10 RANDOM THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BEING A STUDENT PASTOR

10. Summers hanging out by Hume Lake and playing the game we officially invented called "Run on the Lake".

9. Laughing at stupid Youtube videos in my office with a group of guys following our Wednesday morning Bible study right before we charge the gates of hell in prayer on our faces.

8. High School Football games in the fall.

7. Being on a mission with the most incredible adult volunteers in the country to expand the Kingdom of GOD and making it really hard for someone to go to hell from Modesto.

6. Spending every Easter in Mexico with hundreds of high school students worshipping Jesus until our throats are bloody and our voices are gone!

5. Monday night strolls around BVG watching small groups of teenagers talk about how to follow Christ and live for him more on their campuses.

4. Leading a Bible Study on Wednesday mornings before the sun is even up with a bunch of teenage guys who are making Christ a priority in life, refusing to wait for someone else to lead. HU-AH!!

3. Preaching the Word every Sunday morning to High School students at ACCESS.

2. Watching a student smile as his eyes widen and a lightbulb appears over his head on a Sunday morning as I'm preaching the Word at ACCESS.

1. The fact that I'm never alone while I do it. HE is right here with me.

BOOK REVIEW: The Gladiator

So, I just finished this book and I must say it was not all I expected it to be. There were sections where it seemed as if the author (Alan Baker) was all over the place with his thoughts. The thing I did enjoy, however, is that it helped me to get a sense for how savage Ancient Rome actually was before Christianity began to take root under the Emperor Constantine. I've been indulging my Rome kick with this book for the past couple weeks. This book was really descriptive and went into pretty lurid detail as it described the life of a typical gladiator and the intense showdowns that took place in that majestic Flavian Amphitheater. I do recommend this book but only for those who are seriously interested in Roman culture. I can't imagine what it must have been like for those who were forced to kill or be killed while 50,000 screaming Romans watched and pointed. I enjoyed how the book ended with a fictional but probably pretty accurate recreation of what a typical day in the Colisseum was probably like.