One pt. 1

This is another sermon series given by Christ Fellowship. I really didn't have time to jazz it up to my style till the end so I hope that you enjoy reading it.

In my last post we talked about how the bible was kind of like an instruction manual. This week we begin a series called “ONE” and may take a break halfway for another speaker. Here is the intro to the series listen to the words.  One spark can start a fire, one smile can begin a friendship, one person can impact the world, one event can change history, one vote can change a nation, one touch can give hope, one candle can light a room, one laugh can brighten a day, one step can start a journey, and one life CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! "ONE"

In many of our own lives are defenses are down, our doors you could say are unlocked. The worst part is we aren’t even aware of the ways that the enemy has access to us and our families. Now there is a story in the Bible that speaks of a time in which the walls around Jerusalem were destroyed and the gates burned. The city lay in ruin the citizens were defenseless against the enemies attack. Even the very dwelling place of God the cities temple was destroyed. But there was a man named Nehemiah who did something about it. Now he wasn’t a man of great power or influence. In fact he was a slave in captivity, but he stepped up and stepped out, and God used him to make a difference to call the people back to God, to rebuild the walls of the city and to make Gods presence his power known. Now that same call he brings out today. God is calling us to step up and to step out, to rebuild the walls of biblical truth in our lives and in the world. To bring hope to broken people and the story of restoration begins with you and me. What does God need to do in us so that his truth and power can flow through us and into the world?  

Today we launch a new series called Nehemiah or if you want to shorten it for your friends we can call it “one”. Nehemiah is a story in the Old Testament about the walls of Jerusalem being rebuilt about 600 years before Christ. Now some of you may be thinking OK what is so special about rebuilding walls. This story is really much more than that. It’s about the restoration of lives. It’s about God rebuilding hope and rebuilding purpose in the people’s lives that have been ruined and destroyed. Imagine if you will what Haiti looked liked after the earthquake that took place last year. Still today buildings lay in ruin, walls being torn down and piles of trash and ruble just lining the streets. Lives destroyed. That’s really just a physical picture of what is taking place in the spiritual realm of people’s lives, and the emotional realm of people’s lives. Marriages ripped apart, families just messed up. Depression and anxiety just drowning the human heart it’s not what God intended. It’s not how he wants us to live and this story of Nehemiah shows a way of recovery. It shows us how to build back hope, purpose and peace and how to bring God back into our lives and back into the lives of others. We must know the principles of this story for ourselves, for our families, and for the people that God is bringing into our lives. It’s a story of hope.

A little history for you, the people of Israel have been defeated, most have been carried off into exile into Babylon and this story takes place about 150 years after that exile. Nehemiah is a descendant of those that had been carried off in exile/captivity.  He was raised in the palace to serve the King as his cup bearer. The cup bearer’s job was to sample the wine and the food of the King. It’s kind of a nice job if you think about it all you have to do is eat and drink wine. Unless someone is trying to poison the king and then it’s not so cool of a job. At the beginning of the chapter we see Nehemiah asking those that have just returned from Jerusalem about the “status” of what was going on there. In verse 3 they respond with “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire." Then in verse 4 “When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.” Now some of you may be thinking what? He cried over a wall? What up with that? That would be like somebody running into your garage door, and then you freaking out and saying how you can’t eat and and then you start crying. You would need medication if you’re really worried about a garage door. Physical walls protect a city, probably most important for the city of Jerusalem was that the walls provided a place for God. The temple was there but a temple with no walls around the city was just asking for the temple to be destroyed, and for it constantly to be ransacked and the contents stolen and ripped apart. So there was no place for God to dwell among his people. When our spiritual walls in our lives, when those are strong, when we understand the truth of God words and we’re living those out in our lives, and our homes and with our families. Man we are spiritually strong against the attack of the enemy. But when those walls begin to get cracks in them and they crumble and fall we become vulnerable, and were weak when we don’t know God’s truth. Then we can’t build our lives upon his truth, then we’re open to the attack of the enemy. But when we know the truth of God then when the enemy begins to whisper in our ear and begins to tell us lies we can quote the truth of God we can wield the sword of truth. When you buy something say a watch it comes with a manual right. Now who honestly would read the manual for a watch? I mean really we’re smart people, who needs to read a manual? And we don’t bother reading it until we find out that we can’t turn the watch on. Now the same is truth for life. God made a manual for us. So often we think nah I got this figured out God I know what I’m doing I don’t need to read all of this. Some of us we know what the manual says but we’re not doing it. The Bible says we’re not to be just hearers of the word but we’re to be doers of the word. When we do what the word of God says then we begin to build up strong walls.

Nehemiah then begins a prayer. Through the end of chapter 1 he calls to God to bring his people back. The very last line in chapter one reads “In those days I was the king's cup-bearer.” Now I read that over and over again and I know that was his job but it wasn’t his “destiny” It might have been his career but it wasn’t his calling. God had so much more in store for him. God was getting ready to write a new chapter in his life. Nehemiah goes back to Jerusalem and rallies his people against overwhelming odds and against attacks from his enemies to rebuild the walls around their home. He ends up completing this task in 52 days! God used Nehemiah to step out and in 52 days hope, peace, and security were all restored. God was restored in people’s lives. Here’s the message for today God wants to do the same through you and me. He wants to use us in ways you never thought or imagined.

In 10 years how are you going to end your chapter one? I’m a doctor, I’m a teacher, I’m a engineer, I’m an accountant, I’m a researcher. That may be your career but that’s not necessarily your calling. See God wants us to step out and to follow his destiny for us he wants us to be part of the Kingdom of God and wants us to do great things for him. Nehemiah did three things to put himself in a place where he could be used by God. Three things we need to do so that we can be used by God. #1 CARE about the things that God cares about. When Nehemiah was crying over the wall he was really crying about the people and how far away from God they had drifted. #2 Repent from sin and return to God. Repent doesn’t mean I’m sorry God repentance actually means you’re walking in one direction and you stop, do a complete 180 degree turn and you walk in the opposite direction. That is what repentance means. #3 STEP UP and STEP OUT. That’s the same thing we have to do. Nehemiah had to step up and step out of his comfort zone. I’m sure he was thinking God can I even do this? I am calling every one of you this year to step up and to step out of your comfort zone. Maybe for you it’s to go help a family across the street that needs help. Maybe you know a person that doesn’t know God and you could bring them to church or your youth group. See you may not think that you could make a difference. When in reality it only takes one. It only takes that one spark to start a fire. It only takes that one vote to change a nation. Just look at Sudan. If everything stays on track it will be split into two countries by July. One person is all it takes to change the world. It only TAKES ONE! So today remember to STEP UP and STEP OUT!

~Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for Christ!~

Denominations

So recently I have been going through some stuff with people wondering why a Baptist is attending a Methodist church. I was accused of not changing my views to the Methodist church. I am an extremely open minded person and never had I one understood the difference between a Baptist and a Methodist. I actually had a conversation the other day with a kid I well respected and I consider him my best friend and we'll go by first names so his name was Chris. According to him I was not being an open minded person and accepting Methodist views even though it has been a year. He was asking me all these questions and telling me the major differences between the two denominations. I have attended the church for like I said about a year now and I had never noticed any major differences. I considered this a good thing in my opinion. It never crossed my mind that it would be a bad thing or cause such a big fuss. One argument unleashed all my anger. While I have attended it was amazing to me to see how little the churches actually know about each other. I constantly heard this group bash on the Baptists about how they think they are better than everyone and how they don't dance. Not once in my 14 years attending a Baptist church was I ever taught these things. Nobody ever said anything. I actually had a conversation with one of the leaders of the church and he said that it was not emphasized in the church and that it actually was growing uncommon for churches to emphasise it. This is upsetting to me and leads me to ask why? Why do we judge different denominations based on what we think we know. Yet if we we're to attend the church for say 2 months and actually saw how they did things maybe just maybe we'd actually be able to call ourselves as one group of CHRISTIANS and not be separated by our denominations. I'm not saying that denominations are bad, nor am I saying that the Baptists are the best because like other denominations there are things I don't always agree with. I'm saying why don't we look past the differences to what really matters.

I once saw a person of a different denomination come into our Baptist church back when I was still there. Now one of my fellow youth members started hounding him about being from a different denomination. What I saw and heard next will live with me till I die. One of my youth ministers came up to the boy that was hounding the other kid and told him to be quiet for a minute. The look on the visitors face was sheer terror. He must of thought that now an adult was going to get on it. The youth minister stuck out his hand and introduced himself and they shook hands. Now here was his one-liner "I don't care what church you come from, I don't care if you come here for years but still stay another member of another church, I am more thrilled to have you here, learning about God at my church. Sure I'm going to wonder why you haven't joined the church after a few years of coming here, but I'm more thrilled that you chose to attend this church on Sundays." The little boy was so shocked by that it must of been his reason to keep coming. I was asked to friend the boy for the day and show him around. I will never forget those words. How wrong is it for us as Christians to judge different Christians because they have a few MINOR differences. How are we to help others come into faith with Jesus, if we can't even keep a Jesus mindset of our own.

This is my promise to anybody who one day attends my church. I don't care what background you've come from, it doesn't matter what denomination you are from. I am more pleased to have you attending my church and listening to me speak and giving me your time than anything else. Well that is all I got. Hopefully you guys will like it and maybe it will even plant a seed in your head.

~Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for....Christ!~

God's Little Instruction Book

This particular post is going to talk about the bible, and all the cool tricks it can do. I can make my bible rollover, it can sit, and even open. How many pets do you know that can do that? OK so maybe that's not what the purpose of the bible is. Maybe for you the bible is an excellent paperweight, its just the right shape to keep all your papers in a nice pile. Maybe for you its purpose is to look at on a shelf or be a collectible. Well clearly my Bible's purpose is not any of those things (you can tell because the corners are worn down but its still in good shape). My point is today many people know what a bible is but they don't know how to use it. They also don't know just how much help can be found in it.

Hopefully everyone reading this owns a bible. How many of you actually read it more than once a week? How about twice? Well that's a good start. Now how many of you actually understand what your reading? Well you see the bible is an instruction manual and many people today rarely read it. They try to "troubleshoot" their lives without any help. The truth is that when your faced with troubles and trials the bible is the best place to look. I've attached a video clip to this blog. It's about a children's book and it's been animated. Click here to watch it.

Now I agree with Mr. Chan the church has become stoppable. That however is another talk/post all in itself though. Bringing this all back. Our lives are like the tractor as well. See when we don't read the manual our lives become broken, beaten, and "unfit for duty". Yet when we read the manual and give it time we begin to fix ourselves. We continue to fix ourselves until were amazed at how far we've come and we get to the point where we can function on our own again. That doesn't mean we stop reading the bible though. There will be times when something can go wrong but if we read the bible and know the word then we become easier to fix. The bible is there to guide us, and to help us in our daily lives. See we all need a fixing every once in a while. So let me ask you this. The next time troubles and trials come and you need to "troubleshoot" what are you going to do?

Thanks for reading and once again please feel free to comment below. Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for Christ.

Philippians 4

The Secret

This is the 4th and final post on the Philippians stud. I mentioned several themes in my first post about Philippians. The first of course was joy. Another was Pail's constant reminder to keep a Kingdom mindset, or remembering "What really matters." The final theme was having the attitude or mindset of Christ. Well now that these ideas are back in our mind lets get started.

Verse 4 reads:
"Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!" So once more there is that reoccurring theme about rejoicing. Always be full of Joy! When I read that, I was like always? Even when things aren't going my way? Always? Paul is reminding us that being joyful or rejoicing is a choice. Here is imprisoned Paul writing to the Phillipian church about choosing to be joyful when he had every excuse to complain, gripe and be depressed. Instead he said to make the choice to rejoice. Paul wants us not to rejoice in the things that are going on in our lives but rather rejoice in the Lord. He's also not saying that our joy's are in the trial, nor is he saying that our joy is in the trouble. He's saying our joy is with the Lord. It's important to know that joy in the original language is Chara (pronounced hara). In Greek the word for grace is Charis (pronounced harice). Now you may be asking why is this significant? It's important because our joy is directly connected to God's grace in our lives. For us to experience joy we must understand that its not human based happiness that can be up one day and down the next. Our joy has divine origins. Our joy is directly connected to God's grace, mercy and what Jesus did on the cross for us. What he's saying here is that regardless of the circumstances if we pause and remember that we are loved and we are forgiven and we're accepted because of what Jesus did, then there should be no reason to not find joy. Paul says because of those things you can find joy in any situation.

Verses 5-6 read:
"Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." Paul is once again saying don't worry. Paul addresses worry a few times in Philippians so they must of had a lot to worry about. Remember Phillipi was a very prosperous place, lots of wealth and business. It might be that they were worrying about finances, businesses, or families, they had lots to worry about. Just reading those things sounds like a lot to worry about. Paul says don't worry about it instead pray about it. So when you look up the symptoms of worry on the Internet you see some pretty interesting stuff but none the less here are some of the common symptoms; sleeplessness, headache's,and heart palpitations, belching, nausea, and diarrhea, blurred vision, shortness of breath, and being constantly irritable. Now a few of you might be thinking Oooooooohhhhh that's their problem. I thought they were just cranky I didn't know they were just worried. God doesn't want us to worry. He tells us to be anxious about nothing. God tells us "fear not." So here's what I'm convinced of fear and faith don't and can't coexist in a believers heart. You can't be full of faith and be fearful. Fear and faith simply cancel each other out. Paul says don't worry, but instead pray about everything. Even the small stuff? Yes, God cares about the small things in our life. What about the big things? God specialises in the impossible. What about the stuff I get myself into, wouldn't he just say I told you so? No, God wants you to pray about everything, because he cares about everything. So here's a secret, prayer leads to peace. If you have worry pray about it. If you have troubles pray about it. Then you will receive peace.

Skipping to verses 8-9. They read:
"And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you." Paul's talking about how we fix our thoughts in this little section. What are you thinking about? What fills your "thought life" in the middle of the week? We can't live our lives with one foot in the door of the church and the other in society. We can't just focus on worldly things and go to church it just doesn't work that way. Paul says to fix our minds on what is pure and true and lovely that's where our thoughts should be.

Verse's 10-13 read:
"How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ,* who gives me strength." As I read these verses and the secret of contentment, I'm reminded that were not naturally contented people. We always want a little bit more. We naturally have "a desire to acquire." Humans are not the only ones to do this though. Dogs collect bones, squirrels collect nuts, women collect shoes. It's the same idea. We have this desire, and its not all bad. It's only bad when those desires get out of control and our focus is put into other things. When all we're really focused on is satisfying our needs, and satisfying our own desires, that's when things are not good. Paul explains the secret to being content. Contentment is learned. So 3 ways to be content are:
1.) Develop an attitude of Gratitude. It simply starts by being thankful for what you have.
2.) Put our trust in Christ not in circumstances. The secret Paul learned was that he wasn't depending on himself for strength, his hope was not in his possessions, his hope was not in his wealth or anything that he had. His trust and hope was without a doubt placed in Jesus.
3.) Live with eternity in view. Remember we only really get 100 years here on earth to prepare us for eternity. So here's some questions for you to think about as we end this awesome study on Philippians. Am I living with a Kingdom perspective? Is my heart and my mind focused on "what really matters" and/or the Kingdom of God? Or am I consumed with this world and what I want and what I need so much that I miss out on God's Kingdom and his purposes for my life? So once again I ask you. Do you have a Kingdom perspective?

Thanks once again for reading these. Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for.....Christ!

About Me

It has occurred to me that I have not mentioned anything about myself. I am currently enrolled in high school. Other than helping lead my FCA, I also participate in golf, and sports broadcasting. I love broadcasting even the stressful parts. I help make our school news and help broadcast our school sporting events. My job is normally Tech Directing which perhaps is the most important job because I literally make the show. I have a multicolored board that sits in front of me and it's my job to push buttons and make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Its great I love it. I also enjoy birdwatching I guess you could call it a hobby. My science teacher got me into looking for all sorts of different birds. It's amazing if you've never just gone outside and watched how the birds interact with each other I highly suggest it. My favorite color is blue. Let's see my favorite movies would have to be any Sherwood Pictures film (they made Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof). However, the one that takes the cake has to be To Save a Life. I love the idea of Christian movies. I would love to help maybe produce one later in my life.

I often get asked by adults what my plans are for the future. Well here they are. I plan on graduating from my high school in the top 20 of my class or even the top 10 would be nice. After being in the Air Guard for pretty much 2 years (that's me planning on signing up when I'm 17). I will then attend Central Methodist University for 4 years. I have decided to major in Theology. I'm not quite sure about what to minor in yet but I like the idea of minoring in broadcasting or maybe environmental sciences who knows. I hopefully will have an internship in college because one of my dad's friends is a pastor at a local church.

Over the summer I attended my first ever church camp and met some great people there. Unfortunately while it was my first time it also was my last time. I really would love to go back and visit them. It's just not in my plans. After an awesome time with those people I got ready to set out on an adventure of my own. My parents had decided to let me fly by myself to Florida for a week to visit my aunt and uncle. Another life changing experience. I flew out of my airport and straight into Indianapolis where I stopped to be refueled. I then flew to Tampa Bay where I had a 4 HOUR layover and changed plans heading north again to West Palm. It was amazing but Florida you really need to work on that Chicken Fried Steak. Florida is definitely different culture wise then where I come from. Where I come from you take a car to get from point A to point B. Well one day we decided to go to Miami. We took 3 different modes of transportation to get there. I definitely will remember that. I then attended my relatives church. It's name....Christ Fellowship. That's where I got to meet Todd Mullins with my cousin. Todd is one of the pastors at the church. I even got to hear him speak. Listening to him speak really emphasized what I wanted to do with my life and even let me know that you can put humor into sermons and people will enjoy it more. If he ever reads this THANK YOU! After that it was a fairly normal vacation. I took a plane back to Tampa Bay for an hour layover that actually turned into 2 hours because of some bad weather. While in Tampa I met an awesome man who was from my area. He worked for an engineering firm and was supervising the building of a power plant in West Palm. We talked for quite sometime. He was quite the interesting person. Before I forget I also got to meet my no-blood relation cousin. We decided it would just be easier to be cousins. She was awesome too I wish we could have hung out more. I then was invited to a float trip with some of my fellow campers which meant I got home and unpacked my clothes then packed fresh ones because the float trip was right after my vacation. Luckily for me I had a day off before we left. I originally wouldn't of been able to go. There were only 4 spots open and I was person number 5 on the list. Then 2 kids said that they couldn't go. I'm so glad that I was blessed with the opportunity to go. I met people that I never got to meet at church camp.  That ends it for major events during my summer.

Then school started and I've really seen a difference in maturity. I feel over the summer because of all the things I was allowed to do made me feel like an adult who knows. All I can say is I noticed a difference in the way I answered people. Anyway that's my life from the way I see it. Just a little bit about me I'm sure there will be more to come.

Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for Him.

Philippians 3

No Turning Back or
We've come to far and our GPS is broken so lets keep going.

This post (if you haven't guessed it) is on Philippians chapter 3. Hopefully you've read the other 2 posts on Philippians otherwise some of this stuff won't make sense. If you haven't then what I'm doing is going verse by verse through the book of Philippians I can't stress the fact of joy enough and apparently neither can the apostle Paul since he uses the word 16 times in 4 chapters. So let's get started.

Verse 1 reads:
"Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters,* rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith." I'll give you 3 guesses as to what my first comment is going to be about. If you guessed Joy give yourself a pat on the back. Paul wants us to be joyful. "whatever happens" that means all trials and challenges that we face daily. He goes on to say "rejoice in the Lord." Now there is some bible irony in that little passage. Paul is in prison and is facing death, yet here he is reminding others to rejoice in the Lord. It's amazing that even in the face of death Paul still talks about Joy. I believe if we focus on God in these hard times it gives us hope and something to hold onto. When we don't focus on God then worry, stress, fear, anxiety, etc. begins to run our life. What does worry do? Jesus said "who by worrying can add one hour to their life." Worry causes anxiety. Then anxiety causes us to not sleep at night. So then we get a pull to help us sleep, and because of that pill we can't wake up. So we get a pill to help wake us up. Then the effects of the first pill wear off and we have to get a new one to help us sleep. We're a nation on pills, Paul is trying to save us from taking pills. Paul's saying just rejoice in God and all that worry, and stress goes away.

Verses 2-6 read:
"Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we who worship by the Spirit of God* are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault." Paul begins to explain salvation by grace not by works. It's not by what I do that I get into heaven. It's by accepting Jesus that I am able to get into heaven. Simple as that.

Verses 7-8 read:
"I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him."  There are 2 phrases that popped out at me while I was reading this. The first phrase is "infinite value of knowing Christ" the other is "discarded everything." When I think of infinite value I think of things that are priceless. Most of them I guess you could call Kodak moments. Paul is saying no amount in the world could replace the value of knowing Christ. We understand that there are somethings money can't buy and for everything else there's........MasterCard. Just remember that KNOWLEDGE of Christ is priceless. My second phrase was "I have discarded everything, counting it all as garbage." Paul had to discard his old way of thinking because that's how Saul became Paul. There are people out there today who have not discarded their old was of thinking. By that I mean some people haven't discarded their priorities. Some people still don't get "what really matters." It's important to note here that the word "garbage" is sterilised its like the "G" rated version. When we think of garbage we think of a piece of trash, that's not what it means in the original language. In the original text it actually means dung or poop. Paul wants us to just get rid of all the poop in our lives because it doesn't matter. So some questions for you to think about are; what do I value the most, and have I discarded my old ways of thinking?

Verse 9 reads:
"I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.* For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith." Again Paul is saying that by GRACE we are saved not by works.

Verses 10-11 read:
 "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" Verse 10 is kinda like Paul's wish list:
1.) To know Christ. OK yeah I want that too "check"
2.) To experience the power that raised him from the dead. A.k.a the Holy Spirit. Yeah I want that one as well.
3.) To suffer with him......ummm not so sure I wanna do that one.
4.) To share in his death. Really? OK if I didn't like Paul so much I'm pretty sure I'd label him as crazy. Nobody in their right mind would want that. If I were to ask you to write down things that you wanted. Probably the number one answer would be to know God/Jesus better (if not don't tell me). Then you would get into things like a new phone, or maybe a new car, maybe you'd want Justin Bieber to get a manlier voice who knows. My point is the things that we want are for here on this earth. I remember as a kid running into Sears to get their Christmas catalog. Let me tell you that other than the bible this book was sacred. It had all the cool new things in it, and it was just like a little piece of heaven on earth. My point is even though we may not have a catalog to look through we all still have a wish list (the items just happen to be a little bit bigger and a lot more expensive). Paul's number 1 thing that he wanted was to know Christ. When I read that I was like wait Paul don't you already know Christ? It's important to know that the word "knowing" really doesn't mean knowing. Let me explain. It actually means an intimate knowledge like a husband and wife type of thing. Paul's saying that he wants to have a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. Then he says I want to KNOW the Holy Spirit, or that power that raised Christ. I want that power to live and dwell inside me. then comes the part of I want to share in his suffering's. When we think about that its a hard concept to grasp, because we only want the blessings of Christ. I mean who actually prays for suffering? The truth is if you want to know God and have that RELATIONSHIP with him, suffering is the invitation. Often the purpose in our suffering is to strengthen our RELATIONSHIP with him, So this week and all the rest of the weeks in you life when your faced with suffering remember to rejoice in God because when we do our relationship with him grows stronger. So the next time suffering and trouble com knocking what are you going to do?

Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for Christ.

Philippians 2

Having an Attitude of Christ
a.k.a Attitude Adjustment Time

This is the continuation of our study on the book of Philippians. This post is chapter 2 in Philippians which is equally important to chapter 1. If you missed the last post or haven't read it yet then here is some basic info. The Church of Phillipi was the very first church established in Europe by the apostle Paul. Since the churches were so far away from where Paul was, he would send carriers out. For this particular book Paul used Epaphroditus (who I call E-dawg for short). E-dawg would stay with this group of people and encourage them, support them, and love on them until it was time for him to bring letters back from the churches to Paul. Now what also is significant is that at the time Phillipi was very high on the social status scale (say that three times fast). Phillipi was very affluent and very in-fluent so it was a very important place. Phillipi was like modern day Hollywood or West Palm Beach, pretty much everybody was wealthy there. Now the people there almost always felt the need to have/get more stuff. Phillipi had lots of possibilities and so Paul is writing to them to encourage them and change their attitude on life. This sets us up for this blog. So let's get started.

Paul is going to talk to them today about having an attitude adjustment. The truth is it's very for us to become more focused on ourselves than others and "what really matters" (refer to "the start of Philippians"). I mean don't think you have a defect or anything its in our human nature to be this way. Unfortunately that attitude is not supported in the bible (bummer right??).

Verse 5 reads:
"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." In chapter 2 Paul gives us 3 keys to allowing the attitude of Christ to live in our life's. So lets go back to the beginning.

Verses 1-2 read:
"Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose." So Paul starts off with if you have any encouragement any love. It's important to note here that the word "if" really doesn't mean if like questioning, in this case it actually means since. It's like my dad saying "if your my son your going to hang Christmas lights" no its more like "since your my son your going to hang Christmas lights" (and have a blast doing it too). So Paul is saying that since you belong to Christ, since you have love, since your together in the Spirit, then work together, love one another, and agree wholeheartedly.

Verses 3-4 read:
"Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too." Do NOTHING out of selfish ambition. Nothing in your life should be based on your own self ambition. Now don't get me wrong, ambition is a good thing to have. It drives people to become something or do something. Selfish ambition is when it all comes back to what I want or what I need to be fulfilled and so I'm only going to be concerned about myself. Paul's saying don't do anything for yourself. It's amazing at how many people are more worried about the way people view them, then the way God views them. Paul's saying don't try to impress others but be humble and think of others as better than ourselves. I once heard that "egotism" is the only disease that you can get that makes other people sick. Humility is not thinking less of yourself its thinking less ABOUT yourself. So Paul gives us some ways to achieve these goals.

Verses 5-7 read:
"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.Though he was God,* he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges*; he took the humble position of a slave* and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,*" We're supposed to have that attitude in our heart and life. I've come up with 3 keys to help us gain this attitude because I believe that we all want this in our hearts, otherwise you wouldn't of read this post this far.

Key #1 Concern for others.
Don't be consumed with yourself. Paul wants us not to only have a concern for the people we like but the people we dislike as well. Jesus modeled that for us. You could say his whole life was focused on others. He even gave his life up so that EVERYBODY not just one group of people could get into heaven. Talk about having a concern for others.

Key #2 We must have GENUINE HUMILITY.
In versus 5-7 the bible explains that the Creator became a Creature. It takes confidence to be humble. See God could've just stayed up in Heaven and never sent his son down to save us. It takes confidence to be humble. We have to know who we are to life a very genuine life of humility. Now beware there is a huge difference between being cocky and being confident. Confidence says I'm secure with who I am, I know who God made me to be, and I know that he has a great plan for me. Arrogance says I'm insecure with who I am, I'm not OK with who God made me to be, and I don't want to know all that he has planned for me. So what I am going to do is tell you how great I am so you think I'm actually thinking that I'm better then what I really think I am. Unfortunately we all know people like this.

Key #3 Commitment to OBEDIENCE
Verse 8 reads:
"he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross." This verse is so important because as I read it I can't help but think how Jesus could've called it all off. He could've called 10,000 angels and just stopped his death. But he was fully committed to God and OBEYED him. We cannot walk with Jesus if we are not fully committed of obedience to God. That doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect at it, but what it does mean is down deep their is a commitment saying I want to obey God as best as I can. So let me ask you this how fay does your obedience go? Are you fully committed to obeying God?

That's all I have remember to keep reading the rest of the chapters in Philippians. Also remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for God.

To Save a Life

There is a movie out that I love called "To Save a Life." It's a movie that tempts us all to ask what would we do to save a life? In the movie a high school student kills himself because he believes nobody cares about him. The movie then follows the life of a a popular high school student who used to be friends with the teen who killed himself. The popular teen soon comes to Christ and starts to look at the big picture. He starts to live a life for Christ. In the movie he is confronted multiple times and he learns about stepping out of the comfort zone. Which leads me to ask why is it so hard for people to stand up and go out of their comfort zone to accept some stranger into their group? See in high school there are always "cliques" and no matter what everybody gets put into one. There are even people who fit into multiple "cliques" including myself. See the ideal school would be one in which everybody belonged to just one "clique" in which nobody could feel judged or left out. I believe the reason that most people don't reach out to each other is because they are scared. They are scared that they might be judged by the other person or even their own little group. Yet there was a man not to long ago who did just that.

He shifted the way people thought. He changed their outlook because he was willing to do just step out of his comfort zone. He made such an impact that he was actually tortured and killed. That man was Jesus. Now I'm not saying that if we all started reaching out to others that were going to be tortured and killed. I'm saying that as Christians we are presented with a great opportunity to bring others to Christ. See we have an advantage that others don't. The Holy Spirit. When we branch out to others the Holy Spirit is there to help us and guide us sometimes he even puts the words right in our mouth. Are we going to be persecuted maybe there is always a good chance that we will. There will always be people who don't understand that there might just be something greater than themselves. What if we all were to start a religious revival? In the movie "To Save a Life" all the Christians from one church sit together and each lunch as a group. What if all the schools in the nation were to do this? Can you imagine the fuss that would be created? Can you imagine how God would feel? Seeing all of his children together sharing the love of him to their fellow classmates. How many lives would be saved? Today I challenge you to see how many people you can "save" both physically and spiritually. When you get to heaven and you see all the faces of people in whose life you made a difference I guarantee you it will be well worth it. What can you do to save a life? Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone? If not maybe its time to ask God to show you that you can? Today is the day to save a life.

Remember there is only 1Way2Live.

The Start of Phillipians

This is the very first speech I gave. This is also a sermon series that was given at Christ Fellowship and like the other blogs I'm going to put my own little views in. Over the next few days/weeks (since I don't know when I will past again) we're going to dive into a book study about Philippians. Philippians also happens to be my favorite book of the bible. I'm going to try to go verse by verse and probably won't be able to finish all the verses in the chapter simply because this blog won't be big enough. I encourage you to try and continue to ponder the remaining versus' on your own so that you can better understand the points that Paul wants to address. To save you some trouble my bible provides what it believes the key points in Philippians are; Humility, Unity, Christian Living, and Joy.

Now for some background on Philippians. The author of this book is the apostle Paul. Now Paul is in prison and is writing to the town of Phillpi which would be located today in Northern Greece. It's important to note here (because I will refer to it multiple times) that Paul mentions being Joyful 16 times in the entire book of Philippians (which happens to only be 4 chapters). Now hopefully everybody reading this knows how the persecuting Saul became the apostle Paul. If not I'm sure this will give me something to blog about later its a really interesting story. Lets get started shall we. Once again I'm using the NLT (New Living Translation) in case our versions read differently.

1:1-2 "This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.I am writing to all of God's holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the elders and deacons. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace." Now these first two sentences are like the opening or the greeting. There are two points in this section. The first comes when we see that Paul now realises that he is no longer living for himself he's living for Christ. He compares his living for Christ like a slave serving his matter. It's no longer his will be done it's his masters will that he strives for. The second point is Paul mentions that he is writing the letter to the elders and deacons. Now some versions actually use the word saints. It's important to know that back in the day a saint was any person who was willing to follow Jesus and preach his message. So technically today anybody and everybody could be considered a saint if they wanted to.

Verse 3 begins the "prayer of encouragement."
1:3-6 Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. I'm going to sidetrack away from here for a little bit and ask some questions. Are there ever times you feel God has put a prayer/vision in your heart and your so excited to do God's work for him, but after a few hours that feeling starts to fade off? Then your like where did that feeling go? Then you start to pray and read the bible because you want that feeling back. Maybe you get to the point where you start telling God "hey here I am use me," and you keep doing this constantly until it feels like your going through the motions. See its times like these when we're reminded that this is a walk of faith, NOT FEELINGS. It's faith that God has a plan for you and that he is going to work through you. Hebrews 11:1 reads "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." The whole point of this section is that God will finish what he starts.
Verse 7-9 read:
"So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus. I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. Verse 9 points out that all of us have to keep on growing, in both knowledge and understanding because  GROWTH IS INTENTIONAL. Imagine your favorite flower. Flowers don't just grow automatically. You can't just sit it on a desk and expect it to grow right? They need water, soil, and plenty of sunlight (depending on the plant of course). Things don't just grow automatically. This leads me to ask what are you doing to grow? What are you doing to grow in your walk with God? See I know people who think that just because they go to church or come to our schools religious organizations that they think they are "growing" enough. I remember a saying that went "Going to church doesn't make you a christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car." Now don't get me wrong as a leader for my FCA group I appreciate people coming and hearing me speak. On another note however, I feel as though maybe you should ask yourself if their is more you can do? Think of it this way if we all were to eat food once a week would we be strong? Surely not we'd all be weak and shriveled up. Yet many people out there are eating just one time a week. Paul wants us to grow in the word by that he means not just to read it but to study it and build a foundation on it. What can you do to make yourself a better foundation set in God?

Verse 10 reads:
"For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return." Hmm... that's a good statement. What really matters? We live in the age of technology; phones radios, TV, computers, emails everything. Did you know that last year alone digital information increased by 62%? That's a lot of information. It's an INFORMATION OVERLOAD! News. Oh how I admire you the informers of the world. So many news stands and TV channels to keep me up to date with whats going on in the world. If that's not enough information for me I can get little texts on my phone in case I'm not in front of a TV or by a computer, in case I want know what toothpaste Justin Beiber just used. I can find out just in the push of a button. Don't forget about those social networking sites. Lots of useful information on Facebook right? Information I can use about Farmville or when you plan on showering. Lots of useful information. If your a friend of mine please stop sending my Farmville requests I don't care :) Just tons of info. What Paul is trying to get across is the idea of what really matters.He wants us to weed out all of the information that we're exposed to daily to find only the information that matters. Do you understand that God comes first? Do you understand that our days on earth are numbered and that all this stuff won't matter when we die? What does matter is YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. To tie this back into growing some of you may be wondering how to have a better relationship with God. Maybe some of you want to actually know what matters to him? How? The answer is simple by reading Gods word. Get into the word understand it and grow in it. Build your foundation. See if you don't understand it then you can't use it. I know that E=MC^2. I memorized that back in the 7th grade my teacher would be proud. Now if you asked me to explain it to you I wouldn't be able to do it. Simply because I never understood it. Paul wants us to know and to understand what really matters to God. When we learn what matters we start to grow spiritually and begin to understand Gods plan.When we learn what matters it gets deep down and changes us and re prioritises our lives. See when I start to understand what really matters I'm not going to waste me time on things that don't. I'm not going to waste my energy or my focus. "I want you to really understand what matters" is what Paul is saying.

Verse 11 is still part of the prayer and reads;
 "May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ for this will bring much glory and praise to God." Here is what I know and was taught at an early age. You know the root by the fruit. I know that an apple tree will produce apples, an orange tree will produce....oranges, and a tomato tree will produce tomatoes right? See as Christians were like the trees. Christians are supposed to produce good fruit. People can filter out Christians from other because they can look at our actions (the fruit) and be able to tell that we're a christian. Yet every once in a while a vine (sin) may start to grow up and try to steal our life away. If the trunk of the tree (faith) is strong enough then the vine will wilt and fall off. That's where I'm going to leave you. I hope you liked this first little piece of Philippians. Again I encourage you to continue to read on and see just what you can come up with.

Remember there is only 1Way2Live.

No Ordinary Love

No Ordinary Love is about the Prodigal Son. My Bible is a New Living Translation bible so if my text reads different then yours that's probably why.  This was a sermon given by a mega-church in Florida called Christ Fellowship. I've put kinda my own spin on it and I hope you like it. Let's get started.


This is one of my favorite stories. Like I said its about the prodigal son. Now in Luke Chapter 15 Jesus tells some stories. He tells a story about a lost coin, a lost sheep, and of a lost son. Now if you grew up in church then you know these stories fairly well. If not then let me share some background information on the particular situation Jesus found himself in. Jesus is having dinner in the home of prostitutes, tax collectors, and some bibles even say that he was eating with notorious sinners. Now if your like me and don't know what the word notorious means it means somebody who is famous for doing bad things. Kinda like their reputation was for doing bad things. Let me ask you would you like to be classified as a notorious sinner? Of course not! Nobody wants to be labeled like that. Yet there is Jesus relaxed in their homes. Now at the time it just so happens that some religious leaders walk by and Jesus sees an opportunity to give a teaching moment.

Now these religious leaders they could talk a good talk but they didn't know how to live the life. They didn't know how to walk with God. They didn't have a good foundational relationship with him. At one point in time Jesus even compares them to white washed tombs. All pretty and dazzling on the outside, but the inside was dead and decaying. Like I said Jesus sees them and starts to preach. He tells three stories; The Lost Coin, The Lost Sheep, and The Lost Son.

"A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons." Now it's interesting to note here that typically in Jewish custom and culture the sons would get the inheritance after the father died. The older son would get double and the younger son would get the rest. For those of you who are math inclined that's the older son getting 2/3 and the younger son getting 1/3. What also is interesting to note is (like i said) the father had to be dead for the sons to receive the inheritance. That's important to know because by the younger son asking for his inheritance he was basically telling his father "I wish you were dead." "I want my inheritance because it'll make me happy, so if you could just give me my share that would be great." and so the father gives the son his wealth/inheritance. Now the bible says that the son doesn't invest it instead he wastes it on parties, my bible actually says that he wastes it on "wild things." About that time a severe famine hits the land and as fate would have it the son goes broke. The son finally finds himself in desperation and despair. He needs money for food because he is starving. The bible says that the son finds a wealthy landowner and asks him for work. The landowners responds with the only job I have for you is to feed my pigs. Gross right? Well the bible doesn't stop there it continues on to say that the son grows so hungry that he starts to eat what he is feeding the pigs. Yummy right?

Now comes the good part. The son comes to his senses and realises that 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant." So the son leaves and returns to the road that leads up to his fathers home. Now the bible says that the father saw the son, which tells me that the father is looking for the sons return. "And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." The "one-liner" comes at the end when the father says "come celebrate my son was once lost but now is found." What a beautiful picture. The best part is that same father that saw the sons return is the same father that's up in heaven looking for your return.  That same love is waiting for you, for me, and for anybody else who wants it. It's not an ordinary love.

Now the people in the house with Jesus knew this story.......not because Jesus had told this story before, but because in Jewish culture it was like a nursery rhyme to them. See this story would be told around dinner tables with a slightly different ending that was meant to scare the kids into waiting till after the father was dead to get the inheritance. They would tell this story and the only difference was instead of the father opening his arms and embracing the son, he would turn his back and say "get away from me i never knew you. You have no purpose here." However, Jesus gets to the end of his version of the story and goes "BUT the father saw the son off in the distance and he ran to him and embraced him." Can you just imagine the look on all the faces that were there listening to him. I mean this was like a major shift in the way people thought. All their lives they felt like God had turned their back on them. See what Jesus was trying to get across is that he love the father had for his son is not ordinary its not the same you see everyday. This is a love completely out of the ordinary, its unconditional, its not based on conditions or what we do. It's based on how much God loves us. See a lot of people have that image of God turning his back on us but instead God runs to us and kisses us and welcomes us back into his family.Now the guy who actually gave this sermon used a story from his past. I was going to use one of mine but his version is way better.

The man had a son and daughter and he took them out to practice hitting some baseballs. Since the son was older and took more of an interest to baseball he pitched to his son first. He described his son as just "nailing" each one of the balls that was pitched to him. Then his daughter said that she'd like to hit a few balls. So she stepped up to the plate and he said that she would swing and just hit air she'd completely miss the ball. It was getting to the time when they needed to return home and the daughter still hadn't hit a ball yet. So he stated that it was time to go. She said that all she wanted was one more pitch. So the father agreed and the little girl choked up on the bat and the father pitched the ball. The father described how he watched her drill the ball over their heads and out into center field. He says he still remembers the look of shock on his sons face. They returned home and their mother asked them how it went. The eager son of course responded with how he hit every ball and he was just hitting them left and right. Then the mother asked how the daughter did and the son responded with "she missed them all." The daughter then responded with "but I hit one and mom I drilled it outta the park." The father said for the rest of the night his daughter was happy. The point of the story was to illustrate that he doesn't remember any of the pitches she missed, but he remembers that one time when she did hit the ball.

See in our minds all we think about are the misses but God doesn't remember all the times we fail him, instead he remembers the time we make contact and just drill the ball outta the park. God wants you to come back to him he wants you to be part of the family all you have to do is let him. Now Jesus also said that we should show that same love that our father shows to us to other people. To end this extremely long blog post. Who do you know that needs to hear this story? Who do you know that you can show the unordinary extraordinary love of God to?

Hope you liked this post. I know its long but hopefully it changes the way you view God. Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for our father in heaven.

First Blog

Hello fellow bloggers, now I am aware that typically Christan blogs aren't read that much but I don't care. This isn't just some other Christian blog this is a blog from the life of a Christian. It's going to be a mixture of things i feel situations I have been put in and decisions that I have made. Keep in mind that nobody is perfect so if some of my decisions seem wrong to you don't be afraid to question me. Well I hope you enjoy this blog. A lot of the things I post will also be speech's/sermons I give at my High Schools FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Also feel free to suggest ideas on topics that you would like done. By that I mean maybe you have a favorite verse and would like me to incorporate it into one of my speech's. Just let me know. Thanks all for your time be sure to read my first actual blog it's going to be called "No Ordinary Love"