As I am writing this post the reports are that there are 12 dead to include the shooter himself, and 31 wounded.  Major Nidal Malik Hasan is the gunman who was killed by Military Police.  Not only is it insanely shocking that this shooting happened, or that it happened just around the corner from where I lived while stationed at Ft. Hood, but that this guy was a MAJOR in the U.S. Army!  This is really a tough rank to get.  On top of all that he was a Mental Health Doctor who opened fire in his own clinic.  Maybe the sane were the ones being treated by the insane, or maybe this guy is a religious extremist.  Nothing about him has been released other than who he was, and what he did.

If you are trying to stay updated on the event, I would ask that you take the time to find Fox News!  CNN is extremely terrible!  In the first 5 minutes of this occurence they had shown the world the map of how to get to Ft. Hood, through the front gate, and all the way to the location on Ft. Hood where the shooting took place.  Then they proceeded to tell exactly how many people live on Ft. Hood, families, where the head quarters are for the 1st Cavalry Div, what the inside set up is of the building where it all went down.  The funny part about it is that their stats were so far from being correct it made them look completely stupid!  They tell you that it’s the biggest military base in the world(which it is) and that it has 40,000 on it.  Are you serious?  40,000 is like a miniature field exercise.  We are talking largest on the planet!  It just amazes me that what the world sees as a major crisis causes them to go slap retarded and start flapping their jaw telling everything they know.  The info they gave out will create all the access needed by any terrorist minded person to be able to plot out anything they wanted to do to Ft. Hood.  They have made this place extremely vulnerable when in fact it was only an inside job that happened and the world could have all been spared of the details of where this place is, how to get there, what building is next door to it, and how many people these buildings will hold.  Fort Hood and it’s soldiers are trained to handle these type of situations whether in Iraq or at home.  Yes, people died, but it doesn’t mean that Ft. Hood doesn’t have control of all this.  Instead CNN takes a place that has control and makes them vulnerable by giving out operational security information that can lead to other events such as the one that took place this afternoon.

I have been on the phone texting, answering calls, and emailing friends who are locked down there all afternoon.  None of them are scared, they just want to get home and get out of Ft. Hood for a night, which is what we all wished for every single day that we lived there

What a terrible time to decide to go nuts!  We are looking at Veterans Day and this guy wants to go and slaughter veterans.  I am really having to hold my tongue from the very unChristian like things that are rolling around in my head.  So all I will say about this guy is that he is in a tough place in the hearts of former and current Soldiers around the country.  There is some good in him being alive and in stable condition because his family has done nothing to deserve losing a son.  I certainly am very interested in Fox News getting an interview with Major Hasan to hear the thoughts that made him think this was all necessary.

Speaking of Veterans Day…just a day?  All Veterans get is a day?  I don’t have anything against Black History, Breast Cancer, or the Holidays, but what in the world did they ever do to get a month?  Don’t take it away from these things, but give a month to these Veterans!  Just about every single person you see in any kind of military uniform these days has been overseas at least once to be apart of a war.  Most have been over there 2 or 3 times.

Please keep these 43 families who have either lost their soldier or have wounded soldiers.  Let’s hope that any of the 31 who need blood can get help from all those around Temple, TX to go in and donate blood so that no more soldiers lose their life as a part of this incident.

So I spoke last night in Calhoun, LA at a Campus Ministry Retreat where the theme was Crave.  The Lord had placed it on my heart that the things that we crave the most we think we have done it all to accomplish and well deserve all the wealth and status that we have, or that we are being extremely punished by God if we have nothing and are poor.

Take a look at Matt 6:19-24.  One of the things that I take away from this passage is how do we handle luxury.  Some people, and I won’t mention names because I do not know them personally, take the talents they have been given and their extreme wealth and think that they have done something favorable in the eyes of God.  They will charge you $9000 just to have them come and speak at your church.  Then there is another person who has an extremely powerful testimony, but you have to pay well into the $2000 range just to have them come so your church can hear it in person.  Talents that come from God being marketed for no other reason then to pad the pocket book.

Then in Matt 6:25-34 we see a challenge to just how we handle the necessary things in life.  If we have very little and sometimes the pavement seems to run out from under us on this road through life, we begin to think that God doesn’t love us or that we have done something extremely wrong and are shunned from the presence of God.  We begin to force things to get what we think we deserve because obviously God isn’t going to help us out any at all.

It doesn’t take much searching in scripture to find that the rich can be condemned, as well as the poor can be condemned.  So the biggest thing for us no matter what the situation we find ourselves in, we come to understand that it all belongs to God.  Since when did we become powerful enough to create a tree, bird, flower, wind, rain, water, ourselves, the materials that are used to build our house, the things that come together to give us a seat to sit on much less the car that the seat is bolted into.  These things have always been God’s.  I believe that the materials that we use to create things today were around in the time of Adam probably, but people were more wrapped up in God, their faith, and their family back then and weren’t as wrapped up in designing so much technology that helps us think all about ourselves.

Here is what I would like for you to think about from all of this.  What if you started realizing that everything you have is because God is saying to you “What will you do with it?”

If I give you money, how will you spend it?  Will you become materialistic?  Will you think only of yourself?  Or will you give it back to Me and My children who need it?

If I give you a job, how will you work?  Will you work at it with all of your might as though working for Me?  Will you think only of yourself and just how high you can get to make yourself known among men?  Or will you see that secretary who is hurting and lonely and tell her about Me?

If I give you a car, how will you handle it?  Will you spend enough money on your vehicle to have fed My children in an entire 3rd world country?  Will you pass by every single homeless person and think of the terrible things that they would do to you if you stopped to give them a ride, or even worse that they might smell up that nice Mercedes of yours?  Or will you hand the keys over to a family that can’t pay their bills because they don’t have a car to get to a job.

Better yet…if I give you a life, what will you do with it?  Will you make it all about you?  Will you abuse it and then take it because things don’t go the way you want them to?  Or will you give it back to Me?

So what are we doing with what God has given us?  He didn’t give it to us because we are more special than someone else, but because He is trusting that we will do something great with what He has placed in our possession.

Proverbs 30:8 & 9 says, “…give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown You and say, `Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God”

It’s time for us to take hold of the restoration that Christ set it motion and begin to evaluate ourselves and be tested by God.  How do we handle what was never ours to begin with?

After doing a search for my blog and finding my blog listed in a top however many of Church of Christ bloggers, I just went with the search and started opening every link that has something to do with this ranking. Although I could care less if my blog is ranked because I didn’t start this blog to be apart of any certain crowd, I did however want to see how this all came about. On one of the links I clicked I found an article written about a certain number of blog users who were all said to be apart of a group that is pushing progressiveness through our movement(Church of Christ) and that this ranking system must have come from someone of this group since that was who was filling the top 25 slots. Since I am apart of that top 25, it really got me to thinking. Since when did I become progressive?

I took a look around a little bit more to just see what made these other bloggers progressive.  What I found were writers who talked more about the scriptures and exactly what was going on in the time of the scripture.  Some of them made it their goal to take on challenging topics that most people shy away from.  They attacked the topics with scripture base only and very little opinion.  Of course some of you will say that I am only saying these things because I myself am “progressive.”  Well if that means all about what scripture is saying and less about opinion then I guess slap my name in the mix.  However, I am not about labels other than Christian and would much rather be called that if you don’t mind.

As far as a “movement” goes…I own Bibles that have nothing on the cover.  Not even Holy Bible.  Does that mean it is less or more of a Bible because of what is or is not written on the cover?  Does it really really matter what you put on the cover of a building other than Christ?  So I don’t believe that the name on the building/sign makes our church any more or less of Christ followers because of what is or is not on the outside.  And please don’t be extreme and say that means that we could put 666 or something on the front cause it doesn’t matter.  You completely understand what this means.

As far as conservative…I am on the other extreme from being progressive.  I believe in baptism as a MUST in order for us to fulfill our journey in becoming committed to Christ and in our surrender to self.  I believe that scripture is the inspired Word of God and that we should not add to or take away from this.  I believe that Christ was born of a virgin, died on a cross, and was raised again on the 3rd day before leaving this earth to be seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  I believe that we should take Communion each week as a body of believers.  I believe that the Old Law speaks to us today and prophesies about the New Law which we live by today.  I believe in Heaven and Hell and that Satan is real.  I believe that we should meet when the Shepherds of the Church say meet, and be willing to follow the Shepherding of these men.  I believe that we, like the disciples, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which dwells in us to be Christ among the people living from Acts 1 through the end of the earth.  If you have ever heard me preach, you know I preach Christ only and Him crucified.  This is a pattern that I feel I have been called to follow, as well as the only thing I know.  Most of all I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  This is all very conservative things of which I can back up scripturally.

As far as being progressive…if I were to see myself as one it would be because I see my faith moving forward; a faith that is progressive toward what God desires from and for humanity.  My life is about spiritual transformation of which we reach that perfect state that only can happen along the journey with Christ.

I don’t guess I really know the term progressive.  I once heard Don McLaughlin say something to the effect when asked why he was so progressive…If we sat down today and went over all the things I believe, I would bet that I am much more conservative than you because I don’t follow any man made traditions, only the Word of God.

This is what I have come to realize about being labeled is that the ones whose comforts zones are challenged by scripture seem to be the ones who want to give labels.  I can not stand traditions!  I believe they have led us down paths of destruction for many moons!  However, I do believe whole heartedly in scripture!  If it were literally water I would take the longest baths every day and my water bill would be sky high!

As far as traditions…the way we do communion on Sunday nights when only 1 or 2 are doing it and not the whole body?  how we preach on things that from the greek are never mentioned or spoke about such as hand clapping, musical instruments, women’s role being nothing, church buildings, doing mission work everywhere except in our own city/town, not supporting orphan and childrens homes or widows, having to wear suits, ties, and dresses to church, etc…another words preaching where the Bible is silent.

I believe that the reason that the so called progressives are the highest ranked bloggers is because 1)this is the generation of people who are technological 2)many like me started a blog as a spiritual discipline known as journaling and  did not ever intend it for controversy 3)people want to read the Truth without all the man made traditions being forced onto them 4)the people who I know personally in that list mentioned are some of the most Christ centered and Christ loving individuals anyone could ever meet and it comes out in their writings.

Please, don’t label me or anyone else for not standing up and writing or preaching on a subject matter that is nothing more than a man made tradition that dates back no further than the mid to late 1800′s.  I, as well as many others labeled, seek Truth that is much older than the 1800′s, as a matter of fact it’s things that date all the way back to when Christ was still roaming this earth making physical appearances.

If this sounds like I am frustrated…I am not at all.  It is not written with any one particular person in mind and I am just writing this out of concern for people who’s names are being roughed up a bit without ever having met/spoken with.  I love the Church of Christ and will always seek to find one where the Lord leads Jenny and me, wherever I live.  The last 2 churches that I have been apart of are truly amazing places of worship, so I do believe that great churches exist where the truth is uncovered and people are challenged to become more like Christ.

Please, don’t take my word for what the Word means, anyone else on that list, or the preacher where you are right now.  Study it for yourself, but get ready for some eye opening things to appear.  And don’t fight the change that comes with that new found Truth, don’t gripe or complain, just make the change so that the generations that follow will grow up hearing the Truth.

However, NOT IN OUR WORLD!  Jenny and I have had what I consider the best year of my life! We have been blessed beyond measure in the Word of the Lord, grown together spiritually, and connected on many occasions with spiritual mentoring couples, all over the past year. So in our relationship we are counting up as I can not wait to see how high we are able to get in years together in this our great journey to be with God! WE HAVE REACHED THE BIG #1!!!
We have had some awesome moments! This blog post would be far to long if I just get started listing even one of those.
We have also had some tougher moments, in which we have grown to love each other far more once we walk though these than anything else we’ve done.
Jenny is everything I would be willing to lay down my life for, but this blog post isn’t about our past year.
It’s about how we celebrated our 1st year up!
We pulled into the “ponderosa” today after a 5 day trip to Ft. Knox, KY! You see Ft. Knox, if you don’t know history very well, is the place where all of our countries gold is locked, sealed, and heavily guarded deep underground. There is a lot of symbolism in this idea if you haven’t quite caught on yet…she means more than all the gold in the world to me and I would guard her will all my life for history…catch on yet?
There was also another reason we went, which was to get away from the norm and spend time with each other just reflecting back on how wonderful the Lord has been to us over the past year.
Then reason #3 is that a dear friend that was in Iraq with me was recently transferred from Germany to Ft. Knox.

Captain Watson and his wife, Jenny(yes very ironic) recently moved there and had their first child, Caedmon, all at the same time. My wife Jenny had never met these people who mean the world to me, and since Captain Watson was suppose to be my best man but was unable to make it back from Iraq in time to be there, we loaded the car and hit the road!

We arrived on post at Ft. Knox late Sat. night to the sad reality that they are in the Eastern time zone so we lost an hour of sleep and we wanted to be energized for church service Sunday morning.  Jason & Jenny are members of the Muldraugh Baptist Church and it was a very blessed time being able to worship with Jason again.  This was a great body of believers to visit!  I especially enjoyed the message that was delivered by the pastor David Sullivan!  It was one that you don’t get to hear much of from pulpits anymore, about our role in the kingdom work, the pastors role, and how we are called to be encouraging and not complainers.  They were some great people to worship with…enjoyed it thoroughly!  Jason, Jenny, and Caedmon really enjoy it there!

Then after service was over and we went back to Jason & Jenny’s house to have lunch we loaded up Caedmon and headed to Louisville, which is only about 30 miles north of Ft. Knox.  Our 1st stop was the Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum!!!  This was a baseball fans dream place with memorabilia from sluggers all the way back to Babe Ruth to current greats!  I got to swing Rod Carew’s bat and even have one made for Jenny & me!  It was so much fun!

I always said that if I was ever up close to Louisville that I would stop in and visit the church that God built.  What I mean by this is that the man who was Sr. Pastor for many years and watch the membership grown from 125 when he started there, to 21,000 before he retired, wrote a book entitled “When God Builds A Church“.  The name of this place is Southeast Christian Church. We attended their Tuesday night college ministry worship called “the Post”.  It was pretty special and don’t know if I can really put words to how blessed we were by getting to attend this time of worship.

Wednesday morning we got up and toured the Patton Museum there at Ft. Knox, which is obviously named after the famous warrior and military leader, General Patton.

Then we hit the road for our journey home to Beebe, AR.  While on our journey home we stopped off to see another friend, Josh Ross, and worship with him at Sycamore View church of Christ in Memphis, TN.   While there we attended a class called “Aroma” which was a little coffee house type class center around an open discussion of spiritual issues facing churches today.  This particular night they were beginning a discussion on how Art and Culture have an impact on churches from their building designs to how they worship.  It was a wonderful discussion and the teacher did an amazing job of giving us the history of the church all the way back to the 1800′s and showing us how these things impacted our movement even back then.  Afterward we met several people to include John French, a Shepherd there at Sycamore View, and his wife, and had some great conversations.  This was such a wonderful and welcoming place to stop off and worship!

As you can tell, Jenny and I always try to take in more of the spiritual things along our travels than of the many attractions.  We always seem to have so much more fun doing that and those things are always what we return home talking about for a long time!  And we are always anxious to return to worship at places we visit, and maybe someday the Lord will bless us with another journey to do just that.

This is how we spent our 1 year UP celebrating a year under our belts of spiritual growth and loving Christian friends!  Minus mentioning the amazing restaurants we find along the way.

WE ARE SO BLESSED!

Maybe this has happened to you, but here is where I am.

I have posted before about podcast that I enjoy listening to, and I have talked about books that I have enjoyed and grown by reading.  I never knew that this would lead me into a rut, but here I stand.  These people I enjoy listening to for the longest time really pounded on me hard.  They deliver the truth the way that works for me and that is to hold nothing back, the gloves come off and they just start swinging.  After listening to them week after week I start feeling as though our worship is not doing God justice because it doesn’t sound like what I hear and read.  Then I read the story of Martha and Mary and realize this is where I am.  I do many “good” things, but not the one that is “best.”  As John Piper stated it in his book “A Hunger for God”:

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.  It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world.  It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.  For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20).  The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts.  And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth.  For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable,and almost incurable.  Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts.  But then, “as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14).  In another place he said, “The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”(Mark 4:19).  “The pleasures of this life” and “the desires for other things”—these are not evil in themselves.  These are not vices.  These are gifts of God.  They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking.  And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.

In this passage it says “they were on their way”.  Sometimes we don’t realize that this relationship doesn’t just happen inside a classroom or a building a few times a week, but it happens in the journey.  Then he says that Mary is doing what is best.  In this I see that this relationship that involves this journey is about discipleship which can only allow us to grow though that one best thing which is time with Jesus.

Who knew that Steve Harvey…a potty mouth comedian would help me open my eyes but here is a video that I would like to share with you in which the reality of who Jesus is brings Steve Harvey to tears, and me as well.

At around 2:34 in the video he drops the microphone after introducing Jesus and the camera pans back and lights begin to swirl and…. and….it makes me realize I am expecting Him(Jesus) to walk out on that stage.  Weird?  I don’t think so.  We are told that we do not know the hour, but to be ready.  I so want to be ready!  I really want Him to come soon, but my answer seems to always be…”Not right now God, not right now.”  I am ready to be rescued from these ruts that I find myself in from time to time!  I realize more everyday that this is not the world where I am meant for, but just the place where I am being held in exile.  That short lived feeling that He was going to appear, felt amazing!

There is a song out by Hillsong called None But Jesus.  This song is a song of assurance to me that has helped me as I walk around singing it, because it’s in these moments of emptiness along this journey that we need words like these.  Well at least I know I do.  I hope that you will read these words and know that in God’s presence we are restored and changed.  This journey has ruts, but the burdens of this life have been trampled and overcome.  There is hope in Christ!

None But Jesus lyrics

In the quiet, in the stillness
I know that you are God
In the secret of your presence
I know there I am restored
When you call I won’t refuse
Each new day, again I’ll choose

There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise

In the chaos, in confusion
I know you’re sovereign still
In the moment of my weakness
You give me grace to do your will
When you call I won’t delay
This my song through all my days

There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise

I am yours and you are mine…

All my delight is in you Lord
All of my hope
All of my strength
All my delight is in you Lord
Forevermore

Those awards have since been taken off that uniform and framed to hang beside his bed as something to be passed each night and every morning as he laid down and awoke each and every day.  He passed away while I was away on one of the many deployments I myself endured while serving my time in the U.S. Army.  For many years I would give him a hug and say goodbye as the years passed from me staying the weekend with Meema & Grandy to when I would make the drive from where ever I was stationed to his home of many years in Newport, AR.  I remember the final time I went to visit him, though at the time I never knew it would be just that.  He spoke to me about what it meant to represent the U.S. for him, as he knew that time was just around the corner for me as I would soon head into the big desert of Iraq.  As always, we hugged and said goodbye and spoke about my next trip to see him.  My only regret with serving in the U.S. Army is that I missed the last year of both of my final grandparents, both grandfathers.

All of my life I would admire the framed representation of years of my grandfathers blood, sweat, and tears.  I dreamed of one day having my own, though I never knew it would mean me going to war as well.  The day finally came when that frame came down off the wall.  It now hangs on the wall of our office at home where I myself see it every morning when I come in to begin studying God’s Word, and each night as I check emails before heading off to bed.  I am working on getting all of my own awards framed to go right below his in our office.  He was a hero to me, and he was a huge reason, along with my father who served during Vietnam, for choosing to dawn the old dirty greens.

This framework doesn’t mean much to Jenny.  Shoot, it doesn’t mean anything to hardly anyone.  However, some day I hope to have a child that I can pass it on to as well and tell them the great story about their great grandfather and hopefully bring them up with many of the great attributes that he had.

However, it will be extremely painful if that child decides it doesn’t mean anything to them and they give it away to someone else or even throw it away.  It will not cause bitterness or hatred, because it is my child.  I can’t have those feelings toward my child.  But the cold hard reality is that someday these will mean nothing to anyone, and it will be extremely painful to comprehend.  Luckily for me, it will be after I pass on hopefully.  However, I will be extremely jealous that they were able to give it away so easily, this family heirloom that I so cherish.

My God is a jealous God.  For many they say they can not understand how He can be a loving God, but yet hold such a feeling as jealousy.  But yet this is our God who gave the one thing he held in the greatest of regard to us as a gift, but sending His one and only Son to the Cross to voluntarily give his life away.  He gave it away in hopes that we would understand it’s value and cherish it as much as He Himself does.  Christ means the world to Him!  He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the throne so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in Heaven and on earth and under the earth.

I know the feeling and more than likely so do you, of what it’s like to give something that you love to someone and watch them give it away as though it means nothing to them.  We give up God’s one and only Son so easily for silly things such as our own pride, lust, careers, money, houses, vehicles, things that hold no value if tomorrow Christ decides to return.

Yea, I understand God!  I hate that feeling, and I am SO INSANELY SORRY for ever making you feel that way!  So many times I have wanted to relive a moment so that I could choose Christ instead of my own selfish desires, but because of your sacrificial gift to me, your grace and mercy covers me.  Thank you for still calling me your child and not hating me or being bitter toward me.  And so I thank you Jesus for being willing to die!  And I thank you God for being willing to give Him up because you want me to get to spend time with you for eternity.  I can’t say thank you enough, but I hope that in my life I can fulfill your will for me!  In your precious gift, your Son’s name I pray, Amen!

Students have settled back into the dorms and the halls are packed with young men and women who are taking their first steps on their own, ones that their parents sit miles away and hope are ones that will lead to a college degree.
I love being involved on the college campuses here in Conway, AR, because parents don’t send their kids here for a Christian degree. Most students don’t even choose to come here because this is where the Lord called them to, or they haven’t realized it just yet anyway.
This is where the real steps of Christ are taken and you choose Christ without parental influence or being forced to go to a chapel service every day. The students that you see choosing Christ here are truly sold out! There is no need to fake it here because Christianity really isn’t the most popular thing to do to begin with. You can see it on the faces of so many freshmen as they come in, that they are wondering if they continue their journey with Christ and if so how can they do it and be accepted by their friends.
It is nothing short of amazing to see freshman develop into strong men and women of faith before your very eyes. That moment when you witness the light come on for a student and they sell out and step up and throw caution to the wind. Nothing is as special as seeing students change the lives of everyone around them and they don’t even realize it yet.

This is the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year on the campuses of Central Baptist College, Hendrix College, and University of Central Arkansas.  Therefore, this is the beginning of my year, today!

Tomorrow, I have an event on campus where I will be encountering at least 1500 students, then again on Wed where I will be encountering around 3000 students.  This is only the tip of the iceberg as we are working on a mission field of around 18,000 college students every day until the first week in May 2010 when they all pack up and go back home.

We have lots of things planned and lots of praying to do about those things planned.  Would love for you to take this ride with us!  Hold on tight because over the past 3 years we have experienced amazing things, but also some loss.  However, you will be nothing short of blessed as you journey with these students in prayer and in the business of our Father in Heaven.

Follow us at our new website www.uccstudentministries.org, and also at our brand new blog uccstudentministries.wordpress.com

What a Might God we serve!  Can’t wait to get neck deep in what the Lord is doing on these campuses this year, and be used by Him!

Hope you will check us out and be in prayer for us as well!

For the past couple of weeks I have been out at Camp Wyldewood volunteering as a Group Preacher. Over the past 16 years I have been doing volunteer work out there. Seems like my life has been lived through that place. I came to Christ out there back in 1991, took my first group of youth group students out there in 1998, baptized someone for the first time there, met most of my spiritual mentors out there, gave my first devotional there, first time to ever speak at a retreat was there, got married there this past Oct., and now my wife is as active out there as I am.

This year the focus was on the theme “Rise & Walk”. We had some amazing curriculum!!! It was such a blessing to get to be apart of this summer and get to take that curriculum and bring it to life for students from age 9-18. We baptized several! I lost count, but there was 20+.
This year was also really special for me because one of my good friends sent there 3 daughters out there for the first time and they didn’t want to leave they enjoyed it so much. Getting to see students you really care about just growing spiritually before your very eyes is such a blessing!
Also this year we have 4 of our college students working out there as counselors. I had several adults come to me throughout my time there to give strong compliments on how well these guys are going out there.
One of the strongest impacting things of the session was getting to study a mission statement of Jesus out of Isaiah 61:1-4, and deliver it as a commanding officer would deliver our a mission statement for a mission in Iraq. This was my send off to all the students as they packed up and headed home until next summer.

While there this year I did receive some extremely sad news. A lady that has been out there for the past 14 years as full time Kitchen Manager is handing off the spatula and retiring. She has been such a strong Christian woman example to me. You can not spend time with her and not know that she loves the Lord and is strong in her faith. She was the cook for Jenny and my wedding, and refused pay for the tremendous amount of work she did that weekend. Her hot rolls, biscuits and gravy, and well…every meal, will be deeply missed, but most of all her smiling face and beautiful spirit!

So…now it is back to the grindstone getting prepped for all of these college students coming back to me the 16th of this month!!!

However, I have been working on a few things that are really close to being finished and posted, so stay tuned! They are some really great things that have been on my heart for a little while now, but I’ve just been out at camp and unable to get on here and post.

Be blessed!

One of the greatest blessings about being a Christian is the community that you become apart of on your journey through life.
The feelings, emotions, accountability, encouragement, constructive criticism, battle buddies, and lifetime friends, are just some of the powerful things that come with being apart of this community of believers.
Our theme for this coming school year is “After Earth is the After Party.” Our final resting place is a home that is being prepared for us that is perfect, like that of the first place God’s creation lived, the Garden. This is not a goal of ours, but a reward for goals given to us through Christ. He wants us earnestly seeking Him, seeking out others to bring to Him, and loving and encouraging others along this journey. When we don’t rest until doing these things, we get the ultimate resting place of Heaven.

While we are being reconciled to God, we have this Community that helps us in so many ways.

In scripture I believe that we see the perfect layout of the dynamics of this Community.

Barnabas is the example in Pauls life that we need those who are along side us to encourage us.  When we get caught up in our frustrations, business, worries, and rough patches as we strive to do the will of our Father, we desperately need to have a Barnabas in our life.

My wife is a great Barnabas for me.  She is not one to tear anything down, but breath life into it and help it grow.

Timothy is the example of how we need to mentor and be mentored to as his journey consisted of constant mentoring from Paul.  We need to hear the advice from those who have journeyed the path before us and endured the rough patches.  We also need to, in return, help others who are journeying down paths we have taken ourselves.

Our College Group is that for me.  Mostly with our core members, but I strive to spend alone time with them to help them take an easier door to walk through to avoid some of the rough patches they will encounter when reaching out to others and establishing their close bond with God.

Paul is the example of the straight forward, no bones about it, laying it all out there, battle buddy that will give us constructive criticism and accountability.  Without these things we may feel like we do no wrong.  Without this we may continue to make the same mistakes day after day until it completely takes us way off track and we are no longer breathing life, but death into those we are striving to bring to the Lord.

Michael Lincoln has been a wonderful Paul in my life.

Dusty Rush has been one that has helped me change many things about the way I do ministry.

Wes Woodell has been one who is journeying beside me and seeing the traps and pointing many things out to me.

Anthony Wood has been one that has known me the shortest amount of time, but yet is more straight up forward with me than anyone in my life.

You may notice that my list is much longer of Paul’s than the other parts of this Community that I am apart of.  This is because I figured out early in ministry that there are lots of people who will pat you on the back and want to encourage you in my journey.  However, I want to become someone that boast in nothing but in Christ and need the grounding element of this Community to help me see where my true destination leads.

There are others, and maybe you are one of them, who have been in some pretty bad places in life and right now you are desperately needing a strong encourager.  Seek after and pray for that in your Community.  Although, you won’t always be in that place, so always be mindful of the other elements of your Community because you will need them soon as God will not leave you the way He found you.  He will strengthen you past only needing encouragement.  However, our Communities will never outgrow the need for all 3 types of people in our lives.

There is a Community that needs you, and it’s the one the Lord desires to make you apart of today.  Neither you nor I can assign you a Community, but God and God alone.  Let Him lead you to one ASAP because we are all in a battle and we need that warrior(battle buddy in military terms) to our left and right who will always be there to encourage, mentor, and discipline us through our daily journey.

I praise God for the Community that the Lord has blessed me with yesterday, today, and those to come!  Blessed am I beyond measure!  I promise you will feel this way too when you find the people who are placed in your life just for these very same things!

I am also on the agenda, so pray for the words that are delivered through me and that the Holy Spirit will help bring about a reshaping, a renewing, and a reintroduction to their walk with God.  They have asked me to be speaking on Spiritual Disciplines as I have mentioned before in earlier post.  I don’t want to just tell them about my experiences or about just the disciplines themselves, but help them encounter and experience the disciplines for themselves through some small exercises.

After it is all over for the weekend and the podcast get put online I will post the links back on this exact post(i will not create a post just for the links, so check back to this post).  Their will be more pics posted as well.

Links:

Buddy Bell – Displaying Strange Behavior: The Value of a Holy Life

Effective Small Groups In Campus Ministries pt. 1

Effective Small Groups In Campus Ministries pt. 2

Anthony Wood – How Evangelism to the Poor Can Equal Evangelism to Your Campus

How Evangelism to the Poor Can Equal Evangelism to Your Campus pt. 2