The 180 Blog

Read Through the Bible

Join in this week as we jump into the book of Mark! What are you learning? Email us or leave a comment.

Day	Exodus	Psalms	Romans
Tuesday, Feb. 3	9	62-63	13-14
Wednesday, Feb. 4	10	64-65	15-16
Thursday, Feb. 5	11-12	66-67	Mark 1
Friday, Feb. 6	13-14	68	2
Saturday, Feb. 7	15	69	3
Sunday, Feb. 8	16	70-71	4
Monday, Feb. 9	17-18	72	5

2. SOMETHING FOR YOUR HEART

CHANGING THE PLANET WITH YOUR PERSONALITY

What if you commissioned an artist to paint a picture of your life, and he returned to you a boring black-and-white picture with no creativity or color? Not one of those artistic, well-done black-and-white drawings...a boring, uninspired work. You'd probably look at the drawing and say, "Man, that drawing is worthless. It doesn't represent my life at all. My life isn't that boring, that colorless."

And the truth is, it's not. God made you with color and creativity. The paint and brush God uses on you was used for no one else. And your color, your personality, is the one your church and school need. It's the unique shade your family and friends need.

And because you were painted with color, to influence the world, your quest should not stop with "Hmmm, I wonder what my personality is?" It should continue on to asking what God wants you to do with the personality he's given you. Ask yourself why you have the sense of humor you do. Why do you process information the way you do? Why do you lead in the way you do? Your personality isn't an accident; it's in you to be used to glorify the Artist who painted you the color that he did.

What if you could use your personality to change the world? What if your personality is God's desire in you to change and influence situations for his glory? What if God wants you to understand your personality better so you can be a more focused influencer for his kingdom? Consider using your personality to...

BE GOD'S DIFFERENCE

Some people think the situations they encounter in life are just random happenings, things they just stumbled across accidentally. They couldn't be more wrong. Every situation we find ourselves in at home or at school is something God wants us in. I've seen this in my own life--where God has led me to someone, and I've been convinced I was the person God needed me to be for that person. God has placed you in a particular place, at a particular time, because there's something about you that will make a difference in that moment. If that's true (and I really think it is) then our personality is God's gift to that moment, to shape the moment for his glory. The teacher who's feeling stressed might be the person who needs the part of your personality that is nurturing. The moment you discover your best friend just lost her grandfather is the moment God wants to use your compassion and committed friendship. The tense moment between your parents, the struggle of your pregnant friend, the hurt your sister is feeling--it doesn't matter what the situation is, your personality is God's tool. Let him use it.

RETHINK

Everything is supposed to be questioned. Everything. I've got days when I doubt and question and scrutinize everything. I'm sure you've got them too. I hear the guitar in my favorite song, and think I could play it better. I listen to a speaker and think I could say it better. I've got one of those personalities that criticizes much of what I see. I guess I can be pretty annoying to be around sometimes, but I think that questioning spirit can be a good thing. Too much of our world is closed to critique and opinion. Unfortunately most systems, programs, businesses, policies, and plans are set up by a handful of people who rarely ask for outside input. Too few organizations really value and use different ideas as they create and develop. Sadly, I find the church to be the institution that often seems most closed to thinking in new ways. Our world needs rethinkers, people who will dare to use the personalities God has given them. Our world needs people who will boldly enter the world, and use who they are to change it and make it better. Be one of those people.

CHALLENGE OTHERS

Most people spend most of their lives without ever really opening themselves up to being challenged. They're happiest that way because it means absolutely no disruption in what they're most comfortable with--their neatly set up, overly systematized lives. But sometimes another person steps into their lives and helps them see everything just a bit differently--and it's like adding red food coloring to plain water. Sparks go off. Maybe they get defensive about the possibility of really thinking through how they live, or maybe they open up to your thinking and they change. Either way, they're challenged. But without you there, offering your idea, they would have never been led into a new way of considering their life. When we unleash our personalities into the lives of others, we become God's well-placed tool, challenging those he leads us to, bringing about change for his glory.

Leonardo da Vinci began painting his most famous work, "The Mona Lisa", in 1502. He worked on it for four years consistently, but it still wasn't complete. When da Vinci moved from Italy to France in 1516, the painting still wasn't done. But art scholars say he worked on it for three more years there, and completed it just before his death in 1519. Do the math...that's 17 years one guy worked on his work of art. I imagine da Vinci probably got frustrated and stopped several times during those years. He allowed others to see the incomplete painting and took it on his travels (like when he took the unfinished painting with him on a visit to the French king in 1516). In all those years, he must have been influenced by countless things he noticed around him. As he took breaks from his work, new ideas for colors must have crossed his mind. Any work-in-progress is open to new influences on the author and the creation.

In the same way, God takes the unique personality he gave to each of us and shapes it through our families, friendships, and other life experiences. It takes time to make us who we are, and the changing world of our family and friends is the primary context in which God begins to paint the picture of us. It's in these relationships that we discover our personalities, who we really are.

But the art doesn't stop there. God didn't create the art-that-is-us to leave us in a closet. God wants us to take our unique personalities and life experiences--all that we are--and use them to change the world. So the question we need to ask ourselves isn't just, "Golly, how did God make me?" The question is, "How can God best use what he's made?"

And here's the cool thing about that question. We don't get to choose how God made us. But we do get to choose how we're used. We get to submit ourselves to the wind of his Spirit. We get to experience the places he leads us to. We get to share in the impact on his kingdom. So search out how God made you and what he made you to be, but don't stop there. Seek out opportunities to use what he's created, so his work can be displayed for everyone to see.

**

Taken from "Leave a Footprint - Change The Whole World" by Tim Baker, copyright 2009 Youth Specialties/Zondervan. Used by permission. Order the book here.


3. SURF REPORT

~ Loose Change To Loosen Chains

~ Current Movie Reviews Including "Paul Bart Mall Cop"


4. BIRTHDAYS

We've got one birthday wish this week and it goes out to ...... Zach Eitzen! We wish you the best Zach!!


5. VIDEO OF THE WEEK

For the next couple of weeks we will be posting some blasts from the past. This one takes us back to Fall Fusion of '06!



6. FORGETTABLE FACT

Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined.


7. POTENT QUOTABLES

"We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them."
~ Samuel Adams

"The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed."
~ Patrick Henry


===========our|sponsor===========

LEAVE A FOOTPRINT - CHANGE THE WHOLE WORLD

You are here for a reason. God is calling you to change the world. How will you do that? Inside the pages of this book, you'll discover that God has definitely created you for a purpose, and you'll learn what that purpose is. So, dive in, explore who you are and what you're made to do--so you can change the whole world.

Learn more about or purchase "Leave a Footprint - Change the Whole World" here.

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8. UH, THAT'S FUNNY?

Hw do U kp a txtr in suspense? I'll tel U l8r.