So My Wife is Pregnant!

I did it! Yippee! Also, oh dear.. We're excited, we're terrified. About a million emotions ran through my body when Katie told me. As of today she is 10 weeks and 5 days along, we've known for a while now but the sense of excitement hasn't passed. As she is dealing with all the changes in her body, I am also trying to adapt to the concept of being a father. Also, what does it mean to be a father in Scripture?

Now that time has passed for a bit, I have had time to contemplate and pray about being a father. I don't really care, whether it is a boy or a girl, but I do care that I raise the kid to be not only a decent human being, and not those monsters that are technically people (I'm sure you're thinking of someone right now), I am also overwhelmingly concerned about raising them to live a life in relationship with the Lord.

I didn't come to Christ until I was in late middle-school. And now that I am in seminary I am constantly hearing stories of people who's parents were pastors, and their children totally rejected Christ, or the exact opposite of that. Its a scary position to find myself in, after all this child is my wife's and my responsibility. If it is not our responsibility to share the love of Christ with this person that is going to be born in about 20 weeks, then who's is it?

I'm used to responsibility, I pay bills, I help put food on the table, I pay rent, I have a car payment, and my wife expects me to lead her spiritually. But a kid? Kids are scary. In my mind a child is a future adult. That future adult is going to be shaped by many different inputs, a huge one of those inputs is going to be their parents. I don't want to raise a monster, I want to raise a person that is going to love the Lord with all their heart and come to know Jesus more intimately than I do. Do I know how to do that?

Nope.

Will I figure it out?

I sure hope so.

Well readers, I am most likely going to be writing more about this pregnancy in the future, as well as my thoughts on fatherhood. I don't know what I'm doing guys, but that's okay. All I know is that even after knowing that my wife is pregnant for the past few weeks I feel like crowing like a rooster, beating my chest, building something, and hunting a bear. It's a pretty awesome feeling. For those of you that are finding yourselves in this same situation, enjoy it. I'm having fun at least.

Love y'all. 

Alexander Gebert.

Love God Love Others

Since this semester started a few weeks ago God has been drilling the two greatest commandments into my head and into my heart. The two greatest commandments are to love God, and to love others, as can be seen in Matthew 12. Every meeting, every class, and most conversations with peers have this topic being talked about in some way. Even with some of my friends that are not Christians, I have had conversations about these two greatest commandments. I am not entirely sure what it is that God is attempting to get me to realize or prepare me for, but I know that it has something to do with these two greatest commandments.

In fact, because of God getting my attention about this particular passage I have been pondering it for a while now. You know how you get a thought stuck in your head and you just can't stop thinking about it? I like to call it my "brain kitchen", you see, I like to cook experimentally. Sometimes when I cook with something new, or try something I've never tried before it turns out absolutely delicious, other times it turns out to be absolutely disgusting and not fit for human (or otherwise) consumption.

I didn't make that meal, I promise. However, I can't think of a time I wouldn't say no to a hot dog and mac and cheese.

The point I'm trying to make is that I've been cooking with Matthew 12 and the two greatest commandments. As Christians we are called to love God, and to love people, everything else falls in line with these two commandments. Loving God is the first greatest commandment for a reason, by loving God and making him central in our lives we experience a paradigm shift. Once we reach that point where we receive a shift in our priorities and God is no longer at the top or the bottom, but is instead the basis of everything, then we will love people. Being a Christian is more than simply doing what the Bible says, it is a change of who we are. We BECOME a Christian, we do not simply act as a Christian. The paradigm shift that is experienced with a re-orientation of the believer's life, changes who that person is.

Have you experienced that paradigm shift? If you have not then I beg you to explore what that would look like in your life.

Re-orientation of our lives as Christocentric is essential.

Jesus loves you man

Alex Gebert

Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, constant never-ending work.

Work never ends, it never stops, and it will never let up. If I've learned one thing in my life from my time in college, the Navy, and Seminary it is that I will never stop working. I've worked hard, I've slacked off, and I've done everything in between. This semester I have been taking a course in Hebrew which has been kicking my behind. The studying does not stop, between the vocab, grammar, and syntax that I have to dive into constantly I have little time for anything else. There have been times this semester where I did not want to study anymore at all.One specific time came to mind, I had been studying 75 Hebrew words for about 5 hours and for some reason could not remember them. I don't know why I was having trouble with them but I still do with a few of those vocab words. After about 5 hours I wanted to give up but I knew that I couldn't. So I prayed for God to help me with them. Instead of giving me the gift of tongues, (which would have been awesome) God reminded me why I was working so hard to learn Hebrew. I'm learning Hebrew so that I can better understand the Word of God, so that I can be a better pastor, and hopefully be a more effective evangelist.

This reminded me about the whole reason that I am here at Asbury Theological Seminary in the first place. I am here so that I can better serve God. When I was a youth pastor back in South Carolina I used to tell my youth that no matter what they were doing, (as long as it isn't sinful) do it for God. The Christian faith is not something that can be claimed and not lived. I would tell my youth that if they were skateboarding, to skateboard with God and tell the people that they were skating with about Jesus and their faith. I would tell them to go to school and do their best at school because they need to make school about God. Youth aren't the only ones that need to be told this either, adults need to be told this constantly. Think about it, when is the last time that you made your work about Jesus? Why do you work, do you do it because you need money or is it to serve Christ? Don't get me wrong we still need money in order to live in this society but we need to have a higher purpose as to why we do what we do. 

Make your life an act of worship.

Alex Gebert

Keeping God Central, and Vocations

One of the classes that I'm taking this semester at Seminary is Vocation of Ministry. Well I've heard some bad things about this class, but the semester is only a week in so who knows, I may like it. But that's beside the point, I want to talk about one of the books that I read for the class. The book is The Call by Os Guinness  is a fantastic book that focuses on the call that every Christian has placed on their life. Os Guinness states that every person has a primary and a secondary Call that has been placed on their life.

The first calling that every person has is a calling to pursue God as the center of all things in life. Guinness also says that our secondary calling is our vocation, which can be anything from full time ministry to construction. A lot of people get these mixed up, they put their vocation or in some cases just regular work beyond their first calling. The secondary calling is to be lived out in response to the first calling. The key to this is that the secondary calling, your vocation, becomes a "why" rather than a "what". For example, a person has recognized their gifts that God has given them and serves God faithfully by using them in his construction.

Believe it or not the very term "Work-a-holic" was coined to describe the way that many clergy members were obsessed with their work to the point that it was ruining their very faith. God needs to be the center at all things in a person's life, especially at the center of our earthly vocation.

What I'm trying to get through to you here is that through the pursuit of God in the center of everything that you do is where you find your vocation. If you follow and walk with God everything else will come in time. And if you already are in you vocation then please remember, your vocation is secondary, but following God must come first.

"Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the Love of Jesus"
-Mother Teresa

Thank you for reading, keep God central. (Read The Call, DO IT.)

Alex Gebert

Death

Recently in my ethics course at Asbury Theological Seminary we discussed death. This statement was on one of the slides in the class;

The understanding of death always implies 

something about the understanding of life 

and the understanding of life always 

implies something about the telos of the

functional moral anthropology.

In summarization of the above quote, the way death is viewed affects the way that one views life. 

Without a doubt, death is something that needs to be talked about in a proper setting and in a proper way to be understood through the lenses of the Christian faith. The early Church represented change of the view of death that the world vitally needed. Christians no longer need to fear death, it is something that was once feared by all, but ever since the resurrection of Christ Christians have thought of death as just another event in the life of a person. Death went from the ultimate fear and end, to something that can be crushed under the heel of the believer and laughed at. 

When I was a youth pastor I once had a youth ask me about death.It was a pretty general question that basically was; How do we as Christians deal with death? Imagine when you were in middle school or high school, death was something that was quite foreign, at least it was for me. Death is something that has to be taught to youth in a Christian context. 

You are the leaders of the Church, you are the people that youth look up to for answers. Study the scripture and the Early Church and learn about death in a Christian context so that you can teach the youth. Otherwise they will come up with their own answers, and they will more than likely be misguided. 

Be the leader that God calls you to be.

Alex Gebert

D

Personal Growth: Making Your Desk Your Altar.

So in a couple of hours I start my first class at Asbury Theological Seminary. My first class is New Testament taught by Dr. Keener, and from what I have heard he is a complete genius. He wrote a commentary, and is world renowned for being an expert on the New Testament. Needless to say, I'm excited. Not only to be taught by some of the most knowledgeable people on the planet about Scripture, but also for my own personal growth.

Something that I have lived by since I started my educational career is making my desk my altar.

I make my desk my altar because I recognize that I know enough to know that I don't know enough. By that I mean that the more that I learn about God, Scripture, and how he chooses to work in his creation the more that I can grow closer to God.

I look at learning about God the same way that I look at learning more about my wife or a good friend, I don't know everything about them and the more that I learn about them and who they are the closer I can become to them. Albeit there is  a good bit more to learn about God than my wife or a friend. It still works the same.

The same as you worship at an altar at Church, I tend to worship most passionately when I a at my desk researching, exploring different assets, or trying to understand God. I love it. Most of the time during my studies I have had to stop at some point and simply thank God for giving me the opportunity to learn more about him. And hopefully this inspires you to do the same. 

I want everyone that reads this to really get into studying, I understand that most of the time it is difficult and a lot of people don't even try because they don't enjoy it. But there is something special about studying God and Scripture. I'm not talking about just reading scripture, scripture must be studied in order to be understood. God gave us a brain for a reason, to use it. Every study is a study of God's creation, any sort of science, history, scripture, almost anything you can think of. I really hope that you will try it out and let me know if you have any questions or ideas. 

You're awesome, go study the creation of God.

Alex Gebert

Arminian Vs. Calvinism. The Bare Bones.

So today we're going to talk about the difference between Arminianism and Calvinism, and why I am an Arminian. I'm sure that many people that read this are Calvinists and that is okay. You chose to be that way ;)

First off if you don't know much about either of them that's okay, a lot of people don't and you don't have to in order to read this. Hopefully I explain it well enough or spark enough of an interest to get you to look them up using your amazing googlefu. Here is a JPG. to help you maybe understand it a little better.

One of the main points of argument between the two is the subject of free-will, specifically about salvation. Calvinists say that God chooses us (humans), and that we don't have a choice. If God chooses us to be part of his elect (the saved) then we will be. Arminians say that the option of salvation is there for everyone, all we have to do is reach out and take it because Christ died for the entirety of the human race, not just the elect.

I'm just briefly going to touch on the P part of TULIP before I get into why I'm an Arminian just so that you can better understand it. Basically, Calvinists say that you cannot lose your salvation/walk away from God. Arminians say that you can because God gives you that choice since love cannot be love without the choice to love. 

Okay, so this is why I am an Arminian I could preach an entire sermon series on this and I probably will one day but for now I will settle for a blog post. To put it simply, love can't be love without the choice to love. Let's start with the subject of sin, in Arminian theology God created free-will and sin was a by-product of free will. The opportunity to sin was there the same as the opportunity to close your computer and go make yourself a pot of coffee, but God himself did not make that pot of coffee. Without humans having free will, then God specifically made Adam and Eve sin, causing the Fall. Then even if a person completely devotes their lives to God but they are not part of the elect then they will go to Hell and burn for eternity anyways. That explanation of God sure doesn't sound like the God that I have a relationship with. 

Rather, God lets us choose because he loves us. If we make the choice to accept Christ then we are saved. Arminianism is all about free will, and I love that, it fits in scripturally whenever context is actually looked at. If you want to know more let me know, or look it up. If you look it up you'll probably learn more. 

I promise I won't post super serious posts like this very often but this is one of my favorite things to study. Hopefully you enjoy it too. So if you have questions let me know. I could go on longer about both but this post is already super long and my wife is telling me to hurry up and come to bed. 

Thank you for reading.

Alex Gebert

We're here!!!

I know its been a while and some of you have yelled at me about not posting anything for a while, but I was really busy. I promise I never stopped thinking about this blog. So without further adieu, let me announce that my wife and I have moved to Kentucky so that I can attend Asbury Theological Seminary!

This is a statue of John Wesley on the campus by the way.

Bonus picture of my wife standing in front of the U-haul with all of my stuff piled in it.

So yes I had to leave Easley First Wesleyan Church. That last Sunday, let me tell you what.. Tears GALORE. I never cry, I just don't. I'm not a very emotional person, but that last Sunday after my final sermon when I was saying goodbye to people I cried harder than I have ever cried in my entire adult life. And it was in front of everyone at the church. How embarrassing... I grew up with those people, I'm closer to the people at that church than I am to most members of my extended family. 

I'm going to miss this place so much.

Leaving the church obviously means that I am no longer the youth pastor. But God has blessed me tremendously in my youth ministry at Easley First Wesleyan Church. Let me sum up the youth ministry for you.

I started the youth ministry with literally no youth and I have scraped and clawed for every single inch that has been gained in the ministry. After 2.5 years as the Youth Pastor I ended up with a bunch of misfits that I lost sleep over and constantly worried about. I love these kids. I gave them everything that I could and I have watched them grow in leaps and bounds.

This is a picture of the last Wednesday night service that I am able to attend. 

The new youth pastor is the guy in the hat that is pointing at the camera. His name is Cass. If any of my readers decide to stop by Easley First make sure and give him a hard time for me. 

That's all for now, this has just been a sum up of my life recently. My next blog will be about Arminianism and Calvinism so that one will be fun and some people might be mad. But they are both valid theories. So stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.

Alex Gebert

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.

.

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.