Gotta Die a Little so I Can Live a Little

"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."     --Romans 6:8-14




Whenever I feel I have life figured out, I always tend to fall flat on my face. I allow myself to get in the way of what the Lord is doing in my life. I hate that I always have to figure out the hard way to continuously pray that I would give everything over to the Lord. Too many times I tell God "No I have this under control" when really I need him and I continuously need his guidance and direction. This verse is a constant reminder of how I need Jesus to take complete control of every aspect of my life. Without him, I am a sitting duck for Satan to begin to twist my perception of things and allow him to infest the things the Lord has given me that are so good. Lucky for me and everyone else our God is a God of grace, and there is nothing I can do that He cannot conquer and that He cannot heal. I just have to die to myself and the ways of this world and make myself available to Him so that I can be alive to the things of above. In that death of myself, there is freedom in Christ. And its time that I truly begin to embrace that truth and experience that freedom and life in Christ that has been there for me all along.

Recruiting

It has been a long time since I have blogged. And for my first post in over two months I am going to vent about something that really doesn't matter too much. Nothing real spiritual here.


Recruiting is becoming a monster. How is it that a 17 or 18 year old kid can just about make an old man cry if he goes to a school other than his own? These kids haven't even done anything yet, but we act as though they are the next Heisman Trophy winner. Sure, one of them very well could be, but a lot of these kids may end up being not that special. I admit, I get sucked into all of the hype too. In fact  today I have spent a lot of time reading about recruiting reports and watching ESPNU to get all the updates. Honestly, I probably wasted a large majority of my time today. And I have been stressing about whether or not one OL will sign his stinkin letter of intent to Auburn. So dumb.


I need to get in the Word and off of Rivals.

Royal Park Estates

By the title of this post, you might think that I am about to talk about some nice community that I have lived in, or maybe some neighborhood that always has the best Christmas lights up this time of the year. Definitely not that kind of place. It is actually a trailer park about twenty minutes from my apartment in Auburn in nearby Opelika, AL. It is a place that even after only a couple of weeks of visiting, has begun to change my life and see God in a new light. One of my previous posts was about waiting on the Lord, and I feel like this community has helped show me what that truly means. It is a place that needs Jesus Christ and by simply deciding to go, God has given me the chance to bring the Gospel to these guys and "wait on the Lord" aka SERVE HIM. Some are  juniors and seniors in high school and some are just 6 or 8 year old kids, but they all need Jesus just like I do. I have been waiting for this opportunity to serve and it isn't like some divine revelation where I just heard about this place and had a dream saying "GO." It simply came through filling out a card at church and then an email. And as simple as that was, satan was still at work trying to give me reasons not to go. Whether it was me feeling sick or just being scared to make a phone call. but the Lord has a plan for this community and He has a plan for me. and I am excited to see what that is. All I am doing is playing football on a Sunday afternoon, but I am already falling in love with this community and want to serve them. Anything that I might bring to them is only a fraction of what they are teaching me and what they are revealing to me about community and the body of Christ.


This community is a place of poverty and there are many kids and teenagers of all ages living here. But regardless of the economic state these people live in, they definitely have a few things right that I think I have missed and many people with more money have missed. And that is a sense of community. These people still spend a Sunday afternoon sitting on their porches and socializing with their neighbors. They want to spend time with each other. In my neighborhood, I think we all like to sit inside and avoid each other. They are also very inclusive of everyone in the community. The older kids enjoy spending time with the younger kids. They don't try to kick the younger ones out of their football games, they openly invite them to play. I know for a FACT that I did not do that when I was a junior or senior in high school. The LAST thing that I wanted was for some 8 or 10 year old to come and try and play football with me. Not these guys.


And I think that is a problem in our Church today as well. So many times, I know particularly in my life, I discredit younger Christians. And not physically younger Christians, but Christians who have known the Lord for a shorter amount of time than I have. I get this arrogance about myself as if I have all the answers, when I am definitely not perfect. Just because someone has known the Lord for a shorter amount of time does not mean we shoo them away and restrict the body of Christ to those who have know Christ for certain time periods. What happens when you cut off circulation to the arm? It goes dead. Similarly, if the Church cuts off part of the body of Christ, that part will die. It will no longer be able to grow stronger. We must commit ourselves to encouraging and edifying other believers.


This was definitely more of a scatter-brained post than some others, but it really is tough to organize all my thoughts when talking about this place. I just get so excited!! But the bottom line is that we are called to serve. and to love. They go hand in hand.


"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or in talk but in deed and in truth." --1 John 3:16-18


"But someone will say 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." --James 2:18


I want to love. and I want to serve. Praise be to God.

Encouraged

After sitting through 123 interviews that took about 23 hours over 2 days, it is safe to say that I am a little tired. and drained.  But with that, came a breath of fresh air. Definitely not literally since I was stuck inside in the same room for 2 whole days, but spiritually I found myself refreshed. Hearing the countless number of people walk in and talk about servant leadership really boosted my spirits. In this day and time, so many people are looking out solely for themselves. The past two days have helped to show me how being servant-hearted is not a trait that has died.

The BIG Event is a project that has become dear to my heart. Last year serving as a Project Coordinator helped me to continue to develop my leadership skills, but more importantly gave me a chance to minister to people here in this Auburn community. So many times I have found myself trapped in this bubble of my friends where I don’t reach out to those that are hurting right here in the very community I live in. Now I have been given a chance to serve as an Assistant Director of the BIG Event and I am pumped! Especially after nailing down the Project Coordinators for this year’s BIG Event.

The Project Coordinators for this year absolutely blew me away in their interviews. Hearing their faith and how they believe in serving others before themselves was so refreshing. The idea that humility is a foundation of leadership was evident in all of their lives. Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and became a servant. That is what these Project Coordinators want to do. They want to serve this community and put their needs above their own. This is a ministry that we have been given, and I am so excited to see how these Project Coordinators take this opportunity to further His Kingdom and bring glory to His name!

With that excitement, I think my job and ministry opportunity has become clear.  SERVE THESE PROJECT COORDINATORS. Before interviews, I think I had forgotten what servant leadership would look like for me in my position. I have been given a great opportunity to minister to these PC’s, and it would be a shame for me to treat them different from the way I expect them to treat all of the people they will help to serve. Lead by example. I want to wash their feet. I want to show them that in order to lead, I must serve. Lord, you have given me an opportunity to minister to these people. Don’t allow me to let this pass. May you be given all of the glory.

Praise God!

Give me discipline so that I may grow in my walk with with You. I want to draw near to You. Nothing else in this life will satisfy me or give me a peace outside of You. You are the Maker, the Life-sustainer and You hold me in Your hand. I turn away from You so often and yet You pursue me. You are the Good Shepherd and You will not abandon me nor forsake me. Father, I live two separate lives so often and put You on only when it fits me and my needs. And yet You welcome me home with open arms. You love me despite the ugliness and nastiness that is my sin. I am but filthy rags. But because of Your Son, I am washed white as snow. My sin was nailed upon the cross and I have been made clean. You conquered death and sin no longer has power. I am now more than a conqueror through Your love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate me from Your love that is in Christ Jesus my Lord! Lord, You are good and Your mercies endureth forever! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below! Praise Him above ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!


Praise God! He is good!


And Father, give me the courage and power to declare this message to the world, because they need You just as much as I do. This is a fallen world, but You can raise it up and You will be glorified.


Praise God!

Your Word

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 

--2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is God-breathed. And how often do I just not even open it up to look and see what He has for me. Everything in there is straight from the living God. His Word will equip me for every good work, for everything that could possibly come my way. His Word is all-satisfying. 

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your Word."--Psalm 119:9.

It is that simple. Live according to Your Word. Of course the first step for me is to open it. There are so many days where I waste my time watching TV or just doing absolutely nothing when that time could be dedicated to hearing the living God speak. And how many times do I try to substitute listening to some worship music as my time in the Word. How many times am I going to exalt the words of Chris Tomlin over the very words of God?! And when am I going to be able to recite Scripture passages as long as entire songs? I can sing a song with no problem and know every single word, but throw a passage of Scripture in front of me and I stumble over the words.

"I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I may not sin against you."--Psalm 119:11

It is time for me to be disciplined. It is time for me to stand on the Rock, the firm foundation that is Your Word. 

I Will Wait Upon the Lord

One of the most misinterpreted verses, or rather, words in the Bible would have to be Isaiah 40:31 particularly the word "wait."

                 "but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall
                  mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they
                  shall walk and not faint."--Isaiah 40:31

So many times I catch myself saying "oh well I'm just going to wait and see what the Lord has for me" or "I'm just going to wait for the Lord to give me a clear sign about whether I should do that or not." The problem with this logic is that Scripture clearly tells us a lot of things to do. "Go and make disciples" for instance is one clear form of this. How many times do I decide to sit around and wait for the Lord to tell me if I should minister to a certain person? A lot. Scripture clearly says YES, minister to that person, spread my gospel.

If you had a waiter at a restaurant that always waited for you to ask for something without them doing it, they would be a pretty horrible waiter. To "wait" means to "serve." If we are serving the Lord and seeking Him in everything we do, then His plan for our life is going to be more evident and clear. If I just sit back and "wait" for God to send some sign for everything then I am going to miss so many opportunities to serve Him. When I throw off all the other things that distract me in this world and focus on serving the one true God, I am going to be able to run and not be weary. I will walk and not faint. I don't want to "wait" on the Lord. He has already told me what I am supposed to do. I am supposed to serve Him. I will wait on Him.