As We Go.

"He is no fool..."

2011-05-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

What an incredible statement. This came from a man named Jim Elliot. Jim Elliot was speared to death, along with 4 of his friends, in the jungles of Ecuador, by people from the Waodani Indian tribe. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Flemming, and Roger Youderian were five young guys, fresh out of college that all followed God's call to missionary service in Ecuador. These guys were not the proverbial "super saints". They were regular ordinary guys...newly married, loved to laugh and have fun, looking for significance and adventure, and obviously mortal. They were not super heroes fighting evil and able to make a comeback no matter how many times they seem to be killed. There was nothing about them that made them special or extraordinary. At least not anymore so than anyone else...except for one thing. These guys were willing to follow God, WHEREVER He led them to go. They understood what Paul was saying in Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". They were not seeking to be killed and escape this world. They were seeking to truly live in this world and they knew that the only way to truly live was to truly be following Christ...wherever He led, doing whatever He commanded. That is the stuff of true heroes.
The lives which they offered eventually led to the salvation of nearly the entire Waodani people group. Jim Elliot's wife and Nate saint's sister later went into this tribe and were able to share the truth of Christ with them and completely revolutionize this people group. These 5 men truly lived Christ...and their death was gain for the Kingdom of God.

I Need A Hero

2011-04-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

Most of you parents probably remember that 80' song by Bonnie Tyler...I need a Hero. Though that song was quite popular in the 80's I think if it was written today it would be an even bigger hit. I think that's what so many of the teens in our culture today are screaming out..."I Need A Hero!". I think they are tired of the heroes of the last couple of decades, people from sports, politics, or Hollywood who have all sorts of fortune and fame. Those people are not so much cutting it for this generation. I think they are wanting to find people who are truly making a difference in their world. That is what they want to see in a hero. The problem is, I think they are all too often struggling to find those people.
That is the heart behind our new series called "Missions Heroes". I want to take a few weeks and share with the students about some people that are probably not on a list of Top 10 Heroes, but absolutely have lived heroic lives, lives of sacrifice and/or significance that were totally surrendered to following God no matter what He called them to. I believe that these often forgotten people are more than worthy of this next generation looking up to and modeling their lives after. Each week I want to share about the lives of couple of these potential heroes. Last night I shared about Eric Liddell and Bethany Hamilton.
Eric Liddell (pronounced like 'little') was a hero of the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He became the first Scotsman to ever win a Gold medal...but not before creating a bit of controversy. He had qualified for the Olympics but just before the event he refused to run in 3 events because of the fact that they were scheduled to be held on Sunday and that went against his Christian convictions. WOW...what a bold stance to take. This did not make his British compatriots very happy as he was the favorite to win in at least the 100 meter dash and maybe more. In a matter of days he had gone from being a national hero with many expectations, to a coward and traitor in the eyes of so many. He ended up running in the 400 meter dash as it was not held on Sunday, but he was not expected to do very well. He ended up winning the gold and setting a new world record which brought him back to hero status again among hi people. 18 months after the 1924 Olympics, with people already talking about what he could do in the 1928 Olympics, Eric made the decision to give up athletics and follow where God was leading, which was into missionary service in China, a country that was in extreme turmoil with communist fighting desperately for power. That level of conviction to walk away from such gifts and opportunities in order to follow God's calling...that is the stuff of heroes! Eric's died in 1945 in a camp in which the Japanese had forced him to live. Check out the movie Chariots of Fire, as it is the story of Eric Liddell.
Bethany Hamilton may be a little more familiar name right now as she is the story upon which the current movie, Soul Surfer, is based. (Go see this movie...not only is it a really good movie, but we also need to support this kind of quality, Christian friendly media) Bethany hamilton at the age of 13 was well on her way to a very successful professional surfing career. She had already been signed to a sponsorship deal with one the leading surf company's. One day while out surfing for fun she had part of her board and her entire left arm bitten off in an instant by a 14 foot tiger shark. For most people this would have been a devastating tragedy. Bethany allowed God to use this to give her an incredible platform from which to turn glory back to Him. She did not wallow in self pity, but rather seized this opportunity to glorify God. I don't want to ruin the movie for you, but she came back and acheived that professional surfing career and has used the opportunity to share and point people all over the world to Jesus Christ. Again, the stuff of heroes!

Step Up Dad's

2011-04-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

I have just found and read a book over the last few days that I really want to STRONGLY recommend for you dad's out there...particularly if you have a daughter. The book is called Interviewing Your Daughter's Date by Dennis Rainey. It is a really short book (65 pages plus an Appendix)that will probably take you less then 2 hours to read but it is more than worth your time. It is basically a call for Dad's to step up and take seriously our God given responsibility to protect our daughter's heart and purity, as well as invest in the lives of young men who take an interest in them.

Soul Surfer

2011-04-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

So I went and saw this movie and I have to give 2 thumbs up. It will probably not win any awards for the acting or anything, though it was not bad at all. But in a time that is severely lacking on good positive media...this movie is a standout. This movie is based on a true story of the life of Bethany Hamilton, a teenage girl who had a dream of becoming a prfessional surfer. As that dream was just beginning to come to fruition she was tragically attacked by a shark while fishing that took off a piece of her surf board along with her entire left arm. This movie depicts the struggles and the come back that she went through.

There are not many movies today that have absolutely zero curse words that are not cartoons, but this one has none. The story line places a significant emphasis on Bethany's faith in God. There are numerous scenes in church and youth group settings, scripture quotes (Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:13) and even a mission trip scene. This was definetly not your typical Hollywood feature. It is also not your typical low budget movie. It is very well done with some beautiful scenes and some very intense scenes. I highly encourage you and your familiy to go and see this one...and if you hit a matinee it is only $5. Well worth the money!

WrestleMania

2011-04-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

When I left the Annex Wednesday night I felt like I had been involved in WrestleMania. Actually, thats sort of how this whole series examining "The Sovereignty of God" has felt. I think we have truly been "wrestling with Scripture". Not that I feel like I have been beat up, but more that I have really had to take hold of this subject, and wrestle with it, and think on it, and meditate on it...and think on it, and meditate on it, and think....you get the picture. Unfortunately, I can't say I have been completely victorious in my grappling either. I certainly can't say that I now fully understand God's sovereignty. However I can say that I understand it better, and I don't use the word sovereignty as flippantly as before.

This past Wednesday was our final lesson in the series and probably the most challenging to think through, not just for me but for the students as well. In previous weeks we have discussed the fact that God is in control, He is all-knowing, and He is all-powerful. This week we looked at the idea that God is all-loving. I asked the students to really try to think about what that means...God is all-loving. I asked them to try as much as possible to set aside all of their previous thoughts, assumptions and biases on this topic and try to really come at it, as much as possible, from a blank viewpoint. I asked them what that means...God is all-loving. Does that mean that He loves all? Stop and think about that question. Does God love all? Does He love all animals...even mosquitos, rats or spiders? Does He love all plants...even briars, poison ivy and seaweed? What about Satan and the demons? Does God love them? What about all people? Does God love ALL people? If you are like me then you quickly respond with an emphatic "YES, of course He loves all people". But is that true? And more importantly, why do I think it is true? Did He love the criminal on the cross next to Him that mocked and rebuked Him? We know He loved the one and assured him of a place in heaven, but did He actually love the other man? What about the coming antichrist. Does/will God love him? He is, after all, the "anti" christ or the opposite/against christ. What about Romans 9:13 which quotes God as saying "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (a reference to Malachi 1:2-3).

Two of the greatest components of God's demonstrated love to us is seen in His mercy and His grace. Does God give His grace and mercy to all people equally? Scripture seems to be full of examples where God did choose some and not others to receive His mercy and grace. He chose Israel over the other people groups of the day...and certaibly not because of any obvious merit on their part. He chose Jacob as the recepient of his favor and not Esau. In John 5:1-9 Jesus chose to heal one invalid man among many. He could have healed them all but He healed only one. Why? He raised Lazarus from the dead. Why didn't He raise all people? Romans 9:15 says that He will have mercy on who He chooses to have mercy.

I certainly would not say that God does not love all people, but I do believe we need to think about that issue. If we believe that He does love all people...is it because we just think He has to, in order to be a good God? That is a problem if we do think that way, because then we are the ones dictating to God how He must act. At that point we have taken His sovereignty away and placed it on ourselves. If God were to choose to love some and not others...He would be justified in that because He is sovereign. I encourage you parents to talk with your students about this idea of God's sovereignty...spend some time with them wrestling through this concept. Spend some time wrestling on your own with it. It is more than a worthwhile topic to wrestle with.

The All-Powerful God

2011-03-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

Continuing this week with our look at the Sovereignty of God, we talked about the fact that God is all-powerful, or omnipotent. Again, just like the previous weeks, this is a statement that I think most any Christian would have no problems agreeing with. "Yes, of course God is all-powerful." It is easy for us to agree with...but what does that mean? Well...the obvious answer is that He has unlimited power. That is easy to see all through Scripture. Creation, the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Exodus, the Red Sea, provisions in the wilderness, Jericho, Samson, Elijah, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions den, Shadrach-Meshach-Abednego, the virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus' miracles, Jesus' resurrection, Pentecost...just to name a few demonstrations of God's power. It is easy for us to point at those times where God showed up in a huge way, usually to rescue or deliver someone.

But what about Acts 7, where Stephen is stoned to death for his faith in Jesus...or Acts 12, where James is murdered by Herod for his faith...or the people described in Hebrews 11:36-37 which says "Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated...". Why were these believers not rescued or delivered from their afflictions? Is God not that powerful? Or what about the current situation in Libya and the rest of the Middle East...or the recent disasters in Japan and other places? Are these situations beyond God's power to control, or even prevent? Or could these also be demonstrations of God's power as well?

Another thought provoking question that our world puts forth today for us is that if God is all powerful, why doesn't He just save all people? Why do some people supposedly have to go to hell? It is an interesting question, but one that we must be very careful how we answer as it is very easy to emasculate our God with our answer. I think that a common Christian response looks something like this:

-because, if God is love, (and I think that Scripturally that is true, though maybe not in the context that we want to think of it), then He has to love all people and therefore He has to try and save all people as a demonstration of that love. If some choose not to be saved and accept Him, then that is their free choice.

But if all that is true, then the real power in that statement actually lies in our hands, thus making God no longer omnipotent but simply a cheerleader on the side lines routing, very enthusiastically, for us to call the right play. That does not seem very powerful to me (no disrespect to cheerleaders...you are all quite powerful...but not what I am looking for from an all-powerful God!). At the very least that seems to make God a spectator and we are the all-powerful ones.

As we discussed this idea last night, I shared my desire to be able to give an all encompassing understanding and articulation of God's power as a demonstration of His Sovereignty. But I unfortunately can't do that as I struggle myself to wrap my mind around this Sovereignty thing. The basic idea that I tried to communicate to the students regarding the omnipotence of God (which I must confess, comes from some reading of AW Pink) was that God does whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to, where ever He wants to, how ever He wants to! That power may not always be obvious to us, or make logical sense to us, or feel good to us. Is God required to give us an account or a justification for His actions? Not if He is all-powerful (just ask Job). If He was required to give us an understanding of all His actions, that would again make us more powerful than Him.

The bottom line, as I see it...God is all-powerful and does what He wants to, when He wants to, where He wants to, and how He wants to. We can't fully comprehend all of the implications of that statement, but we would do very well to think long and hard about it. We need to also be careful about the way that we try to force God in to boxes that we can explain and/or feel good about as this creates a weak god (lower case g) that our world will have no desire to follow.

All-Knowing God?

2011-03-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

This week at BNX we continued to look at the Sovereignty of God by discussing the idea that God is "all-knowing". This is one of those things that I think most of us have no trouble buying into...at least in our heads and in our words. After all, who would ever say that they don't really believe that God knows everything. But do we really think about what that means, and more importantly do our actions really say that we truly believe it?
I shared from Genesis 12-16 where we see the account of Abram. He was given a promise of great blessing from God in 12:1-2. God tells Abram, a man with no son, that he was going to be the father of a great nation. What an incredible promise from God! And I am sure that Abram was pretty excited about this. Over time, that excitement turns to anxiety as Abram begins to question and doubt this promise as he does not "know" how God plans to make it happen...especially for an old man with no son. In chapter 15:2-3 Abram decides he needs to explain his situation to God...as if He did not really know the whole scenario? But God tries to give him a little reassurance and tells him that he will not only have a son but that his offspring will be so abundant it will be like trying to count the stars. Now that is a pretty serious promise! But as more time passed, and Abram and his wife Sarai got older, they just did not know how God would be able to keep his promise...they forgot that God knew exactly how He was going to do it. In chapter 16 They decided to take matters into their own hands rather than trusting in God's Sovereignty. They decided that they "knew" a better way. Sarai gives Abram her maidservant Hagar, to bear them a child. This one poor decision on their part is still impacting us today. Through his own plan (along with Sarai) Abram did bare a son, Ishmael, who is the father of Islam. They were not able to rest in the sovereignty of God and trust in the fact that God did "know" how He would achieve his promise.
We often have those same struggles. When we do not know how God plans to do something...we tend to doubt or at least question Him. When he tells us that we are to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, we want to know step by step what that looks like. Where should we be going, when, with who, what safety protections will we have? We want to "know" all the details. Doesn't that reflect that we don't really trust that God "knows" all those details? Or maybe we want to do what we "know" will help and we just send our money. And this is a great thing...unless God wanted us to GO. I wonder if our lack of faith in the Sovereignty of God could have similar results to Abrams lack...and impact generations of people to come?

The Soveriegnty of God

2011-03-22T06:58:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday we started a new series on "The Sovereignty of God". This is a topic that I have been wanting to teach on for well over a year now. To be perfectly honest though....I have been struggling with just how to teach on this topic. I feel like this is a term that we use all the time in our Christian circles, and maybe we even think we understand what it means, but if we look at the way that we live our lives...most of us demonstrate in our actions a severe lack of understanding about the "Sovereignty of God". But then again, I also believe that this is a term that we will never be able to fully understand...at least not the scope and implications of such a term. So as I was preparing to teach on this topic I thought that I had figured out a good way to teach on it that would challenge the students to assess their own lives as a reflection of the Sovereignty of God.
And then the "Sovereignty of God" happened. March 11th saw one of the largest recorded earthquakes in history hit Japan. We have, of course, seen all the images of the devastation that resulted and continues to mount. As I was sitting last week, watching the news footage of this disaster, and each day hearing of the rising death tolls, I received an email from a close friend of mine and Tracy's who is a missionary from New Zealand. She was actually in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 22nd when an earthquake rocked the city, causing significant damage and taking at least 166 lives. Her story of serving in that city over the next days and weeks was...heart wrenching. As I was reading her email it hit me...this is the Sovereignty of God. As I watched the footage on TV from Japan, and thought of this account from New Zealand, all I could think of is how these people must have thought that their world had gone completely out of control. Many of us are thinking that also as we see what seems to be a barrage of disasters happening around the world. Over 300,000 people killed in the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean...over 200,000 people killed last year in the earthquake in Haiti...20 million people losing homes and businesses in the floods in Pakistan last summer...chaos erupting throughout the Middle East...school shootings on the rise...terrorism all over the place...and now Japan and Christchurch. Has our whole world gone completely out of control? It certainly seems that way sometimes! And our fears often cause us to buy into that way of thinking.

But "God is Sovereign. He is in control." We say that all the time don't we? But do we mean it? I think we probably do mean it...at least to the extent to which we have thought about it. We believe that He is in control of the weather and the seasons in some way that we don't really have to fully understand or appreciate. We believe that He is in control of the spiritual world as it applies to angels and demons and the stuff we really can't see. And we probably believe that He is in control of all the blessings in life like when a child is born healthy, and when we get a raise, and when we arrive at our vacation spot safely. But do we believe that He is in control in Japan right now? Do we believe that this was not a surprise for Him and that He may have actually orchestrated these events or at the very least allowed them to happen? We have a hard time claiming and believing that don't we? We tend to think that this would paint God in a bad light and make Him look cruel and unjust. But if He is truly Sovereign...doesn't that mean He controls EVERYTHING? Good, bad, happy, sad, logical, illogical. He is in control of ALL things. Not just the good things. Not just the happy things. And certainly not just the things that make sense to us. We talked about Ephesians 1:11 that says that God works all things according to the counsel of His own Will. Basically...He does as he sees fit based on who He is. We are not a part of that equation at all. What we think is irrelevant (thank goodness for that).

We also talked about Job. He was a righteous man of great wealth and prosperity. God was proud of Job, but God not only allowed but orchestrated events in Job's life that look pretty to horrific to the human eye. He lost all of his material possessions. He lost all 10 of his children in a tragic accident. He lost his health. He even lost his wife who abandoned him emotionally at the very least. Job struggled with all of this. It made no sense. It seemed unjust. He began to question God and even accuse God. And God reminds Job of who He is. Job 42:5 reveals to us what I believe is the purpose behind all of what happened to Job. Job says "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you". Job knew of God. He had heard the stories. He even lived a good life seeking to follow this God. But through this whole process of heartache and tragedy, Job actually saw God. He was brought into a more intimate relationship with God. This is ultimately what God wants with all of us. No matter where we are right now. No matter how good we may be. God wants to know us more intimately. And ultimately, God may use some tragedy to bring us to that point.
God is truly in control of all things. No matter how out of control our lives may seem at times. No matter what tragedies occur...Hi is still in complete control. will we always understand...NO. Will it always make sense to us...NO. Do we have to always be happy about things....NO. But can't we take some level of comfort knowing that the things that don't make sense and disturb us, make total sense to Him and are all a part of His greater purpose? The pain is real and our heart still breaks for the people of Japan and other tragedies...but knowing and believing that He is ALWAYS in control of ALL things should give us hope to rest in.

Smoke

2011-03-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update from this past weekends DNOW. We had a great weekend! Our theme was "SMOKE". The idea was that in scripture, where you find smoke, you find fire and where there is fire there is God. And the speakers talked about 'The Power of God', 'The Presence of God', 'The Provision of God', and 'The Priority of God'. The messages were powerful and I am confident that each student experienced some level of encouragement and conviction throughout the weekend. I know I certainly did. I encourage you parents to ask them about those sessions and what they learned and what the experienced from God.

I also wanted to let you all know about some ministry opportunities that the students were involved in. As a planning team we wanted to use this gathering of 25 churches and over 1500 students in our county to do more than just receive something from God. We wanted to leverage those numbers for ministry to our community and to the world, and we chose to do that by partnering with two organizations that are ministering in our world today. One partner was the Real Life Center in Tyrone. We collected hundreds of canned goods to be distributed by The Real Life Center to families in need in Fayette County. The other organization that we partnered with was charity:water which is an organization that is building wells in parts of the world where people have no access to clean drinking water. The students had the opportunity to learn that more than 1 billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. One of the cool things about this organization is that 100% of the money that is given to them goes towards building wells. Not one cent is set aside for administrative needs or other purposes. The students at DNOW gave $5796 to go to charity water thus far. It takes $5000 to build one well that will supply water for 400 people for the next 20 years. You all can still give towards this event and cause by going to charitywater.org/dnow. You can also go here to get updates and see where the money is being used.
I of course have to thank the many people who were involved in making this weekend possible for our students. Thanks to our host homes...Rick and Valerie Ellis, Sonya Moste, and Tracy Davidson. Thank you to those who provided meals...Connie Huddleston, Joyce Kendrick, Elizabeth Highsmith, Melissa Nelms, Audrey Warr, Michelle Goergen and probably some others that I have forgotten (I am very sorry). And a special thanks to those who helped to lead small groups... Brittany Rampy, Matt Herget, Lindy Woodruff, and Kelli Bailey. These guys all did a great job with our students!

Good Resource

2011-03-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hey Parents....
This morning I was looking through a site that I occasionally go to to see some info and thoughts about a variety of "pop culture" issues. As I was reading through this article and researching some of the info myself I had a couple of thoughts.
Thought #1 -How many of you are out there trying to find out the truth and reality of what your kids are daily being bombarded with? If you are...awesome...what resources are you using? Please comment and share those resources. The rest of us could probably use them. If you are not trying to learn about this stuff...why?
Thought #2 -I realized just how "uncool" I have become. Do you remember the days when you did not have to "research" pop-culture? You just knew it...and you actually were a part of pop culture. Those days are long gone for us...but that does not excuse us from trying to understand it. Once we have become so uncool that we no longer get pop-culture we tend to either try to ignore it or we paint it as 100% bad and a detriment to society. But isn't that the very same thing that we despised about adults when we were that age? I for one would rather be "uncool" and try to research this stuff some in order to better understand the world that these guys live in. That does not mean we condone or accept it all...but we at least try to understand it.
Thought #3- I thought that maybe this site that I was reading might be useful to some of you... as always, I do not endorse or agree with everything that these guys say...but I have found it useful and thought provoking and maybe you will also.
http://interlincresources.wordpress.com/

7 & 8 - 9 & 10

2011-02-17T06:12:00.000-08:00

I missed last week so this will catch up for two weeks. Last week we studied chapter 7 & 8. Actually I divided the students up into small groups...gave them a section, and let them teach it. This was just another reminder of me about how capable this teens are. They brought out some great points and some great applications. We tend to baby them and maintain pretty low expectations and I was reminded that students will almost always live up to the expectations that are placed upon them...no matter how high or low they are.
In chapter 7 we see the wall completed and we see Nehemiah remembering where the Israelites had come from . In chapter 8 we see an absolutely amazing account of the power of God's Word. I would really encourage you to go read this chapter. We see how the Word of God impacted the people and how it brought them face to face with their sin. We could all use some of that...but parents...I think there might be a lesson there especially for us. We get so angry at our kids and we harp on them constantly about the things we see in their lives that bother us. Things that we don't like. I can't help but wonder...should we be doing less talking, and more scripture reading with our kids in order to let His Word open their hearts and convict them. I think that might sometimes work better than our lectures and scoldings.
Chapter 9 & 10, I thought, said a lot about how important the church is. In chapter 9 we see that the Israelites are truly broken over their sin. So what do they do...they come together as a people (no outsiders) and they confess, worship, and pray together. I could not help but to think of the church today as I read this. Maybe we need to take more time to come together as the body, and really take a hard look at ourselves. Not to complain about, judge and point fingers at the world around us...but to really focus on ourselves. What would happen if we were more concerned about the sins in our own lives and not so worried about the sinful people in our communities? What if we were more upset over the sins that we have committed today, than we are with our politicians in Washington? What if we were coming together for the specific purpose of confessing to each other and being accountable to each other...rather than just expecting the world to come and conform to us?
Chapter 10 describes a covenant that the people of Israel then wrote. It seems to very heavily focus on the temple and the things that were supposed to be regularly happening at the temple...but for years now had been neglected. Again, I could not help but reflect this idea back to the church today. The people of Israel had rebuilt their wall. They now felt safe and protected as a nation again. In their mind and in their hearts, life inside the walls could now be purified and return to what God had intended...a life which revolved around activities at the Temple, God's dwelling place. Shouldn't our churches be like that today? Shouldn't we view our churches through this same light? The church should be playing a vitally important role not just in our lives but in the lives our communities. I think we would do well to remember that!

Chapter 5 and 6

2011-02-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

I am going to try to make this a little shorter today. Last night we studied chapters 5 and 6 and here are the highlights:
Chapter 5
Nehemiah has been dealing with persecution all along from the surrounding people groups. In chapter 5 he has to deal with sin and oppression coming from within the the Jewish ranks. When Nehemiah finds out that the Jewish nobles are making profits and interest off of their very own Jewish brothers and sisters (this is the sin of usury - Leviticus 25:35-37), he is "angry" to say the least. But isn't that true for all of us? It is always more difficult when your own people, the people you love the most, disappoint you and hurt you. Nehemiah had gotten the people to fully buy into his vision, and he appreciated their efforts and wanted to protect them. He thinks he is doing that as he has set up a system to guard them and keep them safe. Then he gets blindsided from his own people. Unfortunately, we probably do similar things in the church to our own brothers and sisters. As always, Nehemiah deals with the issue and leades the nobles to repentance.
Chapter 6
This chapter touched my heart personally in a big way. We see Nehemiah absolutely getting blasted in this chapter. He is being attacked from all sides it seems. He deals with temptation (1-4), false accusations (5-9), deception (10-14), and intimidation (17-19). It is almost like a scene from the life of a conservative running for office in Washington D.C. today. Talk about a smear campaign. And Nehemiah deals with it beautifully. Because he is close to God, he is able to discern the truth of these situations and his vision from God keeps him focused and not distracted by temptations. Our leaders inside the church and outside the church need our prayers desperately. They are getting this same treatment. They are being attacked from all sides. Maybe we don't hear about the attacks...but they are happening, I assure you. Lift those leaders up, and be apart of their defenses.
Then in verses 15 & 16 of this chapter we see a miracle. The wall is completed...in 52 days! There is no way these poeple could have made this happen on their own, in the midst of persecutions and distractions, were it not for the mighty hand of God. Even the surrounding peoples we forced to recognize the God of the Jews and His involvment in this feat. God was glorified...and Nehemiah's impossible vision was made a reality!

Are You Raising A Leader for God?

2011-01-27T07:30:00.000-08:00

I was forced to ask myself that question this week as I was preparing to continue in our series on Nehemiah. This week we looked at chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 is an account of many of the men and women who are physically involved in the work of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. At first glance it is an easy chapter to just blow through and pay little attention to but I think there are some great leadership principles to be found here.
First of all, we see tremendous diversity among the people involved. Men, women, nobles, common folk, even priests got busy working on this project with Nehemiah. Nehemiah knew that he needed a team of people to make his vision become reality, and he assmbled quite a team with tremendous diversity.
Secondly, one name that we do not find in chapter 3 is 'Nehemiah' (at least not the Nehemiah that this book is titled after). This is not a story of how Nehemiah actually built the wall of Jerusalem himself. He was the leader of this project, but he understood the importance of delegating. He gave other people the opportunity to be a part of his vision. It takes a compelling vision to get people to join in, but if you dont give them room to carve out their own piece of the vision, they will not see it through. Nehemiah gave them the chance to buy into the vision and the freedom to make it their own.

We also studied Chapter 4 of Nehemiah. In this chapter we see the opposition to the vision intensify. Initially it starts out as just some insults from some of the surrounding leaders as they try to incite their people against the Jews. Nehemiah does not lash back at them but goes to the Lord in prayer, with a pretty emotional and spirited prayer in verses 4&5. But the building continued and the opposition grew as the surrounding people began to actually plan an assault against the Jews. Again, Nehemiah first goes to prayer (vs9), but this time they take some actions of their own and set people on guard. As the Jews begin to be overwhelmed and cower in fear, we see Nehemiah's leadership again shine as he reminds the people of 2 things. First he reminds them of the power of their God and then he reminds them of the vision for which they are reaching. Those are two very powerful tools to help people persevere. And we see that happen. The work is slowed as they have to now protect them selves while they work, but it does not stop! This chapter finishes with a pcture of Nehemiah in the trenches with his people, working to see the vision become a reality.
We see Nehemiah continually going to God in prayer, we see him always preparing for what may come, we see him staying focused and always returning to the vision, and we see him in the threnches leading by example. Those are some great lessons for the future leader to learn.

So, I come back to that question, 'Are we raising leaders?'. How often do we look at our kids and say, "No...my Johnny...he is not a leader"? I wonder how God plans to use that same kid in the future? I believe that we do not spend time teaching our kids how to lead. Nehemiah was a cupbearer. He was a slave. A man who had to potentially take a bullet, or drink of poison in this case, for a king who was not even his own king. He had no authority. He probably would have had no obvious leadership potential or experience. Yet God intended to use him to lead an amazing movement. Maybe we would do well to view all of our young people as the next potential leader of a great movement of the Lord.

Calling and Vision...Any Difference?

2011-01-20T07:28:00.000-08:00

Last night we finally got to dive in to chapter 2 of Nehemiah. We started the night off reviewing last week and then spent some time discussing the difference between our calling and our vision. I am sure there are many people who are much more versed and educated on this topic who could eloquently pontificate (good blog word) on the subtle nuances that make these concepts so beautiful and crucial to truly live out the fullest Christian life. But for our purposes, here is what I sort of see as the difference. Our calling or callings are those things in scripture that God unquestionably calls us to.
For example:
1) We are called to share the gospel and make disciples throughout the world Matt 28:16-20, Acts 1:8
2) We are called to pray - 1 Thes. 5:16-18
3) We are called to love others - 1 John 3:11
4) Husbands are called to love their wives - Ephesians 5:25
5) Wives are called to submit to their husbands - Ephesians 5:22
6) Children are called to obey and honor their parents - Ephesians 6:1-2

I could go on and on...but the point is that there are certain things that the Bible clearly calls us to do in our lives. We do not have to debate the neccesity of these things. They are, for the most part, explicit callings on our lives and to not do them would be an act of rebellion against God (of course there are always a few gray issues that some may consider a clear calling from scripture and others don't).
But then there are all sorts of other things/questions we have that really are not the same clear cut types of callings from scripture.
1) Am I supposed to go to college...and where?
2) Am I supposed to get married one day?
3) Should I be in full time ministry or missions? Here or overseas?
4) What church should I go to?

These are all questions that we sometimes answer with a "calling" description. "We were 'called' into fulltime overseas missions"...or "I know now that I was 'called' to go to XXXYY University to study pre-med and be a doctor one day". These statements might actually be very true in regards to the path which God has led that person down, but can I back either of these statments up with Scripture? I don't think so. So there is something different from this and the first "callings" that I listed. I think these latter statements fall more into our vision...which hopefully is from God. I think the person in that first statment has been "called" (just like the rest of us) to share the gospel all over the world. The "vision" that God has given that person for how and where to actually carry out that calling is in full time overseas missions work. Could that very same person carry out that very same calling in a very different vision that places them in corporate america somewhere boldly sharing the gospel with colleagues? I don't claim to be able to definitively answer that question, but I at least think that it could possibly be true.

With Nehemiah chapter 2 we are beginning to see Nehemiah taking hold of a vision that God has given him based on God's calling for his life. God has given Nehemiah a calling as a Jew to love, follow and serve Him...Yahweh...both as an individual and as a nation (Deut 6). He has also been called to love and protect his people (Deut 7). Nehemiah hears of how his people in Judah are in "great trouble and shame" and not following their calling to love and serve Yahweh. He is deeply disturbed by this as we saw in Chapter 1. As Chapter 2 begins, 4 months have passed while Nehemiah has prayed for the situation and wept for his people, and God has begun to develop a vision and a plan for how Nehemiah might be able to act on what God has called him to. When the opportunity to share that vision with someone who can make it happen (King Atraxerxes) comes along, Nehemiah pounces on it! He is scared to death, but he does not let that fear stiffle him. He prays and moves forward with a bold...almost ridiculous...proposition for the king. The king accepts it and grants Nehemiah the opportunity not just to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the city walls, but he provides him with protection, authority and resources to do it! Talk about God moving to accomplish what a man could not!

When Nehemiah finally gets to Jerusalem he does what any good leader would, he accurately assess the situation and puts together a plan. Only after that, does he share his vision with the poeple, and they buy in 100%. What a great lesson for us. What was considered an impossible, or at least unrealistic, idea of rebuilding the walls before, is now a source of excitement among the people. Something that they can rally behind. Good leaders know that a compelling vision is critical to motivate people! The people knew what their calling was, but they needed a compelling vision to motivate them to action. We also see at the end of the chapter that this kind of vision not only motivates us, but it spurs us to persevere in the midst of pain, persecution , and trials...just as Nehemiah did in verses19-20.

The Holidays Are Over

2011-01-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

As much as I love it, the craziness and chaos of the holidays is over and part of me is quite happy about that. We can settle back into a little bit of a routine again in BNX. This week we started a new series in our bible study time on Wednesday's that I have been looking forward to for several weeks. I did not want to start this during the holidays because I knew how many would miss out and I think this is going to be very good for the students. We are going to be studying the book of Nehemiah for the next several weeks. We are going to pretty much cover the entire book almost verse by verse. Last night we started that series with a bit of an introduction to the book and we dove into chapter 1.
I wanted to study this book with the students for several reasons. 1-This book will serve as a great follow-up to our series on the "God of Wonders". Nehemiah was burdened with a significant, monumental problem that he really could do nothing about on his on. However with God's guidance and strength he did something amazing. 2-Nehemiah is a book that gives us a great deal of insight into seeking and following God's will in our lives. God is sovereign and He does have a plan for us. How do we find it and follow it? Nehemiah can help students with those questions. 3-Nehemiah gives us some great leadership principles that we can apply to our own lives. Nehemiah was not a man that many would have likely thought of as a leader (as is the case with many teenagers) yet that is exactly how God intended to use him.
We looked at much of the historial background of the book, the setting in the Persian city of Susa and the situation in Jerusalem as reported to Nehemiah by his "brother" (vs 1-3). We spent the bulk of out time looking at Nehemiah's reaction to that report (vs 4-11). This reaction gives us numerous applications for today.
1) We see that Nehemiah had a real heart for his people. He wept and mourned for them...for days. We will never be able to lead people that we don't truly care about. Nehemiah was not necessarily equipped or trained to be a leader, but he loved his people, and God used that.
2)Nehemiah had a significant concern. His concern was so significant that he was moved to action. What are the things in our lives that we are so significantly concerned about that we are willing to take action to change them? These are the things that God may be placing on our hearts to show us his plans for our future.
3)Nehemiah knew exactly where to go with his concern...to his knees. Leadership always begins on our knees in prayer. Also, the process of determining God's will for our lives always begins on our knees in prayer.
4)Remember the promises of God in scripture. Nehemiah reminded himself of the promises that God had made generations before regarding the nation of Israel (vs 5 & 9). In difficult times we often need to fall back on His promises to sustain us and motivate us to persevere.
5)Sin is serious business. Nehemiah knew what the cause of Israel's struggles was their sin. He saw the need to confess not only his own sins, but those of his family, and even his nation.
6)God is sovereign. Chapter one finishes with a short statement that almost seems out of place in reference to the rest of the chapter but it has significant implications. "Now I was cupbearer to the king". This was a fairly high position...for a slave. A position where Nehemiah had to potentially lay down his life for the king of a foreign nation? A position where he was ultimately viewed as potentially disposable. Not a position most of us would sign up for but it was the perfect position for the plans that God had for Nehemiah. We may not be exactly where we want to be in life or where we think we should be...but we are exactly where God wants us to be.

Evangelism...Really?

2010-11-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

Recently I have found this word, concept, command, calling, (whatever it is) very interesting, intriguing, frustrating, scary, CONFUSING and DIFFICULT. I think most people kind of have a similar feeling about evangelism. It seems to strike up so many emotions and so many questions. And the bottom line is that it just seems to not really be happening much. Why is that? We hear about it nearly every Sunday in some form or another. There are countless different evangelism strategies out there for us to learn, and yet we seem to be doing very little of it and when we do it, most of us (me included) rarely get the results we were hoping for.

Last week I started a new series where we are going to take a few weeks and try to look at this idea of evangelism and try to understand it just a little better and take a bit of the fear and confusion out of it. We spent some time asking the question "WHY should we be doing evangelism"? What is our motivation? We looked at some of the statistics which say that more than 4.5 billion people in the world today are without Christ and over 1 billion of those have never even heard of Christ or the gospel story. That should motivate us. People dying without Christ and the fact that God loves these people, should motivate us.

Something else that should motivate us to do evangelism is that fact that scripture tells us to do it. We discussed several passages (Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 10:10-18, I Cor. 9:19-24, Matthew 28:16-20, and Acts 1:8) and saw that ALL people, not just the professionals, are called to evangelize. This call from scripture is ultimately why we should be evangelizing.
This week we are going to discuss the question of "HOW do we do evangelism?" Hopefully we will learn some very simple, critical concepts that should make evangelism much easier and definitely more productive.

God Wants to Use You

2010-10-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

This week we wrapped up this series on "The God of Wonders". As I was reflecting on the last few weeks of this series, I was reminded of the incredible potential that lies within this generation of students. It is truly amazing. There is so much that they can do in their lifetimes. My biggest fear is that they just don't see it. But even if they did see it, and had a desire to use it, I don't think it would be enough to drastically impact some of the biggest issues facing our world today. It truly is going to take an amazing move of God to change the scope of issues like poverty, AIDS, persecution, slavery, etc. But that is good news for us...potentially. God is wanting to move in these issues, and the best part of it is that He would love to use us to make that impact. The question is...are we willing to be used??? Are we willing to open our arms wide, throw our hands in the air and say, "God I can't do it, but I am totally available for You to use however You would like to." That is what I challenged our students to do this week. Make themselves availble to Him to be used however He may choose. I gave them the opportunity to spend some time quietly reflecting on what God wanted them to do with this series. I encouraged them to write out what God spoke to them and to at some point share that with someone...maybe their parents. Please help me to pray for these students and encourage them to make themselves availableto Him...no matter what He wants to do with them.

But What Can I Do?

2010-10-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

This week we continued with our "God of Wonders" series and asked the question, "Alright, I know there are some major issues in our world today that need God's intervention, but what can I do about them?". It is easy to look at the issues that we have discussed (poverty, christian persecution, AIDS, human trafficking and slavery) and feel overwhelmed to the point of disinterest and detachment from these issues. However in 1 Kings 16-18 we read about how Elijah dealt with a pretty serious issue and asked some pretty ridiculous things of God...and God answered in some "God-sized" ways. Elijah sets an example for us of just what we can do with big issues in our world today.
First of all Elijah very boldly confronted the issue (I Kings 17:1). He did not hold back at all as he confronted King Ahab, even though he had no earthly authority to do so. He knew that he only had to answer to the true "living" God.
Elijah also obeyed God, even when God asked him to do something that sounded pretty ridiculous by human standards (1 Kings 17:2-7). I believe Elijah's obedience is quite noteworthy. Verse 5 begins by saying "So he went". He did not need any further explanation. He did not need to take some time to pray about this. He did not need to seek counsel from anyone. God told him to go...and he went.
Elijah's obedience allowed him to get away from the hustle and bustle and, in his case, the dangers of this world, so that, he could spend some time alone with his creator. (1 Kings 17:5-7)
And finally Elijah shows us how important it is to pray to God. James 5:17 tells us that Elijah spent time in prayer before this whole encounter Ahab and I Kings 18:42 tells us that he also ended this encounter with prayer.
It may seem pretty cliche-ish, but Elijah really does give a pretty good example of how to deal with these big issues in our world today...1)Boldly confront the issues that God burns on our hearts. 2) Make ourselves available to God and obey His call on our lives. That call is understood and clarified through 3) time alone with God and 4) pray to God.

Prayer Night

2010-09-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

What an awesome thing it is to see God move and stir in hearts. I don't want to say too much as I think it minimizes it...but parents, ask your students if they saw God moving at the annex tonight (6/29). Tonight we had a "Prayer Party" of sorts, to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of our Youth Ministry Prayer Team. Chuck shared a great devotion for the students tonight. He really highlighted some of the biggest issues we deal with that distract us from our prayer lives. I know it sounds crazy... but tonight our pastor said that he wanted to see these teenagers become rebellious. Sound crazy? Have you ever heard a pastor tell teens that he wants to see teens rebel. Don't get too worked up, as I am absolutely in full agreement. Again, ask your teenager what Chuck meant by that...and then, please, please, please encourage them in their rebellion!
Thank all of you for your efforts and prayers and please, if you are not already a part of our prayer team please contact me or Sheila Wright about how you can join.

The Audacity

2010-09-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

I have really been challenged recently by a book written by Steven Furtick called "Sun Stand Still". The gist of the book is that in today's world we could really use more of the audacious faith that Joshua displayed in Joshua 10:12&13 where he actually asks God to make the sun stand still in the sky and extend a day. When I read this I thought it so perfectly fit with the series that we are currently doing that I knew I had teach last night from Joshua 10. (it would be well worth your time to go read this account right now)

Live out an audacious faith and pray audacious prayers. This is basically what this whole "God of Wonders" series has been calling our students to do, and Joshua 10 shows, from Scripture that God approves of this thinking. There are some huge needs in our world today that are going to require some HUGE interventions from God. But the cool thing is that God apparently Big enough to do just that and answer some big requests. We talked a lot last night about the fact that most of us have never seen God move in ways that are similar to what we read about in scripture. Think about the miracles that you have seen...any of them look like the parting of the Red Sea, water turning to wine, manna falling from heaven, fire coming down from heaven to burn an alter, or the sun stopping in the sky for about a day. Why do we not see things like this? I am not minimizing the miracles we do see today... a child being born, a person healed from disease, someone surviving a horrific car accident...but, many miracles in scripture seem to look a bit different to me. Why? Maybe it is because we are not asking BIG things of God. That's what this series is all about. We have a Big God, who has the power (and I believe the desire) to do big things in some very difficult situations.

Think about it. These issues we are talking about (poverty, AIDS, human trafficking, the persecuted church) are setting up the perfect recipe for God to move. These issues are way to big for us to do anything about them...most of us have already succumbed to that fact and become apathetic already. Now God has the perfect opportunity to move mightily and intervene in miraculous ways so that only He can receive the glory that He deserves. Maybe he is just waiting for a generation of Christians to step forward in humility and obedience and ask some big, audacious things of God. It is my prayer that this generation might be that generation... if we will empower and encourage them to be.

Slavery Today

2010-09-19T18:24:00.001-07:00

Continuing in our series on "Our God of Wonders", this week we looked at what many are now calling the fastest growing crime in the world, the modern day slave trade and human trafficking. There are currently about 27 million people held captive around the world as slaves. That is more than at any other time in history. 80% of those people are women and half of them are children. This issue involves slavery of all different kinds. Many are laborers in an endless variety of industries. Some, mostly children in Africa, are abducted and forced to serve as soldiers under barbaric regimes. Some, actually the vast majority of slaves around the world today are held in the sex-trade. This is a huge business said to be around $32 billion a year. That was $32 billion...with a "b". To put that in perspective, it is more than the yearly profits of Google, Nike and Starbucks combined!
Even more significant in this issue than just the shear vastness of it...is the fact that each of these 27 million slaves are precious, individual lives...most of which are helpless to improve their own situation. They are in dire need of help. Can we just ignore this issue? Can we just ignore these women and children? For how long? But how can we help? We discussed three organizations that are trying to inform people about this issue and help some of these people get out of these situations and start new lives. Chack them out if you can: 1) Takenoglory.com 2) wellspringliving.org 3) Olivia's Song (info on Facebook and Vimeo)
As with each week of this series we have looked at another issue that is so big, we could never impact it on our own. We would have to have a big God intervene on our behalf. Do we really believe that our God is that big? The even bigger question though, that I asked our students is..."Are you willing to surrender your life and ask God to use you as His vessel to greatly impact this issue?"

What We Are Talking About

2010-09-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

For the last 4 weeks we have been going through a series called "The Wonders of God". The first week we looked at several scriptures (Job 38-41, Psalm 113, Psalm 145,) that talked about what a wondrous God we serve. We focused on Deuteronomy 10:21 which says, "He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome works your eyes have seen." (HCSB) The Israelites had seen many times and situations where they needed a great and mighty God to come and act because the strength and works of man would not have been sufficient. They asked for this, and according to this scripture they had seen His works with their own eyes.

I asked the students several questions. I asked them why they believe that our God is a mighty God of Wonders? Is it just because they have been told that? Or is it because they have read that in the Bible? Or is it because they have truly seen the wonders of God as the Israelites had? Do our lives reflect that we believe that our God is great and mighty? How?

Then I challenged the students with this question that will be the platform for the rest of this series... "If we really believed that our God was great would we not ask great things of Him?" What have we asked of God lately? For the next (and past) several weeks we will be looking at some of the incredibly difficult (even impossible) issues facing our world today and looking at it through the filter of this question. I want to present some information that maybe we don't hear about too often. I also want to present some of the people and organizations that are attempting to get involved in these issues...people that are truly asking great things of God!

We have already spent one week talking about poverty (hunger, poor sanitation, lack of drinking water, communicable disease, etc) around the world. Another week we talked about the persecuted church around the world and last week we talked about the impact of the AIDS epidemic around the world especially in Africa. The bottom line is that these issues are WAY to big for any of us to do anything about them. Because of that most people throw their hands in the air and ignore them. But, as Christians, if we do that what does that say about our beliefs about our God? Is He not big enough to impact these issues? Of course He is...and maybe, just maybe, He wants to use some of us...even our teens... as His vessel to bring that impact into these issues.

We have talked about how God is using organizations like ONE, WorldVision, and Feed the Hunger to make an impact on poverty. We talked about the underground church and how an organization like Voice of the Martyrs is making a huge impact for these people. Last week we talked about how God is working (RED), AIDSLink and Mike and Carolyn Ennis with Rafiki Foundation, to shine the love of Christ into a horrific situation.

We will continue to look at some of these issues each week leading up to the Global Impact Celebration November 3rd-7th. It is my prayer that these students would see that our world is full HUGE issues, but more importantly that our God is big enough to reach into those situations and make an impact through people that are willing to obey and surrender everything to Him. Are we willing to ask Him to use us that way?

Remember, to check back each week as I will try to give you a synopsis (briefer than this) of what we are discussing on Wednesday nights.

New Focus

2010-09-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

One of the big things that God has shown me in my time in youth ministry is that it should really be thought of as family ministry. God has just really convicted me that there needs to be more focus on parents and specifically encouraging, challenging and assisting them in their call to disciple their children. One of the ways that I want to try and do this is through this blog. I want to try and incorporate more time "blogging" for you parents. Not everything they I put on here will be for you but much of it will. On Thursday or Friday of each week I will try to give a little synopsis of what we studied at BNX on Wednesday night. This has two purposes. The obvious first purpose is just to "keep you in the loop". But a second more important purpose is that hopefully this will give you guys some platforms from which to start some discussions with your kids. I think we have a tendency to sometimes make the process of discipling our kids more difficult and daunting than it should be. We don't have to be Biible scholars and theologians to disciple them. We really just need to love them and have a willingness to talk to them about our lives and theirs. We need to talk to them about how God is working in our own life and how that effects our thinking and our daily decision making processes. Hopefully this will help you with that sometimes.

'Fake Christians'

2010-09-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html?hpt=T2
I have copied a link to an article that was sent to me that I thought was quite interesting. This is certainly something that I think needs our prayerful consideration...and our down right attention and focus! I want to really appeal to parents to read the part under the heading that reads... "How 'radical' parents instill religious passion in their children"

They offer some great points for us as parents to ponder. I must say though, that it struck me what they were refering to as "radical". As I thought about it I had to ask myself, is this really radical? Or is this just what the basic life of a Christian should look like. Sure, some decisions are certainly radical, but are we sometimes making things seem so extreme when they really don't need to be? Is it really that hard to explain to our kids why we do things and let them know that our daily decisions in life are influenced by our faith? Or maybe we need to be vulnerable and talk to them about the times that we did not let our faith influence a decision like it should. Is that really a "radical" concept for us? I hope not. It does not take a special book by James Dobson and a prescribed daily agenda for us to disciple our children. Live life, and share with them how God is impacting you each day. I guess in our culture today, that is a pretty radical concept.

The Beauty of Humility

2010-03-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

We just had D-Now this past weekend (yes I realize that it has been a year since I had a blog entry). As always it was a great weekend. The speakers did a great job. The bands were awesome and lead some incredible times of praise. I think the curriculum was better than we have had at DNOW for a while. Small group discussions were intense. The support from parents and volunteers was phenomenal. Just a great weekend. I think God truly had an opportunity to speak. But none of those things are what I will remember. Those things can been seen more or less every year at DNOW and other events...and that is great. But there was one thing about this DNOW that was a little different for me. We took some time to do a little service project Saturday morning along with some students from Grace Evangelical Church. I think I actually got the chance to see a glimmer of Christ that morning. We went to downtown Atlanta to work with a homeless ministry called Safehouse Outreach. It was a fairly typical ministry to homeless people, which I have seen a lot of lately. We provided a sack lunch for some men and women living in some difficult scenarios. We provided some basic hygiene kits for some also. We sat and had some conversations with the hope of sharing the gospel of Jesus. What Christ does with that is up to Him. I am sure there were some physical needs met that day. Maybe there were some emotional needs met. Hopefully there were some spiritual needs met. However, i know that I am too much of a septic at times and have to remind myself to just surrender all of that God as best i can. But there was something else I saw that was seered into my head. On one side of the small meeting room we were working in there was a row of chairs set up. Men and women could come over to that row of chairs and receive a free pair of new socks. There was one catch. To receive those socks they had to allow their feet to be washed. When I first heard we were going to be doing this I was really curious how our students would respond. I figured a couple would agree to do this and maybe they would...but probably only for a very few minutes and then they would move on to one of the other tasks they could be involved in. But I saw several of our students take part in this opportunity and I was blown away by the humility with which they did it. And not just to one person but one after another. I wish I could describe the way these peoples faces lit up as our students would remove their shoes and socks and then wash and care for their feet...some terribly rough, ragged and abused feet mind you. I could not help but to picture Christ as He did the same for His disciples. I know that those men and women getting their feet washed saw Christ. I was reminded of what Christ can do with a life that is humbly surrendered to Him. Once we get out of the way with our material selfishness, He can truly be seen and He can bring to Himself the glory that He deserves.

Redefining Normal

2009-03-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being a part of a county wide D-Now event sponsored by FAYMA (Fayette Area Youth Ministers Association). I thought it was an awesome weekend. I had prayed for many weeks that this years Disciple Now would not just be another event to "get the troops excited", but that it would actually make an impact. I felt like the theme and curriculum for the weekend could truly do just that. Our theme was "Redefining Normal". The students were really challenged to repent, which one of the speakers pointed out means to "rethink" or change the way we think. This is exactly what I hope comes from this weekend. I hope that we see some students truly repent. And I am not just talking about the standard church definition of "turning from their sins". I hope this weekend really causes these students to begin to rethink the way they view everything. We have all been trained by the world around us to view and think about things a certain way. The question is whether or not Jesus thinks about things the same way. I believe the answer to that question is a big fat NO! So much of what we do and think, is absolutely contrary to Christ. When He came to earth as a man He totally flipped this world upside down with statements like,
"if anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" (Mark9:35),
"Love your enemies, do good to those that hate you" (Luke 6:27),
"anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life" (John 6:54), and
"the one who loves his life will lose it" (John 12:25).
Jesus so dramatically challenged the norms of the time that the world has still not recovered from it some 2000 years later. If we are going to truly follow Him and take on what He views as normal, the world around us just may call us crazy! It is my prayer that this weekend might have caused a few students in our community to absolutely go crazy! Only time will tell.

OMG!!!???

2009-02-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

I feel like I am seeing this statement more and more recently and I have to be honest...IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!! Why is it so easy for us to casually and flipantly throw the Lord's name around so irreverantly? Do we not have any concept of what we are actually saying? I regularly hear people saying, "Oh my God". I think I read it even more on blogs and facebook. Most of the time it is not really even used in a very dramatic context. I can't see where God has anything to do with what they are talking about. I find myself dying to just ask them, "What does god have to do with this?", and see if they even realize what they have said. How do we so easily disassociate this statement with the 3rd commandment in Exodus 20 which very clearly says "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." How have we become so desensitized to this? I am quite certain we are all creative enough to come up with a better way for expressing ourselves. At least I hope so!

Why Are We Not Suffering

2009-02-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

I have spent a great deal of time over the past days, weeks and even months thinking about the whole idea of suffering. I am coming to believe, more and more, that this is a topic that Christians do not have an appropriate perspective of...especially Christians in America. As I read through God's Word, I find very few, if any, examples of people who go through a life devoted to Christ Jesus and experience a very easy, comfortable, and cushy life, with no suffering or persecution. On the other hand I find example after example of people who suffer through tremendous pain, heartache, and even death for their devotion to Christ. That seems to be a major pattern in Scripture. Are we Christians today experiencing the same things? Do we experience that same pain and heartache and even death because of our claim to Christianity? I don't think so. At least not to the same degree. Yes, we deal with pain such as disease and the deaths of friends and family, which is natural to all people, but are we experiencing any hardship that is the direct result of being a follower of Christ? Not really in this country. We might occasionally have to deal with someone making fun of our beliefs or calling us a name (not to make light of this kind of persecution), but we do not really have to worry about being beaten, jailed, or even killed for our beliefs (though that day may be around the corner). There are believers around the world who truly do know what it means to "share in His suffering". Are we missing something when we do not really experience any persecution in our lives? I think it is a question that is at least worth asking.

Why would God want us to experience suffering on His behalf? In some ways that seems totally contradictory to what we think God should do. God is supposed to be about love and mercy and compassion and grace. How do those things jive with suffering? That is so hard for us to understand. However, God's Word is very clear that God uses suffering to groom us and teach us things like obedience (Hebrews 5:8) and perseverance (Romans 5:3). Can our faith really grow and develop in a lifestyle of comfort and security? Are we really forced to turn to Him and totally depend on Him as our Sustainer? It does not seem very likely to me. I can't help but believe that the Apostle Paul's intimacy with Christ was grown to a whole different level as he was chained in prison, beaten and alone. I can't help but believe that Peter's devotion to Christ was proven to be far greater than my own, when he was hanging upside down on a crucifix because of his bold stand for Jesus. I wonder if I am missing something when I hear stories about believers in places like Vietnam, China, and Iran who know that they will suffer intensely when people find out that they are a Christians. And yet I can sit here and openly write this blog, never thinking of any physical consequence that could come my way because of it. Do I have that kind of faith to stand so strongly for Him? I hope so...but I have never been tested on that level to know. Part of me wants to thank God for protecting me from that, but part of me can't help but wonder if that is just an indication of how weak and infantile my faith in Him is. Had I been jailed or beaten because of my faith in Jesus, I think that my reliance upon, and trust in Jesus, would be far stronger than what they currently are.

Should we be praying for God to send us some suffering? Would that be a prayer that would honor Him? Part of me really thinks it would. I think suffering may be what we need, not only to sift out the phony Christians in our churches, but also to cause our own faith and love for Christ to grow exponentially. Suffering seems to be something that people of the New Testament not only expected, but actually rejoiced over, because it was a sign that they truly were associated with Jesus Christ (Acts 5:41). Much of the church in America today verbalizes an association with Christ. Is our lack of suffering an indication that Christ does not recognize that association, because it is actually just a head knowledge and not a heart knowledge? If we are truly indwelt by Him, we should expect His sufferings to overflow into us (2 Corinthians 1:5). Ultimately that forces us to ask the question, "Do I truly want to be associated with Him?"

Are You Going to be Green?

2009-02-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

It seems like every time I turn around I hear something else about "green". It seems like everyone in our world today is into this whole thing. I can't watch TV, listen to the radio, or even go to the mailbox without being bombarded with something about being "green". Just yesterday I saw a bank and cell phone company using "green" as their advertising gimmick. Is that really what I am looking for in a bank...that they are green? Right now I just want a bank that is not going to go under anytime soon.
This has caused me over recent months and weeks to really put some thought into this whole concept. I actually spent the last few weeks doing a series in BNX on some of the conclusions that I have come to. Just as I have shared with the students I work with, my point in writing this is not to say that it is either right or wrong to "go green", but rather to understand your basis for that belief from a Biblical position and not because of what the world is telling us. Here are a few things I have found as I have researched this.
-Anything that the world is overwhelmingly supportive of we, as Christians, should immediately be concerned about. We know from God's Word that Satan is the ruler of this world (Matthew 4:8-9, I John 5:19), that he is the father of lies (John 8:44), and wants nothing more than to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9). Therefore, I think we need to seriously question anything that is so supported by the world around us. Now, that does not necessarily mean we should not support the green movement...only that we should be skeptical and do some praying and research.
-The motivation behind the overwhelming majority of environmental organizations is to basically stop and reverse the effects that humans are having and have had on planet earth. Go checkout the mission statements of any environmental organization and see if that is not true. This idea is one that I think very much goes against specific Biblical doctrine. Let me explain...In Genesis 3 we read the account of the "temptation and fall of man". Part of that account involves the judgement from God for the sins that were committed. We read, in some detail, what was cursed and affected by sin. In verse 17 we see that not only was man cursed and condemned to death (physical and spiritual), but so was the rest of creation. This seems to me to indicate that we can't "stop or reverse" the decaying and death of this world as our environmental groups suggest they want to do. Now, I also believe that we should not needlessly expedite that process either (the key word here being needlessly).
-We have all heard, from our friends like Mr. Al Gore, the doomsday timescales of when we will destroy our own planet if we do not stop living the way we are now. This thinking, I believe, is also very UNBiblical. If we read Romans 8:18-22 we again see references to Genesis 3 where creation was cursed to death and futility, just as man was. We also see that creation is "eagerly awaiting" the second coming of Christ (vs 19) where it can also be delivered from it's "bondage to decay" (New International Version). We can trust then, that before we as humans completely destroy and obliterate this world as so many environmentalist suggest we are doing, Christ WILL come back to deliver us...and creation! There will be no "Doomsday" (at least not for true believers and creation).
-My biggest concern with this movement lies in the shear enormity of it. It is an incredibly vast movement. I fear that this whole issue is rapidly becoming one of idolatry, where we are becoming more concerned about what we are doing every day to destroy the earth, than what we are doing every day to passionately know, love, and worship our God, Creator, and Lord Jesus Christ. For many of us it is easier and more important in our daily lives to recycle an aluminum can and minimize our carbon footprint, than it is to open our Bible and spend some intimate alone time with Jesus our Savior.
-Some might say, "But how can that many people be wrong?". I would first point back to my previous point from John 8:44. I would also remind people of what Romans 12:2 teaches us. We should not be conformed to this world. The NIV says the "patterns of this world". I think this movement may be just that...a "pattern" of this world that maybe we should not be conforming to, at least not for the reasons that this world gives us. Instead we should be "transformed" (which I think means we should look at least a little different???) by the renewing of our minds. Maybe we need to research this movement a bit, and see if we are just conforming or if we need a little transforming.
-I also do believe that we are called to stewardship as one component of our worship to God. In Genesis 1 we are given authority and responsibility over all of creation as we are set apart and created in God's own image. This is something that I think all Christians need to put some serious thought and prayer into, and one area that I think most of us are lacking in. If God leads you through sincere prayer and study of scripture, as part of your worship through stewardship, to recycle, drive a hybrid, or pay for a carbon offset, then by all means do it. Do it to the Glory of Jesus Christ. And if by the same method you are lead to throw away your trash, drive an SUV and hunt deer, then by all means, fire away (hunters, by the way, were some of the first conservationists and naturalists). I think we, as Christians, also have a responsibility not to judge each other's decisions on this issue, when they are legitimately founded in prayer, scripture study and comprehensive information research. The last thing in the world we want is to do something just because the world says it is right or good!

Rethinking Things

2009-02-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is sort of a theme in my life right now... "rethinking things". So why not carry it over into this blog. I know most of you thought that I was completely done with this blog thing since I have not done anything with it in so long...but hah...you are wrong! I am back! I am moving back into the blogosphere once again.
Here is the deal..1st of all, where have I been in my time away from blogland? Well basically I have used this blog in the past to post pictures and stories of different events (mostly youth related stuff). But that is no longer needed. For the past few months we have been working on a new website for all of that kind of stuff. Go check it out and let us know what you think about it. www.bnxyouth.org. So that explains where I have been, but now I want to explain where I want to go. My game plan for the future of this blog site is to just simply use it to blog. Makes sense I think...a blog site to blog on! I do not intend to put up pictures or videos on here like I have in the past (again, checkout the website for that). I just want to share some of what is going on in my head. I know, I know...that is the one place that most people who know me don't want to go, but we will see how it goes. I want to also try to periodically share summaries of things I have recently been teaching on. Sooooo..parents take a look sometime and see if you can use some of this stuff to start conversations with your kids. I am curious to get feedback on some of these thoughts so let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy the new direction. Thanks JD

Fall Festival

2008-11-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone that helped out with this years fall festival. It was a great night. There were, of course, some great costumes and it looked looked like kids were having fun and filling up with candy. We again had some awesome trunks and games for kids to enjoy. I must admit that Governor Sarah Palin showing up was a highlight of the night for me! (No it was not really her but it sure looked like it!) The cake walk was once again a huge success and the youth ministry was able to raise $150 that will be donated to a local pastor dealing with some significant health issues. Also from this, dozens of people won some pretty amazing baked goods. Overall, the evening was a blast and a it was a great opportunity for us to serve our community!

The Hands Skit

2008-10-15T21:15:00.001-07:00

Some of you may have seen this before on YouTube or GodTube but our drama team recently performed the "Hand Skit" in a Sunday morning worship service. They did a great job with this. I know they put a lot of time in to learning this skit. Hope you enjoy it!
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=243130a48357ae54b3f9

12 Years Later...The Annex Lives Again!!!!

2008-09-18T08:20:00.001-07:00

How many of us would love to have the opportunity to go back in time about 15 years into the past for a couple of hours. Most of us (at least those over the age of about 25) would love to have an opportunity like that. Well this past Sunday evening I had that opportunity...sort of. I have been a member of Woolsey Baptist Church for 20 years or so now. Things have certainly changed over that time. One of the most notable changes is the fact that we no longer meet in the same church building that we met in when I was a kid. About 12 years ago we moved into a new building that is still used today. When I actually started serving full time at the church a little over a year ago, the old building that we met in when I was a kid was in pretty rough shape. Only a part of the building was being used at that time and for only a couple of hours a week. Over the last year the youth ministry has made that our primary meeting place for Wednesday and Sunday meetings. Through that time we have tried to do all that we can to improve the place and give it a face lift and boy has it gone through some changes!

Well, this past Sunday evening we held an evening service for the whole congregation back in that old building to sort of show off all the changes and improvements that have been made. I totally felt like I was back in church as a kid. We had a great crowd of over 150 people there. Our worship team (with the help of a few of our youth) did a great job of leading an awesome worship time that truly brought us before our Lord! We got to hear some great stories of "days gone by" as well as what is going on today within our youth ministry. Some of our youth performed a skit that was was very challenging. The temperature was a bit warm but that did nothing to damper the excitement and joy of our youth and the entire congregation. I pray that, like a snowball, that excitement continues to gain momentum and that tiny little old church explodes into a beacon of light throughout our whole community!

Some other videos to enjoy.

2008-09-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a couple other videos that I have put together from different events. I hope you enjoy them!

D-Now 08
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6dc812fb0cc4d2f32afe

Camp Kaleo
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=2fbf4cfaae671fbe0f40

Origins 101

2008-09-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks I have been going through a Wednesday night study dealing with the Creation vs Evolution debate. I have thoroughly enjoyed this study (hopefully all of our students have as well). It has so reminded me of how critical an issue this is. I have not studied up on the topic in a few years and I guess I have sort of suppressed in mind the implications of this issue. In talking with different students I have been reminded of how saturated our culture has become with evolutionary thinking. We take for granted that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago because that is the only information we read about in textbooks or hear on television shows. Most people have never heard any alternative to the long "geologic ages" (Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic) that have been proposed as fact from science. Almost everyone thinks of Neanderthals as a pre-human type of cave-man. That is what museums and textbooks the world over have more than insinuated. Even the humanities are full of evolutionary humanism. It is everywhere. Many of these issues and concepts we do not even question anymore. We assume that if science says it...then it must be true. This becomes a major problem when what science says is drastically different from what the Word of God says. And the Word of God does not support any of what "science " says about the topics I mentioned previously. So who do we believe? That is the ultimate question in this debate. Who is our authority....Science or God. I hope this study will help some to answer that question and many others they may have.

Updates...a long time coming!

2008-09-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Alright...it has obviously been a while since I last updated my blog. The last half of the summer was really just a blur. I will try to quickly catch things up from the summer. My last blog was just before we went on our mission trip to Tunica, Mississippi. The trip was awesome. our group really did a great job. They truly impressed me with the work that they did and the way they truly tried to make the most of their time their. I don't know when I have seen a group of teenagers so bold and excited to share their faith with people around them. I could tell you all about the trip but, the easiet thing might be to just let you see the video that made from the trip. I hope you enjoy.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=b1833d6fb44d7a086f62

I do want to thank everyone who supported our team with your prayers and your finances. The Lord certainly heard your prayers and blessed your generosity!

Tunica or Bust!!

2008-07-17T12:26:00.001-07:00

We are almost ready. This Saturday we have a group of ten who will be heading to Tunica, Mississippi. No, we are not going to hit the Casinos. Half of our group is too young to get in anyway. We are actually going to work with Adventures in Missions to serve a couple of the churches in the area. God has opened an awesome opportunity for a few of our students to be a part of this trip. For most of them it will be their first (of many hopefully) mission trip. We certainly want to thank all the many people who have prayed and supported us financially making this opportunity possible. Please remember to pray for us while we are gone. Pray for our safety of course but more importantly pray that we are challenged, that we are flexible, that we are obedient, and that Christ's light will shine brightly from us! We will return on Friday July 25. We can't wait to share our stories with you then.

A Truly...'Eventful' Trip!

2008-07-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

Last week was family vacation week for the Davidsons. We had the opportunity to drive up to northern Minnesota with Tracy's sister and her family. Let me try to paint a quick picture for you. 2 families (The Davidson's and the Hogrefe's), 4 adults, 5 kids (all between 2 and 8 years old), 1 Van, 4 car seats, looked liked 30+ pieces of luggage, 2 portable DVD players, 5 grocery bags full of candy and snacks, 2 grocery bags full of Dollar Store games, toys and books, 500+ pints of Mountain Dew (or so it seemed), 22 hours of driving (one way), and 1 lofty goal of driving straight thru and stopping only for gas and bathrooms. You want to talk about a recipe for disaster. I think all four of us adults later admitted that we were all totally dreading this trip. At least the driving part of it. But to our surprise it went amazingly smooth...the driving part anyway. Shockingly there was not one single melt down by any of the kids (maybe a minor melt down froma couple of the adults). They did incredibly well. Even once we got there things went quite well...for a while! We had never seen the cabin we were to stay in but were pleasantly surprised when we got there. I had the chance to go out fishing one of the first mornings I was there and caught my first ever walleye and northern. My frist walleye was a nice 13-14 inch one and then the second was about a 23 incher and weighed about 4.5 pounds. I was quite pleased. The first few days went quite smooth....and then!!! Wednesday Landon decided to give us some excitement and go swan diving into a boulder. After 5 hours in the Emergency Room and 15 stitches in his forhead, things settled back down...for a while. The next day I got one of the scares of my life when I received a text message telling me by brother had been in a serious accident while on duty with the Sheriff's department. After many phone calls, prayers, and a few tears, I found out that he was alright...pretty banged up, but alright. God had answered our prayers (by the way....thanks to all of you who were praying for him during that time). At this point my nerves were pretty well shot! Fortunately God was gracious enough to carry us thru the rest of the trip with no major crisis to deal with. He actually blessed us with a great day of fun on the 4th of July in the tiny little town of Big Falls, Minnesota.

After it was all said and done, and after I had gotten my family home safely, I had some time to reflect. It hit me how short and fleeting this life is. I want to live my life and I want to encourage my family to live their lives in a way that soaks up every precious moment we have together. I don't want to take one second of that for granted. It also made me think about God and His Son Jesus. It reminded me of the sacrifice that He made giving up His Son, whom I know He looked at even more fondly than I look at my family... yet He sent Him anyway! WOW! That speaks volumes to me about how much He loves me. It makes me want my kids to know that same love even more! What an amazing God we serve!!!!

A Big Thanks!!

2008-06-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

I have to give a big thanks to a big group of students. Last week WBC host VBS for children in our community. It was a great success! There were well over 100 kids who were involved this year. At least 7 of those accepted Christ as Savior! Hallelujah!!! That would never have been possible without an army of people helping to pull the week off. I am very proud to say that over 25 of our students were a part of the army last week. They did a great job (that is of course if I ignore the Hot Tamales, scarves, and confetti). I want to Thank each and every one of them that helped out as well as the rest of Valerie's Army.

Who says there is nothing to do in Forsyth, Georgia?

2008-06-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had our annual summer retreat. I have to confess that I was quite worried about this trip before we went. It did not have the makings of a good trip. That is probably in large part my own fault. I had told our students that we were going to try to go on a "beach retreat" this summer since we had been in the mountains last summer. That sounded like a good idea. But then once I started looking at different ones I ran into big problems. It seemed like with everything I looked at, either the dates were bad or the cost was just way too high. So I decided that we were going to have to cancel the beach retreat. We were going to completely for go a summer retreat but it wa suggested that we should do something. So at the last minute I tried to scrample and put something together. I found out about a retreat center that is run by the GA Baptist Convention in Forsyth, Georgia. It sounded like there were some decent activities so I signed us up. I knew it was going to be hard for me to sell this idea to the youth (A "baptist" camp for RA's in Forsyth, GA just didn't have the ring that Myrtle Beach had). But we promoted it for a couple of weeks. Even as we were getting ready to go i had my doubts since only 9 students had signed up. But I had spent quite a bit of time praying for the trip and the theme which was "Unity". God really seemed to bless those prayers as this truly was an awesome week. I don't know that there was any one thing that was just completely incredible about the week but everything was just a lot of fun. I had invited some friends of ours Marnus and Lisa Coetzee from OM that served in Ukraine with Tracy and I, to come along as our guest speakers/praise leaders. They did a great job and really seemed to bond well with the students. We had some great times of praise and learning. Nothing extravagant...quite simple actually, but so refreshing and insightful. We had time for some great games of kick ball and water polo. The staff at Camp Kaleo were great also. At first I was a little suspicious of some of the names (Swift, Stitch, Baloo, Splinter, Bulwinkle, Otter) but they proved to be very solid guys with good knowledge and excitment for serving. One of the best parts of the trip for me was the fact that we were not stuck to a rigid schedule which meant we had some flexibility and plenty of time to just hang out with each other. I think the fact that it was a smaller group and the fact that they all had GREAT attitudes meant we would have a successful week no matter where we were or what we were doing. I think there is a good chance we will be back in Forsyth some time in the future. Also be on the lookout for a video of the trip....COMING SOON (Get ready Carl)!!!

Prince Caspian

2008-05-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

I am definetly becoming a "Narnia Junkie". This past Friday night we had a group of about 38 people go to see the opening night of Prince Caspian the second movie in C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. The movie was awesome. I thought it was quite different from the first one. It was much more battle ridden. As before there were some great effects and costumes displayed. But the best part of the whole movie and the entire series is the underlying spiritual themes that are dealt with. Themes like Peter's crisis of faith, the effects of sin, the effects of racism, the power of Christ. These are just a few of the thoughts that Lewis weave's into this series. I was excited to see that the movie was by far the top box office hit of the opening weekend with 55 million in sales (the next closest was 31 million). That is a pretty good start! If you have not seen it yet...GO! It is absolutely worth it. Here is a link to the trailer and Switchfoot's theme song.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6d1263c0dc706b10ae50 - Trailer
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=923b58718825672ad8ce - video

God is SO much.

2008-04-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

A few days ago in my quiet time I was reading a brief devotion about who God is. I can't really say that it was a totally revolutionary devotion time that taught me some new magnificent insite into who God is. I can tell you that it was an awesome time with God that morning though. I know that sometimes (probably most of the time) I tend to forget who God is. I don't mean that I forget, in that I don't have the knowledge in my head, but rather I forget, in that I take it for granted and it really does not significantly impact my daily life. I get caught up in the hustle and bustle and garbage of life. But during this devotion I was just reminded of who God is; how big, how powerful, how complete, how holy, how eternal, how necessary, how shocking. Anytime I think about God and who he truly is as the perfect Creator of all things, I always ask myself "why?". Why does He care about me? Why does He want to reveal Himself to me? Why does He guide me? Why does He pursue me? He has so much more to worry about and deal with and think about. Yet nonetheless, He wants to just stop, and be...with me. Wow.

I can't imagine what it would be like to have the President George W. Bush show up at my door one morning and say "Hey. Whatcha doin? Do you have some time to talk...to hang out a little?" That seems pretty far fetched and I know it is almost certainly never going to happen to me. However GOD, the "I AM" does exactly that to me every single morning. He shows up desiring to be with me, talk with me, and just hang out with me. That is just unbelievable! And the amazing thing about God is this....whatever it is that I need that day, God is! HE IS! If I need encouragement, He is an encourager. If I need healing, He is the Healer. If I need a kick in the rear, He is the Kicker. Whatever I need, He, the creator and sustainer of ALL things, IS! Wow...talk about something that will knock you square in the face right to the ground. He will. God is...SO much!

D-NOW 08'

2008-04-07T04:52:00.001-07:00

Recently we got to participate in the FAYMA sposored Disciple Now 08. We had about 40 students participating. It was a very cool weekend. We got to hear some great worship bands, some great speakers, and have a lot of fun. There were four small groups that stayed in four different homes with four different leaders. It seems these small group times were where our students were most challenged in their spiritual lives. I put together a short video from the weekend that I am trying to figure out how to get posted on here. Check back soon to see the video.

Easter Weekend

2008-04-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some pics from our "He is Alive" Celebration that we had the day before Easter. What an awesome day it was. We are not exactly sure of the numbers but we are confident that we had at least 500 people here at Woolsey. The day was filled music, fun, easter egg hunts (for preschoolers, children, youth and even adults) and praise to our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. What a way to celebrate His death and Resurrection! I thought about that idea all weekend. It must sound so crazy to the secular world that we Christians want to "celebrate" someones death. Aren't we supposed to mourn death and celebrate life? And of course that is exactly what we are doing. We are celebrating the eternal life that Jesus Christ provided to me and you and the death that He conquered by dying on the cross, paying our penalty in hell, and rising again from the grave! I actually can't think of anything more worthy of our whole hearted celebration! Enjoy the pics.

Tornado Hits Close To Home

2008-03-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

I am sure most have heard about the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta this past weekend. Damage estimates are around 150 MILLION dollars. Obviously this was more than just some strong winds. This was a serious force. Of course for us this hits home since we live in the metro Atlanta area. Fortunately there were no fatalities which is an obvious miracle when you see the pictures of the damage inflicted to the buildings that this tornado hit. One of the most severely damaged buildings was the Georgia World Conress Center. When I heard that this building was one of the ones that had been hit...the story really hit home. If this tornado had come exactly one week early 21 students and leaders from our youth group would have been involved in the whole situation. We were in the Georgia World Congress Center along with 6000 other students and leaders attending the Dare2Share Survive Conference. In that conference we were reminded of the reality of hell for those who have never accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. We were also reminded that none of us will live forever and that we need to have some serious urgency about sharing our faith with lost friends. This tornado is a very stark reminder for that our days are few and limited.

I Double Dare You!

2008-03-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to take a few of the students that I work with to the Survive Conference hosted by Dare 2 Share ministry. It was a great experience. We got to worship with over 6000 other students and leaders. The worship was lead by Lincoln Brewster who did an amazing job. Along with the worship there was some amazing teaching times as well. This was This was lead by Greg Stier, Derwin Grey, and Zane Black. They did a great job teaching about how to do evangelism, how to handle money and how to view sexual purity. This conference really challenged students to think about their lost friends and seek opportunities to share with them about Jesus. At one point in the conference the students were challenged to take out there cell phones right then and there, and call a lost friend and share with them about Christ. I am proud to say that many of our students actually did this! The students were also presented with a dare. A "Double Dare"actually. The dare was 2 fold. The first part was that they would share the gospel with EVERY non christian friend that they have in God's timing, in God's power, and with God's love. The second part was that they would share with at least one friend within the first 48 hours of taking the dare. I found out that all 18 of the students we took accepted this dare. I have talked to several of them that I know that they followed through with the second part and shared with someone in the first 48 hours. Pretty AWESOME stuff! If you are interested in taking this dare go to www.doubledare.org to find out more info and to officially accept the dare.

A Letter From Hell

2008-03-05T10:34:00.001-08:00

I have been quite neglectful of my blog recently. I APOLOGIZE. I will try to do better!

Today I have been working on a lesson that I am wanting to present to the students in my youth group. The title that I have given this lesson is "Why is Salvation so Important". I am trying to answer this question from 2 opposite perspectives. The first is looking at what does salvation bring to me or provide for me. The obvious answer according to scripture is an eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23). The other side of that, which is often overlooked, is that it brings us into a real relationship with Jesus Christ in the immediate present. That is often hard for us to fully appreciate but none the less it is true. We get to know, love and hang out with the creator of the universe.

The second part of the equation has to look at what salvation keeps us from. This too is sometimes an obvious answer for anyone who has spent much time in church. Obviously it is ultimately an eternity in hell, as a result of our sin, that we are saved from (Romans 6:23). As I was preparing for this lesson I knew I wanted to share something about the reality of hell. Our society seems to have a very difficult time coming to grips with this reality. Some try to ignore it and say that it does not even exist. Others try to minimize it and say that it is only a symbol or a metaphor. Still others try to glorify it and say they can't wait to party in hell with all of their friends. The truth and reality of hell will be realized by all of us at some point. None of us can escape death.

I found this video that I thought was awesome in it's description of death and hell. I hope it speaks to you as it did to me as a reminder of the hell that truly awaits those who never experience the salvation found only in the name of Jesus Christ.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e10543891fd2e7277d15

Is Voting Really Important?

2008-02-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Today is "Super Tuesday" here in Georgia. Voting booths opened bright and early this morning at 7am. I always find it rather exciting to walk up to a polling site anticipating having my vote registered. This morning was especially exciting to think about the fact that I had the opportunity to put in my "two cents" regarding what is probably the most powerful political position in the world. Thats a pretty incredible priviledge if you really think about it. It should be viewed as a pretty significant responsibility for every citizen of this country. Unfortunately too many of us blow off this responsibility by saying things like "they are all a bunch of liars and cheats anyway" or "what difference can my one vote make" or even "I hate all that political stuff anyway". But these are really all a bunch of excuses. I would encourage you to take a little time to find some info on these candidates (even if you are not of voting age) and pray about who God wants serving our country.

The Sin of Silence

2008-01-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we had a guest speaker at church Dr Bill Fay. He is an evangelist who was coming to encourage and challenge our church to get involved in personal and corporate evangelism. He really was a great speaker and made some very good points as he presented a very simple and easy way in which to share the gospel with people. As he said most of us have numerous excuses and reservations that prevent us from regularly sharing our faith with people. We took time to discuss and squelch many of those excuses such as fear of rejection, fear of not knowing enough scripture, or just simply being apathetic. These often cause us to be silent regarding our call to share our faith. This is the "sin of silence".
Bill outlined his simple plan in which you can use 5 easy questions to enter into a conversation with them that could allow the opportunity to present the Gospel. Then of course it is up to Christ to do His thing.
I have not yet had the opportunity but I am looking forward to trying the simple plan that he laid out for us to use to share the gospel with people. Please pray for these encounters. I will let you know how it goes!

Y.E.C...I was left wet!

2008-01-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

This past week we took a group of youth down to the thriving metropolis of Macon, GA to attend Y.E.C. - The Youth Evangelism Conference hosted by the youth department of the Georgia Baptist Convention. I personally thought it was an awesome two days! I will try to give you a summary, but it really is something that has to be experienced to fully appreciate it.

We had a group of 21 people (14 students and 7 adults) hop on our church bus and make the trip down. I believe this was the first time we had gone to this conference since I was in the youth (which really was not all that long ago) so no one really knew what to expect. As we pulled into the parking lot of the Macon Coliseum I think the picture started to come into focus a little. There was a sea of white church buses and a mass of over 6,000 people standing at the front door waiting to run in under a huge banner with the conference theme "Immersed" written across it. After a few minutes of waiting at "will call" for tickets and then scrambling to find some seats near each other, things finally kicked off.

We got to participate in the standard "conference kick off games" before being lead in a great time of worship by Matt Papa. We then had the chance to hear from an awesome guy named Ben Glenn or more affectionately known as the Chalk Guy. Ben shared a brief message before he literally freaked out with a piece of chalk on a blue canvas. At one point he had chalk in both hands and the dust was flying all over the place. It only took a few minutes before this dust bowl began to clear and take shape and everyone realized he was producing an unbelievable piece of art that drew oohhhhs and aahhhs and camera flashes from all over the place. It ended up as a beautiful mountain landscape overlooking a lake and waterfall scene. He then did the untinkable. In an effort to demonstrate what sin does to our own lives and how it defiles God's beautiful creation, he took a black piece of chalk and made streaks down both sides of the piece and across the top. He then wrote sin across the top. Everyone thought the piece was ruined, but he explained that Christ can actually come in and take away our sins and turn those experinces into a new creation of beauty. To illustrate this point he was able to actually turn the black marks into an archway that added to the beauty of the piece.
After all of the pictures stopped flashing our conference speaker, David Platt, came out and shared an awesome message entitled "Immersed in the presence of God" from Isaiah 6:1-7. I personally thought this was one of the best speakers I have heard in a long time. He challenged the students with the straight thruth of scripture. His second message on day two was even better (I will share more about that...so keep reading).

As if this was not enough to make for a great day, we capped off the evening with a concert from the always great Third Day. I think this was the first time most of our students had ever seen them in concert. For some it was their first concert ever. They did a great show with a good mix of oldies and current songs and even a couple of their Christmas tunes.

We finally left and got back to the church at midnight which was tough since we had to be back there at 6:30 to leave the next morning. But everyone showed back up on time and even in surprisingly good spirits (although the bus ride that morning was almost silent). We arived and got some slightly better seats where we were all together and things kicked off again in much the same manner. Worship with Matt Papa, another chalk drawing, and a message again from David Platt. But I have to say that each one of these guys truly did step their game up the second day. I only thought they were good the first day. The second day they were all amazing.

The chalk guy actually shared his tesimony of being labeled a "special ed." kid with A.D.D and Dyslexia. He then did another drawing that ended up being of view of the hill of Calvary from in side Christ's tomb (complete with the stone rolled away). Once he had completed it there was a video shown on the canvas depicting Christ's walk to Calvary, His burial in the tomb, His resurrection from the tomb, and his ascension into heaven. It was announced that there would be a silent auction to win one of the two chalk drawings and that all proceeds would go towards a mission trip to Moldova that the GA Baptist Convention was sponsoring and promoting. My lovely wife secretly put in what we thought was a very modest bid that did not have a chance of wnning. BUT IT DID! We now have the drawing that was done the first night that we will be displaying at the church soon. Here is a sneak peek.

Then David Platt spoke again on what was truly the high light of the conference for myself. He shared a message titled "Immersed in the Word of God". I thouhgt this was one of the best messages I have ever heard on the significance and importance of the Word of God to our lives. He shared from Isaiah 66:1-2 which finishes with "...But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." He also shared from Nehemiah chapter 8 which was an amazing passage to me (very convicting). In this chapter Ezra the priest comes before the people and begins to read from the "Book of the Law" or the Pentateuch as we know it. As he does so the people stand up and basically worship. Ezra did not have a big 3 point sermon. No aliteration. No videos. No music. Just simply the Word of God. David platt asked us why that is not enough for us. Why do we have to have all the rest of this stuff. Why is the perfect, inerrant Word of the all knowing Creator of the Universe not enough for us? What more could we possibly want? He then gave one of the most memorable illustrations of this point that i think I have ever seen. He asked us all to turn to Romans Chapter 1 where we could read along with him. He started and I was reading right with him. About hal way through the first chapter someone taped me on the shoulder, which at the time i thought was very rude as i was really enjoying this reading. They pointed up to the stage at the speaker. i looked up and immediately noticed that he did not even have his Bible opened. He had made it this far into the chapter by memory! He went on to finish the whole chapter from memory. I was really impressed and convicted by this. But he didn't stop! He went on to chapter 2. Now my jaw was hanging open and the conviction was really mounting. But he still did not stop. He went into chapter 3, Bible still closed, and I started to notice people standing up all across the auditorium much like what we had read in Nehemiah. I felt a lump in my throat as he continued into chapter 4. By chapter 5 tears were starting to flow with many "Amens". As he went on into chapter 6 I think people were beginning to be more touched by the words that were being spoken than by the fact that the man speaking them still had not opened his Bible. As he went into chapter 7 people were truly praising God. I realized that this was probably the most scripture that many of these students had ever heard in one sitting, and it was from someones memory. The speaker did not finish until he had gone through all of chapter 8! Unbelievable! But why? Why was this so amazing to me? Why was this not just something normal among the Christian community? He then shared some of the most challenging word I had ever heard. He refered to an islamic school he had seen somewhere in the Middle East. At this Islamic school the children spent hours a day memorizing the Koran. At this school there was an american that had come over to attend. He was trying to memorize the entire Koran over a few years time. He even memorized it in Arabic, a language he could not speak. It would be like us trying to memorize the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. David Platt then asked the question "If this young man is so passionate about the words of a flse god, why aare we not more passionate about the words of the one TRUE GOD?" Wow!!! I had to pick myself up off the floor. What an awesome, convicting question. Why do I not have that kind of passion and zeal for God's Word to me? My prayer for this year is that I do develop that kind of unquenchable thirst for God's Word! I must say that all in all, the IMMERSED Conference left me totally wet, and I hope I can do the same for others!

The Bible and Science...Polar Opposites or Symbiotic Relationship?

2007-12-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak in one of the our adult Sunday School classes. They were beginning a new series on the book of Genesis. Of course any discussion on the book of Genesis has to begin with a look at the Creation account and the creation/evolution debate. It has been a while since I have done much fresh research on this topic. What a blast it was to get back into this issue. I was reminded once again of what a critical, foundational issue this is.

Most Christians simple say "Well I don't know all the details, and I really don't know how or when it happened, but I guess God did create everything since thats what the Bible says". Or some Christians might even say, "The Bible is not a textbook but a religious book and should be seperate from science". Now I agree, none of us were there in the week of creation, we did not see it with our own eyes, and certainly none of us can even come close to fully understanding the mind and workings of God (Isaiah 40:28). However, that does not mean we throw our hands in the air and say "oh well". In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 we are told "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work". Is science for some reason not included in the word "every". I think this passage means that all of scripture is useful for the equipping of EVERY good work, even scientific work.

God has given us a tremendous amount of information on the topic of origins. There is a tremendous amount of scientific data out there that we can look at to give us clues about God's creation and how and when He did it. More importantly there is a tremendous amount of data right there in Scripture.

So why do we think that science and the ideas and concepts of scientist are so authoritative? What makes these guys so special that they can't be mistaken in some of there understanding and theories? Why does our culture want to take their word over God's Word? I think too many of us have lost perspective of what science really is and what the Bible really is. Philosophers of science have always said that by definition, science can never be tool for revealing absolute truth. This is one of the key foundations of true science. Science always has to be open to potentially new data. Scripture however makes the exact opposite claim. By definition God's Word is perfect and completely free from error, thus it is perfectly suitable for revealing absolute truth. Does it make more sense to try and take God's Word as authoritative and look at science through the filter of scripture or to take science as authoritative and look at scripture through the filter of science? As a fallible scientist and child of Jesus Christ, I will place my trust in the authority of God and his perfect Word revealed in the Bible and then interpret the findings of science from that vantage point!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

2007-11-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know we had a great day hanging out and eating with my family. We had a great meal at the Veranda house in Senoia with my folks, my grandparents, my aunt and my brother and his family. It was so nice to just relax and hang out with the fam all day.

Another one of the highlights of the holiday weekend came the morning after Thanksgiving. Tracy and I went to bed for a COUPLE of hours the evening of Thanksgiving and then woke up a little before 2 AM the next morning and somehow found our way to the church. It is amazing how few cars are on the road in Woolsey at 2 o'clock in the morning. We were coming to meet what we thought would be only a couple of youth to help us prepare for our "Black Friday" ARK PROJECT. We were shocked to actually have 10 youth and 4 other adults meet us at the church at 3:00 AM. They were a huge help in boiling water to prepare 25 gallons of hot chocolate and brewing 10 gallons of coffee for us to give away to people who had been standing in line all night at BEST BUY in Peachtree City. The youth that showed up were in surprisingly good spirits considering the fact that most of them had decided to stay up all night to make sure they were ready for this morning. They did a great job of helping to prepare everything and we were loaded up and headed to BEST BUY by about 4:15 in the morning. We arrived just in time to pass out free hot drinks to many faithfully determined customers just before the doors opened for them to start their holiday shopping. Some of the people at the front of the line said they had been waiting for nearly 16 hours! I am still not sure if these people are to be crowned as warriors for fighting the near freezing temperatures all night long, or complete lunatics to be feared and avoided. These were of course the people who were most excited to see a cup of anything warm to drink. They enthusiastically accepted our offer of a free hot chocolate or coffee. Some even had a second cup before the doors ever opened. Once the doors opened, we were able to continue offering a drink to people coming in and out of the store that morning. Luckily we had a second crew of youth to come that came around 5:45 to help. They arrived just in the nick of time as the first crew seemed to be starting to suffer from either cold to the brain or severe sleep deprivation. I was never sure which? But they were able to revitalize the first crew and we were able to continue serving until around 8 am that morning at which time we all headed for a good bite to eat at good ole' Chic Fil A.

It turned out to be a great opportunity for us to "serve our community and share a little bit of the love of Jesus Christ". We were actually able to meet many people here in our community from all over the world. Different ones were able to have conversations with people from China, Japan, and even Kosovo. I was quite proud of all of our youth as they truly did a great job representing themselves, our church and most of all Jesus Christ. I have to give them all a big thanks for what they did. Thanks also to all of the parents and volunteers who helped us in this project and who got up early to deliver their kids to the church to participate in this project. I also want to give a HUGE thank you to Managers Rick and Kevin and the rest of the staff at BEST BUY. They were great hosts! Hopefully we can serve with these folks again soemtime.

Here are a few pics from the morning for you to enjoy.

Lifehouse Skit

2007-11-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

Here is the video that some of our students performed. Enjoy!!!!

This Life is Short....So What Will We Do With It?

2007-11-06T06:23:00.001-08:00

This past week has been quite an interesting one. It started out in amazing fashion. Sunday morning we got a special treat at church as some of our youth performed a short skit during our worship celebration. Tracy had been working with 7 of our students for about a month on this skit to Lifehouse's song entitled "Everything". They did an outstanding job with this skit. I saw countless people through out our congregation that were literally moved to tears. I could not have been more proud of these guys and girls. Pastor Chuck gave a sermon that went right along with the skit that was also quite powerful.
The skit was basically a powerful portrayal of how seductive satan can be in our world as he tries (quite successfully at times) to lure us away from the love of our sweet Savior, Jesus Christ. The skit also showed though how Jesus is always standing by waiting to step in on our behalf and protect us from satan's onslaught, if we will only reach out to Him. Check back soon as I will try to upload a copy of this skit for you all to enjoy.

Later in the week I had the honor of serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of Dr. Raymond Louis Scott. He had passed away early Sunday morning after several weeks of deteriorating health. This was one of the most emotional funerals that I had ever been to as all three of his remaining sons shared about their love for their earthly father. They shared about Dr. Scott's passion for his family, for teaching, for loving, and for serving others. They truly showed what an amazing legacy Dr Scott has left behind as each of these sons shared about their own personal love and devotion for Jesus Christ that they had developed from watching their earthly father love and earnestly seek to know and follow his Savior. I could not help but to be inspired to work even harder as a father and husband to leave a similar legacy through my own wife and children.

He will certainly be missed but I know that he is currently experiencing his great goal in life...sitting before the throne of the one and only God of all creation, reunited with his son Richard, and axiously awaiting the rest of his family as they continue to serve Christ here.

Fired Up!

2007-10-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we hosted an Afterglow at our home. This was a pretty typical afterglow with pizza, video games (the guys brought their system with them), and fellowship. The only thing different at this one was the bond fire we had. I had been collecting up yard debris for several weeks and had a pretty big pile waiting. I was not expecting it to take off quite like it did. Within a matter of seconds we had flames shooting up near the tops of the trees. It really was pretty impressive! I have to admit that I was getting a little nervous about it at one point, and Tracy said she looked out and almost panickedI really expected the neighbors to call the fire department at any minute but they were all really good about it and I never even heard a complaint. We will have to do this again soon but next time I promise to make some time for capture the flag or something!

Making an IMPACT!

2007-10-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday WBC was high attnedance day in our Sunday School ministry at Woolsey Baptist Church. We had called this event IMPACT SUNDAY. The idea was that we would try to impact our community by inviting people to our Sunday School ministry. Even though we did not quite meet our total church goal of 400, we had a great turn out in the youth department. Our goal was to have 50 at the Youth Annex and we actually had 55! What an awesome turnout. Of those 55 we actually had 7 visitors with us! Praise the Lord!
We have also just started a new series in BNX. After finishing a great series on Spiritual Disciplines, last night we dove into a new series on Worldviews. This is a term that it seems is being used more and more often. We are going to take the next several weeks to look at many of the worldviews that are popular in our culture today so that we can have a better understanding of how to describe and defend our own biblical worldview. I am very excited about this series and would encourage you not to miss out! Come and join us each Wednesday @ 6:30 to get in on this.

All Dressed Up!

2007-10-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was homecoming weekend for Whitewater and Starr's Mill High School. This was actually Whitewater's first true homecoming to welcome graduates back to. Both school's football teams started the weekend off with great wins! Whitewater beat Banneker 20-12 and Starr's Mill crushed McIntosh 27-0. The only thing that would have made things even better is if Brittany or Melanie would have won their homecoming crowns. They didn't unfortunately but they both looked very beautiful and presented themselves, their families, their churches, and the Lord very well!

Saturday night Tracy and I were invited to attend the Whitewater High School Homecoming Dance. We were very hesitant but reluctantly decided that we would go. I had never attended a homecoming dance before. When I was in school it was just not the "cool" thing to go to. Boy have things changed! There were tons of students at this thing. They had a live DJ, great food and impressive decorations. I even saw a couple of Starr's Mill students their. Tracy and I kept our distance from the dance floor (we didn't want to make any of the students look bad of course) but we had a good time watching peopole and we got some great pictures. I hope we get invited back next year!

Workin It!

2007-10-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we had another ARK Project for our students to participate in. For those of you that missed out...sorry...it was truly a GREAT day. We had planned to work at our church annex building. For those that don't know, this is our old church building. And when I say "old" church building...old is certainly an understatement. This old building has been a bit neglected recently and is really showing it's age. Some people might say that this makes for less than an ideal building for youth ministry purposes. We are really working hard to breathe some life back into this place and this weekend I feel like I really saw it take in a huge breath of fresh air. First of all we had a great turn out of both students and adults to help out. People were buzzing all over the place. One group was painting in the hallway connecting the sanctuary and the fellowship hall. Another group had the daunting task of going into the quarantined sanctuary to do some general cleaning and organizing. A third group took on the sign area at the front of the building. I was amazed at the progress that was made. The sanctuary was totally cleaned out and reorganized. The front sign area was dramatically torn out, replanted, and given new life! And the painting in the hallway was nearly completed. These three projects were completed so quickly and effeciently that some people were even able to move on and begin cleaning out some of the other flower beds out front. As if this was not enough to make for a great day, most of our students then went to the Schwartings house for a mexican meal, some video games, and a really intense game of capture the flag. This was a day that certainly demonstarted that service is anything but a burden when it is done for the Lord. We not only accomplished a great deal of work, we had some great fun and laughs along the way, we were able to encourage numerous people throughout our church and community, and we were able to share the sweet fragrance of Christ with each other and people around us. I would dare say that a day of play at the park could not have matched up to the fun and excitement of our "work-day"!

The new sign and new plants out front.

An upclose shot of the new sign.

I am pretty sure that this sanctuary has not been this clean in years!

This is all the...stuff that came out of the sanctuary.

This is the hallway that was desperately in need of a coat of paint.

Looking much better now.

And I just could not resist showing this to everyone. This is Landon's "Head Stand". I was pretty impressed. Anyone want to try and top him?

Tailgate Partying!

2007-09-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

How you could you not love a good tailgate party? There is nothing better for getting someone excited about a good football game and flying their team colors. Last Friday night we had our second "tailgate party" at Whitewater High School. We have tried to not only get people excited about their football team but to also get our youth excited about WBC and the youth ministry. To accomplish this we have turned Tailgating into more than just a party...now it is also a service opportunity. Along with supporting our football team we are trying to serve our community by sharing free hot dogs and bottled water with anyone that wants to join in the fun and felloowship with us. What a great opportunity it has provided to not only meet some of the students but also others in our community. I have really enjoyed talking and joking with some of Whitewaters 9th grade football players. Last week I got some time to talk with Alex and Dustin. In two tailgate parties we have given away over 250 hotdogs and over 650 bottles of water. We had a great turnout of our youth to participate in both of these events. I certainly have to thank everyone that helped pull this off. If you did not get a chance to come to either of the first two parties then there will be two more next month. Oct. 19th we will be back at Whitewater for the Starr's Mill game and then we will be at Starr's Mill on Oct 26th. Don't miss out on the fun and fellowship or the chance to support your team and serve your community!

One of the water crews ready to roll!

A load of Dogs ready to go!

I think she is a fan of Senior reciever Chesley Allen (19).

Jesus is "Everything"!

2007-09-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here recently I have spent some time checking out videos on a new web site that I found called "GodTube" (www.godtube.com). This is basically the Christian version of YouTube. There are tons of really awesome videos. Last week in Sunday School we shared a video where a church had done a skit to the song Everything by Lifehouse. Truly an awesome song and an amazing video. If you were not there or have not seen this I highly recommend checking it out.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

There are many others that I thought were really good as well. Here are just a couple of my favorites.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5a2e075a1a4a6e1b9770
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=56627478ec76a704e9b5

God is at work!

2007-09-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

The last two days we have held revival services here at WBC. God has truly been at work in a BIG way! In the last two days we have seen over twenty people come forward to make a public profession of faith in Christ. Now that is something to truly get excited about! I am so encouraged by what I see happening right now at WBC and especially within our youth group. I believe at least 5 of the decisions that have been made were by some of our students. We still have two more nights left. Who knows what God has in store? I pray that God helps us to forget about ourselves and to get out of His way so that He can do far greater things than we could have ever planned for.
We have also just gotten in our new BNX t-shirts. They are going quick so you better get one while they last. They are only $10 and you can get them in lime green, orange, or both.

Morals - Have we failed our youth?

2007-09-11T16:33:00.001-07:00

Morals... Morals... Morals. This is the dominate topic on my mind these days. It sometimes seems to be the only topic on my mind. We have started into a new series on "Morals" in the youth Sunday School department at WBC. I have really had a hard time finding materials on this subject (if you have suggestions let me know). But that has forced me to spend more time praying and meditating, asking God for His guidance. The more of this I do the more the burden for this topic grows. I am seeing more and more the need for this study among our students. I began my research in this area feeling like this generation was really lacking in their understanding of what I felt to be basic Christain morals. They seem to struggle with things that seem so obviously wrong. But the more I have prayed about this the more convicted I have become. I have realized that the problem does not lie in the laps of these students (not to minimalize their responsibility) but rather with my own generation and those just ahead of me. We are the ones who have been tasked with passing on God's Word and His moral system to the next generations (Matthew 28:20). And it seems we have been failing miserably. Please pray for us as we work through this series. Pray that God burdens us as teachers to invest in these students and encourage them towards purity and righteousness. Pray that God reaches into the hearts and minds of our students, giving them a desire to love and honor Christ Jesus in all they do and say each and every day!

A few more random pics and logos.

Let me know what you think about our new church logo.

A doodle in the sand

This looks like it is going to hurt. Any guesses who that is

Let me know how you guys like this one too.

Some random pics for you to enjoy!

2007-09-06T14:21:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pics that I wanted to share with everyone. These first few random pics that I wanted to share with everyone. I will probably be posting many more to come.

Some are from youth stuff this summer and then some others that are just favorites of mine.

Talk about a motley crew!

The look of success! This is right after we had just successfully completed a rather difficult caving excursion. The bad news-The only way back was the way we had just come.

The whole crew that went with us. Hopefully next year there will be even more!

Here is a group that participated in one of our service projects giving away water at "Fayette Idol".

The "Zoo Crew"

Fans in Kiev before the Scotland Ukraine game in a Euro 2008 qualifying match.

Isn't that the perfect hat for her!

Soccer At It's Finest!

The Big 32!? UGH!

2007-09-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks for coming and checking out my new blogs! I hope to add a new update at least once a week so be sure and check back soon to see what is going on with me and the youth ministry at Woolsey Baptist Church.
This first day of blogging for me just happens to also be on my Birthday! It's weird that Birthdays just aren't quite as exciting as they once were. However, I must say that this one has certainly topped the last couple even thoguht there was nothing too overly exciting happening. My last two birthdays were celebrated out of the country with no friends or family around. I should not say that, I had many of my Ukrainian friends around but it was still not quite the same. Last night was really nice for me as the guys and girls in our youth group all surprised me with some balloons, a cake, a great card, and a nice gift. I also got to have a great Birthday dinner a few nights ago with my folks, my brothers family, and my grandmother. Me, my dad, and my grandmother all have birthdays this week so it was nice to be with them. And as always my wife had a special card and letter for me. That is always a treat.
After thirty two years now I have learned to always be thankful to God for bringing me through another year. I guess the best part of birthdays (no matter how old you get) is just being reminded of all that we have to be thankful for, and this year I am especially reminded of the fact that I have an amazing wife, wonderful kids, a great family, awesome friends, a great church, and a perfect Savior in Christ Jesus. It truly is a Happy B-Day!