Open Arms

Got Questions?- Part 4

2012-02-09T10:57:00.003-05:00

This week's question we covered at WNW was "What does the Bible say about war/conflict/arguing? We began the night with a worship set that was all David Crowder Songs as most of us are Crowder fans, and the fact that it was my wife's birthday and I knew she would enjoy it. The song list included "Here Is Our King", "Oh Happiness", "O Praise Him", and "SMS-Shine". After that we dove into the question, but I broke it into two sections: the first being "War" and the second "Conflict and Arguing".

When talking about war people said that the world is either for or against it. Some said that the media either makes it glorious or does not give the full picture. When we looked at what the Bible says, the first thing is that because there is sin in the world, war is inevitable- Romans 3:10. Since the moment sin entered into the world when Adam and Eve ate the fruit and disobeyed God, war became one of the repercussions of sin. While war is not great, it is sometimes necessary as we read in Ecclesiastes 3:8. God even ordered the Israelites to go at war with other nations at times- 1 Samuel 5:3. The Bible is clear that there will be war prior to Jesus' return (Matthew 24:6-8), the tribulation period will have wars (Revelation 6), and Jesus' second coming will be violent as He conquers evil (Revelation 19:11-21). As Christians we should never desire war, but we should also never oppose the government that God has placed in authority- Romans 13:1. One thing that some people who oppose the Bible will argue is that why would God allow war and even command it at times when one of the Ten Commandments reads "You shall not kill/murder"- Exodus 20:13? This commandment literally means intentional premeditated killing of another person with malice. This does not apply to war.

The second part of the message dealt with conflict and arguing. The students shared that the world views conflict and arguing as a way of life. We especially see that in regards to teenagers and their conflicts and arguing they do with their parents, siblings, and classmates. If you watch television much today it shows this as a normal way of life, which could not be farther from the truth. As we looked at what the Bible says, as with war, conflicts and arguments are a result of sin in the world. As I studied Scripture on this topic, two main sources and themes of conflict and arguments arose.
-Source of Conflict #1- The Tongue
James 3:5-12 teaches us the dangers of the tongue. The tongue is a fire that can spread quickly. We see this all the time as the words people use spread rapidly through gossip and through the world of social media. As it spreads it cause complete damage to those it consumes. Our words are dangerous and can have an everlasting affect on people. Ephesians 4:29 tells us to build each other up with our words instead of tearing people down. Often the words people use are aimed to tear someone down in order to build themselves up. This is completely against what God's Word commands us to do.
-Source of Conflict #2- Spiritual Immaturity
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 Paul is addressing the church at Corinth on one of the conflicts that was taking place. The source of this conflict and disagreement was the fact that they were spiritually immature. They were not growing in their faith. When we sit comfortably and decide to not grow in our relationship with Jesus, then we become a source of conflict in the midst of our selfishness and the inability to hold our tongue. If you are a person who is involved in a lot of conflict and arguing, then it is a good indicator that you are spiritually immature and need to mature in Jesus Christ.

As we closed the night I really challenged the students to understand the weight of their words. We will have to give an account before God on every word we speak- Matthew 12:36. It burdens me to see people tear others down with words. I breaks my heart for those who are beat down by people are simply cruel. My prayer for the students is that they would recognize how important this subject is and would seek to glorify God with every word that comes out of their mouths. I also challenged the students to understand that in any conflict that we may endure, vengeance is God's and we are to love those who oppose us- Romans 12:19-21. This is a very tough lesson, but as we mature spiritually is one that God grants us grace on.

Got Questions?- Part 3

2012-02-02T11:22:00.002-05:00

We picked back up on our Got Questions? series and was it a tough one. After tackling the tough question of "Can we change God's mind with our prayers?", we challenged the tough topic of "What does the Bible say about predestination?". After a song set which included "Every Move I Make", "Salvation is Here" (Hillsong United), "SMS-Shine" (David Crowder Band), and "Hosanna" (Hillsong United), we dove right into the topic. This was a topic that I had wanted to avoid for quite a while, but knew that it was necessary. I began by talking about how people view this on opposite ends of the spectrum, but it is not something to be divided over, debate, or argue. An example of that I used is that some baseball fans like the DH (Designated Hitter) rule, while I do not. Even though we may disagree on the DH rule, we can still sit and watch a baseball game together without being divided. We can disagree on this topic of predestination, but at the same time be friends and go on through life with the same purpose of following God.

Just as we did the previous time, we looked at some of the attributes of God.
God is Omniscient- God is all-knowing
-God has complete knowledge of what will happen. Isaiah 46:9-10
-God has complete knowledge of what could possibly happen. He knows all that is logically possible. Matthew 11:21-23
-God has knowledge of how people's lives would have been different if they had made different choices. 1 Samuel 13:13-14
-God's knowledge is not causative. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, but He did not cause them to sin. God knows every sin that you will ever commit, but He does not cause you to sin. It is against the nature of God. He does not force you to do anything (which I will talk about more in a minute).

-God is Sovereign- God has supreme authority
-Psalm 99:2; Psalm 113:4; Colossians 1:15-16
-God reigns and rules over all
-We were created for Him and to bring Him glory

Here is where is starts to get really interesting. Some people would believe that God's knowledge and sovereignty eliminate human's free will, the freedom to make choices. However I do not believe that this is true. I believe that we have freedom to make choices. There are hundreds of commands in the Bible for us to follow. If we did not have the freedom to make choices, then why would there be commandments to follow. Matthew 23:37, Deuteronomy 30:19, and Joshua 24:15 show examples of choices to make. We choose our actions without being forced by God. We are not forced to serve Him or love Him. It would not be true love if we were forced. However we are definitely held responsible for our choices as Jesus states in Matthew 12:36.

There are some things that cannot be ignored in the Bible. There are times that the words "elect"- Matthew 24:24, "chosen"- Ephesians 1:4, and "predestined"- Ephesians 1:5 are used in reference to those who are saved. Also the Holy Spirit must first draw you to Him in order to be saved- John 6:44. I believe this all to be true, and too vast for our finite human minds to completely grasp. However I do believe that salvation is for everyone who will accept Jesus as their Savior- 1 John 2:1-2; John 3:16. I also believe that God wants everyone to be saved- 2 Peter 3:9. But at the same time we know that not everyone will be saved and that many will reject Him- Matthew 7:13-14.

Here is the truth of the matter. I know many people who will agree with me on all of this, and many who will disagree with me. However I believe that is not to be a divisive point among people. The truth is clear in the fact that you cannot ignore what the Bible says about how to be saved. You must know that you are a sinner Romans 3:23 and that your sin leads to death Romans 6:23 and that Jesus has come to give the free gift of eternal life. If you believe and confess Jesus as Lord you can be saved Romans 10:9. The Bible is very clear on how to be saved and is very clear that our role as Christians is evangelize and make disciples. The main thing to remember is that you have a choice to make in whether or not you will follow Jesus Christ and make Him your Savior and Lord.

This was a tough topic to cover and like I said I know that many have many different views. However I want to challenge you to not let this be a dividing point in your life. Know where you stand, and follow Jesus regardless. The best thing about this night is that while we were driving home a student called me. She called to tell me that she had been struggling with her salvation and had got it settled. She had talked to her parents after getting home and then prayed to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She was excited to get this settled and about what God has in store for her future. I am so thankful that God was glorified through this tough message!

MFUGE 2012 Promo Night

2012-01-26T09:53:00.000-05:00

This week at Wednesday Night Worship we had a night that focused on our summer camp for 2012. We will be going to MFUGE in North Greenville University June 4-9. We began the night with a worship set that included: Tell The World (Hillsong United), Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman), Sweetly Broken (Jeremy Riddle), and Son of God (Starfield). Throughout the night we showed several videos about MFUGE. We showed last year's video of us, a promotional video, and one of student testimonies. Two of our seniors, Kaite and Mitchell, shared their experiences at MFUGE and how God has shaped their lives through their experiences at camp. I talked about the theme for this year which is "The Pursuit". The theme verse is Ephesians 1:22 "And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church." The life questions that will be looked at during the week are "Does Christ have complete authority over your life?" and "What evidence exists that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life?". This is going to be an intense week as we search our hearts in this manner. I talked about the track options which include: Children's Ministry; Social Ministry; Painting, Construction, and Yard Work Ministry; Creative Ministry; Games and Recreation Ministry; and brand new this year Evangelism Ministry. I believe this is going to be an incredible week. The deadline to turn in registration forms and the $50 deposit is this Sunday January 29th.

Got Questions?- Part 2

2012-01-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

We continued our Got Questions? series this week at Wednesday Night Worship, and it was really a great night. We covered a tough topic but it went really well and I give God all the glory. We began the night with a really sweet time of worship that included the songs "Hosanna-Praise is Rising (Baloche/Brown), My Glorious (Delirious), Starry Night (Chris August), and Our God (Chris Tomlin). Afterward we dove right in and got a great response from the students.

The question for the night that we had drawn out of the box the previous week was "Can we change God's mind with our prayer?". This is definitely a tough question to handle and people fall on both ends of the spectrum. We went through our 4 questions in order to grasp a rounded view then determine a solid Biblical answer.

What does the world say?
Most everyone agreed that the world in general believes that the answer to this question is yes. It was even discussed that people believe that if they complete their checklist of doing good deeds for God that He will honor their requests.

What do we think?
I asked the students if this is a question they had ever asked and what was their first general thoughts. They were split in half on who had considered this before and who had not. Some good discussion began that showed that us that we can have our own opinions, but must dig deep into the Bible to determine a solid view.

What does the Bible say?
In order to determine an answer we looked at several attributes of God in order to get a small understand of His nature.
1) God is Immutable- This means that God is unchanging (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17). God's character and nature always remain the same. All change of character implies imperfection. To say that God changes means that He was imperfect before and that the change is for the better. God cannot change for the better because He is already perfect.
2) God is Righteous- This means that God always does what is right (Psalm 119:142). Included in this is the fact that God always answers our prayers the right way, maybe just not always the way we want.
3) God is Omnipotent- This means that God is all-powerful (Matthew 19:26). No person or thing can control God (Daniel 4:35). He always does according to His will and not our own. God is under no obligation to anyone (Romans 9:15-16).
4) God is Omniscient- This means that God is all-knowing (Psalm 147:5, Psalm 139:4-6). God knows everything about us. He knows what choices we will make in life, but He also knows all possible outcomes of any of our choices. This does not mean that God's foreknowledge is causative. There is no denial in free-will.
5) God does not repent (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29)- The word repent means to change your mind, turn away from sin. First of all, since God cannot sin, there is no need for Him to ever repent. But when we look at this subject and the question of whether or not we can change God's mind with our prayers, some people say that the Bible has contradictions which is completely untrue. If we first look at Exodus 32:14 as one example, it appears that the prayer of Moses changed God's mind on the judgement He would take out on the Israelites. However this is a great example of where you cannot take one verse out of context, and that you must also study the Bible and not simply read it. If we look at the Hebrew language that the Old Testament was written in, the word for repent is naham. When this word is applied to humans it means to change your mind and turn away from sin. On the other hand when it is applied to God it means to relent, to grieve, to feel deep emotion (to sigh). We have probably all grieved at some point in our life and have had a deep sigh involved with that. What this means is that in this moment, God is deeply grieved over the sins of His people, and when they turn away from their sin and repent, He embarks on another course of action. In these instance it isn't that God changed His mind, but that people changed and turned away from their sin. This is the case in Exodus. The Israelites turn from their sin that opposed God. I cannot read this and think that Moses actually changed God's mind. To say that would be to say that Moses knew better than God in the situation. If we believe that God is perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, and unchanging then we can't say that He changed His mind as in the way we change our minds. We change our minds when we see a better solution and that is not what happened in the mind of God in this moment.

How does this apply to our lives?
For those who believe that the purpose of prayer is to change God's mind, they would then ask why they should ever pray. Here are the reasons we pray:
1) Jesus commanded us to pray and modeled prayer for us (Matthew 6:5-7). Jesus didn't say "if you pray", or "if you feel like praying". Instead He said numerous times "when you pray". Jesus didn't try to change the mind of God when He prayed in the Garden in Luke 22:42. If anyone could have changed God's mind it would have been Jesus.
2) You can't have a relationship with God if you don't pray.
3) The purpose of pray is not to change God, but to change us. We should go into prayer with the desire for God to change our hearts and work in our lives. A good indication that we are unwilling to change is that we stop praying.

I Need You Lord

2012-01-17T10:02:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to share a quick thought of what is going on in my heart today. To be honest over the past couple of weeks I really have experienced a bit of personal revival I feel. Mainly in part that I have been better disciplined in the simple things such as journaling and spending more time in prayer and Bible study. In the midst of this though I am almost feeling a bit under attack. I'm not really sure how to explain it fully. I know that is usually how things go, but it is never fun. However I think the best way to describe my prayer today is through the chorus of the song "Miracle" by Shane and Shane. These words are the cry of my heart today and may be yours as well.

I need You Lord,
Even more than the air I breathe
I need You Lord,
Right away
I need You Lord,
Every minute of every day
I need You Lord,
Right away

Got Questions? - Part 1

2012-01-12T10:13:00.000-05:00

This week we began a series that we will do for a few weeks called "Got Questions?". I had the students submit questions they have about the Bible and we will answer one or two each week. This can be tough as these students are smart and have submitted some tough questions, but it is good as it challenges us to find answers in the Bible and to stretch our brains. It hurts our brains but it is good for us! We began the night with a funny video and a worship set that included: "So Much", "One Way" (Hillsong United), "I Will Follow" (Micah Watson), "How He Loves" (McMillan/Crowder).

I began the night by sharing a bit about why we are doing this. The best way to learn is by asking questions. We should never be ashamed to ask questions. The disciples were constantly asking Jesus questions in order to learn. We briefly looked at a few examples of the disciples asking questions in Mark 4:10, Mark 7:17, Mark 9:11, Mark 9:28, Mark 10:10, and Mark 13:3. As we ask questions, we need to know where to find the answers which of course is the Bible. I told the students that there may be some questions we look at that we cannot find a 100% definitive answer because it will fall into a gray area. It is then we must decide what we believe based on the Scripture and not waste time arguing and debating the subject.

Each week we will look at the selected question in 4 areas: 1) "What does the world say?"; 2) "What is our opinion?"; 3) "What does the Bible say?"; and 4) "How does this apply to our lives?". We use the phrase "knowledge is power" but it only is power if we make use and application of the knowledge.

This week's question that we began with was "Does the Bible say anything about dinosaurs?". So looking at each question here is what we discussed.
1) The world says that dinosaurs existed millions of years ago.
2) Most everyone in our group had the opinion that dinosaurs existed, but was thousands of years ago as the earth is not millions of years old.
3) So looking at what the Bible says here are the things that I covered. First of all the word "dinosaur" is not in the Bible. The Bible was of course not written in English, but the word "dinosaur" was not invented until the 1800's. The Hebrew word "tanniyn" was used and could be translated "sea monster", "serpent", or "dragon". When we read the account of Creation, Genesis 1:24-25 tells us that God made animals on Day 6. This would have included dinosaurs, and dinosaurs are animals. Then we looked at the two possibilities of dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible, the Behemoth and Leviathan in Job 40:15-41:8. It has been long debated what these creatures are, if they are dinosaurs, or maybe the behemoth an elephant or hippopotamus, and the leviathan could possibly been a crocodile. The truth is, we cannot 100% possibly say one way or another if these are dinosaurs or other animals. We were not there to see these creatures ourselves so we cannot say for sure. Here is what we do know is that in these verses God is showing Job how big He is. God is showing that even His power is shown in creatures. However I cannot determine myself what these creatures are.
4) So how can we apply this to our lives? I challenged the students to know what truths are spoken in this area, but to never argue about it. In addition we should not obsess over these subjects. Why? Because this has nothing to do with salvation. A problem I have is that people will be obsessed with this subject and other theological questions, when it has nothing to do with Jesus and salvation. People waste too much time debating some of these things while people are dying and going to hell. So my thoughts on how to apply this to our lives is to make a decision and not spend much more time on it and move on. It is my personal belief that God has placed things like this in the Bible to test us and see if we will waste a lot of time debating what this animal is, or focus on more important matters like reaching the lost.

At the end of the night we drew the question to look at next week which is one that will really stretch our brains: "Can we change God's mind with our prayers?".

Isaiah 29:13

2012-01-11T10:30:00.003-05:00

I read Isaiah 29:13 during my quiet time today and what a sad verse it is for those it fits. As God is sending warnings to Jerusalem about the way that they are living He tells them that they are going through the motions of serving Him but that their hearts are not in it. They are acting like they are worshiping Him for whatever reason, but they have no desire to worship Him in their heart. As I read this and I am of course reminded of when Jesus quotes Isaiah as he warns the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:6-7 about living this way. At the same time I am challenged to consider my own worship through song, Bible study, prayer, the way I treat others, etc. How terrible it would be to know that this is what God would say about my worship. I know that there have been times that I have simply went through the motions of worship in all of these areas, and for that I am deeply ashamed. I am challenged today to always let all areas of my worship of God be genuine and true. I want to worship Him with my everything. I challenge you to read Isaiah 29:13 below in the different translations and ask God to challenge you in your worship and reveal to you if you have only been worshiping Him with your lips, or if you been worshiping Him with your heart.

Isaiah 29:13 (NASB)
Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,

Isaiah 29:13 (NCV)
The Lord says: "These people worship me with their mouths, and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is based on nothing but human rules.

Isaiah 29:13-14 (The Message)
The Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise one who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing."

He Always Feels Like It

2012-01-09T09:39:00.002-05:00

Do you ever have those days when you just don't feel like it when it comes to your relationship with God? What I mean is do you ever have days when you do not feel like praying, studying your Bible, and spending time in fellowship with God? Of course you do. Maybe I am presuming too much about everyone but I know in my own life I have those days. There are simply days when I become selfish and do not feel like taking the time to read Scripture and pray for those arounds me. Maybe I am alone in this but I am pretty sure that I am in the company of many. Well I had one of those days recently and I did a lot of thinking regarding that feeling.

First of all I am ashamed to admit that I would ever not feel like spending time with the God of the universe, the creator of all things, and the one who loves you and I so much that He would send His very own Son Jesus Christ to die for me. Why would I not want to spend time with that person? The only answer I can really think of is selfishness. If we do not want to spend time with God then it can only be because we are being selfish and are more concerned with ourselves. It may mean that in that moment we would rather be spending time with someone else, watch television, play video games, read another book, etc. Whatever takes the place of God in this time becomes an idol in our life. That may be a harsh statement, but I believe it is the truth.

The next thing I thought of is that I have to understand that it is not that "I have to" spend time with God, but rather "I get to". It is a privilege to be able to spend time in prayer and fellowship with God. We must be thankful that we have the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf and do not have to do things like they did before Jesus came. We can freely go to God when we need or want to. That is something to rejoice about!

The main thing I considered is this: God never feels like this about spending time with us. God never says "I just don't feel like spending time with you today". He always wants to spend time with us. He always feels like it. Our feelings would be hurt if God didn't want to spend time with us. So we need to consider how much it hurts God when we don't want to spend time with Him. I am currently reading a book by Brennan Manning and he says this: "What does the Christian life look like, once one is smitten by the love of Jesus Christ?". I do not think that there is a concrete answer to that but one thing that I believe falls under it is that we desire to spend time with God and cannot get enough of Him.

My Favorite Albums of 2011

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

As a music lover I wanted to list my favorite albums that came out in 2011. There many great albums and here are the ones that stand out as the best.

-Jason Gray: A Way To See In The Dark

This is my favorite album of the year by far, which I did a review of a while back.

-Michael W. Smith: Glory

This is Michael W. Smith's second all instrumental album. Michael is my all-time favorite artist and this has some great music to listen to and enjoy.

-Newsboys: God's Not Dead

I have always been a huge fan of Michael Tait but when he first joined Newsboys I was a little reluctant. No offense to any fans but the Newsboys hadn't been one band that I particularly cared a lot for in the past, but now I am a huge fan! Earlier this year I got their album Born Again: Miracles Edition and it is phenomenal. This album is as well and is one that I am currently listening to a lot.

-David Crowder Band: Oh For Joy

David Crowder Band doing Christmas music. What's not to love here? The album cover with them as nutcrackers is one of favorite covers of all time. Definitely a good album and I am so glad they did this before releasing their final one.

-They Came Running: The Way You Shine

This is a local band and one of my favorite that includes one of my best friends. I have been a fan since they formed in late 2007. This is their first full-length album and is one that everyone should purchase.

So what was your favorite music from 2011?

WNW 1/14/12- New Year Challenge

2012-01-05T11:18:00.000-05:00

It was good to be back at our Wednesday Night Worship service last night as I started off the year with a challenge for the students. We began the night with some discussion of how everyone's Christmas and New Year were. We watched one of our favorite classic videos "My Spoon Is Too Big" which is silly and pointless but hilarious at the same time. I have a huge banana that is now sitting on the stage at the youth house so I figured it was appropriate to show the video. We then went into our worship set which included "Song of Hope" (Robbie Seay Band), "Salvation Is Here" (Hillsong United), "Running to You" (Newsboys), and "Always" (Kristian Stanfill).

I began the message by talking about how big of a year 2012 is going to be. We looked at some of the big movies, music, books, events, etc. that will take place in 2012. I then asked the students to take a minute to write down one thing they plan to accomplish this year. Some shared what they plan to do this year which included: learning to play the piano, learning to drive a stick shift, flying on a plane for the first time, etc. I then talked briefly about the fact that anything we want to accomplish in life can be done if we focus on our relationship with God. It is then that God will lead us to accomplish it or change our hearts to something else.

We read the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21:28-32. One son first refused to go work but then actually went and did the work. The other son said he would work but never did. So which one was obedient? The one who actually went and worked. We can have the desire to follow God and say we will, but if we never do it then we are disobedient. The question we have to ask ourself is which son are we most like. Are we obedient and following God, or are we all talk? We have to allow God to examine our hearts and reveal to us whether or not we are being obedient to Him. Do we say we will follow Him, but it is all talk and no action?

After a prayer time with examination I gave them a small homework assignment and some ideas for some resources for them to use. I asked them to go home with their sheet of paper that they used earlier to write their goal down, and fill the paper with all the goals they have for 2012. I showed them in my journal the page that I wrote my goals on. If we write these down we will have a visual reminder of what we are working toward. I then went through the calendar dates through July showing them the things that we will be involved in to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

-30 Hour Famine- January 27-28: This is a time where we fast from food for 30 hours to gain a small understanding of hunger. The students raise funds through sponsors and all the funds go to World Vision to help feed children in need.
-Super Bowl Outreach Party- February 5: We have food, games, and watch the Super Bowl and at half-time we watch a video where NFL players share their testimony and give students an opportunity to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ.
-Winter Jam- February 12: The lineup this year includes Skillet, Building 429, Sanctus Real, Kari Jobe, Peter Furler, and others.
-Total Life Encounters- March 2-3: This year we are going to this conference in Pigeon Forge. The theme is Victorious and is based 1 John 5:4-5.
-Disicple Now- April 12-15: This is always one of my favorite ministry events. Students are in homes for the weekend for some intense Bible study. During this time students grow closer to God, are challenged in their faith, and grow closer together. The students are always challenged to live out their faith and serve others after the weekend.
-Graduate Recognition- May is the month where we honor those graduating high school.
-MFuge- June 4-9: This year we are going to North Greenville University in South Carolina. The theme is "The Pursuit" based on Ephesians 1:22. This year is going to be a great year at camp.
-Younite- July 25-28: This is definitely my favorite ministry event of the year. This is our second summer camp where we serve our local community. We have some great ideas cooking for this year's Younite and am looking very forward to this week. We always see God do some amazing things in the lives of the students and those we serve.

Favorite Moments of 2011

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am behind on posting things such as this but I have a couple of posts I want to make reflecting on 2011. Today I want to share my favorite moments of 2011. The year was full of it's many ups and downs, but through it was God is victorious and for that I am grateful. So here are the moments in my life that stand out as my favorite from the past year.

-Celebrating my 10th Wedding Anniversary with my wife Belinda. We really did not do anything big but the date fell on a Wednesday which is when we have Wednesday Night Worship. I got the youth band to work with me and we surprised Belinda at the end of the night by playing the song "The Other Side of Me". The song had significance as I surprised Belinda at our wedding by singing it to her. It was definitely a fun time.
-My 30th birthday surprise. Belinda really did something amazing by planning a surprise trip for me to celebrate my birthday. I knew something was up because she told me a specific time I needed to be ahead in my school work. Then one night she told me that I had to be home from work by a certain time. She then took me to the airport and we flew for our first time, which was very cool. We flew to Orlando to watch a couple of Atlanta Braves Spring Training games. It was something that I had always wanted to do and so we had a really great time on this short trip.
-Seeing students grow in their faith. Around our Disciple Now weekend in April we really saw some students take the next step in their faith. It has been a great thing to see.
-Baptizing my first student. It was definitely a humbling and exciting moment for me.
-MFuge. This was the best summer camp we have been to. The week went smoothly and the students really grew as they served in Williamsburg, KY. The messages, theme and Bible study were all great. Then of course one of the highlights in the week was seeing a student surrender to ministry!
-Younite. Wow! What a great time this was. I am so excited that God leads us to do this as we see it have an impact on those we are serving as well as the students. I was so glad how it all turned out and am excited to start planning Younite 2012!
-Chris Sligh in concert at Clearwater. This was something that was really cool to be a part of. Not only did I get to bring Chris (who I have always been a huge fan of) in to do a concert, but our worship band got to lead worship with him that morning! Afterward he tweeted that we were a good worship band. Definitely a great moment!
-Getting to speak before students. I love getting to do this every week but also had some other cool opportunities. I was asked to speak at the See You At The Pole event at Niota School for the second year which was great. Then at the end of the year I was asked to speak during one of They Came Running's Christmas concerts. Getting to speak about Jesus in the middle of a concert of one of my favorite bands was really cool!
-Getting an iPhone. I had wanted one for years and finally got it. It has no eternal significance but I thoroughly enjoy it.
-Getting to see Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant in concert together. Michael is my all-time favorite singer so I always enjoy seeing him. It was really cool getting to see him and Amy together. It was definitely a great show.
-Graduating from seminary. Belinda and I decided for me to take a full load of 15 hours in the Spring in order to graduate because we were both very tired of me having school work all the time. It made for a very hard few months but I'm done and couldn't be happier about that.

There are many other moments that were great in 2011 and I am so thankful for all that God has done in me and my family. I look forward to all He is going to do in us and through us in 2012!

Throwing Out The Garbage- Starting Anew

2012-01-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

So this is that point of the year where every website and blog has their encouragement and ideas on how you can start fresh this year with a better life. I should have posted this a few days ago as it has been on my mind for several days. On the very last day of 2011 I was doing something that I really don't enjoy which is driving to the landfill to dispose of our garbage. It's not that it is a tough task by any means, but that the landfill is on the other end of the county from where we live. As I was driving I thought to myself how significant it was that I was ending the year by getting rid of any garbage we had to make things clean at home. I thought how this should apply to our own lives, and myself included. This is definitely a good time to start things anew with a fresh focus on Jesus Christ. However we must first get rid of any garbage in our lives whether it be sin, past hurts, burdens, etc. Then we must focus on moving forward in our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is then that Jesus Christ can make us new and form us into what He needs us to be. Of course I am reminded of one of my favorite songs "I Am New" by Jason Gray with this. Watch the video below and if you are in need of a fresh start, do it today.

Ephesians 4:22-23- that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind

Isaiah 43:19- "Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.

How Not To Be A Grinch- Part 3

2011-12-20T12:02:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday in Sunday School, the teachers treated the students to breakfast and it was an amazing lineup of food. Since the Wednesday night series had been tied in with the Grinch, we showed it while the students ate and hung out together. Then I taught the Sunday School lesson by wrapping up this series.

After the Grinch hears that Christmas did not end he says "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more". We know that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ as He came to earth to live among us and rescue us from our sin. In church we talk about this each and every year, but if we are honest we don't always get it. Many times we are so caught up in the busyness and the presents that we do not see Jesus.

I asked the students if they had ever received a present at Christmas that they were disappointed in. Some students were brave enough to share and I shared an embarrassing story about myself. Several years ago my wife bought me a nice pair of Timberland boots. They were very nice, but I'm just not the boot wearing guy. And so in this moment I became that jerk who was unappreciative. I don't really remember what all was said (I've tried to block it out of my memory), but I showed my disappointment. I had become more concerned with the "presents" than the "presence of God" that we celebrate during Christmas. Matthew 1:23 tells us that His name will be Immanuel which means "God with us". We hear this often, but need to let it sink in. Our sin has separated us from God, the sin that began in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Now Jesus, who is God in the flesh, came to earth and lived a perfect life, died on the cross and arose from death in order to make a way for us to have fellowship with God again. At this moment in the manger for the first time in many years, God was now with us on earth. He is here for us to have a relationship with if we will accept Him. But Jesus was not only "God with us" for his 33 years on earth. He is forever with us and echoes this promise in Matthew 28:20 telling us that He is with us forever. What a promise for us to hold on to!

The presence of God is a huge deal. The question to ask is whether or not it is a big deal to you? Are you more concerned with "Presents" or the "Presence of God" this Christmas?

WNW Christmas Party 2011

2011-12-15T09:17:00.000-05:00

So last night was our last Wednesday Night Worship of the year and so we had our youth Christmas party. We began the night with a competitive Bible scavenger hunt where students had to answer questions by finding the scripture reference. All of the questions were related to the birth of Jesus, but some were details that aren't thought of much, like "Who was the step-grandfather of Jesus?", who by the way was named Jacob and we know nothing about. After that we sang a few songs. The first was Happy Birthday to Lauren who turned 16. Of course we never sing it normal but have Mitchell do his version. I don't even know how to begin to explain it. Then next I convinced Belinda to join me in singing a funny duet of a parody of "Baby It's Cold Outside". Instead of the original creepy version where the guy is trying to get the girl to stay, this version was like I had been kicked out in the cold because I got her a terrible Christmas gift- a toilet brush. I can't take credit for writing it though- Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips do this version which you can watch here. We then had a contest for the best tacky Christmas sweater/outfit. This is always fun because the students make their sweaters and they always turn out great. Hunter won this year with a sweater covered in tinsel and presents. Then we had our gag gift exchange. We drew numbers and went in order selecting gifts. Some of the gag gifts were: set of fake stick-on mustaches, framed lyrics to "Christmas Shoes" song with "WORST SONG EVER" written across it (that was my gift), a tie that played Christmas music, Pepto Bismol, a country cd, a box of corn muffin mix, and many others. My face hurt from laughing during this time. Then before ending the night with cookies and snacks, some students had a gag gift for me- a huge box. When I opened it, there was another box, and another box, and another- all wrapped and taped together with duct tape. So after what seemed like 20 minutes I get to the center which was a Casting Crowns CD (inside joke here) signed by some of the students. We had a great time of fellowship and a great way to end the year.

How Not To Be A Grinch- Part 2

2011-12-08T10:24:00.001-05:00

As we continued our "How Not To Be A Grinch" series this week we considered the topic that "Nothing Can Stop Christmas". We dove right in after a worship set that included: Here Is Our King, Come and Worship, Silent Night, O Come Let Us Adore Him, and Angels We Have Heard On High. I showed a clip from toward the end of the movie where the Grinch had made it to the top of the mountain with all the Christmas stuff he stole from the Who's and was waiting to hear their reaction. What he heard was not what he expected as the Who's joined together in unity and sang and celebrated Christmas anyway. No matter what great efforts the Grinch went to, he was unable to stop Christmas.

We opened our Bibles to Isaiah 9:6 and read one of just many prophecies in the Bible that point to the birth of Jesus. In fact there are almost 2500 prophecies in the Bible which nearly 2000 have come true so far. A good reason to believe that all will come true in due time! With the knowledge that Jesus was coming to save us from our sins, it should not be a surprise that Satan tried his best efforts to stop the birth of Jesus from occurring and ending Christmas altogether.

In Matthew 2:16 Herod began to kill all male children ages two and under. If he had been successful in killing Jesus then it would have stopped our reason to celebrate Christmas. However God did not allow it and warned Joseph in a dream to make the escape to Egypt. Also in Matthew 1:19 when Joseph first found out that Mary was pregnant he intended to divorce her quietly. Not only could Joseph have divorced Mary, but by law he could have had her stoned to death which would have also killed Jesus. I am sure that Satan was speaking lies to Joseph and trying to lead him to follow through with ending her life. However we see that this did not happen and God sent an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream.

Nothing could stop Jesus from being born and going on to die on the cross for our sins. God's perfect plan will never be thwarted or stopped. Satan will try his best to stop the will of God, but it will never happen. Satan could not stop the birth of Jesus, the Grinch could not stop Christmas from happening, and nothing will stop Christmas from happening this year, unless Jesus returns first. Christmas, which is the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ will take place this year. The question though is whether or not you will be a part of it. Of course you can sing the songs, decorate the tree, etc. but not experience the worship of Jesus. Many people will miss the worship and celebration of the life of Jesus because of anger, bitterness, grudges, hard feelings, etc. between them and family, parents, friends, or even God. So my question for the students and for you is this: What do you need to lay down in order to have Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus?

How Not To Be A Grinch- Part 1

2011-12-01T11:28:00.001-05:00

This week at WNW we began a Christmas series called "How Not To Be A Grinch". We began the night with a trivia game that asked the students questions based on the cartoon movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". After that we did a worship set that included: Song of Hope, Joy to the World, Offering, and How Many Kings.

I talked about how it seems that in the month of December there is a wide array of emotions that people experience. Some are giddy and happy all the time during the Christmas season. Others are sad because they miss family and friends that have passed on. Others are greedy because they want everything. Then there are those who I like to refer to as "grinchy". I know that is a made up word but I believe it fits here. Someone who is "grinchy" seems to be in a bad mood, and do not show care for those around them. It could be because of situations in their own life, but for whatever reason they have a sour attitude. We see this in one of the first scenes of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as it talks about how the Grinch hates the Who's. It could have been because his shoes were too tight, or maybe because his head wasn't screwed on just right, but probably because his heart was 2 sizes too small. The Grinch hated the Who's so much that he was willing to ruin their Christmas by taking it away from them and stealing all of their belongings.

So then we opened up our Bibles to Matthew 2:1-12 and read about the Magi, aka the Wise Men. I talked about many of the truths in this passage that is often changed in our modern Christmas plays such as: we don't know how many Magi there were but there were at least 2, tradition tells us 3 but the Bible does not say for sure; also the Magi did not arrive while Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were still in the stable but it could have been as much as 2 years later based on the fact that they were now in a house, the word child was used, and that Herod had all boys ages 2 and under killed. We know that when the Magi worshipped Jesus they presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Many traditions tell us that these gifts each had symbolic meanings, but this is probably not the case. What we do not normally think about is that in the verses afterward Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were led to flee to Egypt and live for a period of time while Herod was killing all boys ages 2 and under. The gifts that the Magi presented Jesus would have helped fund the trip to Egypt and help provide for them during this time. So essentially we can say that the gifts that the Magi gave Jesus helped save His life.

So how does this and "grinchy" attitude all tie together to us today. Well this was the official kick-off for our upcoming World Vision 30 Hour Famine. January 27-28 we will fast for 30 hours to gain a small understanding of what hunger is like. In the time leading to this we will be raising funds to go toward children in need. Why do we do this? Because every day at least 22,000 children die of preventable diseases such as hunger, pneumonia, etc. This means a child dies every 8-12 seconds. How is it is then that we say that one of the names of God is Jehova-Jireh which means "The Lord provides"? Well the truth is, God has provided enough food and clean water for the entire world, but there is also injustice and sin that exists because of our sinful choices. This means that is up to us to help the poor and less fortunate and provide for them. Luke 12:33 is just one of many verses where Jesus speaks on giving to the poor. I watched a video on the story of Katie Davis the other day- you can watch the video and learn about her amazing story here. In this video she states "Jesus doesn't ask that we care for the less fortunate- He demands it. When calling ourselves Christ-followers, caring for orphans, the desolate, and the widow are not an option, it's a requirement".

So here was my challenge for the students. Just as the gifts the Magi gave Jesus helped save His life, I asked that the students would consider what they could give to save the life of a poor child. I ask you to consider the same. What might God be calling you to give up this Christmas season so you can give to the poor. I challenged the students to consider sponsoring a child through World Vision or Compassion International because not only are these organizations helping physically save the lives of children in need, they are also presenting them the Gospel and leading them to Jesus. So ask yourself what you can give, and also ask God to search your own heart to see if you have any "grinchy" attitudes or hate within you that will keep you from helping someone in need.

Hearts on Fire Video

2011-11-30T14:20:00.001-05:00

Here is a video I am showing tonight that we made highlighting our trip a couple weeks ago to the Hearts on Fire Conference.

What I'm Thankful For

2011-11-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Since this week is Thanksgiving I wanted to take some time to think about and share the things that I am thankful for:

-My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that He died for me so that I can have a relationship with Him and live with Him eternally. I am thankful that He loves me and cares for me the way that He does. I am thankful that He speaks truth into my life and corrects me when I need it.

-My wife and best friend Belinda. I cannot explain how thankful I am for her. I could not make it without her as she is someone I depend on so much. She puts up with me which is a huge task in itself. I am thankful that she loves me and cares for me the way she does. Honestly, she spoils me! I am so thankful for the ways that she supports me in everything I do. I am thankful for her godliness that is simply beautiful.

-My family. My family means so much to me, and I am thankful for them more each and every day. I am so blessed to have the support in my family that I do. My family brings such joy in my life.

-This weekend. God really did some amazing things this weekend for me. It began with us taking the students to the Hearts on Fire Conference in Gatlinburg where we were blessed to hear David Nasser, Clayton King, and the David Crowder Band. Our church's Thanksgiving service was Sunday morning and they surprised us by also making it Pastor Appreciation Day. Deacons and one of our students specifically shared how they are thankful for me, which was such a blessing. To know that people love you, care for you, and pray for you is truly humbling. Then last night Belinda and I went to the Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant concert in Knoxville. We had incredible seats and it was a great night. We even had time to get gelato before the concert! All in all, God refreshed me this weekend in a way that I was in much need of, which I am grateful for.

-My friends. I have a few good friends in my life who care for me, support me, and listen to me. I appreciate all they do for me.

-My home. Sometimes I whine and complain about the things that seem to constantly tear up in our home, the squirrels that live in our attic, etc. But the truth is we have a home to live in. It breaks my heart that people in this world are homeless.

Hearts on Fire Conference

2011-11-21T12:26:00.001-05:00

This weekend we took the students to the Hearts on Fire Conference in Gatlinburg, TN. We had an incredible weekend where we were challenged with Biblical preaching and an awesome concert. David Nasser spoke on Friday night and did an amazing job. I have been a big fan of David's for years and have always wanted to take the students to a conference he was speaking at. He shared how he has been through many fires in his life, but the deliverance that Jesus provided him. He challenged us with the truth that in order to be saved, we don't need a cleaned up heart, but a complete heart transplant and that when Jesus saves us, we are changed forever! His invitation was probably the best I have ever seen done. Instead of him having the worship band play, he had no music and had the house lights turned on. He then said that if anyone knew that they needed to be saved to stand up. He gave this opportunity for several minutes, and discouraged applause. He did this in order for people to make a true decision for salvation and not make an emotional decision. I was very glad it was done this way since one of my biggest criticisms of youth conference in general is the emotional factor that takes place. David did an excellent job and I was glad we got to hear him.

Saturday morning started off with a concert by the David Crowder Band! Crowder is one of our group's favorites and it was especially exciting since the band is hanging it up with their final album coming out in January. Not only was this an exciting concert, but there was also a great element of worship involved.

The last session on Saturday evening had Clayton King as the speaker. I had never heard him speak, but knew of him. Clayton gave an amazing message as well! He spoke from John 6 and the different types of belief. He gave an invitation very similar to David. Many lives were changed this weekend and I am glad we were able to be a part of it. I believe God did a great work in the lives of our students, as well as the adult leaders!

WNW 11/9/11 & 11/16/11

2011-11-17T08:57:00.001-05:00

The past two weeks at Wednesday Night Worship the students led the service. I was gone the week before and that night they split into groups and planned out their services from songs, lessons taught, who would pray, activities, etc. Both groups did an amazing job and it's always really neat to see how the messages go together without them planning them that way. Only God could!

Wednesday Night Worship 11/9/11- Group 1 Led by Mitchell
Group 1 was led by Mitchell and they opened the night by playing a game called Zoom-Erk (not sure how to spell that). I'm not even going to try to explain the game but the "erks" are essentially like roadblocks which tied into their lesson. After playing a round of this game we sang some worship songs. They asked the youth band to lead and chose for us to sing: Enough, O Come All Ye Faithful, Our God, Sanctuary, and Marvelous Light. After the worship set, Mitchell taught a lesson about the "Erks" or roadblocks that are in our lives that hinder our spiritual growth. He used several verses to go along with the theme and did an excellent job in challenging us all to identify those things that hinder us and get around them in order to grow closer to God.

Wednesday Night Worship 11/16/11- Group 2 Led by Kaite
Group 2 went last night and was led by Kaite. They began the night by playing one of their favorites- the human knot/pretzel. Then we played a couple of rounds of the looking game, where everyone is standing in a circle and look down and on the count of 3 everyone looks at someone's eyes. If you make eye contact with the same person you are looking at then both are out. After that the group did their own worship leading and sang: Jesus Loves Me, Go Tell It On The Mountain, and This Little Light of Mine. Their lesson for the night was how we are all parts of one body and used 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Each person in the group read a few verses and then placed a part of the body on a cutout of a person. It was cool how each student played a part in the lesson about how we all play a part in the body of Christ! Afterward I shared how it was cool how the two lessons went together in the fact that we have to get rid of the roadblocks in our lives before we can properly function as a body of Christ.

You are Mine!- Isaiah 43

2011-11-15T09:52:00.001-05:00

I was reading Isaiah 43 a couple of days ago and am still overwhelmed by God's Word. I get excited and all mushy when my wife makes a statement similar to the fact that "I'm hers", but the fact that the God of the universe says that I'm His just blows me away. Even though I fail and let Him down, even though I try to do life on my own sometimes, even though I do not give Him the time He deserves, He still loves me! Not only does He love me, but He protects me through the fire, and is there with me every step of the way!

Isaiah 43:1-7

1 But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob,

And He who formed you, O Israel,

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name; you are Mine!

2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

And through the rivers, they will not overflow you;

When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,

Nor will the flame burn you.

3 "For I am the Lord your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I have given Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in your place.

4 "Since you are precious in My sight,

Since you are honored and I love you,

I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for you life.

5 "Do not fear, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

And gather you from the west.

6 "I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'

And to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'

Bring My sons from afar

And My daughters from the ends of the earth,

7 Everyone who is called by My name,

And whom I have created for My glory,

Whom I have formed, even whom I have made."

Identity Part 4- Child of God

2011-10-20T14:53:00.001-04:00

This week at Wednesday Night Worship we finished the series called "Identity" that we had been looking at over the past several weeks. We opened the night with a funny video about how to fit in and then went into our worship set which included "Dancing Generation", "Holding Onto You", "Son of God", and "I'll Lead You Home". Right after the last song I showed a video called "Who I Am" that showed four teenagers as they began their day and each talking about how the world is pulling them in many different directions. The question that they each have to face is "Who Am I?" rather than "Who does the world want me to be?". I began my message with a quick summary of what we had looked at each week within this series and how basically at times we try to hide behind different identities in life because of what is going on inside of us. In other words our insecurities lead us to want to feel accepted, and when we act on that it can put us in a dangerous situation where we allow ourselves to be exposed to sin. I shared a quote by Rhianna that I read recently where she said in regards to the person she is on stage and in the public eye: "That's not me. That's a part I play". In other words she is saying that she is hiding behind that identity, which is very sad to me.

Each topic that we have looked at throughout this series I have said that instead of that identity, we should seek to find our identity as a child of God. That is a churchy phrase that we use often but what does it really mean? Well the short Sunday School answer would be that you are saved. We looked at John 1:12-13 to get a clearer picture of what it means. We read in these verses that in order to be a child of God, you must be born of God. You must have believe in Him. You must have accepted Him as your Savior and as Lord of your life. Verse 12 says that then we have the right, or we are then given the title of child of God. We must be born of God in order to be called a child of God. We can not say we are a child of anyone that we have not been born of. In addition we will receive the inheritance which means we have an eternal relationship with God.

After identifying what a child of God looks like, we discussed what this identity looks like. You can truly be saved and be a child of God, but it not be your identity. We looked at these six things that should take place in our lives when we are striving to live daily as a child of God. There are plenty more but these are six that I felt like we should cover.
1) You are more concerned with what God thinks about you than what others think- Galatians 1:10. We covered this earlier in this series as well. We also believe what God says about us through His Word and do not believe the lies of Satan and others.
2) You are a bond-servant/slave of Jesus Christ- Galatians 1:10. Paul refers to himself here as a bond-servant or a slave of Jesus Christ. This means that we realize that once we are saved, then we no longer own our own lives, but instead we are owned by Jesus Christ and are to serve Him as such.
3) You have a clear picture of who God is which dictates how you live your life. We have been talking about this through the "I Believe" study in Sunday School. What we believe dictates how we behave. If we have a clear picture of who God is through the Bible, then it will guide how we live our lives.
4) Your misery in life turns to joy- James 1:2-4. We realize that the trials we face are a time for us to grow closer to God and be shaped by Him so He can use us. Our perspective of everything changes and we understand that our trials produce perseverance.
5) You choose God's will for your life instead of your own- John 6:66-69. When the people in this chapter heard the truth from Jesus, they chose their own will instead of God's will for their life.
6) You want Jesus above everything else- John 6:66-69. The people chose the world instead of Jesus because it was no longer convenient for them and it required a lot for them to continue to follow Jesus. When you place your identity in being a child of God, then you understand that it is going to be hard at times, but even when it is hard it is so much more worth it than choosing the world.

In closing I told the students that each one of us fall into one of three categories:
1) You are fully seeking your identity as a child of God. You are growing daily with Him and allowing Him to use you.
2) You are saved- but you are seeking your identity in other things. You are hiding behind other identities because of your own insecurity and desire to fit it, and are choosing that instead of a close relationship with Jesus Christ.
3) You are lost and your identity has nothing to do with Jesus because you have never made a decision to follow Him.

You have to ask yourself today "Who Am I?"

Corn Maze 2011

2011-10-14T08:30:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday we took the students to the corn maze. We had a great time as they bounced on this crazy inflated dome thing (I have no idea what to call it), they raced pedal cars, took a hay ride, did the corn maze, etc. It was a great day and here are some pictures of some of the events.

Fields of Faith 2011

2011-10-13T09:59:00.002-04:00

Last night instead of our regular Wednesday Night Worship service we joined with other teens in our area for this year's FCA Fields of Faith. This is a nationwide event for teens to get together and pray, worship, etc. Since it had been raining the moved it inside to the gym which actually worked our pretty well. After some pizza and games, there was a time of worship and then three students shared their testimonies which was great to hear. After that our very own Kaite got up to share her story and how Jesus has influenced her life and how He has called her into ministry. She then shared that she along with other students would be performing a skit called "Set Me Free" that they will be doing in our upcoming Lucifer's Lies drama and how we all must accept Jesus and allow Him to set us free from the sin in our lives. Afterward an invitation was given and a few students came forward to say that they had placed their faith in Jesus. It was a great night and as always I am so proud of our students at Clearwater in how they are leaders in their schools and share the love of Jesus with others.

Music Review- "A Way To See In The Dark"

2011-10-12T08:30:00.000-04:00

Last month one of my favorite Christian artists Jason Gray released his next album "A Way To See In The Dark". If you have never heard of Jason Gray you need to check out his previous albums that have had great songs such as "More Like Falling In Love", "I Am New", and "Blessed Be". I have had the privilege to host two concerts with Jason Gray at Clearwater which you can read about. Aside from Jason's unique music, he is the real deal. Any encounter with Jason and it is obvious that he is a man that has been changed by Jesus and that Jason is making it his life effort to follow Him. Jason's desire to reach out to people can definitely be heard in his latest album. Twelve strong songs make up this album and for a little more you can purchase the deluxe edition with eight more tracks that consists of some alternate versions of songs on the main album, as well as some that did not make it.

The first song that is a favorite of mine is also the first single called "Remind Me Who I Am". This song talks about how in the midst of pains in life we sometimes have to be reminded of God's view of us in the fact that we are His beloved. This song has a great sound and the line that stands out to me is "In the mirror all I see is who I don't wanna be, remind me who I am". As someone who struggles with self-esteem issues this song definitely one of inspiration.

My favorite song of the album is called "Good To Be Alive". At first it caught my attention with its sounds because it is quite a bit different than the normal Jason Gray song. Mixed in with some piano riffs and catchy beats is a message that is definitely true that we are blessed in our lives, even in the midst of the pains we suffer. The chorus goes "I wanna live like there's no tomorrow, love like I'm on borrowed time, it's good to be alive". The bridge and ending speaks volumes with the promise to God "I won't take it for granted, I won't waste another second, all I want is to give You, a life well lived to say thank You".

The title track of the album "A Way To See In The Dark" is another favorite of mine as it talks about seeking God in the midst of the dark times in our life. The powerful chorus goes: "I'll reach for Your hand in the night, when the shadows swallow light, 'cause I'm giving up giving in, once again a child like faith, is my only way, to see in the dark".

Like I said the rest of the album is just amazing and there is not a single bad song. Some other great songs are "The Sound of Our Breathing", Nothing Is Wasted, The Other Side, Jesus We Are Grateful, and on the bonus disc "Before I've Done Anything". This is definitely another favorite in my album collection and I hope you will add it to yours soon.

Thoughts On The Passing Of Steve Jobs

2011-10-11T09:38:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it has taken me so long to write about the passing of Steve Jobs, but I still wanted to share some of my thoughts. I have been a fan of Steve Jobs and his innovations as they have had a huge influence on my life and the way I do things. I have always been someone who enjoyed technology and so as Apple started gaining major ground several years ago it caught my attention. Shortly after I came on staff at Clearwater as youth pastor I was constantly struggling with my laptop and all its issues when one day I was fed up and grabbed the church's 21 inch iMac which was currently being unused and carried it into my office. After a few minutes I was hooked on it and it wasn't long until I purchased my first Macbook. I now am a complete Apple fan using a Macbook Pro which is the only computer my family owns and I use as my work computer, an iPad which I mainly use for chord sheets to lead worship, and of course my iPhone. So now that I have gotten that out of the way, here are some of my thoughts surrounding the sad passing of Steve Jobs this past week.

-First of all, life is fragile and short. Steve passed away at the young age of 56. Life is short and we must live it to the fullest. We should live each day for God like it is our last on earth. Hopefully it will not be, but that is out of our hands.
-I am saddened with the thoughts of "what could have been" if this terrible disease had not taken his life. Of course it is amazing that he has left 4 years worth of innovative products to be created, but if he had lived longer what might he have invented? This of course reminds me of the life of Rich Mullins and how he passed on way too young. I always wonder what worship songs we would be singing today if he had not passed on so young.
-I read something where he made mention of the time he did not spend with his kids because of work. I sensed that there could have been some regret. I personally do not have children and am unsure if I ever will, but I am reminded of the importance of my family. I have been reminded of this much over the past couple of years as there seems to be less time in each day, there are more work strains on my life now than ever, and the fact that I have lost loved ones in the past few years. My family must remain a priority in my life. As a matter of fact my order of priorities must be: 1) My relationship with God; 2) My relationship with my family; 3) My ministry/job. Sadly many people combine #1 and #3 and push family aside. Also just as sad is that some people expect you to do that.
-I think about the legacy that Steve left as businessman, innovator, creative genius, etc. This makes me think about the legacy that I am leaving. I especially think about this as it ties into my next message as we end the Identity series next week. Am I seeking an identity that will leave a legacy that people will like about me, or am I seeking to leave the legacy that pleases God. As I was studying yesterday for my next message the following thought came out. It is bold but understand what I am saying. My thought was this: "I do not want my legacy to be that I was a youth pastor, I instead want my legacy to be that I am a man of God who was willing to do whatever to serve Him and not caving to the pressures of the world. In addition I want to be known as a Godly husband and family man."

So what have been your thoughts on the passing of Steve Jobs? Has it made you think about life in any way? As Steve said in one of his famous speeches "Nobody wants to die". Nobody wants to go through any pain or suffering that leads to death. However we do not have to worry about what will happen after if we have made Jesus Christ our personal Lord and Savior.

Identity Part 4- Accomplishments/Success

2011-10-06T11:22:00.000-04:00

We began this week's WNW with a quick activity where the students were on teams and had to try to find items that began with each letter of the alphabet from their pockets, purses, and wallets. Afterward I asked them how competitive they were in trying to finish this, or any competition they are involved in. After some discussion I gave them all a piece of paper and asked them to write out their greatest accomplishment in their lives so far and had a few to share. Then I had them take a few minutes and write out some things they want to accomplish in their lives or things they want to be successful at in their lives. Some of the students shared and then I told them to date the paper and put it in their Bible to keep for later on and to look at it often. We then had a worship set that included: You're Worthy of My Praise, God With Us, All Who Are Thirsty, and Starry Night. During our Prayer Time/Mission Moment we prayed for the Unreached People Group the Huayao Tai of China.

As the message for the night continued in the "Identity" series and focused on Accomplishments and Successes, I began the talking about how we all have a desire to achieve and succeed. We all want to be successful and good at whatever we do whether it be sports, school, jobs, hobbies, etc. I believe that this is a God-given desire in every human being. The problems exists when this desire for success becomes mixed with our flesh and sin and we look to make success fulfill us in a way that only God can. We end up with what I referred to throughout the message a success-based identity where we will do anything in our power to succeed in order to try to gain the approval of others and make ourselves feel better.

We looked at Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 and talked about the life of Solomon. Solomon had anything and everything he could ever wish for. When God told him he could ask for anything, Solomon chose to ask for wisdom because he realized that as king he needed wisdom and knowledge in order to rule over people and make correct decisions. Solomon not only inherited many great things, but he was successful as a king and achieved great things. In verse 11 though Solomon says that it is all vanity, futile, and pointless apart from God. He realized that all the accomplishments and success could not fulfill him the way God can.

So when we allow ourselves to have a success-based identity it leads us to do the following:
1) We try to achieve success regardless of what it does to the people around us. We do not care who we hurt in the process of accomplishing what we set out to do. When this occurs it also may be that we are more concerned with recognition than the actual accomplishment itself.
2) We confuse who we are with what we do. Our giftedness does not define who we are. Our giftedness does not change God's love for us.
3) We struggle when others succeed. This is a definite when you have a success-based identity. Instead of being able to celebrate when others are successful, you become jealous.
4) We lose our focus on God's will for our lives. Not only can we lose our focus, but we can misinterpret God's will for us. I shared a personal story of how after a couple of very successful baseball seasons, I was at my dad's office at work one day when a lady told me that she believe that God had a plan for me in baseball. I was extremely excited because what I mistranslated her to say was that she believed God would have a plan for me to play baseball at a professional level. I misinterpreted what she told me and instead had my own idea of God's will. I was so focused on the success in baseball, that I missed the true will of God. I do believe that God had a plan for me in baseball, but that it was in the present and that I missed it. I went on to play another 6 years of baseball, and kept my mouth shut most of the time when it came to my faith. I did not participate in much of the things that others were involved in, but I never spoke the truth about how Jesus had impacted my life. I wasted those years chasing a dream that was outside the will of God because I had developed a success-based identity and lost my focus on what God really wanted me to do.

I want to challenge you today as I challenged the students and I continue to challenge myself with everyday: do not become so focused on being successful and achieving something that it becomes your identity and you lose sight of God's will in your life. There is nothing wrong with having goals and dreams of things you want to achieve in your life. I told the students that I hope they all accomplish the things that they wrote down at the beginning of the night. However I do not want them or anyone to chase them and lose sight of God because just as Solomon came to realize, it is all pointless apart from God.

Prayer Stations- WNW 9/28

2011-09-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

With yesterday being National See You At The Pole Day it was pretty much a given that we needed to spend the evening at Wednesday Night Worship in prayer. I gave a brief message similar to the one I gave at Niota School's See You At The Pole about the Converge theme based on Matthew 18:20 and then we spent the evening in prayer. This night was different than most of the times we do prayer stations because usually it is a night of self examination allowing God to search our hearts. This night would consist mainly of praying for others. However we did begin with a time of prayer in the main room where I challenged the students to remove any barriers in their own lives that are in the way of their relationship with Jesus. After they spent some time doing that they were free to move on to the three rooms to pray for specific areas. Each room had several pieces of paper in the middle for students to read and pray about the specific areas listed below.

Room #1- Pray for Lucifer's Lies
-Spend time praying for the upcoming spiritual warfare drama.
-Pray for everyone involved- cast, crew, directors, counselors, etc.
-Pray for strength and guidance in every step through this.
-Pray for the twelve performances that will take place.
-Pray for lost souls to come to the drama and be saved.
-Pray for Christians to be challenged in their relationship with Jesus and any who have turned away will return to fellowship with Him.

Room #2- Pray for Schools
-Spend time praying for the principal, teachers, staff, and administration involved in schools around the nation and in our area.
-Pray specifically for local schools (the names of many local schools were on one of the walls in this room).
-Spend time praying for your specific school.
-Pray for Christian students to be strong in their faith and be witnesses.
-Pray for lost students to make Jesus their Savior and Lord.

Room #3- Pray for Clearwater Baptist Church
-Pray that God will continue to give our church direction to follow Him.
-Pray that as a church we will be obedient to follow God.
-Pray for the lost who are attending and need to be saved.
-Pray for those who attend and need to return to Jesus.
-Pray for pastors, leaders, Sunday School teachers, deacons, etc.
-Pray for our youth ministry that we will grow in Jesus and be used for His glory.

See You At The Pole- Niota School

2011-09-28T09:56:00.001-04:00

Today is National See You At The Pole Day and I had the honor and privilege of speaking again this year at Niota Elementary School. It was great to see the students there lead this event as they led prayers and read difference Bible verses about prayer. We sang a couple of songs and then I was able to share a brief message and challenge with the students. They estimated that about 170 students were in attendance which was incredible.

This year's theme for See You At The Pole is "Converge". The word converge means to meet together from different directions. I shared that the students had come from different homes in different areas, are in different grades in school, and even attend different churches but came together to meet to pray and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 18:20 Jesus says to His disciples "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." People at this time believed that you had to gather many together in order to pray or have a church type gathering. But Jesus is saying that even if two or three gather in His name that He is a part of it. I explained that gathering in Jesus' name means we gather to pray with His purpose in mind and not our own. The Bible reveals many things that are within the will of God, but I specifically wanted them to think about the fact that God wants everyone to repent, be saved, and follow Him.

I ended by challenging the students to not only converge to pray each year at See You At The Pole, but to converge each and everyday. I challenged them to pray for one another and for their Christian witness, pray for their teachers, and to pray for their lost friends. I told these students that Jesus influenced 11 disciples (could have been 12 but Judas didn't work out so well) to change the world. We get to have See You At The Pole as a result of the work and prayer these men did. So if 11 men changed the world for God, what could 2 or 3 students do to radically change a school. I believe that God wants to bring revival to our schools and it must start with students who are committed to praying each and every day and living their lives completely for Jesus Christ.

Chris Sligh Concert

2011-09-26T12:14:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was an incredible day at Clearwater Baptist Church. We were blessed to have Chris Sligh lead worship in the morning service and then he did a concert at night. I have been a huge fan of Chris Sligh since I first saw him on American Idol. The season he was on was the first season I ever watched and he grabbed my attention at his audition. After his time on American Idol I began to follow him as he transitioned into the Christian music industry. I remember hearing the song "Empty Me" and was amazed not only by his vocals but by the lyrics of the song. So it was a no-brainer when I saw him tweet back in February that he was going to do a church tour in the fall and gave information on his website with some options for the tour. We chose the option where he would lead worship in our morning service, playing with our church band, and then do the Sunday night concert. After 7 months of work in regards to dealing with management, contracts, etc. the day was finally here.

Our band had practiced leading up to this worship service, but there was a bit of nervousness since we were actually playing with Chris Sligh. Once he arrived we practiced with him and worked out some details and we were all ready to go. I am still humbled that I had the opportunity to play guitar with him, but was humbled more so by his heart in worship. Chris is a true worship leader connecting well with the congregation and leading us to the throne of God in song. The set list for the day included: How Great (one of Chris's new worship songs), How Great Thou Art, Our God, How He Loves, You Are Good (another of Chris's new worship songs), It Is Well during the offering, and Jesus Paid it All for the invitation. We were excited because after the worship service Chris tweeted about the service in two tweets. The first said that he did a scary thing by going into a church and leading w/ the church band that he had never met. The second tweet said that it is scary because a lot of church bands are very, very bad but this band was really, really good. It was such an honor to hear his comments like that.

That night he did an acoustic concert which was great. Chris did a mix of some of his newer worship songs along with some of his radio hits and other songs off his albums. One lyric from a new worship song called "For Our God" really stood out to me: "We won't affect this generation with the truth if we aren't changed ourselves!". Chris shared stories of what God has done in his life over the years and recently with his move to Colorado to become the full-time worship leader at a church.

I am so thankful for this great day we had. It was truly a refreshing day of worship. I am glad to have the opportunity to host a concert with such a wonderful guy and hope to bring him back again in the future.

Identity Part 3- Acceptance (Appearance)

2011-09-22T10:52:00.002-04:00

We began this week's Wednesday Night Worship with an activity to hype this Sunday's Chris Sligh concert. Similar to Who Wants to be a Millionaire, we played Who Wants to win Chris Sligh Stuff. We drew names and Hayden was our lucky contestant. He had to answer questions about Chris Sligh and the things we have covered the past two weeks of WNW. He got them all correct and will be receiving a Chris Sligh sticker, CD, and t-shirt. After that we had a time of worship where we sang Marvelous Light, Salvation is Here, Cannons, and Good (a new Chris Sligh song that our band is playing with him on Sunday morning). Our mission moment of the week was to pray for the unreached people group of the Tamil Muslim of India.

In this week's lesson in the "Identity" series we continued our focus on acceptance and specifically our appearance. We all desire to look nice but if we are not careful our appearance can become our identity. I began with the question "What does your personal appearance say about you?" I let them sit quietly for a moment to consider that. We have to ask ourselves if we are trying to hide behind our appearance or if we are trying to draw attention to ourselves with our appearance. We also must consider if our focus on our appearance causes us to take our eyes off of God.

We took another look this week at the Pharisees and how they tried to draw attention to themselves with their appearance. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Matthew 23:1-5 and makes mention of their phylacteries and tassels. The Jewish men wore tassels with a blue cord that were attached to four corners of their garment as a reminder to obey God's commandments and to be holy. The Pharisees were making their tassels longer in order to be more visible and draw attention to themselves. They also broadened their phylacteries. A phylactery was a small box attached to the forehead or arm that contained Hebrew texts. These were also worn as a reminder to keep the law and be holy. They also made these more visible to draw attention to themselves. I used a funny example of a modern day phylactery by turning my iPhone to my Bible app and attaching it to my forehead with a head band (thankfully no pictures were taken). I looked ridiculous. Most trends end up looking ridiculous, and really look silly when we think about how we use trends to attract attention to ourselves.

So there are a couple of things we looked at in regard to this:
1) Never Dress Inappropriately to Draw Attention to Yourself
-Don't dress in a way that it inappropriate to gain the attention of others. If you feel that you can only gain someones attention this way then you do not want their attention to begin with. I even think it goes beyond dressing inappropriately and includes when you are so enthralled in your appearance that vanity takes place.
2) Don't Wear Christian Attire to Draw Attention to Yourself
-Just like the Pharisees wore tassels and phylacteries, we wear Christian t-shirts, bracelets, etc. There is nothing wrong with wearing these t-shirts but we have to consider if we are trying to hide behind this identity while on the inside there is nothing spiritual going on. Jesus further challenged the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28 talking about how they are like whitewashed tombs. This Scripture not only applies to the Pharisees, but also to us. We must be careful to not try to have the appearance on the outside of having everything together, but on the inside are spiritually dead.

We each look in the mirror each day and may be disappointed in the appearance that we see. However it is important to see our value in who God made us to be. God looks at our heart just as he told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7 when he was sent to find David. We must not try to draw attention to ourselves by hiding behind our appearance. We must also be careful to not try to hide behind the identity of having it all together, while being spiritually dead on the inside.

Identity Part 2- Acceptance (Friends)

2011-09-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

In the second week of this series called "Identity" we focused on acceptance and particularly acceptance with friends. We began the night with splitting the group into 2 groups and having them make a list of as many cartoon/tv show/movie friends. They came up with a huge list that included Batman and Robin, Mickey Mouse and Goofy, Mario and Luigi, etc. I tied this into the message later on. Our worship set then included "Ain't No Rock", "Forever", "Breathe", and "More Like Following in Love".

So as we think about all the friends we have in life: school, church, work, activities, and social media we all at some point or another have the desire to belong to a group or to be friends with a specific person. The thing we have to remember is that when we belong to a group of friends we often take on the characteristics of that group. We used the example of Mario and Luigi. They are brothers in their video game world, but for this example we assumed they are also friends. We focused a minute on Luigi. The truth is though that aside from Mario, Luigi doesn't have much of his own identity. He takes on the identity of being Mario's brother, and being similar to Mario. There is nothing wrong in wanting to have friends because we were not meant to live life alone. However we need to check ourselves and see why we desire to belong to a group. Often times it originates from our insecurities. The main problem lies when our desire for acceptance into a specific group becomes so strong that we lower our standards, we allow ourselves to be subjected to stuff we normally would not be around, and then we give into sin we would not normally participate in. If you have to change and/or do things you know are wrong in order for someone to like you, then they are not a real friend.

We then talked about a popular group of people in the Bible. This crowd had it going on with the way they dressed, their intelligence and education, etc. When people saw them they knew what crowd they belonged to. This group enticed people to join and was a group that many people wanted to belong to. I am talking about the Pharisees. We look at them and think badly of them for their religious rule and traditions and we know how Jesus called them out on many occasions. But they would have been one of the popular crowds back then. When you read Galatians 1:6-10 we see that Paul is writing the churches in Galatia about the false teaching that is going on. Paul had taught them the truth in salvation through Jesus Christ, and Jesus alone. However a little bit later they started teaching that Paul had not taught the whole truth and that you had to also observe some of the Old Testament law in order to gain salvation. The Pharisees had impressed some beliefs on the churches of Galatia. So Paul here is challenging them with the truth and saying that it is more important to follow and believe truth, than to be a people pleaser and fit in their crowd. It is never worth following a false doctrine in order to feel a part of a group.

So how can we turn things around so our identity is in Jesus instead of in our friends? First we have to allow Jesus to be our best friend. The more time you spend with someone, you begin to take on their identity. If you spend more time with Jesus then you will begin to be more like Him. When we read about the love of Jesus in John 15:12-15 we should be humbled and desire to grow closer to Him. The second thing we can do is be a godly friend to others. When we think about Job's friends, we usually think about how they were jerks and told him that his sin had brought on the devastation in his life. But every time I read Job 2:11-13 I am amazed at how his friends were there with him grieving and mourning with him during that time. How often do we grieve over the pain a friend is enduring?

So we have to think about why we desire to fit in with a group. We are going to desire to be friends with someone or a group at some point in our lives, but why? Are we going to lower our standards because we will end up following a false doctrine and give into sin. It is never worth that.

New Student Video

2011-09-12T13:15:00.000-04:00

This past week at Wednesday Night Worship was the first week with our new group of 7th graders that just moved up. The previous week we had an orientation night for them and their parents. For this first night at WNW we decided to make a silly video to welcome them and further show a little bit of what we do. Well actually it isn't a good example of what we do each week but shows a bit of our silliness that shines through some. I hope you enjoy this silly video.

Identity Part 1- Introduction

2011-09-08T10:08:00.001-04:00

This week at Wednesday Night Worship we kicked off the new church year with a new series called "Identity". In all of our lives there are many times we try to find out identity in an array of areas from sports to academics and career, etc. I began the lesson by letting students say the following phrase- "My name is ______ and I am a _______". We had some fill in the blank saying they are a "girl, 7th grader, red-head, crazy, etc." I then shared that when I hear the word identity I think about superheroes and their secret identity and showed a few pictures of superheroes and we named their secret identity. When we look at superheroes, they hide behind another identity to keep people from knowing who they really are. How often do we try to hide behind an identity other than the identity of being child of God and who God called us to be.

After sharing with the students some of the things that I have tried to find my identity in over my life we dug into the Bible looking at Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 27:18-24, Jacob deceives his father Isaac into thinking that he is Esau. When Isaac asked who he was he responded "Esau". The main reason that Jacob did this was to steal the blessing intended for Esau. However I believe that he had to be dealing with insecurity. We read in Chapter 25 of Genesis that while Rebekah loved Jacob more, Isaac loved Esau more. Even though Jacob was his mother's favorite, he had to have insecurity knowing that his father loved Esau more. I believe that this also led to Jacob trying to be Esau instead of being who God created him to be.

We then divided into two groups to make lists of everything that people today try to find their identity in which included: fashion, power, academics, career, sports, friends, tv, food, etc. We then skipped ahead and read Genesis 32:24-28 where Jacob wrestles all night long with a man (could have been an angel, could have been Jesus, but not the main point here). When asked here who he was he responded "Jacob". At this point he was renamed Israel and went on to further accomplish God's will for his life. Jacob stopped trying to hide behind the identity of someone else and acknowledge who he actually was.

We all struggle with this in our lives. We sometimes try to hide behind another identity because of our own insecurities. I know because I struggle with insecurity on a daily basis. God created every single one of us uniquely and has a plan for every single one of us. I have a friend who used to look me in the face and say "Nathan, God doesn't make junk and when you degrade yourself you are calling His creation junk". I have to remind myself of this constantly. In a moment of transparency I will be honest, even though I preached this last night I am having to preach this myself at the moment. I know that you and I have been created by the Ultimate Creator for His glory. I have to be reminded often that I am beloved in His eyes.

We closed the night by showing this video for Jason Gray's song "Remind Me Who I Am"

Loving God's Word

2011-09-01T10:59:00.000-04:00

In a follow up to last week's message about loving other's and praying for them, this week we looked at loving God's Word- the Bible. God has given us this incredible piece and we should worship God as we study it. We looked at Nehemiah 8:1-8 where Ezra reads from the book of the law of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). A few things to think about from these verses. Verse 3 says that the people listen attentively! They did not casually listen or daydream, but they were hinging on every word read. Verse 5 says that the people stood up. They did this in reverence and respect of God's Word. We read in verse 3 that Ezra read from early morning until midday. By this I believe that the people did not just stand for a few minutes, but they stood for a long period of time out of their respect for God's Word. Then in verse 6 it tells us that the people raise their hands, they cried Amen! and bowed down and worshipped God. They were worshipping God because He has given us such an incredible piece of information to live by in the Bible. We then discussed two challenging points that I personally have been challenged with.

1) Do you read or study the Bible?
We were asked this by a professor I had in seminary when we were studying spiritual disciplines. How often do we read something and then a few minutes later we have forgotten what we read? This is because we did not study it. If we actually take time to study God's Word, then it will have a greater impact on our lives.

2) How much do you memorize?
I looked back at some of my notes from October 2007 where I asked the following question that I first heard asked by David Nasser. He first asked the question "How old are you?". Then he asked this: "Take the number of how old you are- do you have that many verses of Scripture memorized?" Now there is nothing magic about having the same number of verses memorized as our number of years old we are, but it's something to think about. We should never memorize Bible verses out of pride or to prove our academic abilities, but in order to hide God's Word in our heart as Psalm 119:11 tells us. We learn God's Word in order to use it as a weapon against sin. But how often do we use the excuse "I'm not good at memorizing" or "I can't memorize"? It is not that we are not good enough, we just do not make it a priority in life. We all will memorize what is important to us and what we want to learn. We played a game at the beginning of the night where we each said "I'm going on a picnic and I am taking (fill in the blank). Then the next person would say the same thing and would add something. We went around the circle twice and had many things we were taking on this picnic. We all memorized that list because we wanted to at the time, just like we do with song lyrics, tv/movie quotes, etc. So if we actually want to memorize Scripture and make the effort then we will be able to.

So this was something that God has challenged me with and I believe is a great challenge for all believers. We are going to make an effort as a group to memorize more Scripture. My prayer is that you will do the same.

Loving Others

2011-08-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

This week and next at Wednesday Night Worship I am going to be sharing some of the things that God has been showing me recently in my quiet times and I think they are good lessons for us all to look at as well. As the previous two weeks the students taught lessons themselves on the spiritual armor of God and the fruit of the Spirit, these messages go hand in hand with them. As we think about how we are to love others and pray for them, here are some specific ways I want to do better at myself and wanted to challenge the students with as well.

1) Grieve Over the Sins of Others
Just as we are to grieve over our own sin, we should grieve over the sins of others. Too many times we instead judge, condemn, and get angry at the person over their sin. In Ezra 9:1-6 we see that the Israelites have once again returned to their same pattern of sin. They were becoming involved with people of other nations which God had warned them not to do because it was going to lead them to idol worship. This occurred over and over in the Old Testament and eventually led to the 70 year captivity by the Babylonians. After 70 years they began to return to their homeland and where we read this in Ezra 9 is taking place as the second group return home. So as this point they are beginning to repeat this same sinful pattern which leads Ezra to grieve. He rips his robe, pulls hair out of his head and beard, and sits in disgust. But then he gets on his knees and cries out to God. Ezra was not guilty of these sins, but he grieved because he knew how much the sin hurt God. Instead of condemning them or getting angry at them, he prayed for them. If you continue to read on in Ezra 10 we see that the people turn away from their sin and turn back to God.

2) Pray For and Thank God For Those Around You
We need to be in prayer for the people around us, even if we do not know what they need to be prayed for. How often are you going about your day and then randomly someone runs across your mind? I truly believe that this is God leading us to pray for them. The Apostle Paul wrote about half of the New Testament books and we see a common theme in his writings and that is that he prays for them and is thankful for them. Paul wrote letters of encouragement, letters to teach, and sometimes even to correct. In these there is almost always a theme of thankfulness and he mentions how he prays for them. We looked at just some of the books of the New Testament where Paul mentions this in the first few verses so we did not even look at others where he may have said it later in one way or another. We briefly looked at each of the following verses: Romans 1:8, 1 Corinthians 1:4, Philippians 1:3-4, Colossians 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 2 Timothy 1:3, Philemon 1:4.

So as we ended the night we spent some time in prayer and I asked the students to pray and consider the following questions:
-How much time to you spend in prayer?
-How much time do you spend praying for yourself vs praying for others?
-Do you grieve over the sins of others instead of condemning and judging them?
-Do you thank God for the people in your life and pray for them?

WNW 8-17-11

2011-08-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

This week Group 2 led the service and they did an amazing job as well. The lesson for the night was taken from Galatians 5:16-25 on producing spiritual fruit. A game that the students love to play is one called "Calling All Vegetables" where the point is to be make everyone else laugh and be the last one standing to not laugh and show their teeth. Well they played it but changed it to "Calling All Fruit". After a round of that they led a few songs. They actually went old school and did some old children's songs. They sang "I'm In the Lord's Army", "Father Abraham", and something else. I didn't know any of the words so I couldn't sing along :( After that Mitchell taught on the fruit of the Spirit and had 9 apples and each had a different spiritual fruit written on them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I knew that going into it that Mitchell is not one who like to speak in front of people, but he did an excellent job and did not show his nervousness at all. I am so proud of the group of students we have who are willing to be leaders and challenge one another with the Word of God.

WNW 8-10-11

2011-08-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

For a couple of weeks we are doing a project at Wednesday Night Worship that I have wanted to do for a long time and have now worked it in. Last week I divided the students into 2 groups. They then had that night to plan a Wednesday Night Worship service completely and however they wanted. They were able to utilize people from each others groups, but someone from their group had to teach a lesson. Group 1 went this week and I was extremely proud of them. They opened the night by circling the chairs and we played the game "Never Have I Ever" which is always a good time. After a welcome time we sang a few songs. They asked the youth band to lead but they chose the songs which were "My Glorious", "You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)", "From The Inside Out", then at the end we sang "Grace Like Rain". Katie taught the lesson and used Ephesians 6:10-20 on the Armor of God. For a visual example they put softball gear on Brianna. This was an excellent lesson, especially as school has started for most students. Katie wrapped up the lesson by saying that we are to put on the armor of God not to keep bad things from happening to us because they will, but instead to protect us when those bad things happen in life.

It was a great night and I am so proud of the students. They led everything from the welcome, to prayer time during the worship set leading the students to pray about the school year, closing the night in prayer, creating a slide presentation to go with the lesson, and even running Propresenter. As a youth pastor I am definitely blessed with an amazing group of students who are seeking Jesus and seeking to make a difference in this world.

Younite 2011 Closing

2011-08-05T08:00:00.003-04:00

So we did something new with this year's Younite and that was have the students stay Saturday night and incorporated Sunday into it. There was a Day 4 in there quiet time "Running to Jesus". The students were to spend some time reflecting on each day of ministry on site, as well as focus on each day of the Bible study. Then they were challenged to think of a plan of action that they would use to ensure that they run to Jesus. They closed the quiet time by reading Philippians 3:12-16. Daniel did the Sunday School lesson on this and allowed the students to share some of their experiences of Younite.

The youth band led worship at church and our song set was: Hosanna (Praise is Rising), Song of Hope, Starry Night, Running to You, Invitation-Empty Me, and after everyone was dismissed we did Opposite Way. Jason was filling in this week and his sermon title was Running the Opposite Way. He preached on Luke 19:1-10 at the life of Zaccheus. When Zaccheus met Jesus it changed him. He didn't just talked about it, but he took action. Jason said that the fruit of repentance is action, not lip service. He challenged us to consider who are we in that crowd in these verses (thief, gossip, cheater, the person following Jesus at a guilty distance, etc.). We have to take practical action and run the opposite way of the world. The message was a great challenge to us all and was a great way to wrap up this year's Younite.

Here is a longer summary video that I made to show the students Wednesday night.

Younite 2011-Long from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

Younite 2011 Day 3

2011-08-04T08:00:00.030-04:00

Day 3 of Younite was another amazing day! The Bible study and quiet time theme was "Running to Religion". This was one that I knew needed to be covered when I was writing the study, but had a difficult time getting across what I wanted the students to see. We know that religion is when we try to earn God's love by working for it. This is not possible because God loves us just the way we are, which should cause us to serve Him. Paul lived a live of religion as a Pharisee and tells of his conversion in Acts 22:3-21. The thing about Paul is that he thought he was running to God when he was persecuting Christians. He really thought that he was doing what he was supposed to be doing until he had an encounter with Jesus that changed him. What if you were thought you were running to Jesus, but instead were actually running to religion? Wouldn't you want to know? If you are running to religion you are going to feel defeated as you try to reach an unattainable goal. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:3 to be poor in spirit. When we realize that we are spiritually bankrupt apart from God, we desire to have a genuine relationship with Him instead of trying to live a life of religion.

The students spent another day at Women at the Well. They finished some of the staining they began the previous day and helped move in a staff member and her son into this new home. This was an incredible moment for the students to see how they work they were doing actually impact others. Sometimes we do not see the end product of our service but must keep faith in knowing that God is using our work.

Teddy's message this night focused on Hebrews 12:2 about fixing our eyes on Jesus. We first must ask ourselves who Jesus is in our lives. As we covered several verses that speak to the deity of Jesus Teddy challenged us with the question "What are you living for?" He went further to ask "Are you going to battle daily to fix your eyes on Christ?"

After our final group time we had a concert with They Came Running which was amazing. The students really love this band and they definitely put on a great show as they sang songs full of praise to God. It was a great way to end this year's Younite. We actually wrapped things up on Sunday, which I will talk about tomorrow. Here are some pictures of the day and the final installment of Hoarders.

Hoarders Day 3 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

Younite 2011 Day 2

2011-08-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

On Day 2 of Younite we focused on "Running to Selfish Dreams" in our quiet time and Bible study. We all have dreams in life of who we want to become, what we want to be, etc. There is nothing wrong with that. However if we realize that God has different plans for us, but we continue to pursue our own desires then they become selfish dreams. Paul talks about how nothing in life compares to following Christ in Philippians 3:7-11. Coming from Paul this means a lot. He was a well educated man who could have lived a life of prestige and power, but he realized he was wrong in those things and chose to follow Jesus instead. Jesus says in Matthew 5:6 that we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. When we not only want but actually desire God's will for us, then we leave aside any selfish dreams to follow him.

Our service project for days 2 and 3 took place on the Women at the Well campus. The students took time staining the fence for one of the staff homes, and did some work on the inside of a new home that is being finished.

The worship service this night was amazing. Teddy's message from Hebrews 12:1-2 focused on "laying aside every weight and sin". We went through many scripture during the message and spent some time on Ephesians 6:12-20 talking about the armor of God. We must use the weapon listed, the Bible, to battle temptation. When we get in the Word we are able to battle sin and run with endurance.

For our nighttime activity we spent some playing some old board games like Monopoly, Clue, Candy Land, Twister, etc. and had the Wii hooked up to play the original Super Mario Bros. This was part of what we called "flashback" day. In our morning worship we flashed back to previous years of Younite and sang those songs. The students had a great time playing these old games and hanging out.

Here are some pictures from Day 2 and the next installment of the Hoarders series.

Hoarders Day 2 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

Younite 2011 Day 1

2011-08-02T08:00:00.004-04:00

For this post I am line out Day 1 of Younite, and also a little bit about the kickoff service the night before. On Wednesday we opened the youth house for the whole church to be a part of our kickoff service and it was packed out. It was great to see so many adults there to support the students in this. Our youth band learned several new songs which was a blast. Our set list for the night was: Song of Hope, Oh Happiness, Starry Night, Running to You, Opposite Way, and Jesus Freak. It was great to finally do Opposite Way after all these years of our students ministry going by this name. It was also fun doing Jesus Freak, a song that was popular when I was a teenager.

So Day 1 began early Thursday morning and our theme for the day's Bible study was "Running to the Same Mistakes". The study talked about how we sometimes run back to repeating the same mistakes even though we try hard not to. We learn in Romans 7:19 that Paul even struggled in this area. We can all relate to this. However Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:4 that we are to mourn or grieve over the sin in our lives. When we grieve over the severity of our sin it leads to true repentance in our lives. When Daniel spoke to the group in the morning session he talked to the students about how Abraham returned to the same mistakes by lying about his wife Sarah and said that she was his sister.

Our site for the day was going to an area of McMinn County that was effected by the tornados in April and still had quite a bit of trees and damage in an old cemetery. The cemetery was on the property of a 90 year old lady who was so grateful for the students service and the students really enjoyed talking with her.

That night our speaker Teddy gave the first of 3 messages taken from our theme verses in Hebrews 12:1-2. Verse 1 tells us that there was a great cloud of witnesses. So we went back to chapter 11 and looked at these great witnesses in the Hall of Faith. We learned about the faith of great men and women such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Rahab. The people all made terribly awful mistakes but these mistakes are not what defined them, it was their great faith in God. So the challenge for the night that Teddy gave us is "What are we putting our faith in?"

We wrapped up the night by having a Singing Bee competition where the students were challenged to sing lyrics to popular Christian songs. We had a blast as students were silly and had a good time singing these songs and hanging out. Here are some pictures of Day 1 plus the first silly morning video that we showed each day called Hoarders: Church Edition. I didn't do a good job of getting pictures from the sites myself, especially since I wasn't able to be there the first day and was limited the others. Another thing is that we introduced the students to "planking" and "owling" which was quite funny.

Hoarders Day 1 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

Younite 2011 Summary

2011-08-01T10:39:00.000-04:00

We finished Younite 2011 and it was such an amazing time! My plan for this week is to go day by day with a summary of the Bible study, worship service, service project and show some pics of each day. I am in awe of how God orchestrated everything together so well in a way that is beyond us. I cannot thank everyone enough for helping out, the prayers and support, and time and effort that went into this camp. I believe that God dealt with us all and did a great work in us. I ask that you continue to pray for our students. Pray that the words that were spoken to them will continue to have an impact on their lives. Pray that their service will be used to further the kingdom of God. Pray that they will continue to be united with God's purpose.

So here is the wrap-up video we showed to the church yesterday. Tomorrow I will post a more detailed summary of Day 1 and include some pictures.

Younite 2011 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

Younite 2011

2011-07-26T09:18:00.000-04:00

After months of preparation and prayer, Younite 2011 is here, well almost. Our kickoff service is tomorrow night and then we officially begin Thursday morning. Younite is our local mission camp where we take a few days to serve those closer to home and share with them the love of Jesus. Each day we begin with a quiet time and Bible study and then we get excited for the day with some worship. Then we go out and serve in our community. Then each night we have a worship service and group discussion time. To wrap up each day we have a fun activity and then we go home to crash for a few hours before doing it again the next day. I am excited to have my friend Teddy Winter back this year to share a message each night. Another good friend of mine Daniel Rogers will be teaching the Bible study each morning and helping out in other various ways. They Came Running will be leading us in worship each night and then doing a concert to end the camp. The theme this year is "Running to You" and we will look at the following topics: "Running to the Same Mistakes", "Running to Selfish Dreams", "Running to Religion", and "Running to Jesus". We are all running to something in life but we have to ask ourselves daily "Are we running to Jesus?" Please pray for these listed and many others that will be helping out in many different ways. Please pray for the students as they serve. Pray that God will use them in a mighty way, and at the same time work in their lives. Pray that we will all continue to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus through this experience.

Prayer Stations 7/20/11

2011-07-21T09:16:00.000-04:00

This week for Wednesday Night Worship we did prayer stations. We began the night in the main room of the youth house as a group and passed around a heavy bag of rocks. I asked the students to imagine for a moment that the bag symbolized all of our burdens. The bag was heavy, it was dirty, and weighed down whoever was holding it. That's exactly how the burdens that we carry are. They weigh us down and hold us back from accomplishing God's will. Then everyone got a handful of rocks out of the bag and the bag began to get lighter. This is what happens when we bear one another's burdens in life. Galatians 6:2 tells us to "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ". We are to carry one another during the hard times in life. I then asked the students to spend a few minutes praying and asking God to reveal to them their own burdens that are weighing them down and to let the rocks in their hand represent their burdens. Then after a few minutes of prayer I asked them to come lay their rocks in the altar as they lay their burdens at the feet of Jesus just as Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7 tell us to. I challenged the students to really pray for strength from God to not pick their burdens up and when they were ready to move on to another room to go ahead.

One room had chairs with papers in them that had a maze printed on it. The instructions were to follow the maze with their fingertips and think about the people in their lives that have helped them along their journey in life. Then take some time to thank God for them and what they mean to them. They were also challenged to take a moment over the next week and personally thank them for what they have done in their life.

Another room had a prayer focus specifically on Younite that is next week. One wall had a picture of Teddy Winter our camp pastor with a little information about him. The students were to pray for him as he prepares messages for the nightly worship services and that God would speak through him the words that would pierce our hearts. Another wall had a picture of Daniel Rogers who will be leading the morning Bible study and helping out in various ways. The students were asked to pray for him and guidance in leading the Bible study each day and that God will speak truth through him. Another wall had a picture and details of the band They Came Running who will be leading worship each night. The students were to pray for them that God will lead them to the right songs that will lead us to the throne of God each night.

The last room had a Scrabble board with the instructions to take a few minutes to think about all of the attributes of God. Then they were to add one of these words to the Scrabble board and take a few minutes reading the other words praising God for who He is. We ended the night singing a few songs and I asked the students to share some of the words they placed on the board. Some of those words were "mighty", "friend", "love", etc. I told the students that as these words were connected on the Scrabble board, it is the same when we think about the attributes of God. We can't say that God is loving and not be a friend, it doesn't work that way. All of the attributes of God are connected. We can have confidence in knowing that all of the attributes of God are true.

Connect Through Service

2011-07-14T05:14:00.000-04:00

This week we finished the Connect series as I talked about how we are to connect through service and serving others. We focused mainly on Matthew 25:41-46, where Jesus is speaking about the end times. In this passage He lets us know that when we serve "the least of these", we are actually serving Him. We divided the students into 2 groups. Group 1 had to come up with the ways we ignore the needs of those around us in each of the categories from the verses: Hungry, Thirsty, Naked, Stranger/Lonely, Imprisoned, Sick. Group 2 had to come up with the ways as believers we can fulfill the needs of those in each of the same categories. We then discussed each category as a group as they shared what they had come up with. One thing that I was impressed with the students on is that not only had they discussed physical hunger and imprisonment, but spiritual hunger and imprisonment that people face.

After discussing these categories I challenged the students to think for a moment about these categories in terms of the people they go to school with. I wanted them to think about the hungry, thirsty, lonely, etc. at their school and how they should serve them. I then read John 13:34-35 to them about how people we know we are Christians by our acts of love for others. As we closed I challenged the students to think about the ways that they each most ignore the needs of those around them, and decide how they are going to change that.

Our Part in Miracles

2011-07-11T21:24:00.000-04:00

One thing that is definitely true about me is that I am very hard on and critical of myself. For whatever reason this has always been the case for as long as I can remember. I guess it has to do with my low self-esteem that I struggle with. With the pressure I and others place on myself it sometimes makes me feel that some things are unattainable. For instance "I will never reach that goal" or "My impact on others is inexistent", etc. I felt this recently one day while I struggled with insecurities and discouragements. I felt like I had not done a good enough job on something and that I had failed. Even though I had given my best effort and followed God completely at this point on the situation, I had not lived up to my own expectations, much less the possible expectations of others. So after some time of feeling discouraged I heard a quote by David Nasser that went something like this: "We are not called to perform miracles, but instead we are called to be obedient so that God can perform the miracles for us". How often do I put the pressure on myself to perform a miracle, when that is not what I was called to do. God has called you and I to obedience, and when we are obedient He takes our effort and performs a miracle with it. Not for our glory, but so that He is glorified in the situation. This was the definitely the reminder I needed that day, and every day for that matter. I need to be reminded that I can not perform miracles, but I am to be an instrument for God to point to Him as He performs the miracles. This does not mean that we sit back and do nothing, we still give our best effort. We just realize that it is out of our hands.

This reminds of me of many miracles in the Bible, but especially those in the book of Exodus. As God used Moses to lead the children of Israel out of slavery, many miracles were performed. God did use Moses to perform the miracles, but they were born out of Moses' obedience to approach Pharaoh and follow through on what God asked Him to do.

There are many things in life that I will never accomplish and many expectations that I will never live up to- set by myself and others. However if I am obedient to God and follow through in doing what He commands as I give Him my best effort, then He will perform the miracles. It is not up to me because it is beyond my capabilities. I am just thankful I get to be used as an instrument to bring Him glory. It is because of this that neither I nor anyone else should be hard on themselves or feel discouraged.

Connect Others With Christ

2011-07-07T09:17:00.000-04:00

This week we looked at how we are to connect others with Christ. Think about a 3-legged race. A great way to get hurt, but think about the dynamics of how this works. If one member is weak they usually drag the other down. This is how it works in our connections with other people, especially in our friendships. We took the time to write down a list on a dry-erase board of "Qualities of a Good Friend" and "Qualities of a Bad Friend". Some of the good qualities were: good listener, trustworthy, respects, encourager, etc. Some of the bad qualities were: liar, thief, bad communicator, back-stabber, etc. After getting a picture of what a friendship should look like we took a look at the example Jesus taught His disciples about in John 15:12-17. Jesus gives us the picture perfect example of a friendship. In fact He was describing his relationship with us and how He befriends us, if we allow Him to. We went through discussing each verse and discussed these points and more: 1) Jesus begins and ends this section of Scripture with pretty much the same statement, by giving us the command to love one another; 2) Jesus says in verse 13 that the greatest love a friend has for another is to lay down their life for them. Of course this is before Jesus died on the cross for each and every one of us. This shows us the greatest love of all.

Now that the good qualities of a friendship have been discussed, we looked at the negative impact of being around bad company. Proverbs 22:24-25 shows us why is it important to not be around angry people because it rubs off on us. The same is spoken in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that tells us that bad company corrupts our morals. If we are around people with bad qualities, they are more than likely to rub off on us. What should take place within our friendships is what Proverbs 27:17 says that we sharpen each other. When we consider our relationship with Jesus, if we are spending time with Him as we should then He will be sharpening us. We then should be sharpening our other friends as we set a godly example. As we closed with a time of prayer I challenged the students to ask God to search their hearts and reveal to them if they are being a negative or positive influence on their friends, and also if their friends are being a positive or negative influence on themselves. I then challenged them to not only think of ways that they can be a better friends, but to make a decision to actually do those things.

Connect With Love

2011-06-30T09:22:00.000-04:00

This week at Wednesday Night Worship we focused on how we are to all be connected with love. We spent time in Romans 12:9-18, reading it verse by verse discussing each. We had a student write on a white board all of the commands from these verses. We looked at the list of commands and discussed how some are easy, while some are hard. Some days the whole list is easy as we rely on God for strength. Other days it is very hard to love those around us. When we think about all the people we are connected with, if we are not loving each other as we are commanded in these verses then we fall apart. I challenged the students to consider this thought as next month we will be involved in Younite, our local mission camp. We ended the night with two students holding a rope across the front. I made up several scenarios of how our group can be disobedient in this area of love and with each I used a knife to make cuts in the rope until it eventually fell apart. It was then a useless, cut up rope that was laying on the ground. When we do not follow through on these commands of love then we become useless as a group. We are unable to be used like we were intended to. We must stay connected with love.

Baptism 6-27-11

2011-06-27T11:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had the privilege of baptizing my first student. Austin came to me at the end of January to talk and I had the honor of leading him to Jesus that day. A while later Austin asked me to baptize him and said that he wanted to be my first. During the summer we go old school for baptisms- that means getting in the creek! It was cold but it was great. It really was a privilege getting to baptize Austin yesterday. It's funny because he is actually taller than me. I never thought I would have to baptize someone taller than me. I didn't take that into play and I felt like I almost went under with him! Anyway it was such a great day and moment in ministry. Here is a video and some pictures of it.

Baptism 6-26-11 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

Relating to Those Who Hurt Us

2011-06-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

For the next few weeks we will be looking at the Connect theme that we focused on while we were at camp with some after camp messages. This week we looked at "Relating to Those Who Hurt Us". When we are hurt it is our natural human desire to retaliate, however we learn from the life of Jesus that this is not what our response should be. We see how Peter hurts Jesus in Luke 22:54-61 as he denies Jesus three times. At this moment is says that Jesus looks at Peter. It is not that He looks at him with anger, but because He is hurt. Of course we do not see Jesus retaliate. We know that Jesus' forgives Peter and makes it known to Peter himself in John 21:15-17. It is apparent that Jesus has forgiven Peter by the fact that He commands Peter to do His work. Someone would not give another person such an important job to do if they had not forgiven them.

This forgiveness is exactly what Jesus had taught His disciples in the past in Matthew 5:38-41. In Jewish society a slap was not considered violent like we would consider it, but was instead the highest insult one could give someone. Also in Jewish society of a person was sued, they were never expected to give up their outer cloak because it might be their only way of keeping warm. Then under Roman law a soldier had the right to force a person to carry a message for them at least one mile. Jesus is not telling them to let people take advantage of them and to hurt them without defending themselves. Instead He is teaching the importance of not retaliating when we are hurt. Retaliation and revenge is not motivated by justice, but is motivated by anger. Jesus expects His followers to act toward others as He has acted toward us, by grace and forgiveness. We must consider Jesus' forgiveness and grace toward our own sin and forgive those who have hurt us. If you are struggling in this area, ask God to give you His heart of love and mercy for those who have hurt you. Ask Him to give you the strength to forgive.

MFuge 2011 Wrap-Up

2011-06-20T16:32:00.001-04:00

I could not be more excited about what all God did last week at MFuge in Williamsburg, KY. It is amazing how the students grew in the relationships with God and grew closer as a group. The unity within them right now is simply amazing. I am so humbled and excited to be a part of such a great group of students. My prayer is that they continue growing closer to God and each other, as they grow closer to those who were not at camp. As we wrapped up the last few hours of camp we of course sang our hearts out to our favorite new worship song "Like a Lion", grabbed pictures with everyone, and then took a trip over to Cumberland Falls State Park. Of course all the Fuge staffers wanted to get their pictures taken with cardboard Joseph and many signed his back. As we pulled back into the church parking lot it was a bit different than any other trip I have been a part of. Everyone told everyone bye, gave hugs, etc. and it was obvious the glow about everyone. The only thing that went bad the whole trip was that on the last night our church van was broken into and my GPS was stolen. This can be replaced and has no matter on the Kingdom of God and so it was not a big deal at all. Locks can be fixed and GPS's can be replaced. I am so thankful that God led us to the University of the Cumberlands this week. Here are some pictures from the last day.

These last three pictures are my favorite from the whole week!

MFUGE 2011 Day 4

2011-06-17T00:21:00.000-04:00

Today we wrapped up our last day of going to our track site. My group specifically went to another apartment complex to spend time ministering and playing to the children that lived there. Today's Bible study was about connecting to family and friends. The scripture we looked at was in Matthew 17 when Jesus took Peter, James, and John upon the mountain of transfiguration and also in Matthew 16 when Jesus foretells His death and Peter rebukes Him. The worship service tonight was very powerful. We have all grown to love the song "Like a Lion" by David Crowder Band as it has been so powerful to sing this week. In our group devotions I challenged the students to again consider Matthew 17 and this inner circle that Jesus had that included Peter, James, and John. We also need an inner circle of believers that together we grow closer to God, challenge each other in our walk with God, and speak truth to one another. As I wrapped it up for the week I told them how I had considered and prayed about what to say and how there is the usual "take this passion back home" and "don't let the fire burn out". However as I considered this I kept coming to the phrase "Be Real". I explained that over the past bit we have discussed and learned about what it means to be a true Christian- a Christ follower. Since we know this, then we need to go home and be real as a Christ follower. The world is looking for people who will not only claim to be a follower of Jesus, but that their life matches that as well.

I tried to take a lot more pictures today. Tonight was Mega Relay which was fun to watch the students compete and see their game faces. Of course Cardboard Joseph continued to be ever so popular!

MFUGE 2011 Day 3

2011-06-16T00:28:00.000-04:00

Another day of MFuge is complete and it was another great one. Today's Bible study lesson was on respecting those in authority. A tough topic but one that is definitely necessary for all of us to hear. My track group visited a special needs group at a local church and participated in a worship service with them. Then after lunch we did a worship service at a local nursing home. The worship service tonight was excellent. The music was powerful in the beginning and then we were challenged further in this area of authority. Pastor Erik spoke about how Jesus' authority over us is rooted in our relationship with Him. The purpose of God is not to get us to be good by following a bunch of rules, but for us to be His dedicated follower. We can follow all rules, but if we do not love God and love others then everything else falls and is worthless. After the invitation the worship band came back out and led a few more songs, and it was really what I needed personally. As I work to make sure everything is in order for our group, I still need to take a breather and allow God to speak to me and this was a moment of refreshment. As we sang one of my favorite worship songs "Hosanna", my favorite line of the song spoke to me once again: "Break my heart for what breaks Yours!" In these few minutes of worship I sensed the Holy Spirit lead me to change what I had planned for group devotions. Instead we had some discussion about how the day was and what God was speaking to the students with, or what they are struggling with. After a great time of sharing we spent time in prayer. I asked the students to pray quietly considering what had been taught today, and if they needed to they could pray with one another. During this time I spent a few minutes with each student asking them about their prayer needs and praying with them individually. I don't know about them but this was really good for me. I love these students and I love hearing their fears, concerns, needs, and lifting them up to our incredible God. I am so thankful for this group of students and what God is doing in their lives this week.

A few notes of fun: I kept my winning steak alive by winning a cool Fuge coffee mug. We have an incredible church group leader. I actually wore a jacket at camp for the first time ever because I'm usually sweating buckets but not today. Tonight was the variety show and while it wasn't as "interesting" as last year it was still fun. I did not do a good job of taking pictures today but here are a few, and a majority of my pics are of Malee and Krista since they are in my track group.

MFUGE 2011 Day 2

2011-06-14T23:54:00.000-04:00

Today was our first day on track and we could not have asked for a greater day! The sky was a bit overcast, there was a nice breeze, and the temperature was in the upper 70's. Absolutely perfect to be outside serving God! My track group spent the day ministering to kids in an apartment complex and we had a blast. God is definitely working through us and in the lives of our students. Today's Bible study lesson focused on reaching the lost. The question asked in Bible study that stayed with me all day was "Who introduced you to Jesus?" My mom and dad introduced me to Jesus. As I pondered on that I was overcome with emotion and gratitude toward my parents for this. As I spent time thinking on it all day I knew it needed to be our main discussion point in church group devotions. We had a great time discussing this and what we were a part of on our track sites today. One student shared about how after sensing God calling them into some sort of ministry that she had clearly heard from God tonight! How exciting it is when God calls His children to follow Him and they listen! It was definitely a sweet day all around.

A couple of fun notes. I was one of four youth pastors called on stage for the GLOD (Group Leader of the Day) Games. After two difficult rounds I was declared the winner! I won't even explain what I had to do but I know I looked absolutely ridiculous. Then Brad Bradford was given the "Golden Driver of the Day" award. The night life tonight was a game show and we were encouraged to dress like our favorite cartoon character. Mitchell Fox dressed up as Curious George and competed on stage as well.

MFuge 2011 Day 1

2011-06-14T00:55:00.000-04:00

Well we are here in Williamsburg, KY at The University of the Cumberlands for MFuge 2011! We could not be more excited about this week! This is a beautiful campus, we have great leaders, and a great group of students who are ready to be used and grow closer to God. I know that that God is going to do great things through us and within our group this week. The theme this year is "Connect" and we are going to be looking at our relationships and our influence in leading others to Christ as we focus on the relationship between Jesus and Peter. I believe the worship band and the camp pastor are going to do a great job this week. I am personally excited as I am in a group that is a combination of Social and Children's tracks. We will be doing a VBS type setting a couple of days for apartment complexes in the area. Then one day will be split ministering to a local special needs group and then a nursing home. Others in our group will be serving at a girl's camp, painting, serving at food banks, etc. One funny thing is that since Joseph had to back out last minute because of Summer school, we took him in cardboard form. I am pretty sure that he is currently the most popular man on campus. They even game him a t-shirt and name tag. Before making it to camp we even snuck him in a few pics shopping.

VBS 2011 Night 5

2011-06-10T13:03:00.000-04:00

We wrapped up VBS last night with our final lesson. After playing some frisbee keep-away and a worship set we looked at how we can live our lives out in Christ. As we closed the week we brought everything together with the following points:

1) Obey What God Says- Acts 1:1-11
-They disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem, and so that's exactly what they did.
-Sometimes obeying God means we have to wait on Him. Not because He is slow, but because His timing is perfect and He may want us to grow closer to Him while we wait.
2) Talk About God- Acts 2:1-6; 36-40
-When we think of how an electronic device such as a cell phone works, we understand that there is a power source.
-The Holy Spirit is our source of power once we are saved.
-When we talk about God, the Holy Spirit speaks through us.
3) Be Active in Church- Acts 2:41-47
-We see in this passage the early church and how they started- and were effective.
-Going to church is not enough. You must listen, make yourself available, and apply what you hear taught.

As we closed the night I asked the students to take some time to consider if they are having a consistent prayer life and daily time of reading the Bible. Until you make an effort in these areas you will never grow as a Christian and will not be able to be used by God.

Here are a couple pictures from the night.

MFUGE Public Service Announcements

2011-06-09T15:13:00.000-04:00

A couple of students and I recently put together some public service announcements to show regarding our upcoming MFuge camp that we leave for on Monday. It is funny because there are always those "things" that we laugh at when it comes to camp and retreats. There are definitely some inside jokes in some of these relating to years past, but you should get the idea we are presenting. Of course we are still confused as to why there was a monkey suit in our church attic and felt the need to put it to good use in these videos. There are 6 videos but they are all less than one minute long. I hope you enjoy.

MFUGE PSA 1 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

MFUGE PSA 2 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

MFUGE PSA 3 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

MFUGE PSA 4 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

MFUGE PSA 5 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

MFUGE PSA 6 from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

VBS 2011 Night 4

2011-06-09T14:22:00.001-04:00

Continuing on in VBS, night 4 was a blast just like the others. We began the night by playing a game of wiffle ball, which was interesting. Then after cooling down, watching a silly video, and a worship set we dove right into the lesson. We broke into group to take a look at how we can help others become Christians. It is easy for us to talk about those things we know about. The same goes with talking about Jesus and our faith. If we do not know much about Jesus, then we can not share with others about Him. We broke this down by looking at the following three points.

1) Start With Where They Are- John 4:1-12
-In this passage Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well. Normally a Jewish person would not even associate with a Samaritan, however Jesus did not see this woman the way most would.
-You have to meet a lost person where they actually are physically, but you also need to meet them where they are emotionally and understand what they may be facing in order to make a connection.
2) Connect the Ordinary With the Spiritual- John 4:13-26
-Jesus talks about the living water that she is in need of, which is Him.
-We discussed how we can connect with people in everyday situations that they may face.
3) Encourage Other Believers to Share- John 4:27-42
-The beauty in this passage is that once the Samaritan woman is changed by Jesus, she is not quiet about it and many others are saved as a result.
-Not only are we commanded to share our faith, but here we read an example of how it actually works!

When we are changed by Jesus, we should not be quiet about. We should not even be able to be quiet about. The Samaritan woman could not be quiet and as a result many became believers because of her testimony. The thought we closed with for the night is this: You can't share something that you do not have. It's simple, if you do not have a relationship with Jesus, then you can not share with others about what one looks like.

Here are some pictures from Day 4:

VBS 2011 Night 3

2011-06-08T11:16:00.000-04:00

Night 3 of VBS was an extremely important one as we discussed salvation through Jesus Christ. We began the night with some recreation time playing a game where everyone joined hands and there was a chair in the middle. The object of the game was to get everyone to touch the chair without you touching the chair yourself. Once someone touched it they left the circle making it smaller. After a couple rounds of that we changed the chair to a hula-hoop on the ground which made it a greater challenge. After that and an acoustic worship set, we dove into the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus to find out about salvation and defined the following steps.

1) Recognize Your Need- John 3:1-3
-We began this part by defining some needs and wants in our lives and the difference. Many times we confuse the two.
-Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he recognizes that there is a need in His life. He understands that living a life of religion is not what it is about. We all have a need in our life because of the sin we have. We have the need for a savior.
2) Discover the Role of Jesus in Giving New Birth- John 3:4-14
-Nicodemus has a hard time understanding what Jesus says about being born again. Jesus is not talking about a second physical birth, but instead about how when we make a life change in following Him, it is a new birth where the old person is no longer and we have a new life that follows Jesus with our whole being. It takes placing our faith in Jesus for this new birth to occur.
3) Trust Jesus for This New Birth- John 3:15-18
-Jesus tells Nicodemus that He has come to earth to die for the sins of all humankind. In order for the new birth to occur, we must place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

So as we closed the night I wrapped it up by reiterating the plan of salvation. We must first recognize our need in a Savior because our sin has separated us from God and destined us for hell. We must believe that Jesus died on the cross in the place of our sins and rose from death three days later. We must ask Jesus to forgive our sins, and ask Him to come live within us and commit our lives to following Him the rest of our lives. It does not mean that we will be perfect because we all fail, but we make a commitment to strive to live for Him by giving Him our best. If you have never made a decision to follow Jesus then I encourage you to do that today, because it is the most important decision you will ever make in life.

Here are a few pictures from Day 3.

VBS 2011 Night 2

2011-06-08T10:53:00.001-04:00

I'm just now getting a chance to update on the past couple of nights in VBS but they have been great. After playing a few intense rounds of amoeba tag and some worship, we dove into the night's lesson. The life question was "How can I show my love for Jesus". We opened up with a discussion of talking about the things in life that we love. How do you know if you love something? It shows doesn't it? So if we love Jesus then our life will reflect it. We looked at the Scripture of where there woman washed Jesus' feet with her tears, perfume, and her hair. We see a beautiful example of how our love for Jesus leads us to action and looked at the following points.

1) Love is Generous- Luke 7:36-38

-At this moment a pharisee invites Jesus to his house and the woman who was a sinner began to wash Jesus' feet. She shows her love through a generous act.

-The woman washed Jesus' feet using the perfume/ointment from an alabaster jar. This was probably her most valuable possession costing nearly a year's worth of salary for the average person. In other words, she was giving Jesus her best gift. Think to yourself, would you ever give your most valuable gift to Jesus?

2) Love Responds to Forgiveness- Luke 7:39-43

-At this moment the pharisee responds to Jesus by saying that if He knew who was touching His feet, a sinner, that He would not be so receptive.

-Jesus then tells a parable of two debtors who both were forgiven of their debts. One owed a small amount and the other a large amount. This was to show that if we have been forgiven of much, then we should be grateful and respond with love.

-The pharisee was probably not talking quietly about this woman. She would have been sitting right there and hearing his hurtful words. Do you ever put anyone down? Do you ever look down on someone else because you do not think they are as good as you?

3) Love Reveals Kindness and Faith- Luke 7:44-50

-Jesus points out that this woman shows kindness to Him and that her faith is revealed through her actions. What do your actions say about you? Would the people around you say that you are a follower of Christ?

As we closed the night we took a moment to reflect on whether or not our actions are reflecting our love for Jesus. When we consider His love for us and His forgiveness, we have no other way to respond but to take action in following Him, serving Him, and sharing that love with others. Answer this statement to yourself: "Because I have been forgiven, I will (fill in the blank).

Here are a few pictures from the night.

VBS 2011 Night 1

2011-06-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

Last night kicked off our 2011 Vacation Bible School. We had a great group of students come out and I believe this is going to be a great week. We began the night with a time of recreation, which we had to move inside because of the rain. We started off with a little friendly game of Samurai where the students has the opportunity to fight with samurai swords, well actually just pool noodles. After that we had them go a few rounds of the human knot in smaller groups. Then they all joined together to make one larger human knot to unravel. It was fun to watch them work together and work hard but after 17 minutes of trying to untangle each other, we decided to stop and hopefully tackle it again at some point in the week.

After a worship set we dove right into the lesson. The theme for the week is "In Transit- Maximize Your Moments". We live in a fast paced society and must take time to consider if we are making the most of the moments in our lives. The theme is based on Romans 10:17 that says "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ". Each night there is a life question for us to look at and this night's question was "Can I ask Jesus to help me or someone I love?" We broke the students up into 3 groups giving each a set of scripture and stuff to discuss. Then we discussed all the scriptures together as a whole. The following are three points we looked at to answer the life question.

1) Jesus is willing to help us and those we love- Matthew 8:1-13

-Just as Jesus was willing to help those in these verses, Jesus is willing to help us.

-We can approach Jesus about our cares and concerns even when we think that nobody else cares.

-We discussed some of the excuses we give for not going to Jesus with our cares and concerns and how silly that is.

2) Jesus cares about whatever is a concern to you- Matthew 8:14-17

-Jesus displays in these verses how He cares about the things that we care about no matter how big or small they may seem.

-We talked about the people in our lives that we know care about us and how we know they care.

-We discussed why we do not trust that Jesus cares about our worries and instead hold on to them, which is silly and weighs us down.

3) Jesus can calm the storms in our lives- Matthew 8:23-27

-As the disciples were scared about the storm, we discussed the things in our lives that scare us.

-As we look at how Jesus calmed this physical storm, we can be at peace in knowing that Jesus can also calm the storms in our lives. We must understand that Jesus may not change our circumstances around us, but He will be there for us giving us peace and strength through any situation if we allow Him to.

We closed the night in prayer as I encouraged the students to think about any tough situation that they may be facing. I encouraged them to then give the situation over to Jesus as we know from Hebrews 4:16 that we can approach Jesus with confidence. He will never leave us nor forsake us, He will never let you down. He may answer your prayer in a different way and timing than you want but He knows what is best for you.

This was a great night as we kicked off Vacation Bible School. I believe that God is going to do some great things in our lives this week. My favorite moment of the night was when one of the students shared his heart on a specific unreached people group but also challenged us all in reaching the lost. He gave a brief testimony of what God is doing in his life. I never get tired of hearing about how God is making a difference in people's lives! Here are a few pictures from the night.

Wisdom

2011-06-02T08:58:00.000-04:00

In wrapping up the series and study on the book of Proverbs we took a look at wisdom this week. Since Solomon wrote most of the book of Proverbs and obviously had so much wisdom, where did it come from? We can read in 2 Chronicles 1 that God told Solomon that He would give him whatever he asked. Solomon responded wisely by saying that God had made him king over more people than the dust of the earth and that he would need wisdom to lead them. So this is what God gave him. We learn a great thing here in that we should be asking God for wisdom daily.

We looked at three aspects of what wisdom is. In the past we had looked at our speech with others, but this night focused on our speech with God.
1) Wisdom is Listening
We can not gain wisdom without listening to wise teaching, the Bible, and God's instructions. Proverbs 18:15 tells us that the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Proverbs 15:31 shows us that a wise person listens to correction. Sometimes we do not like to be corrected. However a wise person listens to correction from God and allows that correction to grow them. Proverbs 28:9 tells us that not listening to what the Bible teaches us but still asking God for whatever is detestable or is an abomination. I believe that what this means is that when we try to live life on our own without listening to what God tells us, but then still go to Him and ask Him for what we want that it breaks His heart.

2) Wisdom is Not Speaking
Many times we go to God with our requests, but we never stop speaking long enough to listen to what He has to say to us. We will sometimes complain about not hearing from God but we are not taking the time to listen to Him because we do not stop speaking. Proverbs 10:19 teaches us that a wise person is one that holds his lips.

3) Wisdom is Learning From Past Mistakes
Proverbs 26:11 is a verse that we laugh at but it actually a warning about foolishness. When we sin, ask forgiveness, but then go back and commit the same sin again it is foolishness. It is as foolish as a silly dog who returns to his own vomit. A dog does not have the sense to know better, but we do. We all fall and make mistakes, but if we are growing spiritually mature then we grow wise to not make the same sinful mistakes over and over. True Repentance = Wisdom

As we closed I reminded the students that wisdom is not as easy as it looks. It takes time and effort to become wise. Just as a musician has to practice over time to become skilled, we must also grow in our relationship with God over time.

All is Not Lost

2011-05-31T08:30:00.000-04:00

This past Friday I made one of the stupidest mistakes I have ever made. I was home on my day off but needed to send a couple of work emails and was then going to spend the rest of the day doing whatever. I decided to get a bowl of cereal and was eating it at the same time I was typing an email. Well the unthinkable occurred and I spilled milk on my Macbook! I immediately got up, poured any milk on the laptop on me. I turned the power off and dried it off as best as I could. I immediately called Apple's tech support to find out what I should do, which they advised I needed to take it to an Apple store to get it checked out before even attempting to turn it on. I took it and after they looked at it they advised it needed to be sent off to determine if it could be salvaged. So now I must wait about a week to find out if the computer is ok. The thing is, I am ok if the computer does not work. However my data was not backed up and I could potentially lose hours and hours worth of work if the hard drive is destroyed. I must say that at the thought of this I was devastated. How could I make such a terribly stupid mistake? Friday was not a good day at all. They said that more than likely the hard drive will be ok, but we do not know yet.

After a couple of days of worrying about it, I felt God speak to me concerning this. I felt God say that whether or not I lose the computer, or lose the data, it is still ok. I still have my health, my family, my home, my job, and most importantly Jesus. I am reminded of a quote by Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace is turned into a dragon and later that night is lying on the beach and crying over what has happened to him. Reepicheep walks over to him to console him and makes the statement "All is not lost". I certainly do not want to lose my computer. I even more so do not want to lose the data on the hard drive. But if I do, all is not lost. I have so much to be thankful for. I have faith that my hard drive will be ok, but if not I do believe that God will guide me as I work hard to recover some of the work I had already done. While there will still be much I cannot recover in work, pictures, etc. I still know that all is not lost.

Emotions

2011-05-26T10:59:00.000-04:00

This week in our Proverbs series we took a look at emotions. Our emotions are powerful and can cause us to be paralyzed with fear or depression or can lead us to be ecstatic with a good memory or something good happening to us. We can not trust our emotions because they are fickle and are always changing. Everyone experiences a wide array of emotions whether we admit it or not. It is very important that we understand this in order to better understand others and help them through difficult times. We looked at three things concerning our emotions and the emotions of those around us.

1) Emotions are Powerful
Our emotions can lead us high and low. When we experience good emotions we feel better and have more energy. On the other hand when we experience low emotions it makes us weak and can even lead to sickness. As we read in Proverbs 14:30 and Proverbs 15:30 our emotional well-being is linked to our health. If we are in constant stressful situations and experience these emotions, our health can deteriorate. Stress causes heart problems and depression weakens the immune system. This is why it is important to understand that our emotions are powerful enough to not only effect us now but they can also have an effect on us later on in regards to our health.

2) Don't Hide Your Emotions
Proverbs 14:13 talks about how we can laugh on the outside but be hurting on the inside. Sometimes people hide their emotions because they are embarrassed by their circumstances or they are embarrassed to show their emotions publicly. If someone asks us how we are doing then we should be honest with them if we are not fine.

3) Empathize With Other People's Emotions
On the flipside of being honest with others about your emotions is that you should also care about other people's emotions. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings or emotions of another person. Do not ask someone how they are doing unless you are willing to hear the truth. One of the biggest frustrations we have endured is when someone will ask how we are doing in a rush and do not stop to hear the truth because they do not care how we are. They are simply asking out of obligation. Take the time to walk in other people's shoes. Never judge someone on their emotions.

We closed with the following thoughts before breaking up for discussion. It's ok to be emotional because that is how we are made- however it is never ok to be a drama queen/king. Eventually you are going to need someone to be there for you but they might not be there if you are always causing drama. Then finally we can rejoice in the fact that we never have to be alone in anything we experience. We have Jesus to guide us and comfort us through anything we may experience. We must take advantage of that and rely on Him.

Work Ethic

2011-05-19T08:52:00.000-04:00

As we continued our study in Proverbs we focused this week on work ethic. Work is a way of life and has existed since creation. However because of Adam and Eve's sin, the curse was placed that work would not be hard. While work is hard it is our human tendency to be lazy. We must understand what God's Word says about work so that we will have a better attitude toward work. Here are the points we looked at concerning work ethic.

1) God Honor's Hard Work
Many times we do not work hard because we do not think it is necessary or because we do not care. Whether it is chores, our job, or school work we must work hard and give our best effort. Proverbs 10:4 and Proverbs 14:23 both show us that hard work will bring us blessings while laziness will lead to poverty.

2) Work With a Purpose
You must see value in the work you are doing whether it is at school, a job, or chores. If you see value in the work you are doing you are going to work hard and not slack. Proverbs 10:5 shows us that when we work with a purpose we are preparing for our future.

3) Laziness Leads to Addictions
Laziness and self-control are related to each other. When we are lazy we choose our own comfort over work which leads to a "me-centered" life. A "me-centered" life leads to addictions as we feed our "me" attitude with something to feed our lazy desires. This can be anything from drugs, alcohol, and pornography, to something we do not even realize we can be addicted to like entertainment, acceptance, friends, church, school, and even sometimes work itself. The addiction is a wasteful habit and becomes an idol in our life.

So if you still have any questions as to why we should work hard then take a look at Colossians 3:22-24. This means that whatever we are doing we must realize we are doing it for Jesus. If we truly realize this then we are going to have a better attitude toward the work, and give it our best effort. This means whether it is chores, a summer job, homework, or even bible study as you seek to grow in your relationship with God. The decision and attitude you make toward these things now will determine how you work when you have a full-time job and are trying to provide for your family.

Are You Looking For Him?

2011-05-17T09:13:00.000-04:00

Nearly two and half years ago I purchased a one-year daily Bible that each day gives you a portion to read from the Old and New Testaments, Psalms, and Proverbs. With school Bible reading and my own choosing to do another reading plan, I have put this Bible down several times and have recently picked back up with hopes to finish the last 20%. I am pretty sure that I have read the Bible completely, but have no other way than this to benchmark that. Anyway, while I usually make jokes with the students about reading Leviticus, if I am honest I normally struggle to find it exciting to read 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Sure there are plenty of great lessons for us to read and learn about, but sometimes the king lineage can be tedious. However over the past couple days there have been some great things that I have read out of 2 Chronicles, one of which I want to think about today.

In 2 Chronicles 15 we read that King Asa has committed his life to serving God and influences his people as well. In the 15th year of King Asa's rule he gathers all the people in Jerusalem where they make sacrifices to God and commit their lives to following God. They celebrate this commitment with a loud shout and blast of the trumpets and sheep horns. Then in verse 15 they rejoice because of their commitment to God. The New Century Version states in verse 15 "They looked for God and found Him". Pretty simple statement, right? How often do we say we are committed to God, but do not look for Him? I know we do not have to search for God because we do not know where He is. I mean that we search for Him by daily seeking Him through prayer, Bible study, and by seeking His will for our lives. Because if we seek for God like we should then it is pretty simple, we find Him just like verse 15 states. My prayer for you today is that if you are tired, weary, angry, or whatever in your relationship with God that you would start fresh today. I pray that you will make an effort to seek God as you know you should. Know that you will not have an instant emotional change because our relationship with God is definitely more than just emotions. I pray that you will seek God with all your heart because you will find Him, and as Jeremiah 29:13-14 in the Message says "When you coming looking for me, you'll find me. 'Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed."

If Money Talks...What Is It Saying?

2011-05-12T13:14:00.000-04:00

For a few weeks we are going to use Wednesday nights to finish a Bible Study we were doing on Sunday nights on the book of Proverbs. This week we looked at money and just a small bit of what the Bible tells us about money. We began the night by playing the game "Who Wants To Win a Dollar Bill" where a student won a dollar bill by answering biblical trivia questions. I know that a dollar is not a whole lot so I also gave them a free ticket to the upcoming JFest concert we are attending. The Bible has over 2300 verses on the subject of money. This shows us how important is it that we have a biblical view of money because as Matthew 6:21 tells us, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We must first understand that all money belongs to God as Psalm 24:1 tells us The earth is the Lord's, and all i contains. We looked at the following four points concerning how we should learn to handle our money.

1) Save For Purchases Instead of Using Debt

Proverbs 22:7 tells us that we are slaves when we are in debt. We discussed how not all debt is necessarily bad (for instance a home mortgage). However we talked about the fact that if you can save up for a purchase then it is best to delay owning it and making a sacrifice until you can actually afford it.

2) Save Instead of Hoard

Proverbs 11:24 tells us that if we hoard money (holding without need) will only leave us wanting more. We should save for purchases as discussed in point #1, as well as for emergencies. Genesis 41 we read that Joseph had them store up during for the years of famine. We learn here a great example of how we should save and that it is completely different from hoarding.

3) Giving

Proverbs 28:27 gives us a stern warning about giving. We hear in church often about giving a tithe which means 10%. We discussed how this is actually a good starting point but Jesus encouraged to give more. In Mark 12:41-44 the widow only had two coins to give, but she gave all she had and gave from her heart. On the other hand the pharisees were giving out of their excess. We have to learn the importance of giving sacrificially.

4) Don't Seek Being Rich

Today most teens want to grow up to be rich and famous. Proverbs 23:4-5 gives a stern warning regarding seeking riches since money is only a temporary thing. Getting rich should never be your goal in life. God may choose to bless you with riches, but you should not spend much time dwelling on the thought of it. You might have to wear yourself working hard at times to provide for your family, but you should never wear yourself out working hard in order to become rich.

We then broke into groups to discuss a few questions concerning money. One of which the students shared a foolish purchase that they have made at one point. Then we ended the night with some worship singing songs that focused on how God is all we need.

7- Part 4 "Perfection"

2011-05-09T10:43:00.000-04:00

Behind on blogging but hopefully will be better at updating. This past week at Wednesday Night Worship we finished the series called "7- Words From the Cross" looking at the theme of perfection in the words that Jesus spoke. We focused on the final two things spoken from the cross in John 19:30- "It is finished!" and Luke 23:46- "Father into Your hands I commit My Spirit".

First we looked at Luke 23:46- "Father into Your hands I commit My Spirit". Jesus is quoting Psalm 31:5 here. The beautiful thing we see here is Jesus' willingness to die for us. He was "committing" His Spirit. When we commit to doing something, we are doing it willingly and because we want to and not out of obligation. Jesus was willing to give up His life for you and I.

Next we focused on John 19:30- "It is finished!". It is important to note that Jesus did not say "I" but "It". This means the Law had been fulfilled, the price had been paid, and that His sacrifice was perfect and complete. The Greek verb that John uses here is "tetelastai". This word would have been used when a person paid off a debt. The word "tetelestai" would mean and signify that the debt had been paid in full, it was fulfilled, and no other payment was needed. Jesus' death on the cross was perfect and no other payment is needed to cover our sins. We only need to accept Him.

This is so important because today there are many people who believe that there are many roads to heaven. We know that this is completely untrue. When Jesus said "It is finished", He was essentially putting the exclamation mark on John 14:6 when He said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me". Jesus did not say I am a way, but instead said the way. It is so important to know this truth as we are faced today with a word that believes otherwise. We finished the night by showing this video from Matt Papa called "It is Finished".

Disciple Now 2011

2011-04-29T11:10:00.000-04:00

This weekend is our 2011 Disciple Now Weekend. Last night was our kickoff where we had a great time of food and fellowship, worship, and time to get to know our group leaders. This year's theme is Sequence and focuses on Matthew 16:24- Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." When we think of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, we can sometimes get that out of order. We just want to follow Him and then maybe later if we feel like it then we will deny ourselves. This is out of sequence if we think this way. The point that Jesus is making here is that it is costly to follow Him. However when we consider the love that He has for us, the cost is nothing in comparison to what He has done for us. This weekend the students will be taking a look at the true cost of discipleship. Sometimes it is costly, and sometimes we may look radical. Either way we are obedient when we follow Jesus the way that we should.

I am excited about this weekend and am praying that it will be a weekend that changes the lives of the students involved. Please join me in praying that this will have a huge impact on the lives of these students. We will also have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus and serve some people in the community by doing some clean up work that was suffered from the terrible storms we encountered the other day.

As is my custom for Disciple Now, I had to make a silly video. This video has ties in with all the silly videos we make. We of course had to play on a popular song right now that sticks in your head. Disclaimer #1- Ariel who is in the video is not the one singing. She actually has an incredible voice. Disclaimer #2- there is no way else to describe this than just a stupid video so if you are looking for a video to enrich you, then this certainly is not it :)

Disciple Now Friday from Opposite Way Ministries on Vimeo.

7- Part 3 "Loneliness"

2011-04-21T08:59:00.000-04:00

Continuing along this week in the "7" series, we focused on the subject of loneliness. While sometimes it is nice to be alone, we never like the thought of being lonely. The moment on the cross that we studied this week shows us what is probably the darkest moment in history as Jesus experiences loneliness like He never had, and in a way that we never have to.

As we read Matthew 27:45-49 we looked that the statement Jesus made "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?" There is a lot going on around this statement that I wanted the students to understand before thinking about loneliness. This is the only statement that Jesus made from the cross that is in more than one Gospel, the other being in Mark 15:34. Jesus is quoting Psalm 22:1. They give Jesus a drink in verse 48 because He would have there made the statement "I am thirsty" that is listed in John 19:28.

Next, many thought that they were calling for Elijah. First of all when He said "Eli, Eli" it would have sounded close to the Hebrew name for Elijah. Also based on tradition from the last two verses in Malachi, they believed that Elijah would come before the Messiah. The thing is they were still looking for Elijah to come, but they had missed that it was John the Baptist that Malachi is talking about here. Jesus explained to his disciples in Matthew 17:10-13 that John the Baptist is the Elijah that many had been looking for but did not recognize.

Verse 45 tells us that darkness fell over the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. This would have been from 12 noon to 3 pm. On a normal day it would be sunny and bright during this time, but not on this day. I believe this quite darker than a regular overcast, I believe it was very dark. I am sure to have been alive at this moment you could sense the heaviness of what was taking place. Darkness fell as in this moment Jesus bore the sins of all mankind and Jesus was experiencing God's righteous anger.

Jesus asked "Why have you forsaken me?". I do not for a moment believe that Jesus was asking this question as not knowing what was going on. But instead was crying out in agony. He had experience physical pain from the beatings and the torture. He had experienced emotional pain from being ridiculed and rejected. Now He was experiencing an emotional pain like no other. The word forsaken means to leave or abandon. At this moment since Jesus was bearing the sins of all mankind, God had to temporarily turn His back on Jesus. In this moment Jesus experienced abandonment by God. Until now they had experienced uninterrupted fellowship, but now that stopped. Jesus was experiencing heartbreak like never before. If you think about the saddest moments in your life, where you have experienced the most heartache, it does not even compare to what Jesus was enduring at this moment.

Here is the beauty of it- Jesus spoke these words so that we would never have to! Jesus experienced this abandonment that we never have to experience. If we accept Jesus as our personal savior, we can have uninterrupted fellowship with God. There are going to be many days where we feel lonely and abandoned by the people here on earth. However we can take joy in knowing that God will never leave us nor forsake us as it is stated multiple times in the Bible. I do not know what you are experiencing personally today. But I want to encourage you to know that you can be excited in knowing that God will never leave you!

7- Part 2 "Provision"

2011-04-14T09:34:00.000-04:00

This week as we continued our series called "7" we focused on another two quotes that Jesus made from the cross and looked at the theme of "provision". Provision is the act of providing or supplying something. There is much that Jesus provided for us by dying on the cross and here are a couple things we took time to think about.

1) In John 19:26-27 Jesus looked at His mother and said "Woman, behold your son!" then looked at John and said "Behold, your mother!". In the midst of the physical and mental anguish that Jesus was suffering, he still took the time to look out for His mother. At this point we are unsure what happened to Joseph as he was not mentioned anymore after Luke 2. The common theory is that Joseph already passed away. I believe this to be true because we know how godly of a man Joseph was and how much he loved his family. So I believe that if Joseph had been alive that he would have been there with Mary. It is at this time that Jesus is telling John to take care of His mother Mary. Jesus is providing for His mother. I challenged the students to consider how they can provide for their parents. We can honor them, pray for them, make parenthood a joy for them, and maybe even later in life we may have to provide for them by taking care of them.

2) In John 19:28 Jesus said "I am thirsty". This is important for a couple of reasons. First of all it is another indicator to us that Jesus is fully man. He had to be fully God in order to be the perfect sacrifice, and at the same time He had to be fully man in order to die as a sacrifice. Second this statement fulfills prophecy. It says itself in verse 28 "to fulfill the Scripture". So we need to take a look and see what Scripture was fulfilled. Both Psalm 22:15 and Psalm 69:21 refer to Jesus being thirsty and receiving vinegar to drink. What is so amazing is that this was written hundreds of years before and it came to pass. With this prophecy being fulfilled, as well as many others, we are provided with confidence in the Bible. Since everything written about the first coming of Jesus took place just as it was predicted, we can be confident in knowing that everything written about his future coming is true and will take place. We can be confident in knowing that when Jesus said He will return, that He will. We can be confident in knowing that when Scripture tells us that God will never leave us nor forsake us, that He never will leave us nor forsake us. We can be confident in knowing that when the Bible tells us to cast our cares and burdens on Him because He cares for us, that we can be secure in knowing that He cares for us. We can be confident in knowing that when Jesus said He would forgive our sins if we ask, that He will actually forgive our sins. We can trust everything in the Bible and we do not have to doubt it because of Jesus' provision.

7- Part 1 "Forgiveness"

2011-04-07T09:54:00.000-04:00

It was nice to get back to a regular Wednesday Night Worship setting this week and we began a new series called "7" as we take a look at the seven times that Jesus spoke from the cross. While it could be possible that Jesus spoke more than this, I believe that these 7 quotations are all that he spoke. The number "7" represents perfection and completion in the Bible and we know that Jesus' death on the cross was perfect and complete in providing salvation to those who accept Him.

It would have been very difficult for someone being crucified on a cross to speak. In order to speak they would have had to push up on their feet that had one nail going through their ankles, as well as pull up on the wrists that had nails going through them. After being upright it would have allowed them to exhale and speak. It would have been an extremely excruciating thing in addition to the extreme excruciation they were already experiencing. One thing we must remember is that it was not Jesus' weakness that held Him to the cross, but was His love for sinners. This first message we actually looked at two of the things that Jesus said and focused on the theme of "forgiveness".

1) "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."- Luke 23:34. At a time when Jesus was hanging on the cross and experiencing the ridicule of being spat on, His clothes being ripped off and gambled for, abusive words and insults hurled at Him, along with the terrible beating He had experienced, He looked up to heaven and asked God the Father to forgive them. Wow! How amazing! Here is what we must consider. Not only was He forgiving those who were there right then, He was also forgiving us! It was our sin that held Him to the cross and in that moment He was forgiving each of us as well.
2) "Today you will be with me in paradise."- Luke 23:43. As one criminal ridiculed Him, the other realized that Jesus is the true Son of God and asked for His forgiveness. Jesus did such and that criminal received salvation that day. Jesus was living out the forgiveness that He taught many times. He not only taught and spoke it, but He lived it out as well! Just a couple of examples of what Jesus taught on forgiveness can be found in Matthew 5:38-39 and Matthew 5:44.

So there are three areas of forgiveness that we focused on.
1) You need to forgive those who have hurt you. This can be so difficult, but at the same time is so freeing for us. This is definitely a struggle for me. In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus talks about the severity of not forgiving. He says this directly after teaching the disciples how to pray in what we call "The Lord's Prayer". I believe this was Jesus putting the exclamation mark on this example prayer and highlighting the importance and necessity of forgiveness.
2) You need to seek forgiveness from anyone you have hurt. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 5:23-24 that we must seek forgiveness before we even worship Him! Something that is so important but we choose to ignore many times. It can be difficult to ask forgiveness, but something we must do.
3) You need to accept the forgiveness of your sins from Jesus that was made possible through the cross. If you have never given your life to Jesus and made Him your Savior and Lord, then I encourage you to please do that today. Please do not wait any longer. It is the most important decision you will ever make. If you have questions about salvation then please contact me.

Monday Morning Randomness 4/4 & Personal Update

2011-04-04T09:35:00.000-04:00

Well things in my life have been crazier than normal to say the least and so along with my random thoughts this morning I thought I would give an update as to my lack of posting as of late. As you know I overloaded school work in order to graduate from seminary because I just want to be done. So I took 15 hours total (1 three hour course in 1 week in January; 2 8-week 3 hour courses; then another 2 8-week 3 hour courses) to graduate. If this was not enough already on top of being a full-time youth pastor I receive an email a couple weeks ago letting me know that since I am graduating that all of my coursework must be completed and submitted 2 1/2 weeks earlier than normal. So this meant that at that point I had 3 1/2 week to essentially complete 9 weeks worth of work for 2 classes (9 weeks because there are 16-week courses condensed into 8 weeks). If none of that made sense then I apologize because I am not sure how my mind is able to process all of that. I guess I am letting anyone who reads this know in order to pray for me to get all of this complete and hold on to my sanity and still do my other responsibilities of being a youth pastor. It is an extremely busy time for me in that area as we are gearing up for our Disciple Now weekend in a few weeks. When I am done with school then I plan on being more active on this blog again and hopefully be better at sharing my heart and give any insight or encouragement for your life. So here are my random thoughts for this Monday morning.

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With all that I just described, do you really think my mind is actually working in a way that allows me to have random thoughts?

Well ok, here is one thing. I haven't been able to get the song "Friday" by Rebecca Black out of my head for the last 72 hours.

Monday Morning Randomness 3/21

2011-03-21T09:33:00.000-04:00

Here are all the random thoughts filling my mind this Monday Morning March 21.
-Thankful that Spring is pretty much here. Loving this warmer weather.
-The windows are out of the Jeep! I would like to take the top down but it needs to be washed first. Too many birds have been around lately.
-I am wearing shorts today, which are way more comfortable than pants.
-I remember when I was working in my final weeks at my first job out of college, I had earned several rewards in being able to wear shorts. It was awesome wearing shorts and t-shirts while everyone else was wearing ties.
-The past 72 hours have been extremely stressful, yet at the same time I have been given a peace by God.
-I have stayed up fairly late the past two nights just listening to music. Something I haven't done in a while and enjoy very much.
-I am still traumatized by the fact that a squirrel got in our house on Friday. Don't ask, just pray.
-This week is Spring Break for 99.9% of Tennessee I am sure. My seminary is even on Spring Break, but in order to actually survive and graduate I must spend these days working ahead.
-I have never felt so overwhelmed in school as I do now.
-Only 6 more school weeks (7 weeks including Spring Break) until FREEDOM!
-While seminary has not been my favorite thing in the world, I would not go to a different seminary for anything.
-I am excited by the fact that when I am done with school I will get to play video games again on the Wii. In fact I am planning a video game binge at that moment.
-My wife is cool and I am thankful for who she is and that she is in my life.
-I finally got to play with an iPad 2 the other day. I want one even more now.
-I am excited about the Micah Watson Band doing a concert for us on March 30th.
-I am excited about other things that will be going on later this year that I can't announce yet.
-I can't seem to get the words "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday" out of my head.
-Enjoying David Nasser's "A Call to Die" that we as a church are doing together. This is the best study we have done as a church. God spoke to me today about the fact that Satan tries to accuse us and knock us down. As I suffer with self-esteem issues caused by many things but including to opposition in my life, I know that when I am in the will of God that it doesn't matter what Satan or anyone else says. This quote also stood out to me: "Satan doesn't give much merit to many of us because we aren't a threat to his purposes".

YEC 2011

2011-03-17T09:36:00.000-04:00

We took the students to the Youth Evangelism Conference this past weekend in Nashville, TN. What an incredible weekend it was! I will be honest that I was a little skeptical because I was not impressed with the first YEC, and am not even sure that next year's lineup is good either, but this year was great. First of all Addison Road led worship and did an amazing job. They led worship the way it should be at a conference. Their focus was on Jesus and not at all on promoting themselves. That's what I like in a worship band. They came out and led worships songs that everyone knew leading us to the throne of Jesus. The only songs of their own that they did was as everyone was leaving each day.

The speakers were amazing as well. Friday night's speaker was Afshin Ziafat, which I had never heard before. Let me tell you though, his story is amazing. I was also excited because Derwin Gray was speaking and he did a great job as I knew he would. He did not let loose as much as in the past times I have heard him speak, but his message was great nonetheless. God definitely spoke through him. Each session Bean and Bailey opened up with some hilarious material.

After the second session we did some prayer walking around downtown Nashville. This was really an eye opening experience to some of the students. As we walked through the entertainment district it was filled with people hanging out around the bars, and every five feet was someone playing music on the streets. It was a definite example of hopelessness as this is the life that these people are living for. We had the opportunity to pray that God would open their eyes to see Him. We then went to the Bicentennial Park to see that part of the area and snap a few pictures. Then we wrapped things up by going to Rocketown and getting a glimpse of the ministry there and of course getting the best frappe in the world!