Our Everything

Christmas is such a hectic time. It's a great time, but it can be very crazy too. Tonight I was reminded of a great way to keep your mind focused in the right place this season. I read Isaiah 9:6 and I was reminded about how truly amazing this time of year really is.

Isaiah talks about a child being born unto us and that the government will be on his shoulders. While these are important parts, they were not the best part of it for me. The beginning part of this verse tells us that Jesus is coming for us and that He will hold a position of power. The next part of the verse is what touched me in a new way tonight. It says, "And he will be called Wondeful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Every Christmas I focus so much on the things I "need" or what I "have" to go out and get for others. We shell out a lot of money to buy the coolest gifts. People go to great lengths to buy exactly what people want for Christmas. The problem is that we already have the greatest gift. When Isaiah mentions all of the names of Jesus, he does that to tell us that Jesus is everything we need. He is the greatest gift that we could ever receive because He is our everything. He provides for our every need and holds us dear to His heart.

So, this holiday season, think of who Jesus has been for you and share it with someone. Help someone else realize what the greatest gift is!

Warm Welcome

Wow! 2 weeks is such a long time! I felt like I was gone forever. I missed Galveston and Moody so much! It felt nice to be back in my apartment and to see my new office, but those weren't the best things at all. The best part was when some of the junior high walked into the Student Center last night. The second they saw me, they came running to give me hugs. It was the best feeling in the world! It was so nice to know they missed me.

I got to thinking last night as I was driving home, what a great illustration about God. It doesn't matter how long we're gone, God misses us so much. We can be "gone" for 5 minutes and God is so excited that we're back. He loves every moment he gets with His children.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Zephaniah 3:17. It says, "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." I love those words and that picture. There is no time limit or number of days to be gone before God will do this for you. He is crazy about His children and wants to be with them as much as He can.

So, think about how much you miss people when they're gone and then relate that to God wanting to spend time with you. Know that God is always waiting and wanting to spend time with you!!

Step Out

It's so cool to see how God shows up when we decide to take that step of faith. That is something I have been experiencing lately. God has been asking me for years to step up my committment to Him. I have been nervous, afraid and just unsure. I didn't know what it meant or how it would all work out. Finally, through the words of some friends, I finally decided to take that step.

For those of you that are wondering, the step I'm talking about is ordination. I'm going back to school to get my Masters degree and will be working toward becoming a Youth Pastor or Associate Pastor for the next few years. It's an exciting but scary thing all at the same time.

From the moment I took that step, God has shown up in awesome ways. He has just continued to clear the path in front of me and opened all the right doors. God has just been blessing me in ways I could have never imagined. He has taken a situation that I was so afraid of and allowed me to learn to depend on Him. I fully trust now that God is going to see me through. I know that things are still going to be tough and I may still question or doubt St times, but I will remember how God has already come through.

In the new Transformers movie there us a quote that says, "Fate rarely calls on us at a moment of our choosing.". While I don't believe in fate, I think this statement is very true for God too. He may not call us when we expect it, but He will see it through.

What is God calling you to do? How can you vet out there and allow Him to use you? What have you been too afraid to do that you can try to trust God with this week? As long as we stay focused on Him and the direction He is calling us to go, we can't go too wrong.

Just a thought for you this week! I can't wait to hear stories of how God has come through for you!

Is everyone really welcome?

I'm at the Leadership Institute at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. I am having a great time meeting new people, learning new things and getting to worship with tons of people. Out of all of the great things that I have learned, seen and heard, the biggest lesson came tonight at the close of the General Session. We heard the story of a young man named Vincent. Vincent has had to deal with turrets syndrome since he was 9 years old. The church he went to as a child made him feel very uncomfortable and didn't know how to love him through it. For that reason, Vincent left the church for 10 years. He found his way back to Church of the Resurrection and almost experienced the same thing. As he would yell out things in the middle of the services, people would move away from him and sit somewhere different the following Sunday. Several people in the congregation decided they had to embrace him and help him. Tonight, we saw the extent that the church had embraced Vincent when he got up and sang Shine by Collective Soul. It was awesome!

The church had a choice to make. They could let Vincent fall through the cracks and be driven out again or they could figure out how to deal with it and love him through it. They chose the right option and they welcomed him into the life of their church and learned to be better Christians because of it.

What would you do in this situation? Who would be welcomed into "your" church?

Those are tough questions to wrestle with. We know the correct answer is anyone and everyone is welcome in my church, but what does that mean? What does your church being open to everyone look like? I would love to say that I would not hesitate at all to let everyone come in, but I only hope that my actions and my attitude would follow that. I hope that I would be welcoming and loving to everyone, even those that are very hard to love. I hope that I would be enough like Christ to show them a good model. I hope that I would be a loving enough member of the church to embrace anyone that walks in the door.

Vincent had a great lesson to teach us tonight. So, when will you be faced with a situation that you have to decide who is welcome, who knows?! The most important part is that we do our best to be the most like Christ that we can be and allow Him to do the rest through us. If people really began to understand that there really is a place for them in the church, how do you think our world would change?

Take my life...

I heard a song tonight that spoke to me. The lyrics were just amazing! The chorus says:

Take my life and let it be

All for You and for Your glory

Take my life and let it be Yours

These words can become a simple, but extremely powerful prayer for your life. I love how it uses the word take instead of give my life. Giving my life over to God is the most difficult thing for me sometimes. It's so hard to truly let Him have his way. Sometimes, I really need to use the word take. Sometimes I need to tell God, ok, I'm trying to give my life to you, I just can't seem to hand it all the way over...I need you to take it from here.

That has been a big part of the story of my life lately. I had no problem handing my life over to God when it came to youth ministry. I was pumped and excited to serve Him in that way. I love spending time with you guys, so it wasn't a tough decision! Over the past few years, I've been going back and forth on if I felt like God was calling me into ordained ministry. I really didn't know what to think. I really wasn't sure if I was hearing God call me or if I was making it up in my head. I was scared and didn't think I could handle it.

I was right...I can't handle it, but God can. I finally took a leap of faith a couple weeks ago and started the process to become ordained. I guess I finally had to stop trying to "give" my life to God because I wasn't actually giving it over. I had to ask God to take my life and use it for His glory. When I did that, everything changed. God was able to move in a way that I hadn't let Him move before.

So, read the words of that song again. What are places in your life that you need to ask God to go ahead and take your life. In what ways can you imagine God using your life to bring Him glory? Be ready to see the exciting and amazing places God can take you!

God's Beauty

It's been awesome this past week to really have a chance to take in all of God's beauty. I love moments when you can really see the masterpiece He has created.

When I went to New Mexico to see my parents I got to enjoy the mountains and the beauty there. It's funny because a lot of people don't see the desert as pretty. They see the dirt and the strange plants and think it's just funny looking. I look at it and see beautiful. It's where I grew up, so I guess I'm used to it. Waking up every morning and looking out to see the mountains from my house is just amazing. The mountains just hold a special place in my heart.

Then to come back to Galveston and see the beauty on the beach. As I drove back over the causeway on Monday night, I saw the moonlight dancing on the water. It reminded me how glad I am that I live here now. Then to see the waves and the sunlight on Tuesday on my way to work was amazing.

It was amazing to see both places and remember what I loved about them. God has placed so many things of beauty in our lives and I fail to appreciate them so much of the time. It was nice to have some time to slow down when I was home and be able to remember and appreciate that. It reminded me that I pass by so many beautiful things everyday. We are fortunate to live on an island where we are surrounded by beauty. This short little blog is an encouragement to notice what is around. Take time to notice the beauty you pass by each day and thank God for it. I was able to do a lot of that this past week and hope to make it more a part of my life everyday.

Brainfreeze

This Sunday we are having the BRAINFREEZE back to school bash and I can't wait. We are going to have so much fun. In all of the promo for the event, I keep saying take some time to freeze your brain before you go back to school and have to use it all the time. It's just a goofy statement, but it really got me thinking.

I have a very hard time turning my brain off or "freezing" it. I'm always thinking about what is coming next or what I need to accomplish. If I don't take notes while I'm listening to a sermon, I have a tendency to start thinking of what is on my to do list. If I don't really focus while I'm praying, I start wondering if I remembered to return an email or if I finished what I was working on earlier. It's not that I think God is unimportant...I just can't seem to stop thinking.

I have to wonder, what am I missing out on by not "freezing" my brain through some of those moments? What am I not hearing from God because my mind is racing? What peaceful, restful moments am I thinking my way right through? What is so simple that I make so complicated because I think too much about it?

So, while we need our brains to function and be useful most of the time, are there times that it might help us more to have a brainfreeze? Just a thought for you as you come enjoy yourself on Sunday and then get back into your school routines.