Hello,

With only a few days away from running in my first triathlon, I wanted to share some words of encouragement and wisdom with my fellow athletes out there.  I didn’t grow up a very athletic person.  I’m not that coordinated, and I’m not that strong.

I tried playing basketball, but I was to aggressive.  I would generally only get to play for five minutes before I would foul out.  I tried playing football, but I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, fast enough, or aggressive enough to be any good (it didn’t help that the coach wanted me to play center at 6′ and 135 lbs).  There was really only one sport I was good at…track.

It doesn’t take a lot of strength or skill to run.  So I did really well.  I wasn’t fast, so I ran longer distance events.  I wasn’t the best, but I always placed.  I ran on the varsity track team at my school starting in eighth grade until I graduated. (we were a small division school).  I loved pushing my body to it’s limit and then some.  I loved competing.  It’s this history of competition that starts to bring up some long lost feelings inside of me.

Some of my feelings are good and some are bad.  I think sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (and sometimes at the same time).  I know from experience that sports and competition can bring out a laundry list of sins in people…pride, selfishness, arrogance, timidity, course language, unrighteous anger, belittlement, ect.

I have seen people pray before a game and in the same breath speak crude and prideful words against the other team. I have been an arrogant winner and a sore loser.  I have been poor sport.  I have cheated.  I have belittled and demeaned other athletes and teammates.

But I have also seen athletes become even more Christ-like through competition and sports.  I’ve seen teamwork and unity abound.  I’ve seen men with great talent and heart walk humbly in a knowledge of Who gave them their gifts.  I have seen men suffer well in harsh anti-christian environments.  I have seen men point to Jesus as their true prize and not some medal or ribbon.

It is with this in mind that I write this letter.  I am determined that sports and competition will not bring me down.  I am determined to not seek glory for myself.  But I pray that my competing will be done in a way that brings glory to Jesus. I am determined that it is more important to finish the race with integrity proclaiming the good news of Jesus than to win and dishonor his name (not like I have a chance of winning).  I am determined that Jesus is my ultimate prize.  The reason I compete is to draw closer to Jesus and humbly point others to Him.

Whether I win or lose, I am determined to “run the good race.”  I hope you are determined too.

To the glory of God,

Greg Qualls

So about six months ago Shannon and I started our search for a home to buy.  Being first time home owners we had a vague idea of what we wanted in a house….three bedroom, two bath, lots a space to grow.  Our realtor started showing us houses in Albquerque, and we started to get depressed.

It seemed like there weren’t really any good houses in our price range.  They were either to small or so run down that they were on the verge of being condemened.  That was until we came accross “the house.”  The second we walked through the front door we fell in love.  It had everything we were looking for in a house and then some.  Most importantly it was in our price range.

There was some small problems though.  The Realtor for the house was a little crooked.  He was part owner and was trying to do a short sale.  But he failed to mention that he was a part owner and that the house was going to foreclose on if he didn’t get someone to pay cash for it in the few days he had left.  By God’s grace we found out and didn’t get caught in a huge mess that could have happened.

So fast forward to this last Sunday.  The house ended up going into forclosure, and no one bought it at auction.  So it came back on the market this last Sunday as a HUD home.  That brought up some small problems since we are qualified for a FHA loan and generally it’s hard to buy HUD houses with FHA loans.  Things are ok though, but we have one last issue to overcome.

HUD houses are sold by a bidding process.  Everyone interested in the house puts in a bid (not knowing if anyone else is bidding or the other bids if there are any) and the most cost effective bid for the government wins.  There’s no counter offers or anything.  You get one chance.  So now we are seeking the prayer support of all our friends.

We really feel like God is opening up the doors for us to get this house (there is so much more to the story that I’m not sharing due to time).  This house is more than a house.  We see it as a place where we can truly do ministry for God.  The only thing we have left to figure out is how much we need to bid.

So please pray that God would give us a clear direction on what to bid for the house.  Pray that He would give us wisdom. Pray that He would give us peace.  Pray that He would ulitimatly give us the house.  Thanks so much and feel free to pass this along to anyone else.  We are meeting with our realtor on Thursday to put in our bid and will find out on Monday if we got the house or not.

I’ve been reading through C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility with my friend Alf and it has been really good. We both decided that we needed to cultivate a little humility (ok a lot) in our lives. This book has been transformational. C.J.’s insights have opened my eyes to really see how much pride is really in my life.

In the last chapter we read, C.J. wrote about looking for God’s works of a grace in our lives and those that are around us. He talked about how Paul was able to see good things in the church at Corinth even though they were more screwed up than a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich (my illustration not his). He talked about how only a truly humble person can see the work’s of grace in those that are messed up.

This hit really hard to home for me. I have to admit that I’m a pretty critical person. I’m not very big at looking for the grace in others lives and definitely not in my own life. I’m usually the first person to find faults and then exploit them through veil of sarcasm.

This hit home the other night after church when I was getting a few drinks with my friends at the Copper Lounge. We were all praying for my friend Carl (yes in a bar…and the waitress said it was beautiful) and Carl in turn started to pray for all of us at the table (he’s a great guy like that). He started praying about the miracle that was about to happen in my life and thanking God for the every day miracles in our lives.

It struck me at that moment that God is about to work a miracle in Shannon’s and my life. We’ve been in a little bit of denial that we are going to actually have a kid, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen (place you bet here ). This entire time of Shannon’s pregnancy and the upcoming birth I have been blind to the grace that God has been working in our lives. I have been blind to the miracle that is about happen.

God’s grace is blatantly obvious and I have been blatantly cold to what He is doing. I haven’t been aware of the way that He has sustained us during this time. How He has given us strength. How He has given us rest. How He has provided. How He has been there with us every step of the way and how He will be with us to the end. My eyes have been blind, but now I see (that’s kinda catchy…someone should write a song).

It’s funny how even though we don’t acknowledge God’s grace He still decides to work in our lives. But now that I’m able to see the miracle that is at hand, I have a new sense of excitement that has come over me. I’m waiting for a miracle and that my friends is going to be great thing to see.

I’m sorry for the lack of posts here lately. I’ve been pretty swamped with work and other activities. So please forgive me. I’ll try to get back in the grove of things in the next few days.

I did however want to take a quick break and share with you a new site that twitter friend of mine came out with called WetheChuch.org. This is a really cool idea that you should go check out. It is basically a prayer wall where you can share your prayer requests/praises and pray for others that need prayer. I really love the idea and it can become addictive watching prayers go up and praying for them.

So take a few minutes out of your day and go check out WetheChurch.org.

photo by: JasonRogers

If you’re like me, you have trouble spending time with God (I don’t like to use the words quiet time…it makes me feel like I’m five and in a “time out”). I’ve written in the past on some tips and tricks that I use to do this daily. But just like in a marriage relationship, sometimes you just need to spend more than a few minutes with your spouse. You need to spend the whole day. I call this spending time with God hardcore style.

I learned this concept from Doug Fields a few years ago. He talked about one of his youth saying that they “take God on a date.” Now taking God on a date is a little creepy for me, but I liked the concept. The idea is to just spend some extended time with God and nobody else.

To do this, I normally take an afternoon and spend the entire time reading scripture, praying, walking, reading some more, praying some more, and walking some more. The idea is to have a large chunk of time that is devoted to nothing but growing closer to God. This isn’t time to study your Bible and parse Greek verbs…this is time to just be with your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.

The following are 26 quick tips that can help you with your hardcore time with God.

1. Get out of your house. There are to many distractions there. To many things to play with.
2. Get away from people.
3. Go to a park or go hiking. Go be in His creation.
4. Wear comfortable clothing.
5. Turn off everything…phone, pager, radio, ipod, laptop, ect. If it has an on/off, make it off.
6. Look for God in everything and then give Him the glory.
7. Take your Bible (ESV ), a pen, and something to write on.
8. Anytime you think about something that you need to do when you get home, write it down and forget about it. This will allow you to focus on your time with God. (this is a good practice in general)
9. Take a list of prayer requests and things/people you want to pray for.
10. Have an agenda/time line.
11. Don’t have an agenda/time line.
12. Pray, pray, pray
13. Take a snack and some cash.
14. Take some water.
15. Tell one person where you are going to be in case of emergencies (your wife goes into labor). This helps to keep your thoughts from being overtaken.
16. Read through a whole book of the Bible several times.
17. Read through a passage of scripture several times.
18. Read all the gospels in one sitting (it can be done in an afternoon).
19. Fast
20. Eat
21. Just walk and talk to God as if He was walking right next to you.
22. Take a short nap (it’s better to sleep for 20 minutes than to fight it for 3 hrs).
23. Write out your prayers to God.
24. Pray for God to reveal sin in your life that is keeping you from Him.
25. Take some time to sit and listen to God.
26. Be diligent to focus on God and your relationship.

Well I hope that helps. I’m off to go spend some hardcore time with God. Leave me a comment, with any tips that you might have for spending hardcore time with God.