Are You Excited?

Let me tell you a story. I met this girl a couple of weeks ago. She is actually my sister's best friend best friend. She just moved down here from Nashville, Tennessee and needed someone to hang out with. I went over to meet her and we started a friendship. If you haven't figured out yet, my life is Jesus. I work for FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and am a Middle School pastor at my church. The girl I met knew very little about Jesus. On the phone one night she told me, "It's embarrassing to say this, but I am 25 years old, and I don't understand Jesus." I asked her if she wanted to go to a bible study with me. She said yes, and we went to North Metro's Echo bible study. She was really nervous about going. The band started, and we all stood up to sing. As we stood up, she nervously asked me, "What are we doing?" I told her that we were worshipping God, thanking Him for saving our lives and just praising Him for that. This is what she said:



"If they are singing to God because He saved their lives, why aren't they more excited?"



This stunned me. She was so true though. As I looked around, everyone was going through the motions. I think they forgot about what Jesus really did for them. If someone were to come into your worship service and they knew nothing about God, by the way you worship God convince them that you actually believe in God? If not, we need to fix it. Lives are being lost because of the way we thank God.



Chris Tomlin is an awesome singer who sings worship music. Check this video out:

http://godtube.com/flvplayer.swf" FlashVars="viewkey=fb7bc667c7b301b74d52" wmode="transparent" quality="high" width="330" height="270" name="godtube" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"

What Do You Remember?

We go through life and we always remember the past, right? You remember childhood memories, your first kiss, the great sport's play you made, or the big fish you caught. And these are the stories we tell to friends, right? What about Jesus? When you think about the past do you remember Him? Do you tell people about Him?

I know when I get to talking about winning the basketball State Championship in high school I get really excited, or when I tell the story of my first kiss at White Water I laugh and have so much fun. When am I going to start having that much fun and excitement talking about Jesus dying on the cross for me?

Good Ole Jimmy

In the Bible this guy named Mark, who was one of Jesus' best friends, tells a story about Jesus interacting with another guy. This guy doesn't have a name in the Bible, so we will call him Jimmy. Jimmy was crazy. He was possessed by demons, and everybody in the town that Jimmy lived in disowned him. They would take Jimmy up to the tombs and chain him up there and leave. In the middle of the night the townspeople could hear Jimmy scream.

Jimmy was naked.
Jimmy cut himself.
Jimmy beat himself up.
Jimmy was an outcast.
Jimmy wasn't loved by anyone.

One day Jesus and his disciples rowed over to the town where Jimmy lived. Before Jesus could take two steps out of the boat Jimmy was there, begging Jesus not to hurt him. Jimmy was scared to death. Jesus lifted Jimmy off of his knees and grabbed the demons that lived inside of him and threw them into some pigs. The townspeople freaked out because somebody was actually interacting with Jimmy, 1,000s of demon possessed pigs just ran off a cliff, and this Jesus guy was to blame.

Jimmy was clothed.
Jimmy had new meaning.
Jimmy loved himself.
Jimmy was a part of something bigger than himself.

Jesus decided it was his time to go, and he started to get back in the boat. Jimmy begged Jesus to let him go with Jesus, but Jesus said no. He told Jimmy to go and tell all the people you know about the great things I just did.

That's the cool thing about Jesus. You don't have to clean up your life before you start a relationship with him. You start a relationship with Jesus where you are.

And Jesus will come to you. Just like Jimmy didn't have to travel around the world to find this Jesus guy, you don't either. He comes to all of us, but then he leaves it up to us to reply. Jesus isn't Waldo. It used to take me days to find Waldo in his red and white stripped shirt. And sometimes we think it is like that with Jesus. He isn't hiding from us like Waldo is. Just open your eyes and heart, and he will right there for you.

Why Are We Labeled? It's Not Fair!

From the day I was born I was labeled an accident. I wasn't supposed to be born. My parents didn't mean to have another kid. I was labeled the kid who had alcoholic parents, and a mom who was a crack addict. I was labeled the kid who cried about everything. I grew up with three sisters and a mom. What do you expect? I was the kid that walked into the classroom and the other kids knew I didn't live in a stable household. How is that fair? I couldn't do anything about it, but automatically my back, my life, was slapped with a label.

Think about this... Your mom and dad were about to get married. They were only about 14 or 15 years old. Both your mom and your dad are virgins, but the next thing you know your mom is pregnant. Did your parents have sex out of wedlock? Your dad knows he didn't sleep with her, so she must have cheated on him, right? The whole town knew about it. Your dad was ticked off, upset, confused, but then an angel appeared to him and told him that everything was o.k. The angel was the one that made your mom pregnant. Ha, nobody believed it though. Your mom and your dad move away from their hometown, because instantly they were labeled immoral people who had sex before marriage.

Ahhhh...The day you were born. You were born in a stable. The smell of cow dung and horse pee seeped into your nose with your first breaths. You weren't born in a hospital, a house, or even a hotel room. You were born in the middle of nowhere outside on some hay. You were automatically labeled as a redneck. Just kidding. You grow up poor and become a carpenter. You work manual labor job by job. You live for 30 years and then start teaching people about God. You perform miracles and people follow you everywhere. Then you get beaten, die on a cross, then defeat death, and all your labels, when you rise yourself from death. That is what Jesus did.

Yes, I am labeled, but thank you Jesus for being able to relate to me. I couldn't imagine being labeled the illegitimate child, but that is who Jesus was. He was labeled worse then me.