Christmas time

Wow, I haven't posted anything on here in a really long time. Its much over do. I have been so busy with work and Epic and now Epic Youth that I really have no free time. And free time is when I tend to write. Anyway, I love the things I'm involved in. There is nothing better than seing someone elses kids eating oreos off of a window, or run into chairs repeatedly, or fall down for no apparent reason (haha green Melanie). I love spending time with students on sunday nights. Its alot of fun and alot of work, but I'm starting to not mind the work. There are so many things that are going on a students lives that they just bubble over with laughter and silliness. For the next couple of weeks we're going to be talking about christmas and the story behind the story. This week we talked about the first part of the story. The part where Joseph has to walk eighty miles to bethlehem with a pregnant Mary (which I sure by the time they got there Mary was not very merry)on the back of donkey just to pay taxes. Well, of course we know the real reason was. But the crazy part is that when they got there there was no room for them. No one would take them in. So, they had Jesus in a barn (more like a leanto) and put in the very thing that animals eat out of. THis is our King, our Savior, our ticket to heaven, the one the only Messiah and He's sleeping in a manger. Do you realize the reason there was room in the inn? It was because there wass no room any where. The only place for Jesus in His day was on a cross. Jesus came looking for a way into the over crowded hearts of man, but He could not find any room. We've rejected Him, told Him theres no room in my life for you in here, go away. And so, Jesus' rejection goes on, and yet He is still searching. Thats the real Christmas Story.

I'm a Youth Pastor

That's right. I have been chosen to be the junior high youth pastor for epic. I'm loving it. We met for the first time last week and it was so fun. We played pudgy bunny. Its a game where you stick as many marsh-mellows into your mouth and still be able to say pudgy wudgy bunny. The students loved it. Colin and I took each other on, he beat me by one(number ten to be exact). It was great. God is great.

Waring with the King

Well, after revealing to everyone at church what I have been through in my short life time, I found that there are people who don't look at you weird after sharing deep hurtful things in your life. The coolest image came to me as I was sitting waiting to climb onto the stool up front. That I was getting ready to run head first into the Orc army with my sword drawn knowing that I could be going to my social death. I grab my sword and charge the stage and there on the very battle field that so many have fought with everything they have for lost souls, I sit and pour out the evil that has cut so deeply into my life. And there I see the faces of lost and hurting people and I know what my battle is, it is the battle for the heart. "For the thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest". John 10:10

I love that image I got. It was the perfect thing for me on that day. To see me running to war, not from it. Run head long into the battle with sword drawn. Sunday I learned something about myself, or rather I learned something about God. He goes with us into the battle. I'm not talking about reading this in the bible and feeling all worm and fuzzy. No, God goes with His people into the battle, into the war. Sunday, I was not only fighting along side a good friend (Ed), but I got to fight along side Jesus Christ, the Lord of the army. I fought along side the King and together we are victorious. All hail the King.

LIFE ON A THREAD

Wow. It sure has been a while since I've written a blog. My wife and I have been going through some really hard times lately. Sure there are glimpses of great things, like a job promotion, or a pay raise, but health is much more important than all those things. Renee has been having trouble walking and it has thrown us for a huge emotional loop. She has been having constant pain in her right leg. The pain is so bad that the doctor put her on Valium and vicadin, and they still don't touch the pain. We have tried numerous times to get an appointment with a specialist, but they keep telling us that we have to wait until all the test results from the last MRI come back. We are so tired of waiting, we want answers, but we're not getting then. I was so mad at the doctors, that last night I was praying and told God that, "they were not very nice" ( just not in so many words). See, I'm not one to keep my feelings from God. If He makes me angry, He can be sure, He's gonna hear about it. But, something that I did not do was curse God for making us go through these hard times. I don't blame God for what is happening, it is just the way life is. Life is not so pleasant right now, but nonetheless, it is life. God is in control, He may have let this thing come on Renee for a specific purpose that we don't know about. The doctors may find that this hip thing is only a symptom of a bigger problem. So live life, even when your sick and you feel like you have no life to live at all, give it to God, and live in His provision and grace.

It's Launch Time

WHOOOO! Today is the baby. This is what we've been waiting for the past year. This day more than any other day. God's people coming together to bring new life into the kingdom. The one thing we have been longing for. It's no longer a dream, SALVATION IS HERE!

The Time Has Come

The church that I have been helping with for a year is finally ready to open tomarrow. It's so awesome to know that God is with us all the way. We had our final building inspecton this morning and we passed. However, last night we had to work for a while to get it up to code. A few awesome guys from our partnering church "Impact" came out and helped get everything done. I love being apart of a community that comes together and helps one another in times of need.

Sunday is the big day, the grand opening shall we say of the "Epicenter". We are so excited to see God's dream relized through us. We are hoping to be totally pack out. Standing room only. That would be so awesome. Letting people know the good news of Jesus Christ is awesome. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in and through us. As one of our team members put it "we're really for lift off". T-24hrs. and counting. Alright soldiers- rise up-take your place in the battle. Today is not like any other day- today we fight. And today we shall be more alive than any other day in the history of our lives. TODAY WE STAND! TODAY WE FIGHT! TODAY WE DIE TO OURSELVES! AND TODAY OTHERS SHALL LIVE!

A new hope, an even newer freedom

New hope. Why do we need it. If we what new hope doesn't that mean that we already have hope? But there are good reasons for wanting new hope. You lost your job, or your wife has cancer. There are a million different reasons for new hope or should I say renewed hope. God is the giver of life and he wants every single one of us to have it to the fullest. God is life, and He is lives in ultimate freedom. That's why He wants us to have life because He has it and He wants us to be just like Him. Free in every way.
When I was just a little kid, maybe seven or eight years old, my brother and sister and I would go out into this woods. Armed with butter knives and rope we would strike out on an adventure. This was a hunt. Our goal was to find a dear, kill the dear, and make a meal out of him. We set out marching to the woods laughing and all telling what we thought was going to happen when we found the dear. Well, needless to say, we never found a dear, but we were not going to be denied. We marched back home and went into the garden. There playing in the dirt, having all kinds of fun we found it. The biggest and greenest tomato worm you have ever seen. Armed with our butter knives we began the hunt. Well, it was more like a, lets stab it kind of a thing, but you get the idea.
That day we were the explorers of a new world, great Indian hunters, soldiers in the army, we were free. Free to live life to the fullest and to love every gooey green moment of it. Freedom is what God wants for all of us. Freedom from your past, freedom from the hurts in your life, freedom from sin and shame. The nagging emptiness in your gut screams for freedom. And as William Wallis said in the movie Brave Heart, "All men die, few ever truly live". Freedom is life.
So, are you free?

Lately I've been reading in the book of Joshua and man have I just been blown away. All the fighting the battles the death and destruction. There is just so much war, but the thing that strikes me the most is that God commands then to do it. To completely destroy whole cities and burn them to the ground. To leave non alive including women and children. Thats just crazy.
God had a plan for the Isaelites. His plan was to give them the promised land. The land flowing with milk and honey, paradise if you will.

This is the way our lives are some times too. We fight with everything in us some days just to keep our heads above water. Fighting for our freedom, fighting for our hearts freedom. We are driven by a passion to be free because we were meant to be free. When God created Adam and Eve they were free. They had an intimate relationship with God. They walk and talked together. They spent time together and ate together and loved one another. Thats what we were meant to have with God. A relationship so close that we know every detail about God and HIm about us. Realness, friendship, love. We were meant for it in the purest of sences. God made us to have life and have it to the fullest.

Open up the walls around me. Wide enough so I can see the light. Wider yet to see the sky. Still wider till Your face I see. Open the walls of this heart of mine. The empty tomb of all my failings and short comings. I say open the walls, but in the same breathe I wish them closed again. For if those walls should open, my heart shall be exposed. So take the hammer and the nail, board up this heart of mine. Don't let those people in. For I don't know their thaughts of me. Alone and cold is this heart of mine. Lifeless in its tomb. My heart screams to be set free.
There is a hole, small in size. Yet the littlest speck of light shines through. My heart beats with new life. Like a man trapped in a cave it diggs. The light is stronger, it calls out to me. Be free from your tomb, be FREE! The walls have been broken, pain is no more. Praise be to the rescuer who sets the casptives free.

Ever Wonder Why Your Here?

Have you ever felt like life was taking you down the wrong path or you aren't doing anything with your life? I know I have. There are times when I have glimpeses of hope that I'm going the right way, but most of the time I have no earthly idea whats going on. Alot of times I feel like a loser because I can't get life right or that I'm to dumb to do anything, but I know diferently. My God has set in me the heart of a warrior and I know why I'm. I here to fight for Him in the greatest battle known on earth. The battle of winning souls, but now wait, because you have a part to play in this story too. It's not just my story, its our story, its the worlds story an we have to deside if we want to be in the story or not. I chose to be in the story. I chose to live the story and my life has never been the same. My life has been changed for the very best. Living for God is the only thing I want to do. And living in and being part of the big story is all I want to do. There is a quote I heard last night as my wife and I watched a movie. The movie is Five People You Meet In Heavan. I was a pretty awesome depicition of what heaven might be like. And through out the movie he keeps saying "I don't deserve to be here. Why am I here? I did nothing with me life. I was a nobody." And at the very end of the movie when he gets to his heaven and there are hundreds of people there smiling at him as he walk in, a voice comes out of no where and says " And the world is full of stories and the storie are all one." You see Edie (the main charater was a maintaince man at an amusment park and he was the one who check the rides everyday to make sure they were safe. Edie died saving a little girl who was going to be crushed be a falling car from a ride. Edie Maintaince (as they called him) kept people from ding all his life, and now that he's in heaven he knows thats the world is full of stories and those stories all run together to make one big story. Are you living the story?

Hard days work!

This weekend was one of the hardest work weekends that our church has had in a long time. We set up our booth at the local festival. We started work at 8:00 am and had no break until the end of the day at 6:30 pm. We were on our feet all day long handing out pamflits and talking with people about our new church. Getting to know people is hard work in this kind of environment. The amount of work that went into this is enough to make anyone tired. How in the world did Jesus do it. He was surrounded by people all the time. Building relationships, giving advice, healing, by the end of the day He must have been dead tired by the time the end of the day came. It makes me feel all the more privaledged to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

relationships, guitars, and the F-Bomb

I love getting together with new people and talking about what makes them tick. Tonight I had the privallage of getting together with a guy named Casey. He's trying to learn how to play the guitar. I've been playing for about four years so I joined up with for alittle jam. I had no idea what to expect, but I was totally suprised. He's alittle ruff around the edges, but a really great guy. we're sitting there playing worship songs and this guy has no idea what he's hearing. He's in the presence of the one true God and he has no clue. He really didn't know any songs so I taught him Lord I Lift Your NAme On High and he like it. I mean this is a guy who is dropped an F-bomb alittle earlier. God is so awesome how He brings people together. The collest thing is that he wants to do it all again. I'm just dumb founded at how God works. This guy is gonna find God. I can feel it.

Goofy little kid...

Last night I went to a suprise birthday party for someone in our church. We were singing Kareoke and just having a blast. As things started to die down alittle bit this one little boy came up to me and started beating me up. Now, normally I would just tell him to knock it off and he would leave and I'd be happy, but not this time. Instead of making him feel bad for wanting to play I looked into his eyes and said, "bring it on ya little punk". His face lit up like the four of july as we tusled and screamed and laughed.
I king of think that that is the way Jesus was with little children. He loved children, but I think it went deeper than just love. I think he wanted to get down to their level and really connect with then. Even when His own desiples were telling the kids to leave Him alone Jesus said bring um on. Kids are so cool!

Lets all get crazy!

God has been doing some cool things in my life the last little while. I started the day today very down and just feeling tense. I had to be at work at noon so my day was already shot, but I just couldn't shake this feeling in my gut that I was all tied up. On my way to work I started praying and asked God what was going on in me. I told Him how felt like I was bound by something and I could get out of it. I asked Him to protect me through the day and to release me from whatever had me bound. As I started the day at work I still felt this feeling, but I was pushing ahead. Nothing was going to stop me from having the best day I could have. Lunch time came around and I was tired and hungry and not in a very good mood, but as I ate I relized that I was starting to feel like I was free. I was free to move and get loose and have fun. As I went back to work in a much better mood God simply said, "you have been free all along". I was alittle taken aback by this I mean, really, I was free this whole time. Why wasn't I having fun or being me this whole time then? God said, "because your trying to be someone your not, your trying to be perfect". I was shocked that God would say such a thing. I mean, I'm supposed to be perfect right? Well, not till I get to heaven. I was trying to live the perfect life, trying to make people think I was better than I really am. That I am some super-human who does nothing wrong. No wonder I could be free in worship at church, I was worried about what the people behind me were seeing when I was worshiping. I thaught they might think I looked stupid, or I didn't look cool enough for then. Well, forget this. I'm tired of trying to be perfect. I want to be me, not some freak does everything just the way everyone wants him to do it. I'm ready to break out of this shell and find new life in Christ Jesus. I'm here to let Jesus set me, the captive, free!