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.

Five Months of Church Planting

Today I realized how much I love my job. We launched Awaken Community Church five months ago and it is going strong. We had one of the highest attendances this week (around 65) and at least ten new visitors. The two main groups we are trying to reach are the non Christians and the de-churched. These are people who grew up in church and for whatever reason, they were done. Here is what I have been learning to do lately:

1. Delegate and follow up with those who are taking on new responsibilities.
2. Always cast vision and actively do the things it takes to fulfill it.
3. Meet with leadership weekly.
4. Ask everyone committed their gifts and get them plugged in.
5. Make sure your main leaders are not getting burnt out.
6. Meet with people in your church weekly.
7. Always try to have a visitor over to your house to get to know them.
8. Focus on your strengths and fill your weakness when people come to fulfill them.
9. Be in the community meeting people and challenge your church too as well.
10. Develop leaders that develop leaders.

... And Their Wives Left

One guy was stuck on porn and his wife finally found out his grueling secret. He was so addicted that it meant more to him than she did. After eight months of battle she left.

Seeing it from his father, Jim bullied his wife; cutting her down in front of his friends and so on. She cried at night while he slept beside her. After 12 years, she left.

Everything looked fine in public, but behind the scenes he really did not care. She cooked. She cleaned. She got the kids ready. She taught the kids. She paid the bills. She even changed the oil. Once all five of the kids were out of the house, she left after 32 years.

Bars, beer and the night life filled his life. It was like that before they got married, but she thought it would change after they were married. It didn't. After 3 short months, she left.

The divorce rate in America sucks. It seems and looks as if no one knows about commitment, love, loyalty, sacrifice and selflessness anymore. A lot of them never had a role model, mentor or even a clue. Around the country though, things are starting to change. There are men of God and churches of God leading healthy marriages, because they are reading and living what the Bible says.

We will talk about the roles of the husband and wife in their roles at Awaken January 24th and 31st. We meet at the YMCA in Hixson and are currently at once service that starts at 10:30am. www.awakencc.org

Wake Up Christians

Acts is my favorite book of the Bible. I like it so much because it is so action packed. Think of all of the action packed movies that we all like: Braveheart, Gladiator and Lord of the Rings just to name a few. All of these movies made a lot of money and are famous for being action packed and great war scenes. Many of us, especially men, cannot get enough of these kind of movies because we love action, adventure, passion and challenge.

This is a lot like the book of Acts. There was a lot of action, adventure, passion and challenge. In Chapter 2 and 3 over 5,000 people give their entire lives over to something that will out live them. They gave their lives over to a higher calling and purpose in life. They gave their lives to God. Take 5-6 minutes and read Acts chapter 2-3.

Christianity today in my city looks absolutely nothing like Acts... and that is a problem. One of the main reasons is because we are all distracted. We are distracted by our pride, selfishness, money, family, hobbies etc.. When will we wake up and realize this life is not about us? I need some men to join beside me to become a church like Acts 2-3. We should wake up and lead ourselves, our families and our community to the feet of Jesus. It is not about the tradition and programs in our churches, but about the blood of Christ and the depravity of humanity. We have a huge mission. What day and hour will we wake up? Will we ever wake up? I am challenging you to wake up now and come with me to seek God and change a city. We are going into war.

I am sending this out to some men that are on my heart. Send me a message or leave a comment below. It doesn't matter where you are at in life at this point, it just matters that you act now and let God do the rest. I would like to meet with many men in our city in the next few weeks. Send me an e-mail to justin@awakencc.org. Thanks for your time and lets Let God be the God of our city.

Cute Little Christians

If you have grown up in the Christian life, you may not realize it, but many of us have grown up with a cute little Christian life. We listen to our Christian music and wear our Christian T-Shirt while driving in our car with our Christian bumper stickers. Pretty cute huh? "Not really" says the world. What is Christian about that. The world needs and wants to interact with real people. People who cuss and cut. People who struggle with their marriages and their money. In our "cute" little lives it can come across like we are perfect inside and out. The world see's us as phonies. So what do we do?

Try this: Be real. Get help where you need it, because even though you may be seen as perfect, you know that you are far from it and have so many areas where you need to be fixed. Interact with people. Get out of you comfort zone and go talk to people who may not look, smell, dress or act like you.

Notice Jesus. He was anything but a cute little Christian. He was a man, a radical, associated with sinners, prostitutes and scum of His day. And what do we do? We go to church.... are you kidding?? Seek Jesus, not tradition and change Christian. If you are not a Chritsian, I would like to appoligize for my life and the lives of many Christians or "Christians". I hope I would change and start to be more real and honest with God, myself and you.