Live the Adventure

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

2009-02-01T14:13:00.001-08:00

Do you dislike your job? If you said yes, you would be with about 80% of Americans who say they don't like their current place of employment. Many of us today dread the sound of an alarm clock because it signals another day at a place we don't want to be. Some of us (myself included some days) stay up late wanting to savor every moment of freedom before their 9 AM lockdown. Lets face it is often like lockdown, we sit in our cubicles, offices, and work sites staring outside dreaming of the moment when we have finished serving our time and we are finally let out to once again live as free men and women

Sound like you, sound like what you might be thinking this Monday morning. I know the weekend just ended and with the indigestion of to many nachos in our belly and the excitement of wining the big game still in our minds work is the last place we want to be.

I am hoping to give you a more positive outlook. Today my family went grocery shopping, we prepared a meal and we thanked the lord. We thanked him for our provision. Give us this day our daily bread. We may not say those exact words but we paraphrase. We say lord provide for my family, lord take care of my finances, we call out Jehovah Jireh (the lord provides). It occurred to this weekend as my pending sentence approached that I am not a condemned man, come 9am I am not trapped, come 9 am I am provided for. Every time I wake up and go to work I see an answer to my prayers. Every day I see the miracle of God's provision in action. This week I encourage you to go to work positively, it is an answer to pray. Live the Adventure.

More Pasta Please

2009-01-29T19:56:00.001-08:00

It seems God presence is on me in this season. For I find him even at the restaurant. This Sunday I had the pleasure of having lunch with my wife at the Olive Garden. I have just recently broken a twenty one day fast and in the process my stomach has shrunk I can consume less than I did before. This to my advantage as I wish to keep the weight I lost off. Any how, since I eat less than I did before and because the Olive Garden is not the most economical place to have lunch, my wife and I decided to share a meal. Since we were only purchasing one meal we went all out. In addition to the bread they bring out we ordered an appetizer and a salad and pasta. It was a good ole fashioned three course Italian meal.

Well of course it was Sunday and the lines where long. So I was hungry when I left church at noon, I was famished by the time two o’clock rolled around and we were finally getting a table. As soon as we sat down we ordered our food. Within minutes they had brought out a huge bowl of salad and our appetizer. I attacked the food. I began to devour the breadsticks, inhale the salad, and demolished the appetizer. After about ten to fifteen minutes had passed and my feeding frenzy had subsided the pasta finally arrived. The pasta was my wife’s choice and it was delicious. While I can not properly spell the name, the dish had the most amazing chicken, shrimp and beacon. It went down smoothly with a creamy cheesy sauce. MMMM! However to my dismay after just a few bites I was full. I could barely eat another bite. The most delicious part of the meal and I couldn’t eat it, I had wasted my appetite on appetizers, bread and salad. The cheap stuff, the stuff that almost tastes the same at home. I was devastated. I complained to my wife, she laughed and happily consumed her portion and mine. “You should have waited” she said with a smile and a laugh as she took another forkful of pasta and I looked at her enviously. As I watched my wife I laughed and realized I should have waited. It occurred to me that my lunch and life where much the same. We have such a hunger for life too often we waste our time, energy and effort on the cheap stuff, the stuff that doesn’t matter and when its time for the good stuff its to late, we have already spent what we have and others enjoy our portion. These last few weeks our pastor has encouraged us to a life of discipline. I want to encourage you to the same. It is true that in a disciplined life there is much sacrifice, however what is sacrificed is the appetizer, the salad and the breadsticks. You may not always be full however when the time is right there will be plenty of room for the Pasta. Don’t be like me be like my wife, wait for the pasta. Live the adventure.

While You Were Sleeping

2009-01-25T13:28:00.001-08:00

I love my son. Its amazing the things that parents do for their children. Raising a child is true hard work, it is rewarding but none the less hard. Its only my been my first month so I am sure the true challenges lie ahead, however these past few weeks have not been with out their difficulty. My son is such a whiner ( he takes after dad). No matter how tired that boy is he refuses to fall asleep until he is in the exact position and location that he wants to be. My wife and I are quickly discovering that the position he prefers is in my arms or hers, if he wakes in the middle of the night and discovers that he is not in his parent's arms he will scream until he finds himself there. So in the wee hours of this morning I found my self walking around the house rocking my son back to sleep. I seemed to walk around for about 30 minutes before he dozed off, I rocked him a few minutes longer just to make sure he went into a deep sleep and would not be easily aroused. In this time of additional rocking I had revelation. When Elishah awakes he would have no idea how much work went into keeping him asleep. As he slumbered he had no idea his dad was still awake, walking him around. Furthermore for many years Elishah will comprehend the efforts that go into raising him. In fact most psychologist tell us that children have no idea that world does not revolve around them until they are about 8 it takes a few years for them to fully realize it. Even as a teenager Elishah will not fully appreciate his mom's and I's efforts. I did not realize my parent's hard work until my twenties and think that I may only be truly comprehending it now as I take on those responsibilities myself.

So what is the point? The point is that God loves us like we love our children, we are his sons and daughters. If he loves me like I love Elishah then much insight can be taken from the fact that Gods relationship with me is similar to my relationship with my son. This being the case if while Elishah is un-aware, while he is sleeping I am still awake laboring to ensure his comfort, safety and well-being than while I remain unaware God is still laboring ensuring my comfort, safety and well being. It fills me with awe and gratitude. What happens behind my back to ensure my destiny, what things are taking place to ensure that I complete the adventure? I do not know the answer and assume that this side of heaven there is much I will not know, however I find comfort and security in knowing that though I am unaware God is laboring for me. Thank you God! Live the Adventure.

Half Empty or Half Full

2009-01-20T19:47:00.001-08:00

Is the glass half empty or half full. The answer is based on your perception, how do you view the glass as half empty or half full. Luke 11:33 states the eyes are the lamps of the soul, if the eyes are good then the whole body is full of light like wise if the eyes are bad then the body is full of darkness." If you eyes perceive the world as being dark then your world is dark if your eyes perceive the world as light then your world is light. If your glass is half empty you are constantly focused on what lacks in life, if your glass is half full your focus is always on what you have in abundance.

Let me share with you briefly. This last year has been the most miserable in my whole life. I have never felt so low and so hopeless nor have I ever felt it for such long periods of time. Why? Situationaly life has not been good, there are many things that did not go right, however situationaly I have been through worse. I can give you several examples of years where my circumstances have been far worse. In case you didn't know I have been to war, real war, with fighting and bullets and bombs. Their were nights without sleep, weeks without showers, days were food was short, I was separated from those I loved and devoid of any creature comforts. Can you imagine how disgusting it feels to spend your day in temperatures averaging 130 degrees Fahrenheit only to go to bed with out a shower on a warm cot, to make matters worse your night would be plagued with tiny insects making a buffet of your flesh. I am not kidding these are what many of my days were like yet in all this situational lack I remember having high spirits and good times. As far as circumstances are concerned last year did not even come close yet I was miserable. How is this possible? Some where along my adventure my eyes went bad, I stopped seeing how full my world was and started seeing it as "half empty".

I tell my youth every time we meet the "Christ came that they may have life and have to the full" I say life is an adventure. True life to the full can only come with good eyes. We must constantly check how we are viewing life, are we seeing it as half empty or half full. Live the adventure.

20/15 Vision

2008-12-01T04:24:00.001-08:00

Ever heard of 20/15 Vision? It is one step above 20/20 vision, it means what you should be able to see only at 15 you can see at 20/20. As a young child I took create pride in always being able to achieve 20/15 on my eye exam.

Lets go to another person with excellent vision. Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Mary was not married and impregnated by the holy spirit. This puts Mary in a difficult situation. Good Jewish women did not have sex before they were married, to not be a virgin and not be married would at the least make you a reject and the scum of the earth in Jewish society, at worst it would have got you executed. So Mary a godly woman is now walking around pregnant and un-married. She suffers the stares and the mumbling as she walks by, she suffers being ostracized from her friends, she suffers the doubt and mistrust from her parents. She is treated as a sinner although she is a saint. Yet in Luke chapter 1 verse 49 she says "The Mighty One has done great things for me." So wait a minute you live your whole life godly trying to please the lord, and in doing his will you end up being the recipient of everyone's scorn and all he leaves you with is the "I got impregnated by the holy spirit" story and your saying the lord has done great things for you.

It gets better as Mary comes into term Rome decides to take a census, so she is forced to travel on a camel across the desert as a pregnant woman. My wife is pregnant and in term pregnancy she is not comfortable on our bed I can not imagine that Mary was comfortable on a Camel. If things could not become any worse she goes into labor while the only hotel for the night is booked. She is forced to give birth in a stable, not a warm bed, not a hospital bed, not in comfortable birthing center but in a stable. As I have been educated in birthing process I have seen how nasty birth can be, its bloody full of fluid and she is doing this in a stable. It stinks, its cold, there may be animal manure around on the floor is full of hay which is absorbing every bodily fluid that comes out of her, the hay sticks to her as she is trying to move about. It would be a bloody sticky mess. Then to make matters even better her newborn, whom she knows is the son of God is placed in a manager, a feeding trough for animals. I can tell you that as we become term my wife has cleaned, sanitized and decorated every environment that our child will touch, and Mary had to place her son in a manager. At the end of the night after Mary is visited by a few Shepherds the bible says that Mary "treasured up all these things."

I have to admit that at this point I might have been angry, I might have been bitter, I am carrying the son of God and this is the best that I can get a stinky stable and a manager, yet Mary treasured all these things. Why do you think that is? I think its because Mary had 20/15 vision. She could see farther from where she was then most. She realized that all these things were just minor inconveniences, they were war stories of an incredible adventure. She knew her destination was to be the mother of our savior. Ever taken a family vacation, I am talking about the ones taken in the car, you know the one's where its like 34 hours and you have four of you and all your luggage all stuffed in into a small sedan. Your knees ache, you are tired and groggy but you can't sleep, your going insane from boredom and you little sister is driving you crazy. Yeah that kind. They are miserable and tiring yet we do them again and again, why, because journeys are always difficult but destinations are always awesome. That's what Mary had in mind she realized that her journey was on the way to an awesome destination.

The bible says that with out vision people perish, that's because if you don't know where you're going than the focus is no longer the destination but the journey and journeys are miserable. If the journey is what your focus is than your life will be miserable and with out hope, will become angery and bitter and quit. You will make your destination what ever road side stop offers you some marginal comfort but you'll never be satisfied. Who wants to live their life at a gas station, lives are lived at destinations. With this in mind I encourage all of you to have a destination in mind. Prepare a vision statement for your life. I know for a fact that's what I am going to do. I am going to spend a greater part of the rest of this year creating some solid vision statements for my life, so that I have destination in mind, so that I can have 20/ 15 vision, so I can see farther the most and maybe just maybe I will be able to achieve more than most. Live the adventure.

Scared Stiff

2008-11-18T03:19:00.001-08:00

Can I be very honest with everyone? Today I am scared; I am quite literally shaking in my boots. Its one thing to say "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" it is another thing entirely to actually have to do it. I am scared because today I come up against something that I can not do in my own strength. I lack the skill, I lack the experience, I lack the wisdom, none the less it is mine to do and no one else can do it. I really wish God would just take this away from me. I wish that I would wake up one morning and it would all be over. But it won't. The bible says we are "Co-heirs" with Christ, that means we get to co-inherit heaven with him, it also means we get to co-heir in his battles with him. It means some times God doesn't rescue us, sometimes he helps us fight our way out.

Let me take you the first chapter in Joshua. Moses has Just died. Joshua is now in charge of leading Gods people into the promised land. It is not as easy as it sounds, it is not a short walk across the Jordan and then over the hill into a beautiful and fruitful valley. It was a very long walk across treacherous terrain filled with hostile peoples, some in fortified cities, with armies greater than his own. Now Joshua had been in skirmish or two in his life but this was all out war, not to mention he was leading the Israelites. For those not familiar with the story the Israelites complained and wanted to quit several times before they finally got to the promised land, they were not what you would consider a hardened soldiers. So Joshua has just been put in charge of a nation and its destiny which by the way involves a massive war that will be fought by a bunch of potential quitters. Do you think he was scared!?

The lord speaks to Joshua just before they enter the promised land. He says two things I want to note. One "Be Strong and courageous" (he says that twice) and "Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go". So do you think he was scared? I do, I don't think God says things like that to people who aren't scared.

So what is the morale of the story? The morale is Joshua won and the people inherited the land. Despite his fears he won, despite what he lacked he won. Maybe your like me this morning maybe you are faced with an obstacle in which you in your own strength can not overcome. As is the case with me and with Joshua that obstacle, that battle is not going to go away, you are going to have to face it. In that situation the words that were spoken to Joshua are also spoken to you and me. Be strong and courageous do not be terrified, do not be discourage for the lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Remember Joshua won, after many scary long battles Joshua won and so will you. Live the Adventure.

Why Not Me!? Why Not Now!?

2008-11-17T04:35:00.001-08:00

If we go the first chapter in Luke we find the story of the parents of John the Baptist. His parents are Zechariah and Elizabeth. Zechariah was priest and the bible says that both Zechariah and Elizabeth were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lords commandments and regulations blamelessly. The bible continues to say "but they had no children because Elizabeth was barren and they where both well along in years."

Now I put these two statements together here for a reason. Israel at the time a theology known as the "Retribution Principal" the principal was quite simple, it stated: That God blesses the righteous and curses the wicked therefore those who lived blessed lives are obviously righteous and those who do not lived blessed lives must be wicked. In other words your suffering was your fault you brought it on your self due to your own sin.

How horrible it must have been for Zechariah and Elizabeth. They not only had no children they also had to deal with the fact that they were looked down upon by friends and neighbors who believed in the retribution principal. Elizabeth dealt with the women taking behind her back; Zachariah had to deal with all of his priest buddies trying to figure out what his secret sin was. Think of their Sabbath services, they are sitting in the pew as rabbi teaches on how God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Not only would people look down their nose at them while affirming their own righteousness they must have been asking themselves the question "why me?" They must have been frustrated to say the least, to say the worst they may have had moments of anger and bitterness towards God.

Ever felt like these Guys. Maybe you don't have people taking behind your back but maybe you suffer, maybe you suffer despite the fact that you live righteously, maybe suffer though you keep the commandments and regulations with out blame. Maybe you sit in your pew frustrated. Maybe as you hear the preacher talking about the promises of God and how they are available to those who believe you sit there and ask your self "why me" why am I not getting the blessing?!

It can not be emphasized enough that the kingdom of God is more like an army than a family. Let me explain that a little. In a family if children are good and they follow the rules they are more likely to get better gifts and more privileges from mom and dad. It must also be said that in families that rewards can come at fairly regular and predictable intervals. These times might be in holidays, birthdays or right after report cards. In the army soldiers who are good are asked to go through more difficult training and to go on the more difficult missions, in essence the better you get the more difficult and more dangerous your life can become. Also in the army there are no regular intervals; periods of rest, relaxation and reward are based on the needs of the army. Some soldiers (especially the good ones) must go on long difficult missions

Such is the case with Elizabeth and Zachariah, the bible says they where off in years. They had suffered the results of being barren for a number of years. Their mission was difficult; however they gave birth to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ. There timing of reward was based on the needs of the Lord's army, if John where born to early or to late he would have been of little impact. Also if John had not been born in such a miraculous way it may have diminished evidence of God's hand in his birth.

So if this is you. If you are following the Lords commandments with out blame and yet continue to suffer than take heart. The reality is John the Baptist's parents where highly favored among the lord, they were some of his best soldiers that's why he chose them for such a difficult mission. Such is the case with you. Your are one of his best soldiers. God appreciates what you are doing. Live the adventure.

Does Size Really Matter

2008-10-05T19:47:00.001-07:00

Does size really matter? I am referring to size the of your obstacles, or the size of your problem. Does it really matter. I was reading about the Israelites the other day they where in captivity. They were slaves in Egypt and they have been for the last 400 years. God sent Moses to them to tell them that he was going to free them from Egypt and send them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Sounds good right, sounds good to me I will take milk and honey over captivity.

So I am going to make a long story short the Israelites got to the promised land....Well they almost got there. You see they were about a two weeks journey from the promised land and God tells Moses to send some spies into the land to see who lives their how strong they where, and to see what the land was like and if it had a good crop.

So Moses selects 12 men, 1 from each tribe and he sends them out. What they find there is awesome. The grapes where so big that to carry one cluster they had to carry it on a pole between two men. 1 Cluster between 2 men that is crazy. The land was everything God said it would. Oh yeah there was one little catch, the sons of Anak where there.

Sons of who? The sons of Anak, to keep it short the sons of Anak where a race of Giants. Goliath was a son of Anak. Goliath was 10 1/2 feet tall, it gives you guys an idea of how big they where. So these guys where huge. I must ask again does size matter? To the Israelites it did they went back to the camp and said and I quote "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit." Then came the but. Here is another quote ".
But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there." Then they said "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." They began to chicken out. Why? The sons of Anak were to big. Does size matter.

To the Israelites it did. In fact the whined and cried and moan until God got so sick of them he sentenced them to wander the desert for 40 years. In fact that generation that whined and cried none of them entered the promised land God told them he would not allow them to enter until "everyone of you lies dead in the desert."

Here is the moral of the story God calls every single one of us to something awesome. Just like the Israelites, we all have a promised land to enter. Also just like the Israelites there will be sons of Anak which stand in your way. They will be big huge problems, things you don't think you can beat. However size doesn't matter. We must remember God called them to promised, it was their destiny to live their and rule over it. We must also remember our destiny's are our God ordained mission. we used to have saying in the army "mission first" that was your first priority the mission. God is looking for warriors people to go and expand his kingdom, people that want the promised land, and people that are willing to fight for it. That particular generation of Israel didn't so they got to hang out in the desert. It wasn't all bad they were provided for and they were safe, very little war takes place while they are in the desert however there is not a more mediocre existence than wondering the desert. If you want the best of God, the promised land you have to be willing to stand up against your own individual sons of Anak. God can get you through it, with him you will succeed but you have to be willing to fight to step out on faith and Live The Adventure.

SHOOT EM UP BANG BANG

2008-09-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make, I am an action guy. Want my top 4 movies try the 4 Die Hard movies. Long drawn out elequent and poetic diaglogues do not impress me, give me a one liner. Here is some dialogue from the t.v. "According to Jim" That I can relate to:

Wife: "I don't want to see a movie where something gets blown up"

Jim: "If something doesn't get blown up it ain't a movie"

You know what else I love Action Video games. My favorite video games are those in which youre surronded by a thousand bad guys and each level there just becomes more and more of them. I love to see just how far I can get and how many bad guys I can kill.

I think we can learn alot from the action video games and the movies. The hero never gives up, never quits, never thinks its impossible. There are no odds in which he is not willing to come up against. If he is going out he is taking as many bad guys as he can with him and saving as many as he can with his own life.

As christians we would do well to live this way, never give up and never quite and never be afraid to battle the odds. In addition you know youre life will eventually end so take out as many bad guys as you can and save as many good ones ( I am talking of removing demonic strong holds and saving lost souls remember our battle is not against flesh and blood. So don't kill anybody). Live the adventure.

MOOSE DISCLAIMER: Jake Godlewski does not support violent video games that endorse or condone violence done to the innocent or criminal activity AKA: Grand Theft Auto is bad so are games like it.

I'M A VIRGIN!!!!!

2008-09-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

When is the last time you have heard that announced with pride from the roof tops. When was the last time you have seen a man puff up his chest and say "yep, never had sex" or a guy wearing a bright yellow bracelet that says VIRGIN. I have never seen it nor heard of it. Lets be honest, and I am talking mostly to the guys, virginity is not something we wear with pride. Its more like an embarrassing cumbersome burden that must be carried until marriage. The sooner we can legally get rid of this burden the better. I mean you're not even a real man until you've had sex. Those who have not had sex are quasi-men, semi-manly, kinda of manly, but not really manly, right.? I disagree.

Who do we consider men, who are the toughest of the tough, the bravest of the brave, the manliest of the men? How about Army Green Berets, or Navy Seals, or Pro-Athletes? Most men would consider these among the toughest of the tough and the manliest of the men. What makes them the most manly?

What makes them the manliest is the fact that they are conquers, they kick butt and take names, they do what few can. In fact of every 100 aspiring college athletes only 3 will become pro, out every marine who enters seal training less than twenty percent will be able to complete it, out of every 100 candidates for the Army's Green Berets only 7 will dawn the coveted green beret. These are sobering numbers but they are what make these men the best of the best, the toughest of the tough and the manliest of the men.

Let me share a few other numbers for you. 95% of all Americans have had sex before they were married, 54% of teens claim to have had sex at least once in their lives, 81% of the males in America have sex before age twenty. This is the thing we classify how manly men are by the obstacles they can overcome, the things they can do that others can't. According to these numbers in the struggle against premaritial sex 95% fail, the majority before they get out high school the rest shortly thereafter. The bottom line is staying pure is hard, in fact it is satistically harder to stay a virgin until marriage then it is to become an Army Green Beret or a Navy Seal, and just 2% less difficult than becoming a pro athlete. By these numbers I would say being a virgin makes you a certified butt kicker not a wimp. Take pride in purity you're achieving a feat few others can. Virgin is not an embarrassing classification but rather a title that should be worn with pride. Its right up their with Centurion, Spartan, Gladiator. I AM A VIRGIN!!!! scream it from the roof tops, puff up your chest and say "yep never had sex", dawn a bracelet that says virgin, your a certified butt kicker, you're the elite, you are doing what others can't. For the record I stayed a virgin for twenty six years, until I got married, and I am proud of it! Live the adventure.

Elisha Noah Godlewski

2008-09-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce my son Elisha Noah Godlewski. He is not born yet but he his on the way. I think I might be the typical proud father, I like this picture because he is smiling. I remember leaving the Doctors office that day thinking "yep, my son can smile" as if smiling was some tremendous feet. I am also proud when he kicks or makes movement. Its not so much what he is doing it is the fact that my son is doing it. I also look forward to meeting him, this is a puzzling because I don't even know what he is like, in fact really I won't be able to socialize with him for about another twenty years. It doesn't matter though because he is my son and I am interested in him and proud of him for whatever. Doesn't matter what he is or is doing he is mine.

This leads me to my point you are gods, gods love is not based on performance or what you can do for him its based on one thing and one thing only, you are his, you belong to him. That's it, nothing you did or will ever do matters to him, he isn't attracted to your personality or your looks, he likes you for you because you came from him.

That's awesome. It gives us the freedom to screw up, fail, make bad decisions, say things that are stupid and know gods love isn't going anywhere because it was never based on that to begin with. Live the Adventure.

Wher have you been?

2008-09-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

Where have you been, who is this. You mean there is something actually different than a picture of oranges up on the screen. Crazy. Okay so I have been gone awhile. In fact its been so long I had troube finding my own site.

The questions looms; where have I been and what have I been doing and why did I stop my blog. The very simple answer is I have been living the adventure in real time. This blog has been adamant in expressing one thing, life is an adventure and like all true adventures it has its very high high's and its very low, lows. In fact the reality of the situation is that in most adventures there are more downs then up, there is more time spent in grave danger and extreme hardship than there is time spent in the sweet moment of victory.

We have seen enough adventure movies to know one thing the sweet moment of victory is well worth all the hardships that the hero must suffer to get there. In the hero's sweet moment of victory we all marvel him and wish we where them and wish their story was ours. So where have I been, I have been one of the low lows, I have been is the scene in the movie where nobody wishes they're the hero, the part of the adventure we wish we could skip, but with out this part (the hard part) it would not be an adventure and the hero would not be a hero. While I am not a hero yet, I want to be, I want to man who stands at the end of the story in his sweet moment of victory. I want all you out there in blog land to be a hero as well. I encougrage you if youre down then get back up, if youre struggeling don't stop just keep moving, the hero that quits is not a hero. I am including a song in this weeks blog its an oldie but a goodie its words in this season of my life have rang truer then anything I have heard on christian radio, I hope it encourages you as it does me. Don't back down and live the adventure.

Do You Like Oranges

2008-05-16T07:42:00.001-07:00

How many of you like oranges, I know I do. In fact my favorite Juice is tropicana with lots of pulp. Its almost like drinking a solid orange I love it. Let me ask you another question how many of you like hot humid weather. I don't ethier in fact I hate it. Its funny though oranges grow best in hot and humid weather.

I was taking a walk and saying my morning prayers. The first thing I did was thank God for the beautiful weather. I sure that I am not the only one, we all thank God for beautiful days. But the cool 75 tempatures do not bring florida oranges. The same is true with green grass, everybody likes green grass but how many of us curse the rainy day.

My point is this thank God for the good days, thank him also for the bad days because of the good things they bring. Live the Adventure.

Soldierz

2008-05-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted to discuss the idea of soldiers. While within a given army all soldiers are belong to the same army, and that army has one collective mission. Each soldier generally has a individual mission that he must do in order that the army as a whole can complete its objective.

While I was in the army there where are a few different groups of soldiers. There are those which us combat guys deemed as Pougs. Pougs we said sat in the rear with the gear. These are typically your admin guys, supply guys, and your techies. These types of Soldiers you usually stay in the back far from battle, very far. They may be in the same country but they are miles from a gunshot. Often times they will be in air conditioned buildings, they are always nearby supply chains, having quick access to food, water, showers, beds. They lead the most comfortable and safe life that can be lead by a soldier.

Then there are you combat arms guys or your front line soldier, these are the guys who are always near the battle, Where ever a gun shot is fired they are there. They are typically not close to any supplies. They often have poor food, no showers, and get little sleep. They are very uncomfortable and rarely safe.

Then you have the roughest of all soldiers, your special forces. These guys never sleep, they go into the roughest climates on earth, for days at a times, often with a small ruck sack. They bring no rain gear, no sleeping gear, very little food. There ruck sacks have room for mainly ammo and equipment. They are in small teams with little support, at the drop of a hat they are asked to go to the far corners of the earth and not tell friends or families where they are going or when they are coming back. They are elite and highly favored by their commanders, they are however rarely honored what they do is done is secret, if they get a medal their not allowed to tell you why or how they got it. Their great deeds and hard lives are lived in secret.

Who are you and where do you want to be. I must tell you that all soldiers no matter how rough or dangerous their role is play a vital part in the army, with out one of their missions the army as a whole would not survive, the army's mission would fail. I also must mention that no one is truly safe and that all units in the army face danger, some just more than others. I must say the army of God is set up the same way. There are those who's lives may be a little easier that doesn't mean their less spiritual or less saved or not as holy . It also doesn't mean that there better or more favored than you it just means there mission is different. We all have different missions and different burdens to bear. We must remember we are a team serving one purpose heading towards one goal, the kingdom of heaven. What ever mission God has chosen you for whether very easy, or very difficult it is your mission, bear it with pride. That's what soldiers do. Soldiers of God...Live the adventure.

Where else would you rather be

2008-05-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

This is a special post as I write to you today from the E.R. room my wife is being treated in. Relax, its not serious. At 12:20 in the morning a day of pregnancy nausea where she couldn't hold anything down had taken its toll on the girl and she requested to go to hospital. I must admit that as I lay my hand on my wife's stomach to pray for her as we took the long sleepy drive to E.R. I became a little discouraged. Its 12:20 at night I know the hospital stay with will take us to at least three if not four. I loath aproaching the check in desk and telling them that I don't have insurance, I loath even more the exorbant hospital bill that will follow. A voice in the back of my mind says "have faith". Another voice quickly retorts; I am tired of having faith, tired of praying tired of believing when will I just get a brake, I always feel like I am ice skating up hill in a snowstorm, can't I do something, can't I go somwhere else.

Then I hear the voice of God, its always different from the thoughts in head, its louder yet more serene and it always speaks sense that you can't deny. He said "where else would you rather be" it took me but a second to realize I love this stuff. Don't get me wrong I am not looking forward to another bill nor a sleepless night but I look forward to what it brings. At the end of this there will be a child and God only knows how awesome he/she will become, the mighty things they will do. Its the same with life yes its hard especially right now but where else would I rather be. I am in the midst of the adventure God has sent me on how cool is that. What do I want to retire, sit on the porch and experience the easy life? You have got to be kidding me I want the adventure I want to see it and do it all, but no adventure comes without peril and sacrifice, child birth will be no different, nethier will the life I live. The greater the adventure, the more awesome the story, the more difficult the circumstance one must endure. There is only thing left to say...Live the Adventure.

Legacy

2008-05-01T04:53:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking alot about what I want to be rememebered for. I remember a man that died while I was in Iraq. When he his fellow soldiers stood up to give testimony about him they all said one thing. "He was pretty good a sports". I do not want the defintive memory people have about me to be "he is good at sports". The fact is I am terrible at sports so I don't have to worry, but the point I am trying to get at is I want to be remembered for something deep, something that will impact lives, not something superficial. I want to be remembered for how I handled adveristy in my life, my reactions and responses to difficult times, I want my memory not to be an example in good times, but for what to do when times are not so good.
It is this desire that allows me to perserve some days.when I get frustrated or discouraged and just want to quit, or when the godly life seems to tiring and I want to go astray, there is always the nagging thought in the back of my brain when people hear my story and they hear this part what will they hear; how I perservered or how I quit, will they hear how godly I acted or will the hear how selfish I was? I must remember that every day and every moment even the difficult ones is my legacy in the making. I must ask with every decision I make how do I want to be remembered.
What do you want your legacy to be, remember every moment of every day is your legagcy in the making, how do you want to be remembered. Live the adventure.

Maybe God Doesn't Hate You After All

2008-04-29T04:38:00.000-07:00

In Judges 10 we once again read how unfaithful Israel has once again fallen into the hands of an evil foreign power. In their distress they call out to God they say (and I am paraphrasing) "We have sinned against you, we have turned to worship other Gods, Help us. God replys "time and time again I have saved you and yet you still turn to worship other Gods, Tell you what cry out to your other Gods, Let them save you" Israel persists even throwing out their other Gods then It says remarkably in Judges 10:16

"Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer."

He could bear their misery NO LONGER. No longer? You mean he was having a tough time dealing with it before, you mean he wasn't enjoying Israels misery even after they had betrayed him yet again? What? That doesn't make sense? Could it be that God does not delight in the suffering of people? Thats Crazy!

Crazy but true. The fact of the matter is God does not hate you, when you suffer he suffers, he hates seeing you in distress. There is a lot more we could take about in that verse but for now I just want you to let that thought simmer. God doesn't hate you, talk to him tell him your problems ask for his help, maybe you'll find that God can bear your misery no longer. Live the adventure

Knowing war

2008-04-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

I was reading in the Judges 3:1-2

These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):

Why is it importan that a nation would know war. Ever seen this on a bumper sticker:
"No Jesus, No Peace"
"Know Jesus, Know Peace"
Let me submit to you another expression.
"No War, No Peace"
"Know War, Know Peace".
To establish a Kingdom takes a fight, so does keeping it. Obviously the country that can not war will be easily invaded. In addition a country that does not know war only has one option to keep its self secure, that is diplomacy. While diplomacy is a great tool for keeping the peace it has a great weakness, compromise. The problem with compromise is that you have to give something up, you give up where you stand on a certain issue so that opposing side will give up where they stand and war can be averted. A country that can not defend itself will always compromise the problem with always compromising is you lose what you stand for, you quite being who you are and believing what you believe and become what ever they want you to be. Thats why a country needs to know war, because sometimes we have to fight not because diplomacy hasn't worked because on some issues diplomacy is not an option. The same is true in christianity, we must know war, we must be able to defend our faith, there are some issues on which diplomacy and compromise is not an option. Live the Adventure.

Comparing Apples

2008-04-10T02:59:00.000-07:00

An Interesting comparision. As I round the end these two books I am reading 90 minutes in Heaven and 23 Minutes in hell I am coming to an interesting comparison. The man who went to heaven describes his exeperience as unending joy that only got better as time went on, while the man who went to hell described his experience as unending fear,suffering, and hoplessness that only got worse as time went on.

I reminded of a verse ephesians 3:19 and to "know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Its paul speaking to church about the love of Christ. What does being to filled to measure of all the fullness of God about. Its about not having want, if you are filled to the "measure of all the fullness of God" the you have the "fullness" of God and what does God want for, nothing he has everything. So when we know this love that surpasses knowledge we have everything we'll ever need.

I say this in my comparsion of hell because the man that went to hell had nothing but want, the man who went to heaven had so much he had want for nothing. All good things Come from God, This can be easily seen in heaven and hell. Where God is abundance, joy is in abundance, where God does not exist, joy does not exist. The bible goes to some lenght to warn us of hell, quite often this is used as a way of scaring people into becoming Christians. Don't get me wrong hell is a real place and if you're not a christian you will find your self in hell, However I don't think Jesus teaches on hell to scare you are force you love and serve him, I think he does it because he loves you and he knows whats best for you, and he knows that when you are with him you will have unending joy. His warning us of hell is completely selfless its based on his desire to see us live the lives more abundant. " I lay before life and death, I beesech you choose Life". Live the adventure.

Toothpaste?

2008-04-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

We all get angry, for many of us when we get extermely angery we tense up we clench our fist, were not neccesairly going to hit someone, but their is just so much energy being built up it has to go somewhere. Tensing and clenching fist is a way to release that energy. Keep that in mind.

Now I want to share with you an analogy I once heard.Words are like toothpaste they come out of the tube easy once out its almost impossible to put them back in, when its said its over. So when you get angery I suggest you don't hold any tubs of toothpaste. Live the adventure

Time

2008-04-02T03:31:00.000-07:00

Do you have the time?
You know this book on hell is really having a impact on me. I must admit as the reality of hell seeps into my system it is having a greater impact the reality of heaven. Today I was reading on the return of the man. Once the man had returned to earth he would lie awake at night horrified not by his memories of hell but of the people that he could of warned and didn’t.

I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone out there hell is real. It’s a real place people really go there. I wasn’t meant for people, horrors of hell were designed for demons (fallen angels) it was made to punish them. However if we do not accept Christ we are not allowed in heaven, we must go somewhere. I do not wish to scare people into accepting Christ, it typically doesn’t stick. Typically people’s lives will change only as long as they are afraid after the fear wears off they return to old habits. However I would not be a good man if I did not publish a warning. If you ask how can God send good person to hell I must answer that he doesn’t, we choose to go. We choose to not accept his love. By the way it is love that he offers, so many people see Christianity as rules and that’s not the case. His commandments are to protect you, they are to ensure the life more abundant. Everything that you do that is contrary to the will of God, you are persuaded to do by demons. These demons only want your destruction, they want you to join them in hell they want to rob you of your rightful place which is the presence of God. You should read the testimony of the man sent to heaven he speaks of sights, sounds and colors that earthly words can not describe, he describes his first moment in heaven as filled with great joy, joy unequaled on earth, this joy only increased the closer he got to the pearly gates. That is your place, that is where you belong, not hell.

I want to take this moment to tell a story. It is a story that is quite a horrible memory for me. Every time I recall it I cry, I am actually crying right now. It’s a story a man I met in Iraq. His name is Sgt. Walker. Sgt Walker was a good man, he was fun to talk to, he was good to his soldiers, he cared about the troops. The man was in intelligence, he networked with Iraqis to gather information on terrorist cells. He would often be found in the late hours of the night and we hours of the morning, in command center transmitting and desciminating information. When asked why doesn’t get some sleep, he would say “a soldiers life depends on this information, knowing what I know could bring him life and death I have to get it out”. He was truly a good man. I remember having a conversation with Sgt. Walker, I talked to him about Jesus, he made his jokes as many do. He told me that he would accept Christ on his death bed, he said the way he figured it he would continue “Drinking and whoring around” until he was about to die and then accept Christ. I told him it typically doesn’t work that way, many people end up cursing god on their death bed rather than accept him. I let the argument die. I wish I hadn’t. The next morning was horrible I will never forget it. I saw his commanding officer come running out of his barracks he ran to the aids station, then four medics came running out with a stretcher. They came out two minutes later on the stretcher lay Sgt. Walker. The man had died. Not in battle, not because of bullets or bombs, he had died due to heat stroke. He hadn’t drank enough water the day before and he died in his sleep. He never had the chance to repent. I say this story because we never know. As Christians speak with passion at every opportunity, don’t miss them and please don’t let the argument die, you never know when its that persons last chance, had I known that Sgt walker would be dead the next day I would have fought harder, tried more, I didn’t, I was the last Jesus that man ever saw. To those not saved you never how or when, don’t put off tell your death bed, or tell tomorrow, or even when for another hour, you really don’t know. Its not promised. Do you have the time? Live the Adventure.

Reflections from Hell

2008-04-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I a reading two books right now, one is called “90 Minutes in heaven” the other is called “23 Minutes In Hell”. I have read just a few chapters in each book. The accountants of both heaven and hell are already causing me to reconsider my present value system. In reading hell’s horrors and heavens delights I am beginning to take stock of my life and what I consider good. In particular the story of the man sent to hell has really got me thinking. The man sent to hell missed the smallest of things, blue oceans, cool breeze’s, moments of interaction with his wife and others. You should read how this man described water how precious it had become to him, it made me swish the water around in my mouth today just trying to appreciate it more.

I think I take advantage of the little things, things like water, like interactions with my wife and with others. My day gets all huffy when I am stuck in traffic, when I don’t make as much money as I want, when times are just a little hard. This man who was in hell, in the absence of everything good, he longs for human interaction and cool breeze and beautiful view. He didn’t remember the days there was no traffic, nor did he remember how much money he made, or even the times where life was easy. He longed for peace, and rest, a pretty view, his wife, and a glass of water.

I have all these things in abundance yet I don’t always appreciate my life.
The things this man longed for are reflections of the goodness of God, that is why when he was Hell he didn’t have them. I think we should all take a moment and rejoice in the good things of God, really take a moment and enjoy them. You may never find yourself in Hell but it would be a shame to find yourself at the end of your life missing all that would was good in it. Live the Adventure.

My Car Shall Be a Car of Prayer.

2008-03-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

I AM BACK!!!!. Its been a long time no see. For those who read my blog regularly I apologize for my two weeks with out posts. The fact of the matter is I have hardly had time to sleep much less blog. I have been taking college courses online. In these courses they take a 12 week course and cram it into 6. well what happened to me was I had received my books three weeks late. So I am trying to cram twelve weeks of class into three. The teachers were gracious in allowing me to turn in work late however every assignment still had to be done. I have been waking up at 5 and going to bed at midnight every night. Its been exhausting, however I did get it done I took finals Saturday. So now I am back.
Well enough history I am excited to talk about my next adventure. As you have probably noticed with my return to corporate America life is busier and there is less time for everything, even prayer. I am a man who thrives off prayer. If I go with out a quiet time for too many days I can physically feel the difference. So in order to increase prayer I am going on a 31 day military campaign. The objective is to turn my car into a car of prayer. This won’t be easy. My natural tendency every time I get into my car is space off. I have tried to pray while driving before however often find myself in la la land. That is because my habit is when I am in my car I space off, I day dream that’s what I do in my car. Its almost as if my car is owned by that. Well its time to break that habit, its time to take my car back for Jesus. I want my habit to be when I get into my car to that I instantly find myself in place of prayer, rather than a place of semi-unconsciousness. So in order to do that, for the next 31 days if I am in my car I am praying, I don’t care if it is just a run to Wal-mart to pick up some milk, If there is 30 seconds in that car than there are 30 seconds in prayer, that’s going to be my new rule. So I am going to do a couple of things to make this work. First I am cleaning my car I figure if I am going to ask the holy spirit to dwell there it ought to be clean. Second I am keeping on my accountability through the twitter, I am going to update my twitter every time I drive I will be putting where I went and what I prayed for. Alright bloggers, I am Glad I am back and look forward to posting the outcomes of this awesome adventure. Live the adventure.

Last Nights Open Flame

2008-03-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

We had the second edition of Open Flame Last night. If your wondering what the video above is about it was our fire last night. For those of you who don’t know Open Flame is our youth service where at the well it happens every other week at my house. We have fire, cook hot dogs, roast marshmallows, make smores its awesome
Well last night I got rained out so I took the projector and played the video above on my while we listened to fire crackle over the church’s sound system. We cooked hot dogs on the stove and instead of smores we made chocolate chip cookies and had milk. The message was awesome everybody got involved and then we watched Transformers on the big screen afterward. It was an awesome time despite the disasters.
Why do I post all this. Its just because I love it. I don’t think there is some huge spiritual lesson behind it. I just love doing what I am doing. I love having fires or watching them on a projector. I love giving messages to young people and having discussions with them in my living room. I love hot dogs and smores and hot dogs and cookies, what ever the case may be. I am just loving life right now. Anyway. Live the Adventure.

Great Kings

2008-03-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting thought that last week. I read an excerpt from the Chronicles of Narnia, they were referring to Lion the king. One character said to another character in that no one could approach the great king with out “their knees knocking”. They said he wasn’t safe, that he never hurt people but he wasn’t safe. It got me thinking about the true nature of kings. I have often heard that prayer should never be a chore because we get to approach a king, or sometimes people refer to it as the president. This is the thing in today’s world most when most of us think of kings and presidents we get the picture of our political leaders. Our political leaders at least in the free countries of this world do not have the power to take lives nor throw you in prison for the rest of your life without trial. We think of our political leaders as safe, their powerful but safe.

I want us to picture the medieval kings of old, or the kings of Babylon, or even modern day dictators, people who have the power to do what ever they want. If they say you are dead then you are dead, if they lock you up, no one lets you out. Approaching them becomes a lot more exciting scenario. Think of what you would discuss with this type of person and why, how passionate would be to risk approaching men like these. How exciting would that be if you had an audience with a Suddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler and you were pleading a cause with them. How would that feel.

If it were me I would be prepared, focused, my blood would be pumping, my adrenaline rushing, I would speak with boldness not because the bible told me to but because if I did not I would not grasp their attention nor sway their decision.
This is what our prayer must be like. We must realize whom we are approaching. While Jesus does not contain the evil of these men he does contain their power and far greater. Approaching him should be like approaching any powerful and dangerous leader, it should command the same thinking and the same approach. Live the adventure.

Fight Night

2008-03-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

Once a month on a friday night a"The Well gets together for fight night." Actually its called watch night. Its our once a month late night prayer session. Where we fight the Devil and seek our lord for our church, our city, our country and the world. As our pastor would refer to it "its hot nasty stinky prayer." Its a fight. In other words is its good, its good like climbing a fourteen thousand foot mountain. For those of you who don't about fourteen thousand feet mountains or 14er's as us mountian folk call them, they have peaks that are above the tree line. The tree line is the point at which you are so high there is not enough oxygen for tree's to grow. Tree's not being a very active creature you can imagine how little oxygen there is up there. Anyway back to being good like climbing a mountain. climbing a mountain of that height is pretty difficult. Your body is weak you gasp for air, your constantly taking breaks due to exhaustion and when you look at your progress you may have gone ten feet. Its a strenous process. So you must ask why people do it. The view and thrill you feel at the top is unlike anything on earth. In other words when you push through the difficulty you recieve the awesome blessing of being on top of the world, where few people ever go. Its worth it. Thats what friday night fights (or watch night) is like, difficult at times but if you push through its worth it.

Well on to the moral of the story. This last friday one of the things I got to pray for was some new facilitys that we needed for our various services that we do at the church. One of them being Watch Night. I was excited because this is something that I have been passionate about we really need a new spot for Watch night. Well as I began to pray I realized that I didn't seem to have anything to pray, I tried to push through but at times I wondered if I was even making sense. In short is was an ugly prayer,quite ugly. So I had to take a moment afterword and reflect. Why was that prayer ugly, I was passionate about it, I wanted to pray for it. In fact I have prayed for this in my own quite time why was it so bad. Upon reflection I realized the prayer is fighting and fighting is rarely pretty. forget what you see in the movies, fighters generaly do not look like Bruce Lee. The fact of the matter is they often look ugly and ungraceful and even take their share of hits. The winner is the one who is the toughest the one who perservers. So it is with prayer, its not always graceful and you take your share of hits. The winner is the one who will last the longest. To lasting the longest. Live the adventure.

Baby steps.

2008-03-07T03:16:00.001-08:00

Hey there long time no see. Yeah its been a while since my last post, I have 3, 5 page papers due this week all of them single space, in addition I wrote a miniature play for my church I have been and am currently pretty busy. I did want to take just a minute and share what God has been doing in my life. I meant what I said in my last post, that God would make me ready. That he would make me the type of man that would be able to chose a life of the dangerous and the uncomfortable to do the things God has called him to do.

So in order to do that I am focusing on the little areas, where am I selfish just a little bit. I am focusing at being slow to anger when I get frustrated and trying to be less offendable and more congenial towards others. It’s a small step, its not doing a forty-day water only fast, nor I am praying in tongues three hours a day, but I don’t think doing those things will take me to the next level. I don’t think those things alone will make me the man I want to be. I think getting to who I want to be takes baby steps, small sacrifices on a continuous basis. This process makes sacrifice and the subduing of the flesh habitual rather than eventful. In other words when I sacrifice its not some big noticeable event, its what I do everyday, its my habit and what I default to in every situation. So that way when God asks for the big sacrifices I will do so willing and without hesitation because that’s just what I am used to. Live the adventure.

Holy Land Experience

2008-03-03T03:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend I visited the Holy Land. Not the one in Israel the one in Florida. There is a theme park here in which the story of Christ is acted in a very real and live setting it was a great time. We where treated as kings thanks to my good friend Claudia who works there, she got us in for free and even got us food vouchers. There is one exhibit there that has really got me thinking, its called the “Scriptorium” its like a Museum of bibles. They have scrolls there that date all the way back to before Egypt which is pretty amazing but they didn’t impress me. My favorite part of the tour was section dedicated to the reformation. It was amazing to me to hear the stories of these men who where so passionate about the word of God that they where actually martyred for translating them into a language the people could understand.. I even saw one bible there called the “Matthew Bible” also known as the “Martyrs bible”. Its called that because its pages are actually stained with the blood of the men who printed it.

An impressive sight to say the least. As I saw this blood and listened to the drone of our automated tour guide the thought occurred to me that these men where not to different from me and you. Many of these men where highly educated with good paying Jobs, the story of all these translators where very similar they would first lose their jobs, then they would be threatened, then they would take there work into hiding where they worked frivolously to complete it before their very lives where taken from them.

This has got me thinking because I have often considered myself one who would be able to give his life for Christ. I don’t long for this but I think I could do it. Even if I did however I do not think that my sacrifice would equal one of these men. It would be the difference between dying in a car accident and dying of a slow cancer. I would live a life of comfort then in a moment my life would be taken from me. These men became criminals and lived their lives in fear, they suffered the systematic removal of their rights and privileges. Each step they took would be harder than one before it, yet they continued, when they were banned and outlawed they continued.

To chose between life and death is easy, when you die its over no more pain, to choose to live a life of suffering then eventual death is a much harder decision to make. I had ask myself if I could do it, if the rights of America where to cease and they did not allow me to work and I had to move my family underground could I do it. The question scares me because my yes did come easy or readily. My prayer over the last few days is that God would make me able, that he would train me to able to say yes quickly and without hesitation. I don’t want to have to make the decision I do however want to be ready if the need ever arises. Lord make me ready. Live the adventure

Bumper Bowling

2008-02-29T06:56:00.000-08:00

Today I realized that my life is a lot like bumper bowling. I am the bowling ball. I am a highly driven, passionate person with a goal in mind. I want the strike. The strike is all that God has intended for me. I move with great speed and generate a lot of force as I barrel down the lane. There is just one obstacle; the gutter. People are imperfect we where born with a tendency toward sin, this is the imperfect throw, the one that sends a passionate highly driven bowling ball towards the gutter and ultimately missing his Strike. That’s why I am thankful for the bumpers. That’s right God was wise enough to put people in my life that act as inflatable tubes that keep me out of the gutter and headed toward strike I so desperately seek. I just wanted to take a moment to thank my bumpers. I wanted to thank my wife, my pastor, and my friends both at the well and abroad for being my bumpers. Thanks. A note to all out there in blog land if you don’t have bumpers get them, bowling with out them could be a disaster. Live the Adventure.

The most favored (part 2)

2008-02-27T08:29:00.001-08:00

The most favored Part 2. I must apologize as I re-read yesterdays post I realize that I made no mention of this being a two part series. So yesterdays post may seem to leave you hanging a bit. The reason I wanted to talk about discipline as necessary and not always punishment is because as I contemplated Hebrews 12 yesterday I had an interesting thought. If God Disciplines those he loves does the more discipline or more hardship one suffer mean that one is loved more. Let me digress for a moment and say that I do believe that God plays favorites, that some people are more loved or more favored than others. I also want to take a moment and say that even the smallest most minute amount of Gods love is far greater than anything a person could ever give you, remember that Christ gave up his life for the those he loved even just a little.

Back to the question does more discipline mean more favored. Does it mean the more hardship you suffer the more you are favored? I think so. Think about it, if there is some really nasty task one which requires much hard work, or perhaps getting really dirty and stinky, or will make you uncomfortable or is a bit humiliating and you needed help doing it who do you call, the guy you met last week or your best friend that has been with you through thick or thin? Who does a general call with his most difficult missions the officer he knows and trusts or the one he doesn't. Read your bible, read the stories of Joseph, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, the Johns. They all had lives full of hardship, yet these men are the biblical greates and there is not a Christian on earth who considers these men not favored of God.

So back to the question are the more disciplined the most favored? Absolutely. So treat hardship as discipline God is treating you as sons, dearly loved and trusted sons. Rejoice when things get harder and things seem difficult more often it just means that God is giving the more difficult missions. The ones he only gives to best friends, those he trusts. Live the adventure.

The Most Favored

2008-02-26T22:01:00.001-08:00

Today I found myself contemplating Hebrews 12. It speaks of discipline. It says to treat hardship as discipline and that God disciplines those he loves. I want to speak a moment on discipline. Discipline is often thought of as punishment for wrong. I was in the military for 4 years, one thing I remember was P.T. Its full name is physical training. It happens everyday. Its one our daily "disciplines". I hadn't done anything wrong yet everyday at 6 a.m. everyday I would be in formation waiting for the order to do the push up.

It wasn't a punishment, it was a discipline. A discipline we had to endure not because we were bad soldiers but because it was vital that we remain in good physical condition in order to be ready for combat. We see this through out the scripture. Look at Moses he spent 40 years in the desert. Why because he killed an Egyptian, I don't think so. We must remember that when Moses killed the Egyptian it was out of defense of a fellow Hebrew. Moses was not exiled for forty years as punishment, he was out in the in the desert for 40 years because he was the one chosen to lead Israel thru the desert over the next 40 years. It was a necessary discipline to keep him alive in spiritual combat. Its important that we see that Because if we see discipline merely as punishment than we are always trying to figure out what we did wrong in order to receive when in fact you didn't necessarily do anything. It just may be a discipline necessary to keep you alive in future spiritual combat. Live the adventure

The Chance to Be a Hero.

2008-02-25T09:14:00.001-08:00

So I was watching Law and Order yesterday and on this particular episode a 7 year old had shot a 6 year old. Now in this instance the 7 year old was shooting at some drug dealers whom he had witnessed murder some one the day before and the six year old just happen to get in the way. The police knew it there was just no evidence to prove it, the DA was charging the boy. The prosecutor and the police where particularly torn up on this case as they didn't want to send a 7 year old to jail on murder charges. The police scrambled to find anybody else they could charge with the crime, they couldn't find anyone. The attorney assigned to the case pleaded with the Chief District Attorney to find another option, he gave her none. So this prosecutor is given the most difficult of her life. The media is watching. Her boss is watching. The Fate of a 7 year old boy is on the line.

So the show comes to a scene where the prosecutor is asking the counsel of another lawyer friend of her's. She is telling her friend of all the woes she is facing, how her career and political future are doomed and she doesn't know what to do and wishes she had never gotten the case. Her friend looked at her and said "I don't know why you're complaining you should be glad you got this case and not someone who doesn't care, it's a tough case, but you have the chance to be a hero".

The line gave me chills. It's a tough case but you have the chance to be a hero. How many of us wish we had the chance to be a hero. Yet how many of us fail to recognize that our present adversity is the chance for us to become a hero. We spend our whole lives cursing our every adversity and then wonder at the end why we achieved nothing. Heroes are born out adversity. Want to be a hero? Live the Adventure.

True Love.

2008-02-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

So another marriage building Blog. Yesterday we got on the topic love and respect. The most essential need for a man is respect while the most essential need for a woman is love. The general concensus of the men in the room is that it is easier to respect than to love, while for the women much easier to love than respect. I had another observation yesterday, the topic of love languages has come up on a regular basis. Love languages are the the ways you communicate love. You feel loved when some one touches you, or when some one gives you a gift, or maybe with kind words, sometimes when they do nice things and other times when people just spend quality time with you. Everybody has a different combination, what I have noticed over the past few weeks is that every couple in that room has a love language that is very difficult for their spouse to speak. In other words if one likes to be touched the other hates touching. If one likes to spend quality time the other could not consider that a bigger waste of time. Why does God do that. Why does he put people together who have to stretch in order to serve and show love and appreciation. Why does he give women a need for love and men have such a hard time giving it and why do men have a need for respect that women have such a hard time giving. I was pondering this last night. My thoughts came to me and my wife, I am an advid cuddler she hates it. I wondered what life would be like if she were also an avid cuddler. I realized that life may not be as good as one would think. I may have all the cuddeling I could possibly want but I don't think it would mean as much. Love is sacrifice. The fact that my wife has to stretch her self to make me feel loved makes every touch and cuddle more worth it. The respect of my wife can mean more to me than the respect of one hundred men, it is easy to get the respect of men, it is not near as easy to get the respect of the women you care about, it makes it all that much more valuable and worth it. I think Jesus is sending us a message, love is sacrifice. The best love we can give God, our spouse, our friends and our family is that which we had to sacrifice to do so. Live the adventure.

Like Christ.

2008-02-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

To be like christ. It is the mission of the modern Christian to be more christ like. The ardent Christians pray a lot, reads a lot, worships a lot, spends a lot of time with God so they can figure out who he is so they can be more like him. I had a revelation that may help. What is God like? God is like a man its his focal point that is different. Let me explain. Jesus was a perfect reflection of God. If you read John chapeter 14 verses 5-9 You'll see that Jesus tries to repeatedly explain to the disiciples that if you have seen me you have seen the father. So to figure out who God is let us look no farther than Jesus. Jesus acted like a man, Jesus was a man and he related to men. The twelve disciples loved him, not because he acted like this ominpotent all powerful being, but because he acted so human. The gospels are full of emotional texts about jesus; "The lord wept", "and he had compassion on them". He cried, he laughed, he joked, he gave hugs, people came up to him and talked to him and he talked back. Regular people had regular conversations with God. God was no more than a spritually perfect regular joe. This is cause for pause for me as I see him hanging on the cross, in his final moments in the most pain of his life he does 3 three things that astonish me, he prays for those who persecute him, He comforts his mother and his friend, and he preached to the criminals beside him. How does one so human do something so amazing, so anti human. People often take the easy route saying he was God. It seems we dismiss it as it was easy for him. I don't think it was so easy for him. It says he genesis we are made in his image, meaning with his personality traits, when we add this to the fact the God is so relateable and so human it tells me that at my core me and God are not all that different. If our personalitys are similar and it is not easy for me I can not assume it was easy for him. So how did he do it. How can we be so similar yet act so differently? This us being like in personality is esstiential because it is out of our personality in which we react. Jesus reacted on the cross, the things he did where not well thought out actions, they were reactions that stemed from who he was by default, they stemed from his personality. This tells me that I could act like Jesus like Jesus acted, I could be like him in default. The personality is there. So why don't I, what is different? What is different is the focal point, were do the persoanlitys focus. Jesus thought only of others, often I think only of myself. Like Jesus at my core I am loving and compassionate, I wish to serve and protect but to often the personality is focused on me. I am loving and compassionate towards me, I wish to serve and protect me. How do we become more like Christ? We don't need to change who we are,we need to change what we are focused on. Focus on others, be like Christ, Live the adventure.

Wax on, Wax Off:

2008-02-18T19:24:00.000-08:00

The classic line of the 20th century; "Wax 0n, wax off". It comes from the movie Karate Kid. In the movie young Daniel son wants to learn karate. Mr. Meeogie agrees to teach him. His first lesson; wax on wax off. His first lesson was polishing cars, his second lesson was sanding the floors, his third was paint the fence, fourth paint the house. Mr. Meeogie ends up with a completely re-done house and young Daniel son ends up exhausted and frustrated. He was supposed to learn karate not become some one's personal slave. As Daniel begins to walk out, to quite Mr. Meeogie say's show me "paint the fence" as Daniel mimicks painting the fence Mr. Meeogie takes a swing at him, its blocked by Daniels "Paint the Fence". I, along with so many out there feel called to do great and awesome things for God yet sometimes it seems like one problem after another. Sometimes I feel like I am Daniel I wake up early in the morning and head over to Mr. Meeogie's house, I have excited smile on my face, I think I am about to learn karate and I get there and I get handed a bucket and a brush and told to "paint the fence". Mr. Meeogie was a wise teacher, so is God and God like Meeogie sometimes has us do things that seem completely unrelated to our great callings in life, their difficult, tedious, not fun. sometimes they are down right disappointing. Let me lift your spirits by saying Daniel became a karate champion. We will become spiritual champions but it all comes from "paint the fence". To waxing on and off, to painting that spiritual fence. Live the Adventure.

Live the Adventure

2008-02-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

You know about 2 and half weeks ago, I went prayer walking. Thats a long walk I go on and prayer the whole time. It helps keep me focused. On that particular prayer walk I was seeking the lords direction. I was an Independent Agent working for an insurance company, I got paid soley on commission. I had done okay for myself for the first few months and then all of the sudden my sales stopped. I would have days full of appointments and everyone would cancel, I had a 63% closing ratio on my sales yet it seemed impossible to make one. I would try and try it seemed as if I was spining my wheels. I finally came to a point where I hadn't made a sale in 3 weeks, that means I hadn't got paid in that long either. To make matters even better my wife had recently lost her job.I had been fasting for about 21 one days and had a sense that it was time to leave my job. After much prayer and wise counsel with 25 dollars in my checking account I decided to quit. I did. What has consipired over the last few weeks and especially today is a glorious testemant to God. About a week and a half ago neither my wife nor I had any money in our pockets, in fact our checking account was 383 dollars over drawn and our house was out of toilet paper. I decided to take another prayer walk shortly into the walk I begin crying out to God, on and abondened road yelling at the top of my voice I screamed God I need money, I need money. I tell you no lie when at that moment a friend called to ask me how I was doing he later wired me 500 dollars. But wait it gets better, today at 8:30 in the morning the door bell rang and there was a knock at the door. I opened the door to find a ups package sitting on the porch. Inside I found a money order made out to me for a thousand dollars. I do not know the woman who sent it nor does my wife. If the person exist (if its not some angel) than it was only through the holy spirit that she could have recieved my name and addresse. I must say this, that if you take anything from this realize that amazing stories are not confined to the pages of the bible that they happen here and now. God has destined all of us to live lives of the miraclous and the amazing. It takes guts, its dangerous, and its hard, these last few weeks have been difficult, but its worth it. Forget the fact I just got a thousand dollars that I didn't work for, I just saw a miracle. I just saw the boundaries of the possible penetrated and the boundless possiblitys of an almighty God. I love living the Adventure.

In Theory and In Practice

2008-02-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

I was humbled this last tuesday. I have recently been attending a marriage building small group. Its been great and is definitely making my marriage better. But on to the humbling part. Before my wife and I got married we went to this same class but only went to a couple of sessions. The session that we had last week I remembered from before. I also remember that when I had went through the last time I had a lot of theorys of how marriage should work, the situations that would come up, and how I should and would respond. I had read the scriptures and I thought I was ready and that I would make a great husband. I found myself wondering what had happened last tuesday. All the things I thought that I would do right I did wrong, the situations that I was so prepared for blind sided me. With all my book smarts about marriage I thought I was prepared but in reality I was the same as everyone else, making the same mistakes, and getting into the same stupid arguments. So what had happened. Things are different in theory than they are in practice. The same thing is true with the last two years of my life. In planting this church I have run into situations that until I had encountered them I had only read of them. Once again I had lots of theorys but I have not done these last two years gracefully. In fact they have been quite dogged and clumsy. It reminds me of combat. When I was on my way to Iraq there was a lot of talk about the situations we would encounter and how bravely or not bravely we would handel them. While I was there I saw veteran Sgt. Majors cower in fear and timid privates act bravely. Things are different in theory than in practice. There are a couple lessons one can learn from this. First is the lesson that nobody does it perfect no matter how much they know, to steal once again from the Matrix "nobody makes the first Jump" everybody screws up and every one acts less admirably than had hoped when the right situation occurs. The second and most important is you don't know as much as you think, youre not as great as you think, youre not going to do as well as you think. Everybody can use more practice. Thats why God sends us through so much stuff and through such long seasons. We all need lots of pratice. So here's to lots of practice. Live the adventure.

You're Being Watched

2008-02-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

Somebody always has their eye's on you. Somebody is always watching. They may never hear your conversation, never speak with you but their watching. Today I had a job interview. It was at a place I had worked at previously, after the inital screening I was called into the interview. I was hoping that it would be someone that I knew to make the process easy. It wasn't. The next part is amazing, the man I had never met, nor spoken to, reconized me immediately. He told me he remembered me from when I had worked there before, he said he remembered me as an upstanding person and good salesman. He then went on to say that at this point the interview was really informal he was going to make the recommendation that I get hired. Amazing isn't, live your life carefully someone is always watching. Live the adventure.

Seasons.

2008-02-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

I was astonished yesterday by listening to the sermon by the pastor’s wife Sola, as she read the facts and figures of the life of Paul. My Jaw dropped when I heard there where seven years between the Damascus experience and his public testimony and another 4 years until he was in ministry, totaling 11 years between him having an encounter with God and full time ministry. 7 Years after Paul see's the light and hears the audible voice of God he finally speaks out. I think we as Christians need to revamp our vocabulary. For those of us who have been saved long enough to know the lingo "seasons" is a word we tend to throw around a lot. For those of you who don't know about seasons this is the term we used to define the different time periods God sends us through. There are many season's, we have seasons of learning where the lord teaches a lot, then there are seasons of blessing where your on top of the world and nothing can seem to go wrong, then there are seasons of trial where everything seems to go wrong, there are seasons of greatness where you're doing big things and there are seasons of obscurity where nobody knows who you are or what you are doing. Every season has its purpose in taking you to your destiny. I have a problem with the word season, in my mind it’s not an adequate measure of time. When I think of a season I think of summer, winter, spring, and fall. Each of these seasons is a few months long, so because of the relationship of the word seasons to the actual climate seasons I think of the seasons of God being rather short. To add to this mental illusion the 7 years that Paul lives in a season of obscurity is covered in just a page or two in the bible. So once again I am seeing seasons as being short. This does not seem to be the case. When I look at many of the greatest of the bible they all had seasons, long seasons where they weren't living their lives of greatness, these seasons lasted years and not months. The greater the calling it would seem the longer your season of obscurity would be. This is a cause for pause for me because over the last few days I have been putting a lot of thought into the youth ministry program here at the Well. I am just a few weeks away from getting this up and running so my mind is often on what am I going to teaching what are the pillars of this ministry going to be. I often am trying to find ways to teach students how to be great how to stretch themselves and become more than they are right now, while this is important I am starting to believe that teaching how to live life through extended periods of obscurity is even more so. The small details of character, what you do when no one knows who you are or what you are doing is paramount. While I don't like seasons as a measure of time I do like the fact that they adequately describe life’s transitions. It is not one day 102 degrees and 90 percent humidity, the grass is green and the tree's full of life, and then the next all the leaves are orange, the grass is dead and the temperature is a cold 50 degrees. The changes of seasons of the year are gradual so are the seasons of life, typically they don't happen over night. So often I compartmentalize my life I see this vast difference between living in obscurity and living in greatness. I see it as differently as the dead of winter and the peak of summer. While the circumstance will be vastly different this won't happen over night, the change will be gradual in fact I think I will hardly notice it. I say this because I don't think the greatest of the bible really noticed when they were moving from obscurity to greatness, I think they did so gradually living their godly habits day to day. Regardless of their outcome, they had determined that these things were good to do and they were going to do them. By going about their godly routines focusing on their fundamentals they suddenly looked up and saw that they had done much but this was not their focus in the beginning. So it will be with me, my students, and with you. Focus on living godly day to day and then one day you'll look up and find your self amongst greatness. Live the adventure.

Cypher and Judas

2008-02-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

Yes I am still in the Matrix. I have watched the movie so many times and have always recognized some Christian parallels, however, never have has God spoken so clearly. I actually tivoed it and have been watching it as part of my devotion. (I know, the things I suffer to learn more about God ) Today I wanted to talk about Judas and Cypher, both of them notorious traitors. They both betrayed their friends, they both gave up the truth to to go back and live the lie. We can probably learn alot about Judas from Cypher. It is probably safe to assume that Judas felt much like Cypher, he was tired. He was tired of walking everywhere, continually moving from town to town, tired of never having a place to call his own, or money to call his own, or time to call his own. He was tired of the pursuit of truth. The life more abundant was harder than he had expected and required more than he wanted to give. He gave up Jesus to regain his life of ignorance of the truth, the life that contained comfort and ease.
There are so many Cyphers out there and so many like Judas. They are ready to defect. They are thinking that they wish they had taken the blue pill. Its our job as the church as the body of Christ to reach out to those who are Cypher and Judas. We need to make sure we grab our buddy and make sure they understand the rest of the story. We can read the story of Judas and watch the story of Cypher and see that both had negative outcomes. Judas lived the short remainder of his life in misery and then hung himself, Cypher was killed, they both ended up dead remembered only as traitors. You can’t but help to feel sorry for both these characters. They both gave up to easily and to early. If they had stuck it out a little longer who knows what they may have found out and what they may have become, what they may have been remembered for. We all love to watch the rest of the story we love to see the helicopter scene where neo saves trinity, where Morpheus escapes, where they eventually beat the agents. We love it and it never gets old. That’s the story we want, nobody wants to be like Cypher and nobody wants to be like Judas. Never regret taking the red pill and never let your buddy regret it either. I know its not easy but in the end our story will be awesome. So lets grab each other, encourage each other, lets make sure we all Live The Adventure.

Take The Red Pill

2008-02-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

So today I was watching the Matrix. The story has several parallels with christianity and the story of Christ. Today I was particular attentive to the intial meeting between Morpheus and Neo. Morpheus says to Neo. "let me tell you why you're here. Your here because you know something, what you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You felt it your entire life that there is something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but its there. Like a splinter in your mind driving you mad." This quote can apply to so many of us out there. There is something wrong with the world, you just can't put your finger on it. You have a feeling there is something more. Something bigger, youre not buying the 9 to 5 save for retirment, have a wife a suv and 2.5 kids routine. You are destined to be more than the average american, more than the average person. You want to do something with your life something more. I invite all of you to take the red pill. It says in John 10:10 that Christ came that we may have life and life to full. Life of the adventure. That something more. Follow Christ to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. If you live central florida area I invite you to come to the Well. Its info is on the side of the screen. If not attend you're local church, crack your bible, follow Christ and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. If you are a christian and still have this apetite for more let me invite you to truly follow Christ, through what is easy and through what is not. It is on the other side of the difficulty that we find the more. To the end of rabbit hole, I am glad I took the red pill. Live the adventure

What Are We Saving For Anyway?

2008-02-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

What are we saving for anyway? What are you waiting on? Today I am not taking about savings accounts. Savings accounts are good things I have been saved by them on more than one occasion. I am not talking about money period. Today I am talking about us. What do we wait on, what are we saving ourselves for (I am not talking about sex just in case you where going there.). I am talking about our beings, the essence of who we are. The currency that makes up our daily lives. Its where we apply our efforts. It seems we can often hold back. We sometimes don’t give 100 percent because we’re afraid of failure, sometimes we’re afraid of rejection, and other times we’re afraid of the sacrifice. Ever not do something because you thought it would be too hard, we’re afraid of the effort we might have to put into it. I had the privilege last night about talking to my nephew about the Super bowl we some how got on the subject of if we had the chance to play in it at our current skill level, like if we had one a contest that allowed us to run one play in the actual game, would we do it. I said yes, he said no. When I asked him why, he said " what if I screw up in front of all those people.” Fear of failure. I told him I know for a fact that I would screw up, even if I didn’t I would be lucky if I made it a yard before I became flattened like a pancake but I would have still gotten to play in the super bowl. Who knows I could get lucky and make a touch down (ha! ). You never know unless you try. The bottom line is no matter how poorly I did I would have had experience that probably everyone who reads this blog would have never had. Here’s a quote “when it comes to setting goals always shoot for the moon even if you miss you still land in the stars”. This brings me back to my point. What are you saving for? What do you hold back on, where do not give 100 percent, where are you afraid to try and why? I was reading in Philippians chapter 2 verse 17: “But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.” He is saying that if his life is poured out like a drink offering it was worth it. To see what he had seen it was worth it. If I am looking at the last hours of my life I want to be as a Paul was, rejoicing. He had lived his life to fullest. He had been beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, had spent nights with out food and shelter. Had been rejected by close friends and had his share of failures. He died spent, his life poured out like a drink offering with nothing left in the cup. That is how you live the adventure dying spent, with nothing saved or left. If you have anything left you’ll never know what you could have got with it. Here is to dying spent. Live life to fullest, live the adventure.

Doors That No Man Can Open

2008-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Acts 16:6-7 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

Today I wanted to talk about trusting God. Specifically trusting God in failure. Failure is a naughty word, especially here in america. We hate to fail. You can see it in our ever busying life styles as we cram in a few more hours of work, or study, or practice so we can be the best that we can be. Nobody wants to be on the bottom rung of the ladder, nobody wants to be considered a failure. Yet no matter how hard we try we all fail at one thing or another. Many times its our fault, many times we could have tried harder, practiced more, made better decisions along the way. Then there are the times when no matter what you do you still can't win. You do everything right yet everything tends to go wrong. I posted the verse above for a reason. Its little quoted but maybe it should be. We often quote of the victorys of the lord. We quote the verses of the Isrealites crossing into the promised land, we quote how the walls of jericho fell, and how Lazerus rose from the dead after four days. We often quote the success against impossible odds, we rarely quote how the disciples tried to enter two diffferent provinces yet FAILED to do so because they were stopped by the holy spirit. We often give God glory for his ability to to enable we often fail to give him glory when he disables. When he stops our every attempt to achieve something. Twice we read ,in Isaiah 22:22 and in revelation 3:7 , Jesus being described as the one "who shuts doors no man can open". In Job 1:20 Job says the Lord "gives and takes away". We need to give God the Glory when he enables and when disables,whether he shows us a open path or closes one we would try to take in both instances he is in control and in both instances he is leading us to our destiny. Wether successe or failure trust the lord and LIVE THE ADVENTURE.

The Heart of Washing Feet

2008-01-30T04:07:00.000-08:00

Imagine your one of the twelve disciples. Your in a room reclining at a table you chat among yourselves, you laugh and reminisce. You make fun of peter how he screamed like a girl when went from walking on water to swimming like a rock. John Jests about what he was thinking when he saw Jesus sleeping the midst of the storm. Jesus laughs and jokes along with you. In your conversation some one happily asks "out of all of us here who do you think is the greatest." Out of the corner of your eye you catch something out of place. It is Jesus he is standing up with a somber look on his face. You have small tightening in your stomach, your a little nervous with anticipation. Whats he going to do, why is standing in the middle of the meal, what has got him looking that way. He looks at you. Something in his look grabs you, his look is intentional He speaks a message of passion and love with out saying a word. Your nervousness fades, your curiosity heightens, you watch him with intention, something is going to happen and you're not going to miss it. The room has gone silent everybody is watching as Jesus moves toward the wall. Silently and without hesitation he removes his outer garment. He takes a towel of the wall and wraps it around his waist. As he moves to the table and pours water into a basin you become filled with emotion. You see your lord, the man who has taught you so much,you have seen him raise the dead, calm the seas, heal the sick and walk on water. He has counseled you in your deepest troubles and shown no fear in the face of danger he is your hero, your mentor. You have nothing but admiration and respect for him and there he stands half naked with a bowl of water kneeling preparing to serve you. He grasps your left foot. its to much, you should be humiliated before him not him before you, your voice trembling with emotion speaks out "I should wash your feet not you mine."

The lord was insistent. The lord continued to wash the disciples feet that night everyone of them. A powerful and humble act. We could go on for days about the act. However it is not the act that I am struck by today, it is the heart behind it. It says in john 10:10 "...I came that they may have life, and have it to the full". This verse states it pretty clearly that God did not come to create a bunch of rules so that we could live our lives restricted and unhappy, his intention is not to lord over us and keep us tightly pressed under his thumb. He came so that we could live the best lives we could possibly live. As Jesus sat down with his disciples for the last meal they would eat before his death, he heard the disciples ask each other "Who is the greatest among us" Jesus knew this would never do. He had to make sure they understood that it was better to serve than to be served. He had to show them it didn't matter who was the greatest but rather who served the most. Those who serve the most are those who touch the most lives, if you really want to be something great you must serve. The lesson was so important the Lord disgraced himself so that they and us would know it. That's the heart of God. His heart, his passion, his burning desire is that you live a life to the full, there is no disgrace to much for him to suffer to ensure that this is exactly what happens. Think twice before you judge God or why he asks you to do something. Its not about living life according to the rules, are just being nice people, its not just because he is charge, but rather that we might live life and live it to the full. Live the adventure.

prayer

2008-01-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

luke 5: 15-16 15Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

This is a great verse, it shows where us as leaders need to be focusing. We've talked about this before how Jesus was regularly found in a solitary place. Praying. This verse stresses it all the more. Jesus was begining to be become popular, news of his miracles and preaching was spreading. His church was growing. What did Jesus do? He didn't increase the number of meetings he had with his staff, nor did he devote more time to teaching or to ministering to the people he devoted more time to pray. There is one other message we can learn from this, Jesus had three years to minister. Thats it. 3 years to lay the foundations of the new testament church and to teach the world everything they needed to know. Talk about a sense of urgency, talk about having a lot to do in little time. And what does he spend most of his time doing, praying. Many of us have a sense of urgency, we have huge visions that God has given us to accomplish. We get so caught in all we need to do and how little time there is to do it we often don't pray. Jesus prayed all the time and look how effective his ministry was. Here's to more prayer and to being like Jesus. Live the Adventure.

Revolutionary War

2008-01-25T02:48:00.001-08:00

Today my mind drifts to revolution, to that unruly group of Englishman who decided America would be free. What were they thinking? Has any body stopped to wrap there mind around there situation. Its like the state of Ohio declaring war on the United States, saying we will be free. What exactly where they thinking. They were out manned and out gunned. Where were they going to get their supplies from. What were those first officers thinking, those legislators that signed the first documents. Surely they must have thought there chances of winning where slim. Going against the British Army at that time the most formidable army on earth. They must have considered the difficulty and the hardships of the battles to come. This war was going to be fought in their cities, among their homes and in their front yards. Their houses would be burned, their children put in danger. What where they thinking. They must of thought of their families, their children and their future. Where they doing the right thing, they must have woke up in the night with the thought. What happens if they loose this men who signed the dotted line and every soldier in that army would be executed for treason, not to mention their houses burned and children left desolate. What about the average soldier, the simple farmer who picked up his musket and left his family and his farm to fight a war in which he might not win and from which he may never return. These risks were so great.

It would have been easier to hope for better times, to push for their case in the British Legislator. Maybe they could send another appeal to the king. Maybe. However they felt as though they had exhausted every possible option and that the only option left was revolution. They drew a line in the sand and said we are not going to allow any more and they fought for it. Many of them lost their lives, many of them lost their homes and their fortunes. What did they Gain? They gained the greatest country on earth. Our freedoms, our wealth, our success is here because they paid the price, because they took the risks to build something better.

I say this for one simple reason. What are we willing to risk. What chances do we take. Not for the U.S. or for any other country that we may preside in but for the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God. How far are we willing to go. Where are we drawing the line in sand. Are we willing to risk our lives, or every comfort in them, to put are families at risk to build something better. Are we willing to fight that kind of war for the Kingdom of God. Those who choose to fight are a part of something better. As for those men in the revolutionary war their names and faces are not all remembered but their sacrifice is evident everything we do and in everything we touch. None of what we do, this life we all live would not be possible with out those who were willing to fight. So it will be in the Kingdom of God, all the peace, the comforts, the freedoms and the joys will all be possible because of those who were willing to fight. Matthew 11:12 "12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Live the adventure.

God pleads with us

2008-01-24T02:22:00.000-08:00

John chapter 8 read verses 13 thru 30. You will read Jesus pleading his case to Pharisees and all the people. Its an amazing chapter to read. We read Jesus pleading his case not once, not twice, but 3 times. 3 times he says the same thing differently. Why? He was desperately pleading his case. He wanted so badly for everyone to believe, he wanted to give as many chances as possible, he knew he was the way, the truth and the life, and that no man would know the father nor know rest unless thru him. His patience is evidence of his love. Imagine God in the flesh, standing in the courts of his own temple, in his house where his throne is kept. Willing standing trial in front of his own subjects, he listens to their condescending tone and sarcastic remarks for just one chance to convince, if only to some, that he was the son of God, their way out, their ticket to life more abundant. I say all this because Jews were a religious and spiritual people they were looking for God and to please God. Their strict rules of religion, however misguided did stem from a sincere effort to please God. Their constant meeting in the temple's and synagogues was in search of him. They were looking, looking for their saviour. Like so many of us they were unhappy with life and looking for more. Yet many did not find it. I want to quote one of Jesus lines from this passage ""I am going away," he said. "You will look for me, and you will die in your sin." Jesus says I won't be here forever I am leaving and many of you look for me and you will die in your sin, in other words you will die searching. How many of us are like the people in those courts we have been looking for so long Jesus, the answer, is staring us in the face, desperately pleading and yet we don't believe. For some its to easy, "you mean all you have to do is believe". For others it is to hard "You can only live a certain way". For others its just unbelievable, "there is a God who loves us and sent his son to die for us, yeah right." Whatever the reason, don't die searching. Don't die looking for answers in places where you won't find them. Jesus is here, he is staring you in the face, desperately pleading. Give him a try. Stop searching and begin to LIVE THE ADVENTURE.

The Edge Of Destiny

2008-01-23T02:51:00.000-08:00

Today is the end of our churches 21 day Daniel fast. Fruits and veggies. My wife is currently cooking the first breakfast that will not consist of one variation of green veggie and potatos. My house is filling the smells of pancake's and eggs. This morning I feel the greatest since of peace I have known in a very long time. My sense is of being home, I feel like I have come home, to my place, I have arrived. There is an undertone of quite expectation, its not loud making me jump for joy. Its soft, quite and peaceful, yet resolute. I am not sure what is going to happen but something is. Its the feeling of standing on the edge of destiny. I am on the edge of something awesome, something my heart longs for, something God has been preparing me for. No, I am not sure whats going to happen but something is. I am hesitant to put faces,facts and figures to these sure feelings of impending glory because often they nothing like I ever expected because they are greater than I ever could have imagined. To Church at The Well be prepared for a season of things awesome, I do not guarantee it will be easy but it will be awesome. It may not be anything like you expected but that's only because it will be greater than anything we could have imagined. From glory unto glory. To the fruits of adventure. To our destiny. Glory to god. Live the adventure.

Knowing God.

2008-01-21T03:17:00.000-08:00

How well do you know God? How well do you really know him? How about an easier question how well do you know your best friend. Everybody has a friend that they know when their sad, when their down and out. You also know when their up, when their happy. We know them when their kidding around. They say the meanest thing to you and you laugh. Why, because you know them. You know your friend, you know what he is made of and capable of. You know who he is. Their is never a question in your mind about his purpose is to what he says because you know him. Mark chapter seven. The Syrophoenician women. A women that knew God. Jesus is hanging out in Tyre and a Syrian women born in Phoenicia, who has a demon possessed daughter, finds out. Desperately needing help this women goes to Jesus seeking his assistance. When she asks Jesus response is " First let all the children eat what they want, it is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs." Let me brake that down for you. Jesus is basically saying I have come for the Jews why should I help you, a Syrian. Now don't freak out, it is obvious by Jesus life and by his teaching that he did not only come for the Jews, in fact Jesus had already healed the child of a roman centurion. so why say this. He was testing how well the woman knew him. Did she know him well enough to know he wasn't serious. Did she know him well enough to know this couldn't be him. Absolutely. The woman's response was "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the children's table." Was she calling herself a dog? No. She was simply stating that she knew Jesus and she knew their was plenty of grace and love to go around. She was telling God who he was. She was reminding him of his heart. She knew him.

Why is it so important to know God. Because knowing him causes a belief in him. If the woman didn't know him, she wouldn't have gone to him, moreover she wouldn't have stayed and pressed in after his response. If she hadn't believed her daughter would have never been healed. Want to live the adventure? Want to really live it? Then you must know God. Because true adventure is not possible with out the miraculous, both in our hearts and physically. if you don't know God then you will not believe in him enough, you won't be able to trust him enough to make it through the adversity that you must go through in order to live the adventure. God never said it would be easy just awesome. To make it through the not easy parts you must trust and believe, but before you can do that you must KNOW. Know God. Live the adventure.

"Like watching plants grow"

2008-01-18T02:56:00.000-08:00

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." -mark 4:26-29

Why did God feel the need to say this. Its an important question. Jesus ministered for 3 years. That's it. When we look at the words of Jesus, we must look at them as the words of a dying man who has but a short time to live and wants to make sure that if you know anything about life you know this. The above was one of those "this's". What is the kingdom of God Like. Like a seed germinating in the ground. Seeds are amazing things the can spend weeks months and years dormant and then spring to life. Even when life has begun out of them it can be another length of time before you see a plant. Once you finally see a plant it will be even longer till the plant is grown and mature. The kingdom of heaven is like that, it takes time. Take heart in the 4th sentence in the verse above. "Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, thought he does not know how." The kingdom of God is always doing something, whether you sleep or get up, day and night. God is working on growth of his kingdom. You don't always understand it, you don't always see it. Be rest assured, God is working. So if you're waiting on something, just give it time. Live the adventure.

Days Like Those.

2008-01-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

I am tired today. Its been one "of those" days. Those long days. A day were nothing seems to go right and all you seem to get is bad news. It reminds me of times I experienced in the military, especially when I was deployed. As the sun would set all you would want was a a hot meal, a good shower, and a soft bed. In reality all you had coming was a MRE (Meal Ready to Eat), a baby wipe bath and a hard cot. Its the worst way to end a day, with no relief. Its even worse as you look to your days to come there seems to be no relief in sight. It can be depressing. Let me tell you something though, those moments made me a better man. I wouldn't be the man I am today if it weren't for days like those. On that same note I wouldn't where I am today, with the wife I have if it weren't days like those. I have never enjoyed days like those in the moment, however in hindsight I am grateful for every one of them. No I don't like days like those but I do like where they take me. If you're having a day like "one of those" or a year full of them, embrace them,don't curse them. You may not like them here in the moment, that's okay, but I guarantee you will like where they take you. To days like "those". Live the adventure

Life "simplified"

2008-01-15T04:04:00.000-08:00

Its our new buzz word from Church at the Well. what does it mean, it means separating what is relevant and what is not and then living our lives accordingly. Today I was in Matthew 9. You'll read the story of how Jesus heals a paralytic. He had returned to Nazareth as soon as he steps out of the boat he see's a man paralyzed laying on a mat. He has compassion on him, seeing his faith he walks up to him and says "take heart, your sins are forgiven". Thats it. No "get up and walk", No "be healed", just "your sins are forgiven." This is what is so amazing about this story. There is no protest from the paralytic. No burst of outrage. No "Thats it!" No "your not going to heal me". The only outrage is from the pharisees and there only mad because Jesus is forgiving sins not because the man isn't healed. Now Jesus did heal the man but only to show the pharisees that he had the authority to forgive sins. It almost seems that if the pharisees had never said anything the man wouldn't be healed. Is God cruel? No I believe that Jesus was more concerned with the state of the mans soul more so than his physical body. Judging by the lack or protest from the man so was the man. In old Israel when people where blind, deaf, mute, or paralyzed they were often outcasts, people actually believed it was because of there sin that they were crippled. I believed the man bought into that. I believed that the man was more concerned with assumption that he was a sinner beyond redemption then the fact that he was paralyzed. When Jesus got out of the boat and saw the man, he saw the mans heart, he saw that man was concerned more with his standing with God than his present circumstance and he spoke to that. What does this have to do with life "simplified". Life "simplified" is all about being concerned with whats important. The paralytic nailed it, to him it was his standing with God. What about you, whats more important to you? Is it your standing with God or your present circumstance. Live the adventure.

One small step.

2008-01-14T03:21:00.000-08:00

Small steps. Its amazing how many small steps lead us to were we are today. whether our current situation is good are bad it was mostly small steps that got us there. I think about the time I joined the army. You know how the recruiter got my name and number. My car had broken down, the recruiter was the only one who had stopped and help me push my car into a parking lot. At the end he asked what my plans where after high school we conversed he asked for my number I gave it. It was a small incident but it ultimately lead up to a four year tour of duty in military. Who would have thought it would have started that way. it wasn't the army's marketing or ad campaigns it was a small favor, took the recruiter maybe all of 5 minutes to help me. Think of Peter, a very successful minister. I one could argue the most successful out of the original 12, he had a very large church in Jerusalem and was "the rock" on which Jesus built his church. How did it all start. One small step. In Luke chapter 5 you'll read Jesus was preaching by the sea of Galilee a large crowd had gathered, Jesus needed a little space. So Jesus asked one of the local fisherman to put his boat out just a little bit from shore. Who did he ask but peter. A small step. A small favor. years later after the adventure with Jesus, he is preaching to thousands at a Pentecost, then he is pastoring the largest church in Jerusalem. WOW! Peter is no different then you and I. He didn't have visions of grandeur when he put Jesus out a little from shore. He was just washing his nets and heard this guy preached and liked what he had to say so when the man asked "can I have a favor" he obliged. This is my encouragement for you all today. Is never be afraid to do a small favor. Many of you see a need that can be ended every day yet don't do it because it seems like a small deal and won't do much good, some of you want to be a part of something large yet you can only add a small contribution so you don't sign on. Small steps and small favors are what make the world go round. They are what ultimately lead to big things. Live the adventure.

The Solitary Place.

2008-01-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

You know today I was reading Max Lucado's devotional in the back of his book "3:16". He was speaking of Jesus in Capernaum. Luke ch.4. How Capernaum asked him to stay, He said no. He said he must go preach the gospel to other towns as well. What an amazing statement. No. He turned down the town that loved him to reach out to those towns who rejected him, hated him and ultimately would try to kill him. Talk about the love of God. Talk about dedication to a purpose despite the difficulty. Its a great message, but Max missed one point that caught my eye. Right before Jesus turned down the job the town found Jesus in his "solitary place". His place of prayer. We often throughout Jesus's story find him in his place of prayer. How does a man turn down a life of relative comfort and ease in Capernaum. He still would have been preaching, He could have justified it, people still need him there, maybe from there he could send people out, there could have been a myriad of excuses. Jesus didn't buy one of them. He didn't listen, he didn't stay. So back to question how does a man leave a life of relative ease and comfort, a life of doing good things, to pursue a life of difficulty and hardship yet achieve an amazing thing. The most amazing thing in human history. You'll find your answer in your "solitary place". The "solitary place" gives strength, clarity,passion, drive and ultimately a good handle on purpose and destiny. I encourage us to often be found in our "solitary place". If you're never found in your "solitary place" you'll never be found in a "great place". Live the adventure.

Take Nothing for the Journey

2008-01-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

In Mark 6:7 Jesus sends out the twelve. He tells them take nothing for journey. No food. No money. No extra tunic. Go preach the gospel, cast out demons, heal the sick , but take nothing for the journey. I don't think we understand the gravity of what the twelve were going through. Jesus tells them take nothing for the journey, then a few sentences later Jesus says "When houses or towns reject you". Let repeat that last part "when towns reject you". When a town rejects you where do sleep? You have brought no food for the journey. What do you eat? By the way what time of day where the disciples sent out? Why is that important? Think about it. Which team was sent to a town they couldn't reach by night fall, who got the two day journey with no promise of shelter or food. Scary thought right. What would you be thinking if you where on that team of two. I pondered today why would Jesus do that. Why send them out while he is still around. He is still there, he is still teaching, the disciples still had a lot to learn. Why send them out. Perhaps God was teaching them something. This is how ministry works. You are given a mission and you go. You often go like the disciples, no provision, and no promises. Its very likely the disciples spent some nights outside in a very manly cuddle trying to stay warm. Its also highly possible the didn't always have food. They had ruff times. don't read this passage and think Jesus sent them out and it was all Sunshine and rainbows, it wasn't. Adventures never are. Here is the next point I wanted to Highlight. They all made it home, when they did I bet they had some awesome stories to tell. This is the point; the road to destiny will not always be easy, it will not always be fun, it will be awesome, it is possible, you can make it. Its just not always easy. This is my encouragement to you. Go! do as the disciples did and go, no provisions, no promises, just a mission, a hearts cry given to you by God. The road will not always be sunshine and rainbows but you will make it home, and when you do there will be an awesome story to tell. Live the adventure.

Life sacrificed

2008-01-09T03:03:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about "life sacrificed". Its a term I have coined. I am starting to see that life is better sacrificed. Let me explain. The bible says children are a blessing. I have recently been pondering children being a blessing. I am about to take my niece and nephew into my home. As I spend more time with them in preparation for this move I find myself pondering how children are a blessing. They eat like cows their constantly crazing, their brother and sister so they fight and play both are noisy, they are always at your home so there is no privacy, they need so much stuff; cloths, toys, school supplies. It seems like all they do is deplete resource hardly a blessing right. Wrong. I find that my life is enriched despite all that is lost, I enjoy it when they are in my home, I find there constant noise of play is becoming more like music to my ears, I find that I look forward to their smiles and appreciation. I am enjoying sit down conversations. I am even am starting to grow an appreciation for discipline, I hate being a disciplinarian no matter how bad they are however I find myself saying if it turns them into to descent men and women its worth it. They really are a blessing I just haven't been able to to put my finger on how to describe it. Prayer is another example. My life is so busy that in order to do it I find myself staying up late and getting up early. It costs me sleep, but I find the more I do it the better my life is. Its extending to so many area's of my life. I am an avid procrastinator, if I don't feel like doing it now I like to wait tell later. However I find everything waits tell later and nothing gets done. By sacrificing a few fleshly desires I find that my life is more in order, my business does better, more gets done. Its worth the sacrifice. So I say all this to say; life is better sacrificed. I think so many of us (including myself) are always trying to find ways to make life easier, to do less work, spend less money, to have less hardship. In other words were always looking to sacrifice less. Less sacrifice is not the answer. Finding ways to sacrifice less should not be our pursuit. We should all be looking for the things that are worth the sacrifice. Whats worth a little pain and a little suffering. In the end those will always be the things worth having. If I live my life and sacrifice much, in the end I will truly have much to be grateful for. Live the adventure.

A birds eye view.

2008-01-08T03:10:00.000-08:00

Attitude determines Altitude. If you have every worked in a sales office or been to any motivational seminars you have to had heard that somewhere. It simply means that if you have "high" or positive thoughts then you will end up with a positive results. If you have "low" or negative thoughts you will have negative resul

ts. Why bring it up? As you can see in my last blog I have been thinking alot about prayer. I have noticed when I pray more life is better than when I pray little. Seasons of prayer however are not seasons with out difficulity, the fact of the matter is seasons of prayer can often stem from difficulty. so why is it that when I pray life seems better, why is it that more seems to get done and I tend to be happier despite the circumstances I got through. Perhaps altitudedoes determine attitude. When I pray more my thought process is often fixed more on Jesus. You can't get much higher than that. God has a unique view of your circumstances, he sees your journey from beginning to end all at the same time. Think of him as being in an airplane high above the earth and you are on the road. You come across a ruff patch, its unpaved, full of holes massive boulders restrict your movement, from your point of view this goes on forever. You think there is no way I can get through this. In reality the ruff patch is less than a mile, you'll be able to get through it no problem. At that point your attitude is very low. Why? You can't see that far from your point of view. You see an impossible hardship without end. Jesus however is in high spirits. why? From his point of view he sees a small hiccup in the road and then a smooth ride. Prayer is like keeping in contact with the man in the plane, your getting constant feed back on the true nature of your situation. The true nature of your situation is often, if not always, better than what it seems from your perspective. In short its much easier to navigate the road of life and all of its obstacles when you have the perspective of the man in the plane, stay in touch with him regularly. Live the adventure.

Seasons of prayer

2008-01-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

This month I am in season of prayer. My church is on 21 day Daniel Fast. That's were you eat only fruits and vegetables and you drink water and juice. This fast is giving my an amazing opportunity to pray. Prayer tends to be seasonal in my life, there are times when it is season and times when its not. Its amazing how well I remember the seasons of prayer, and how much I don't remember the seasons with out it. Seasons of little prayer are often seasons I remember little about. That's because there is little to remember. There is little activity, little new friendships, little life giving conversations, little revelation from God, little productivity,little success, and little adventure. Seasons of little prayer have always tended to be seasons of little everything,except mediocrity, boredom, and depression those are in abundance when prayer is not is season. (There like weeds) Yet seasons of prayer I remember much. Perhaps there is much to be remembered. Seasons of prayer are abundant. There is an abundance of new friendships, an abundance of life giving conversations, an abundance of the revelation of the word of God, an abundance of productivity, and an abundance of success in short an abundance of adventure. Why is that? I have a theory. Christ said that "he came to give life and give it to the full"(john 10:10). Its very difficult for me to give you any thing if your not near me. so maybe just maybe its the same with God. Maybe its hard for him to give you anything if your not around him, especially "life to the full". Prayer is a way of hanging out with God, in it he gives you life to the full. Want adventure, want more......Pray more. Live the Adventure.

Saved

2008-01-04T03:01:00.000-08:00

My studies this morning took me to my birth as a Christian. I found myself recounting my first steps into Christianity, the day I repented and first believed. To keep the story short and sweet I was a drunk. I was 18 and what had started as a little recreational fun on the weekends was quickly beginning to consume me. What was worse was I was miserable, my mom dragging me to church every Sunday, me sitting there listening to a preacher preach knowing that what he said was right, yet I refused to believe. Week in and week out I would say "I can quite on my own, I can do it on my own." The longer I waited the more of my life it took. Like many of us who call God father, I had to hit rock bottom. I had sunk about as low as I could go, I was looking at my life realizing I was miserable. I had hated what I had become and I wanted out. Weeks of trying to get out on my own simply weren't working, I would say that's it I am done no more. Some times it would be less than an hour before I found myself back to those nasty habits. What was I gonna do? Finally came that fateful news year eve party, I was so drunk I could barely see, literally my vision was so blurred I could barley make out shapes. My family was in the next room asleep they didn't know what I had done that night. I sat bowing to the porcelain throne. It was there God spoke to me. I heard a voice loud and clear. It said "this is what you have become" in a instant a drunken stupor became a sober moment of clarity. I saw my life flash before my eye's I saw relationships destroyed and opportunities missed, I saw things that I worked hard for crumbling. It was all because of that stupid bottle. I was disgusted. My friend who had accompanied me that night came into the room checking on me. I gave him a flask that I carried with me, it always had a little something in it. I told him I was done, to keep it, I didn't need it anymore. He looked at me in disbelief as he should have I wasn't the first drunk to give up my drinking ways in front of the toilet only to pick them up the next day. I was determined, but what would separate this time from all the others. I knew there was no way I could do it alone, I had tried so many times and failed. I was so scared the next day. It was Sunday, I went to church knowing what I was going to do. I didn't care what the preacher preached about I was just waiting for the alter call, I wanted to plead to God to help me. As soon as the music played I was literally running to the front, I almost didn't make it I broke down wailing out my sins begging for help. That was the day I got I saved. The day I started my Journey to freedom. Why this story. Because I want to reach out to those who are miserable, maybe your a drunk, maybe your not,maybe your addicited,maybe youre not addicted to anything but you are just miserable, you are currently not enjoying life, maybe you just want more. When I first got saved I wasn't terrified of hell, I didn't consider myself and evil man, I am not even sure that when I first got saved I loved God. I just knew that he was offering me a ticket out, a way to freedom, he was offering more. That's it. I will tell you this, the life I live now is way more awesome, way more exciting and way more free. It says that in the second half of John 10:10 "Christ came to give life and to give it to the full". I encourage all of you if you aren't living life to the full then accept Christ he is your ticket to adventure. He is your ticket to more. Live the life of freedom. Live the adventure.

"This is what I signed up for"

2008-01-03T02:45:00.000-08:00

What did Jesus get excited about? I mean have you ever stopped to think about it. I read a blog yesterday by my good friend and pastor, Joseph Thompson. The jist of the blog was that a a lot of people that he had talked to where tired of living in the mundane they were ready to "blow up", "get huge" in other words get out of the ordinary and began to live the extraordinary. He reminded us all that as we pray to be like Christ we must remember that 90% of his life was lived in the mundane and ordinary. He lived thirty three years, only 3 was he a popular minister. I had to take a minute and ponder what did Jesus get excited about in those 30 years as he waited to "blow up". Lets think about it; he was going to leave his good paying job, the security and love of his family, the respect of his peers, the comfort of his home. What was he leaving it for. To wonder Israel as a vagabond, to go from one house to the next and not have a home, to rely on the random giving of people to provide for him, to preach and do miracles yet be ostracized and ridiculed by those he came to redeem, to be betrayed by one his closest friends, to die the most painful death man has ever conceived. What did Jesus look forward to. His steps into full time ministry were basically his steps into a suicide mission, when Jesus decided to preach full time he decided to give up every comfort and sign his own death warrant. So what did Jesus get excited about. I remember the day my unit was called into the maintenance bay for an announcement. The announcement was that the 3rd armored Calvary regiment had officially been given the call to arms, this was it we were going to war. I remember a quite, and dull excitement in my soul. It wasn't the kind that makes you jump for joy or will even bring a smile to your face, its a peaceful satisfaction. A "warm fuzzy" I call it. What was this "warm fuzzy" in the pit of my stomach, as I pondered the thought appeared slowly yet resolutely on my brain. "This is what you signed up for" it made perfect sense. What was I excited about? Was going into combat? I knew what combat entailed. It meant sleepless nights and weeks without a shower (Gross but true). It meant cold MREs (meals ready to eat) 3 times a day, it meant no place to call home or to go and rest, it was basically the end of every creature comfort and possibly grave danger and death. Yet a peaceful satisfaction arises in my soul. I was excited about the mission not the circumstances that would surround it. I was excited about serving my country and defending freedom, it was an honorable assignment but let me tell you a soldier in combat experiences no glory, humiliation and discomfort are his medals in the field. The shiny medals and parades come when you get home and not before. So in short I was excited about the purposes I would serve and not the experiences I would go through. I believe Jesus felt the same way as he made his first steps out of Nazareth and headed toward Galilee, "this is what I signed up for" that peaceful satisfaction in his soul.It was finally happening he had begun the process of redeeming creation, despite the circumstances he would endure, he was still excited about the purpose he would achieve. So this thought process has created a gut check within myself, when I get excited about "Blowing Up" what do I get excited. I love ministry but I must admit the thought of getting paid for what I do brings a smile to my face, I have fantasied about the day I hand in my two weeks notice at my secular job, I like the idea of having a budget to work with and not having to raise funds for events, I even relish at times the possibility of an assistant who would help with the small details that I am so terrible with. While those things aren't bad there not what I signed up for. I came for the hurting, the dying, and the next generation, I became a youth pastor to inspire an incredible generation to due the incredible things which God has called them. Those things listed above will make me life easier but did Jesus's life get easier, no, more difficult. This is the thing, if I don't orient myself now on my purpose and calling it will be to easy to get caught up in those things when I am actually there experiencing them. Not to mention when one area gets easier I am sure another , that I haven't thought of, will get more difficult. Further more a correct orientation brings clarity to my present circumstance, as long as I can study, pray for the youth, and minister to them even if its only a handful or only one, then I am doing what I signed up for. The rest is circumstantial who cares whether I work or don't, whether I have a budget or not, or whether I rack my brains on the small stuff or some one else does that for me, the point is I am doing what I signed up for. To the rest of you out there do what you "signed up for" that thing which God has called never mind circumstance. Live the adventure.

Just a carpenter

2008-01-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

Today I read the first part of mark, chapter six. Jesus goes home and begins to preach, the people begin to "pick up what he was putting down", they where jiving, "feelin each other". In other words what he was saying was resonating in their spirit, it struck a cord. In a quick minute they went from "jiving" to "wait a minute isn't this Jesus the carpenter". They immediately shut down and disregarded what he said. The text goes on to say that Jesus could do very little in that town he healed a few sick and moved on. This amazes me that Jesus the greatest preacher to ever live was disregarded. Why? Because they were so blinded by "the carpenter" they missed the son of God standing right in front of them. Does this ring a bell with anybody. Anybody feel called to greatness to become and do more. Getting knocked down by people who only see the "carpenter". Let me encourage you to do as Jesus did continue on, be obedient. Jesus ended up impacting the world, changing lives for generations to come. So could could you, don't get discouraged by those who only see the carpenter, in other words the mundane and ordinary about you, believe in Jesus who not only sees, but created the extraordinary in you. Live the adventure.

Homeward Bound

2008-01-01T05:20:00.001-08:00

Above you'll see a view of Pikes Peak from Colorado springs. While I am falling in Love with Orlando by far Colorado Springs has been the prettiest city I have ever lived in. The constant mountain view can not be beat. Day and night the different lights bounce of the surface of the mountain it almost seems as if God is continually painting a different masterpiece. I do mean masterpiece, I can not say that one sunset or sunrise was better than another. Nor can I say the clear blue days looked better than the cloudy ones. Each day and circumstance would well up a new set of emotions a new appreciation for God's creation, for his majesty. If you ever seen it, it really is that breathtaking. I was a soldier posted at Ft. Carson just outside of Colorado Springs. I remember looking at Pikes Peak on our morning runs and when would lower the flag at night. I remember driving at night and when it had snow pikes peak would almost seem to glow. I remember boarding a plane at 5 am to head to Iraq looking at the blinking light that sits on the top and thinking "its going to be a long time before I see this view". I remember countless days when I would look over the barren desert that ended in clear blue sky and try to imagine my mountain in the distance. The view represented so much more than just beauty it was where my friends where, my church was, it was where I had some of the best times of my life. So whenever I was down or homesick I would overlook the desert and try to put my mountain in the distance. It was Awesome it always brought a smile to my face. It was how I kept my thoughts homeward bound. I remember when I got off the plane it was sunset. I remember stopping dead in my tracks and soldier behind me ran into me protesting "what are you doing". I was stunned it was pikes peak glowing in the evening sun the prettiest orange you had ever seen. Tears welled up in my eyes and I told the soldier behind me. I have waited along time for that view." What a great memory. Why Do I share it. I want everyone's focus to remain homeward bound. What is homeward bound. Its place in your head, sometimes its a place you have not yet been to and want to reach other times it is a place to you desperately want to get back to. I encourage all of you to keep your thoughts "homeward bound". You will be like me there will be your moments in the desert, where you'll have to look out over a barren desert and imagine your view but know this; its out there. There is a time for you to return home. I want to take this opportunity for everyone who wants to leave me prayer request for whatever your homeward bound is. If its a destination in your future or place where you want to return let me know. Just post the comment. If you don't want me to post it say so I will read it and then delete it. But I want to encourage all you god has a plan to get you home, to a promised land , a place of glory. Don't keep you thoughts on the desert place, keep them homeward bound. I am with you. Live the adventure.

Searching?

2007-12-31T03:56:00.000-08:00

I was contemplating today on the story of Mary and Joseph leaving Jesus behind in Jerusalem as they went on home. Well after a day of traveling they realize he isn't there. So panicked they rush back to Jerusalem and after 3 days of searching they finally found him in the temple. When they found Jesus they were livid "how could you do this to us, we have been searching frantically for you". Jesus replies quite simply "Why have you been searching, didn't you know I would be in my fathers house". What a great answer, the bible says that Mary and Joseph didn't understand, I must admit that I didn't understand at first either. After thinking about it made great sense. Why where they searching? Where did they look for 3 days, playgrounds, video arcades, the normal 12 year old hang outs. Why there? If you were visiting a city were your child's real fathers house was wouldn't you look there first. Why would you search. Jesus was just hanging out at his dads makes perfect sense to me. What about the rest of us where are we searching for our savior at. Is it in the right places? Let me tell you the truth if your looking for God at all the popular hang outs (T.V., Hollywood, Politics, Oprah,) your looking in the wrong places. Just as in Jerusalem Jesus was not at the popular hang outs he was in the house of God, studying the word. Searching start there in the house of God and in his word.

Pain Killers

2007-12-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

John 3:17-21 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Most people reject God because they feel God has rejected them. Man has fallen. Our world is less than perfect. People die of starvation while I throw food away, good women are raped, bad men get rich, children die in terrible ways. Your dad thru you out of the house, you were sexually molested, you were poor as kid, your mom died at an early age. The list goes on, your dad left, maybe you never knew him, your best friend murdered, you have never had respect, nobody likes you, people laugh at you, men have rejected you, those you love have betrayed you. Pain, Pain, and more Pain. We live in world of pain. Some of us have seen more than others. Our pain is the most terrible thing that we have experienced. Whether consciously or subconsciously we design our lives to avoid and cope with pain, we want to be rich so that we never have to be poor. We want to be beautiful so that we will be loved, we are mean so that we are not disrespected, We hurt others so that we never have to be hurt. We do drugs and drink to forget bad memories, we live wildly because we don't feel our life is worth living. I could go on forever. We all do things to avoid and to cope with pain. Some things we do are more drastic others are more subtle. Whatever you do to some extent it at least dulls the pain a little otherwise you wouldn't do it. I think we get mad at God when he tells us that we can't do things that help us cope with our pain. The majority of things that are sinful are a vice in one since of the word or another. Murder is done for revenge (coping with our anger), sometimes for money ( coping with the pain of not having any, or perhaps coping with the pain of having to work to get it), sometimes its to keep people quite (fear of what would happen if someone found out). How about another example; adultery usually its done to cope with some type of pain in the marriage. Drugs are used to deal with all types of pain. Even homosexuality comes from the pain of not having enough or the appropriate kind of attention from men. So when God says we can't do these things we feel like he is telling us to live in a world of pain, boredom, and suffering. "I won't believe in God like that we say". God came to the world to save it and not condemn it. In the verse above we read that those who do not believe stand judged because the light of the world came but we loved darkness. It goes on to say that we do not want to come out of the light because our deeds will be exposed. Its why so many don't believe. If they believe in Jesus then they believe that his way is the right way and their deeds will be exposed as evil and therefore they will have to stop. Their coping mechanisms will have to stop. So we decide to remain in darkness. We are not condemned by God we condemn ourselves by remaining in our places of pain and coping. Let me tell you what stepping out into that light does. It exposes you all of you, your weakness and your pain. Its not so that it can be judged but so that weakness can be made strong and pain healed. God is not there to take away our coping mechanisms but rather remove the need for them. Would you rather have a bottle of pain pills to help with chronic pain or the procedure which removes the pain altogether. Which to you seems like the better way to live. I encourage all us to take a look at why we do what we do, are we sinning to avoid pain, why don't we see if we can get that pain removed.

My Best Christmas Gift

2007-12-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

I am back from the holidays, they were awesome I hope yours were merry was well. Well today it was back to the grind. I went into the office and during the meeting my boss asked what every body's favorite Christmas gift was. Because I was late I got to go first I told them it was the new pair of pants my wife got me (first thing that came to my mind.) Not that I don't appreciate the pair of pants but in reality I have a greater gift that I am much more thankful for. On December 23rd I had the privilege of worshiping and celebrating Christmas with my church family. Church at The Well. What a blessing. As I looked around the room I saw the faces of people I have shared an incredible adventure with. These are people of incredible character, huge hearts, amazing tenacity, and unending, unquenchable love for Jesus Christ. They never quite, they never surrender, despite the circumstances they have suffered over these last two years they have never backed down, they have never compromised, they have remained steadfast, true to their integrity and the purposes for which God has sent them. Such men and women are hard to find. Very few are willing to suffer the Journeys that lead them to the Glory for which God has intended for them, but they have. I want to give them the greatest honor that I can and let them now that I love them, respect them, and am grateful for them. My life has changed because of them (especially you Joseph), I am better because of them ( especially you babe). Antrims, Clarks, Thompsons, Masts,Buccaros I didn't know you before I moved to Florida but I am so grateful that I came, men and women like you are rare, your presence has blessed me. The way you live your lives has inspired me. Thank you for being who you are and living the way you do. To my heavenly father thank you for keeping me on the adventure. So many times I have wanted to quite so many times you have convinced me to stay, your patience and persistence is evidence of your love. This Christmas there is no place I would have rather been then right here, right now. To all those out there in blog land I encourage you to live the adventure, to never give up on God, and to never give up on those around you. His adventure you will find is the greatest, those in your life you may find is your greatest blessing. The journeys you so badly want to quite on are those that often lead to the greatest glory, to the greatest blessings. Stick with it and I guarantee you will find yourself like me, Standing amidst something greater than you could ever have imagined feeling foolish for every time you wanted to quite. Church at The Well I love you and can not wait for what 2008 holds in store whether for better or for worse I know that in Christmas 2008 I will once again be thanking God for the experience of an incredible adventure with and incredible group of people. Thanks be to God and let us all live the adventure.

SKYDIVING

2007-12-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

Skydiving is amazing sport. I went once. I was the first guy out of the plane. There is nothing like the string of thoughts that go through your mind as you head to the back of the plane. Your brain is screaming at you "this is not smart, I can't believe your about to jump out of a plane", "This is a perfectly good airplane and your going to jump out of it, what is wrong with you." Despite my better judgement my feet keep moving to the door and then it happens the moment of truth your feet leave the plane and you are hurtling towards the earth approaching 120 mph. The view all of the sudden isn't so nice and now your nervous (that may be understating it a little) because it was a great thought getting in the plane even approaching the door of the plane your still thinking it will be fun, but as the ground races toward you realize this might be dangerous and that if the chute doesn't open your dead if you do something wrong your dead. Who thought this was going to be a good Idea. Luckily my chute opens and I gently land (another understatement the truth is I tucked and rolled). Why the story about sky diving? Ever think about the first guy who went sky diving. The first chut that ever opened. It had never happened before, why did this guy think he could jump out of a plane a live. Apparently he "believed" his chute would open. funny thing about belief it causes a course of action. The man Jumped out a plane because he believed his chute would open. Columbus crossed the ocean because he believed he would reach land. Belief causes action. You get in your car because you believe it will take you where you want to go. You wake up and go to work because you believe they will pay you. We as people operate on beliefs. What do you believe. Do your beliefs cause actions, if they are not then do you really believe it. Here is to those who believe.

False Peaks

2007-12-20T02:49:00.000-08:00

If you ever climbed a mountain before you'll know what I am referring to when I say "False Peaks." Not only will you know you will most likely cringe. A false peak can be a crippling psychological blow on an extremely difficult climb. what is a false peak? Its exactly as it sounds. It is a point of the mountain that leads you to believe that it is the summit, when in reality it is merely high enough and you are at such an angle that it only appears to be the highest point on the mountain. In reality the false peak hides the true peak and you only discover this when have either mounted the false peak or are near its top. You can imagine the blow. You have been climbing for hours, you're tired, its no doubt cold, you have pushed out your last bit of energy thinking this is the top I am there, I have achieved the goal only to find there is still several hundred feet to go. WHAM!!!!!! What a blow, how devastating, you thought you were done, you thought you had achieved the goal, you thought it was over, you just exhumed your last bit of strength and your still still several hundred feet away. Your still behind, you still haven't made it. To achieve the goal you are going to have to push out more strength, endure more hardship. This is always a point of reflection. You always have to ask yourself the question; Am I committed the journey or to the objective? Did I come here to try as hard as I could or did I come here to reach the top. so many of us set on journeys to reach objectives and we encounter false peaks, places where we thought we were going to be on easy street but discovered that we still had quite a bit of work to do. We always have to ask whether we're committed to a journey or an objective. Those committed to a journey are coming because they think the process will be enjoyable or a good time, in other words easy, they think they will have to give out very little and that there sacrifices will be minimal. These people typically give up when the journey becomes to difficult, the hike was a little harder, the journey a little longer, the sacrifice a little more than what they planned on. These types of people generally give up when they encounter the "False Peak". Then there are those who are committed to the objective. Those willing to do what ever it takes, when these people encounter the "False Peaks" they don't give up. Don't get me wrong those committed to the objective are devastated, it still frustrates them, some of them (if your like me) will take a moment and whine before they gain there composer, but on their moment of reflection, when it comes to decision time those committed to the objective continue on toward the summit despite how much more difficult the road ahead looks, despite how many more false peaks they may encounter, there committed to the summit, and it is the summit they will reach. Don't get me wrong their are many good views from halfway up the mountain but nothing is like view of the summit, there is no feeling like it on earth. To all you out there, I encourage you let us shoot for the summit.

Heavy burdens

2007-12-18T02:45:00.000-08:00

Anyone feel like this guy? Anyone have heavy burdens. What are your burdens today. Can't pay your bills, marriage on the Fritz, any girls struggling with a teen pregnancy, what about pressure to have sex from a boyfriend? What about you guys struggling with sex or pornography how about peer pressure? Anyone being picked on at school or work? Anyone's life seem like a living hell, anyone asking the question: WHY?! why me, why this, why now.

Every one struggles, sometimes our burdens are heavier than at other times sometimes life seems unfair. I want to share a story of when I was in a leadership academy a few years back. We had been given a task, our task was to climb Pikes Peak, a 14,000 foot mountain just out side Colorado Springs, not only climb it but climb it as fast as we can. If ascending from an altitude of 9,000 to 14,000 feet was not difficult enough just to the fact that your going up 5000 feet (that's almost a mile straight up) add to it the fact that as you get higher and weaker the availability of oxygen becomes less and less, lets add again that we weren't going straight up but over a winding trail going over several miles uphill. Let me give you a clear picture. We started at 5 am no break feast, climbing up hill for over 4 hours in an environment that was cold and windy and every breath that I draw brings in less oxygen than the one before it. Living Hell. Quite literally I wanted to quit so bad, I wanted to rest just for a while. Why did I keep pressing on toward the goal. I was the pace setter. There was line of about 8 people behind me each one's hand grabbing the waist belt of the one in front of them, the buck stopped with me. I was grabbing on to no one. If I quite, they quite, but as long as I was moving forward they moved forward. It changes your perspective. When I quite 8 others would fail because I was not willing to take another step. I could not live with that fact. So I pressed on tell the summit where myself and the 8 behind me darn near collapsed but we had succeeded. Let me tell you another story. Jesus, Hanging on a cross. Talk about living hell. Nails in his hands and feet, back bare and raw, the wind whips and chills his unclothed body, blood runs down his face and into his eyes, voice raw with screams of pain, every dying breath more difficult than the one before. Agonizing waiting for the end. Living Hell. Why didn't Jesus quite, why not give up. Same reason I didn't, if he quits, we quite, if he fails we can no longer succeed. He knew his situation was temporary and that if he could only make it, it would make life better and easier than others. Bottom line is nothing in life is free if things are easy in your life it is because somebody else struggled to make it that way. I tell you this for those of you in a living hell, in a struggle, carrying a burden. Think of it this way somebody somewhere is counting on you and your story and your experiences if you quite, they quite, if you fail they can not succeed. Your struggle may prevent them from doing so. It changes your perspective. I hope I changed yours. Keep living the adventure and remember God never said it would be easy, just awesome.

Just Around the bend.

2007-12-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

"Live the adventure", that's the name of this blog. It stems from the fact that I believe a life lived for God is in adventure. Like Most adventures it requires a Journey, it can be a very frustrating Journey for most of us. It seems like some times I am like a little kid in the car asking "are we there yet". I remember when I was little, I was raised in Des Moines, IA. Its a short 4 hour jaunt from Minneapolis, MN, where the majority of my fathers family lived. Every time a family event happened dad would pile us in the car. My Sister and I would always bring as many toys and games as we could cram into the available space. We had blankets and pillows as well as plenty of snacks. You think we were trying to survive nuclear winter with all they stuff we would pack. I remember every time my dad would put the car in drive my mind would say in a quite dreading tone, "here we go". What was mind dreading, the minutes that seemed like hours and the hours that seemed like days. In times spans where I thought we must have traversed continents we had only traveled a few miles. It was awful. The whole time I am asking "are we there yet". I tell you this story because as a child my concept of time and space was not fully developed, four hours stuck in the back seat did seem like an eternity. As an adult I have traveled the world, spent over 24 hours in a plane on a single trip, with no breaks now four hours is a walk in the park, the ride is over before I realize it. So where am I going with this. We have people have an undeveloped sense of time and space when it comes to the Journey Christ has sent us on. We are not able to see around the bend,where not able to see the big picture, we don't know the end from the beginning. Because of this our present circumstances seem longer and bigger than they truly are and the promises and orders of God seem much smaller than when we first believed. Ever sensed a calling in your spirit and then embarked on the journey to fulfill that calling only to encounter difficulty, in these situations I think we often find ourselves asking "Did God really say that" did I hear him correctly, I mean this terrible thing is happening did God really call us here. We have all asked the question. The Israelites did when they were in the desert with the Red sea on one side and a pursuing Egyptian army on the other. They cried out " Why did you bring us out of Egypt, do die in the desert" their comment was foolish, many of us have made similar ones. We wonder why God brought us to our current desert to die. The bottom line is God did not put Israel there to die, if you finish the story God put the Israelites there to part the Red Sea and for Israel to walk across it as on dry land, which made for a much sweeter adventure. The Israelites cried out because they could not see around the bend, the big picture alluded them. We must believe one thing- God never sends you to the desert to die, you are in the desert to see the Red sea part and for you to move across it as on dry ground. I want to quote to from the book of John 10 verses four and five. "4"When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
5"A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.". I quote this to you because if you are a sheep of God, in other words one of his followers than you do hear his voice and he did call you here, he did set you on the journey and right now the lord cries out to you "if you could only see around the bend". Thanks be to God for what we can not see and what we do not know because that just means the adventure is more amazing than we could ever imagine and bigger than we could possibly comprehend. Be encouraged and hold our for what is around the bend.

National Treasures

2007-12-14T03:12:00.000-08:00

What do we treasure and why? Webster defines the verb "to treasure" as : 1 : to collect and store up (something of value) for future use : hoard 2 : to hold or keep as precious : cherish, prize . So My question is what do we store up for future use, what do we hold dear. On this post you see the Washington monument also known as a "National Treasure". One national treasure in particular is the Constitution of the United States, it is so important to that is stored in a impregnable safe, with massive amounts of security. In fact in case of a direct nuclear attack the constitution actually drops down into its own nuclear fall out shelter buried deep within the earth. Clearly its important. There are others: Lincoln's monument, Washington's, there is Mount Rushmore, And the Statue of Liberty. All of them are have security and millions of dollars every year is spent in there preservation. Why? Is it the materials there made of. Washington and Lincoln are marble, Rushmore is not different than the rock around it, Liberty is made of copper. None of these materials are extremely valuable. So why the guards and the fences. Its what they represent that is so important. Its the memories they hold that are important. Its they damage that would be done to our country if what they represent was ever lost. That's why they are guarded to ensure these monuments are always before us reminding us of who we are and what we represent.

What do you treasure. I have a collection of things I treasure. A lot of people like to take pictures but I like to collect nick knacks, and not the cheesy souvenirs you find at the airport gift shop. I like the unusual the things that people will ask me why I keep them. That way I can tell the story and I will be reminded. I keep a piece of an armored vehicle that I drove in Korea, and a shirt given to me in Indonesia. The shirt has no writings its not even fashionable, the vehicle piece is ugly and worn. Why do I keep them. The shirt was given to me by a man in Indonesia, I made such an impact in his life he wanted something for me to remember him by so he gave me the shirt of his back. The vehicle piece is so important that with out it functioning properly my vehicle should have rolled over and myself and all its occupants would have most probably died. I keep it because after 12 hour drive I found out it hadn't been working properly and that nothing short of a miracle kept that vehicle safe. These are the things I treasure that I want to be reminded of later, that I want others to see. They remind of who god is and what he represents and therefore remind me of who I should be and how I should be representing him. Its the Christmas season. Read Luke chapter 2. You will read of all the fan fare of Jesus birth, angels singing and men and woman prophesying. Read it carefully, because in it you will read in the midst of all this it says, not once but twice, " And Mary treasured all this things in her heart". She was storing up these treasures for later, so not matter what happened she would be reminded of who Jesus was and what he represented. To all of us in the out there let us take time to store up treasures in our heart so we may always be reminded of who Jesus is and what he represents.

Gods Best Kept Secret.

2007-10-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

So recently my adventures in insurance sales have taken me out to New Smyrna Beach Florida. Its not to small a town with a small town atmosphere. Its located of course right on the beach. It is beautiful. While condos are making an aggressive push to overtake and dominate the water front several sections of small beach homes are still holding their ground. This gives the majority of the town that old Florida small beach town feel. The breeze is always flowing and while its humid the breeze makes it comfortable. Every time I am outside I can hear the ocean and on windy days feel the sea mist. The people are all friendly and smiling. There are people walking down the streets with surf boards, their jogging, biking and strolling. People are relaxing on their porch and in the front yard at all times of day. It feels like a vacation just being there even though I am at work. I see mom and pop shops as you drive down the street and even a McDonalds is hard to find. It screams small town even though its population wouldn't categorize it that way. Its quite serene and peaceful. Its the only place where after I am done making my calls I find myself staying behind to just dwell on the beach.

Its Florida's best kept secret one man calls it. This was a man I visited to talk about a dental plan. I asked that man how he came to be there. "Serendipitously" he replied. He then went on to tell me about he had fallen ill on the road one day and had stopped off for the night. Well when he got there the rooms where all full it was the busy season. So the receptionist at one of the hotels helped him find an available room at a hotel no one knew about because it had just opened. When he got there the lady who ran the hotel, hearing his plight, decided to give him a discount. The next day he awoke only to find his car broken down. He took his car to a shell station only to have the man their fix his car for free. Not only did he fix it he gave him a free tank of gas. The man continued with his story to tell me he struck up a conversation with the man at the gas station and the topic of moving came up. The man at the gas station said "remember New Smyrna Its Florida's best kept secret" the man turned to me and smiled and said reassuringly "and it is". The man said he enjoyed his stay so much he decided to move there and has loved it ever since. Can you imagine that. Two days in New Smyrna changed that mans life. While New Smyrna is a nice town, its not that great. Yeah it has a beach but like I said you can't hardly find a Mcdonalds. The man didn't move there because of the town, he moved there because of the people. He came into contact with four people that ultimately changed his life. These four peoples total time with him probably didn't equal more than five hours that includes the stay at the mechanics. What an impact we as people can have on each other, you have no idea how everything you do can impact the life of someone else. Just one random act of kindness. Take this mans story. Just a few people, with a few random acts of kindness inspired this man to move. Do we love people, do we love the spirit of God, do we want to change lives, do we want to see the kingdom of God come in power. Are we helping people discover God's "best kept secret". You don't have to be John the Baptist or Billy Graham to lead people to God. These people in this small beach to town where not travel agents, nor where they huge marketing reps, marketing New Smyrna Beach they were regular people practicing random acts of kindness. Our actions are powerful, they can change lives. As we live our lives lets do so taking time to practice random acts of kindness. You never know which one will lead people to God's best kept secret.

Stepping Out On Faith

2007-09-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

I met an elderly woman today who used to be confined to a wheel chair. She now is mobile with help of a cane. Most people in the elder years degrees, they get worse and not better. Once the get into the wheelchair they rarely get out. She shared with me her story. She said she "stepped out on faith". One day she was sitting on her porch and decided she would walk to the her car in the drive way. In sharing her story she said something to me that stuck in my mind. She said "I didn't know if I could make it I just figured I would start and see how far I get." Well she made it to the car , she continues to make it." The fact is she has never returned to the chair, it remains in her garage to this day. In her words " Oh I get tired sometimes but I just stop, rest for a while and then I keep on going, just seeing how far I can get." The woman is still seeing how far she can get. Her definition of faith is starting and then seeing how far you can get. What an amazing testimony.
Let me take you the story of peter walking on water. For those of us not familiar with it, it can be found in the book of Matthew, the fourteenth chapter, verses twenty two thru thirty four. Jesus decides to walk out to the disciples walking on the water, and for those unfamiliar it wasn't winter and the water wasn't frozen. Jesus walked on liquid water. When Peter saw Jesus on the water he asked that Jesus command him to walk on the water to him. Peter believed if God told him to do it he could. Jesus commanded. Peter immediately got out on the water and began to walk.
Let me Digrees for a moment. How many of us do this. We hear the call of God, its loud clear and definitive. You know you heard from the Lord. Excited you jump out of your boat and start walking.
That is what peter did. It wasn't until he saw the wind and the waves that he got scared and began to sank. Now all of the pictures I have seen of this story show peter doing the same thing...standing still. I believe this is true. Do we really think that peter was walking and then all the sudden did a face plant in water when he saw the waves and got scared. Or do we think that he saw the wind and waves and stopped, got scared and then began to sank. The latter is true. You see peter stopped moving forward, he stopped seeing how far he could get.
This is true in so many or our lives. We hear the call of the Lord loud and definitive we get out and start walking. we see the waves around us then we stop, we see the problems and stop. We never stop with the thought of quiting or failing, but our hesitation is just long enough for us to begin to sink. Our failure comes from the ceasing of seeing how far we can get. My encouragement to you is see how far you get. In your life right now you might have waves as big as mountains and winds with force of a hurricane but drive on, see how far you can get.
Through out history those who are most successful are those who fail the most, they fail the most because they try the most. They are in constant pursuit of how far they can get. They are testing the limits or what they can and can not do. In the words of that women "Oh They may get tired sometimes, but they just rest and then keep on going, just seeing how far they can get". I challenge us all to start and see how far we can get.