Recently my friend Rodney, gave me a CD of a sermon by Steven Furtick. I had in my car and hadn’t really had a chance to listen to it till the other day and wow it blew my mind. It was on the topic of ow to handle life when God doesn’t come through like you expect.

It was based on the story of John the Baptist. John, who in Jesus’ words was the greatest human who ever lived, was stuck in prison and questioned Jesus “if He was the one, or should we wait for another?” This from the man who saw the heavens open up and heard the voice of God say “this is my son, in who I am pleased.”

You see his current situation, being wrongly imprisoned, affected his outlook. How often does that happen in our lives. I know it does in mine. I know when I was stuck in Baghdad and had to miss the birth of my twins it caused me to question God. How selfish and petty is that of me?

The God of this universe gave His only son to die on the cross for me and I have the nerve to question His dedication to me.

There was a lot more in that sermon besides this, but that has really stuck with me.

Also I am taking of to Virginia today for a staff retreat. Be praying for our staff as we look forward to the new year and how we can continue to serve the Kingdom of God.

So I know I haven’t blogged in a long time. Life has been crazy. For one Twitter has almost replaced my blog, but in the past couple weeks I have had many requests to get back to blogging so here it is.

I was sitting on my bed last night with my 18 month old daughter, and she like most 18 month olds is a little goofball. I love when she gives me kisses and she loves to not give them to me just to be a dork. So I am trying to get her to kiss me and she is being stingy with her kisses and finally I just grab her and plant one on her. at this point I start to cheer and act like it is a big deal that she kissed me. Well she responds by coming back and giving me another kiss. I then cheer some more and the cycle continues for like 5 minutes.

It ws in the middle of this at some point that God revealed something to me. We all want to love and be loved. You see all of us have love inside that we long to give away, but the thing is we want to know that the person we are giving it to is cheering for us and loves us in return. My daughter had love she wanted to share but it wasn’t untill i shwed her that I was excited about recieving her love that she felt comfotable giving me more.

This has so many implications in my life. For one who I am cheering on and giving my love to? Am I cheering for my family to show them my love? My kids? My wife? Secondly I realized that my little girls, the other one of which is 10, are going to give thier love to someone. I want to make sure that the understand that that person needs to show them he is cheering for them wholehartedly before they are willing to do that. Lastly I need to realize that I have a Love inside of me that is always cheering for me. The Love of Christ. How am I using that love to cheer for this world?

Just some thoughts to chew on today.

With the 4th of July coming up I thought I would put out four ideas for churches looking to celebrate.

#1 Honor the Vets

Now when I say honor the vets, I don’t mean ask anyone who has served to stand up on Sunday morning. That is uncomfortable and not really doing anything to honor them. If you really want to honor the vets go to a local VA home or hospital. Visit with some of the vets, take some stuff to give away to them. Show them that you are thankful for thier service.

If you really are thankful for what they have done, go back more than just Memorial Day, the 4th, and Veterans Day.

These guys and gals have sacrificed for this country so we cn have the right to even have church. Lets be the church to them and honor them by serving them.

OK here is my second lyrics posting. This one is worship song.

Thank You

Alone in this life
I’d never find love
Then you stepped in
And you lit my world up
With just a look
You can melt my heart
With a few small words
You show me I’m saved

Everything I am
I owe to you
You gave me life
You showed me the truth
Within my heart
A song rises up
To give back in praise
For the life that you gave

Thank you, thank you
For all that you gave
Thank you, thank you
For the life that you saved

I just want say
That I don’t understand
The sacrifice you made
On Calvary that day
For none are worthy
Yet you died for all
And all are dirty
Yet still you call

So God has been rocking my world lately, in a big way. I am kind of anxious as to where exactly He is leading me in the next stage of my life. Just a year ago I thought I had it figured out and thought I was exactly where God wanted me. I was, it’s just that now a year later He has a new place He wants me. I feel like I have conformation as to where that is I am just scared though.

“What if this?”… and “What if that?”… you know those questions that run through everyones mids when what we really should be doing is trusting in God’s awesome power and might and depending on His grace to get us through. I am at a crossroads in my life right now and I am unsure of how to move forward. I do know this though I am going to move forward when God gives me the word, and once I get moving I am not stopping until He forces me too. Thats just the type of guy I am.

God is good, His plans are secure, and His grace is enough. I just wanted to share that.

“For God kinda liked”

“For God really cared about”

“For God was infatuated with”

None of these are correct obviously.  not even “For God loved a lot” is anything close to an accurate description of John 3:16’s opening words. We all know them by now;

“For God SO Loved”

But have you ever stopped to contemplate the second word, “SO”. I think that this is the most important part of the whole message. God didn’t just love us, he wasn’t infatuated with us, He didn’t have this little thing for us, He SO loved us. He was SO in love with us that he did the unthinkable and sacrificed His one and only SON for US. WHY? Would you give up your kid for someone else who is an evil rotten scoundrel? Nope. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t give up the life of anyone of my kids for anyone, but then again I don’t SO love anything that much.

Maybe I need that kind of love for this world more often .