Paul on Grace

Paul says to Timothy in 2 Tim 1:9-10 that God saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything that we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior.

Awesome in and of its self! Thank God he did what he did not because of anything that we have done. How absolutely incredible is it that we could be a part of His "purpose and grace"?! Unbelievable! The thought that struck me was how huge God is. He transcends the 4 dimensions that we can wrap our brains around. I've heard it said that God operates in so many dimensions we could never understand it. Then I looked at what Paul said, "the grace was given us before the beginning of time"! It was given and then was revealed to us after a certain revelation had come through the cross.

My question became, "How many things has God already given to us and we haven't realized them yet?" If we stepped into one of His dimensions we might be blown away. Maybe your sickness has already been taken care of...and NOW needs to be revealed. Maybe your prayer has already been answered. Maybe your purpose, your plan, your salvation, you fill in the blank. God doesn't operate like us or think like us. He does! He did. Maybe we should just realize, as we ask Him to appear (v. 10).

My CD on iTunes

You can download the cd from iTunes. Use the link below!

New CD has finally arrived

Because of the way we did some things, it's taken a while to get the new disc in. We're happy with it and hope it spurs listeners to worship. It's easy to try and pick it apart until I remind myself that we recorded live and did it insanely fast! All I can say is mad props to the incredible musicians I play with! Check it out if you get a chance!

take a listen:
myspace

facebook

Transformation

We've been all over the state the last three weeks. From the beach to the mountains and several places in between. In the middle of it all we had the privilege of being keynote speakers at a youth work camp a couple of weeks ago. The camp was pretty incredible in the sense that these youth gave up a week of their time to get their hands dirty and help some amazing residents in Wilson, NC fix up their homes. We literally saw six transformations happen over the week as these homes were repaired and cared for! In the midst of the homes being transformed we saw students lives transformed as well as the power of the gospel prodded their hearts every night! Several of the students have kept in touch to tell us how their lives have already changed!

Here is a look at the homes with an added touch from various pictures taken from each location.

As of late

Been working on different stuff as of late --
Here are some things I've been doing: graphic design stuff

CD cover for a friend...not a final yet, but getting close.



Back of traycard for our CD. They are being printed at the moment; should be finished by the end of the month!

Other than that, video editing, working at church, getting ready for fund raising this summer, and preparing for a youth camp! Lots of stuff, hence the low amount of posts :)

Who's letters are we reading?

We had a long fruitful conversation with some friends in Dallas the other night that sparked many thoughts in me. At the core, I think it shook some theological beliefs in a good way.

We hear many things over the course of our Christian lives that become so familiar they've lost their power and revelation. At the core of our beliefs/theology should be the fact that God is good and the enemy is bad! You make a list under the word GOD and then make another list under the word SATAN. What words will you find there?

It's amazing how we buy into subtle lies that keep the Holy Spirit bound inside of us: e.g. is God the author of disease? No. but somehow we buy into the lie that maybe He made us sick to teach us something, so therefore we resist the opportunity for healing and stay where we are. But according to James, we are to resist the devil, not God's truths.

Does God use bad things and bring about good? Yes! He is the one who invented redemption!

I'll be the first to say there are many things this side of heaven that we will never understand. But by laying a foundation that God is ultimately good and wants to prosper us, not harm us, heal us, free us, bring deliverance, love us unconditionally, use us as His own, etc., we are setting ourselves up for miracles and experiencing His power.

If we allow one ounce of doubt in regards to Him being good, we stifle the opportunities from His Spirit.

I'm asking for God to open my eyes afresh and give me new understanding of who He is!

Smith Wigglesworth put it best, "Jesus did great works because of his knowledge of His Father. Faith begets knowledge, fellowship and communion. If you see imperfect faith, full of doubt, a wavering condition, it always comes because of imperfect knowledge."

The more we see the Father as He actually is, the more our faith is pure and pleasing to Him.

B.U.S.Y sucks

I feel that God has challenged me lately about my schedule. For some reason it seems that when we're asked how we're doing or how are things going, we find some sick pleasure in boasting about how busy we are. There's like an understood respect in our culture for being so busy you can't talk or spend time with someone.

I think my perspective on busyness has been shattered and I'm thankful for it. My goal has shifted to be as free as possible when it comes to my schedule. Why would I be so proud of not being able to answer a phone call (especially if it's a student who may benefit greatly from 5 min of conversation)? Why be proud over not being able to hang out with someone? Who is really benefiting from the busyness? Seems to me more people suffer from it, especially my family...and that sucks!

Why not make it our goal to be available? Why not do the things that God has asked us to do and say no to a million other things that maybe would be better served by someone else anyway? Let me be clear that I'm in no way talking about laziness (Prov 19:15), but simply taking on God's burden and his yoke alone. I have found that it is the most unattractive thing when you can't ever get up with someone or you feel they never have the time for you. Somehow I have to believe that God's ways wouldn't keep us excluded from personal touch and relationship, especially with sinners. After all, Jesus was a friend of sinners.

My new acronym for BUSY is:
Being
Under
Someone's
Yoke

and that someone is usually satan.

When my response to "How have you been?" brings to mind the word busy, I think I'll reevaluate what I'm doing week in and week out. God help us take on your yoke instead.

Going Green!!!

What a timely verse for the times we're facing:

Jeremiah 17:7-8

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

Many people are looking for answers, especially now. Will I still have a job tomorrow? How will we make it during such difficult times? Fear is the obvious temptation when we are bombarded with so much information and little hope.

What an incredible promise..."it has no worries in a year of drought"!
How is that so? What will people be asking us when they feel that all is falling around them? Will we still be bearing fruit?

The answer is clear in the verse 7..."blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him." Easily said I'm sure. But the promise is enough to cause us to stand firm. Leaning on Him has never been more crucial or 'environmentally' friendly.




*inspired by an aside note from pastor Mike Williams a couple of weeks ago. Thanks ps. Mike :)

Who Will Lead?

Today I see a culture literally starving for leaders.
I spend my weeks with high school students who are basically tossed by environment, looking for someone to direct them, whether they realize it or not.
I look at our nation hanging on every word spoken by our leaders, looking for any glimpse of hope for our future. I see leaders speaking and rehearsing words, but frequently find that the words are empty when actions speak louder.

I guess the looming question is, “Who will lead?”
It requires someone willing to put others above themselves. Why does that seem so hard to do? I guess Jesus called it the narrow road for a reason. We have so many needs to be met and they are revealing more and more that selfish ambition will fall short every time.

Leading is as simple as stepping outside of conveniences and comforts and giving to others in a way that provides them direction. Take time to pour life lessons into someone a little younger. Have lunch with a group of people to encourage them with what you’ve learned through experiences. Call forth a younger generation to live for something greater.

It’s going to take more than wishful thinking, waiting on others and empty words to pull us out of where we are. Maybe we are supposed to experience catastrophe first hand before we change. I wish it wasn’t so, but it doesn’t mean I’ll welcome it. I think if we adopted half of the work ethic and ideology of our grandparents we’d start turning this massive ship.

I guess my point is….ACT! Do something. Forget feelings and forget self for a moment. What does God want us to do? How would He want us to live? It wasn’t words, wishing, watching, waiting or anything else that pushed a group of beaten soldiers down Little Round Top to hold the end of the line at Gettysburg. It was the simple decision of Joshua Chamberlin to act!

Foundations

Back to basics seems like such a cliche saying. The more I spend time with people sharing the Bible with them and discussing what it means to serve God, the more I realize how in need we are for the basics! I'm not referring to childish things, but mastering the foundations! I was struck by a quote from Ed Stetzer a leading church growth/culture expert.

"Only 16% of Protestant church goers read their Bible daily."

Wow. We are focusing a lot on mobilizing the congregation and trying to shift the congregation's thinking to be more missional. Seems to me that getting some of these basics down will really help the effort.

I guess our challenge is driving home the importance of the basics and making them a part of our everyday lives.

Wow, forgot I had a blog

I can't believe it's been this long since I posted. I guess the holidays and changing schedules takes its toll on the blogging world.

I've also been working on building a new brand of coffee beans! This has been lots of fun and hopefully many people will experience the quality inside of these carefully selected and roasted beans! If you're a coffee lover, I would strongly encourage you to give them a try.

http://www.tarrivercoffee.com/

More government doesn't help

We all need to understand and make our voice heard that these artificial props for our economy ($700 billion bailout etc.) will do nothing to serve our country. It may delay the inevitable, but won't stop it. Whenever government has stepped in to "fix", the worse things seem to get. If you understand anything about the government run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this clip is unbelievable! Here is a banking system that was sick and dying (years before all of these failures started to come to the surface) and all of the representatives that scream for more government involvement were doing everything in their power to defend the system. They were literally bullying other reps while saying, "There is nothing wrong with Fannie or Freddie," which now we know to be complete lies as we've seen their failures and many others. This clip was so revealing to me about some of the flaws to big government thinking I couldn't help but post it.

Initial Response to Election

I think the best response to our recent elections is obviously prayer. Whether or not God wills a certain thing like a presidential election is a long theological debate. I do know that according to the Bible, He raises up and puts down kings and queens. At any rate, I don't believe God is surprised in any way.

First I believe we need to pray for our new leaders as the Bible commands us to do. Regardless of their spiritual, economic or ethical views, we need to be praying for them! God used many different types of leaders throughout the Bible to accomplish His will and ultimately bring glory to Him!

Second, I think we need a God-given awakening to what God is doing spiritually in our land! I heard it spoken prophetically almost ten years ago from a pastor in Africa that God will revive our nation by one of two ways: through desperation or through devastation. He went on to describe the devastation that many of their countries went through which drove them to God and brought transformation to their nations. That word has never left me and my concern has always been, "Are we really going to get desperate enough without some sort of devastating circumstance?" Historically, I just don't see that.

There have been many prophetic words spoken about a coming economic crisis (which by the way, hasn't even started yet, despite the trouble we've seen thus far) and from my education it doesn't take a prophet to read history. We've seen a depression every 80 yrs in our nation's history, many financial books point to an economic crisis due to baby boomers retiring in mass numbers and drawing from their retirements simultaneously, and there are many experts pointing to an energy crisis due to the demand of oil coming from China and other world leaders. What's interesting is that all three of these crisis land around the same time (approx. 2016).

It can be pretty overwhelming, but the good news is that God is sovereign and knows exactly how to bring glory to himself. What will it take to bring a nation to its knees? Why don't we start crying out now? What are we willing to give up to spend a little time praying and listening for God's heart?

The best thing I see in light of this election:
This nation just elected a new leader based on one thing...They are so hungry for hope and change! What an opportunity for the Church as we have the hope and change their souls are really desperate for. The more people enter into crisis, the more that hole will be driven to find answers. It's just a great picture of the climate of our culture! We are desperate for hope and desperate for something real. Now is our moment in history to join with heaven and give ourselves to see God's kingdom come on the earth!

From my good friend Jonathan

Just another resource for those who are wondering.

Reluctantly Writing

I've debated posting anything overtly political, but there are few things on my mind that I feel as though I need to get out; if just for my sanity. I could break down every major political issue and give you reasons why I feel that Obama is the farthest thing from what we need as a leader. I think he is well spoken, decent looking, well mannered and very likable, but I fear what is beneath the surface do to the evidence of his beliefs: his voting record, associations and comments to name just a few.

For this post, I've just chosen to point out my uneasiness with one out of many issues: ABORTION

Watch This Video First!




When has a baby ever been punishment for anyone? This argument goes along with every other selfish, void of any responsibility belief that we are entitled to rights but in no way tied to responsibility. We want all of the goodies and none of the work that produces them. We want governement when it's convenient and demand them to keep their hands out of our lives when it isn't. We want freedom to venture and do what we want but refuse ownership when we fail. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around these arguments.

In his own words, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." You need to understand that in the words of the bill's supporters the act would abolish bans on partial-birth abortion and parental notification laws nationwide while implementing tax-payer funded abortions. The unbelievable thing about this is that all of these things are increcibly unpopular with most Americans! Yet we seem to have fallen under some spell that has caused us to abandon reason.

The mere fact that Obama could not vote for the born alive protection act causes me to shutter! Calling his voting record exactly what it is, he has no problems with infanticide! If you're not familiar with this act, it would protect babies who survive an attempted abortion. Otherwise they would just take the baby to another room and leave him/her alone until they die.

Furthermore, if you listen to his words in the clip, having a doctor come in to help a baby continue living who "accidentally" survived an attempted abortion is a burden!? And this is just too inconvenient because the mother has already decided to abort this child!? Even if you buy the argument of a fetus being less than human, we're not talking about tissue inside of a woman...we're talking about a living, breathing human being outside of the womb who under our no longer living constitution has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness just like any other human being inside these United States!! Yet Obama feels that it's just a burden! This is so beyond my capacity of reason. He is so far out on this one issue alone that it's not just a disagreement, it is mental retardation. I have no explanation for the comments and votes he's made on this issue other than he has to be mentally disturbed or sick!

Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice (by the way, "choice" doesn't make any sense to me. Since when did we ever have the right to choose something like whether a living organism gets to continue living or die? We choose which restaurant we eat in, which toothpaste we use, which music we listen to etc., but we don't choose who lives, who dies, or whether I just feel like putting a gun to your head, etc.) Anyway, whatever postion, could you support the Freedom of Choice Act, do you think babies are punishment, or could you possibly vote against the Born Alive Protection Act, 3 TIMES?!!!

This is just one issue as I've earlier mentioned, and I chose to write briefly on it due to its spiritual nature. I feel as though I could write a book on his stance on taxes, the economy, foreign policy, etc.

Please don't go on feelings alone (with any decision in your life quite frankly). Unlike the average American, I implore you just to read a little bit, inform yourself and make decisions at the very least based on rationale and information (not just from a major news network either)! There are great feelings from a lot of things that will make you sick. Feeling is not enough, nor is rhetoric. God help us.