I am...

Everything that I am, not so much because of what I have experienced personally, but because of what I had watched people experience.

D-Now 2010

This past weekend was a real blessing to me. We took our high school and middle school students to Camp Greenville which is on the North Carolina-South Carolina border. It was a truly amazing experience. First and foremost I was surprised by the unbelievable respect that our students showed. There were no bad attitudes, there were no disrespectful attitudes, and best of all there was no drama! The lessons on the trip were centered around worship and focused on different forms of worship that go beyond just sing praises and hymns to God. We explained things such as honoring God with your time and talents as well as checking your attitude daily. The worship service we had was absolutely amazing. We had a time of absolute since and set up stations for the students to visit freely while reflecting in silence. It was wonderful to see the students taking everything seriously and really opening up in worship. Our worship leader and his band did an outstanding job with the music. That night was an amazing experience.

For the duration on the trip we enforced that there were to be no cell phones or electronic devices of any kind. I am proud o say that none, and I mean none of our students brought either with them. We came with a respect for what God could do in our lives and we were rewarded greatly for that. We had an amazing experience with God and a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of his creation. The First day was sunny and beautiful and the morning after we were literally inside of a cloud. It was truly the best D-Now we have had since I joined the Youth Group.

Our memory verse for the weekend was Psalms 47: 5-7.

God has ascended with a mighty shout.
The Lord has ascended with trumpets blaring.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King over all the earth.
Praise him with a psalm!

He will provide

Recently, I had what I like to call a worry spell. What generally happens is I take all of the issues that I deal with on a daily basis and allow them to compile and fester until I break and end up going nuts for anywhere from a week to a month. Among the issues which plagued me were money, work, school, and the Awana's ministry at my church. For about a week I stewed over all of these things that seemed to be crumbling down around me. The other day I spoke with a friend of mine about all of this. Among all of the things that he said to me, one thing stood out. He said a very simple phrase that I had heard many times before. "God will provide." Now this was something that I new to be true and had actually been saying to myself for the duration of my worrying. However it only seemed to do some good after I heard someone else say it to me. It was at that point that I became aware of all of the blessings that God had been giving me. I have a secure job. I have family that is willing to let me live at home until I can go out on my own. I have a child at my job that is interested in visiting my church. I have a number of small onetime job opportunities that will fill in the gaps. Last and most definitely not least, I have a beautiful girl that God has put into my life and I have fallen in love with her. All of these are things that God has given me and yet I still insisted on worrying about things beyond my control. Part of dealing with life is realizing that it is always your fault. Wherever you are, what ever you're going through, you are there in that situation as a result of decisions you have made and the subsequent consequences of those decisions. I prayed about some things and made choices based on the spirit moving in my life. Those choices were not easy and God is taking me on a wild ride to where he wants me to be next. However, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how uneasy it makes you, God will provide. So take comfort. Part of dealing with life is realizing that it is always your fault. Wherever you are, what ever you're going through, you are there in that situation as a result of decisions you have made and the subsequent consequences of those decisions. I prayed about some things and made choices based on the spirit moving in my life. Those choices were not easy and God is taking me on a wild ride to where he wants me to be next. However, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how uneasy it makes you, God will provide. So take comfort. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

What is love....

1 Corinthians 13

Love Is the Greatest

¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Ocean's 12

Nothing deep or intense today. No words of wisdom or crazy life stories. I'm just chillin on my couch next to my awesome girlfriend and watching Ocean's 12.

Rule 31: You gotta enjoy the little things :p

Confess and be healed

This past weekend a few of the guys in my youth group went on a camping trip to Camp Highlands in North Georgia. It was really good. For me it was the second weekend in a row that I had just gone away from everything and let loose. However, this trip in particular was special. Our worship leader did a three part lesson on Manning Up. The second lesson that we had dealt with dealing with our sin. Our speaker threw it right out on the table from the start. Most of us have been taught the same misunderstood truth. We have been trying to get out of our sin through prayer, or reading the Bible, or just asking God for strength. While all of these things are good for growth, they really have nothing to do with getting rid of your sin.

Wow! I was blown away. For a split second my heart sank. I truly thought to myself, "here's this guy who means well but truly doesn't know what he's talking about. " But what he said next to me to an entirely new level in my walk. Are you ready for this.

The way you get rid of sin is to confess it.

That seemed to me to be an Uh oh! Oreo! moment. What I mean by that is I should have known that. In fact as I looked around the camp fire at the young men around me I noticed that we were all being hit with the same sinking feeling at the same time. We knew that this was true, but somewhere along the line it had slipped out of the equation. Our speaker went on to say that you not only need to confess to God, but in many cases you need to confess to other believers in order to gain encouragement. There is supposed to be a sense of camaraderie between believers that is shared so that we build each other up.

By the end of the trip, we as a group had decided to encourage each other to grow and cut the sarcasm out of our comment, and I was preparing a version of this lesson that i could deliver to our Awana's TNT group that night. I want to close by giving you three sets of verses that I hope will serve to encourage you in this area of confession.

For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. Romans 10:10

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16

When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Psalms 32:3-5

Some things are worth waiting for.

I love a good challenge. The one that I've been faced with lately is not kissing my girlfriend. In heart I feel that kissing pretty much anywhere accept the hand and shoulder is the gateway to an entire world of temptation. Kissing excites the senses and puts you into a mode that, to be completely honest, puts your body into gear one of let's have sex.

Let's break it down:

A light kiss is fine, but eventually you want a more passionate kiss. From there you begin to make out. While making out you hands tend to wander and whether by accident or on purpose, you find something that you really like to touch. At this point curiosity comes in and close come off. Before you know it your in a place you didn't intend to be.

Now you only need to have been in high school to know that this is true. It's easy to slip but it's hard to stay on the path. My girlfriend and I have decided to try and avoid slipping by just not kissing. I have to say that aside from the occasional need to just not look at each other it's been a pretty awesome first two weeks. I'm really getting to know this girl and am coming to a realization that she is truly something special and that I have some deep cares for her. I don't like saying that someone is "the one" for me. I don't know if she is and I'm not in a position to act on it if I did. I will say that from what I know of her she definitely fall into the category of girls I would consider marrying; which is definitely a small category when it comes to girls I know. To be plane though, my job, and every other guys for that matter, as a boyfriend is to protect the girl I am currently seeing. There are a few reasons for this and they are as follows:

-If she is the one that God has for me then I need to make sure that our relationship is one that honors Him.

-If she is not the one that God has for me then I need to honor her future husband by not taking what was meant for the two of them to share in.

-I need to honor her and do my part to make sure that she stays pure.

So all of that being said, I think that it seems quite practical to go the extra measure to not fall. I mean if you were rock climbing would you want one safety line or two? Plus it makes room for more good stuff in the relationship. For those of you who want in on the awesomeness, here are some pointers to keep in mind:

-Be open about the urge to kiss.

-Let each other know what you consider signals or stimulants for kissing so that you can make it easier on each other.

-Try not to be alone, or in the dark.

-Don't sit in a car together unless it's in motion.

-Instead of just sitting there watching T.V, talk. Have good conversations. Get to know this person.

These are the things that are helping us stay true to our commitment. So if you are serious about wanting to honor God and your girlfriend then take a look at your weaknesses and do everything that God leads to in order that you might be delivered from your temptations. It will not be easy. It will not be fun. It will be worth it.