Blake’s team

Here’s a cool picture of Blake’s soccer team, the Dallas Texans – Houston Division Legend ’98.

DTH Legend

Blake is number 25, in front, giving us his best game face. The cool thing about this picture is that every kid who got a team picture got to be in the front. It’s not really a group shot; The photographer took individual pictures of each kid and photoshopped each kid in the front for the shot they purchased. Very nice.

Blake’s team played the first day of a soccer tournament today. It was fun, although it was FREEZING out at the fields. His team won the first game 2-0 against Chivas. Blake scored a goal, capitalizing on a great cross from Pablo. Unfortunately, the second game against Tigres was very tough, and they lost 3-0. Tomorrow they face the Houstonians, which is a very, very tough team.

Go Legend!

Update: They tied the Houstonians 2 to 2, which was disappointing (especially since the Houstonians second goal was off a questionable call resulting in a PK) but the boys played their hearts out in the cold and mud. Well done!

Preparing

Today I’ll finish preparing to teach a Bible study tomorrow, one that I don’t deserve to teach.

I almost always feel that way. My words and actions of the past week come back to me (and this isn’t false piety – I was a self-indulgent jerk this week at times).

But teach I shall, and I pray God speaks, in spite of me.

“I am has sent me to you”

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

– Exodus 3:13-14

I’m starting a teaching series in College and Young Singles this weekend on the seven “I Am” statements of Jesus in the book of John. I can’t wait and I hope it goes well. I’m going to start with the passage above, as an introduction, with it’s surrounding context.

There’s so much here. So much. Two things jump out at me on just a cursory re-reading of this passage.

1. The people of Israel are truly without a shepherd. They feel abandoned, and they have no foundation, They don’t really know the God of their fathers very well. Moses is concerned, and he needs a name.

Does that speak to you? How alone are you in the universe when God is such a stranger to you? But even in their loneliness and desperation the Hebrews have cried out to the God they barely knew, and He has heard them.

2. In answer to the “What’s your name?” question, God answers “I am who I am”. I don’t have anything very profound to say here, other than just to say that God is cool. And I don’t mean cool in the acid-washed, frosted tips, ipod buds in your ears, shirt untucked, tat with a gotee way. I mean it in the “when I read that, my jaw drops and I say ‘wow . . . that’s cool'” way. God said “I AM”, because what better way is there to describe the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, creator-God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End? He is. And because He is, we are.

And the sooner we acknowledge that, the better.

I’m looking forward to this.

On a more positive note . . .

What a great day in the College and Young Singles class! We had more singles there than I can remember in a long, long time. The worship by Molly and Zach was very good, and Charles did a tremendous job finishing up his two-part teaching on stewardship, ending with our stewardship of the Gospel.

It was a really good morning. Very encouraging. We also announced the starting up of HomeGroups in early February.

It was a good end to a pretty challenging and tiring weekend. I think I’ll cap it off with some time spent organizing the attic (that’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of fun, right?) 🙂

And, after that, time to get ready for a challenging and tiring week. There are lots of big doings at work and I’m in the middle of some of them. Whew.

Oh, I almost forgot. Congratulations Colts!