THU NIGHT

Amazed, completely amazed!!!!  I'm speechless as I've never seen anything like that before in my life.

My question is, why are teens more apt to embrace certain, tough aspects of BEING the church but adults not so much?  

BTW

BtW = by the way in teen text language

the times on the bottom are Pacific, so the blogs are gettin written purty late.

Wed CIY

Wow what a powerful day!!!  We've pretty much established that here in our culture we pretty much do some things wrong in church, now don't get me wrong.  We nail some things, like baptism, but I'm beginning to think we miss it pretty big on how we hold on to stuff and think OUR desires and wants are GOD's desires and wants for our lives.  It's obvious we think we are  the center of the universe and not God, like what Jim Johnson spoke about the song 'Above All', how God thought of us Above All which is SOOOOOOO not the case, God thought of HIMSELF above all!!

And 2 more of our students thought of God above all tonight.  Paige Anderson baptized Lauren Bailes tonight at 11:15 in the creek and Alex Grigsby was also baptized into Christ as well.  WHAT A GREAT THING!!! maybe we should start supporting CIY financially as a church...

By the way, Paige brought Lauren to church and was her friend and shared Christ with her, Paige is a sophmore in high school and did what Jesus told her to do by baptizing and teaching.

What's your excuse?  Remember, it's God you'll have to answer to not me.  Too harsh?  But it's God that told us to do this, so talk to Him about it.  

Tues Night at CIY

Jeff Walling brought it tonight, he is by far my favorite preacher, sorry Lance, Mike, and Dad. 

We talked about sin and freedom and had the most powerful illustration I've ever seen on it as we shackled the kids' hands together like they were prisoners (it was wrist bands so it was all good). 

The most awesomeness of it all is Gavin Mahan and Sophia Robey were BAPTIZED tonight! Sophia was baptized by her friend Kaely Seals who just graduated high school?  So how many people have you baptized?  None?  So tell me why are you not fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28?  Don't worry, it's God you'll answer to not me.  

I also got to have an amazing conversation with some students and let me tell you, we have some AWESOME ones!

It's been a great day in the Lord, now...I must sleepy.

Tues at CIY

We got in fine yesterday, not much time for me to blog.  The theme of yesterday was IDENTITY, today it's FREEDOM, so we're going to be talking about our sins today.

Girls, sex, porn, masturbation, and jr high guys?

I'm currently leading a small group for jr high guys that meets on some of the Mondays this summer, and so far, it's been very good.  The whole purpose of this small group is to encourage these guys to grow into men of God and leaders in the church.  One Monday we're going to have a man day and shoot bottle rockets and then go eat wings at Buffalo Wild Wings...har har, MEN!!!  And because they're guys, and because I'm a guy, I kind of remember what it was like.  I also remember feeling things, being told things by friends, seeing things, seeing girls at school and not having a clue what it meant or what to do about it.

But let's face it, the 5 things in the title of this blog are not something  we want to talk about together, much less 3 of them much at all.  At the same time, the truth is the truth, the world loves to push girls, sex, porn, and masturbation onto not just jr. high guys, but guys of all ages and many girls too.  

To be be honest, talking about the 'big m' to 11-13 year olds isn't the most pleasant experience for anyone, but it has to be done.  I think one of the main reasons we as a nation are in the sexual mess we are in is because 1) parents didn't/don't talk about it properly, 2) churches haven't educated/do not educate biblically about it, and 3) God is gone for many many people.  

(Do you know Jesus addressed masturbation?  Read Matthew 5:27-30 in CONTEXT of the passage.  Not only did He just address it, but He addressed it to THOUSANDS during the Sermon on the Mount.) 

Some parents will cringe at the fact that their innocent baby hears this at church, to that I say guess what?  Would you rather them hear about it at school from a friend or a big brother or from you or the church?  

I know it's uncomfortable, I know it's awkward, I know it's hard, but we have to be real.  We all know that guys are going to figure out how it works on their own eventually, so we need to teach what the Bible says about it and the dangers that come alone with porn, laker girls, and dance squads, which are lighter versions of porn. 

We need to educate our kids how to live in a sex saturated world so they can get through it and have a wonderful marriage to the girl of their dreams (and their dreams have nothing to do with big boobs, but everything to do with Christ, respect, and relationship.)

We also need to go ahead and teach forgiveness, because they will fail and guess what, so will I.  Yes, I will fail too, but my love and passion for Christ sustains me, forgives me, and empowers me to avoid and grow from mistakes. 

I also realize that my time is coming soon with my son, to have 'the talk,' and I'll just have to blog about that soon.  

How many do we need?

  This past week I got to spend Tues to Monday with my wife in Panama City Beach, Fl, and let me tell you, it was needed and it was wonderful.  We went to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and actually went without our kids.  We hung out, talked, made some decisions on some real important things and mainly just relaxed and chilled.  On the way down we stopped and spent the night with some good friends in Atlanta and even went to a Hillsong United worship concert, but there's more to come with that later. 

   Now, it is a well documented fact that I despise, loath, admonish, give angry eyebrows to, can't stand, and hate country music and the country music culture.  (I'll give you Keith Urban, but that's it.)  To me it is the most wretched genre of music, all the whining about being drunk or heart broken, all the fake-christianity (you know, drink lots of beer, have sex, play poker on Sat night, but dog-gone-it, you better be in church Sun morning!), Montgomery-Gentry, cowboy boots, singing out of the side of the mouth, not writing their own songs, and of course, Montgomery-Gentry.  

But as we drove through KY, TN, GA, AL, FL, then a different way back through FL, AL, TN, and KY, I noticed something VERY troubling.  I mean how many flipping country stations do we need people?!?  Seriously?  There was nothing but country the entire way!  There was new country, mixed country, old country, Nashville country, California country, horse country, city country, Taylor Swift country, and let me tell you, it all sucked!!!  Station after station after station of COUNTRY!!!  Can I get a little U2?  How about some David Crowder*Band?  At least hook me up with some 'Freebird.'  Good grief!!!  Do people actually change from country station to country station?  What are they looking for?  I can hear them now, 'Oh, this song isn't sad enough, let's go to the next country station.'  'Oh, my dog was ran over 35 years ago, let's find a song about that.'  And they'd find it too, because it's on there somewhere, you know it has to be on there somewhere.  

  But the more I thought of it, the more it related to something else that really bothers me.  The fact that there are so many different 'churches' in our society.  The fact that my little town of 18,000 had 83 churches in the city limits.  The fact that the large mega-church 30 miles away has to cater to it's lazy people and put a 'satelite' in Danville, because "no one is doing anything" and they want to "chase the lion out of Danville."  (Those are actual quotes, and the only biblical description of 'lion' in Scripture is referring to Jesus, and I really don't want Jesus chased out of Danville.)  

  The fact that people pick and choose their flavor or what feels right and sounds good to them offends me and I can't imagine what we do to God with our attitude toward Church.  That our own local congregation is OURS DANGIT!!!  I love those chairs, you can't change them!!!  I don't want different things!!!!  This just doesn't fit my style or who I am, so I'm going to look someplace else!  I'm MAAAD, I'M LEAVING!!!!  THIS PLACE SUCKS!!!  I'M FINDING SOMEPLACE ELSE!!!

  Of course, because we read through the New Testament and that's exactly the church isn't it?  People shopped around to find the place that fit them best didn't they or to 'meet their own needs.'  

  Oh yeah, of course doctrine doesn't matter either, believe what ever you want about God's Word, it doesn't matter, because we all know the SINNER'S PRAYER is found in Scripture somewhere and even though the Bible tells us to be baptized, it doesn't matter...right?   

  Our society is so me focused, we have to have a bazillion country stations because of that, and honestly, there's nothing wrong with that.  But there sure as heck is something wrong with having a bazillion churches in the same place teaching a bazillion different theologies even though Scripture tells us God is unchanging.  We also have to have a large church bring something in because people throw fits because of the commute?  

  AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT SEES SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS?!?!  THIS IS NOT THE CHURCH WE READ ABOUT IT ACTS!!! 

  I'm so fearful that so many people will stand before God and the same thing will happen to them as Jesus described in Matthew 7, when God tells people who thought they were following God, 'away from me, I never knew you.'

  That passage scares me to death, that's why I choose to follow God's Word and do the best I can, not that I'm perfect, but I'm sure trying, not because works save me, but because I simply am in love with Jesus.  

   It's time to stop this crap and start following God's way and God's Word.