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.

What Are You Wearing (over your eyes)?

Worldview is learned. Which means, it is also taught. It is observed and caught through many forms. To shape it, you have to be proactive. Sitting back is refusing to take the reins in your own life and the lives of those you’re leading and passing along the God-given responsibility to shape the proper worldview. There are teachers of every kind that we encounter on a daily basis. The books we read, the shows we watch, the music we listen to, the movies we see, the crowd we associate with all aid in designing a lens for us to wear. It is the lens called worldview that we interpret with. We see events and we look at our culture and interpret what we see through the lens that has been built in front of our eyes.

You can see this with kids. They’ll express thoughts or ideas and you can quickly realize that you didn’t teach them that. So then the question comes to mind, “Where did they pick that up?” If we aren’t engaged, we’ve lost. If we aren’t proactive in learning and molding them, we’ve lost!

There are those (MTVs words literally) that have set out to own them (youth). In many ways they have succeeded to this point. They quickly realized that these kids control about 350 billion dollars (150 themselves and 250 of their parents) a year in spending and decided they would take any action to get the largest piece.
They look at a generation and literally see dollar signs. And when all you can see is a dollar sign, you don’t care what you’re selling them, the effects it may have on them or who you’re selling to. The want hypnotizes them until moral lines don’t exist any longer. Consequences are a myth. Did you forget, the lens they look through was built by a system that taught tolerance, relativism, no absolutes, random chance and survival of the fittest at any cost? Looking through their lens, there doesn’t seem to be much wrong with making a buck. Even if it does include crude humor, apathetic lifestyles, sex, abuse, violence or a “if you got, flaunt it” mentality. After all, they bought it, we just provided it.

How to make some extra money by writing and posting online

If you've wondered about some extra cash each month, you may have been tempted to set up with a sign or an open guitar case. Before you do that, hear this.

You can actually make some extra money by writing just like you write on your blog. There are few sites that easily explain this (ehow.com and xomba are a couple of examples). Basically they have tons of ads sponsored by Google and the more people that view your posts, the more you get paid.

Tips: once you join one of these sites, you add as many friends as you can and read and comment on their articles. As you do that, you'll be amazed at how many people read your articles. The more the better. Some sites require signing up with GoogleAdsense (which you may have already done if you have a blogspot).

Anyway, just thought I'd pass it on. If you join xomba, please use this link: http://www.xomba.com/referral/7779d5e1

That way I get a referral.

The best articles are just simple "how to's" as you can see with eHow.com. Anything you have any knowledge about, post it.

Contending for Truth

Jesus said he sends us as the Father sent him. We are sent into culture to be his missionaries.

1 Cor 9:19 - Paul calls us to both contend (Jude 1:3) for the gospel and contextualize it! You have to have both. We are to be humble servants. We don’t compromise the gospel in order to contextualize. Instead, we contend for the gospel, to keep the gospel the gospel. Yet we contextualize it so that people may be able to receive it and understand it: We have timeless truth and timely methods.

If you only contend, you become fundamentalist, mean-spirited, inflexible, rude etc.
If you only contextualize, you become liberal, lose sight of the truth and the message of the gospel. We have to fight for truth and speak the truth in a way that others can grasp it.

Balance is a good thing.

Are We Free?

1 Cor 6:19-20
“…You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God…”

This seems to be such a stark contrast to the world’s definition of freedom. We like to think of ourselves as being under the control of no one. We want democracy, freedoms and independence.
In God’s economy, we are free because He purchased us! Therefore, we no longer belong to ourselves but to Him.

It’s amazing how, when we were not under His control (unbelievers) we were so jacked up and on a path to nowhere; often times destruction. Although we claim to be free, we’re slaves to our own finiteness and limitations (Rom 6:16) “…we are slaves to whom we obey…” We are slaves to sin (because it is our eternal disease from the beginning of time) or we are slaves to righteousness (by surrendering to the one who purchased us through his suffering).

I can’t help but laugh: either way, we are slaves! We claim to be free, making our own decisions. I’m too busy for God, I don’t need God or God doesn’t really understand. Although you wish something so or believe it with all your heart, it doesn’t make it true. Truth is truth despite our weird explanations or reasoning.

God welcomes us to freedom, by purchasing us. He frees us from our own evil, from any other force of evil, and from the wages that we’ve earned because of our screw-ups etc. After all, He is God. He sees and understands differently. We know nothing next to Him. Maybe His ways are better than ours.

You tell me which form of slavery actually has freedom!

Freedom is not asserting a ‘right’ and shifting the responsibility onto someone else. We see this all the time in our culture. We often think that the government (or at least someone other than us) should pay for the consequences we’ve reaped by asserting a right and forfeiting the responsibility that comes with that right. (e.g. we have the right to bear arms and with that right comes the responsibility of not using that right to kill someone)

Galatians says that we were “called to freedom” but not to use it as an opportunity for personal gain or pleasure. There is a responsibility or a will to obey concerning the gifts (rights, privileges etc.) we’re given.

(Personal) Freedom is surrender. It is assuming responsibility for the gift we’ve received. It is slavery to a transcending authority that has our best interests at heart.

Creativity: How do we attain it?

Creativity seems to be something we strive for and desire to develop. We always want our message and efforts to be cutting edge, hip, attractive and effective. I think the starting ground for creativity is the Creator. If you think about it, there is no one in the universe more creative than God! Just for starters, study the human body and all it's intricacies!!! Out of nothing and with no reference to get ideas, He created! He made everything we see and know. He gave us the ability to create.

I think we often get the sense that God is distant or disconnected at times; almost as if He's like an older parent who's lost touch and doesn't know what's cool anymore. The truth is, he is the most cutting edge resource available.

The most creative people on the planet know the Creator or at least get inspiration from Him. If you desire creative power and ideas, ask Him! I've found that the most creative writing, songs, ideas and work that I've done came out of a moment spent with the Creator. Our creativity is a direct reflection of how well we know God. I think the influence of Solomon in 1 Kings 10 is a great example. Innovation starts with a creative mind which is born from the Creator Himself!

Back to Earth

So I've been in the mountains for a week! No TV, no internet, no phone, no nothing but wildlife, family, trout fishing, fires and fun. It's almost like culture shock when you return! Your inboxes are loaded and the normal routine seems like years ago. It's amazing how 'busy' we seem to get. I often wonder how important all of the 'busy-ness' is anyway! How we need more escapes to clear our minds! I hope these moments of escape will serve to change me from the inside out.

Top Church Logos

Here is a cool link for design ideas dealing with logos. This is Kent Shaffer's top 33 church logos.

How Pastors can Utilize Facebook

A little article I found that may be helpful to some: from the blog http://digital.leadnet.org/

How pastors can use Facebook
Found this free e-book that gives a bunch of great tips of how pastors and other ministry leaders can use Facebook to multiply ministry. You can download the e-book here (PDF). Topics covered in the e-book include:
- How to make the most of your profile information
- Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
- All about groups, messages, poking, etc
- Meet prospects for your church
- Learn more about the members in your church

- Testimonies from Pastors who use FaceBook

A Story of Divine Providence over America

(Thanks Greg for shedding light on my last post: Here is a fresh attempt to post a warm ray on our nation's history)

During battle in the French and Indian War, a young general seemed to have been protected by a "greater hand". During a slaughter at the Monongahela River, where Indians had killed 1,000 of less that 1,500 British soldiers, Indian sharpshooters set their aim on the remaining generals on horseback. One by one they picked them off until only one general was standing. Over ten rounds were fired at this one general alone, but something seemed to keep him from harm's way. Native warrior's stared in disbelief. One soldier admitted to firing seventeen clear shots at him and couldn't bring him down. "This man was not born to be killed by a bullet," he concluded.
The general himself recall's the battle in a letter to his brother:

“…by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!”

Fifteen years after the battle, George Washington revisited those Pennsylvania woods to meet with an indian chief who traveled a great distance to talk face to face with him.

“I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day when the white man’s blood mixed with the streams of our forests that I first beheld this chief (Washington)…Our rifles were leveled, rifles, which but for you, knew not how to miss. Twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we shielded you.”

This story of Washington's divine protection could be found in many school textbooks until the 1930's. Now few Americans have read it. Washington often recalled this dramatic event that helped shape his character and confirm God's call on his life.

Print Resource

If you're into flyers, postcards, business cards etc., here is a great resource for a great price.

You can get like 1,000 business cards for under $40 or something like that. It's great for printing flyers and stuff too, something I'm always looking for.

You Think I Was Joking?

Here is a great moment where Davis attempts to sing Happy Birthday, or should I say, Happy 'Burp'-Day.

Why Grace is Free and yet Costly

Above: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther (two great defenders of true grace)

Here is an excerpt from my journal which I shared at a staff meeting not long ago. Most of the thought is inspired from Bonhoeffer's book.

Costly Grace:
I understand that a message of grace has been preached, especially in the West, which is detached from the Biblical truth of grace.
The message of grace that has been so detrimental to The Church is one that is cheap. It has elements of truth but is void of the underlying truth that makes it God’s grace.

The effect has been the thought that sin can be justified while the sinner is not!

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship (us as disciples of Christ), forgiveness of sin without repentance, communion without confession, grace without the cross.

Grace isn’t costly because we have to do something to deserve it. We still receive something we’ll never deserve. We don't do (works) to become (Christian), we do because we are!
It is costly because is calls us to follow, which means we are leaving something behind! It is grace because it allows us to follow and calls us to follow Jesus! It is costly because it costs us our lives. It is grace because it gives us true life. It’s costly because it condemns sin and it is grace because is justifies the sinner.
It is costly because it cost God his son. It’s grace because God did not reckon his Son’s life too dear a price to pay for our lives.
Costly grace is God incarnate!
Cheap Grace is interpreted: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness."
Costly grace compels us to submit to the yoke of Christ! It is grace that Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy birthday to the best wife in the world!!! Carrie is 28 today!

I Think God is Stirring; What Do We Do?

It seems that there is a stirring around the body of Christ. Everyone I've talked with has been hungering for a little more of God. I'm ready for schools to be swept by hungry students who care about nothing but God! Prayer movements are popping up all over the country, not to mention one right here in Greenville, NC. All I know to do is say, "Here I am." I want to pray, I want to seek God's face and ask for His will to be done here! Don't ignore the burdens and respond to the desires. I think if we got a revelation and began to pray when no one else is around, God will start to blow our minds. I think Bill hits it right on the head here, "Anyone can burn in a crowd. Who will burn by themselves?"

Never a dull moment!

With a 20 month old, life is pretty exciting. They move one speed and move at it all the time! Our son absolutely loves music (not surprising since he's been around it from the womb). He love's playing (hitting) the guitar and has a sensational passion for the drums. Every time we enter the church building he chants, "Bum, Bum, Pease!!" Anyway, here is a clip I snapped from my phone while we were out to eat. If there is music around, the kid is groovin'!