A Glimpse into Who God Is.

Turn to Genesis 15 in your Bible before you read this blog and read that, because that's what this blog is going to be about. This might be my favorite passage in the Bible simply because it shows just how faithful and trustworthy God is. In verses 9-17 a ritual is described. A key point of this ritual is when the heifer, the goat, and the ram are all cut in half. Lets take a second here, I'm sure you're wondering, "Why are animals being cut in half so special? It just seems like a bunch of other sacrifices that are recorded all throughout the Old Testament." There is a difference, I promise, let me explain.

The three animals that are cut in half represent something fascinating that reveals a bit of the nature of God Himself. You see, this oath or covenant that is being made is the type that has a self-curse on the one that is making the oath if it is not fulfilled. That self curse what that the oath maker was stating that the fate of the animals would happen to them if their promise was not fulfilled. Let that sink in for a second.

God Himself was promising His own destruction if He did not keep His part of the covenant with Abram. I am wowed every single time that I read this, how can you not be? God, the creator of the universe, promised His own destruction if he did not keep a promise. This shows that God is trustworthy, He is honorable, and He would rather be destroyed than not keep up His end of the covenant.

God reveals Himself to us all the time, a lot of time it is through His Word. That's why we have the Bible in the first place. So read your Bible, spend time with God, and sincerely seek Him. God grants wisdom and knowledge to those that seek them. Are you seeking? Do you want to know more about God, or even to learn more about Him? Ask for it, pray and spend time alone reading the Word. The way will be shown to you, and He will reveal Himself to you. That's my promise, and His.

Growth During The Crucible

Remember the girl that I wrote about a while ago, whose father is in jail, won't write her, and her mother is in rehab for drug abuse? Well last night at youth she taught about forgiveness.

When she ran the lesson by me before we actually started youth I was so proud. She had a 30 minute lesson set up, 4 scripture references, an activity, small group discussion, and even a closing statement! This girl that has been raised in a dysfunctional home worked hard on a lesson that she knew that people needed to understand. The whole reason that she did this was so that people in the youth group would understand how important it is to forgive those that hurt us as Christians. Most adult Christians that I know don't understand the concept that a middle school girl taught about last night. The lesson that she taught last night was better than any work that I could have come up with at her age, I am expecting great things from this girl. To top it all off, after the lesson she told me that her mom wrote to her from rehab and said that she is trying to get better for her, that she misses, and loves her......

God uses people when they are at their lowest. Think about anyone in the Bible, even Jesus! What else could have been the low point in the life of Jesus rather than when he was being nailed to a cross? God used this little girl. And I am so glad that He did.

Tomorrow is Graduation

I graduate tomorrow!

That gif is about how I feel right now. It has taken me four long years of hard work to get where I am today and I'm pumped. Not only am I graduating but I am going to the Seminary of my dreams, Asbury Theological Seminary, I'm in the process of entering into the Chaplain Candidate program for the Navy, and my wife is happy because I got the place that she wanted to live in while we are there. This is a great time in my life, and I give all the credit to God. He is the one that has gotten me this far, He has put people i my life to get me where I am today and bring me closer to Him. I've learned enough over the past four years to realize that I don't know much at all, which is extremely humbling. But I am still excited to graduate, I have been looking forward to this during the entirety of the semester. I just wanted to share that I'm graduating, I'm stoked.

P.S. There is going to be a better blog later today so keep looking.

Beauty of God's Creation

I am a naturally grumpy person. I will probably be the angry old man that yells at kids, but I'll have fun. One day I was doing some work on my computer  and I was kind of grumpy because who wants to write a paper at 2 in the morning? Well it started raining as well, so I figured I might as well go to bed. I was thinking about how I don't like rain because its cold, wet, and generally uncomfortable.

Then I thought about how cool rain actually is. Seriously, think about it. Rain comes from so high up in the sky and comes down on us, it is a beautiful thing! Just precipitation in general is amazing, the fact that it works the way it does. If we could witness rain from beginning to end somehow I'm sure we would all be awed. I couldn't help but thank God for putting so much beauty in this world.

There is so much that we see every day that we pass by and don't even bother giving a second glance because it is so normal to us. God created such a beautiful world for us to enjoy. I'm not talking about only nature, God's creation includes humans! God is an amazing artist, that has created a world that even He said was good. Creation is cool!

When I laid down that night beside my wife, I wasn't grumpy anymore. I was content and happy thinking about how amazing God is and how His creation was absolutely amazing. Look at the stuff around you, I mean come on, things come out of the ground that we can eat! Take a close look at what is around you, be observant, and rejoice that we serve a wonderful God.

The Gas Chamber Incident. (Boot Camp Story.)

For those of you that don't know I am in the Navy. And in celebration of Veterans day I figured that it would be appropriate to share a Boot Camp story. Enjoy.

So there I was, in line with every other miserable recruit waiting to receive our gas masks when one of my RDC's came up to me and pulled me to the side. (Side note, I was sick. Because it was Boot Camp.) Which is never a good thing.

RDC: Listen up douche-knuckles. I miss being able to make you do eight-counts for hours on end. So when you take your gas mask off take a really deep breath and cough all your nasty up. You tracking?

Me: Aye Petty Officer.

I get back in line and receive my gas mask, then we form up in the gas chamber. I'm in the third squad so I get to watch the two squads in front of me get screwed up. Finally my squad is up. I look at the window where the RDC's are watching. The one that pulled me to the side looks at me, nods, and gives me the thumbs up. Which creeps the the heck out.

Like I said before, I was sick. Like an idiot I believed the RDC because they had seen this before so they should know what they're doing. Right?...

Well the Petty Officer in charge of the gas chamber yells "Masks up, cups up!" (We had to hold our hands under our mouth in case we started to throw up.)

Everyone had to state their Rank, Name, and division. I took my mask off, took an unnaturally deep breath and started with my rank. I got to "S".

Immediately I started choking on what I was supposed to be breathing. My nose was running to the point that there was snot hanging down to my balls, I couldn't breathe. Of course my eyes were swelling shut, I chanced a glance at the window and saw the last thing that I would see for fifteen or twenty minutes.

The RDC that told me to take a deep breath was barely able to stand he was laughing so hard. The guy was actually crying and point at me. Oh bootcamp.. The most fun thing I never want to do again.

Intentionality

This isn't my picture but it goes along perfectly with what I want to talk about today.

When is the last time that you had an actual conversation with someone about your faith? About their faith? Have you intentionally looked for opportunities to help someone evaluate their relationship with Christ?

The evangelism class that I'm in has done a special thing that I consider something that everyone in the Church needs to start doing. We take three people in our lives that we know don't know Christ and be intentional with them. Remember what being intentional is, being intentional is PURPOSEFULLY doing something for a specific reason. In this case the purpose is bringing those specific three people that you chose to be intentional with to Christ.

Have conversations with them, look for opportunities to talk about your faith. There are three rules that must be followed for this to work.

    1. Pray and look for opportunities to have an intentional conversation about your faith or their faith.

Opportunities are always there, you simply have to be looking for them.

    2. When God gives you an opportunity, DO NOT WASTE IT!

Be courageous! You have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you are powerful because God is powerful. Rejection doesn't matter because you are serving God!

    3. Don't be weird...

People that aren't Christians don't understand what it is like to be a Christian. Explaining how the Holy Spirit works in us is the same as explaining color to a blind person. But those three people without doubt know what love is and know how to reason. Use the tools that God has given us.

Go and be intentional, that is the only way that people will come to Christ. Jesus and the apostles didn't spread the Gospel by waiting for people to come to them. Why would you?

My youth room

Let me tell you about my youth room and what it took to get it where it is today. First off, all youth pastors put their own spin on youth rooms and make the room into what they want it to be. I went for a fishers of men theme. Its modest, but it took A LOT of work. Me and 4 other people spent 40 hours painting, hanging things up, and sanding stuff down. We don't have flashing lights or a fancy sound system, but it works, and it is easily one of the most stable environments that my youth have ever had. This is my youth room.

This is one of my many disgusting and extremely comfortable couches! I like couches better than chairs, it makes my youth feel like they're at home!

I put fishing nets on the windows so that it has that fishers of men theme that I wanted, I also painted the walls blue, mainly because I like the color blue.

 This is Cassidy being weird. He is one of my youth sponsors. To the right of him you can see a black wall. I actually painted that wall with blackboard paint, so that I can use it as a teaching tool. It has been indispensable.

 Yes, we have a foosball table, I know you're jealous. You don't have to hide it.

 Oars! Something that I found and I thought it would go great with the fishers of men theme, plus they're simply neat looking.

 I'm the guy on the right in the grey shirt. This is a decent picture to show you how we use the blackboard. The right side is our prayer wall, which the youth write prayer requests that need constant prayer, or names of their friends and family that need prayer.

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That's Christina! She is another one of my youth sponsors. And that is my youth room.

SCIENCE!!

Lately I have heard a lot about how Science is out to destroy Christianity. I've honestly heard people treat the word "Science", or "Scientists" as swear words and people that are out to destroy the Church.

The only thing that this sort of thinking does is create more and more uninformed, ill-equipped people that think the proper thing to do is scream at the world because they are trying to tear their religion apart. Science isn't evil, it's how God does stuff.

 I have a question for the people that believe that; How in the world can you believe that???

Science is nothing more that God allowing us to understand how He does things. It ties in with theology so perfectly, think about it. Science is how God does stuff, and theology is WHY God does stuff.

I repeat: SCIENCE IS NOT EVIL.

Don't get me wrong, there are some scientists that are actually setting out to destroy Christianity, but most of them are probably just trying to figure stuff out, or even benefit the world. Science in itself is not bad, if the Scripture and science don't match up, then one of them is not being examined correctly. We're still humans, chances are you're wrong about something if it doesn't line up. Look at them together, there is an answer because they will both line up if you're right.

Now, before you get too angry and immediately unsubscribe, think about this. Think about any other part of any theology that is not proved with experiences. Can't think of any? That's because there isn't any. All scripture is backed up by experience, that's just the way Christianity works, it is something that we LIVE. I'll take it one step further. Consider the Wesleyan Quadrilateral:

Scripture is the basis of all of our beliefs of course, and science is simply verifying our beliefs, it is a tool to help us understand God. God is a wonderful artist that has wonderfully and majestically created everything from sunrises and sunsets to DNA, why is it such a problem to try and figure out how He made them?

Heartbroken

Last night my heart was broken.

Let me explain. I was starting off the lesson in the usual way, with prayer requests and praise reports. One girl, who I will call Jane, said that her mom started rehab recently and since her dad is in jail she is living with her cousins. After Jane said that, she said that she missed her dad more now that her mom is gone. Jane looked at me said in a soft voice that I can't describe in any way except hurt and confused; "I write him all the time, but for some reason he never writes back."

My heart!! Readers, I was broken for this girl.

Times like this are when I thank God that I have multiple youth sponsors. One of us locked eyes and with that one look I could tell that he felt the exact same way that I did. But his fiancee and another youth sponsor both took control of the situation and shushed Jane's friend that wouldn't stop blabbering about the situation.


This is youth ministry. It's hard, painful, and heartbreaking. But it works and its worth it. All of my youth come from situations almost identical to this, and I have seen them grow in ways that the only way I can describe it is the work of God. They have no guidance in their lives because their parents either aren't there or simply do not care. This isn't a localized event, this is everywhere. All youth ministries have to deal with things like this.

 I love every single one of my youth, and I know that God has amazing plans for them. Can you imagine the people that they will be able to help when the are older? Think about all that they have been through! In the meantime they need someone to be there for them before they can be there for others. Who in your life needs you?

How do you feel when you sin?

Everyone has sinned, we all know that. Every Christian sins. Now, I don't know about you but I tend to go by John Wesley's definition of sin, which is; "A willful disobedience to the known law of God." Sin isn't anyone's favorite topic to talk about, unless you are going to school to study hamartology, which I'm not. But how do you feel when you sin? I'm talking about the raw, deep down feeling that you hide from everyone else. How would you describe it? Seriously think about how you would describe that!

To me its like I want to claw my skin off in order to take away the uncleanliness of my flesh. I am filled with disgust and hatred for myself. It is terrible.

Finally after I finish feeling disgusted with myself, I desperately try to think of a way to be clean again. I beg Christ for forgiveness and constantly wonder why I do this to myself. The best feeling in the world is knowing that I am forgiven.

A huge part of being a Christian is waking up and dedicating your life to Christ every single day! Christianity is NOT a one and done deal, its a process, just like life. The fact that having a Christian walk is a process is wonderful to me because I can look back to where I was a year ago and be amazed how the Holy Spirit has worked in my life.

Sin is something that effects every single one of us. So go help somebody. There is a dang good chance that one of your friends or family is dealing with a sin that you have overcome. Who better to help them than you?

Also, feel free to comment. I love it when people comment.

The things that make life memorable.

The other night my wife and I went on a date to Ruby Tuesdays in Clemson, which for those of you that don't know is a rather large college town here in SC. It was a wonderful date and we had a great time with some great food! Ruby Tuesdays might not be a high class dating restuarant but we're poor so whatever. We talked, joked, and she reminded me of when I first fell in love with her my freshmen year in college. But on the way home is when I truly appreciated how wonderful of a wife that she is.

On our way home we smelled something burning, being the mechanically ignorant man that I am I just assumed that someone was burning trash or something. Eventually the car started shaking violently and it finally occurred to me that something must be wrong with the car. I pulled over and jumped out of the car after telling her to stay put because I wanted her to stay safe. She, of course, didn't listen and immediately jumped out of the car.

The tire had blown out, it was done and it was dark. In these sorts of situations I tend to get extremely annoyed and frustrated. My wife stood there beside me and simply prayed as I was down in the mud digging shallow hole so that I could get the jack under the car while I was in my dress shoes. Eventually we got it fixed and were finally on our way after digging 3 holes, and somehow changing the tire in the dark. It was a strange date, but one of the most memorable and wonderful date that I have been on. Those inconveniences are what make a marriage interesting and fun! Embrace them and use them as an opportunity to grow the marriage. I prayed and thanked God for the opportunity to be inconvenienced with my wonderful wife.

What ministry is really like.

I have to tell you about my youth, about what ministry is really like.

I've noticed that there is an idea that has been going around churches. This idea is that youth ministry is this type of ministry that is only fun, that nothing ever really goes wrong, and all that youth pastors do is get weird haircuts and play games with kids. Granted, a lot of youth pastors have really strange haircuts that remind me of the kids off of The Rugrats, we do tend to have a lot of fun with our youth, and play a ton of games. But, that's definitely not how youth ministry plays out most of the time.

Youth ministry is by far one of the most difficult things that I have ever done. Let me give you a few examples of things that have happened in my youth ministry; I have had a kid hit another kid in the head with a stool, most of my youth's fathers are in jail, one of my youth's mother is in rehab, I've broken up fights, I've been hit, I've lost sleep, cops have pulled into the parking lot because of my youth, and I've had to kick kids out of the Wednesday night service. Youth ministry, or ministry in general is no walk in the park with a bunch of weird haircuts. 

Don't get me wrong though! We have had wonderful times in my youth ministry too, I've seen kids that were far from the Lord come to Christ. One of my youth understand scripture better than I do sometimes, which I love. One of my fondest memories is when one of my youth asked another how he understands scripture so easily and he replied with; "How do you not understand? It's right there, all you have to do is read and pray!" 

Ministry is hard, but its worth it. And we don't all have weird haircuts. 

Ever have a bad day?

Everyone has had bad days, some are of course going to be worse than others. For example, I work with the public at my job selling shoes. It takes a whole lot of effort to keep from blasting some rude people in the face. For both of our sake I hold back, smile, and nod along like any other decent person would.

Once they leave the store I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I think to myself; "I must be a good Christian to have put up with that person. Immediately after that thought the Holy Spirit tends to give me a well deserved slap on the back of the head, then Jesus whispers to my soul; "What if you were supposed to tell that person about me?

It is at times like these that I have to remember that every person that I encounter is possibly a person that I could be called to witness to at any moment. Every place that we go into from grocery stores to college classes need to be entered into with an attitude of prayer. Ask for help from the Holy Spirit to give you a nudge to go talk to someone, and of course for the courage to do that. Don't worry about whether or not you strike out or if the person laughs at you. You did what the Holy Spirit told you to do. That encounter where you were laughed at could have brought that person from a negative 10 to a negative 9 on the faith scale. Even for something as small as that, we should all rejoice!

So when you're having a bad day and you just want to scream at a few people, remember that every person is an evangelistic opportunity, and we have to love them as God loves us, and as we love each other.

What this and I am about.

Okay, I'm going to write a blog. This is a little out of my norm, mainly because I am more comfortable with videos. My name is Alex Gebert, I am a youth pastor at Easley First Wesleyan Church, I have a YouTube channel that I will mention later on, and I'm in my last semester at Southern Wesleyan University. I have a wonderful wife that puts up for me and my shenanigans for some unknown reason and that I love so very much. But enough about me, lets talk about the Blog!

Life Together is going to grow and change as I write it and I hope that you, the reader, will grow and change as you read it. Basically, this blog is going to be about a few different topics; the first will be Christianity, the second is going to be about my life and the interesting things that happen to me, and there will probably be more topics as things pop into my head. Everyone that reads is free to comment, in fact I would love for you to comment and give me ideas! If you have any questions about anything at all, please ask.

So let's get started! The reason that I was inspired to start a blog is Mark Wilson, the author of Purple Fish. If you haven't read that book yet, GO READ IT. I read Purple Fish and I was inspired to reach people for Christ any way that I can. I actually had the chance to talk to Mark Wilson about it and he encouraged me to start this blog. Purple Fish is a practical and inspiring book about telling people about Christ. Evangelism, is something that we need to be intentional about, and it is something that most people think will just happen. For example; let's say that someone offers you a beer and you turn it down. No one is going to come up to you and ask you how Christ has affected your life, why you live for Him, and if they can do it too! Things like that simply don't happen! You have to go out and tell people about Jesus, no one knows why you are doing something unless you tell them.

Just as a quick throw-in, my YouTube Channel is this. I teach about theology because I want people to know as much as they can about their faith. Spiritual growth is interlocked with intellectual growth, nobody wants a bunch of ignorant Christians walking around.