CHAOS

Ever have one of those days that would fit into a Lifetime movie? You know the tear-jerker that is too good to be true. Today was one of those days to me. It started off like a typical Sunday for me. Waited to the last minute and then had to rush around in order to arrive at the church building on time. Needed to make a DVD for worship and couldn't concentrate on it. Needed to be doing two things at once but couldn't focus on one. Didn't get through half of the lesson. It was beautiful.Yes BEAUTIFUL! It drives me crazy but I have learned to love it.The chaos is controlled and has begun to represent growth. If it was the same 5 kids up there that were there two years ago I would have been able to multi-task much easier. With 23 people up there it gets a little crazy.

The beauty isn't in the lesson. It isn't in the music. It isn't in the occasional breakfast treats. Not even in the Starbuck's that someone occasionally brings in for me. (Although there is beauty and energy in that amazing cup). The beauty happens before i say a word. The beauty happens in what the outsider would perceive as controlled chaos. You see when we all sit around and talk over each other I sit there and absorb the conversations. I hear the people encouraging a brother/sister who is in an unhealthy relationship of need to look at the bigger picture. I hear the group offer support for the person having issues at home. I hear one person talk about how God revealed himself to her during the week. I hear about the person who befriended the person at their school who doesn't believe the same way they do. This is the beauty. Young people living a life outside of the four walls of our building. They are not waiting to be ministered to; they are being the ministers.

Tonight the girl who decided to follow Jesus wanted to tell everyone about it. Sunday night I am the one who gets to baptize her. I am so undeserving to be allowed the role I play in this. I get just as nervous now as I did when I baptized the first person. I still get the lump in my throat as I announce the newest member into the kingdom. It didn't stop with her though. We had a 24 year old young lady decide to follow Jesus today. What a day for the kingdom.

Wreaking Havoc!

What a night! I like to try to immerse myself into the story when I read a book. Imagine myself being part of the story, maybe not always as the super hero but at least on the sidelines watching everything unfold. Try to get in the mind of the author. Sometimes this takes a toll on me though because it becomes too personal. As the students and I walk through the sermon on the mount this has been the case more than once. From the beginning some of the verses are against my nature, peacemaker, sometimes I prefer to just hash the thing out and be done with it.

Tonight was the first night we had our prayer room set up. Pretty sure it was the uncool thing to do. We took the ping pong table down in order to have a place dedicated to prayer.

I have had a devotion that is due tomorrow for my Evangelism/Discipleship class and had everything ready.

Then tonight...Jesus showed up and turned everything upside down/inside out. Love how he does that. I grew up hearing that life was easy when you decided to follow Jesus. I was taught that Jesus was a lot like a magic potion. Pray and life would be OK. Leave your problems at the cross and everything would be easy. After all isn't that what Paul did. He followed Jesus and the thorn from his side was removed. Oh wait, God said NO. Possibly the greatest missionary of all time struggled. Why shouldn't we?

I refuse to teach about the magic potion Jesus. Tonight I was teaching from Matthew 6:1-5ish and recapped chapter 5. Talked about how this was not the norm. Jesus teaching were hard, challenging, and sometimes even disturbing. Then chapter 6 opens by saying don't do this so people can see you and think "Hey this dude has it figured out"; but do it secretly expecting n0thing as thanks. Talked about how hard it is to follow Jesus sometimes. It goes against what were do naturally. Pretty sure I wouldn't make it as a salesman trying to sell Jesus as a product. Felt like I was not running smooth tonight.

Having said this and all Glory to God, tonight I watched as Jesus did it again. Turned a young girls life upside down. He wreaked havoc in this ladies life. The uncool prayer room became holy. Instead of having a dedication ceremony we christened it with a girl deciding to follow in the ways of Jesus. I was asked to go in there and talk to a couple of young ladies and asked my wife to go for me. So thankful for that. She was able to share with the girl what it means to follow Jesus. I got to watch my wife walk out all choked up after experiencing this. Yea it would have been cool to be in there but its not about me and being able to bring one more person in to experience this was amazing.

Pretty sure what I was going to do for my devotion just got turned upside down, He did it again...

On a roll...

I would love to be able to post this often but I can come up with a million reasons why I won't but in reality it comes down to a lack of discipline. I really do enjoy writing and hope to become more disciplined over the year.

Haiti has been on my mind the last couple of days for obvious reasons. I can remember a time that I may have watched the news but never associated the people inside the TV as part of God's creation too. Now my heart breaks for the people there. I read a story of a teenage boy being shot in the head over some food (as we throw away our leftovers because we have excess). I heard a story of a pastor there filming as part of a documentary who had a Haitian pimp try to sell him a young teenage girl. He payed for an hour and bought her a lunch. I have mixed emotions about this because I am sickened he is there making a movie and taking up room that someone could be doing search and recovery. I also personally don't think I would have been able to turn her back over like a piece of property. I think that may

be one of those times I would have taken a bullet for a stranger. I was on a blog for a pastor who had been talking about the violence. I saw so called Christ followers talking about putting a bullet in people's heads, showing them what a beat down was, and how they understand how God had chosen Haiti for this plague. DISTURBING!

I later found myself on a website of a Mennonite pastor who told stories of Haitians working together to dig survivors out of rubble with only their hands. He told how they put their differences aside and worked together. He saw people sharing what food they had. Sharing tents, blankets, and clothing. We tend to hear less of this because it isn't as likely to make it into a movie.

Talking with some people this week they commented how the ordeal reminded them of a movie. They even talked about how it could be made into a movie. It will be. We will watch the very event that devastated a country, killed thousands, and crippled more for entertainment. We already watch rape, murder, racism, hate all in the name of entertainment. It pains me to think that we have taken a horrific crime like rape and put it on the big screen so much we are numb to it. We hear about it happening in real life and it barely effects us. Instead of leaving us shattered and moving us into action we flip the channel to American Idol or Lost never pausing to realize that was a child of God robbed. Never taking the time to even pray for healing. We put this crap into our heads under the umbrella of entertainment and nub ourselves so we do not have to feel the pain of the broken and hurt. The very people the Son of God came to heal.

I pray for and see a generation of people willing to change the world and fight for the injustice of the land instead of talking about how things should be or use to be. I see a people rising up willing to stand beside those who have been forgotten. I see a longing for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven! The only way this will ever come to be is by one crazy word that seems to turn things upside down every time it is executed in it's purest form. LOVE

Hopefully the two words that stand out on this page stand out together. When we love how we are suppose to it disturbs those around us...not like the car with the system that rattles your door disturbs you... but that it disturbs you to find out why and how can anyone love like that.

My prayer is we never become numb to the condition of people around us. My prayer is that it never again takes a catastrophic earthquake to make us pay attention to our neighbors living in poverty. That we realize it is our responsibility.

Been a while...

Hadn't realized it had been so long since I have been on here. My life has changed dramatically over the past couple of months once again. The company I work for has lost its major account which has trickled down to my family as a tremendous pay cut. My initial response was one of panic. My wife then slapped me (figuratively) and asked me who I was trusting to meet our needs? My employer or my Savior? It is real easy to answer until you are the one trying to figure out how 2+2 can equal 5. It can't with my employer paying me but with God he uses a different set of math rules. Trusting him to meet our needs and learning to cut where cuts can be made 2+2=5!

I have also found out you can really graduate from BCF Orlando extension. The end is near! I start school on Thursday and I am so excited for my classes this semester. Great classes and 3 professors I dearly love and respect. Knowing that I am already aware that I will be putting forth extra effort in those classes but still can't wait.

This last week we have all seen the pictures and video's of the earthquake in Haiti. My heart breaks for the people struggling to survive. I long to be there and pray that if the Lord calls me in that direction I am ready but until then I pray for the people. I encourage anybody that reads this to be aware of the condition people around the world live in and do what you can. You may think that there is not much you as an individual can do but when we all do together great things are done. There are these same stories of desperate people trying to survive in our own backyards. In our children's lessons yesterday I had a young girl express that she was afraid of Haitians moving into central Florida. She had been told that they would cause the crime rate to explode. My question is how much will the Haitian people be exploited in central Florida. How many will only find a job paying minimum wage, if they find a job, working much harder and longer than their supervisor's making 6 figures? How many will be shunned from our Sunday gatherings because they do not fit our image? How many will never hear the story of Jesus because they don't fit into our socio-economic groups? How many of us will even notice they our here as we live a life of isolation from anything that disturbs us? We hear the teachings of Jesus and wonder how they can fit into our lives instead of wondering how we can fit into His teachings!

Just a few quick thoughts on MLK day.