don't forget what you once were.

sooo...the duet went great this morning in church. i was a little nervous, which caused me not do as well as i could have...but oh well. everyone said they enjoyed it :) after church, jamie and i went and got thai food for the last time :/ sad day for real. when i get home, i will definitely be scoping out a good thai place. it has become an addiction! haha.

new groups arrive tonight and tomorrow...looking forward to meeting them :) im pretty sure they are mostly youth, but guess i'll find out tomorrow. i will be working with one of the groups tomorrow tearing down chinese drywall in a woman's house...should be interesting. havent checked the weather for tmrw, but im hoping it wont be like it was today...the heat index was already 106 degrees at 8 am this morning...serious struggle.

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lesson learned in church today: be submissive to all human authority.

"for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, 

slaves to various passions and pleasures, 

passing our days in malice and envy, 

hated by others and hating one another."

-titus 3:3

we, as christians, know that politicians are corrupt and unjust, but God tells us we must submit to them anyway. the past couple weeks we have been dissecting titus, chapter three, which deals with submitting to human authority. today we focused on titus 3, verse 3. here, paul reminds us that human authority may be corrupt and full of sin, but we must remember that before we allowed Jesus into our hearts to wash our sins away, we were just as corrupt as they are. we must be empathetic and resist quarreling and fighting against them, for this will accomplish nothing...rather it will make things worse. how else are we supposed to show the love of christ to those who need it if we are not kind and gentle towards them? is that not what someone did for us so that we could learn of Jesus' love?

we must remember that we were born sinners, just like everyone else. God took mercy on us, and we must take mercy on them. pastor don made a good point that we are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners. it is in our nature to sin...ever since Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. it is by the grace and mercy from god that we are saved from our sin. so paul reminds us in this passage: don't forget what you once were.