Father's Day

Today is father's day. For me, mother's day and father's day have never been big deals. I had never seen the point. Especially on father's day. My relationship with my father has always been strained, and so has his with his father, and so on. Yet it also reminds me that I take for granted the fact that both my parents are still around. Sometimes I cannot stand them, especially in transitioning to independence, but when I need them they are there. Even though my dad isn't the most understanding, loving, or kind father. He is still more than just a father, because he is a dad. He may not always participate, but he is around. We see that when children do not have fathers in the home they are twice as likely to get into trouble with the law, three times as likely to get into drugs and alcohol, and five times more likely to walk out on their children. I have to be reminded that as I go into being a dad that I should take what good I learned from him, fix the bad, and ultimately just strive to be more like our father we share in heaven. No father is as perfect as God, but I know my dad tries to be and that means more than any action he could perform. I hope to be a father who reflects the type of father our Lord is. I am learning, and so is my dad. Yet our imperfection also gives hope. There millions of people who hate this day more than me, as they sit with no father. They could have passed away, or perhaps were never there. However, we can rest in the fact that our true father is very much alive, and watching over us as the children he loves. We share a father with our fathers, and that is cool. So enjoy your day, and enjoy your dad who will always love you. Happy Father's Day! God bless.

Greatest Truth Ever Known

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

The Extra Push

It is most certainly impossible to make everyone like you. Even Jesus was hated, and he was the Son of the living God. Yet there are times when you have to admit you are at fault, and it is always time to show everyone love. There was a time in my life where I struggled with injustice in the world. I also had a massive temper, and wanted to fix anything that I thought was wrong. I was getting in the way of God. There was a time where these two flaws mixed, and it made me someone I was not necessarily proud of.said what I thought without filter, or even thought of consequence. I am not going to waste my time talking about that. That part of my life has ended, and we can all agree that it is not the right way to live. Needless to say, the person I once was said some hurtful things, and hurt a lot of feelings. I thought I was standing up for what was right, but never did I show love, humility, or grace. So what I am getting at is the extra effort I took to fix some of these relationships. Like most offenses mine seemed less extreme over time. However, even after apologies, time passing, and playing nice it just seemed like I was unable to restore those relationships. I went on for awhile just playing nice, forgiving, and assuming the other person just was not okay with me. That is where I was wrong. I realized that I was assuming they still had a problem with me, but they were probably assuming that I did not like them. After all I was the one who went off on them last time. So I did something new, and tried the extra push. Instead of just playing nice I made deeper conversation and actually listened, I joked around, and I did what they enjoyed. It was not always easy, but it was something I felt necessary. Guess what. It worked. Do not hold on to the things of the past, and assure others that you only wish to show them more of God's love. No matter what either one of you have done. After all the end goal is to spend eternity with them. Is it not? God Bless.

Don't Just Feel It

One of the biggest blunders we are taught blindly as growing persons is that actions follow emotions. You are to always act off of them, feed off of them, and make life decisions based on them. There is only one huge problem with that. We were born into sin, and our hearts desire the things we are not supposed to have. We are merely told that we are to balance how we feel and what we think in order to go through life, but when it comes down to it we are supposed to "follow our hearts." If we follow this philosophy of life then we will have the following: we will marry the wrong person, get divorced when we realize that we are not in love with them, choose not to worship God because you don't want to, we will go to the wrong schools, get the wrong job, and etc. You see it is going to be rare if you WANT to do what your supposed to do over 50% of the time. God loves it when we do things we don't want to but he has asked of us, and he even calls us to this life of sacrifice. Nevertheless, we get this idea that we can quit something or never start it because we are just not in the mood. We need to use our heads and prayer to make right decisions. Never does the Bible say to just follow your heart. The heart of God, but not just our feelings. Unless Jesus is living in there that heart is not going to be feeding you much good anyway. There are many reasons for why we should not just "go with the flow." Here is an example of how we get in the way of God, and make a mess of ourselves. It is very possible for you to not be in love with your significant other for a time. We get this all the time where people love their wives, but are not in love with them anymore. Most people freak out and ruin marriages with divorce or adultery. They are just reacting to what they feel is right for them. Yet they do nothing about it, because they are expecting actions to follow a feeling that is not there. However, when they think about it and pray about it God will restore what he intended to be there. You chose to be with them in the good times and bad. That is exactly what marriage is. A choice. A choice to live sacrificially for someone else on a deeper level, as God calls us to do with everyone. If you act as if you are in love with them, and do things to show that then I guarantee that the feelings will come. God does not believe in divorce, and he absolutely heals. He is just searching for someone who is going to look back to him in obedience. Actions do not follow emotions, but emotions follow actions. God shows us so much about acting as he intends even when we do not wish to do so. This is the epitome of obedience. God just wants us to love others when we do not, serve others when we want to be served, and give our lives when we need someone else's. By no means is it the modern way to live, but God shows us that it is the right way to live. What can be better than that? God bless.

The Struggle

It is a fact that I am rarely going to admit that someone has taught me something life changing. Especially when I am extremely humbled by what I have been taught. I have been in a relationship with the love of my life for years, and more than anything else she taught me something that changed the way I viewed life. Our age difference is a larger deficit then what most couples would choose to engage in. Nevertheless, I believe with all of my heart this is what God has intended. I have the absolute intention of marrying this girl, and the more I pray the more I realize that God has given me one of the biggest gifts I could ever receive on earth. I can love and feel love back, I am cared for, I am listened to, I have a best friend, someone who has my best interest at heart, and most of all someone to make me a better person. It would be impossible to list all of the things God has showed me by using her. I have learned about love, life, and everything else. However, one thing she does has changed my life more than she ever could have done on our own. I have only spoken of it to her once so I do not think that she will ever understand the weight of what she has done for me. She does not give up no matter how hopeless it seems, or even in the face of absolute failure. I am in love with her, but even more so I am in love with HER. I am not saying the cliche that "the only way to fail is to give up." No. God used her to show me something bigger. Our relationship is far from perfect, which is what makes it perfect. We struggle to agree, to keep things pure, to have our families coincide, to communicate, to be the best we can be to each other, and every other problem you can have. There have been many times where I challenge her with the question of, "Why are we even doing this?" Yet I can always rest assured in her answer, "because we love each other." I ask a lot of her and as she grows in mental, physical, and spiritual maturity I am to be patient as she is with me. There are many times where she does not meet expectations, and in our relationship very few people would survive what we have been through. Nevertheless, we are still here. We both aim to be completely obedient to God, and he gifted us with each other for the time being. No matter what comes along she never even sees a break-up as an option. She fails, but she never gives up. She is always herself, and comes out of the hard times as herself. This is life changing for me anyway, because it put true love into my life. It is the type of love in 1 Corinthians 13, the kind that keeps no record of wrongs, forgives, is patient, and kind. However, even more so there is something that the entire world can learn from my love. We are unworthy of salvation. We ruined that long ago. What is even more is that we will continue to sin, and we will fight that until our life on earth ceases to exist . How crazy is it that we will probably sin on the day that we die? We will never be a perfect Christian, and we will never reach a point where our life is perfect. So one might say that they understand why we need Jesus for salvation, but why even try if we will never be completely delivered from sin on earth. Well my answer is this: God knows we will sin (Romans 3:23), so he sent us a gift in his son, Jesus, to pay our debt (Romans 6:23). Even more so God calls us into a losing battle in a part of a war that has already been won. He wants us to keep on trying, and to continue to strive for perfection. Simply because he asked us to. It is not about being perfect. We can't. Yet God asks to look into the face of our failures, turn to his everlasting grace, and keep fighting the good fight. I thank you God, I thank you my love, and I thank you all. God bless.

Leading Worship

Being a worship leader is one of the most controversial positions in the church. As a musician I know that it is impossible to make everyone like your style, you have to deal with the attitudes and egos of musicians, you have to deal with balancing talent and calling, you have to worry about getting caught up in the music, and of course you have to actually understand what it means to be a worship leader. As a fairly new job in the church a lot of people have an opinion about how to do worship in a corporate setting in the correct way. In teaching me how to step up to this position God gave me a revelation, and taught me even more through the wisdom of others. I always thought it was my job to show up, have a good attitude, play well, feed of the audience, and give an excellent God glorifying show. However, the first thing I had to learn was that as a worship leader it was my job to get my nourishment from worship before I got on stage. The corporate setting is the worship leader's job to prepare the hearts for the message to come, and to lead them in approaching the throne room in an attitude of ambient praise and worship. How could I lead others when I was too busy trying to lead myself, or follow the lead of the congregation. I was constantly looking for people to raise hands or sing along in order to get psyched for Jesus. I was expecting them to what God had called me to do, and we were BOTH suffering for it. It was then that God revealed to me that I was to worship him always. I was to live worship. The illustration of the "well" describes it best for me. During the week where you are not at church you have your shovel. This is when it is time to dig. You have to be in quiet times, you have to pray, and you have to have private worship. The deeper you dig the more fresh water you are going to have. On Sunday morning your shovel is taking away, and you only have the water that you dug up the week before. It is not enough to have enough water to draw from while you are on stage, but you also have to have enough to pour out into the congregation. If you do not have enough water or stagnate water, then maybe just the congregation will suffer. Nevertheless, God has called worship LEADERS. If you have ever been to a worship service that you knew God was a part of then you understand what I mean by authentic worship. God wants all of our worship to be an experience where we encounter him, and just like anything else he wants obedient servants to lead others. If God is asking you to do this then it is imperative that you take the time to find him during the week so that you are able to show others the way when Sunday comes around. If you are authentic in this pursuit then it will not matter whether or not you want to worship on Sunday, or how hard of a week you have had. God will call you to come as you are, give your all to him, and let others benefit from your obedience. God Bless.