Stuck, with the Gospel.

I feel like I am stuck with the gospel. What I mean is that I live in a very traditional and religious city and when I talk with church people about the gospel, I get a half-hearted smile and head nod as if they have known it their whole life. Yet there is no movement or passion in their eyes, much less their lives. Then I have the world that is hurting, yet many seem like they know they are hurting and open to truth, but are not ready to get over their lives to take on His life and His cross.

I think there are some stuck like me. Here is my encouragement to us. Be real, honest and open to the church people and the lost. Maybe by our lives and the genuine relationship with Christ in us, they might be moved. And two... live by faith. Going to church is not faith, its habit. Meeting someone and knowing their name and sharing hope is faith. Trusting in God that He would use you to change someones life for Him, is faith. Let's not walk by sight because it can be very disheartening in our city, but walk by a different life and different calling, a calling from up above. Make a difference before you die and do not let your life pass you by without having God moving radically through it. On our knees praying, soaking up God words to us and walking by faith. Lets do it.

The Role of the Holy Spirit

It is amazing all of the views that people have of the role Holy Spirit. Some people do not know much about the Holy Spirit simply because their church does not teach on the subject and they do not read God's word to seek to see what it says. Others take on a role and view of the Holy Spirit and start "making" the Holy Spirit do things that in reality it is what they want to do. You see this in a lot of churches or tv that abuses the role of speaking in tongues. How about this one: Have you ever heard someone say that "God told me to do ____". That is a statement that I would encourage people to rarely or never say. God tells us what He wants us to do through His Word.

We live in such a prideful and self seeking society, that we could do things and say it was the Holy Spirit. That is very dangerous for us to do what we want to do and call it God or place His stamp on it.

God clearly gives us the Bible to read and study it so we can grow in our faith and seek to know Him more. In doing that, we can get to know different parts and different things about God, including the act and the role of the Holy Spirit.

Read John 14-17 and read through Acts to start a study. John and Luke write these books and describes the role of the Holy Spirit. There are other passages, but this is a good start. Think clearly and think biblically and see what God wants to do through your life through the role of the Holy Spirit.

The Move

We finally moved to Hixson. It feels good to follow where God leads. I honestly thought if God called me to do something great, then it would be to raise a bunch of money to go to Africa or some far away country, but He didn't. He called me to go back to where I grew up to start Awaken Community Church.

We sold our house in 10 days and found an apartment in the area. We had family and many people from our church come and help us move. We have already met some neighbors in the neighborhood and around the complex and have had premarital counseling with two couples in our new living room. God is already at work in the new place.

We have laid our lives open before God to do what He wants us to do. We look forward to see what and whose lives He has in mind for us to be apart of.

God called me to plant a church. What has He called you to be apart of? May be you need to move on. Maybe its away from something or to something. Follow God, it may be tough, but follow the vision that He has placed on your life; it will be worth it and more fulfilling than anything that you will ever do in your life.

What Makes You Come Alive?

It is interesting how all people are created differently. All of us have a different fingerprint and a different tongue. Although some similar, we all have different personalities and temperaments. We also have things that will set us off and things that will make us come alive. Unfortunately we forsake time on the things that make us come alive and spend a lot of our lives on things that waste our time. God has given us all a God given passion that makes us come alive. Two of my passions are relationships and preaching. Food and ping pong are a close behind.

God called me to start Awaken Community Church which launched this past September. I have had to get people around me to help the church function in all different areas. The two things that I am good at and must focus on are preaching and building relationships. I find that when I spend time focusing on all of the other details and do not spend quality time developing those areas, I get weak and burned out, however when I am meeting new people, disciple, share my faith or just have a guys night at my house, I come alive, because I was meant to develop relationships and influence people. Same with preaching. When I spend a lot of time praying, reading, watching other preachers, reading commentaries, doing observation through a text of scripture, studying the culture and the context of a book or a chapter and I preach it, I feel so alive. I expect lives to change on Sundays through the preaching, so I better focus on the pouring time into preaching and not into my personality.

What is your passion, talent and love for life? What makes you come alive? Try to focus your time and dedication to those few things so you feel alive and accomplish what you were meant to accomplish. Maye you should focus more time on being the best mom, organizer, planner, encourager, leader or giver. What makes you come alive? What are you passionate about? Allow God to use that gift that He has given you.

Connecting with Jesus

Life can get so busy that we forget about our purpose and reason for living. I love looking at the life of Jesus, because as I observe the way he lived, I notice that He always had time with His Father. He had to, it was a priority and a necessity. Jesus was fully God, but also fully man, so He had temptation to do thing on His own strength. He never did, because His focus was always on what God had for Him to do each day and each hour.

I have noticed that in the midst of school, work, family and all of the business of life, it is easy for us to crowd out God with our stuff. He becomes a mere option rather than a necessity. That is a dangerous road that many of us go down daily and the road has become all too familiar to many of us. Followers of Christ need to repent and realize that Jesus really is our life, not our Sunday satisfaction. Jesus didn't die to be an option in our life, but to be the center our life.

I encourage you to make Jesus more real to you and spend time seeking Him daily and hourly. Change your schedule, priorities and your mind. This life was not meant to live alone. Connect with Jesus.

Summary: Song of Solomon Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Song of Solomon is made up of two main conversational pieces: Connection and Conflict. Those are two necessities to make any relationship work well.

Connection: You can tell that this couple is deeply in love with each other. (2:4) "his banner over me was love". Banner was a military term. When soldiers were on the battlefield and all scattered out, one of the men would raise a banner so all of the soldiers could come together and meet under the banner. It represented safety, security, unity and hope. The men would fight there way to get back to the banner. Men, are you man enough to be the banner for your marriage? If you can't keep a job, clean your room or have any gas money, then you are not ready for a wife... not even a pet. Allow God to take you through life and produce character in you to prepare you for marriage. Instead of strong banners we have deflated balloons out there. Application men, connect to a good church, get a job and repent of your sins. Women, don't settle, connect with a real man, a real leader and get a good banner.

Conflict: (2:15)"...catch the foxes, the little foxes that spoil our vineyards". I remember my first year of marriage lying on the hardwood kitchen floor crying my eyes out and feeling numb. It was so bad that I was even drooling on the floor. What happened? The little foxes destroyed my marriage. It was the first and only time that divorce was heavily considered. In the day of Solomon they would spend a lot of time cultivating their vineyards. After hours, days, weeks and even months, foxes would get in and jack the whole thing up by stealing the fruit and destroying the vineyards. Make sure that in your relationships that you have open, clear communication. Confess your weaknesses and sins. Walk upright and never lie to your spouse.

There much more to unpack in Chapter 2, I thought that I would throw out a few highlights. We are starting chapter 3 at Awaken this Sunday at 10:30 at the YMCA in Hixson. I Hope this was helpful and you could benefit from Song of Solomon.

New Series: Bringing Sexy Back

This week at Awaken we are starting a new series entitled "Bringing Sexy Back". As far as I know Stephen Furtick was the first to start this series at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. I like being original in ministry and do my own thing, but this was one series title that I had to steal.

Basically, Tony and I thought through what direction that our church needed to go as far as teaching and we thought that there was nothing better than SEX that would attract a church with an average age of 24. This is a great series to start especially as we had a record crowd of 70 last week. We are at a time where people are coming back to church and finding freedom in Christ and His followers and figured we would teach a sexually active culture and generation what God says about SEX.

I would like to invite you to join us for the rest of February as we teach our new Series "Bringing Sexy Back". We still meet at the YMCA in Hixson at 10:30am.