I am NOT a Preacher

Well, yesterday I had an
opportunity to preach a sermon at church.
I get this opportunity about once each year. I used to avoid it at all costs, but over the
past four years, I’ve been able to get a little more used to it. Part of that, I believe is personal growth
and part of that I believe is the Holy Spirit convicting me of the messages that
I have had a chance to give. If I teach
or preach on a message I am convicted by, it’s easier to have confidence in it.

But let me give you a little taste
of the experience that I went through yesterday. I woke up early and got myself ready for
Church as usual. On the way, Megan
shared a verse with me that I frankly can’t remember right now. It was very encouraging at the time and I
appreciated it. In fact, it helped me a
lot! But my mind was so distracted that
I didn’t have much time to reflect on it for very long.

When I got to church, I made a few changes to
the PowerPoint and then locked myself in my office. During class time, I went through the sermon
one last time to make sure I had all of my thoughts collected. Then I began to pray for the Holy Spirit to
take over. When I walked to the auditorium,
my parents met me and pulled me to the back of the room, placed their hands on
me, and prayed over me.

Then church began. Maybe it was just my nerves, but it seemed
like everything took FOREVER. The
announcements were really long, the part where we honored our children was very
long, and communion was very long.

In our church, the last few things
we do before the sermon are communion, scripture reading and prayer, and the
offering. Those three things were taking
forever and I could feel a knot building in my stomach. It seemed to get larger and larger as the
time went by. Just before I got up to
preach, Megan whispered the verse to me again.
It was once again, reassuring and encouraging but once again I can’t
remember what it said or where it was from exactly.

Finally, I got up and delivered
what I had prepared to say. I felt like I
did a pretty good job. I felt like the
Holy Spirit was at work. I noticed on several
occasions that it seemed like the congregation was fixed on what I was saying. When I finished, I went back to my seat where
Megan met me and whispered, “That was AMAZING!”
Then after it was over, I was bombarded with compliments. Lots of people told me what a great job I had
done. I had several conversations about
specific points I had made and how those points impacted certain individuals. I felt great.
What’s more, my father-in-law showed up to church for the first time
since his childhood and he really enjoyed it.

But what stood out to me was how
many people came up to me afterwards and said something like, “I’m so glad you
said what you said, these people really needed to hear that!” Someone even told me about a specific person
who needed to hear what I said. By FAR,
I got more people who told me that someone else needed to hear what I said than
I did people that told me “I really needed to hear that”. Now, a lot of people told me that also. But the ones who were thinking about how
others needed to hear it outnumbered those ones.

I don’t like that. Don’t ever let that be you!

But anyway, here’s my real point
for this post. The first thing I did
when I came into the office this morning was watch the video of my sermon. Know what I found? I stuttered throughout the sermon. I said “umm” and other vocal pauses a LOT
more than I remember. At the beginning,
I took lots of deep breaths, showing my nervousness. The parts where I wanted to talk much faster
and much louder to emphasize my points… I talked a tiny bit faster and a tiny
bit louder. The parts where I wanted to
talk slower and softer… I talked a hint slower and a hint softer. The big finale where I wanted to end with one
last impact was anti-climactic. I also
discovered that I’m not very animated on the stage, I read way too much, and I
even have a weird way that I say my “S” sounds which can get obnoxious at
times.

I am NOT a preacher. I would have gotten a “C” at the very best in
a public speaking class.

But I am convinced that the
experience we had in that room yesterday was powerful and impacted lives. I believe that the Holy Spirit was at work in
a supernatural way yesterday morning. I
believe God was able to use my willingness combined with his ability to convict
people to further his kingdom yesterday.

God can use you. You may not be the most talented person in
the world. You may have a lot of
insecurities about certain areas of life.
But God doesn’t require you to have abilities or confidence in
yourself. God just requires willingness
and confidence in him!

Are you willing to place your confidence in
him? Will you join me in this fight for
God’s Kingdom?

That was fast!

Well the teens are back in school this week and summer break is officially over! It was a crazy summer that flew by so fast! We crammed a lot of stuff into the past three months. I felt like I was going non-stop. But I think it was all very good. We were able to serve a lot of different people and I believe God was at work in my life as well as the lives of those around me.
Unfortunately, there is no rest for the weary in this land. There's a lot coming up to plan and get ready for. Our Men's Retreat is in a week and a half and I am preaching that Sunday, which is also the day we have selected to recognize our Children's Ministry and honor our teachers and life group leaders.
I am also in major planning mode to get ready for Restore 2011, our fall retreat to the beach on September 23-25th. It is lining up to be a great weekend again, as we are bringing back David Skidmore and Jordan House for the third year.
On top of all that, my family is getting pumped up for our "Celebration Week". That's the week of our anniversary (9/29) and three birthdays (9/30, 10/1, and 10/5).
With all of this going on, I will try harder to keep this blog updated. I didn't expect to be able to in the summer months because my office hours were very limited. However, even with the busy schedule this time of year, I should be putting more office hours in now so I will have time to post.

God Bless,
JD

Penn Gillette gets a gift of a Bible

I came across this video today. I think it's about a year old. I typically don't like to listen to Athiests because they usually have a lot of negative things to say about Christians and take low blows, take scripture out of context, and use other tactics to say them.

But I really respect Penn for the point that he makes here and I like his tone. I think we as Christians could learn from not only the man who gave Penn the Bible, but also Penn himself. We often get so caught up in dividing ourselves into sides. We do this in every part of life. Do you drink Coke or Pepsi? Are you a Ford or Chevy person? Republican or Democrat? American or non-American? Christian or non-Christian? NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? NBC or ABC? Apple or Microsoft? Need I go on? Big Ten or SEC? Ohio State or Michigan?

Sometimes our divisions get so polarized that we start to think things like, "How could ANYONE be on THAT side?" That's what many Christians do when they think about Athiests and that's what many Athiests do when they think about Christians. So you have Christians looking down on Athiests for being blind and Athiests looking down on Christians for being stupid or uneducated.

As Christians, we should be leading the way in breaking this way of thinking. We should humble ourselves and approach Athiests as if they are higher than us. We should actually love them... not just say we love them. And we should humbly approach them with the message that we believe will save their souls. When they lash back at us with hateful questions that we know are pointless to try and answer, we should respond to them in love.

I respect Penn for his appreciation of that Christian business man and for recognizing that that man approached him out of love. I also respect that man for approaching Penn out of love and complimenting his show even though I'm sure there were some pretty non-Christian things said and done in that show. It's about time a sane Christian be pointed out in the media as opposed to the Quran burning, armageddon predicting, Haiti condemning, money stealing examples we see all the time. We should all (Christians and Athiests alike) learn from this interaction.

Trip to Isle of Palms

We took a trip to Isle of Palms and Charleston this past weekend. It was just a quick trip to get away as a family before summer hits and things get really busy. Let me point out that it was NOT a vacation! I've determined that you can't take a vacation with kids, you can only take trips with kids. Vacations are restful, relaxing, peaceful, and when you come back you feel better than when you left. This was none of that. However, we did have a great time. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip. :-)

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This one is by far my favorite! I feel like I should be able to submit this picture somewhere and win a cash prize! It's amazing! lol

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Our best family shot all weekend. This was near Fort Moultrie.

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This was a cool shot Megan took of me and the kids walking on the beach. I just like it. Braden and I are walking in step. lol
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Mini-Me!

It's All About God

As I look back through my previous posts, I realize that they are all pretty much confessional in nature. They are all about me trying to work out the struggles that I have in my life. They are all about me and my faith and my battles with sin. ME ME ME! I have taken Christianity, something that is intended to be communal and focused on God, and turned it into something that is very personal and private and focused on me. Even this first paragraph is that way.
So this post is going to be an attempt at a different focus. Let us spend some time focusing on God and his greatness. But let's not focus on the things that we think make him great because they benefit us. Let's try to focus on things that make him great whether we benefit from them or not.
For example: God is in control. At first glance, this sounds like something that benefits us, but most of us like to have control of situations. We like for our plans to succeed. Try telling someone whose loved one was killed at an early age that God is in control. Try telling anyone in the northern parts of Japan that God is in control. Some of them might take comfort at that thought but most of them, I imagine, would go straight into questioning and blaming God if you tell them that. But God really is in control and whether we benefit from his control or whether we suffer from it, he is great and deserving of our honor, respect and submission because of that.
God knows everything and created everything. Once again, our first instinct is to try to praise him for how these facts benefit us. But these facts alone, whether they benefit us or not, are deserving of our respect, honor and praise. God, in his infinite knowledge of everything created everything that we see, hear, taste, smell, feel, and think. He did not just sneeze and accidentally created things. He thought through every tiny detail of how things work in order to create a universe that is so far beyond our comprehension that the best we can do is just sit speechless as we reflect on it. There's no point in trying to understand all of it because whenever we think we do understand it all, something comes up that puts us right back in our place as a limited, uneducated, small part of something much bigger. We would be better off just to understand part of it as best as we can so that we can marvel at the details of just that one part.
God is everywhere. Sure this brings us great comfort to think about. God is with us no matter what we are going through. He is experiencing everything along with us. But again, if we take our selfish hearts out of this experience, and just marvel on the idea that God is everywhere, for better or worse as far as it concerns us, this is an amazing feat. Nothing else in all of creating is everywhere... not air, not matter, not even time. But God is.
God is love. The best feeling our human bodies can ever experience is true love. There is nothing else that tops it. That emotion or feeling or action or however you might describe it... that is God! God didn't just create it. He IS love. This fact has limitless implications that affect our selfish lives and give us hope for the future, even in times of heartache. But all selfishness aside, the reality that God IS love, when you simply reflect on it, is something that should bring a smile to your face. The fact that God is love should call you to a state of worship. A creation without love is unimaginable. There would be no hope. There would be no reason to exist. We wouldn't even be able to be selfish. Because selfishness is caused by seeking after things that you love without considering how your actions might impact anyone or anything else. My mind hurts when I try to think about the depth of meaning that this simple statement has: God is love.
God is worthy and deserving of our praise regardless of what he has done for us lately. And it is important for us to realize that Christianity is more about God's greatness and holiness than it is about what God has done, is doing, or will do for us. Let's keep that in mind. :-)

What other aspects or characteristics of God can we reflect on that may or may not have any benefit to us?

New Motorcycle

Well I finally did it. I finally got a motorcycle. And not just any motorcycle, I got the one I’ve wanted since I was a little boy. I got a red 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 650r. When I was a little boy, I used to see the Kawasaki Ninjas riding around and I wanted one so bad. In college I remember very distinctly seeing Josh Belville riding to Lipscomb on a motorcycle and I thought he was the coolest guy on campus! Then when I got out of college and got a full-time job, I started saving my money to buy one. I had around $3000 saved up and I was just about ready to pull the trigger on a bike right around the time I met Megan. So I quickly made the decision to purchase a ring instead. I willingly gave up on my dreams of ever owning a motorcycle in order to fulfill my stronger dreams of becoming a husband and a father.

But recently we sold our truck and went back down to one vehicle. As Megan and I talked about what we could possibly do so that she could have the car during the day while I was at work, we agreed that the most economical thing to do would be get a motorcycle. So four years after getting engaged, eight years after seeing Josh in college, and ten years after high school, I finally got one! God is good!

This past month has taught me something very valuable. When we place “things” before God in our lives, we will get more excitement and joy out of the anticipation and hope of those things than we will get after we actually acquire them. (This thought is not original; I read it in a book by CS Lewis one time. It has just been made real in my life recently.) As much as I tried not to, I obsessed over getting a motorcycle. I couldn’t wait! Once Megan agreed to let me get one, my mind started racing and I was consumed with getting one. Nothing else seemed to matter as much. I placed getting a bike as the number one priority in my life. God quickly slid to the back seat. Even during my study times, my mind would slip away from what I was reading and dream about what bike I would get.

Then I got a bike. Now don’t get me wrong. So far, riding a motorcycle has been everything I envisioned it being. I love it. I do not regret getting a bike at all. But as I was riding home the first time, I remember feeling a sense of emptiness in me. I remember thinking, “So this is it?” Or maybe I was thinking, “Now what?” There was a part of me that was not satisfied. Riding a motorcycle was not the one thing that would finally bring me complete happiness and I had subconsciously made it out to be just that during my anticipation of getting one.

That’s what happens when you place anything before God. When you fill the “God-sized hole in your heart” with something else, it doesn’t fit right and there will still be a hole there. I have experienced that at a whole new level this month. I don’t think getting a motorcycle was wrong and I have no plans to get rid of it now that I realize that it became an idol for me. However, I do have plans of putting it back in its proper place.

Dear God, you are my Lord and Savior and there truly is nothing else in my life that can possibly replace you. Please forgive me for temporarily searching after something else instead of you and please help me to control the instinct in me to move on to the next “hit” of happiness. Please help me to realize, not just in my head but in my heart that you are all I need and there is nothing that can replace you. Please mold my dreams into whatever your dreams are for my life. Amen!

Living in the Light

⁵ This is the message we heard from Jesus^[c] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. ⁶ So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. ⁷ But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

– 1 John 1:5-10

This morning, I opened to 1 John and began to read. The section above really stood out to me. It stood out because I have always assumed that “living in the light” meant that I was living within God’s will… or in other words, I was not sinning. Conversely, I have always believed that “living in the darkness” meant that I was living outside of God’s will… or I was living sinfully.

But with that understanding, this section of scripture contradicts itself REAL fast! Because verse eight clearly points out that we are all sinners. If we claim to not be sinners, we are fooling ourselves. Verse six says that there’s no way we can live in fellowship with God if we have sin in our lives (or if we are living in the darkness).

So then, if it is absolutely impossible to live without sin, and it is absolutely impossible to have fellowship with God if there is sin in our lives, then there’s no way we can possibly have fellowship with God. And with that logic, it is impossible to live in the light. But verse seven says if we possibly could somehow live a sin-free life (live in the light), then the blood of Jesus would cleanse us from all of our sins. HUH???

The entire passage began to confuse me! If I’m living sin-free then I don’t need the blood of Jesus to wash away my sins because I don’t have any sins to be washed away! But if I am living a sinful life, then it is impossible for me to fellowship with God and it is impossible for me to receive the cleansing that is promised to those who live sin-free lives.

I say all that confusing stuff to get to this point. My interpretation of living in light/darkness is obviously wrong! So what does it mean to live in the light or live in the darkness? I think verse nine explains all of this mumbo-jumbo very well and sheds some light (no pun intended) on my question:

⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Confession is something that we like to pass over when we read through scripture. We like grace and mercy. We like faith and we even like baptism. But when it comes to confession, we like to pretend like all it means is just saying with your mouth, “Jesus is the lord of my life.” That might be a confession of faith, but this passage isn’t talking about confessing our faith. It is talking about confessing our sins.

John says everything in verses 5-8 about living in the light and having fellowship with God and each other and we are all sinners… he says it all to get to this point. We are all sinners and there’s nothing we can do to change that… “BUT if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us” so that we can be in the light as he is in the light. So what is living in the light all about? It’s all about confession of who we are! It’s all about being true and honest! It’s about breaking down our walls of pride and stepping out from behind our curtains of putting on a good face. Living in the light is being real! Living in the light is breaking down and humbly saying, “I am a sinner! I sin… a lot… each day. And there’s nothing I can do about that so I need you, Jesus, to cleanse me so that I can have fellowship with God.”

How freeing is that for you? I don’t have to hide who I really am. I can be honest with myself and with others. I can be honest with God! I can confess to him that I have a problem with patience, pride, lust, materialism, coveting, envy, anger, gossiping, controlling my thoughts, and chasing after things that this world has to offer. These are all real struggles of mine that, on a good day, I will struggle with and on a normal day, I will freely, willingly give in to.

It’s time we get back into the habit of confessing our sins to God and also to one another (James 5) so that we can freely live in the light as He is in the light!