Piece of Heaven

This past weekend I experienced a little glimpse of what I believe Heaven is going to be like!

I went on The Walk to Emmaus. If you are unfamiliar with this, here is the gist of what it entails:

A spiritual renewal program intended to strengthen the local church through the development of Christian disciples and leaders. The program's approach seriously considers the model of Christ's servanthood and encourages Christ's disciples to act in ways appropriate to being "a servant of all."

The Walk to Emmaus experience begins with a 72-hour short course in Christianity, comprised of fifteen talks by lay and clergy on the themes of God's grace, disciplines of Christian discipleship, and what it means to be the church. The course is wrapped in prayer and meditation, special times of worship and daily celebration of Holy Communion.

The "Emmaus community," made up of those who have attended an Emmaus weekend, support the 72-hour experience with a prayer vigil, by preparing and serving meals, and other acts of love and self-giving. The Emmaus Walk typically begins Thursday evening and concludes Sunday evening. Men and women attend separate weekends.

During and after the three days, Emmaus leaders encourage participants to meet regularly in small groups. The members of the small groups challenge and support one another in faithful living. Participants seek to Christianize their environments of family, job, and community through the ministry of their congregations. The three-day Emmaus experience and follow-up groups strengthen and renew Christian people as disciples of Jesus Christ and as active members of the body of Christ in mission to the world.

I can't explain how this weekend changed my life, I can only show you through the way my life will be lived from now on. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend this weekend with my good friend Mike, and it was absolutely amazing to see him transformed right in front of my eyes! I am telling you, this was the best weekend of my entire life, and I am so excited that my wife is going to experience the same thing this coming weekend. I can't wait to embark on our new lives together as a couple who are one with Christ!!!

Thank you Jesus for being who you were, are, and will be forever!

God speaks!

Sorry for taking so long to blog again, but it has been a really busy couple of weeks.

Pastor Chad told the story of Jesus dining with one of the Pharisees and the woman who wet His feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with perfume that is valued at approximately a year's wages. A year's wages! I think the average annual American income is between 30 and 40 THOUSAND dollars. Could you imagine buy 30 thousand dollars worth of perfume and pouring it over the feet of someone you have never met in your life? That is faith! Thanks Chad, loved the sermon.

What really stuck with me these past couple of days is the chronology of the life of Jesus that Chad mentioned. I have talked with some about reading the New Testament in chronological order, but that is just by the date that the books are written which is awesome when reading the letters. However, I have never thought of reading the Gospels in the same manner. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this for two days now! I have always found it confusing to try to understand Jesus' life by just reading one Gospel, then another, then another, then the last one. A lot can be forgotten in the amount time that takes, and it doesn't seem to flow as a story. Don't get me wrong...I love the Bible as it is written, but I believe that there are many ways to read it to gain more and more understanding. NOTE: If you are a new Christian, or someone who is new to studying scripture, find a mature Christian, and ask them about a reading/study plan. Don't trust everything you find in a bookstore or on the web because you can easily be led down the wrong path!

So, yesterday, I had to go to "ye olde enterwebb" (that is what it was called in the 17th century when Al Gore invented it...LOL). I Googled. I came upon a website called lifeofchrist.com where I found a list of the the Gospels in harmony with one another and a daily lesson planner to go with it. I passed this along to many of you, and if you didn't get it, email me. This morning I started reading the life of Jesus this way, and it is SOOOOO awesome! To me, it really brings out the "real dude" that Jesus was and is.

I challenge you all who don't get into the Word because it is "confusing" to try reading the life of Jesus this way. Always pray before you read the Bible, and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to what He wants you to see not what you want you to see. I know that if you do this, you will be pleasantly surprised!

What Am I Not Good At?

I am a big believer that all Christians should find out what their God-given spiritual gifts are, and serve in a way that uses those gifts. Early on in my life with Jesus, I realized that God gave me the gift to teach. Since then, He has opened doors to allow me to use this gift for his purpose. For those of you who don't know, I teach the high school students at Greenville Christian Church on Sunday mornings, and I have filled in for Pastor Chad on a couple of Wednesday nights where I preached to the adult congregation.

Recently, I read a blog by Ben Arment about understanding what we are not gifted with. Wow. I had never thought about that. We always tell people to concentrate on their gifts, but we fail to tell them to recognize what they are not good at doing. I see people who try to force themselves to be good at something when it is obvious that God did not give them that gift. I will use myself as an example:

I love to play games and stuff with our students. When healthy, I am a good participant in games and events. However, I am terrible at creative stuff. I just don't possess the creativity to put games together or come up with themes for stages. I realize this, and therefore I try to stay away from this kind of thing. I have tried in the past to force myself to come up with ideas for the stage at our Thrive service, but it did nothing but cause tons of stress in my life!

It took me a while to realize that I just wasn't gifted with creativity, and no matter what I wanted, it just wasn't what God wanted for me. I can accept that.

I think it would be beneficial for everyone out there in the blogosphere to take a look at your own gifts.

Ask yourself what you are doing that you know you are not gifted at.

Ask yourself why you are trying to do something that you are not gifted at.

Are trying to do what YOU want, or what GOD wants?

Ramblings...

I haven't had a lot to blog about here lately. We are still unpacking from the move, but Dawn has done a tremendous job on the place. She has such a way with that kind of stuff. If it was just me, I would probably still be living out of boxes a year from now!

Drew is at camp this week. So, please pray that he has fun, makes friends, and grows his relationship with Jesus while he is there. It is awesome how spending time in the forest or just anywhere in nature can bring you closer to God. I guess experiencing creation helps us better understand the Creator!!!

That's all for now, but I do want to remind you all that we are having Discipleship Training this Friday at Sacred Grounds at 7:30pm. This week we are discussing the Cross!!! We will be asking what crucification is, how exactly Jesus died, and what did Jesus accomplish on the cross. Hope to see you there!!!

Gen. 2:24 "...and they will become one flesh."

My friend Joe Rollins, no relation to Henry, posted a blog today about his wife being a woman of NOBLE CHARACTER. He referenced Proverbs 12:4 where it says that a wife of noble character is the crown of a husband, and he ended his blog with this:

Do you see your wife as the crown she truly is?

I feel that I don't thank my wife enough for who she is and what she does! Noble is defined as an exalted moral or mental character or excellence, and I think Dawn has always striven for this (even as a non-Christian). I remember discussing the Gospel with her before she accepted Jesus, and it was fairly difficult because she didn't realize that she needed forgiveness because she had always tried to live a "good" life. Fortunately, Jesus gave me the words and actions to show her where she was mistaken, and she became a true follower.

John Calvin, in referring to Jesus coming to earth as a human being, says that He accommodated us. Calvin is talking about how Jesus chose not to avail himself of some of His divinity while He was here for our sake. He humbled himself!

I see this in my wife as well. When out with the kids, she doesn't walk as fast as she can, but chooses to slow down so the kids can keep up. She accommodates them. She gets up with me in the mornings and makes my lunch for me. She accommodates me. She has chosen to stay home and forgo a career of some sort to take care of our family. She accommodates us.

So, to answer Joe's question: I think I have always seen her that way, but I have failed miserably to let her know that! Thanks for opening my eyes Joe!

I LOVE YOU DAWN!!!

My Camouflaged Sin

Have you ever had a great idea? You know, the kind that immediately puts you in the best mood ever. I have, too. How would you feel if you shared that idea with someone, and they moved forward with it as if it were their own? Would you be angry? Would you feel betrayed?

That actually happened to me, and I felt both of those emotions simultaneously. I was enraged! Why? Because I was proud of my idea. Lately, it seems that I have become proud of a lot of things, and that is not good! If you know me at all, you know that I like to study the Word, and learn as much as I can. I don't see anything wrong with that, but I seem to have removed my focus from Jesus. I have put my focus into learning as much as possible for the wrong reason (ME).

I have elevated knowledge in my life to the point where it is an idol and object of my pride!

I want to use this blog to repent to all of you! I have asked for forgiveness from Jesus, and I am refocusing my life and priorities! I am sorry if my pride and arrogance has offended anyone or pushed anyone away. Please forgive me.

It's tough being human, and I challenge everyone out there to look inward and see if just maybe there is a camouflaged sin in there somewhere that needs to be taken care of.

Unpacking

Let the unpacking begin!!!



The move went really well, but we seem to be lacking some stuff. We have boxes and boxes of books, cds, movies, etc., but we haven't a single bookshelf to put them on! I am wanting to build one of those giant bookshelves with the 12x12 squares like Chad has, but I don't have the resources to do so right now. So, if anyone has any shelves they are looking to get rid of, give me a shout.

When moving day comes around, a person can really tell who cares! I know some people had other things to do, and that is fine, but I want to thank those of you who showed up for the two hours that it took for us to move. Andrew, Mike, Amy, Joe, Patrick, and Sam: I know you guys had other stuff you would have rather been doing than moving all my crap from one place to another, but my family and I thank you so much for giving us your time! God gave us a mission to serve others, and you all did just that last weekend...

Now, we have the daunting task of unloading the seemingly billions of boxes that we have. That isn't our stuff in the picture above. We have a lot more stuff than that, but I had no idea how much we had until last weekend. Please pray for our sanity as we embark on this journey(LOL)!!!