so, yesterday i had a grip of stuff to do around the house. i got some of it done, but some of it i COMPLETELY blew off to hang up with my wife and oldest son. he’s 3 and we took him to see the new pixar movie “UP.” which is pretty good i give it an 8… it started a little slow for me, but it’s definitely worth a view. (DISCLAIMER… if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to know about the movie come back another day) anyhow, the movie starts out seeing the lives of a couple how they met as kids and wanted to be these world explorers and they got married lived a pretty normal happy life and they grow old together and the lady dies. now they main character, Carl Fredricksen, is left by myself. long story short Carl goes on the adventure he and his wife never got to go on and he’s accompanied by this kid, Russell, who’s trying to earn his “assist the elderly” badge for boy scouts type group he’s in. 

during their adventure Carl stumbles across Ellie’s (his wife) adventure book. the book was meant to be filled with pictures and tokens of the adventures they had dreamed about… when he got to the section in the book where the adventure pictures and whatnot were to be he found that instead of being filled with these mementos of grandiose (hello mr dictionary) adventures like mountain tops, rivers, dangers, far off places, etc. it was filled with their life… a wedding, going to the park, picnics, laughing, their house, etc. it was at that moment Carl realized the adventure happened around him everyday, he just didn’t realize it was going on.

I sat there saying to myself… I don’t want to ever miss the adventure of everyday life. I don’t want to ever look for the next “BIG THING” so much so that I miss the bigger thing happening right in front of me. I am not saying settle for the mediocre, cause I don’t believe we are supposed to, however if we forget to enjoy and take in the adventure of everyday life looking for the massive to take place… there’s a good chance one day we’ll look back and like Carl realize the adventure was happening all around us but we were too blind to see it going on.

CLICK HERE  for a glimpse at UP…

until next time… whenever that may be.

so i ran across this story today on foxnews.com and it scared me, made me furious, made me sad, and everything in between. the run down is basically this… a pastor David Jones and his wife were holding a bible study in their home on good friday. well that’s until an employee for san diego county came to their door and informed them could no longer do so and “that the bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county.” (you can read the whole story here and get the entire story for yourself)

are you kidding me right now? is this not America? did our forefathers not form this country in large part to have freedom of religion and worship how they wanted? doesn’t the Declaration of Independence say “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (capital C that wasn’t an accident) with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” i mean who on earth fell off their rocker and hit their head so hard that this became ok?!?

i’m not saying go riot in the streets, get signs and march around your local courthouse and i am in no way saying i want to be anywhere else but right here in America… but this is unreal. we as, what i believe to be a Christian nation, (despite what our current president says) need to be aware when such things go on because it could happen right under our noses and if we don’t know it some law or court ruling gets passed and before we know it our religious freedoms as we know them could be gone.

so, pray for our leaders in authority that they make right decisions. pray that God puts Godly counsel in their circles and paths. and pray that they have the courage and backbone to make the right decisions that will continue to make America the most amazing place to live on this planet.

and for those that think this may not be a big deal i give you PROVERBS 14:34

thanks for letting me vent… see ya next time. (whenever that may be)

Shortly I am going to be attending the funeral of a great woman of faith; Mrs. Jennie Morgan was an amazing woman on so many levels. As I stood with the Morgan family on Friday I couldn’t help but think back to passing of my Grandma from a year (almost to the day) earlier. 

Both women were incredible ladies of faith and both made sure to pass that incredible faith on to their children and to their grandchildren. They left this earth in the physical sense but they are still here and will be for a long time to come. They had the real deal and even though they never preached from a pulpit or stood in front of a TV camera, they have left an invaluable mark on this earth for the Christian faith.

There’s no greater joy than to knowing that the faith we devote our lives to and that truth that guides us, is passed down to the generations of our family that follow us. 2 Timothy 1:5-7 gives us an amazing picture of what a faith handed down can do. I read that passage last year at my Grandma’s funeral as a cried like a baby. I was a hot mess… probably because I so related to Timothy knowing that the faith of my Grandmother and Mother had been passed down to me and my brother and now it’s being passed to our growing families. 

This needs to be a lesson to us ALL… there’s nothing more important on this earth than making sure your kids know you left them with a real relationship and faith in Jesus. 

SO… To the preacher or pastor it doesn’t matter the size of your ministry if it doesn’t get to your kids and grandkids… it’s all for not. To the stay at home mom… the investment of Christ is the most important work you could ever do. To the hard working parent… don’t work on anything harder than showing Christ in your home. To the grandparent… share those stories of faith. To the dad tired and stressed from work… pray over the dinner table and pray with your little ones before they go to sleep, To the single mom who’s just sometimes fighting to breath… fight even harder to make Jesus a part of those babies lives. And to whoever you are…  do WHATEVER you have to do but give, pour, invest, show, love, etc. Jesus into the ones coming behind you… it’s an investment that will live on for WAY after you are gone.

this post has single handedly got me 4,444 hits… HA HA that’s really funny to me cause i don’t have many hits on my blog. but for giggles here it is again in it’s entirety…

i could write a book about this weekend “a dog named boo-dro, a guy named vic, and the city boys that came to town” is the working title.

we made it back from our hog hunting adventure within some cuts and bruises but no major injuries. it was pretty unbelievable experience. wading and at times swimming through snake, gator, and alligator snapping turtle infested waters, running through enormous thorns bushes, tripping over cyprus knees, all of this while being pulled by a pit bull just itching to fight and our reward a 250lb hog with 2.5 inch tusks just waiting to tear up anything that come near it.

here’s the video’s from this weekend… and both these hogs were kept alive so no killing was involved in what you’ll see here and in fact on was released to go free. so back on down PETA…

this is vic (the guy from the book title) and his pet alligator snapper that he found in the very waters we were walking through… nice… and oh yeah this is the smaller one of the 2 he keeps as pets.

i finished the weekend off by attending the funeral of my uncle luke who was an amazing man… he passed thursday i got the call while i was in the truck riding to our adventure. he’s in a much better place now but will be missed by many.

here’s me an uncle luke last memorial day cooking up the fish for the family fish fry…

so tonight an 68 we are talking about being “fearless”… God has really been dealing with me about this.

we get held back by fear and it’s nothing more than a weapon the devil use to keep us from being all God has called us to be. most of the time the thing we are so afraid of turns out to be nothing. so, tonight we’re going to expose the devil for the punk that he is and see some jr high students break free of fear.

3 things about fear…

1. fear is a leash

a leash is use to control and hold back. ever seen a little kid watching a huge dog? the dog is bigger, stronger, and could do whatever it wants but because it’s on the leash it’s controlled. fear does that to us. through Christ we’re bigger stronger and can do whatever he asks us, but many times we get controlled by the leash of fear.

2. fear is a bully

a bully will take whatever you let him. if he knows he can talk about your mama… he will. if he knows he can trip you and push you… he will. he knows he can take your lunch money and eat  your cookies… he will. however, as we know all it takes to make the bully back of is to deck him one time in the nose. fear is a bully it will take whatever you let it… until you hit it in the nose.

3. fear is a weapon

john 10:10 tells us satan wants nothing more than to see our lives destroyed. weapons are used to harm and destroy… a HUGE weapon in the devils arsenal is fear.

ready for the good news… there’s something we have on the inside that defeats and destroys any weapon thrown our way… EPHESIANS 6:16 tells us that by taking up our faith that we can defeat and overcome the weapons the devil wants to use against us. we have everything we need to win. we have everything we need to defeat fear. when we accepted Christ and all He did for us on the cross, we accepted a life of limitless ability and opportunity.

so, tonight we’re going to bust the devil in the nose and bust fear off the lives of some jr high students. i hope in your life, you are walking in the knowledge that EPHESIANS 1:19-20 is as true today as the day it was written. 

live fearless. walk in the limitless ability and power Christ gave us when he rose up out of the borrowed tomb.

so i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. FEAR.

i’ve come to the conclusion that fear is a learned behavior. 2 Tim 1:7 says that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear… that’s means somewhere along the way we picked it up. my 10 month old son caleb is pretty much fearless, those of you with kids know what i mean, he just doesn’t know to be scared of stuff. i mean the other day i look over just in time to see him pulling himself up on a lamp which when he did brought the lamp crashing to the ground… glass goes flying everywhere, it was loud as ever, my stomach dropped and i about passed out (not really the passing out part) but there caleb sits in the middle of all the chaos like nothing had happened. fearless.

granted there are times when having a healthy respect for things is good, but i am tired of seeing people limited by straight up fear. fear of man. fear of failure. fear of letting go. fear of moving forward. fear of (fill in the blank). that’s not the way God has called us to live. i don’t believe that’s the mighty church He envisioned us being. 

so, today embrace the mighty man/woman God has called you to be and let go of the fear that’s been holding you back and holding up.

today i have had the opportunity to “counsel” with several people from all different walks of life, backgrounds, situations, ages, etc. these people i’ve talked with don’t have hardly a thing in common… except they are all guys. but these guys were all in tough situations and every situation needed some love poured into it.

john 13:34-35 is pretty clear… So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

i mean we all have our days but man people shouldn’t constantly leave you with a feel like… “they are a jerk.” the word love in verses 34 and 35 are slightly different in their meanings… they both stem from the word agape but the “love” in verse 35 actually points to a “feast of love.”

now i LOVE (no pun intended… kinda) food and the best picture of a feast i have is thanksgiving. there’s always tons of food… this year we spent thanksgiving with about 50 or so members of my family in north florida and trust me everyone ate until we could eat no more. and guess what we still had leftovers for several days that we ate from.

that’s how our lives should be. that’s when the world will know we are truly His. that’s when people see the difference. when His love flows out of us to where people can come and eat until they are full and there are left overs still to be had. i think if the we as the church learn to do that we couldn’t have enough services, we could build big enough buildings, we couldn’t make enough small groups… so let’s open up the table, bless the food, and welcome all who will come and the only thing on our menu is LOVE!

if you have a minute check out this video from kari jobe… she’s got a really cool worship record coming out this tuesday. and the video features people making it through tough situations undoubtedly because of LOVE.

these are the things i want to see go to a new level in 68 this year… and i am casting the vision for them tonight.

PASSION- any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, boundless enthusiasm, something that is desired intensely

STANDARDS- a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment, a requirement of moral conduct.

WORSHIP- reverent honor and homage paid to God, adoring reverence or regard

like i heard pastor say the other day “you’ll have what you settle for.” i am not settling for anything less than young people that are PASSIONATE about God, who live by the STANDARDS He has set in His Word, and that live their lives in complete WORSHIP to Him.

picture mr miyagi telling daniel… focus daniel son, you must focus!

that’s my theme for this year. i was praying one day last week and as strong as i know how God spoke to me and simply said “focus.” we can get so distracted by this or that. get so busy doing all these things that we lose the focus of what matters. for me it’s people… granted the majority of my people are middle school people… but it’s still all about people.

so, that day i have “focus” running laps in my brain and we go to lunch and the pastor troy brings up tony dungy’s book and he says about how coach dungy talks about “staying in your lane”… aka FOCUS!!

so this year FOCUS… what is supposed to be your focus? that’s between you and God. i know for me it’s clear… people. for you it may be something else, but whatever it is make sure your “focus” has eternity in mind. because if your focus truly becomes about eternity all the other things we run around and try to do seem to happen a lot easier.

today i am working with marvin on a new series for 68 called “freaks.” we are going to be looking at the lives of people that have paid the ultimate price for following Jesus. it’s going to be a pretty intense series but one i think is VERY needed. much of this generation is passionate about a lot of things but i want that passion to transfer to their walk with Christ. 

for some reason much of this generation is so “whatever” about their personal relationship with Jesus, and it can’t happen. we cannot lose a generation of young people. we cannot have a generation that goes without a passion for Christ. and all it takes is a remnant of students passionate to follow after Him and He can change the world with that remnant. i got stirred up by reading reading 2 king 19 today… he can do A LOT with  a remnant that are willing to follow Him and do what He says…

FREAK in the dictionary is… a person who has withdrawn from normal, rational behavior and activities to pursue one interest or obsession… a devoted fan or follower; enthusiast… 

FREAKS coming to a middle school near you… i can’t wait!!