Back to the Grind

We were at the LIFE 07 Conference in Orlando with the CMA and it was awesome! Our church saw 45 students make commitments and 23 of those wanted to be missionaries. There were 5 people who accepted Jesus for the first time! It was an incredible time and now we have the job of following up with them.

We had some college students go with us to Life and the Lord spoke to me to start a college ministry with those students. I got back and I had the full support of the staff. Our first meeting is this thursday with some of the core people and our "Kick Off" is next monday the 23rd. I am really looking forward to it.

The enemy attacked hard this past weekend but the Lord won. He always does but I know I will be attacked more and more over the next couple of weeks as I launch this new ministry. I am going to bathe everything in prayer.

Seeking and Nuts

It seems that anyone who has done anything great for God has been seeking His face and a little nuts. Everyday is a renewal. Did you seek God yesterday? Were you a little nuts for Him? I prayed this morning that God would show Himself to me today and make me a little nuts. Are you crazy for Jesus?

Waiting

I am waiting in strong anticipation for God to move. God will move. I know it. He will move in power. I am waiting to see what God will do. God I expect you to show up in a powerful way this summer. I pray for the day where we see our congregation busting out of the seems. Bust out father. Forgive us. Bring us to our knees before you. I pray father that we pursue you with everything that we have got. Move in power. I am waiting.

Needs

I have been reading through the book of Deuteronomy and it has been talking a lot about helping out the poor, fatherless, and widows. Basically we need to be helping those that are in need. How are we helping those in need? What are we doing to make sure the needy are being taken care of? In fact in the book of Deuteronomy it talks of taking the tithe and giving it to the Levites (would be pastors in our day) and to the fatherless and widows. Are we doing that today? What would our churches look like if we used our church money this way? What if we didn't pay for our programs out of our church buget and got rid of the benevolent offering? What if we took the program money and used that for those in need? What would our world look like then? I think that we would see the church used how God intended it to be used.

Serving

We are called to be like Jesus. Yesterday I felt a lot like Jesus. At 7am I was up and headed out to run in the Diana Run which is a run to benefit teens so that they can be blessed and bless others. It was a great time to offer my support to such a great cause. After the Diana Run we headed over to the church to make meals for the homeless. We had 11 students and 8 adults there to help out. It was a great experience for students to see how people less fortunate than them live. We also had an awesome opportunity to talk to a guy who had lost his family to a court battle and is fighting to get them back. We saw 6 kids stuck in a room and couldn't leave because their mom was sick. It broke my heart and the heart of the children. We moved to the non-homeless side of the hotel we were giving food out to and found that they weren't as grateful or willing to accept the food. It was interesting to note that the people who were most in need were the most grateful.

It was definitely a day well spent.

Back

I am back from council. I am excited about the prospects of where the C&MA is going. We need to not only get more multicutural in our leadership but also younger. Our leaders keep getting older and older. It is healthy to have some older guys but we need younger perspectives.

It was neat to see a lot of old friends and reconnect. I heard from God in a powerful way this past week. He solidified some things in my life that I have already been pondering. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Council

I am at my first full day of council and I am actually excited about it because I am meeting up with old good friends.

Last night God gave me a vision of this denomination in its current state: I saw a dog that was shot and it was limping but the difficult part was the dog was limping away from the help. It was near help but not in the direction of help. After hearing the session last night I realize that we are a wounded congregation and are close to being healed but something has to call us out of this.

I believe that the next generation will call us out of this. Why aren't more younger leaders in a good position of leadership? Are we in a significant place of leadership? I do not know. I am praying that we not only turn around and get healed but that we start chasing revival. If this denomination wants to survive that is what we need. I know for me and some of my friends that is what we are called to.

Anniversary

Today is Kelly and I's anniversary. We have now been married 3 years. It has been an incredible three years and I wouldn't trade it for anything. We have grown a lot over that three years. It hasn't always been easy but it has been worth it. Three years ago today I was standing at the altar getting ready to say I do to Kelly for the rest of my life.

I am taking my first personal night off from youth group to spend my anniversary with Kelly. I am looking forward to just spending the evening with Kelly.

With it being my anniversary I got to thinking about my anniversary of when I accepted Christ for the first time. I honestly don't remember the date. But Jesus isn't bound by time. It is our anniversary with Jesus everyday. He takes time out of his busy schedule to spend days with us we just ignore him much of the time. Are you ignoring Jesus? He is waiting to meet with you.

Graduation

Today Kelly is graduating from Nyack College. It is the start of graduation season. This morning I got an invite on facebook to a friends graduation party. This is only the beginning. It is a season of hanging out under tents eating catered foods and tasting the pie. It is interesting as to what happens at a graduation party. You walk in and find someone you know and when you find them you normally hang out with them for a while till you see someone else that you know. Eventually you make your way through the hords of family that you have never met and people you will never see again to say congradulations to the graduate and that the cake was incredible. It is all good though because the graduate is raking in the dough.

Kelly is graduating and it is closing this chapter of our lives with Nyack. Nyack was good to us. Kelly did an awesome job of finishing her degree. We have moved onto the next chapter and to be honest I am excited about what that might be.

Congratulations Kelly and hopefully I can find you through all the impersonalness of the day. I love you.

Graduation

Today Kelly is graduating from Nyack College. It is the start of graduation season. This morning I got an invite on facebook to a friends graduation party. This is only the beginning. It is a season of hanging out under tents eating catered foods and tasting the pie. It is interesting as to what happens at a graduation party. You walk in and find someone you know and when you find them you normally hang out with them for a while till you see someone else that you know. Eventually you make your way through the hords of family that you have never met and people you will never see again to say congradulations to the graduate and that the cake was incredible. It is all good though because the graduate is raking in the dough.

Kelly is graduating and it is closing this chapter of our lives with Nyack. Nyack was good to us. Kelly did an awesome job of finishing her degree. We have moved onto the next chapter and to be honest I am excited about what that might be.

Congratulations Kelly and hopefully I can find you through all the impersonalness of the day. I love you.

Fire Chaser

So I was sitting down trying to name my blogger account and I was looking in the Bible. I noticed that in the old testament many times when God showed up Fire was there. With the presence of God there came fire. I want to find the fire because if I find the fire then I find God. I expect that God will show up when I pursue him because God wants us to pursue him. Everytime the Israelites pursued God he showed up and normally fire came with it. I talk to God everyday but I only see the fire every so often. I think I don't see the fire because I don't always expect God to show up. When we expect God to show up we will see him. If we have Jesus with us then God is there. He is waiting for us to say to him show up. Then the fire will come. When the fire comes we can jump into pits after lions we can dream God sized dreams we can jump before we see the ground we can do great things for God we can take the risk that we are scared to move on because the fire of God can't be stopped.

Chase the fire chase God. As we chase God he will lead us to scary places but it is in those places that we truly come alive. In the places God takes us we have more fulfillment than just sitting on our butts. Live True Chase the Fire!