faith comes by hearing…

Sunday i listened to a 64 year old lady preach and i mean lay it out in a way that challenged my life and ministry. i went home for lunch and said i want that much energy, that much revelation, that much anointing when i am 64. she proclaimed truth about the blood of Jesus in a way that many are refraining from preaching. i can remember when my mother would plead the blood of Jesus over everything as well as my own life. this past week in prayer i found myself pleading the blood over our youth church in a new way. i am ready for God to do something in the kids lives that wander in week after week, and i am not willing to give them up…even the knuckleheads that give us grief week after week.

What did she do? She preached the word! My faith rose to another level when she spoke of the contract we have in the word of God. The contract says I can have what it says I can have! The problem is this generation is not reading the contract and some guys in youth ministry are preaching issues rather than the word! It’s time we preach the full counsel of the word and challenge this generation! Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God…so if I want the level of my faith to rise as well as those I minister to, then how much of the word are they hearing and how much are we reading? The word of God is a hammer and a sword. It will break off stuff and cut things out…doesn’t sound sensitive to making people feel good about who they are…handle it with care, but in every case handle it!

2009 the year of expectancy…

i found myself waking up after only a mere 4 hours following our never ending new year. we had 108 people in a theatre, bowling alley and then back to the church. great night,,,but the day after my brain is usually fried and i am half comatose and practically useless. BUT, now that’s a word…I woke up with thoughts for this year. I believe this year will be the most amazing year of ministry yet, but there is something i have to do in order to get to that place.

there are so many things that this generation is holding onto in order to be who they think they are. i found myself asking god how to break the code on this generation and it was clear…something has to break in order for this generation to experience what God wants to spill out all over their lives. I grabbed my phone to write out some notes…

a few lines…

A seed… Is planted with a measure of expectancy in mind!!!

You don’t plant something you don’t expect to grow!

You only plant things that you expect to grow…what are we planting?

what seeds are we planting in the spirits of our students…i expect so much this year…but i need to plant even more!

it only takes mustard seed faith to move a mountain!
hebrews 11:1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

let’s plant some seeds this year and see God grow a generation!

unwrapping the impossible pt 2

can the impossible be possible in your life? why not…with God all things are possible! absolutely nothing is impossible with Him! NO THING! nada! i am sitting in bed with my ibook – which is terribly slow now – listening to kari jobe and studying for my message…God can do the impossible! i belive it, BUT if i can’t see it i can’t have it! i f the shepherds never saw the baby jesus they would have never experienced the impossible…they would have never spread the word! If i can’t hear him i wont respond to what he has for my life. if the shepherds did not hear the angel say the baby would be wrapped in swaddling clothes…they would have been still tending sheep and never made it into the Bible today. They saw…they heard…and they went. We have seen so much, but can we see God do the impossible in our lives? God is speaking, but are we listening? if not we wont go where he has planned for our lives! Now that’s a bummer! i am stoked about tomorrow night. This is truly the most wonderful time of the year! enjoy…

current series in crave…

it’s all about how you respond to life…

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

the spoiled chuch…

Jesus came to this world not to spoil us, but to give us life and that life is in Him. If Jesus walked on the earth today, would he choose going out with friends over an event the church puts on? would he choose to “take it easy” over attending a conference designed to enhance his spiritual life? would he choose to stay home, work, go out on a boat, mow the yard, sleep…etc over going to God’s house to be with God’s people and hear God’s word? i think not. if Jesus were walking on the earth today I believe he would be all about whatever the church was doing to enhance a believers spiritual life as well as whatever the church was doing to reach the lost…basically every time the doors of the church would open He would show up!

spoiled…an overindulged individual. if the word spoiled points to a person that is over indulged, then it’s a good word to describe much of today’s generation. todays teenager is over indulged on entertainment. entertainment is all about the feel good factor. if it feels good and does not demand much commitment then I’m in… if it feels good and it’s the popular thing to do, then I’m in… Just because it feels good, does not necessarily mean it is good. there is nothing wrong with entertainment, or feeling good, so don’t read into the point i am hoping to make! today’s teenager is spoiled because a lack of commitment to the church itself! many are more interested in what their peers think rather than be totally committed to church! an empty seat in a church can’t do much of anything…it can’t give an offering! it can’t pray for the lost! it can’t be imparted into! it can’t be deposited into! it can’t change the world! it can’t worship! it can’t get saved! it can’t even encourage someone…it is what it is empty! too many chairs are empty…and some of it is simply because we have a generation of overindulged students! i love to ask students if they are gonna be in church on a particular day…the answers i get many times is “maybe”! are you kidding me? “maybe” means if something else does not come up. “maybe” means if something else is more important. “maybe” means i guess the nails were not enough to get me in church this week! “maybe” is the answer of the spoiled chuch…

this generation needs a fresh encounter with God that will eliminate the word maybe from their vocabulary and replace it with a definite YES! where else would you expect a follower of christ to be, than in a place where others are following christ!

if you are in ministry comment back your thoughts on this one!

miracle night…

wednesday night was miracle night at calvary and the house was packed. we brought the entire youth ministry over to the sanctuary for one big service. now some gave me a hard time about going over…i heard this one girl say “i can’t believe we are going over there that is lame” i proceeded to tell her that she was gonna get something good tonight. God started to move and she was right down front getting hers. at one point pastor laid hands on kids called to the ministry and something like a blanket swept over the house. and the same girl was on the stage. the presence of God sat down in that building in a real way. pastor laid hands on the staff and it was like a hammer driving me into the ground. i felt like the weight of God’s presence like a blanket on me…his presence was so heavy tonight. i know this probably reads like jibberish but it’s only been moments since the sanctuary emptied. i spoke with one of our students who said “i am so glad we came over here tonight…i thought it was gonna be a place full of old people, but it was so real” i felt God in a real way tonight.

miracle night at calvary…i have been telling our missions team to ask for big things-not little things because god is in the business of doing things big. tonight he did it big at calvary. i saw so many step out and say they were called to ministry! i have been asking God this past year to call kids to do something great for him, it’s nights like this that i believe are pivotal points in students lives that everything shifts and changes into the right place for God to use them!

hold on God is up to something big here!

proactive vs. passive

i read a book several years ago by steven covey “7 habits of highly effective people

habit 1 stuck in my life “be proactive”this book had a profound impact on my life in terms of approach to ministry. i truly want to be productive and effective in all i do…but i have to do something about this. Be proactive stuck in my life in my approach o so much-We can choose to be reactive to our environment. For example, if the weather is good, we will be happy. If the weather is bad, we will be unhappy. If people treat us well, we will feel well; if they don’t, we will feel bad and become defensive. We also can choose to be proactive and not let our situation determine how we will feel. Reactive behavior can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By accepting that there is nothing we can do about our situation, we in fact become passive and do nothing. Being proactive means assessing the situation and developing a positive response for it.

be proactive and not reactive and in turn become passive in ministry. in ministry there is so many people and situations that will cause you to be reactive and just accept whatever comes your way. God has a plan and sometimes that means dealing with junk…guess what dealing with the junk in life makes you a better person…reacting to the junk makes you a passive person!

you will always have the junk just turn it into a treasure!