This is something I can chew on for a while.

“Sin ALWAYS takes you farther than you want to go, Sin ALWAYS keeps you longer than you want to stay and Sin ALWAYS costs you more than you want to pay” -Mark Beeson in our weekend service on Mother’s Day weekend.

Two things about this thought:

1. This is one of those things, you THINK you understand but if that’s the case why is that we find ourselves struggling with the same patterns of sin in our lives over and over again?
2. This rolls off the tongue nicely but that never produced life change in anyone has it?  What if we let amazing quotes/thoughts/sermons like this CHANGE US!

Question #2:  As a youth pastor who is constantly looking for ways to translate/communicate God’s word to students, have I failed to daily let the Words of Christ deeply affect me.

If we fail to be affected by the Word when we hear it, what would make us think our students will live any different?

The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed ~ William Gibson

What do you think?  Agree or disagree?

“I DON’T CARE WHAT THE WORLD THROWS AT ME NOW…IT’S GONNA BE ALRIGHT!”

(Need a verse for context Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”)

“If there isn’t a possible of danger it isn’t really an adventure, or if there isn’t a some challenge it might not be an adventure, & if ur watching from the sidelines you’re not really  apart of that adventure.”

By Rick Lawrence talking about how Student Ministry is an adventure at Simply Youth Ministry Conference

If you’re like me you’ve wondered if you could possibly ask God for too much.  Recently I was rereading one of my favorite books “Channels of Spiritual Power” by Frank Laubach and he shed some light on this.

He said, “We can never ask God for too much.  Nothing is impossible to God.  Usually we do not ask Him for enough…Our prayers go unanaswered if we ask only to be cured on the surface, while the hidden evil lies deep down inside.  God wants the deeep decay removed from our world.”

That’s what I’m praying for.  It sounds too big for me which means it’s probably JUST RIGHT for God!

Urban D said one of the coolest axioms I’ve heard this year.  He said:

“RESPECT THE OLD…EMPOWER THE NEW!”

PREACH IT!!!

My dad sent me this quote sometime last week and it fit in perfect the other day as I was sitting on my back porch listening to the rain.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” – Unknown.

Ephesians 5:15 encourages us to ‘be very careful how you live, making the most of your time.’

God knows we’ve had a lot of “storms” in my family as I was growing up and I got to personally watch my parents “dance in the rain“.  

My parents are two of the greatest inspirations in my life!  They make my life so much better and make me better.  Thanks for all you’ve done for me mom and dad! I love you!

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

This quote was written YEARS after God’s people wondered around the wilderness for 40 years.  I can’t even really fathom that amount of time as I’m nowhere close to 40 years old, BUT I know that’s a long time!   

Every time I read the Bible I see God’s people encounter moments where most Americans would give up and yet they often times continued to press forward.  I pray for that type fortitude and poise.  

“Sometimes we may quit right when we’re on the edge of the abundant life God has for us.” – Me (Side note: the “abundant life” may not look like we think it does. God’s ways and metrics are not the same as ours…Isaiah 55:8)

This was a question Francis Chan asked at #Orange09 and I would love to weigh in on it because it’s true for a lot of places. (Not all but a lot.)

The Church has a history of wanting extremely passionate high capacity people to be involved in their ministries yet the moment they get in the door all of their passion, energy, insights, and influence gets sidelined by insecure leadership who are afraid of losing “their” influence.  So it seems they resort to squelching the passion or only asking for what they want/need out of those individuals.

Thus sending some of the most passionate people out to find other places to use their gifting and unfortunately sometimes that place is outside of the church.  

I’ve learned from Mark Beeson that one of the most helpful things we can do for people, while constantly giving them Jesus, is help them find a place to plug in (whether relationally in a group or a serving opportunity) so they can take their next step.  He’s also shown me that far too often the church is the only place in certain peoples lives where they have no influence.  Some of these people you can put in ANY other environment and they are highly influential, helpful, a true gem to The Cause, but put that same person in MOST churches and they would ONLY be asked to hand out a bulletin or pour coffee.  I find that interesting.

It seems that insecurities in leadership is what causes some people to not allow these passionate individuals to thrive in churches.  The underlying thought of “they might be more influential than me”, “they might rock the boat”, “they might take all of my followers”, “they might turn the ship” seems to feed that insecurity so in order for that to NOT happen people try to squelch them or shut them up. 

So Francis, I think one reason “the passionate” are squelched is because of insecure leadership.

Why do you think “the passionate” are squelched? 

I was listening to John Piper the other day and he said one of the most profound things I’ve EVER heard.  He said, 

“YOU NEVER OUTGROW YOUR NEED FOR THE GOSPEL”

Enough said.