I Have Overcome...

The next several posts are articles that I wrote to be printed in the bulletin at the Palisades church in Brimingham. These were written over a period of 10 weeks or so and are short in thought due to the limited space. But hopefully there is a message for you, wherever you are.

I was sitting in an 8^th grade classroom at Challenger Middle school on this day (Sept 11) 10 years ago. We had an announcement come over the speakers calling for everyone to go to their homeroom classes and wait for further instruction. So everyone anxiously rushed to their respective classes for we had not yet been told what was taking place and we thought maybe a surprise assembly or some special treat. We were sadly mistaken. My teacher turned on the tv and we all sat and watched live as the horror and destruction was very quickly overcoming New York City. To be completely honest I remember not being really sure what to think. I knew this was a very bad thing, a scary thing, but it never really hit me that day. Maybe because of my age at the time and all of the action movies that were always on tv I was desensitized to the massacre taking place. Maybe because it was on the other side of the country I had no immediate fight or flight reaction or emotion. I didn’t realize the implications of what had happened right away. I hadn’t let the gravity of that moment sink in until much time had passed. But here we stand 10 years to the day, roughly 8 years into war, just months into long sought after justice, and only hours into reliving that day all over again. Sadly, for many, their hearts can still feel the sting from 0-hour. Families, friends, and those directly affected tragically suffered losses beyond a magnitude that many will never quite comprehend. These men, women, and children weren’t equipped with rifles, helmets, or combat training, rather with innocence, pride, and freedom. Then at the hand of terror they were blindsided and in half a day; gone. “…God, where are you…?”

 Jesus, to his disciples:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you….When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you…I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name…“But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 15 and 16

In times of terror He has promised us peace, in times of pain He has promised us compassion, and in times of death He has promised us life.

Seasons

More articles...

There are many seasons throughout the year. In the South we have four; long summers, short winters, football, and off season. As of yesterday, it’s football season! Probably the most wonderful time of the year! It’s funny, but we spend 365 and 1/4 days (leap year) out of the year talking, thinking, and dreaming about football. We wear our team’s colors and logos. We visit museums and stadiums. We also have much of our homes covered in our team’s paraphernalia. We are fanatics! And there are hundreds of thousands just like us who all assemble and millions who watch around the country as this great season takes place on Saturdays between September and February. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s football season! Ok, truthfully there are other seasons that happen throughout the year like Spring and Fall. But those don’t really matter to us. We also have the holiday season, but really it’s just football season. What really bothers us is the ‘offseason’. We spend most of the year waiting for our favorite time to come back.

The athletes we watch on tv also experience these things. In-season they spend time practicing and playing so they can win national championships (something the south is really good at, esp. the state of Alabama. In the offseason they spend some time practicing, but mostly physically and mentally training for the next season or healing from the previous season. Either way we all have to go through the in-season and offseason cycle. Luckily we do have something to keep us on our toes year round. You see, Paul describes to Timothy that there is an in-season and offseason dealing with spiritual matters in the world. He says “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruct.” 2 Tim. 4:2.  Go there and read that passage in its context. What you will find is that we as Christians have a goal to get as many people to heaven as we can. Our responsibility is to ‘revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…’ 1 Pet 3:15. Christians must be hard working in-season and out of season. There is not a season for preaching then one for taking a break. There’s no point system or ranking system. There’s no Rose Bowl or Tostitos Bowl. All there will be is an account of our lives. There’s no overtime to attempt one last field goal. What we have, we have now and God wants us to use it. What’s your score looking like? Are you in-season or out of season? It doesn’t matter; God is calling His play now. It’s time to execute. 

Passion

Jeremiah 18:11
“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’

2 QUESTIONS: What do we spend our time doing? What do our actions or inabilities to act speak of our hearts? Last Sunday we heard a couple of great lessons on Passion. When I think of passion I often go back to the older times of Romeo and Juliet where two family enemies were so deeply passionately in love they would rather to die together than be forced to live apart. To me, there’s no better fictional picture of passion. We often think of passion just simply being a culmination of various extreme emotions such as love and hate. Whereas this idea is mostly true, for passion to be passion these emotions must be coupled with action.
Passion is defined as any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. That being said I believe emotions are strong and powerful but only go skin deep. It’s when our emotions compel us into action that we truly experience passion, and this goes heart deep. Think about your first crush on the playground or in the classroom how you were willing to do anything to get their attention. Did that ever change with anyone you felt passionately about? So what are you passionate about? Are you passionately driven to serve your neighbor or just emotionally? Do you passionately engage in daily worship or just emotionally participate? God has called each of us into action, to do everything to the glory of Him.

The passage above has much to do with action. There are many consequences to wrong actions and many rewards to righteous actions. How many times throughout the bible have you seen God warn or condemn His people about their evil and wicked actions? A whole lot! Why? Because people were and still are passionate about things that are not of God, but are passionate about this “crooked and depraved generation.” And just because some of us don’t participate in all of today’s worldly pleasures doesn’t mean we are exempt from this discussion. The act of being idle and having not passion is a way which needs to be reformed.

“Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized. Henceforth I never will be Romeo-Romeo to Juliet. He basically says; ‘I will change who I am and never be my old self again, just call me yours and that’ll be all that matters. Your love will be my identity.’ Remember when you first said this to God? You bowed before the King of Kings and gave everything to him. You engaged in the act of baptism and you took off your old clothes and put on the new clean garments of Christ. Your passion for God couldn’t keep you away from Him. You gave Him your name, and put on love. You gave Him everything. After all, He gave us his Son, by far the most passionate act in all of mankind. ‘For God so loved… that he gave…that whoever believes…shall not perish but have eternal life.’ John 3:16

Injuries…

Another rewrite..More added/changed thoughts..

One Sunday afternoon, a few years ago, on exactly January 13th I was pumped because I was about to play the coolest game ever with some of the coolest guys ever. A game called Berzerker. It's a combination between football, rugby, soccer, and basketball. Awesome! Right!? YA! It was the first play of the game, I got the ball, took one step, and POP!! I was down. I tore a calf muscle and the next 2 weeks of life were the most agonizingly dreadful, exhausting experience ever...crutches. Now some of you may think, "oh, crutches, those look easy." or "I've been on crutches before and they weren't that bad" well I hated them! But of course, I learned something as we all should from each experience. Crutches really made it difficult to get around, especially since I had to get around UAB. For the most part, I just tried as much as I could to suck it up and be tough about traveling multiple blocks. I think what helped out a lot was the fact that people were very thoughtful. They held open doors and were always offering to help carry things for me; however, I nicely rejected the help. I’m not sure why, I just wanted to do everything for myself, even something as simple as carry something up stairs. So I did. I never fell down the stairs or was unable to perform my day to day tasks. I made it! While I crutched from place to place I did have a lot of time to just think. I thought mostly about how tired and sore I was, and I often asked myself what the root of my hard headedness was in not accepting help. But mostly I thought of how all of us want to do everything ourselves when it comes to Christianity. Let’s take a poll (raise your hand if this applies, I will too)....How many of you want to do everything you can each day to ensure a spot in Heaven? How many of you spend time each day reading the Bible and praying because you want to be saved? How many of you think that you will be saved because of your deeds, faith, or because you have committed less sin then someone else? I’m pretty sure we all know that we can’t earn our way to heaven, but don’t we usually revert back to that kind of lifestyle? Things begin to get a little rocky and all the sudden we are at church 24/7, we are constantly praying, looking up scriptures, and trying our hardest to walk the straight and narrow as if our works and efforts are going to save us, or bring us back to a comfortable place. These are things we should be striving to do always, not to earn a spot in heaven, but because we already have obtained that spot and are beginning the heavenly lifestyle here on earth. Jesus prayed “Your will be done, on EARTH as it IS IN HEAVEN.” For the duration of my injury, I had a very hard time moving around. Without my crutches, I would have never been able to move. I couldn’t do it by myself. We can’t do it by ourselves. We need the aid of Jesus and his blood, we need the grace of God, and we need to give up and surrender to Him. Sometimes we need that “injury” to bring us down before God so that we can view Him in the right perspective and see that there’s nothing we can possibly do to get where He sits. All we can do is accept His invitation. It took months to recover from that injury, and I still have a deformation in that muscle. But I’m physically back to full speed thanks to the doctors and therapists. Most of all thanks be to God. I’m imperfect, unworthy, and injured, but His gift of grace allows me to run full speed after Him. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” Ephesians 2:8-9. 

Where is God? Part 1.5

Another article based on a past post..rewritten with new thoughts.

Many people like to ask the question, "Where is God?" There are so many times in which we hurt and suffer. There are other times in which life seems so unfair. God has promised us many things, but He has not promised us that life would always be fair, pain free, or conflict free; however, many people still get the illusion that because they become a Christian life is all downhill from there. Well, yes and no. No, just because you become a Christian doesn't mean that you get one of those "easy buttons" from staples. There’s no button you can just push to speed past conflict and find another comfortable area. You will go through a hard time whether it be struggling with sin or the various trials in life that kick you in the butt and you wonder "God where are you in all of this?" Then there's the "yes" aspect of this. Because you become a Christian and accept Jesus into your life, you no longer have to let sin run your life. You now have a savior who rescued you from death, from eternal suffering. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 that God has given us his Spirit as a deposit to guarantee that eternal life, our heavenly dwelling is coming. We receive a God who loves us, who has loved us, and will love us forever. With a God of this magnitude comes an all knowing God who knows your every need, thought, passion, struggle, and pain.     O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Psalm139:1-18   I love this psalm, especially vs 17 because it shows the psalmists surrender to the wisdom and knowledge of God. Instead of taking a stand of pride and self-reliance, he acknowledges God’s thoughts, plans, and will as being supreme to anything we could ever think of. So where is God? From what we have read, He is everywhere and in everything. To feel His presence you must first be aware of His presence. My challenge for you is to go out and find Him. Where in the world is He? But most importantly, is He in you?  ¹ Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.² Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” ³ Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. Psalm 115:1-3           

Thoughts on Eternity: Ephesians 2:1-10

These thoughts often had to be short due to the limited amount of space I had to print them on. Each article also was directed to the church I was working for. We were full steam ahead on starting over and putting on a new face. Our old ways had set us back and the journey to becoming a bit more open minded as a church was in the forefront. These articles were meant to educate as well as push us as a church to take a step towards living as the Bible has instructed us.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 Most all of us should have been able to finish this verse without having to read it. If you’ve spent any time in church, spent time around people who go to church, or watch sporting events on tv hopefully you know about “John 3:16.” I remember when I first read this verse I thought, “how easy is that?! Just believe and gain eternal life!” It kind of makes you wonder why other people don’t believe. I mean we are talking about eternal life here! God has given us a gift, we simply take that gift, and then boom; eternal life! Now, we do know that eternal life is a gift. We did nothing at all to receive it. Well, ok, we did confess our belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that he died for our sins and that he conquered death by raising himself from the grave 3 days after entering. We then put Christ on in baptism, spiritually demonstrating our own death, burial, and resurrection. We then rose from the water as a new creation with no condemnation having received the Holy Spirit and the gift of eternal life. Not that these are works to be done by us to gain entrance into the Kingdom, but acts of faith. You see, no one is cut out to live righteously. No one can stand alone before God and say, “I’m good enough, I make the cut.” We are all broken and incomplete before entering into God’s grace. Even upon entering that grace we sometimes fall short, but the atoning blood of Jesus covers our sins, and God’s grace is made new in us. So why is it that more people are not making a decision to accept God’s grace and live for him? Logically and spiritually it makes so much sense! Live for the world and die to God reaps eternal death. Live for God and die to the world reaps eternal life. I think if more people knew the pure gospel message, they’d make a positive eternity changing decision. But many churches have clouded up that message, and so many “church goers” have missed their important missions to evangelize to the lost. So now what? How do we teach this message? What can we do as “church goers” to change this? I believe God is calling for us to step out of the title of “church goer,” and put on the clothes of “Christ follower.” Then people will be able to see Christ outside the walls of the church and witness the grace of God. The thing about eternity is that we think of it as something far off in the future when we die or when time ends. I believe it begins the moment you confess with your lips, believe with your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and then put on Christ in baptism. That is when your eternity begins; an eternal walk with God.   

GREATER > THAN

Palisades article...

 

This week’s message is going to be very simple; Greater Than.  “More of you and less of me, oh my Father, I want to be”, these lyrics I’ve heard sung by an a capella worship group called “Glad”. How simple are those words? We sing similar songs such as; “More Precious Than Silver”, “More Love to Thee, O Christ”, and “More Like Jesus”. What’s the theme here? More, more, more! Sound familiar? More is the world we currently live in. I don’t have to go into much detail about how much the world salivates over new stuff, more stuff, and better stuff. I don’t need to elaborate on how much people of the world run after the world and seek more for their own wealth and self-satisfaction. It’s unnecessary to spend much time expounding upon the darkness of this world and those who choose to stay in that darkness, because we all know of that pain, loneliness, shame, and defeat. You see, we view that dark place as such because as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ we have stepped into His eternal light. We can look back and see the darkness in which we once treaded all alone. We can even go as far as seeing how enticing and pleasurable that place once was. But there was still something missing, out of order…empty. I heard a man on tv the other night say that the world is an intense place, its message is intense, its people are intense, and Christianity is falling behind because Christians are losing their intensity for the message of the cross. Is that true? Are we falling behind? Is it impossible to keep our same soul saving gospel message and communicate it in a way the world understands? Speaking to Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says, “we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony.” Why doesn’t he accept Jesus’ message? I think he had a “more” problem. In fact I think most of the people who came face to face with Jesus had a “more” problem. But all of those who came face down to Jesus, they were on to something. You know, those people who recognized who Jesus was. It’s like they got the answers to the test, the tip on how to get their promotion, the extra bonus, the secret to life… they got more. They simply stood before Jesus with their hearts bowed. They reached out only to touch his cloak. They exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”; “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me”; “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”They had it, and John the Baptist really knew his place. He goes on to say in John 3:30, “he must become greater; I must become less.” How different is that? How intense? When the whole world is running to increase itself, to bring honor to itself, and glory to itself, there were people like John who lived out a message exclaiming that “He is greater.” Is it time to take a step back and examine who is greater in your life? Do you live as if God is greater than…everything? John 3:31a- “The one who comes from above is above all…”

A Glimpse at Love: 1 John 4:7-12

Another installment of the articles I wrote for the bulletin at Palisades. This is very similar to a previous post, but does contain new thoughts...

I made a book once. Well, it was already a book, a thesaurus actually. It was a large book, until I ripped out some pages and cut out the center of it. It's called an altered book. I took a book already made and altered it. I painted the outside of it gold, got some supplies from Hobby Lobby, and a week later, I had a finished product. It was called, “…” well it didn't have a name, but on the inside cover it asked the question, 'What is love?' I guess you could call it something creative like, "The Love Book", yeah, very creative. It was a gift. I thought it was a great gift myself. I spent a week on it, and the girl who got it also really liked it. But I thought I had really done a good job of defining love through this book. Each page had its own idea or focus with sweet, cheesy quotes and song lyrics, even some stuff I had made up. I meant every word of it, but did I really define what love was? Did I answer the question wholeheartedly knowing what it actually was?  I seriously doubt it; I was 19 when I made this book. I’m sure if I took a poll today and asked everyone to define love in one word, 9 out of 10 answers would be different. I would hear things like; trust, sacrifice, eternal, action, perfection, God, or Jesus. Whereas all of these answers are honest acceptable answers in the context of a random people simply defining love, we as followers of Jesus having experienced the greatest love of all cannot simply confine love into a single word definition other than “God”. You see we as Christians all know that “God is Love.” We sing it in four part harmonies, we read it all over the bible, and sometimes we even talk about it. But do we truly know that God is love? “Oh, yeah Jesus died for us, so He loves us!” or “God sent his Son, so He loves us!” I know our understanding of God’s love goes much deeper than that. But do we actually see it in everything that He does? I believe one of the most obvious times that people begin to forget about God’s love is during a conflict or change, especially when something is taken away. It’s one of the hardest things to cope with when we’ve been used to having something like an ability, freedom, possessions, or a lifestyle taken away from us. “Everything was fine one minute, then chaos the next!” Do we remember God’s love in these times? Do we remember His hand being at work? Do we feel forgotten? When the Renaissance artist Michelangelo began sculpting the famous statue of David, he started with just a block of marble. Then slowly and carefully he began to chip away at all of the pieces he didn’t want. He performed this process of chipping away what he didn’t want for more than 2 years before the perfected masterpiece was complete. When I made my altered book, I took a normal book and ripped out some pages, added new ones, cut holes, and gave it an entirely new look and name. Do you get it yet? When we are facing our seasons of change and conflict we are given an opportunity to become closer to God by catching just a glimpse of his wonderful power as he works in our lives. His love becomes so evident during these times of need, hunger, and thirst. Why? Because he provides. As he chisels away at our imperfections to make us into his perfect being, his grace and love fill the newly created void. Nothing on earth, in the earth, or under the earth has the ability to fill us like God’s love (Romans 8). I wish I could go back and rewrite my “love book” because I’d have so many changes to make and things to add. But I know as far as God’s gift to us, He wouldn’t change a thing. His love has already been made perfect through the blood of his own Son whom he loved. And this beloved son of God still was sacrificed because of God’s perfect love for us.

"Well, it's bigger than a breadbox.."

The last ten weeks that I spent with the Palisades Church in Birmingham, I submitted an article per week to be printed in the Sunday bulletin. This is one of those articles. In fact, I will be posting each of the articles....

 

When I was a child, I remember my mother and I used travel up to Maryland every holiday to visit our family. We would see my grandma, Grammy, and aunts, uncles, and cousins. They were some of the best times of the year. I always looked forward to going up there. The biggest and most exciting of these trips each year was of course Christmas. Christmas was different because not only did the entire family meet, but neighbors and close friends would also come and pack the house celebrating this joyous occasion of fellowship. I think that’s why I liked that trip the most. I remember one year, before the grueling 11 hour car ride, I talked to my Grammy on the phone and told her how excited I was to be coming to see her again. But what I really wanted to know was what she got me for Christmas. I was about 8 or 9, so sucking up was still in my arsenal and I was willing to use it in order to get the information I needed. Needless to say, it didn’t work. However, she did tell me, “It’s bigger than a breadbox.” And then we left. The entire drive to Maryland all I did was bug my mom about “What’s a breadbox mommy? How big is a breadbox mommy? Is it big? Do you actually put bread in it? What’s it look like?” I went on and on. I still to this day have no idea what a breadbox is. But aren’t there boxes for pretty much everything? When we move, we pack things in boxes. When we buy stuff at the store, most of it comes in boxes. When we click things on our computer screen, most of the things we click are boxes. Even when someone comes up with a profound idea we say they are thinking outside the box. Boxes are important because they store things, provide structure, and form boundaries so that things can’t escape. They come big or small, cubed or oblong. They enclose diamonds, and they keep my cereal fresh. But they cannot, and will not ever be able to form a boundary around our God.  It’s common for us to take God out of our box on Sunday mornings between the hours of 9:30 and 11:30. It’s common even during weddings and funerals to let God out of our box. How strange does this sound? It’s true. I know most all of us have a belief in God. But do we sometimes become our own god? We make our own decisions. We do what we think is right without first seeking God’s council and guidance. We walk into so many situations and after the fact remember God and ask Him to bless it. “Well, some things just aren’t a big deal and I’ve got it under control so I don’t see a need in seeking God in prayer about this situation.” When and where did we forget that God is the ruler and maker of all that exists? At What point did we forget that ‘it’s no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me?’ (Gal 2:20) We sometimes let it slip our mind that God is the great I AM. You see we put limits on God. We take what we know, and apply it to our infinite, majestic, all powerful, glorious, sovereign, and holy God.  Our own knowledge and wisdom boxes God up and says “you can’t come past this boundary, you can’t cross this line.” Then God does something in our lives that is so outside the box that humbles us down to our knees before the great King. We can no longer limit His ability to guide us and bless us. The smallest part of God is so much larger than a box that can store the planets and stars of this universe. Have you been limiting God in your life? Do you realize the size and real true glory that sits on the throne of heaven? I don’t remember what it was I got that year for Christmas, if it was bigger than a breadbox. But I do know that God is. And that’s just big enough to save you and me from whatever hinders our relationship with Him.  

Camp Wetoga

I was blessed to have been involved as a counselor at a youth camp a month ago at Camp Wetoga in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Having already been a part of many youth conferences, week-long retreats, mission trips, and camps, I knew mostly what to expect; late nights with rowdy teens, early mornings with tired teens, and a couple of nights with powerful worship and confessions of faith followed by baptisms. You could say I knew what to expect for the most part. It wasn’t my first youth trip. So I entered ready to serve thinking I knew exactly everything I was going to face. God had different plans. As a young adult attending a youth camp, you think that the youth camp is generally designed for the spiritual growth of the teens. You see, my job is simply to plant seeds, offer support, prayer, and insight. But why does it stop there? Because of my age, am I now done with learning and growing? Is my purpose now only to help foster growth in younger people? By no means! There’s never a day that God doesn’t work in your life, so why do we believe there’s an expiration date on our spiritual growth? God brought me to this place for a purpose that I was thirsting to know. His message was clear; “Stop everything you are doing and pay attention. The next couple of days I want all of your praise, all of your worship, all of your thoughts, all of your worries, all of your burdens, all of your baggage, all of your guilt, your friends, your relationships, your family, all of your love, and all of your trust. Through these things I will show you just a mere glimpse of my infinite, majestic glory.” I gave my life to God a little over 6 years ago, all of these things I put into His hands the evening of February 20, 2005. Isn’t it funny, how He asked for all of that…again? As if I took it back. There’s a point where we become comfortable in our lives. The day-to-day schedule doesn’t vary and we begin to expect the things of today to remain for tomorrow. With this mentality, we grow farther and farther away. God is here today, so of course he’ll be here tomorrow, so I’ll just pray then. Church is in a couple of days, so I’ll just worship then. I don’t feel like dealing with my struggles this week, but next week, that’ll be when I really get after it! Do your expectations ever dictate your plans? When was the last time you let God’s plan intercede? Each day we should expect to have God’s love and grace consume us as we continuously seek Him. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 2 Corinthians 5:15

Hey Everybody!

Check out this new video from Donald Miller!!

Are you living a great story with your life? from Donald Miller on Vimeo.

And go buy his book!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_52?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+million+miles+in+a+thousand+years+by+donald+miller&x=0&y=0&sprefix=a+million+miles+in+a+thousand+years+by+donald+miller

Should have prayed for cupcakes...

It's been just over a year since my last post. This is mostly due to the lack of an inspired topic, hopefully I've got something now to share with you!

Over the past year or so I've gone through many ups and downs, nothing short of life itself. While I've been waiting for God to guide me and direct my path I feel looking back that I was quite reluctant to actually follow any direction. Not that I had a falling away or any type of major struggle, I just found myself in failure after failure. So many things had gotten in between me and the intimate relationship I once had with God and the desire I had to keep it alive. The realm of failure seemed to cover not only one aspect of my life but so many areas; grades, grad school, friendships, relationships, self confidence, church, and most of all I failed at seeing what my importance as a Christian meant. Was I following God as close as I could? I can remember countless times in which I thought how out of place I was. Some days I felt as if I should be somewhere across the world doing who knows what, but just being completely reliant on God. Other days I felt as if I should quit school for a semester and give all my effort into rebuilding my church. Then other days I chose to not think about anything really at all. There was obviously a major role conflict between me being a full time student, part time youth minister, and a full time Christian. The failure seemed to set in when my prayers became only prayers without action from my side or steps taken in any direction. That's where my self confidence took a dive, mediocre grades set in, relationships and friendships slowly diminished, and the feeling of bitter uselessness snuggled its way into my daily routine.
This past summer was planned out to be the greatest summer I could think of! I finally had a youth group with 5 or 6 showing on a good day. I wasn't signed up for summer classes, I was as open as my mom's refrigerator door when I first get home to visit, and as free as the food inside of it. I was right where God wanted me, He opened this summer for me to surrender completely to and for His will. So I titled the summer theme "Fearless". Zoe group had cd titled Fearless and track with the same name. After listening to it, it's what I wanted to be!! So appropriately enough, that's where I came up with the title. I wanted this summer to be Fearless, I wanted to pack it so full of trips and projects and those fearless moments of breaking out of the everyday Christian lifestyle and move into a much more edgey, disciple like lifestyle, but not just for me, for the teenagers. It was a summer I intentionally planned too much so that God wasn't limited and that most of all the members at Palisades could see Him working as never before. The summer approached, and I lost two kids. They moved away to Louisiana with almost no notice. One child I had been mentoring and bringing to church, I lost contact with due to cutbacks in his family, including cell phones. In a matter of a couple weeks I go from 5 to 2! that's enough to do almost everything I wanted. God is still in control and He will prove to be faithful,, right? A few weeks into the summer I get word that one of my two has to go to Panama for the rest of the summer and will be back by the time school starts.... He's still gone. So I've got one teen left. Not that I'm upset about the lack of teens or that I only have this one, but all the planning and excitement, the preparation and money turned into false hope and what felt like failure on my part, though I had nothing to do with everyone leaving the way they did. I just couldn't fathom the thought of all of this happening in the fashion it happened. I ended up going on only two of the trips planned. A mission trip to Nashville with my one teen which was rockin!! and a second trip to Nashville by myself. I gave my summer to God at the beginning of it. That was the point of the theme, living fearlessly by the spirit God has so graciously blessed me with. It just didn't turn out how I had envisioned. Why would God give all of this to me, then do His thing and mix it up? I can't say that I was angry with God, just confused. A time where I was completely free from all distraction and finally ready to gain that which I had been so longing for, I wasn't feeling very blessed, used, directed, or successful.
That story is to kinda segwey into what has recently been on my mind, and the things that have taken place. The title of this blog is "Should have prayed for cupcakes.." for a reason, I promise I'm getting to that.
The past month or two has been highly oriented around conflict and how to deal with it. I've obviously had my conflicts, but maybe I was looking at them all wrong. I had forgotten how I used to tell others and myself that trials are just opportunities. Coping with conflicts and failures became nonexistant. I was a conflict. I was standing between my prayers and God, just aimlessly throwing up pleas for guidance, for strength, and for chances at proving my faith only to intercept them. I wanted so badly to be that hardcore disciple of God. I wanted to be the Paul who said "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection..." I wanted to be the one he described when he talked about running the race full speed. I wanted to know what it meant to sing praises while imprisoned. I wanted to be the one selfless enough to stay in jail after an massive earthquake shook all the prisoners free. I wanted to be like the man named Gaius, whom John writes to in 3 John. Every moment of my life I wanted to be completely consumed by the love, power, and gratification of God. A few thursdays back I went to see and meet Donald Miller. Don was on tour for his latest book " A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." He's exactly how I imagined him. I showed up late to get a ticket before the show, and when I walked into the church in which he was speaking I saw this man lying on a couch. I had no idea who this man was, but he looked sick. I asked him if he was ok and if I could get him anything, he just lifted his head, put on a childish smile and told me " No thanks, I just need a nap,, being on the road wears you down so much." Little did I know,, I had been talking to the Don man! I intorduced myself just to make sure, then stayed and chatted for a few minutes. For the rest of the night he knew me by name. Well, his main topic was "your story being completely God's story". One of the major themes was conflict. HA! Exactly what I need!! Is God good or what?! I don't think I even blinked. I was sitting on the edge of my seat with all ears, attention, and celebrity shock directed in his general direction. The biggest thing I took away from him that night was that conflicts are so inevitable. But we live in a time where we try to knock them out with 7 step processes, and trying to find our best lives now. In reality, our conflicts mold us into who God wants us to be. Remember that quote earlier about trials being opportunities?.. that came straight out of Don's "blue like jazz". He's so right, the conflict we try to avoid only shapes us into something so grand and divine, why would we run from it?..well..its conflict....
Here's where the cupcakes come into play...
Later that evening I was so pumped about meeting Don, I didn't have class the next day, and my roommates all wanted to hang and go out and stay out late. Why not!? We all split but eventually met at one common place, it was a bar. I had old friends and roommates there, then my current roommates showed up, it was a reunion. The place was packed, there were pool tables and foosball tables, but nothin was open. It didnt need to be, i was about to be quite occupied... While sitting next to one of my buddies a member of the opposite gender, who seemed to have been at this place for a while due to the absence of clear thinking, stumbling and slurring, climbed her way into the stool next to mine. Thinking nothing of it, I mean I was in a bar, i continued talking with my friend. Well this girl kept trying to get my attention, a tug on the sleeve, tap on the shoulder, a nudge on my chair... i turned around and asked if i could help her. Well, to say the least, i couldn't help her. A few failed attempts at a conversation with me made her angry i guess and she left. Moments later, I guess she forgot, cause here she came stumbling back. Now remember i was on this superChristian high. I took a moment and thought, man,, What would Jesus do right here. (Man, who would have thought those bracelets would come to such good use!??? ha). So i actually turned to her and began having a conversation with her. I asked her about these tatoos she had on her arms, where she was from, what brought her to birmingham.. all of the superficial questions. She just answered them one by one after lighting cigarrette after cigarrette. It became very clear as to what i was suppose to spend the next hour doing... She had just recently moved to Birmingham from North Carolina where she has a 6 year old daughter. Shes trying to get a degree and graduate so she can take care of her daughter by herself. She has little to no real friends here, or back home. She's a widower whose husband was murdered. She was so tired of everyone feeling sorry for her and just wanted an actual friend to talk to her like normal. When i asked how old she was, she told me it was her 25th birthday and that she was spending it in a bar with one other girl she knew... my heart sunk. I should have stopped right there and prayed for cupcakes. I wished so badly that I could help her feel important, as if she mattered. I knew she mattered, she mattered to me, she mattered to God. I'd only heard about these things happening in stories people tell, but this was actually happening, i felt helpless, unprepared. The whole conversation had been geared toward making her feel loved. If i could give anything, i was sure gonna sit there and let her talk all night long to someone that would that would listen. I thought, wow, God is actually using me, this is actually happening. This is not by coincidence! After another while of talking she finally asked what I did, I told her i was a student and a.. then i hesitated for a moment to think of the best possible yet honest answer i could give her for the next answer,,, youth minister. I said it. I was afraid to scare her off, the last thing i wanted was to make her think i was tricking her and was gonna try to force a bunch of religion on her. I was right, she was in shock. I think it was good shock though. I think she sensed the sincerity in my words, whereas i had no idea where my sincerety came from. Turns out she used to be a firm believer, but fell away do to some personal problems with God. We talked it out, she left, i'll probably never see her again. I'm certain though that God's gonna harvest more in her life through the seed He helped me plant.
True discipleship, what does it mean? What does it mean to come from a year of failures to a single victory that is so enormous, so glorious, so divine that truley nothing short of that victory matters? I'm not boasting because of good that i think i've done, but really, think about the times in your life where you've been so completely lost and all the sudden God taps you on the shoulder and brings you to a place, to a conflict so that He can mold you into something He needs you for. Think about the times you've doubted His divine workings only to find that all through your doubt, you found joy.
Ok... last section.... I was leaving lunch today in a hurry to pick someone up. But on my way out of the cafe, i had a 2 minute long conversation about dating and relationships with a set of strangers i had met only minutes before speaking to them. It was kind of a funny conversation really. It started out about how all the girls in nursing school are in relationships and none of them are really single. Then the girls talked about the lack of males and how even the low number of them had a significant other or just werent interesting. After listening for a moment, I felt a need to interject...Dating and relationships are both crazy. Trust me, at sometime in your life you have thought this, youve even hated the idea of either. They are both tied to the most terrible, lonely, betrayed, cheated, confused, yet glorious emotions we encounter. So i raise the question, are relationships stuipd like we say they are ..when we arent in one?? or are we the crazy and stupid people who always go back into them? (I'm not dogging them at all, just speaking in generalities.) think about it.. think of the last person you were with, there's probably more negative feelings towards that relationship than positive. And after we've sworn off women because they are impossible to figure out and crazy, and after we've removed ourselves from all contact with the male species because of their stupidity and they are crazy, we always find a way back. Essentially, we are the crazy ones. I dont really believe that though. What i do believe however, is that instead of us being crazy, we are strong. Our will, need, and desire to be with that person who we may not even know right now always finds a way to out strengthen our will, desire, or need to withstand them. We always find our way back into the realm of dating and relationships because we find that we are stronger than the hurt caused from the past and the overall let down from past expectations. No one goes into a relationship looking for the end. This can be said about God. After all the times we call Him crazy, confusing, and stupid. After all the times we may claim to never go back and swear Him off, we find ourselves falling back into His arms of love. He created a relationship with us, and though we have looked for so many ways to end it, betray it, and pervert it, He's fought that much harder to sustain it. He's created an everlasting convenant with us, His people. Jeremiah 32:40. God's relationship with us requires conflict, it requires hurt, and it requires submission. The apostle paul puts it like this when speaking of conflict and hurt.. When I am at my weakest, then i am made strong- 2 Corinthians 12. He also claims to be content in all situations-Philippians 4. And he also calls us more than conqerors, who can never be separated from the love of God- Romans 8.
When we truley desire to be the follower Christ calls us to be, theres going to be conflict, hardship, and confusion. I sometimes find myself in situations where I can hear God clearly, but I cant see where He's directing me. He's often just on the other side of the door. When i allow him to walk through that door and take me by the hand I'm going to be placed in situations of hardship, i'm going to be molded, i'm going to be purified, but im doing it all for His glory. Its going to hurt, but when we are standing on top of the mountain looking down, it is then we have seen what He's been trying to show us the whole time.

"For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:19-20).

i think this may be the answer. All my perceived failures, doubts, and troubles, i count as so, because that's how I've been trained to view them ,but as God looks upon me, I'm His precious child, His righteous creation, and most of all His possession. though I may have shortcomings and distractions, I'll always have a faithful God who works for the good of me because I love Him.

What is love?

So I know, it has been forever .. ha anyways, this one is going to be a little different, however it will tie into the next one i write which will be very soon.. enjoy

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Luke 10:27

A lot of people ask the question, or if not ask wonder, 'what is love?' It seems to be on most people's minds, so much that if you don't even have time to find love but you want it, its just a click away. Love can come hard through years of dating, disappointment, defeat, and dishonesty. For others, it may come easy and they just find someone that clicks. The truth of the matter is is that love is impossible to hold, but something you can't let it go of, as blind as it is foreseen, and mysterious as it is true.

I made a book once. Well, it was already a book, a thesaurus actually. It was a large book...until I ripped out some pages and cut out the center of it. It's called an altered book. I took a book already made and altered it. I painted the outside of it gold, got some supplies from Hobby Lobby, and a week later, I had a finished product. It was called, well it didn't have a name but on the inside cover of it it asked the same question, 'What is love?' I guess you could call it something creative like, "the love book".. ya very creative. It was a gift for a 3 year anniversary. I thought it was a great gift myself after spending a week on it, and the girl who got it also really liked it. But I thought I really had done a good job of defining love through this book. Each page had it's own idea or focus with sweet/cheesy quotes and song lyrics, even some stuff I had made up. I meant every word of it.. but did I really define what love is? Did I answer the question, wholeheartedly knowing what it actually was?
It's been a little over 2 years since I made the book, and in that time I have experienced, observed, read about, and seen so many angles I had never thought about. Not just about relationships, but about people, the human condition.
Going into this past summer, I was a sour person, at least to some people. I had a problem that was really never there before. I was letting people push my buttons and letting it actually get to me. I had somehow lost patience and eventually quit trying to love these people. After realizing this had become a problem I prayed for God to show me how to love people. I decided that this summer I had a mission and it was to learn how to love like Jesus, unconditionally or as close to as possible. Well, of course God came through and put me in situations where I had to practice. I was given opportunities, perhaps one of the hardest, yet rewarding things I've ever had to go through. I met this girl, who ironically has the same last name as me, and quickly became friends with her. We always seemed to get to class early at the same time and be afraid to walk in the room for fear of there being a class already in there, so to spare the embarrassment we'd just stay outside and talk. I was, at that point, really her only friend at school, and I think I liked that because that made me the go to person for UAB stuff. And being a guy it felt good giving directions and providing answers. However, I don't remember how ready I thought I was for this next bit of news. I don't quite remember how it came up, but her mom had cancer, it was really bad. A few weeks later I found out she only had so much longer to live. But what I really wanted to know was how my new friend was handling all of this, how she was even able to get out of bed in the morning, how she seemed so strong. We had lunch one day, for a few hours, exchanged stories and from then on we were pretty good friends. By this time, I had kinda figured that God had put us both in this position for a purpose. I was seeking an opportunity to love people, the human condtion, and I dunno, maybe she needed someone to be there for her. At least that was my reasoning. But it wasn't so much my trying to be there for her, or helping out with whatever I was able to, it was more her showing me what it meant to love, to have faith. I could sometimes tell her frustration with life, with her situation. I could tell when the night before class was a good one or a bad one. I wouldn't have to ask her why she missed class once or twice in that week. I could read her swollen eyes and almost tell the story. But never once for a moment did she forget at the end of the day to love God with all her heart. She was most of the time actually joyful. She never didn't laugh at my stupid jokes, and I never failed to walk into a your momma joke as she concluded the joke with a long exaggerated 'ooohhhh!" It was so amazing to me that the one so many people would blame, she loved. In the one that is blamed constantly for this or that she sought peace and comfort. At the funeral, I remember sitting near the back crying as I watched her hands raise, praising God during one of the songs. I wasn't too sure how I was supposed to feel the next couple of days, sad or peaceful (as my friend was). I think it was more of that first one.

One thing that I am constantly learning is that it's impossible to pour out an empty pitcher of,, well anything. It's impossible to show love if you don't first have it in you. It's impossible to love others if you don't first let God's perfect love consume you.
In the midst of that summer long journey, I also had other experiences and insights of what love is.
I was once in a relationship and near the end of it I spent so much time focused on how perfect I thought she should be, which is why this was near the end of it.. The focus was mostly about how mistakes were inexcusable, and how anything new was unacceptable. It took a while for me to realize how crazy all of that thinking was. It took taking a step back and looking at the situation, looking at how not to love somebody. But when I figured it out this summer I didn't know if this insight hit me like a ton of bricks, or felt like a ton of bricks lifting off my shoulders, or maybe both? The epiphany was great! It relieved a bunch of stress, because now I knew what not to do, but at the same time, man, was I that bad? Well, oddly enough, with the help of the movie "into the wild", I was able to realize that "Happiness is shared". These are the words the main character writes as his conclusion to his lifelong journey searching for happiness. Relationships aren't about being perfect, loving people isn't about being perfect, but it's about sharing experiences, sharing mistakes, sharing old memories along with making new ones. It's not about using everything in your power to control someone but letting that person be theirself while you provide a shoulder to cry on, a word of encouragement, or being their biggest supporter. So many relationships fail because of this. So many people have the idea of love being obtained through perfection, when its obtained through experiences, good or bad, with someone. It's obtained through the joys and pains of growing. It's about the human condition, which is imperfection, mistakes, shortcomings, or any situation where forgiveness can be made strong. Love is the bridge which brings together our imperfections with our flawless desire to press on.

When I prayed to learn how to love, I had no clue what awaited as the answer to my prayer. But God showed me, and provided situations for me to love. I definitely learned a lot this summer.

Be looking for the 2nd part of this coming soon.

Worst Experience Ever

Hello all! it's been a while, so here we go!

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast

One Sunday at the beginning of the semester, January 13th to be exact, I was pumped because I was about to play the coolest game ever with some of the coolest guys ever. The game is called Berzerker. It's a combination between football, rugby, soccer, and basketball. Awesome! right!? YA! It was the first play of the game, I got the ball, took one step, and POP!! I was down. I tore a calf muscle and the next 2 weeks of life were the most agonzingly, dreadful, exhausting experience ever.....crutches. Now some of you may think,,"o, crutches, those look easy." or "I've been on crutches before and they weren't that bad" well I hated them! But of course, I learned something. I dont know why, but everything i encounter, I think about those things, for days haha. Being on crutches, it was difficult to get around, especially since i had to get around birmingham. For the most part, i just tried as much as i could to suck it up and be tough about travleing multiple blocks. I think what helped out alot was the fact that people were very thoughtful. They held open doors and were always offering to help carry things for me; however, i nicely rejected the help. Why? i dunno. I just wanted to do everything for myself, even somethin as simple as carry something up stairs. So I did, after i rejected help. I never fell down the stairs, or was unable to perform my day to day tasks. I made it. While i crutched from place to place i did have alot of time to just think, and so i thought about how i wanted to continue doing everything for myself, but most of all, how all of us wants to do everything ourselves when it comes to Religion. Lets take a poll(raise your hand if this applies, i will too)....How many of you want to do everything they can each day to ensure a spot in Heaven? How many of you spend time each day reading the Bible and praying cause you want to be saved? How many of you think that you will be saved because of your deeds, faith, or because you have committed less sin then someone else that you know? One thing i learned was that there is nothing that you or I could ever,, EVER do to be saved. Not one act of kindness, one right word, or refraining from an activity earns us salvation...Guys, we are saved and saved only by Jesus. There is nothing we could ever do to earn salvation ourselves because Jesus has already done that. God sent Him to die on the cross for US. By that act, and that act alone we are saved, and cleansed from our sins. Not by anything that you, your siblings, your parents, or your preacher has done, But by the Grace of God alone. I wanted to do everything myself and triumph over my injury, and i realized that it just wasn't possible to do alone. Ya i got rid of the crutches and can walk on my own now, but i still need doctors to finish the healing. Its not because i can say no to my temptations, make it to church on sundays, or show compassion for others,, no, It's because Jesus suffered and died for me and for you. That is why you and I are saved. If God us tuggin at your heart, and you so badly want to enter the kingdom, the only thing you need to do is confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and find yourself a good Bible based Church.
Love yall!

Runnin' on Empty

Hey everybody! It has been a while since I last posted anything. The reason for this is because I wanted to hold in my thoughts as I experienced day to day life. I didn't want to know that I'd be writing about my experiences before I had any. So in a wierd way I planned on tricking myself. But anways, on to the blog..... I spend a lot of time walking around campus. I go to class, then come back from class, go to the rec. center, or to the diner. A vast majority of the people that I see or stand next to on the corner, waiting for the walk signal, has an iPod stuck in their ear. After about a week of debating with myself, whether or not i should listen to my ipod when i walk around, i decided to go ahead and give it a try. I mean, what could it hurt? Well it was amazing! Who would have thought that just listening to your ipod while walkin the busy streets of birmingham could be so exciting?! I threw that thing in shuffle mode and took off. There was an instant satisfaction when i pushed play, and i couldnt help but smile, haha. But why was it so good and satisfying? What is so cool about listening to music and walking? Well, this is what i came up with.. We spend a lot of our lives watchin tv shows and movies, both of which have music. They have music for everything; the intro song, music between scenes, for movies theres music playing during the movie, and then the outro music. The music is usually relevant to the mood of what is happening, if it is a sad moment, a sad song or melody, a happy moment is paired with happy music, and so on.. This is the same idea with the ipod. I could walk down the street in the middle of the city with traffic and construction (lots of loud noises), on my way to a class or lab that i really dont feel like going to at the moment and only hear whatever was playin on my ipod. Well, a couple of weeks ago, that was my situation, i was goin to class, and didnt really feel like goin, but i was listenin to Nat king cole "almost like being in love" . I mean it was silly at first, the song, considering my location and the people standing around me, but when that was all i heard, i thought,, "this is my theme music!" you know, the music that plays during a movie scene where people are performing daily routines and theres no dialogue, that song or music kinda sets the tone. Well this upbeat song set the tone for that few moments, and really for the rest of the day. I walked and looked at my surroundings through different eyes. There is just something great about knowing that you have your own theme song, you become important and dont feel alone. There is an extra sense of beauty in everything. I was walkin up the block, and it was late after class, so of course its rush hour. As i watched all of the people in their cars at a stand still, not one of them was smiling, or seemed relaxed;however, my theme music had me pumped. The fact that there was a lot of anger just a few feet away from me didnt phase me. Though without my ipod, my walk back to the room would have seemed long, my legs would have gotten sore from walkin up the hill, i would have been thinking about all the stuff i had to do for the next day, i probably would have had to wait 10 min for the walk signal, the elevator would have been broken, the list can go on.. but with the constant music, none of this mattered, (it all happened anyways). I believe this same principle applies within ourselves. Get past all of the music and physical aspects and look into your inner being. We listen to the music (our theme song) because it makes us feel important. Thats the same reason we have God fill our souls; so we can have meaning. HE soothes our hearts as the song soothes our ear. There are so many distractions which bring us away from God, and most of the time we fail to realize it. Oddly enough, it took my ipod to help me realize beauty, and that i was empty. We as Christians strive daily to please God, our friends, and ourselves. Since so many things must be met, we are going to eventually run out.. of what?.. of ourselves. We spend a lot of time running on empty just trying to squeeze out the last bit before we have to fill up again. One thing i learned as an intern this past year, is that filling up is the only way you can pour out. And so as i watched all of these people listen to their ipods, they were filling up as i just walked along, only pouring out just enough. I needed my fill. If you haven't caught the metaphor yet, this is how we are to live. And so many people want to make it complicated, and make excuses. Well i didn't even talk to any of these people on campus and they ministered to me just by filling up. I realized how much we need God. If a "theme song" can make things so much better, God can do inifintely more. God is the song we should live by. He is the song and theme we live to, but sometimes we become deaf to the music. But how simple?! They listen to their ipods as we should just pray, or read a few passages from our bible (trust me if you read your bible in public people will notice cause, who can't pick out a bible from any other book?). You dont have to go out with a microphone, or Jesus written on your forehead. But just by filling up daily with what God has to offer, withoug meaning to, you will spill, drip, and soak those around you. I challenge you to fill up,, it's free! Go and affect people by the way you live.

Where is God?

Many people like to ask the question, "Where is God?" There are so many times in which we hurt and suffer. There are other times in which life seems so unfair. God has promised us many things, but He has not promised us that life would always be fair, or pain free; however, many people still get the illusion that because they become a Christian then life is all downhill from there. Well, yes and no. No, just because you become a Christian doesn't mean that you get one of those "easy buttons" from staples. You may sometimes go through a hard time whether it be struggling with sin or just random things in life that kick you in the butt and you wonder "God where are you in all of this?" Then there's the "yes" aspect of this. Because you become a Christian and accept Jesus into your life, you no longer have to let sin run your life. You now have a savior who rescued you from death, from eternal pain. You recieve a God who loves you , who has loved you, and will love you forever. With a God of this magnitude comes an all knowing God who knows your every need, thought, passion, struggle, and pain. There are many passages involving this subject, but there is one that I chose: Psalm 139:1-18. 5 (read)

In this Psalm, David talks about how God knows his every thought before he thinks it, and every word before he speaks it. That God is everywhere and that you cannot escape His presence. Verse 12 says that darkness cant even hide you from God for He shines like the day. And even before David was born God had planned out each of his days. In verse 17 "How precious to me are your thoughts, God!" David is saying, "God I don't know what your will for me is but I know that as long as I'm faithful to you and your word that you have great things in store for me. I am not afraid to give you my life and to let you take control."

So where is God? From what we have read, He is everywhere and in everything. To feel His presence you must be aware of Him first. My challenge for you is to go out and find Him. Where out in the world is He? But most importantly, is He in you?