Wasted Days and Sleepless Nights

Wow, this school year has flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were talking about making a difference in our schools this year. Now we have to ask the question, did we? Before we move on from here, take a few minutes to reflect on the past year and how you've changed.

OK, now moving on. Summer is upon us and that means no school. I was reminded of the lyrics to an old song from my high school days that went something like this: "Wasted days and sleepless night....." Summer for me was exactly that, staying up all night watching movies and then wasting my days hanging out and veggin. When we think about summer vacation, few of us ever think that it is a time to grow closer to God. Well let me tell you, it is the perfect time to grow closer to Him. You don't have tons of homework, you don't have school and school activities eating up the rest of your time and sometimes you even have the house to yourself. With all these distractions gone you can actually be still and listen to God. (Psalm 46:10)

Let me encourage you to spend your summer getting to know God. Read the book of Matthew. This will help you get to know what Jesus was all about. Spend time each day just listening. Turn everything off and ask God to talk to you about whatever and then listen. We all to often ask for something from God and then never wait for the answer. Get involved. There are several ways to get involved from going on a mission trip to volunteering at Nick @ Nite. Whatever it is do something that makes a difference for Christ. And lastly, have fun and rest. Take time to do some fun things and make sure you get rest. It's hard to fulfill God's will for your life if your always tired.

Have a great weekend and don't forget the party tomorrow night.

The Easy Way Out...

Read Deuteronomy 8:1-10

In my bible study this week, God showed me a very important point. Something that I hadn't thought of before. Often when I'm struggling through something, perhaps a recurring sin, I ask God to delivery me from it....or it from me. To take away a temptation or a desire. To not let a situation arise. This is one of those unanswered prayers that I should be thankful for.

Often God does not deliver us from these situations. He allows them to happen to allow us to grow. When we are put in a situation - our character is tested - our faith in God is tested - we have the ability to choose satan's way our the path God created for us. When I fail or fall to sin...it shows a heart problem that I have. I need to look foward to these times....because each is one step closer to when I will only desire God's plan for me.

In the new testament Paul talks a lot about rejoicing through suffering. Read Romans 5:1-5.

We need to not just ask God to take away these learning opportunities...but to see them for what they are. When we stumble or fail....ask God to show you the error of your ways and to fix your heart to desire only His will. Each failure will create a stronger you. Each spiritual growth opportunity will create a closer bond between you and God and you see how He is all loving....all forgiving...

"But, I don't wanna go to church"

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.

Psalm 134:2

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I can remember when I was a teenager laying in my bed on Sunday mornings pretending to be asleep in hopes that my parents would go to church without me. It worked sometimes. The other times they would wake me and make me get dressed and head to church. As I got more involved in church, I found myself wanting to go more often. After high school I did what most graduates do and left my parents church and never stepped foot in another one until later in life. Around 30 years of age I started to feel like something was missing in my life. That something was church. So Rhonda and I started searching for a church home. After a long process we finally found Effort. Effort was the place that God really got a hold of me. We became members and since then, I can count on one hand the number of times I have missed church. Even when I am on vacation, I find a place to worship. Read Acts 2:42-47. These verses talk about the early church and how they met together for fellowship.

So why is church so important?

Love: As a father, I can tell you that if my children grew up and never came to see me, I would not feel loved. We go to church to be with God. Matthew 18:20 tells us that "where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. We go to church to worship God and be in his presence. This is one way to show God you love him.

Encouragement: We also need encouragement and in Hebrews 10:25 we are told to gather and encourage.

Unity: As the church, when we unite as believers we work together to bring glory to God. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 talks about how the church is one body and how each of us is a part of that body.

Reflect on these verses and ask God to put a passion in your heart to faithfully attend church and fellowship with other believers. Who knows you might even learn something while your there.

Call of the wild...

Wilderness. It can be a scary place. It's a place of survival-of-the-fittest, quietness, raging rivers, and avalanches...but it is also a place of beauty, calmness, new life.

In my life group, we are doing a study that discusses our relationship with Jesus. After the initial excitement - there is a time of entering the 'wilderness'. This is a time where we are challenged, but have the opportunity to grow and create an amazing foundation of trust and belief in Him - because as we come out of the 'wilderness' time we realize that He was with us - guiding and encouraging us all along...and that creates a bond with Him that will never be broken.

Right before Jesus began his ministry, he was led to the desert - his time of 'wilderness'. Read Matthew 4:1-11.

Also read Jeremiah 2:1-7.

It would be foolish to think the wilderness times won't come. They will. But what will we learn from them....what will we make of them?? Will we recognize that God was with us during those times and that He is helping us along the way? ...Teaching us...building our character?

I'll be late to Illuminate tonight. One of my co-workers passed away last week. I need to go to the viewing tonight. His name was John. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Love you guys!

Spiritual War

Ive been reading a series recently that is a lot like the left behind series but instead takes place prior to the rapture. The whole idea is that there are crazy political things happening (i.e. war, earthquakes, terrorism) and the characters begin wondering if these are the prophecies about the end days coming true.



Prior to this series a read a book called Good Omens which is basically a satire about the end of days. Instead of demons being pure evil and istead of angels being pure good it basically shows them as being people who are just doing there job so demons sew seeds of desent because in fact thats what the have to do and it cant be any other way. Then lots of other stuff happens that is very much not based on scripture but it does end with what i feel is a very powerful message.



WE JUST DONT KNOW WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT



We are completly fallible beings and our understanding of the world is constantly changing and we are constantly being proven wrong on a daily basis. Yet, we still go through life every day with arrogance and pride sitting high on top of our shoulders as if we were perfect all knowing beings ourselves. The thing is we dont know when the end times are coming it could start tomorrow or it could be another thousand years away.



The only thing that any one of us can be sure of is the state of our own souls. We know what sin is even those friends of ours who dont call it sin but simply call it being "bad" or "immoral" as human beings most of us are born with a "moral compass" that tells us when we are traveling down a path thats not for us.



So we need to fight! We need to do battle with the sin that dwells within us because if we want to be truly effective in our walks and if we want to truly enhance the kingdom of God we cant worry about the end. We cant be concerned with those aspects of life that are beyond our control. Instead we need to worry about making sure our hearts are in the right place because when we walk the path God has set out for us then we dont even have to look for opportunities to share his word or to do good deeds. Because if your truly living as were called to then good deeds will be a phrase that ceases to have meaning because all your deeds will be good.



But there must be a first step ( i know i have a long way to go) we have to take heart and take strength from the God we love and join together in our quest to further his kingdom for his glory and not our own.



"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)



"For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you." (Deuteronomy 23:14)



Please meditate on these verses, it is the word of god that should be our shield, our sword, and our armor in the fight..., nay the war for righteousness.

Let's talk more about gifts

"Each one should use whatever gift he has recieved to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

1 Peter 4:10

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We all have certain things that we are good at. Some maybe good at sports while some maybe good at music. Whatever talents you have they should be used to glorify God. We discussed on Wednesday that our talents and abilities can be used in line with our spiritual gifts to achieve God's purpose for our lives. One example that I used was if you are a good cook and hospitality is your spiritual gift, then you could host a small group. I want to encourage you to read Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, then take the spiritual gifts survey I handed out Wednesday. Pray over the results and ask God to show you how to use your gifts.

Have a great weekend and see you Sunday.

Yeah, I believe...most of the time

My best friend Maureen is quite the blog follower. She shared this blog with our small group via email this morning. It's such a great blog - that I wanted you all to read it as well.

Read Mark 9:14-29...then read the blog...

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2009/05/539-doubting-doubt.html

What a great way to show how much Jesus understands us...how compassionate he is...how it's ok to feel the way we feel - even if it's doubt in him... We need to know that we must come to him though with these iniquities. There was an online church service I watched this weekend (http://www.newspring.cc/series/thegospel-4)- from New Spring - the church I used to attend in Anderson, SC. There was a hymn that brought tears to my eyes...ok, I was flat out sobbing...Come Home...it said. (Here are the lyrics: http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Softly_and_Tenderly/ ) How God just wants for us to come to Him and ask Him to help us with these things. In a humble way. A way that shows Him that we understand that He loves us...He's not judging us (He put that on Jesus) He just wants to help us.

In verse 29 of Mark 9, the disciples ask Jesus why they couldn't draw out the evil spirit from the boy. Jesus didn't reply that the reason was that they didn't believe...or that they had doubt. The reason he gave them was that it could only be done by prayer. Prayer is a powerful thing. I think we often try to pray by ourselves. However, I think we need to understand that God can't even hear our prayers if they aren't being lifted to him through Jesus. It is only by Jesus' precious blood that was shed for us that we can be connected to God through prayer. Perhaps the disciples were trying to 'pray' out the spirit...but if they were trying to do it under their own power or words...there was no result. Prayer without Jesus - is just us talking. But when there is an underlying understanding behind those words, that Jesus is the reason we can talk with God, that's when it becomes prayer.

Take some time to sit and pray with God...understanding what Jesus did for you that allows you to even be in this moment...tell God that you believe....but that any unbelief or sin in your life be taken away by His power.

He can heal us!! We just need to believe it and come to Him. Amen.

See you all at Illuminate tonight! Love you guys :)

The Resolve (apologies for being so late)

So last week I talked about the importance of having fun and just spending time in fellowship and laughing with your friends. But today im going to talk about the flip side to that. Like everything in life there needs to be a balance and our spiritual life is no differant. Along with the laughs we need to set aside some time to seriously dig into the word and take the time to find out what is being said to us.

As followers of Christ we need to be ready to battle both the sin in our own hearts and to show others how great life is with an all powerful all knowing and all loving God. If were going to do that then we need to have an understanding of the word and the various messages it has to offer us. As new followers and new believers it is first our job to simply take it all in and to follow those that are stronger and further along in their walk. But that time cant last too long or there comes the danger of stagnation. We must start walking on our own reading on our own, praying, worshiping, living the life were called to, on our own.

It is true that our Christian brothers and sisters will be there to help us along but we must be strong in our resolve for Christ and for our faith and strive to learn and grow more by ourselves. It is only through this growth that we will be able to help our friends and family and ultimatly ourselves in the struggles that life will most definatly send our way.

Read these verses on faith and strength and just spend some time thinking about how you can spend more time strengthening your bond with Christ.

"And Jeses said unto them... , "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove yourself from my path; and it shall move; and nothing will be impossible to you Romans 1:17

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10

A Carolina Football Memory

Well if you were at Illuminate this week, then you know we talked about having a servant heart. That means living like Christ lived. Mark 10:45 tells us that Jesus was not here to be served or cared for, he was here to serve those who he loved. So then the first step to serving like Christ is learning to serve others in love. I don't know about you but I love the feeling I get when I serve someones needs. Think back on a time when someone did something nice for you and how it made you feel.

I remember when I was about 16, I went to a Carolina football game with my parents. I didn't have a ticket at the time but I figured I could get one at the game. As I was asking around if anyone had a ticket for sale, one of my father's friends handed me a ticket and said, "Here ya go." When I asked him how much he wanted, he told me "nothing." Then he said something I will never forget, he said, "Jeff I am giving you this ticket and all I ask in return is that next time you have an extra ticket, you give it to someone who needs it." I agreed and went into the game and had a great time. A few years later I had an extra pair of tickets, on my way into the stadium I saw a man holding his son and trying to find tickets. I asked him how many he needed and he said two. I handed him my extra tickets and told him and his son to enjoy the game. When he asked me how much I just repeated the words that my father's friend told me. It felt so good to see the look on their faces. I honestly can't tell you anything else about that game, but I will never forget that moment.

This is exactly what God did for us. We needed a savior and he gave us one. It didn't cost us anything. The only thing he asks in return is for us to share that gift with the ones around us. That is why Jesus told us to "go and make disciples." Spend sometime reflecting on the verses we studyed on Wednesday. If you forgot what they were I have listed them below.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Sunday.

Mark 10: 35 - 45
Luke 14: 7 - 11
Philippians 2: 5 - 11

Good Morning, Lord!

Tomorrow morning (or whatever morning after the day you read this...) I want you to read Psalm 95.

This was the reading for my devotional today. The pastor who wrote this said this is the Psalm that starts their day every day!

What a great way to say 'Good Morning' to God and to thank him for the breath he has given you and the path that He has so perfectly planned before you. What a great way to say 'Lord, I want to be in line with your will'...and 'Today, Lord, I'm going to give this day to you and let you make my decisions...because you are good!'.

I give this to you as a challenge...but it's a challenge to myself as well. I can't think of a better way to start the day than to praise our Lord. Let's try this for a week...I am certain dedicating your day to God with a praise like Psalm 95 can result in only good things!

...Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods....

Looking forward to seeing you guys at Illuminate tonight!

The Laughs

Ive been doing a lot of soul searching and have been looking inside of myself a lot in the past couple of weeks. I think mostly because im starting to realize that I am growing up and that I desperatly want to define who it is that I am and what it is that I stand for. In doing so ive been examining the bahavior and actions of the people I respect and look up to trying to piece together what kind of man im supposed to be. In doing so ive discovered two aspects of a christians walk that I feel are the most important and those are the "laughs" and the "resolve". Ill talk about the "laughs" today and the "resolve" next time.

Ive was thinking a lot about Josh recently and really been examing the impact that he's had on my walk and life in general when i realized that he taught me a very important aspect of faith. When Wes was leading the youth group it seemed as if every night was the last night on earth and that we needed to strengthen ourselves and desperatly fight the sin within and without ourselves. They were good messages but at the same time the group always seemed to have a more somber feel to it. Then Josh came in. I didnt really know what to think of him because his approach was so differant to anything id been exposed to before. Josh poured himself into worship and really just fought to allow the youth to have lots of fellowship and to love each other and God with all that we have. And then occasionally we would have a serious talk about the threat of the enemy and how we have to be strong, trust in God, and fight with all our might.

At first I was upset with Josh because I felt like he wasnt really that serious about the job and that he was just playing around. Then it hit me, as humans we are constantly at war. We are at war with the evil people of the world with the famine, disease, and corruption that runs rampant through every government and every continent of the world, and most direly we are at war with ourselves.

If we are going to stand a chance in this fight, if we are to meet the challenge before us we need to balance our laughs and our resolve. Without our laughs our resolve and our strength to fight the enemy is useless. Josh is a fun loving guy who loves to praise and hang out with other christians and just be together. And now i realize that its those times of fellowship that we grow and acquire the strength to go into the world and fight the war that we are faced with every single day.

When we look really hard we find that this world we live in is truly a dark place and that it is through God's grace and through the company and support of the people that we love that make this world beautiful. So my christian brothers and sisters rejoice that our God is a loving God. Turn to the person next to you and love them serve them and rejoice that you can help your fellow man. Go out and have fun, laugh with your friends and your family. Dont hold on to anger and judgment because they destroy our ability to enjoy life. Go and laugh my friends because it is through the laughter that we gain the strength to fight and be the men and women that we are called to be.

Psalm 126:2Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."

We Got To Love On Them

"Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

1 John 3:18

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It is not enough to say you love someone, you must show them by the way you act toward them. This Sunday we are having a meeting to discuss the Myrtle Beach Mission Trip. During the meeting we will be talking about all the things that we do while at Lakewood. The biggest event we are in charge of is Kids Club. This is a VBS style program for kids ages 5 - 12. Over the years the biggest impact we have had on these kids is loving on them. Loving not only with words but by the way we treat them. I remember one year we had a young lady who's parent's vacation was over on Wednesday because her father had to be at work the next day. He was a cop and had to work a 24 hour shift on Thursday. The young lady asked her parents to bring her back to the beach on Friday so she could spend one more day with the team. So the father worked all night and then drove his family back to the beach and his little girl got to spend Friday with her new friends. That's what the whole mission is all about. Showing Christ's love in practical ways. If we ever hope to win someone over for Christ, we have to show them love. Have a great weekend and I'll see you Sunday.