Funny Video From Simply Youth Ministry

This is a hillarious video from Simply Youth Ministry.    They are an awesome source for youth ministry.  This video is about announcements at an event they hosted.  Watch as the guys slap each other!

Friend Day

Yesterday was Friend Day at church.  It was awesome!  We had tons of visitors and I met a bunch of new people.  I just hope and pray they will let God touch their heart.  One friend that I invited said that they would come, but then didn’t.  While I an not upset at my friend at all, I am still a little disappointed.  My first thought when they didn’t come was that I had not done or tried hard enough.  That was hard for me to take and made me pretty sad.  Then I remembered the parable of the sower.  In the parable of the sower, the sower scatters seed on different types of soil.  Some on the path, some in thorns, some on rocks, and some on good soil.  Then Jesus goes on to point out that the seeds are like people who hear the gospel.  Some will hear it, but not take root.  Others will hear it, but die quickly.  And some will hear it and start to grow.  What I have to remind myself and you may have to as well, if you have the same problem, is that all we can do is try.  My friend may not be ready to hear the gospel yet.  He may not be willing to listen and because of that I have to try again.  I will not be overbearing, but kind, compassionate, and caring in my pursuit to share the Gospel of Christ with my friend.  Let us all be kind, compassionate, and caring to our friends who are not ready yet, but one day they will be.

Lies

Recently I started teaching on the Lies of satan to my high schoolers.  We have only had one class so far and I think they like it.  I came to the idea for this class from one of my small group leaders who turned me on to this book called “Lies Young Women Believe.”  It is simply amazing.  Now I know you are wondering why I am reading a book with that title, but I wanted to check it out before we gave it to any of our young ladies. 

As I read through the first couple of chapters, I realized that we are all surrounded by satan’s lies all the time.  Even more then I ever thought.  Satan comes at you all the time with lies about different things like you not being good enough or that God doesn’t care about you.  Everyday hundreds if not thousands of times a day we all are tempted by the lies that satan has told us.  Even if he is not telling us them right now, may times we are already thinking that something else he said earlier is true.  For instance, he told you last week that no one likes you, but you dismissed it.  Then next week someone is mean to you and you start to remember the lie he told you last week.  Also, satan is very good at what he does.  The bible says that he is the father of lies and let me tell you he is.  He is so good that he makes you think you think it is not him, but culture or  you yourself.  He gets you at every chance he can and with everything he has.

So I ask you today.  Are you under one of satan’s lies?  You might not even know it.  I you believe anything that is opposite of God’s teaching you are under a lie.  Even if you just think that you are not important, you are under one of satan’s lies. 

Also I don’t like to capitalize satan’s name.  I know that is proper to do so, but I just don’t want to.

Fantasy Football

This weekend started fantasy football.  I use yahoo you sports and have 4 teams.  Yes. that is allot.  Anyway, my wife Lydia and I are in the same league.  This is Lydia’s first time playing fantasy football because she is not really a football fan, but I have slowly changing her.  As she looked at her team, she realized that she wasn’t doing to well and my team was dominating.  This made her very sad and put me in a great mood.  IT is always a joy to beat my wife in something.  I kept telling her it is not how you start, but how you finish.  That sounded good and then I looked at my others teams and realized that I was getting stomped.  At this point all my it is not how you start but how you finish talk went out the door.  I could picture Lydia tell me the same thing I told her, except she would be laughing the whole time.  But as I thought about it, my team will improve and I will have a better chance I hope.

All this got me thinking about my Christian life.  There are plenty of time that I let God down and then I am really bummed out, but I can rest assured that God is telling me that it is not how you start, but how you finish.  Not that you can do wrong things up until the time you die, but that even if we make a mistake, he will forgive us.  We have such a comfort knowing that God does not judge us on one action alone, but gives us Grace.  Praise be to our amazing Lord who forgives us when we have sinned.

Beach Devo-unlike anyother

We had the monthly Beach Devo yesterday where we join the Sunset Church of Christ and the Griffin Road Church of Christ to hangout and have a devo at the beach, of course.  Anyway, yesterday was an interesting and awesome day.  we had 16 from our group go, but of the 16, 4 were adults, 4 visitor to our group, and 3who had been to a beach devo before, and 5 who had not been there with us before.  It was so different then the “normal” group that goes, but it was amazing.  I got to talk to some people who may not know anything about God and grow closer to some of the teens in out group. 

The interesting thing is that one of our visitors was sitting by herself so I went to talk to her.  She is s very sweet girl and seemed like she didn’t want to talk to me.  Maybe she wondered who this old guy of 24 is, but we talked a little and I hope she knows I am not some crazy old man.  Also at the beach, one of our visitors lost their phone in the sand exactly as the devo was starting.  Plan of the devil, I sure think so.  Anyway, it took almost the entire devo time to find it.  This was interesting because the whole time I wanted to tell them to forget it sit down and listen to God’s word, but I fortunately I realized that was the wrong thing to do.  I simply let one of my adult leaders help them find the phone while the rest of the group continue on.  Maybe she saw Christ’s love in Diane helping her find the phone, but I don’t know.  I do know that I can’t limit God’s power to use what I would call weird situations.  All in all, the beach devo was awesome and Brad Poyet had an awesome devo.

Politics, what is wrong with everyone!

I just got done watching Obama’s acceptance speech.  IT was crazy!  He promised everything to everyone.  The only thing I don’t remember hearing is that he wants to help the rich.  So he left out one group.  On the other hand I don’t like McCain either.  He and Obama both have changed their views on certain things just to get the nomination.  It all makes me SICK!  People at church also pick side without the thought of ever voting for the other side.  What is wrong with these people!   Christians don’t have to be democratic or republican (I left them in lowercase because I am mad)!  We should be voting with God in mind.  When we look at the candidate we should look at them the way God does.  Here is a list of things that right now I am looking at:

1) Is he or she a Christian?  Most important question                                                                               

2) Does he put God first in politics?

3) Does he have Godly children?  not meaning they never mess up, but do they repent and come back to the Lord

4) How does he view gay marriage?  God doesn’t like the lifestyle and neither should the candidate

5) How does he view abortion?  God doesn’t like to kill anyone and he says that unborn babies are alive!

6) Does he put anything else above he values in God or the other question?  God wants to be first and if he is not, the person will not be a good leader.

I have had enough with politics.  My goal from now on, will be to do my best to elect Christian leaders in the city, state, and country positions.  If America is every going to make it, we ALL better start focusing on God more.

P.S. I am sorry if this is a little angry.  I am mad about the political climate of our country and the fact that America in increasingly more ungodly each day.

HuckChuck Facts

Here are two videos that I showed in my class at Sonquest.  They are about Chuck Norris and if they don’t make you laugh, check your pulse.

Sonquest

The weekend was awesome!  This weekend I took my youth Group to Sonquest.  Sonquest is this huge youth rally in Orlando Florida where about 2000 teens get together to praise and worship God.  There are keynote lessons, singing, comdy, breakout classes, and more fun then you can handle.  Did I mention it was at an awesome hotel, the Rosen Shingle Creek.  David Skidmore was the keynote speaker and he was amazing.  HE made things interesting and fun.  The teens took the time to listen and focus on God.  It was awesome!

This year I was asked to speak for one of the breakout classes.  It was so much fun.  My topic was Are you as awesome as Chuck Norris.  I used a bunch of the Chuck Norris facts like, when the boogie man goes to sleep at night he checks his closet for Chuch Norris.  The teens loved it and my class was packed.  I truly hope the teens enjoyed my class, but more importantly that they were able to hear something that drew them closer to God.

At this point I also have to mention that I have the best youth group ever.  I didn’t have any problems and they were such a joy to be around.  They are without a doubt another of the many blessings that God has given me.