The performance review

So in my days of ministry I was always under review. If you think about it every step you make, every message delivered, every event planned and executed is being measured and evaluated by the members. If you do a youth event and a lot of kids show up, it gets a great review. If you do one and only a few come, yet they all grow closer to Christ for me that's a victory, to the casual outsider it's a failure. Every sermon delivered is dissected and evaluated based on the emotional attachment and possibly the points covered.
Then, I took a job at the Betty Griffin House, there at the end of the first grant year I was evaluated. Now, at each presentation I have evaluations filled out by each student and by the teacher or administrator in charge. So, I know as I go along how good of a job I did. But, I wasn't prepared for the end of the year evaluation. That time when you sit down with the Executive Director and go over each objective you were expected to execute on. From punctuality, to appearance, to performance on the job to others' perception of the Betty Griffin House due to my work. There were over 20 points touched on and graded. Each seeming more intrusive than the last. Then, I was asked to go over the list and grade myself. No way I can do that, I am so critical of myself I will always make worse grades than I would be given. Had I known it was coming I would have put more thought into it, and spent more time over the year preparing specifically for the questions asked. As it turned out I got excellents through out the evaluation, (don't act so surprised) and it turned out great.
2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us:
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad"
Your job as a Christian will be evaluated, it will be weighed out and JEsus Christ will be the one doing the evaluation. So ask yourself, what have you done in recent days that will get you a good evaluation? What do you plan to do today for Christ, to bring about excellency in His view of you?
I will probably not blog tomorrow as I am speaking at All Pro Dads at Southwoods Elementary School and then going on a field trip with P.J.'s class. So have a great weekend and thanks so much for reading!

God of this city

So at Student Life Camp last summer we had the priveledge of hearing a new Chris Tomlin song. I must confess we are a little Chris Tomlined out so to speak as we hear him every year we go to Student Life but he had this song that hit me and I like it, I love hearing it and I listen to it regularly on my Ipod. It's called God of this city and it's about a band that was in a foreign country. They were on a mission trip and were asked to play in a club that had never had a live band. The club was a very disgusting place where no Christian would dare to venture. The band, a Christian band decided to go and play there for free. Well, they sang their Christian songs in English and the people loved them. Not knowing it they were blessing this establishment. Later, after this performance the lead singer of the band was sharing his feelings with the rest of the band and they felt God's presence there in that club/bar like never before. So they wrote a song about it.
Here are some of the lyrics:
You are the God of this city
You are the King of these people
You are the God of Creation, You are.
The chorus:
Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.
I like that song, I like all that it stands for. It completely conveys my feelings for St. Augustine, greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city. God is the God of this city, He is the King of these people and we will see a day when this city is reached with the Gospel and comes alive for God.
ACts 9:35 "All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord."
Peter healed a paralytic man and who came to know Christ because of it? The entire group of people who came in contact with the paralytic man. All who saw him turned to the Lord. It lists earlier in the chapter that the believers were gathered. So not only did it reach the lost, it revitalized the saved.
The day is fast approaching where we will have a major break-thru for the Gospel and many, many will come to know Christ. Those who already know Him will be recharged to reach the lost, and God will without a doubt be the God of this city!
I believe this will be done through the lives of our young people, and that is where we need to work most diligently to share the Gospel.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Wrestling

So having grown up in the 1980's as a young boy I loved to watch wrestling. I would tune in on Saturday mornings and watch as my favorite wwf or nwa wrestlers took on the bad guys. I loved to watch it even though I knew it was fake, and my dad made sure I had a full understanding of the fact that it was fake, I watched it faithfully.
I was a huge Hulk Hogan fan and followed every aspect of his life that I could. I had the action figures, a wrestling ring, and t-shirts of my favorites. When wrestling wasn't on I would either watch re-runs that I had taped on teh VCR or I would have my own wrestling matches with the action figures. As I grew up wrestling had a different meaning for me and it faded from my list of things to watch. Then, I got into high school and after my freshman year of baseball I decided I wanted to get into better shape. So I started working out with a few close friends of mine who were high school wrestlers(which is a totally different animal). They stand in a circle on a mat and struggle with every ounce of strength and agility they have with an opponent for up to 5 minutes which is a lot. To be honest with you at my age I get tired just wrestling with P.J. for more than 3-4 minutes. Wrestling in high school is the most demanding sport outside of possibly cross country running. These guys are in ultimate shape both mentally and physically. I trained with them and I recall a lot of days going home unable to walk or even lift my arms.
Colossians 4:12 tells us what our churches need.
"Epaphras, who Paul states to the Colossians 'is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus. . . . He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured'"
Our churches don't need members who are half heartedly engaged, or big givers, or regular attenders. Our churches need wrestlers, people willing to wrestle in prayer for their church. These are people who don't just pray over a list, or lift up the sick but people who passionately pray with all they have for their church and its members and its leaders. We need people willing to pour out their heart and souls in prayer for their church. Praying until they can't pray any more, until they are mentally drained of thoughts and feelings.Then, we will see God glorified in our churches and reach our communities with the Gospel.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Righteous

No the title of this blog is not a cool catch phrase word from the 70's(I wouldn't know I was around for very little in the 70's) It's a title that means a lot to Christians in today's church and has meant a lot through the years.
Here is the direct cut from today's online dictionary.
1. strictly observant of morality: always behaving according to a religious or moral code
2. justifiable: considered to be correct or justifiable
3. responding to injustice: arising from the perception of great injustice or wrongdoing
righteous indignation
4. U.S. great: good or outstanding ( dated slang )
So we see that the word righteous means that someone is behaving according to religous or moral code, someone who is living the way the Bible tells us to. The third meaning here is also important because rigtheousness is not always what you do, it is many times how you react to life itself.
Neither of those meanings is possible, or even worthy of having if it isn't from God. There is no pride, no excitement in being righteous to others, or to ourselves, we should strive to be righteous to God.
Paul reinterates this fact in Philippians 3:9 :
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
We should work hard to be found in him, not in ourselves. Our true identity should come from Christ, from being a Christian. Not from any man made, or man given rules. If we are rigtheous and living a life approved of God then the other rules and laws will be automatic for us. Real, true righteousness comes from our faith, and our personal relationship with God. It can be found no where else. Not from following the rules, not from living right but from living for God.
The original form of the word righteous is compiled of early words for right and wise. So if we are wanting to be righteous we should be working hard to be right and wise in God's eyes. Then and only then will we find its true meaning.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Getting out of the boat

I shared with you a fishing story the other day, and well, this story today has nothing to do with fishing. It has everything to do with life and where you are in your walk with Christ.
As a young boy I was brought up in a Christian home and taught to trust in God. My parents had taken me to church from the time I was old enough to go.I don't ever remember a time in my life when we weren't in church. I grew and then felt called into the ministry as a teenager and began to pursue God in a whole new way. I started understanding my favorite verse Psalm 37:4 in a whole new way. I also started focusing on what God wanted for my life and what He was doing in my life.
But it hasn't always been that way. There have been times where I was working so hard, and doing so much(so I thought) that I was forgetting to pursue God. Sure I was working for the church, sure I was reaching out to teenagers and sharing the Gospel with teens, but I wasn't pursuing God first and formost.
I found myself in slumps from time to time. Yes, just as a baseball player goes through a slump, Pastors and especially Youth Pastors can go through the same slumps. For the athlete it is usually either in their mind, or they have picked up some type of bad habits. For me, I had lost my focus. I was so overwhelmed by the atmosphere, and so trying to overcome the negatives, and so wrapped up in ministry that I wasn't focused on God. I wasn't keeping my eyes on him.
Matthew 14:29-30 "Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!'"
And when those slumps came, just like Peter I would look around, feel the storm and get scared. I would cry out to God to help me, to get me out when in reality all I needed to do was refocus on Him. If I had never lost my focus, then I would have never realized all the things that were going on in my life. If I had remained focused on Christ, and my relationship with Him, and serving Him, I would not have even noticed if I was sinking or soaring.
So, remember to focus on God, let Him power your days and all of your endeavors and the waters will feel still, and the storms won't phase you at all.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome weekend!

Relationships

I am going to be speaking to the baseball team at Bartram Trails in about 1 hour. I am going there as a Pastor who works for the Betty Griffin House and that is awesome. Usually I go to schools and speak to different groups about the Betty Griffin House and the things that a Community Educator covers such as: bullying, respect, violence, and healthy relationships. But today, I am going to do those things and cover them in a Biblical manner. It's exciting when I can be a Pastor in the context of this job, no doubt.
I want you to think about the world and how we treat our teenagers and young boys. As a child boys cry much more than girls and are usually more sensitive than girls. But, as they grow they are taught it has to be the other way around. The world teaches them to be tough, dominating, powerful, wealthy and athletic. The way God lays it out for us we should be sharing in relationships. Life is all about relationships and how you make each relationship better should be how you measure success. Think about it, the only way we can truly succeed in worldly ways is to build the best relationships we can.
Where does this thinking come from? The Ten Commandments, think about it the first 4 commandments deal with God. They deal with us building a relationship and keeping a healthy relationship with GOd. THe next 6 commandments have to deal with cultivating right relationships with others.
When he was confronted by a teacher, they asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. He replied, "TO love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself."
Think about those words, it's all about relationships. Throw away monetary success, success with the ladies, and athletic prowess. We need to teach young men about relationships with others, that is how GOd put us together, to live and function in healthy relationships.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

The anchor

Most anyone who knows me, knows what kind of fisherman I am. Anyone who has gone fishing with me will likely never forget it. It's a one of a kind experience when you go fishing with me. I am probably the only person who exaggarates my fishing stories in the wrong direction, as in the negativity of the experience grows each time I tell the story.
I even once went fishing with Luke Cooksey in the lake behind his house. Luke was about 10 years old at the time. Jordon, Justin, Luke and I went out on Luke's little boat with a troll motor and cruised the lake. When we got to a spot everyone started fishing. I watched as Jordon caught a few, Justin caught one and Luke caught several. Still, I was waiting for my line to even move. I came up with a plan, a Jeff-proof plan that would work for sure. I took Luke's pole shortly after he cast it out into the water, stood right in his spot where he had caught several fish and started fishing. Low and behold just a few minutes later Luke had reeled in a fish from my spot with my pole and my bait.
ANother time I went fishing we went out in intercoastal, I went with a close friend Davy CLine and we took his dad's boat out. We caught a nice sun burn, and some type of an eel that we had never seen before. But that's only a small portion of the story. We loaded the boat and even and extra tank of gas and filled it up. We rushed off to a boat ramp in St. Augustine South and then hit the seas. We cruised around back behind the 312 bridge and found ourselves a spot to fish when we realized we had forgotten the spare gas tank. We soon after that ran out of gas as we tried to make it back in. We had 1 paddle and I ended up snapping it in half(genious I know) trying to push the boat off of some marsh. The tide was going out so if anything else could go wrong I couldn't imagine it. We ended up taking extra rope from the boat and tying it all together and I was throwing the anchor over the front of the boat and pulling ourselves along like that until we made it in to a small little marina where we could make a phone call and have Davy's dad get his truck and come pick us up.
Now, that is not your usual use for an anchor. The anchor is the sign of strength and stability, it is that one part of the boat besides life jackets that brings safety and stability. It is the one part of the boat that even I couldn't make not work, and that is saying a lot.
When a ship is out to sea no matter how small or how large, the anchor is always proportional to the size of the ship. Big ship, big anchor; small ship smaller anchor(thank goodness).
As believers we have an anchor, and no matter what size the storm in your life, no matter how huge your problems seem our anchor is God, and it is grounded in our faith. And that anchor will always hold no matter what.
Hebrews 6:18-19 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
Our hope, our anchor is not superficial like many things of this world. It cuts straight down to the soul. Our hope is in God, who sent His Son as a Savior to take away all fears in our lives, and bring peace to not our minds, or our hearts, but our very souls. So when life gets rough, just remember who your anchor is and remember you can weather anything this world throws your way.
Thanks for reading and have a great day.

One missing ingredient

In today's churches there is talk about evangelism, about winning the lost, about reaching those who are unchurched but many times the people listening miss out on one key ingredient. Urgency.
If there is one thing I have grown to notice in all my work in high school sports. From my days as an athlete myself, to my times at Pedro with varsity football and my coaching times at St. Augustine High I have learned several things. But one thing I still try my best to learn is how to instill urgency.
For instance, just last night we played a district tournament game. It's a single elimination game where we win we play again, we lose, we go home. Well you can imagine that the urgency is there from the moment the girls start warming up. They are focused, stretching and throwing. They remain focused in the batting cages and on their way to the field. They even stayed focused during pre-game warm-ups and infield practice. Then the game started and we saw some good innings and then some not so good innings. We saw some great at-bats and some notso great at-bats. BUt, one thing became very apparent as the game went on and that is the fact that we were going to lose.
Here's what I witnessed, the seniors were playing as if they were fighting for their lives. The Juniors and underclassmen were playing a game. The urgency came from realizing that it may all end right there that night, at that game. And it did, we lost 9 - 3 and the seniors felt the reality of all their hard work, all their dedication slipping away slowly as the game progressed.
Why can't they play like that in the first inning of the first game? Why can't they perform that way all the way through? I don't know the answer to that, but I can say it is much like our evengelism movements in the church today. We don't feel the sense of urgency, especially in the lives of our young people.
JOhn 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
There's the battle tested most memorized verse in teh Bible. We know it, we share it but do we really look at that one word. "perish", we don't and we wait until those we care for, those we love are closer and closer to perishing before the reality of death pushes us to a sense of urgency. We need urgency more than ever in today's society. Young people get wrapped up in all sorts of worldly things that taint and make it tougher and tougher to reach them.
Every day we don't spend reaching the ones we love, they are slipping farther and farther away from God's grace.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

confessions of a Pastor

I knew that title would draw your attention, and get you salivating at the mouth. Looking for a chance to hear some juicy confession os some deep dark secret that I struggle with, well, sorry it's not going to be quite that great.
I'm not saying we have done anywhere close to a great job of raising our children. As a matter of fact there are times when people probably think P.J. is raised by monkeys or a pack of wolves or such. Believe it or not she is growing into exactly what I had hoped for, things are going just as planned, but today I want to tell you about Alexa, not so much to brag but to show you haw she keeps us in check.
With the gift of an ipod for Christmas from my parents and the lack of reasons to buy a new cd right now I listen to the radio when I forget my Ipod.
Well, Saturday I forgot my Ipod going to the races and Alexa rode along with me. It was just the two of us she sat in the back of the Suburban where she could do a puzzle and stretch out and read. I was driving and it all started out good listening to a Christian radio station, until about the other side of Green Cove Springs. After that point there is no Christian radio station that can be picked up so I just let the scanner take over. I just scan around and listen to whatever on the way to the races, and really I was more in thought than listening anyway. Then, a voice from the back says, "Daddy, why are we listening to this music?" I was caught completely off guard and had little or no answer, "Because I can't get the Christian stations any more."
Then she climbed over the seat grabbed the cd holder that Tara has and picks out a cd for us to listen to.
Proverbs 16:6
Train a child in the way he should go,and when he is old he will not turn from it.
There you go, Christian music is so much a part of Alexa's life that she won't settle for listening to anything else. I'm sure at some point I may be blogging about my struggles to get her to listen to Christian music, but for right now I am praying daily for her continued influence on me.
Train them up, saturate them in what is good, soak their ears with the Word and Christian music and hope that they will never stray from it.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

The disciples' brand

So if we played word association with names of disciples I think most of us would come up with different descriptions for different ones. Just like we did with brand names yesterday I want us to think about the brands and what comes to mind when I say certain disciples or Biblical character's names. If I said Moses, it would be leader, strong leader, true leader. If I said David it could be anything from annointed, to Giant slayer, to King, to adulterer. If I said Abraham it would most likely be father because of the song more so than the BIble unfortunately. If I said, Peter some of us would say faith, strong, but most likely many would remember the denial and say coward or chicken. If I said Judas, it would most likely be betrayal. If I said James and John we would come up with Sons of Thunder. If I said Thomas it would be doubter. I think one important thing to remember is that we are all characterized in one way or another and many times it is for our actions in one specific moment.
Let's talk a little bit more at length about Thomas. He is called doubting Thomas, simply because he wanted to solidify His faith. Isn't that why we go to church, why we pray and why we read our Bibles. We are constantly hungering for more and more of God's Truth and that is all he wanted.
When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter.
Unfortunately, history has remembered him for this scene where the resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem. Thomas was not present and when he heard about the event he refused to believe it. Maybe he was the forerunner of modern day cynicism. Maybe the news simply sounded too good to be true. Thomas said: Unless I feel the nail prints in his hands I will not believe.
Now I cannot help but notice that Thomas has separated himself from the disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the resurrection appearance. I think that John is suggesting to us that Christ appears most often within the community of believers that we call the church, and when we separate ourselves from the church we take a chance on missing his unique presence.
So spend more time in church, and more time with other believers. Make sure you spend that time with Christ on the forefront so that others will get a good perception of you and your brand. Doubting Thomas was simply wanting truth, don't we all? I ask you again, what does your brand stand for?
Thanks for reading and have an awesome weekend!

The brand

I did a little exercise with the youth group about 3 weeks ago. We sat down and traced out our hands. I had them write their name in the middle of one hand and told them that was going to be their "brand name." Then I gave them another sheet of paper and they cut out their hand a second time and wrote on each finger things they wanted to characterize their "brand."
When you see Golden Arches you think of McDonalds but also probably one particular food or taste comes to mind. When I see certain university symbols or mascots on cars it makes me think of either good or bad depending on the brand. When I see a 24 somewhere I think of JEff Gordon, but I also think good thoughts simply because he is my favorite driver, by now I'm sure you get the point. It goes on and on, Nike swoosh, Pizza Hut roof, Domino's domino, Burger King crown. You don't think of the particular place, you think of your thoughts of the place.
What do people think of when they think of your brand, when they see your name, when they hear your voice? More importantly what do they think of when they hear your church's name, or see your church? Those are thoughts that puzzle me all the time. When I started out at Freedom I wanted our brand to be love. A place where you are loved unconditionally, a come just as you are atmosphere. The broken, the down, the poor, the hurting all equally loved as Christ would. I base that idea on this one verse:
1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
I could have made a mission statement that spoke it, I could have written it in our bulletin heading every week. Or I could simply teach people to do it and act it out. According to this verse the latter is the best way to handle it and that is the plan.
So think about your brand, your church's brand and what people think of. Hopefully it is the love of Christ shown through your actions.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Isaiah 53

Have you ever met someone who thinks they know things? I mean, they really, truly think they know what is going to happen in the future. They'll tell you who's going to win a game, who's going to get kicked off your favorite show, what's going to happen next when watching a movie for the first time. They do these things, but you never hear them do it in the past tense. As if it has already happened. But, the Bible prophecies about Christ are just like that.
This chapter Isaiah 53 has so much in it, so much info, so much truth and yet it was written hundreds of years before Christ appeared on earth. The interesting thing is the way it is written.
Who has believed our mssage and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and afamiliar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Every bit of that was written in a way that Isaiah knew how it would go, how it would all end hundreds of years before it happened. That is the power of the Word of GOd, that is the power of vision when you are tuned in to God. If you will tune yourself to God, and keep that clear connection in your daily life, He will reveal to you more and more of His plan for your life. And you too, will speak in the past tense of things that have yet to happen.
Thanks for reading and have a Happy Easter!

jeff

Love still coming out on top

Ask anyone who has experienced a major economic crisis in their life and they will tell you that love got them through it. You can lose everything you own, give up everything that you enjoy, and so long as you have love you will endure it.
Love is completely different from lust. Lust is a growing feeling that drives us from the inside, so does love. Lust however, focuses on us and our feelings and seldom looks to the other person or outside of ourselves. When love is present it is completely unselfish. This kind of love does go against our natural human inclinations and against our basic composition. But, God made you in His image and He is love.
1 Corinthians 13:6-8 "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails, But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."
I love first of all the fact that Paul uses always in his descriptions of love. Always leaves no room for error, no chance at a let down. True love whether in a relationship, for your parents, your children or others will follow the word always.
Paul goes on to show us that all other natural emotions, and all other things that we possess can be taken away from us, and even drained from us: but not love.
Love will never die, it will never be taken away from you. You can lose your knowledge, all your possessions but love will always be so long as you have a personal relationship with God. He is love, therefore the relationship with Him will always be based on love.
So enjoy love, and find comfort in the fact that it will never die.
Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Where does love come from?

Every attribute that our children have comes from somewhere. My two little girls are extremely competitive. They race to get done eating sometimes, they race on their bikes, their scooters, running, whatever there is going on you can bet it will become some type of competition. P.J. even gets majorly fired up playing a simple game of Uno. She doesn't seem to mind when I beat her, or Tara but if Alexa beats her she is intense. We have even had to sit her down and talk to her about throwing things after she loses(remember she's 5).
Unfortunately I have to take the blame for most of that, I seldom threw anything but I never have liked losing. From baseball, to church softball, to racing, to a pick up basketball game I hate to lose. I have passed that on, they got that from me both genetically and from watching me in competition.
Well, as human beings where does love come from?
1 John 4:7-9 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how GOd showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into teh world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, btu that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
We talked about the basics yesterday of faith, hope and love. We also mentioned that Paul said that love was the greatest of them. Now, we see that we have recieved the attribute of love from our Heavenly Father. Just like our kids pick up things from us, we got love from God. He first loved us, and He loved us first because He loved us from the beginning of creation. He loved us and had a plan for His Son to die on a cross before Adam and Eve were even in existence. That is so cool, to know that God loved us that long ago.
So remember, love comes from God so love like He would.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

The basics

So as we all know by now I am enjoying tremendously my times as a softball coach. I am now working hard with Alexa(or she's working hard with me I'm not sure) to help her get ready to play softball this fall. She seems to enjoy it, and even at the race track last Saturday night we had to go over and pitch some. She took a bucket of softballs and the gloves so that we could do that in our down time.
She really, really wants to pitch. Every day we do a few little drills and some pitches trying to make sure she has the fundementals down right. In highschool and college young athletes go through slumps. They go through times where they have a hard time hitting the ball, fielding or throwing. They all deal with these things but the one thing that great ball players always exemplify is good mechanics. They do things correct all the time and when things get really bad, they still do things right. In a pinch, those basic mechanics are all that endures the rough times of sports.
It's the same way with us as Christians. There are basics that we do like pray, read our Bibles and go to church. THere are also basic attributes that will rise to the surface when times get tough. Faith, hope and love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. BUt the greatest of these is love."
Love is by far the greatest of all human qualities and it is an attribute we get from God Himself. Love involves unselfish service to others; to show it gives evidence that you care. Faith is the foundation and content of God's message; hpe is the attitude and focus; love is the action. When faith and hope are in line, you are free to love completely because you fully understand how God loves first.
So when the chips get down, and times are tough we will still have our faith, that will produce in our hearts the hope that Christ brought us and to put those two to work is love. Love is the acting out of our faith and hope in Jesus Christ.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

The credit check

So ask me about 15 years ago what credit is. I would tell you it's something that credit cards charge you to make money off of your purchases. That was all we knew wasn't it, we thought we knew how things worked and what made the world go round. Then, you drive a truck for about 10 years, decide it is time for a new one and go try to make a purchase. They pull your credit report, they scan it then they pull all 3 scores. Then you find out if they award your interest rate based on your beacon score, your lowest score or the average. Then, you start to sweat a little because you remember that time you missed a payment on something, or that credit card you allowed to get too close to the limit and you are currently trying to pay it down. I've beent here, this was me in 2000 buying the truck I now drive.
The credit check was something I didn't fully understand, and now I get it. Basically you are on trial for every purchase and every business transaction you have made for the past few years, the judge is the bank, and the jury is all of your past debts.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
That is music to my ears, I don't know about you. I am so glad that I don't have to stand trial, or even go through a credit check with God to accept His free gift of salvation. If I did, I would do more than sweat. Think about it, if every thing you had done wrong in just the past year was on a report the day you decided to accept Christ, and He was looking down it and adding up your "sin credit report." You would walk away before the verdict even came out. Knowing there was no way you could be saved.
But the Good News is that it doesn't work that way, and God shows us His love in the fact the Easter happened, Jesus God's own Son died on a cross without a trial, or even so much as a credit check. Why, because God knows we could never, ever measure up to that.
That is love, true love, a God sending a Savior to a sinner such as I am.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. I am speaking at Super Dads at Southwoods Elementary early tomorrow and then working Field Day so I probably won't have time to update the blog, have a great weekend. And make sure you're in God's house somewhere on Palm Sunday!

With Palm Sunday coming

I use this illustration to get the point accross of how we are to be more like the donkey in the picture. Unfortunately this story of the donkey's struggles will be much like what we struggle with. We forget our place some times as God's creation and feel like we are far more than we are.

The donkey awakened, his mind still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride.
He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” he thought.
But they didn’t notice him. They went on drawing their water and paid him no mind.
“Throw your garments down,” he said crossly. “Don’t you know who I am?”
They just looked at him in amazement. Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move.
“Miserable heathens!” he muttered to himself. “I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.”
But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the market place.
“The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!” he shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!”
Hurt and confused, the donkey returned home to his mother.
“Foolish child,” she said gently. “Don’t you realize that without Him, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
Just like the donkey who carried Jesus in Jerusalem, we are most fulfilled when we are in the service of Jesus Christ. Without him, all our best efforts are like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. When we lift up Christ, however, we are no longer ordinary people, but key players in God’s plan to redeem the word.
So remember your place, remember whose you are, and let His light shine through you in the Easter season!
Thanks for reading and have a great Hump Day!