Monday, March 31, 2008

Cleaning up

Today we cleaned our den. Big news huh? We cleaned because we are getting ready for our new baby girl, Abigail Hope. She should be here a week from tomorrow and we are so pumped about it.

I like to clean once I start, but the problem is starting. I think that principle applies in many parts of life. Stuff builds up and our lives get cluttered. Go look at my office. I need to cut out a few hours to clean it up. The cool thing about cleaning out the junk, is that you feel free and much better once everything is clean. Go clean something.

The last few weeks have been a great time, because I have been studying the life of Jesus in Matthew. Before these last few weeks, my life has been junked up. It is not like I was walking in sin; I was just walking alone. Jesus just renews my heart and mind when I spend time with Him. He cleans me up. Hope that doesn't sound all warm, fuzzy and fake; it is just true. John 15 rocks. Remain in me and I will remain in you. -Jesus

Sunday, March 30, 2008

The love of casting vision

A few spiritual gifts of mine include encouraging, teaching, eating and vision casting. Tonight I was able to cast vision. I spoke at my church tonight and was floored in my heart while I was speaking. I know God has made me for a time like this, to be apart of my church and challenge our people to pray for Chattanooga. I am pumped to hear what Bil is doing out in Texas and about Steven in N.C. and pray that God would make His name great through a people who are desperate for His glory here in Chattanooga.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

3 on 3 tournament

Praise God! We raised about $400 during our 3 on 3 basketball tournament for Compassion International. I encourage you to give to this organization. Compassion feeds, clothes, schoools and shares Christ with kids from countries all around the world.

Friday, March 28, 2008

1 week 4 days

In one week and four days Faith is scheduled to go in for our delivery. We are excited about round two; Abigail Hope. Today the Dr. said she was estimated right at 7lbs. We thank God for another child.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Forgiveness - must read!

Wow! So I have read a passage that I have read many times before and this time it humbled me. Read Matthew 18:21-35.

Jesus tells the parable about the king that forgave a debt to a man. That same man went out and did not forgive one of his servants and was very harsh to him. The guy even begged him just as the man begged the king, but he still refused and had him arrested and put into prison.

People were upset and told the king, because they had been aware that that same man had been forgiven. And then this verse came; "You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me...shouldn't you have mercy too? Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt."

That is a crazy story, but that is not even the part that scares me. Here it is. Verse 35, Jesus speaking; "That's what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart".

Wow! Jesus was not playing. Something about unforgiveness really makes God angry. I think it is because, as we analyze the story, the man that was forgiven by the king owed millions; a lot. He was big time in debt. He pleaded and was forgiven. But he left and probably did a blame shift in his head and said, "I have not paid the king because I have not received my money. Now I will go and get it!" So he went and showed no mercy. This other guy only owed him a fraction of what he owed the king. Selfish.

In the same way, we have been forgiven a huge amount, what is it to forgive a gossip or a lie against us? Today we have to forgive.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Everyone has a story

In our youth group tonight, we had John Eldridge speak on a talk called "Epic". We were talking about our stories and our lives. The band played the song "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. They rocked it out.

I am grateful to know that tomorrow does not have to be an ordinary day, but it can be an adventure in the life of my story. I can be a hero and participate in being a hero of changing someones life forever. Amazing!

We are having recording artist MONK and NEAGLE come and play tomorrow night. It should be a fun laid back night.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Teaching Creatively like Jesus

Jesus taught creatively. Matthew 13:34 says "Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact he never spoke to them without using such parables."

Jesus was creative when he taught. A new generation of church planters is coming up and in out technological age, people are getting more creative. I love it. Let's use it. Do not let it be substituted for the Word of God, but allow it to be a catalyst to highlight the Word.

Monday, March 24, 2008

How to change the world in 24 hours.

I truly wonder how many people wake up daily really wanting to change the world. Not by being green, or being good, or giving to charities, although that is part of it, but seeing lives changed forever. How do you do it? How do you make an eternal impact throughout the world? I sit in my shower and pray that daily.

I am convinced of a few things and a few questions.

1. Is God changing my world daily?
2. Am I leading and loving my family daily?
3. Am I really desperate for God's Spirit daily?

If I really believe and practiced these three things daily through the power of God, I believe I will start to see the world change, starting in my city. So really it is not about me changing anything, but realizing what the power of God can do through a human that submits to the Spirit of God.

"God change me from the inside out today. Help me be the man I need to be to lead Faith and Kylie. God I pray that I would draw near you today and be desperate for your Holy Spirit."

24 hours from now... will the world, my life, my family, my city, my church, the moving of God's Spirit look different because of what God wants to do through this life? Wow, what an honor we have in serving the risen Christ.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

NCAA Tournament



So who will do it? Who will win it all? OF course I like TN because I've lived here my whole life. I have been a UNC fan for years. I started liking them when I was 12 because I like baby blue. Davidson could be David taking down many Goliaths. I will root for them because my sisters boyfriend plays baseball for them. May the best team win!

So... Is the Easter Bunny ok?

Well, many people have different opinions about the Easter Bunny. Not sure you can say it is good or evil. We did go and worship Jesus this morning and heard about the power of the Resurrection, Then we went and hung out with family... and yes we put "the ears" on our little girl; and they were cute. So, I am not sure if the bunny is necessarily evil. I do believe that it should not be our replacement for Jesus.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Hanging out with Kylie

From time to time Faith will run out and do some errands by herself and I stay at home with our 16 month old, Kylie. She is so sweet and funny. It is amazing how she will look at me and copy everything I do. I am amazed at how a parent has an incredible influence on how their kids will grow up and live their lives.

It is a big responsibility that I submit to Christ and look up to Him and ask Him for wisdom and strength, so that I can lead and love my family. Just as I lead my family daily, I need to lean on Christ and have him lead me daily.

I see Kylie copy the things I say. Today she was taking big bites of her (well my) cereal and I was saying, "Wow! big bite" and she would attempt to respond back in a typical 16 month old voice, "Wo! Bee bi" and then we would both laugh. I hope that I would copy my Father just as Kylie copies me.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Jesus really loves people

I just finished reading the first half of Matthew making observations about Jesus. Here are a few things to note.

1. Jesus really loves people. He would heal the people who had faith in Him to heal them. Do I have faith in God to heal me in times of need. It was simple; they did not bring great words, or an offering to Jesus, they just brought their faith.
2. Jesus taught a lot. "The crowds were amazed at His teaching for He taught with real authority- quite unlike their teachers of religious law." Do I teach more like Jesus or everyone else?
3. Large crowds followed him everywhere.
4. Jesus said a lot about the Kingdom

There are many more of course, but these are a few that challenged and encouraged me.
Application: 1. Read a lot of God's Word daily; it's good. 2. love people and spend personal time with them, like Jesus. 3. Teach well, with real authority. 4. Are people following me? Is there passion in what I'm doing? Is what I'm doing or teaching worth peoples attention? 5. Do I ever talk about the Kingdom?

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I act like I am God sometimes.

It is amazing to see how easy it is to be the god of my own life. This last month has been a blast for me and it is because I have been depending on God and walking by faith. I have been dreaming, thinking, praying, studying the Word and other things as well with a "God" mindset". I have totally been dwelling in God.

I was so use to doing that, that this past week I turned back to doing everything myself. I started to skip my time reading from the Word in the morning. I stopped thinking of other people as much. I did not dream as much and it was all because I started to "know what I was doing". It is amazing how easy it is to trust in myself. "God my prayer is that my heart would not rest until it rests in You. Give me strength to submit and dwell in You. Lead and guide me by Your Spirit. In Christ's name. Amen."

So, no I am not God, but I can obviously be the god of my life any given day. John 15:5- Remain in Me Romans 12:2 - renew your mind. Colossians 3:1 - focus on godly things.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Forgot to love my wife

Yesterday I said that I wanted to serve my wife. The day did not go so well. It's not that we fought or argued, but we were simply bored. It rained and I had planned on going to the park. Since it rained I never came up with another plan to love her and spend some quality time with her.

My wife has never read my blog. Never. Ever. I have read a few things to her, but she never sat down to read it. Well she read it yesterday. At the end I said that I was going to do something special for her. After she read it she said, "So what are you going to do that is so special?". "Gulp", she did not realize that my special day at the park had fallen out the window and I did not take much time to think through anything else to do.

Later on that yesterday evening I said, "I got it". You do not have to do anything with Kylie(our 16 month old) the rest of the night. I will feed her and change her and get her when she is crawling up the stairs and getting in to stuff. My wife is four weeks away from delivering our second baby, so I should be doing most of this anyway. But, she thought it was a great idea. SO she got the rest of the night off to relax, even though she was kinda sick. And I finally ended the day by giving her a message.

So whats the point? The point of the whole story for me is that when my plans fail to love my wife, I better come up with another plan. Even if it is small she will appreciate it.

Peace all Alone

I grew up searching for love. My parents were divorced; dad in jail and mom working up to 100 hours a week. I had to find love, self-worth and significance wherever I could find it.

Through friends, girlfriends; just people in general, if someone would pay attention to me I would feel accepted. This lasted a lot of my life and I sure there are still parts of my life that are flaws because of this, but I have come to a point where I have peace all alone with God and His Word. Where I do not need work or sports to make me happy or make me who I am, because He is enough.

All I need is love, love, love and Jesus is my love. He is my Christ. My Redeemer. My Friend. He is my self-worth. He is my significance. He is my identity. He is enough. There is peace when I am alone with Him.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Family vs. Work

I am continually thinking about the way God designed life and the order that things in life are suppose to matter. I constantly see a need for God to be first in my life. Without His presence daily I am not worth much. Christ has to be the center of my life. And then how my wife must be second, right behind the God of the universe. That is huge! That my wife would follow God? Wow, God must mean it when He says "Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...". And then my daughters. Kylie deserves all of my attention right behind God and mommy. What a blessing that is for a child to get so much attention from their parents. Abigail will be here in a few weeks and will be able to share in with Kylie, the love from mommy and daddy.

Down the list we will have extended family, friends and work and so on. Work is something isn't it? As a pastor, I have the greatest job in the world. I get to be creative in planning programs, having lunch appointments with other people in ministry, encouraging staff, studying the Word of God to bring a powerful, thought provoking, relative, engaging and life changing message. The only problem is a lot of times I love my work more than my wife. I do not know if it is a guy thing, that there is this job out there and I have to fix it and perfect it, and so I spend much time on it. Even as I write I have written far more about my work than my family. I remember a talk from Andy Stanley. He said something to the effect of - If you are going to cheat your wife or the church; cheat the church. That was interesting. Not, cheat God, but cheat the church. I am going to end my writing and spend time thinking through something special to do for my family today.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Boulevard of Broken Dreams


"I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known....My shadow's the only one that walks beside me...Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me." Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer for Green Day, says a few statements that are so true for millions of people today. People are searching. Real people are really searching. Where are some answers for my life? Who will love me? We will listen? Who will give me their attention? Let me ask a question and let's be perfectly honest with ourselves. Can they come to any church in America and find what they are looking for? True Christianity would say yes. Our Americanized, "do church", ritualistic religion that we have made says "NO"! Times have got to change. Our social clubs need to burn, our selfish natures need to melt and our hearts need to be broken. Come on! Seriously, what are we doing? Pastor Wake up! Youth pastors... wake up! Christ following bankers, teachers, doctors, policemen, construction workers, secretaries; can we all get real for a minute? Our God calls us to make the most of every opportunity; so what are we doing? People die. People really die! Let's start really caring about people. As we go throughout our days. The gas station workers, waitresses, co-workers, the hundreds of people we come in contact with daily; love them. Please, let's get real.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Where is the Christian church?

Where are you church? when a kid is walking down the street dribbling a ball and has no friends; where are you church? When the crack-whore that lives 10 minutes from you and is getting ready to over-dose; where are you church? When the dad that does not know how to be a dad is frustrated and is 2 seconds from leaving his family; where are you church. I do not mean to come across in a hatred way, but church; you suck. where are you at? With the prostitute; where are you; drunkard, gossips,sinners, cutters; where are you church? You are the only one that can give them hope, so let me ask you one question where are you. Where am I? - Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise, but as wise, making the most out of every opportunity because the days are evil. - People are making unwise choices and are suffering. Make a wise choice today. Love someone. Help someone.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Wisdom is better than beer.

Wisdom is better than beer.

I love my wife. I think husbands should. Last night we were lying in bed and I was wanting to read what God said about marriage and our roles for one another, because I really want to love my wife more and honor her more. So we then turned to Ephesians 5. I wanted to pick up a little context so I read a little before the verse and then landed on a verse that consumed our conversation for the rest of the night. We did not end up talking about marriage, but about reality.

Verse 15 and 16 says that we are to "Be very careful then how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every oppertunity, because the days are evil". We were talking about reality in real life. Many people live as if reality is not real, and therefore live in an unwise way. Is it true that people live their lives in debt and are numbed by the effects? People attempt to get filled by the botttom of a bottle? People give themselves over sexually to whomever and some cases whatever they want. People are entrapped in their lies and have convinced themselves that their lies are now true. There is a world living in fantasy land.

If God is going to be most glorified in me when I am most satisy in Him, then the wise way to live would be to get rid of everything it takes or add anything it takes until I am satisfied in Him. People see in the drunkard that alcohol is most glorified in them, when they are most satisfied in it. They are living unwise lives when they look to stuff in this world to fulfill their purpose. I need to live in wisdom today. Today live wise. Live in reality. Wisdom is better than lies, idols and debt. Wisdom is better than beer.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Salvation is here!

Ian put faith and trust in Christ tonight. As I continue in my role as a Student Pastor, God is doing some cool stuff. Ian is a street kid. He comes with his neighbors, when he comes to church. That was exactly where I was in my life. I hate to say it, but it has been awhile since I have lead someone to Christ. It feels amazing to be used by God. God was amazing tonight, as he came in the youth room and redeemed Ian. Praise God!

Am I a church planter or a Christ follower?

Lately I have been spending a large amount of time thinking, talking and praying about church planting, because I want to change the world. I have a few neat oppertunities in the near future. The only problem is, is that church planting has consumed my mind. I need to confess that first and foremost I am a Christ follower. I think when we get hung up on "stuff", even good and holy stuff. Stuff captures our attention and captures our hearts, and we fail. But when the holy God of the universe captures our hearts, then we are lead by His Spirit to take over the world. Whether its bad stuff (sin), just stuff(time on Xbox), or good stuff(wanting to plant a church so thousands are changed by God), stuff cannot control our minds. Colossians says to put or focus our minds on the things above where God is seated, not on the things of this earth. Let's dream big! Let's change the world! But let's do it with Christ leading us.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

45 seconds.

45 seconds. Not a long time. What would you do if you had 45 seconds left in this world? Pray? Talk to your wife real quick? Talk to kids? Our lives are but a vapor, here and then gone. We should spend our time wisely. For me I need to get it in my mind what I am going to do today. I will Love God and love people today there is no other better day to die. If I am here tomorrow I will do it again. We are not invinsible. One day we'll all go home. Love God, love people today.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Our primary purpose for existence is not to glorify God.

These are thoughts from a friend on facebook. I also responded to what he said. This may seem kind of long, but worth reading. I would love to get feedback.

(from David) So, a couple of people have asked me what I discovered about my purpose in life, or whatever. And, I thought I'd post it on here for eveyone to read :-)d) What is life "for"?I think this maybe is where I disagreed some with what others have posted. I really do not believe our primary purpose for existence is to glorify the Lord. God is infinite. We cannot comprehend his power, knowledge, abilities, and traits. He was, is, and will be. He’s completely capable of bringing Himself the utmost amount of glory, beyond any way we can possibly fathom. He does not need us to bring Himself glory. (In some sense. Someone must be a witness to His glory. But, He can do things that bring Himself glory, without our intervention. Thus, our bringing glory to Him is not an exclusive purpose.) But, what He does need us for is relationship. Before god created the universe, it was only the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God made man in His image. He put man in charge of the world He created, and made a wonderful world that man could enjoy. And, most wonderfully, God walked with man in the Garden of Eden every day. The picture of Eden is not man doing things so God looks good. Eden was a perfect place where God and man communed. When we sinned, God loved us so much that He allowed His only Son to be killed on our behalf, so that we could share relationship with Him again. A God primarily interested in bringing glory to Himself wouldn’t give His Son for a bunch of people who continuously do NOT bring Him glory. A god primarily interested in loving us and sharing relationship with us would. And so, this is our purpose, to love the Lord, and to be loved by Him. And in this process of loving, MUCH glory is brought to the Lord. We are to glorify and serve the Lord, because of what He did for us. But love, and relationship, is the driving force.Joseph and I talked about this a long time ago... what are everyone else's thoughts?

(from me) David,Whats up bro? I like what you have written. During this whole "glorify God" movement (not writing that as if is a bad thing, actually a good thing), I have felt that there is more than just that simple statement. I have been looking at God through the O.T. and His love for people. He was so patient with Israel. Yeah there were times to smack them around and disciplined them, but through it all, He loved them. At the end of Romans 11(very interesting) He talks about how He grafted us in through Christ. Then picking up at Romans 12:1-2 (which everyone knows) talks about being a living sacrifce (loving God because He loved us). Also look at the greatest commandment -"Love God with everything and love people as yourself." There should be something about a love relationship in our life purpose statements. Thanks for this, you have helped me think deeper about this subject.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

The Body of Christ isn't dead!

I am excited because I have huge decisions to make in life and I do have the body of Christ to back me up! I am praying and thinking through church planting. I really think that is what I have been called to do. So I guess I need to just step out on faith and say ok God lets roll. Along this journey I have had mentors (Hung and Wayne) to turn to. I also have brothers around my age encourage me. My partner in crime Charlie has been a huge help and encouragement. JR and Paul, other church planters, are helping and encouraging me on my way. Thank you God that your body is not dead. It is alive and active! I pray that people from cities all over would be awakened to the power of God and what He wants to do in our lives and that the body of Christ would come together to change a dying and hurting world.