Blood

Today is considered one of the bloodiest days for Palestinians. At least 227 people dead after Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip. Why do I live in America? I feel as though I have spent so much time thinking about teaching, re-teaching, christians, but I haven't sought a calling to go overseas to non-christian sectors of the world. I am currently reading "Back to Jerusalem", which is a long standing movement of Chinese Christians aiming to spread the gospel from China all the way back to Jerusalem. But how can they make it to Jerusalem when blood is rampant across the country of Israel over largely religious issues? Of course God is the only one who could get them there, but what would happen if God sent me to the front lines to meet with the Palestinians? These men who see death coming soon so they start saying all sorts of verses from the Koran. They don't know Christ.

Transition back to my up-most concern, I weep in church for the lost. I cry when I haven't shared my faith. I can barely focus on singing praises when I know millions across the country haven't heard the gospel. Where does God have me now? I'm tired of "Six Flags Over Jesus" stereotypes. Yes I understand light-hearted humor between religious groups, but don't we understand the problem? We go back and forth about our own church differences when we hardly talk about the 3 billion people in the world who think joy comes from a man-made structure or other man-made thoughts and philosophy. The devil has latched himself to billions across the world, but are we praying for the front lines of this Spiritual Battle? It's real. Don't become lazy. Please always stay focused on the front lines of advancing our gospel. Love the Gospel. Hate sin.

disciples

I just listened to a Question and Answer session with David Platt at Brook Hills Church. One kid asked this...

7th grade boy: How does a 4'9" person speak at his school about Christ when he is much shorter than the 5'11" guys around him?

David Platt: The spirit of Christ and you is taller than any 5'11" 7th grader. I would encourage you..the good thing is the authority and strength is not based on you, but Christ. This temptation of "i don't have what it takes to make disciples" permeates us all. The spirit of Christ is in you, and you have everything it takes to spread the gospel and make disciples of Christ. Continue to press on, and maybe the Lord will use you to lead some 5'11" guys to Christ.

This one question from a 7th grader really breaks my heart. This question breaks my heart because I wonder what my knowledge and ability from Christ is being put to work for Christ and his kingdom. Even though I have always lacked the athleticism and knowledge/understand of others around me, I know a lone-man's life for Christ can make a difference in today's society. As I am usually referred to as the abnormal or crazy guy, I know my life can make a difference.

I want to be the duck that steps his foot out in front of others. I'm tired of following the slow movement of "naval lookers" and I want to penetrate the path not scene. Christ has led me here today for a reason. My abilities have all come from Him whom I follow with all of my heart.

I believe my overall interest and knowledge of sports has decreased in the past few years because I further understand the value of following Christ rather than the value of sports. God is eternal. Sporting Championships come and go.

true love

The moment I start thinking about myself is the same moment I lose sight of true love. So how can a man ever live a life full of true love? The true love I speak of is the love of Christ. Love others just as Christ loved. The love that starts with forgetting one's self and serving. My love today starts with seeing Christ and his worth as I am just a human with a poor spirit. No pride nor selfish ambitions step foot in front of my worship before the Lord. As I'm on my knees, I look up and all I see is Jesus. This is true love to me.
Yet losing sight of true love happens so quickly, but it takes so long to come back to full understanding of love. I say again, the moment I start thinking about my own self is the moment I lose sight of true love. My desire is to focus. Every day I want to cling to his word.
If I rest in His word, I know my life will follow. The greatest joy comes from the divine romance with Jesus Christ, and I know my understanding of true love hinges on my focus on Christ.
I pray my future will always keep me overflowing with love for Christ. And in a time of my overflowing love for Christ, I know God will allow the most beautiful bride to walk across my path. I want to seek after Him.

God is Moving

I sit at my computer with joy. My plate is full.

A few weeks ago I was learning more scripture and I came across the 8th verse of Matthew chapter 5. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." After reading this my heart crumbled because I instantly thought of the opposite of this verse. I will not see God if my heart isn't pure.
This hit me like a bag of rocks to the face. As I was torn with this verse running through my head, I sat through Tony Merida's sermon about being a righteous man for Christ. This teacher usually preaches a scripture loaded sermon and this sermon was definitely full of verses pointing to the life God has called Christians to live. My heart was heavy as I questioned my recent actions and mindset. Was my heart pure? Will I not see God? As I've said my whole life, scripture and my relationship with Christ are the only things I cry about. For why should I hold in tears for my God whose love surpasses all knowledge? I just pray my tears will always point to the Lord and his compassion.

Another lesson has been on my heart lately. What are we slaves to? Or, to re-word the question, what are we following in our lives? God has called us to a strict calling for our lives, and he definitely tells gives us a clear lesson in Romans 6. If we follow sin, death will take our lives. But if we follow righteousness, holiness will take our lives.
Why stick with sin? Why chase material goods of this world which will all rust and disappear after death? What benefit did you gain from the actions, and lifestyle, you are now ashamed of? Those things lead to death. Why not chase Christ who makes all things good? Why not seek a life which leads to eternal life with Christ after death? Why not give your money to help advance the Kingdom of Christ? Why not be a rebel and never become tired of speaking about the Messiah? Our lives are nothing without Christ. Like the artist Lecrae says, "I'd rather die like Christ, than live unholy. Lord kill me if I don't preach the Gospel." Why not end the routine of talking to Christians and go share with unbelievers about Christ's impact in your life? Yes there is a time to fellowship with other believers, but please don't fill up your schedule complete with christian events/meetings/studies. Representing Christ is a lifestyle. I know you have heard this before, but people are dieing without hearing the name "Jesus." Stand up for the truth. Stand up for Christ.
I have a hard time sending my life to another country to share the name of Christ when people in my own town don't know Jesus Christ. People say we are over preached in America, but tell me why I sit next to people in church who can't find Matthew in the Bible. Or tell me why I work around atleast 3 men who claimed to be gay. They love their things of this world, but they can't clearly see Christ because they don't hear him through his scripture. I want to help others see Christ. My brothers and sisters can go over seas to share Christ, but for now I am staying here.

I praise God for the blessing of knowing him today! I praise Him for the many friends and new relationships he has allowed me to start! He has filled my plate.

God will destroy him

So I was looking through my old post on my xanga blog. I wrote this over a year ago...

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

I am worthless. Nothing in this world can help me find a way home. I deserve nothing. My actions are like dust. My heart pumps in the stirring of tremendous encore of pain in Hell. But God....he came.

He loves me. The creator of this universe loves me for me. I fall 1,000 times, but God picks me up. The dirt inside of me has been washed clean because I can see my dirt and the desire I have for Him. None of my tears can amount to the joy I have inside of me. My God loves me. I have a relationship with Him! Are you kidding? Yet, now I pray. I pray for you who has no knowledge of my love. You walk with sin, but you can't see the road. I pray one day someone will give you glasses to see the road God wants for you. He desires you just like he desires me.

SingAlong//Phil Wickham

The Wedding

I sit and run. My direction is not straight. My thoughts are skewed. All I see is blood.

My hands are covered in the blood of this man who has been inviting me. His invitation welcomes me to a kingdom, a home, a family, a community, and even a love. Why do we run away from this invitation? He has prepared the meat at the banquet. He has poured the drinks. Everything is ready for a party, but why do I accept every other party invitation except the invitation for God's party?

Late at night I often find myself watching television on the couch. Is this what I live for? How could I ever be a man worthy of sharing the invitation of God's holy feast when I can't clearly see the invitation laid before my own eyes?

God. Please bring your fire. Please. I beg you.

Matt. 22:1-14
Jesus also told them other parables. He said,“The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!
“So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.
“The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The//Party

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be

Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior
-Aaron Shust

No matter where you go, no matter where you move, no matter where you turn, God will always be there for you.

I am so thankful to have the opportunity to have found Christ at the age of eight. I remember my soul aching to run faster towards the eternal life with Jesus Christ, and my thoughts were carried without giving Hell a single opportunity to distract my vision. Now today, I pray my vision is still the same. I pray I will not give the devil a chance to diminish my light/lamp. I want to be the city on the hill where the party doesn't stop. No matter which location my life resides, I know my God is there with me.

Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the lamp wattage you have entrusted me to shine your light and let the whole world see.

Dirty Disciples Feet.

My reading exist in the book of John, yet my mind can't seem to completely fathom the scene of Jesus walking this Earth. I have always understood his role of the Son of God in human flesh, but why do people respond the way John describes?

The people in Galilee do not understand who is the true Christ yet He stands in their doorway performing miracles beyond their what their "pea" minds could imagine. This is the Savior! The living, breathing, God! As I read, I just want to yell and wake these sleeping people. But my thoughts don't stop with the townspeople.

My mind begins to examine the mistakes of the disciples. They don't really see Christ. They walk daily beside the Son of God, but they still makes fools of themselves. They still go against God's word.

My big research question...If we are striving to live a holy, pure, life without Christ on Earth, then why do those who walk with Jesus continue to fall short of living a holy, pure, life? Is it possible for us? How does this connect with God's big plan?

Blessings

My mother recently found an old school project from my 3rd year of elementary school, and the front cover of this project has a list of every student in the class.

O where my life has been.

I praise God today for the many blessings he has brought upon my life. I thank him for the opportunity to know him in an intimate relationship which started after a mid-summer revival. I was eight years old and I knew I did not want to live in the firer sin pit of hell. From summer of 1994 to today, God has brought me along a journey worthy of 10,000 pages, and 95% of those pages would be filled with thanks and praises.

I thank God for my family, and the life-time travel my home has made from Athens, South Memphis, Siloam Springs (AR), and back to East Memphis. I thank God for Ben Rediske, Tyler Dees, James Hughes, Josh Siemens, Mitch Padgett, Matchell Family, Abbott Family, Crandall Family, Hall family, Simkins Family, FBC Siloam Family, Siloam Springs High School family, Memories of Arkansas, I-40 to Memphis, FBC Fisherville Family, Rucker Family, Strong Family, Perkins Family, Cordova High School Family, Jon Brin, Michael Bartemus, Filming sports in high school, blessing of a meteorology major, the short drive to Mississippi State University, MSU BSU Family, Michael Ball, June Scoggins, Taylor Family, Chip Stevens, the Wade Patterson, Big Dave, Paul Cleveland, Remey Graham, Student Life family, Beach Reach Family, Prince Avenue family, JP, University Television Center Family, Chris Coats, Bennie Ashford, the sports video assistant employment, video production experiences, Fox13 family, internship, Joey Sulipeck, Meteorology dept at MSU family, evangelism experiences, lives saved for Christ, Ben Jones, Tyler Sholes, Wes Barnett, Martin Hayes, friends with a passion for spreading God's word, Rusty Whitten, McDaniel Family, Thomas, Simon Bailey, and so so so many more people!

I thank God for the times to be able to dig into his word and find a deeper passion and understand for His renown.

God, thank you so much for your many blessings upon my life. I praise you for the opportunity to be with you in an eternal life. I praise you O Lord!

Vulnerability

We are extremely vulnerable. Does a conscious process exist beyond vulnerability? We will. We are. We exist as intricate creatures of bold self actualization inhabiting a world built for hope.

The detail of our deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, is one testimony to the magnifying greatness of believing in our great God. How can a "goo", a ball of dust, create such humans? The architect of our body can only land a true creator of great power and knowledge. The essence of creation stands with the formation of humans who bleed, cry, hurt, tire, sweat, intoxicate, snarl, burn, and wrinkle. Could the intricate design of our senses allow us to further understand God Almighty? He is bold! He is great! He is strong! He is healthy. He is our architect.

In our world of seeking self gratitude, how long must we go before we understand our insufficient power which cannot control our bleeding, crying, hurting, tiring, sweating, intoxication, snarling, burning, and wrinkling? There must be something more than us. Life is not a box alone. Life is a box with God looking from the outside-in. He created everything in the box. We owe it, our lives, all to Him.

Man thinks he needs himself, but, without hesitation, I pray all of humanity will see the necessity to need God.

The Battle

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Phil 3:8


Life is a battle. Muffled between our tire tread lives an inconspicuous matter of battling blood. So many of us do not see the matter. So many of us don't look to gauge the depth of tread. We simply waste our time and effort on existing beyond the tread of life. A tread which has divided this world since the Garden.

What would happen if we picked teams? No team captains. No all stars. No "ghost runners." This is not a normal pick-up game. These teams are life teams.

Since the moment the devil stuck his head into the world, we were given a choice. A choice that deems to setup two teams: truth vs. lies. The battle between truth and falsehood. One stands for life, but the other mirrors the choice of death itself.

As Christians, do we think of life as a continuing battle between truth and lies? Are we fighting for the truth? Are we daily fighting a battle, not against people, but against the evil which continues to lurk in the falsehood of this world? We live in a Cosmic Battle (described by Dr. Del Tackett in "The Truth Project"). So many people chase after lies. Alcohol, Sex, Drugs, Entertainment, Night Clubs, Big Trucks, Fast Cars, "the image", Celebs, and several other amenities that amount to idols. In short, millions of people chase LIES: the enemy component to the battle. Do we cringe to see the enemy win soles over? Do we hate to see more people continually find themselves drafted, or swallowed, by the evil falsehood of this world?

For me, the worst is seeing a brother in christ (from the truth army) fold and become part of the falsehood.

Are we fighting? Do we stand for what we believe? Do we pray for God's word to be spread? Do we find enough faith in Jesus Christ to stand firm and be glad in KNOWING Christ Jesus our Lord? We know Him! Rejoice and be glad because we know Him!

So many people do not know Him. They live a world of lies and falsehood. They do not understand the Falsehood army leads to death. They do not understand how the evil in this world leads to division, miscommunication, and jealousy instead of unity, communication, and roles provided by the truth found in God. Falsehood leads to disorder and death in this life. I pray they will understand the beauty of truth which leads to peace in todays life.

I also pray we will fight. May we love people but hate evil. May we daily put on our Armor of God (Eph 6) so that we may take a stand against the devil's schemes. May we further understand how to consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWing Christ Jesus our Lord. Do people understand what to lose and what there is to gain?

Static Routine . . .

What happens when our pattern is stopped?

Please allow me to start by declaring our life is a routine. For those in the workforce, we wake up and go to sleep in a daily motion of wake-read-eat-work-sleep. For those in school, we wake up and go to sleep in a daily motion of wake-read-class-chill-(study)-sleep. Everything we follow has a pattern because we were raised in a society of pattern. As a baby we were rigid and forced into a pattern of sleeping and eating. Was this the first pattern? And does this sole beginning to pattern own our lives?

Please allow me to remove you from a pattern. But wait, how can we ever remove ourselves from a pattern when even an unmethodical, haphazard, lifestyle is a pattern itself? Yet by only removing yourself from a normal pattern, do you believe you will be disoriented? adrift? lost?

Please allow me to digress and depart for the remaining time. So many times in my life I devour a topic too deep beyond what my mind can perceive, but within the midst of my mystery my thoughts are absorbed into a christ-centered weight.

In terms of patterns, please help me understand the outcome of a child learning the pattern of Christ before food and sleep. Is this concept so foreign as to only occur in times previous to Adam & Eve? Today we sin. Today children are born into a world of sin, but could there every be a christian so in-tune with God that he/she could look before the Garden of Eden? Their thoughts and patterns would abstain from a human mind born into a world, lifestyle, of sin. I believe this Christian would have been found before Adam and Eve because, before eating of the apple, God did not strap them to a routine such as eat-sleep. But today we are unable to escape this sinful world strapped by a routine of eat-sleep.

We need food like crops need the rain. We depend on food and nutrition to step forward in life, and we also cling to sleep because our bodies depend on resting our nervous system. In the depth of our sinful ways, we need God.

This whole story concludes. Through our life today, and in our daily pattern, we need God. Please do not worry about your routine, yet know the necessity of having God in your life. Through God we can be born again. We can live a life in the world but not of the world. So strap onto Him. Dig deep to run closer to Him in your life. Never want food or sleep more than God.

Mud

Where has God brought me in the past year?

My current life cannot be more of a blessing. I praise God for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. There is no reason I deserve the friends who pick me up when I am lost, beaten, and buried.

As I sit here, less than seven days away from graduation, I still feel like a freshman about to walk in the door of an unknown college campus, but this time I do not know where I will be spending the next four years of my life. All I have on my back are some clothes, shoes, and a bible. Tonight my prayer goes out to faith in Jesus Christ my Lord.

The hardest decision in man's life has to be the act of becoming emptied for a higher gain. Do you ever feel like you are waiting on God to "shake you out and be empty" before you move into the next phase of your life? You trudge along in path of mud only waiting to become stripped clean and back on the sidewalk again.
In the midst of indecision and confusion we must know God. He made us for today. The past week of "rough" spiritual journey doesn't compare to a life full of grace and growth in Him. God has made us for a moment such as this. We are prepared. We are ready to attack the battle with our weapons held high. In the middle of our "mud" God has already prepared us for this moment, and we must remember our weapons are bigger than only a few days of preparation. God has sharpened our sword for a lifetime. We have our weapons in holster and ready to attack. Mark. Lean. Go fight the good fight.