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.