has been duped about what a Christian is…He pushed back his career and new album by more than a year to try to rid the Third World of crippling debts, keep the poor alive, and restore equality and justice to the world. And he says he is not a good example for Christ. Jesus told a parable about the Kingdom of God where the sheep enter the Kingdom, and the goats are left outside (Matt. 25:31-46). Jesus didn’t say the goats smoked, drank, or swore too much. He said they didn’t get involved in changing the circumstances of the marginalized by feeding them when they were hungry and visiting them in prison. These were the issues of His Kingdom.”
(Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2, by Steve Stockman, page 65).

Wow…

Opening a discussion…

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As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been in a spiritual valley for 4-5 months now, maybe longer…and tonight, as I had dinner with a dear friend, I began to process what I’ve learned and what I’ve been going through…and how I’ve changed.

I don’t want to say a lot now, because I still don’t really know what is going on within me…but I do know that my new perspective on “religious” things has a great deal to do with my new love for U2–it wasn’t caused by that, at all–there are just things about my new perspective that have made me connect with U2 a great deal more.

I wanted to post this quote that I found while reading today, to open a discussion. This is from the book “Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2” by Steve Stockman.

“The vast majority of U2 interviews and reviews over

the past twenty years touch or often concentrate on the
Christian faith that is so much a part of what the band is.
Their faith isn’t ridiculed. It has never been questioned,
though how they keep it with the rock lifestyle has often
been a fascination. The Christian press and Christians in
general have been the doubters…There has been…
condemnation on their lifestyles, which include smoking cigars,
drinking Jack Daniels and using language that is not
common currency at Southern Baptist Conventions.
The Christian Community seems to have confined its
definitions of faith to various precise behavioral patterns
and cliched statements of faith. In getting caught up in
the minutia of behavioral codes that have had more to do
with respectable middle-class behavior than biblical
guidelines, many have been so obsessed with the cigar
hanging out of Bono’s mouth that they are missing
the radical biblical agenda that has fired his life and work.”

Wow! Can I just say that I have progressively noticed this “box” that Christians are supposed to fit in? Granted, I do NOT smoke, drink, or swear, and probably never will…but, starting back in D.C., I began to notice that you cannot judge a person’s heart by their outward actions, such as drinking, smoking, swearing…

Anyway, I’d just be curious to know what other people think about this issue…do you agree or disagree? Why? I’m struggling more and more each day, and I think that it all goes back to a certain book I read last year…and I think it is making more sense….

Let me know what you think!