blown away again!

The score for my life is pretty much God 1 million me zero but this is getting to be interesting. Yesterday I shared with you how I had planned to cute up the house with my puffer fish purchase. I was so proud they are the cutest little things you ever saw, then God drops the boom on us with baby guinea pigs. Well, I had put together this series on leadership where we have addressed more of the weaknesses that stop us from becoming the leaders' God wants us to be. Well, I had the third lesson which was to be last night all prepared, I got out of softball practice a little bit late then had to rush to make my pick ups for a few kids without rides to church. I get them all picked up and rush to the church. We had the projector mounted on the ceiling so Jordon, Donnie and I were going to finish up getting it all working for Sunday morning. I got there, we moved the projector around to get the best picture and I climbed up into the attic for a little bit of drilling. It turned out to take a lot of drilling, and I was up there for quite a while in the heat sweating with insulation all around me. I could not drill through the spot I wanted to so I had to move it a bit. I got it all drilled out(after burning up two batteries) and while I was up there something was hitting me. I was thinking about another scripture that went even better with what I had already prepared. I walked into you a few minutes late after drying off and getting my thoughts together and I started with a portion of my original text and spent the rest of the time on the text that God had given me in the church attic while straining and fighting to drill through some ceiling studds. We also did not have the stuff to do the game I wanted because someone had moved all of it and I could not find my game.
So all in all it was a great night of ministry,no thanks to me. A great example of how it's all about God and not all about me! God is good, God is in control, and the more of these experiences I have the less of me you will see!
Let God have those things you are doing, and he will blow you away with how much better things are when He is in complete control!
Thanks for reading and have a great spring break!

Making God laugh!

They say if you want to make God laugh tell Him your plans. I am a firm believer in this but God reminds me from time to time how true that statement is. I haven't told this story that publicly yet, but here goes. At the age of 18 I was sitting in Tara's parents' house with her mom and dad eating dinner. After dinner Tara and I were sitting on the couch while her parents were doing the dishes and I told her I had narrowed my life down to 2 choices. I was either going to take my savings and go to a Pro Stock driving school and try to get into NHRA drag racing or I was going to go talk to the baseball coaches again at St. Johns and let them know I wanted to play even though I had told them I didn't. We decided both were good ideas. I prayed about it all that night, and laid in bed telling God what my desires were. God these are the two passions in life You have given me help me decide which one, was pretty much my attitude in the whole matter.
Exactly one week later I found myself packing to go work at a camp for Todd Carr in Lake Yale. It was a youth camp and I was kind of a last minute addition to the trip and I was one of the group leaders. I loved being involved in youth ministry all my life, so it was a good opportunity for me. I went to the camp and after 3 days of camp I was burning up with a whole new passion. On the fourth night there was no doubt GOd was calling me into the full-time ministry. I had forgotten all about the Pro Stock driving school I had applied to, and about college baseball. I was supposed to call both schools that wednesday and here it was Thursday and I hadn't called either. I called Tara and asked her if she could see herself married to a youth minister, and she said yes. I wasn't proposing(though the meathead I was rooming with thought so), I was letting her know plans had changed.
Just yesterday, God laughed at me again. We love animals and critters of all kinds. It had been quite a while since we had made any additions as far as fish, or turtles or guinea pigs went. So, I went to the new Pet Supermarket and found the cutest, coolest little freshwater fish I had ever seen. They were fresh water puffer fish. They are fat, with leapard spots all over them and their fins are tiny. They are by far the coolest things I have ever seen! I bought them and took them to the house showed the kids and immediately P.J. wanted one for her aquarium. We'll discuss this later I told her.
This morning I went through the house, put dog food in Champ(the basset hound and also my pet)'s bowl, and water in his dish. THen, I fed the turtle in the outside pond and the fish in there with him. Then I fed all the fish in the big tank in our living room. I then went to wake up P.J., then Alexa and feed the guinea pigs which are in a cage in Alexa's room. I walked over and put water in the water bottle and went to get food. When I got in the hallway I realized there was something in their little hut. You guessed it, there were 3 baby guinea pigs in there! One of our guinea pigs is clearly not a female haha!
What does that have to do with things? Well, last night I had brought home the cutest little things in the house, my puffer fish were all the talk. We went to sleep, woke up and guinea pigs will be all they talk about for a long time now. GOd's work is always better than our plans!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

palm sunday(behind the scenes)

My mom buys a lot of DVD movies and she loves to look at the bonus features. She likes to get movies like Blackhawk down, Pearl Harbor, Titanic and buy the set so that she can see how the movie was made. Many times those movies have interviews with people who were actually a part of the story in real life. She also likes to see all of the special effects, the director's interview and the likes.
Well, much like those bonus features a sermon is in effect a pastor's attempt at giving you bonus features to a scripture passage. We take that passage, look at every detail we can, dig out every commentary we have, look at the context and the original text and find every thing we can. Then, we put it into an outline form and present it to the church. We have to look at things like characters, people in the background of the passage, where the setting is and how the story goes with what is going on in that particular group. Then, we take all those things and make it relevant to today's believer. I am no director, no screen writer or producer and I thank GOd for it, but there are those small similarities.
In the Palm Sunday story there are a lot of things going on. I like to look at the donkey, which represents beleivers all over. Jesus does not need that donkey, but he rode it as a sign of peace. That donkey rode into town to branches on the rode, cheering and celebrating much like we experience when we accomplish things for God. That donkey could have very easily taken the glory, and may have we don't know, but as believers we are to simply be vessels for God, carrying Him along in the journey to reach our community for CHrist.
Then, we have the disciples who went and got the donkey, they went straight to where Jesus sent them and did as he said. I think an interview with them could show one of two things. ONe, they were probably puzzled and concerned as to whether they would find the colt, or even be able to get the owners to let them use it. Much discussion along the travel must have come up. Also, on the other hand they may have been so in tune to Jesus and believed so strongly in him that they just took off immediately for the donkey in question. Either way, they did what He asked which is many times our problem as believers.
Matthew 21 tells us that they went immediatley and got the donkey. These are the exact type of followers Jesus needs today. They were committed to the situation and they went right where they were told, and did exactly as they were told. Today so many believers are sitting back, skeptical and unsure of themselves and the things going on around them. We must get past this all, and do what God is calling us to do. The triumphal entry would have been much different had the disciples not done as they were told. Prophecy from the Old Testament would have been void and so much would have changed. The imagery would not have been the same, the situation would have changed.
So much is riding on you doing what God is calling you to do in your church, and with your life. There are a lot of people that God has placed in your life that are totally dependent on you going and doing for GOd what He is calling you to do.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

morning warm up

There are so many things that are so important to student athletes. They have rituals and things that they do each day before practices and before games. There is a time of stretching, and preparing each muscle for competition that day. They stretch everything from their calves and achilles all the way up to their shoulders and neck. Each part must be properly stretched to avoid injury, but also to prepare them for the next few hours of movement.
As Christians we should prepare our hearts and minds for each day. We should go through a "warm up" period each morning getting ourselves ready for the day. We all know that Romans tells us to renew our minds daily, and I believe the best time of the day for this is in the early morning. Each person is different, but I just don't think I can face any part of my day without some quiet time in God's presence. I will admit that there are days where I need a double dose and squeeze in some alone time with God around lunch time or in the afternoon between work and softball practice. We need to see the importance of preparing our minds for the day. We will no doubt face obstacles to our faith, things that can trigger old sins, things that can set off our tempers or even things that can become huge stumbling blocks and unless we ask GOd to guard, guide and direct us for the day we will falter.
Psalm 143:8 "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. how me the way I should go, for you I lift up my soul."
Can't you just see David's desparation, it's not the kind of desparation we go to God with. Like when we are about to get news from a doctor, have a medical procedure done or take a test at school. No, David is desparate for God to guide his day and to experience God's love all over again. The morning is a time where we can be most close to God because we have recently experienced our most humble moments of the day, sleep. That's right when we sleep we are no longer thinking we are in charge. We aren't controlling our breathing, our thoughts, or even our movements for teh most part, everything done in your sleep is subconscience at work. THat is when we are most humble and most under God's leading.
This is another reason why we should start our day off seeking God. At work, school or play we have pride issues that make us think we are in control. At sleep, we are completely out of control.
So step it up, spend time alone with God each morning and ask HIm to guide and direct your day. Start it out seeking Him, and follow Him through the day, the week and your life!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Fighting fears

Have you ever met someone who seems to just walk around afraid? They think everything is going to have a negative ending and just not work out. They are afraid of the outcome of everything from their health to their children's safety and so on. It's not necessarily anxiety but it definitely brings it on. Fear can damage so much of what God is seeking to do with us through our lives. We can let fear in, let it make itself comfortable and next thing you know it is ruling our lives.
Fear can cause a lot of damage it can even make you lose your enthusiasm for life itself. If you go through life afraid of dying or how you are going to die you will not be very enthusiastic about how you spend your time. A team that is afraid to lose will not be fired up about winning at all.
Fear can also make us have unfocused thoughts. If you are fearful, you see the ending you fear in all that you do, again robbing you of your enthusiasm. Eventually fear can and will destroy your intimacy with God. If you keep on with your Christian lifestyle the majority of your interaction with God will be just to pray for safety and health instead of your faith growing it will falter.
Fear can paralyze us to the point of very unproductive lives especially as believers. God doesn't want us to fear and His peace is there for us if we will simply trust in Him and His peace we will find it. God's peace is far beyond what the world offers by way of peace.
Think of David, he stepped out and killed a giant that had an entire nation paralyzed with fear. This world needs more Davids, more people so full of faith that they are taking on the things that this world cannot face, the very things that others are fearing can be conquered through you, with God.
Face your fears, conquer them with God's strength and take your life back it is very liberating. Tara and I went into foreclosure about 6 months ago. I was innitially scared to death of the process, then we took on some loan modification papers and pretty soon I don't care how it works out. We are doing all we can to save our house, to keep our house but it is up to God how it all ends and I am okay with that. I went from being scared every day that it would be snatched up from under us to only thinking about it on payday and that is simply so that I will remember to fax our paystubs to the mortgage company. That is God taking over that fear and replacing it with His peace.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

the church is a farm and a building?!?!

As our church family works through the book of 1 Corinthians it is fun to look at the imagery that Paul used to explain the church building process to the people in Corinth. FIrst, he says it is a farm, a field that is planted by one type of leader, watered by another but only GOd can make it grow.
This is so true, we invent programs, styles and systems designed to aid in church growth. We see them work somewhat or maybe even see a great increase in numbers and immediately we think that we have done something special. Or, many well planned out well put together programs simply flop. They don't ever gain any momentum or spur any church growth at all, and it is all because of Christ. If we don't realize where the center should be and where the growth comes from we will never see it!
Then, Paul lays out the church as a building. He is not talking about the church building itself but using this illustration to show us how we are to align every piece of church work with it's foundaton, Jesus Christ. If Jesus is the foundaton then we need to make sure each and every piece aligns with that foundaton or else we are just building a building that will topple at the first sign of any fight or fire of any sort. If the church is built with Christ as the foundation and every piece added to that foundaton is in line with Christ then the church will continue not only to grow but to stand up to opposition. Divisions come about when the things we are building on top of Christ our foundation don't line up.
For a church to grow God must be teh center, for a church to stand firm it must have Christ as it's foundation. And in order for the church to be healthy each building material must be part of God's plan for the church.
1 Corinthians 3:9 For you are fellow workers in God's field, God's building.
We wouldn't pour an awesome slab of concrete and start work on a grass hut, but in a sense that is what we do when building churches today. We also wouldn't build a concrete block building solid as a rock on a puddle of mud.
Christ must be our first piece, our true foundation as a church and everything we add to the church must have God at the center of it or we are setting ourselves up for disaster!
Thanks for reading and ahve a great day!

The joy of integrity

I hear from so many people, especially working in youth ministry how bad they feel when they react to some situation the wrong way. I tell them all the time life is 20% what happens to you and 80% how you react to it. It's sad but that is mostly true in all facets of life. We don't know what is going to happen today, tomorrow or next week only God knows those answers. So it is up to us to prepare ourselves as beleivers for the things that may occur in our lives each and every step of the way.
Those who I can counsel and sit down with I share things with them that I used to do. I shared with them the ways I have let my temper get the best of me in the past, and then I share with them how much better I feel when I just keep my mouth shut or atleast say the right things. I can tell you that there have been days playing softball with Alexa that she just isn't there, days where there is little or no effort even if it was her idea to play catch she just doesn't seem to be putting forth much effort. I get angry with those situations, and I lose my cool, I don't do anything bad but I let her know that I have lost my cool in some way and that affects her majorly at times. Then, there are days like last Sunday afternoon, she couldn't field a basic ground ball, couldn't make a decent throw to me to save her life and couldn't hit the ball well either. We would do one for a few then realize it wasn't going to be a good day and move on to the other. Instead of losing my cool, we would just walk away from it and find something else to do. Those are those little moments of integrity and right walking that fill you with a good feeling.
You feel the joy of your salvation each time you act or react in a godly fashion. There have been numerous times in my life where I reacted in the correct way and as I looked back on it, my heart was filled with a strange joy. It was the joy from acting out my salvation, and not being fleshly.
Psalm 119:1Blessed are the whose ways are blameless, who walk according to teh law of the Lord.
Salvation brings joy into your life, not a constant happpiness but joy. And joy overcomes all the other emotions when you live out your salvation. Blessed are those who walk blamelessly, who react in a christlike manner and who live according to God's ways. Blessed are we in our hearts and in our souls when we do things God's way, and that blessing is a warmth of joy from the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Depending on God

We all go through peaks and valleys in life as we grow older. We have all gone through some type of life stage where we felt like we were on top of the world at the peak of life. For some it is our business or possessions, for others it's a relationship or relationships, and still for others it is what it should be a personal relationship with CHrist. Then, we have those dark times, those periods of time where it seems like everything is turning constantly to gloom and doom. You know those days where you seemingly get out of bed wondering what will go wrong today, what's going to cave in on me today, we many times bring this on ourselves.
David was a person who went to both extremes, and there were several times where he was so far up on top that he sinned in a manner that would lead you to believe he had very little regard for God at all. Well, he also had his share of dark times and interestingly enough most of his dark times were following a great sin in his life. He distanced himself from God at times and sought out no reconciliation for it.
"David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, 'I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.'" - 2 Samuel 24:10
David would many times realize his sin, sometimes the guilt overcame him so that he went immediately to God in prayer. He cried out numerous times for God's forgiveness and for God's guilt erasing. That is the key to forgiviness.
Many times we ask God to forgive us, but we don't forgive ourselves. We walk away with guilt for months or sometimes years over a sin that we were forgiven by God for. God doesn't want that for us, he wants us to come to Him for forgiveness and turn away from that thing that dragged us down and leave it right there. He doesn't want us dragging around a boat anchor or baggage that will affect the way we live and think.
There are so many times when I have sat down with believers and they are down because of a sin they have committed. They went to God for forgiveness but never looked in the mirror and gave forgiveness to themselves. David didn't pray for forgiveness he prayed for God to take away the guilt as well as the sin. Train yourself up to leave that sin behind, far behind or you will experience a dark period in your life and it will be completely constructed by you!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

I planted, he watered, God increased!

There are so many people who want glory these days. The glory hogs are all over the place, especially in the church. One thing goes well and you have people all over the place letting you know specifically what their role was in it. An awesome church service leaves everyone filled with God's presence and the power of the Holy SPirit and it gets watered down by man. Well, the music was awesome today some will say, teh sermon was what did it, still others are involved. The sound has to be right, the lights have to be on, someone probably cleaned the sanctuary that week, the ushers did their job well, the greeters were friendly and the whole service was put together by someone. This all means God was glorified by a team of people seeking GOd's presence in that service. And if it is executed correctly man will get absolutely no credit for any of it. It was a group or team of people put together by God in that place to orchestrate His will in that hour. That is all it was.
I have been a part of such ministries where one guy takes the credit for this, another takes the credit for that and then someone else thinks they deserve more credit that they got. All this is fixed the moment we give God all of the glory for what goes on in our churches and in our lives.
Big Daddy Weave sings a few songs that bring this point home.
The first one my all time favorite song: Audience of One, in this song he continually refers to the fact that the true servant of God is someone who seeks only GOd in his audience and if others listen, then they will truly catch a glimpse of GOd's glory.
The second song: It's not about me. In that song he states it's not about me, it's all about You! If people went to church making it about God instead of about man churches would explode with not only numerical growth but spiritual growth as well.
1 Corinthians 3:7 "So neither he who sows or he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow."
I think Paul says it all right there, get off your high horse all you preachers, all you worship leaders and see that the type of music, the quality of music and the preaching styles are rubbish! All that matters is that God is at the center of all that goes on, nothing else is important at all! It's not about you, it's not about your listening pleasure and it isn't even about your pastor, it's about God and His glory and when we realize that we will see churches explode in so many ways it will blow our little minds!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

get out of the shade

As a junior varsity softball coach in highschool there is one thing that we can never defeat and that is the sun. Junior varsity softball teams play at 5pm most of the time which means some part of your team will be looking straight into the sun. They all wear their stylish shades and some even wear eye black to shield themselves from the sun. The bottom line is there is just not much way to deal with it as it goes down and is right in your line of vision as you watch the batter. I often catch our players a few steps out of position and when I ask them why they are out of position they tell me it is because they were in the shade, they had found a place where a tree or light pole was shielding them from the sun. As Christians we have a lot of people who are currently standing in the shade, hidin from the SON.
These believers are straddling the fence and allowing worldliness to daily come into their lives rather than standing in the light that takes away all of the darkness.It's important that we stand in the light, Jesus calls us to not only be in the light but to be the light and we cannot do that if we are standing in the darkness all the time.
1 John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
There you have it, God is light and there can be no darkness found anywhere close to Him, ever! If we are walking with Him there is no room for the darkness, there is only light when we walk with HIm daily. We will still sin, still make mistakes, but we will not welcome the sin or embrace the sin as we did before. So embrace God daily, allow His light to overcome you and snatch you out of the darkness and out of the shadows to where you can be used by Him to light up your portion of this world.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome weekend!

the little victories bring the great triumphs

FInding maturity in any form is a tough route. In life we mature through constant growth, in sports athletes mature in the form of thousands of hours of practice and games, and in the spiritual sense we all grow through constant work and faithfulness to that work. You see we cannot grow into the mature Christians that we read about in the BIble, and we see in our local churches until we do the little things that spur us on to growth. Our growth is stunted or slowed by only one thing, pride. Every time we deny God and grab on to our fleshly wants we take a major step backwards spiritually.
Alexa is playing softball and basketball. We try to do something each day with it whether it is just taking about 75 swings, or throwing for about 20-30 minutes or shooting free throws and dribbling around the driveway. I am working hard to engrave in her mind that every day she doesn't get better is a step in the wrong direction. She is awesome about it, yesterday she was tired after school but she knows that Wednesday afternoon before girls' practice is often the only time we have to work at softball without any distractions. SO we pitched for a while, and she did good and told me she was tired and didn't really want to do it, but afterward she felt good about herself doing it when she didn't feel motivated to.
THese are the same things we fight off as Christians. Sometimes early in the morning we don't feel much like reading our Bibles, or a lunch time or at night. SOmetimes we just don't feel like going to a Bible study or church but we go and we do it by denying ourselves. That is where growth begins, by us denying ourselves and thinking of what God wants from us and for us during that time.
1 Corinthians 3:2 "I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not ready for it"
We cannot make the move from milk to solid food until we start denying ourselves and seeking God!
Amy Carmichael once penned these thoughts; Sometimes when we read the words of those who have been more than conquerors, we feel almost despondent. I feel that I shall never be like that. But they won through step by step little bits of wills, little denials of self, little inward victories won by faithfulness in little things. THey became what they are. No one sees these little hidden steps. THey only see the accomplishment, but even so, those small steps were taken. There is no sudden triumph no spiritual maturity, that is the work of the moment.
So if you are wanting to be more spiritually mature, to grow closer to God, take the first step by denying yourself and multiplying God's influences in your life.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

milk to solid food

Paul tried in some ways to insult as well as strengthen teh believers in Corinth by calling them babes in Christ. He told them they needed milk instead of solid food, they needed to get rid of the fleshly things the clung on to and grab on to solid food, the word of God.
1 Corinthians 3:2 "I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not ready for it"
So what is milk? what is solid food? And what digests it all?
First of all milk is the Gospel message, teh cross and Christ crucified. This is the most important piece to growth from baby to adult as a believer that we grasp the Gospel and it's message. Before we have hold of it we cannot move on to bigger and better things by any means.
Solid food is not something that takes a higher education or more intellect to understand. It is merely set up by our abiltiy to move on from our fleshly ways to God's ways. It is that moment that the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind our decisions and our actions instead of our own flesh.
All of this is digested by humility. THink about it, the one thing that makes us so fleshly and worldly is our human nature of wanting to think of me first. It's that decision that we make based on our fleshly needs over our spiritual needs. If you break it all down every sin we ever commit is fleshly, it's us chosing what we want for ourselves over what God wants for us. THen, the only thing that can take us from newborn babies in Christ to mature believers is a double dose of humility.
THink about every mistake you have made in your life, every one of them was born out of pride and selfishness, when GOd wants us to be full of humility and selflessness.
So take a humble pill each morning, throw off that flesh that makes you want and want and want for yourself, and pretty soon you will find yourself as a mature believer in CHrist.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

the change

I spent the day at a youth pastor's summit yesterday and it was pretty good. There were some key note speakers and some great names in church building and youth ministry alike. So as we sat in the Hard Rock Cafe listening I was thinking about the attitudes one speaker was adjusting. He talked about how at youth camp the last night they continually ask the kids, "If you were to die tonight, where would you end up?" or they tell stories of how there was a bus on its way home from camp and there were a few kids who didn't make decisions though they felt touched by God, the bus skidded off the road and well, we know where that is headed.
Yes it is true far too many churches and youth ministries prepare people to die, ask them what if they die tomorrow and so on. Well, my constant question is what if you don't die? What if you live? THese are questions that are just as important. Are we preparing young people to live as Christians, or just preparing them for the after life. Hopefully both, because preparation for one should prepare us for the other. Paul said it like this:
1 Corinthians 3:3 where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal...?
After we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we must continue to seek Him. And as we seek Him we will grow more and more Christlike until all of our carnality is gone, that is our worldliness.
Think about it this way, do you ever catch yourself in a situation and afterwards you can't beleive you handled it as well as you did? I do, I get in a situation and afterwards I think, man 15 years ago I would have decked him, or I would have done this or that. That, is God chasing the worldliness out of us and that is what God enjoys about our relationship with Him. Giving us a new mind that is vengence and resentment free is one of the perks of living for Christ.
So let Him in, let Him do His work on your life and be constantly amazed at how differently you handle life's situations.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!