New Start, New Chapter

I love how people have new beginnings. I think of the word redemptive and the power that that word holds. Think of Saul. What if that dude did not get a new start. He would totally be messed up, but God had a plan for his life. He blinded him, humbled him, changed his name and called him. He became a phenom in the missionary world. He wrote 2/3 of the N.T. What a new start.

Faith and I are in a whole lifestyle change as we begin our new start. We just celebrated 7 years of marriage and I just turned 30. Crazy! We were talking about all the things that happened in life when I was in my 20's. I got married, graduated college, had a couple of kids, lived in 8 different places and had 9 different jobs. I wonder what God will do in my 30's. So far, we bought a house and are starting a new job next Monday. I get to be under a pastor that I really respect, go to church with one of my closest friends and mentors and am able to go back to my heart of heart in serving youth.

Life can be interesting as different and weird things can come our way, but in the end God is glorified and works all thing out for the good for those that love Him and live according to his purpose. Keep pressing on in your journey. Persevere through the tough times, enjoy the blessed times and continue down the road less traveled whatever may come your way.

The Art of Organization

I am A.D.D. Not officially, but my brain seems to goes in every direction possible. Not sure if you can relate, but if you can, then you know that it can be frustrating not to have organization in your life.

I recently found a few things that I have added to my life that have helped me. 1. People 2. A Calendar 3. Communication.

I notice that if I can take out a little time to add these things to my life it can save me a lot of stress. It is kind of like disciplining a child. A parent can either stay on top of them when they are young and make sure the child does not rule, reign and run the house. If a parent actually parents the kid when they are young then it saves them a lifetime of being ruled by the kid. If a parent does not discipline, then the child rules the rest of their lives in many different areas and many different ways and the parents are frustrated. The point is this; take out a little bit of time to parent well and it will make life a lot easier. I am finding it is the same with organization. Take out a little time to organize and everything will be easier.

In leading a church, I have put two other men by my side (people). We meet weekly to talk about the direction of the church (communication) and plan out where we want to go and what we want to do to get to where we want to go (calendar).

The same with my home life. Faith, my wife, and I are still working at this, but I will meet with her (people) and talk through things (communication) and write them down (calendar). Here is a perfect example. Right now we are working on moving into our new house! So that is exciting, but it takes a lot of work. We are working now with getting people to help (people), getting dates set to move (calendar) and getting a list set up for what people can do when they get here (communication).

I am not an expert, but this is where I am and what I am learning. I hope this can help you.

My 11 Goals of 2011

The differenece from a vision and a new years resolution is that a vision is a life long goal that can be broken down each year to fulfill the overall vision. A new years resolution is mostly intended to try something different or try to change something. Some of my goals relate to the vision that God has called me to and some are goals that I have. Most people make goals and keep them for about 5 days. I hope to keep many of these goals at least past January, ha. So here they are:

1. Keep house clean
2. Buy a home
3. Give my life to the gospel
4. Get a blue belt in Gracie Jujitsu
5. Develop closer relationships with my family and friends
6. Read more books
7. Watch less TV
8. Eat healthier
9. Learn to live on less
10. Work hard at work
11. Date my wife more

What are your goals this year?

Relationships Matter

I just spend an hour and a half deleting over 1200 Facebook friends. This probably doesn't sound like the perfect sentence to start off a blog titled "Relationships Matter". The point is, is that I have a lot of relationships, but I do not have a lot of meaningful relationships.

The last few months have been good with my wife. I have been spending meaningful time that with her that counts.

At church, I have realized that we have a lot of stuff to do and not enough people to do it. And all pastors said... "Amen".

I am thinking and praying through my life and focusing my time on relationships that I can build into. Anyone that knows me knows that I love people, but may also know that it is hard for me to go deep. I can go into deep conversations, but that is different than going into deep life together. I now have 301 friends. Maybe some more of those need to be deleted. My goal is to try invest well into people God has close to my life. I am not hating those I deleted, just trying to focus on people that are currently in my life to some degree.

God tells us to love Him and to love others well. I have been so spread thin, that neither have been done well. Hopefully through obedience and faith that will continue to change.

Dancing in the Club

So, I was driving back from a conference today scanning through the stations. I found the beat. I do not know what it was, but it had "the" beat. My wife was dead asleep, I was cruising about 78mph and started the head nod. And then it hit me... I need to go to the club. What club? Its doesn't matter. I started to think of the social scene in a club and how everyone wants to stay fresh and act like they're somebody. I thought of grabbing my boy Joey and heading to the club one night. We could get some 80's clothes on and crash the party. It would be fun. Make some people laugh while the cool cats role their eyes. It would be a great way to build relationships and conversation. Bringing Jesus to the club in 80's fashion. What do ya think? Anyone want to go to the club? Will you be there? You know Amber will be.

Giving up on Life?

Last July was the worst month of my life. I was going through a lot in my marriage and family. This post was saved as a draft since then. It was saved in my drafts and am now posting it. I hope you may find truth and healing from what I went through and my thought process through it all... It seems that we are less eager to accept grace and mercy when we are strong, but when we are weak, well, that is a different story. When a man, or woman, has been stripped of everything that they have, they will become utterly dependent on one of two things. They will either pursue themselves and their selfish desire to deal and heal their pain, which ultimately will never truly heal their hurt or their pain. The second is they can turn to God, which is hard to do as well. When you feel that no one loves you or wants or can know the real you, then the only thing to naturally turn to is yourself. When you turn to yourself, however, you will turn to a humans perspective on life, which will lead to some sort of destruction. When you turn to God, if you can turn to God, you will see life, truth, freedom and light. The reason that I say "if you can turn to God:, is because our pride can still be strong in our weakness. That is why it takes one more ounce of faith to believe God can heal. That is why you must muster up any hope and trust that may lye somewhere inside you. Freedom: Although it may not seem clear at first, following God's path is the only path that will lead to anything beneficial for your life. While on this path as you deal with yourself, your struggles and life, make sure you pray. Pray to God and confess out loud the things that are bringing you down, then confess what is true about you in the eyes of God; how you are loved, adopted by God, a child, a saint and all other phrases that scripture speaks about those who are Gods children. Then quote the scriptures so you can hear, walk and live by truth instead of lies. I hope this blog of weaknesses that I have experienced in my life and how I dealt with them may help someone out there who may happen to scroll by my page.

$2 a Day Results

This last week I ate off of $2 a day. I did it for a few reasons. 1. To be thankful for what I have. 2. To save money. 

Well, I did it. It was encouraging to have a goal like that and complete it. I am more aware of saving money and living life more simple. People even gave me free food and coupons during the week. Not sure if you have taken a challenge like that, but I recommend it.

A Challenge That I Bet You Wont Take.

Did you know that over half over the world lives off of $2 a day? $2 a day!!! That is it! That is nuts! I cannot even eat off of $2 a day.... wait, I cant even eat off of $2 a meal or can I?

I want to throw out a challenge to you but let me tell you why first. I have been thinking about life and what's important to me. I have been thinking about everything; my wife, kids, bible study, work, food, time, money, friends, prayer, cleaning, free time, hobbies and more. I started to think about all of these and how I approach them in my life. Am I more concerned about games and free time than my family? A lot of times I would say yes. Am I selfish? Yes. Am I spoiled? Yes. Am I rich? Yes. Starting next Monday I am attempting to strip away many things that are not as important to focus on the things that are for one week. I hope the results will make me more grateful for what I have.

One of the things that I am doing  and that I would like to challenge you to is is I am going to try to eat off $2 a day. Thats kind of crazy when you think about it. But then again, think of the rest of the world; $2 a day is what they make to cover everything. You up for the challenge? Let me know if you are by leaving a comment below. Click "post a comment". For me it will be tough, but the goal is that I need to be thankful for what I have.

By the way, I am asking Faith if we can have our whole family eat off of $2 a day. I will let you know what she says. Leave a comment below so we can see how many people are up for the challenge. Let's do it.

Easily Forgetful

I hate it when I lose the remote or my car keys. Its so inconvenient. I have to stop and retrace my steps. Sometimes I find what I was looking for, but sometimes it can take a few days or even a few weeks. Take the remote for example, we lost it 3 days ago and just found it tonight. Where? Right behind the cushion, where else? Go figure. 

Not sure if you have heard of the children of Israel. They were God's chosen people in the Old Testament. They followed God and many times rebelled and went against God. God would bless them at times and also discipline them at times, just as earthly fathers have to do sometimes with their kids. But the real kicker is the Red Sea.... God parted a sea. Are you kidding me? For me it takes faith to believe that, but for the children of Israel they actually walked through it. They experienced one of the coolest miracles of all times and yet they still forgot Gods promises and set their eyes back on themselves. They easily forgot about God.

As I think through that I wonder, "Wow, how could you turn your back on God after a miracle like that" and then I think of my life and the miracles God has done for me. It's easy for me to forget as well.

As I have been doing this church plant, Awaken, I have been doing a lot of ministry on my own strength. Today I was talking to a fellow church planter, Ryan, and I was amazed to see what he doesn't do with his time. He is more laid back and does a few things well and he lets the details work themselves out. I learned a lot today because I have been anal and stressing about all of the details that "need" to get done as we have launched our church. Today I feel like I have been set free from "doing ministry" and have peace, freedom and trust to let Christ build His church and I can be faithful with doing a few things well and let the rest work itself out. Not sure if you are a perfectionist or are anal about getting many things done, but I encourage you to let a lot of it go and just breathe and relax.... it feels good.

28

Well, today I turn 28. They should call it 29 because I lived a whole year before I even got a number. Kind of a rip off. Here are random thoughts that come to my head over the last 28 years.

puke baby got beat up by brother socks in my face bb gun wars
cheeseburgers taco salad riding bikes basketball latchkey kid
cool dudes playing cars GI Joes black eye parents divorced church basketball friends neighborhood middle school high school friends CROAM workout tennis dating follower of Christ life change purpose mentor Faith School bad marriage degree job friends God Kylie job Abigail Church Planting friends good marriage 28.

These are just a few random thoughts from my 28 years. I look forward to the purpose God has created me for through the rest of my life. Thank you for everyone that has been apart of my life.

Failures

The more that I look at my life, the more I realize that I have to trust in Christ. I mess up a lot. I fail a lot. I try to be a solid Christian, Husband, Father and Pastor, but many times I fail. I am continuing to realize that I will not be perfect in any of these areas and that I need to trust in Christ to help me be the man I need to be. The more I am seeking Jesus the better I do at these things and the more I stop wasting my time on things that do not matter. Its almost a formula for me: Trust in Christ = do things well and efficient. Don't seek Christ and waste time on meaningless things.

I have been really busy in life the last few months and have taken the latter part of that "formula". This past week I have been seeking Christ more and I can tell a difference in my life.

True Faith

I was talking to a friend the other day about religion. We were talking about God, Jesus, personal faith and more. Although we do not have the same beliefs, we shared in a productive, non threatening conversation. One thing she said about Christianity is that she respects the religion, but not the church. She said that so many people claim the name of Christ, but do not live it. She has her beliefs and she lives them. This is a huge problem.

Many people in our traditional, religious city of Chattanooga believe in God or "god". Many even believe or acknowledge Jesus, but the problem is that many do not truly know Jesus, they know about Him, but do not know Him.

True faith is truly having faith, period, not just claiming it with words. Not just an acknowledgment, but it actually changes the way you live. Its real. It is your life. Many should stop calling themselves Christians or Christ followers unless they are. Its not about being perfect, because everyone fails and will let you down, but its about giving your life up for something that will outlast you. The God of Heaven, Creator of heaven and earth, came into the world in form of a man called Jesus. He lived, loved, taught, impacted and died for the forgiveness of the sin of humanity. He rose again the third day. He ascended into heaven where we who have faith in Him, will join Him one day. This is the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ. No one like Him has ever lived or will ever live again. He was God and He was with us. We should follow him and claim him or continue to deny Him with our actions and stop claiming Him. Too many "Christians", are making the bride of Christ look like a whore and turning away those who may possibly be interested in Jesus because of the actions of His "followers". Lets embrace the good news of Jesus and allow Him to impact our lives, friends, church and community.

Life and Awaken Update

It has been awhile since my last post. Life has been pretty busy. Here's whats been going on lately:

*Just started working at T-Mobile call center.
*planting trees in our yard.
*been hanging with the family a lot lately.
*Getting ready to move locations for Awaken.
*Ready for Mark and Michelle (worship leaders)
to get in town (around June 8) so we can finally meet and hang out.
*(June 1st) see if we get a grant for Awaken.
*still selling cars to make some $ on the side.
*Need to spend more quality time with Jesus.
*Many people committed to Awaken and plugged in already.
*Abigail should be walking in the next few months.
*Kylie is crazy as always and has been dancing to funny songs.
*Faith's getting out more hanging out with friends.
*Ready for Awaken hangout at Chester Frost this Sunday.

Bipolar Church Planting

Sometimes I feel bipolar when planting Awaken Community Church. I go back and forth with my emotions. One day I am exhausted from all of the long hard hours not to mention the spiritual, physical and emotional stress it puts on me and my family. The next day I envision families and generations changed because there was a church that reached out to them one day and loved them. It is day to day on how I am feeling and which way my emotions are swaying. I just have to trust in God and be under His leadership and protection to get through each day.

It takes faith and a lot of prayer to plant a church. I am also convinced that you have to be either crazy or called to plant a church. I praise God for what He has put on my heart and how He wants to use an average neighborhood kid like me to be a part of changing a city.

Please pray for me, my family and our core group as we continue this radical, faith building journey that God has put us on. Pray for patience, endurance, clear direction and an open heart to God and people. Pray for yourself to see if you should join us in anyway to be apart of this movement. To God truly be the glory for who He is, what He has done and what He continues to have in store for His church.

Debt

There is an annoyance, a disease, a plague that has been in my life, the lives of my friends and family, my nation and our world. It name is Debt. It is amazing where you place your mind and heart, stuff follows. For example, if you are focused on things and want things, you will spend your time and money getting those things.

We "had" to have a 2005 Toyota 4-Runner a few years ago, so a cool thing happened and we got it. The nice people at the Toyota dealership were kind enough to let us finance for 6 years so we could make our monthly payment of $515 a month. Wasn't that sweet of them? So we got it and we were happy. We had always wanted a 4-Runner and finally had one. A weird thing happened though. A few months after owning it, we thought it was weird that our rent was $500 a month and our car payment was $515. The 4-runner was not that cool anymore.

Well along with the 4-runner we had credit cards, baby bills, eating out (ouch!) and more and more debt. Our goal was on stuff, so we got stuff... cool stuff at that.

We introduced our credit cards to a friend named Mr. Scissors. Mr. Scissors and our credit cards entered into a one round battle where Mr. Scissors came out the victor.

Faith and I have lived pretty tight for the last few years because of the mess we got ourselves into. Next month we will have all of our debt besides our House, van and school gone. We hope to get rid of the van and school debt over the next 2 years leaving us with just a house payment.

I encourage you if you have sucked at money or have blown it and find yourself in debt, take action and get rid of it. Go ahead and cut up some credit card and sell your car if you have to. We lost $4,000 in the deal with the 4-runner, but a few years later, with our choices and sacrifices, all of that is now gone. I turn 28 this year and hope to be debt free besides my home by the time I am 30. Make a goal, set it and do it. Do not let money and stuff rule your life. Think about it, what is life really about? Not money and stuff. Honor God and kill your debt.

People Matter

People matter to God, therefore people must matter to me. If I do not like people and never want to be near them, then I probably need to check myself. If the greatest commandment is to love God with everything we have (heart, soul, mind and strength) and the second is "like it" as the Bible says, which is to love our neighbors as ourselves, then this means we have a whole lot of loving to do.

The reality of this is sad. Sad for my life and the lives of people in our busy world. While there are some who truly take their time to love others daily, the reality is that the majority of people don't. In our fast pace society we are concerned about ourselves.

This afternoon my brother came over with my nephew and of course we fought each other, since he is a 4 year old boy. I had a blast playing with him, beating him up, letting him beat me up, beating his daddy up, letting him beat me up and so on. I sent them a text 2 hours after they left that said "Tell Malakhai that I had fun playing with him and tell him that I cant wait to play again next time". I want my nephew to love his uncle Justy (as he calls me) and I want to be an encouragement to him.

This is not just the case in Malakhai's life, but every one's life. I am starting to really think about people that I am close to and take a little extra time to go out of my way to help encourage them. Philippians says that we should not only look for our own interests, but also the interests of others.  Who could you pour your life into? Could you just send someone an encouraging text right now? Imagine all the people. Take out time and invest into people because they matter.

Wasting My Time

I have the potential to waste a lot of time. Well, we all do. I have been thinking lately how I can be more effective with my time and and taking action. Here are a few things that I am doing. Maybe if you are bad at time management some of these points may help.

I thought through this question: "What are the top 5 things that are important to me" Here they are and how I will rearrange my time to be more effective through my days.

1. Love relationship with God: This means I will take time daily and get to know the one that created me. Search Him out, study Him worship , adore and get to know and trust Him more.
2. Love my wife: Practically this means cleaning the house. She lives with 2 babies all day and can get depressed if the place looks like crap. I am taking action to help more and more.
3. Love my family: This means come home everyday and have designated time for them. Not for facebook, twitter, TV, Blah blah blah, but time just for them; laughing, playing, loving, teaching, leading and hanging out with them.
4. Loving people: Daily I think how I can love people. Now I will stop thinking and start doing more. Loving, encouraging, meeting and giving to different people daily and Speaking into their lives.
5. Loving My job: I need to plan out my week. I usually get up, do my thing, go to work and pick up one of the 25 things that I know needs to get done and start working on it. Instead of this A.D.D, ineffective method, I decided to plan out my days.

This is not just a good idea that I have had, but what God has been teaching me. Now I am changing things around so I do not waste my time.

Too Much Study

In church planting, there is a lot of studying to be done. I mean, come on, you are basically starting a business. Sorry for those who do not see it like a business, but on the business side of things, it is a business. So from demographics of your target area, to books on how to put together small groups; church planting is a huge field and there are lots of things to be covered.

The last few days I have thought to myself, "I have I studied too much?" Here is what I mean by that... I talk about reaching people that are not interested in church and maybe even not interested in God. I want to connect with those people. I want to serve them and show God's love to them. So, what have I done? I have studied many ways on how to reach them. There is one problem... I have not been with them. I haven't been in the bars, chatting with people at Wal Mart or Intentionally having the same waiter at Chilli's or changing my oil at the same place for the sole purpose of building relationships. There are so many relationships to be built.

Will I stop studying? No, because I need to know my culture and the people that I am reaching. But I will say that I need to take a break and go and be with them. I do not think Jesus read 7 books, 3 blogs, watched 4 sermons and prayed 6 hours before he went and spoke to the woman at the well. He just went. So should I. Studying; good, life on life, better. I encourage you to do the same. Go build a relationship with someone for the purpose of loving them and showing the love of Jesus to them.

Is Satan at work or do we just live in a sinful world?

Is Satan at work or do we just live in a sinful world? Well both are true, but I am trying to figure out which situations in our lives are because we live in a sinful world and which are from Satan and his demons.

I was in a wreck today; a guy ran me off the road. My Jeep might be total. Here is the kicker, the knife in the back, the irony of it all. I actually had a good friend and one of our supporters for Awaken tell me that he wanted to buy tires for my Jeep. He already had a few price quotes. I was thankful for the offer. Then got in a wreck. Praise God that I am alive after spinning out through three lanes of traffic on hwy 153. No one was hurt. God is good.

So, is this because of Satan and/or his demons or just from the reality of life in a sinful, fallen world? Many people blame things on Satan, but fail to realize that sometimes life happens and that we just live in a sinful jacked up world. Others blame everything on a messed up world and fail to realize that Satan really is prowling around like a roaring  lion looking to destroy our lives. And his purpose in coming is to steal, kill and destroy. 

What are your thoughts? Did Satan cause my wreck or was it just life? Tell me about a situation in your life. Did you struggle with why some things have happened the way they did?

So much to say...

I usually have a lot to say in my blogs. A lot has been going on in my life and I have not had time to say it. Here is a breakdown of whats going on in my life:

1. Getting more more valuable time with family.
2. Just had 5th Awaken meeting. 6 more guest.
3. Getting ready for 3 church planting conferences in a row. (Nashville and ATL)
4. Looking at hiring another Pastor at Awaken.
5. Getting more workouts in. push ups and running.
6. About finished with "Vintage Church" by Mark Driscol. Good Read.
7. Staying busy and have a desire to Love God and a lot of people.

So much to say...