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I can not believe that it is Thanksgiving already. I feel like Easter was yesterday. I am off this week, doing some things around the house to get it ready to be sold (it is on the market so if you know anyone who wants to buy a great house in Port Orange FL for a great price holla). I had a meeting about my business, (which is also for sale), and then just helped Jack around the house and played with the kids. I love days like this. This has been a rough year. I have gone through some things that I am sure are going to help shape my future, but at the same time, stuff I NEVER EVER want to deal with again or would ever wish on anyone else. I really believe that the crap we walk though in life can help us or kill us depending on how we respond. I hear a lot of people saying that 2007 sucked. While it will not go down as the best year of our lives, we can not hate the process. God uses stuff we go through to form us, to mold us, and to help us become better. I am thankful that God has stripped me this year. I am thankful that financially this has been a rough year, it has taught me so much about money. I am thankful for the fact at times I feel God is not even in the same universe as me, it makes me chase him harder. I am glad jackie and i have gone through some crap, it has brought us closer together. I am also glad that 2007 is almost over and that 2008 provides a lot of great new adventures for our lives. So this week, embrace time with your family. Eat the H out of some turkey. Love hard. Embrace the bad and let it build for your future. In life we are never promised that it will be easy, but we are promised that the season will eventually change. Here is to the lessons we have learned, will learn, and the promise of tomorrow.
Lets be honest, there are 2 types of guys in the world. Those who have been honest about the fact they struggle or have struggled with lust and those who lie about it. Sorry playa’s, Im outing you. It is natural. To live in the fullness of life you have to confront whatever your issues are, face them, and then move forward. It really can be that easy. But in being that easy, understand it is going to be extremely hard. This is one of the best weapons that the devil uses to discount and discredit men in life, relationships, and in our own minds.
Back into full blog swing and just finished Chapter 5 of “Going All The Way“. Here are my notes below.
- At times everyone falls victim to being weak, vulnerable, gullible or just the rebellion of lust.
- Sex without consequence does not exist. What is going to be the consequence of your action? And if you are married, usually the consequence is positive.
- Culture has created a world where the dehumanization of people allows for people to feel the ability to have sex without intimacy.
- To succeed in being faithful one must first learn to be faithful in their relationship with GOD. Faithfulness in this relationship builds the foundation for faithfulness in your marriage or dating relationships.
- God forgives, so if you have made a mistake, pick up and start over.
- If you want to have what few people do have in life, that it is going to require you to do what few people are willing to do to succeed. Your measuring stick is not others….
- It is paramount that you protect your wounds while God heals you. However, you can not conform your mind back to God’s standards, only He can.
I believe that over the course of time I have lost the revelation of the true power of prayer. Prayer is one of the most important facets of our relationship with God. He cares so much about us and wants the best for our lives, but he also desires communication with us on a level that I just am not sure how many people really strive to achieve. I have failed in this area so much, and I am now working to get balance in this area. God is a God of order. He REALLY cares about order. He wants order in our lives. Order is really the premise of why we should protect our relationships pre and post marriage.
This morning I was sitting here reflecting. I have a big day ahead of me, TONS to get done. So I started to think about how change really takes place. What is the road map for change? How can change be a positive? How can we as a culture make a difference in the world? Each generation gets a moment to leave their mark. As I have stated, I am working on a blog about Christianity. I feel the “next big thing” in Christian culture is actually what we should have been doing all along, being the hands and feet of Jesus and bringing the kingdom to earth. Finding a way to save people from eternal hell, but also the hell they live in right here on earth, right now. You see, at the core, people all desire the same thing…LOVE. Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone is searching for it, needs it, wishes they could experience it. Love is the emotion that drives people to do things that are out of their character. Love manifests in anger sometimes, frustration even carries shreds of love, but love is the core. Love is what motivates people. So what do you love? what are you doing with your love? is your love used to make you better or to better those around you? Love is the currency for change. love is going to be the method of conversion. Love is what Jesus was about. Love is motivation…is your love being used as a currency for change or is your love being held hostage? Let love live. Much love.
What a great day. Today was awesome at Calvary! This could have been the best service we have had in a long time. One of the best things about the day was the story I am about to tell you.
Background: Everyone knows the song by SUPER HOT Rihanna, “Umbrella”, well Pastor did a sermon as a part of our new series Calvary Cares. Todays sermon topic was the story of the good samaritan. Irony would have it that we have not had a rainy Sunday in WEEKS! Today, it POURED. God is a trip.
So here is the story that ROCKED my world. We had a guy act up on the second row in second service. He stood up, started yelling, just acting a FOUL! So we escorted him out and Pastor Troy laid the law down on him. Pastor Troy rocked. I was staying with him, for 2 reasons: 1. he is my boy 2. if that joker tried anything, I was not going to let my boy get attacked. Everything was cool. So I started walking back to the sanctuary and I got to the top of the hill and saw a lady walking down the driveway, in the rain. FAST FORWARD: After the service, one of our friends came up to me and told me this amazing story: One of our guys went out and started to talk to the lady who was walking away. The lady was homeless. She has aids, MS, and “a bad rash down there”. She was on drugs and in a lot of pain. Everyone had kinda freaked that she was so bad off, and that she had aids. They had freaked so bad they where letting her walk away, IN THE RAIN, when she could hardly walk anyway due to her issues. As the story goes, Pastor was preaching on the inside and said “who is going to put up their umbrella to reach our community. who is going to carry the umbrella for the hurt and the homeless?” The person who told me the story heard pastor say this over the intercom as she watched all people treating this lady somewhat not how Jesus might. Then she looked out the window and one of our guys was bringing the lady back into the sanctuary, walking slowly with her, helping her out, both under an umbrella….
we may not always get it right, but today, despite the drama, we extended our umbrella and REALLY did become the hands and feet of Jesus. It will never make it to TV, radio, or in a magazine, it wont be a commercial or a billboard, but today God used his multiple duplicity and used 1 story, some umbrellas, rain, and a lady going to the bathroom at the right time to reach a drug addicted women, minister to the heart of the mom who was going to the bathroom, reach the masses in our sanctuary, and change my life just from hearing the story.
When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I’ll be here forever
Said I’ll always be your friend
Took an oath I’mma stick it out ’till the end
Now that it’s raining more than ever
Know that we’ll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Im thinking today about all the things we should strive not to be or do but end up being and doing:
- Selfish – this is the biggest. It underlies each of the other members of this list. how often are our motives consumed with our desire as opposed to the betterment of others?
- Manipulative – we try to control situations for the betterment of our secret ambition.
- Arrogant – Untouchable, moving through life with thought I am better than others.
- Pride – who i am is about my titles, belongings, desires, and not at all about my true identity in Christ.
- Hurtful – a lack of compassion or sensitivity to the needs, feelings, hurts, and desires of others.
Okay, that is all i got right now, more to come later.
Today I feel far away but I am pressing to get VERY close. Drama since my eyes opened with some things, but fighting to keep my perspective right. Proximity to God is difficult. Life gets in the way. The rush of people. The rush of thoughts and emotions. The need to do things, accomplishing tasks, breathing. The focus of the day should be on accomplishing more depth with Him, not more items completed on the task list or great ideas dreamed up to achieve. I understand more today why monks are monks. I am listening to this song by the Parachute band and it has made me slam the breaks on my day and to DIG WAY IN…”Your mercy saved me, mercy made me whole. Your mercy found me, your mercy found me, called me as your own.”
Who do you belong to, yourself or him?
This morning I was looking in the news paper. I was checking out the weather at different places across America. One city had this listed as the weather for today: Abundant Sunshine. How encouraging. Abundant sunshine. How often do we not have abundant sunshine in our life? Sunshine is cool. It makes plants grow, it pushes the storms away. More so, it is always there. You might not see it because the clouds are covering it, but it is there, beaming, waiting for the storm to pass so it can go back to beaming on our lives. It warms us up. Sometimes it is so radiant that it burns us. I was reading last night about the Glory of God. God’s glory is like the sun, it is always with us. Sometimes we might not be sensitive enough to catch it, see it, feel it, but it is there…even when the storms are eclipsing it from our view. Keep walking on sunshine today. I will blog again later cuz i owe you one.
It is funny how when one little part of your body gets injured, it can mess up the rest of your body. For example, Thursday night I was outside playing with my kids and cleaning up the patio. I was moving stuff and I cut my foot…BAD. Of course, because we are the brewsters, we had NO band aids. My little cut, about the size of a nickel, is right on the ball of my foot. So for like 2 days I could not walk correctly. Since I was kinda jacked up in how I was walking, I started to get a pain in my calf from walking on the side of my foot.
This is just like life. When we have one little thing go wrong, it can realign our entire walk. Furthermore, if we have one little issue in a relationship, and do not handle it properly, we can jack up the entire relationship. So what am I trying to say? The lack of iron i think is making my thoughts cloudy, but I urge you…have people in your life that you can trust. Have people that when things come up in your life you can be open and honest with, so they can help you walk it out and do not allow your alignment to get messed up. Bottom line is, relationships make the world go round. Everything in your life is based on relationship, or the lack their of, do not let your “boo boo’s” keep you from living, loving, hurting, and enjoying the people God has put in your life. LIVE HARD!
Today was a great day. Woke up, took Zay to school, hung out with some dope peeps all day as I worked and got a TON of stuff done. During the day, we stumbled on a dateline report from May about Carlton Pearson. Now lets get one thing clear on the front end. I do not believe in the theory or theology or whatever it is called of “inclusion”. I believe there is a heaven and a hell. At times I get confused by all the books I can read about what it actually takes to get into either of these places, however, I am sure that God is a God of grace, peace, love, and hope. I strive every day to be closer to THAT God. The God. So before you start freaking out and thinking that I am into what Carlton believes, again, I am not down with his theology.
As I watched this roughly 10 minute report, my heart broke for several reasons. First, the report introduces Carlton and tells his story. That man had/has an anointing on his life that was/is revolutionary and world changing. God plucked him out and set him on a path to help people meet God. Over the course of his “career in ministry” he saw amazing success. My heart broke as he talked of his success and simultaneous “act” of being a preacher. Getting up, sweating, ringing the bell, giving people what HE felt they wanted. What about what God wanted? Furthermore he said that at times he felt that he did not even love God anymore. Ministry had become his life and his job, there was no balance.
Then one night, in the middle of success, he was watching tv and saw kids that would not live because of where they lived in Africa. His heart broke. Out of love he asked God why. This is where he claims God told him that there was no Hell. In the midst of love and compassion, he became confused. This man believes full force in his “new revelation”. Is he right, I dont think so, but he does. Is he going to hell? That is for God to decide not me. But here is where my heart broke for this man…
Carlton Pearson was “the man”. He had it all. over 6k people a weekend. Premier big conference host. Big church, house, cars, salary, everything that we think is important. God stripped it all. My heart broke as the second part of the story started by saying something along the lines of: Pearson, on his way to fame and fortune as a minister. WHAT THE FREAK IS THAT! I am all for ministers earning a fair wage. I am all about people being paid what they are worth but “fame”? What is that about. That is how the world looks at us. Like we are chasing this crap. Beyond that, I was moved by the fact that EVERYONE was jocking Carlton Pearson when he said what they wanted to hear. When he sweated, spit, sang, preached, prayed for people, or whatever it is that turns us on as pentecostals, even when he admits a lot of times he did it in his own power or routine. No doubt God showed up, but a lot of time emotion was a lot stronger than God was.
Where did all the people who thought Carlton was the man go? They disappeared. His “friends” bailed because what he was starting to preach was just a little bit to much for them to stomach. Great friends. All the people who where in love with him rolled fast when he no longer was the pentecostal hero and could not help propel them to their own fame. Now I have to give props to Oral Roberts. He took the time to talk openly and honestly with Carlton. That is what relationship is about, LOYALTY. It means, hey, Im sticking with you no matter what happens. No, I may not agree with you, but your still my FRIEND and because of that I refuse to bail on you even though the masses are running for the hills. Relationship will keep you around when everyone else gets scared. Relationship sticks. Relationship loves, UNCONDITIONALLY. Relationship has the hard conversations. Relationship goes out of its way to make sure you are okay, even if you don’t agree. Relationship means a whole lot more than “fame and fortune”. Relationship is bigger than what I can do for you or you can do for me. Relationship is giving. Relationship is wanting others to achieve all God has for their lives. Relationship is about pushing each other to chase and achieve dreams, not being afraid that those dreams won’t meet my purpose. Relationship is sacrifice.
Tonight, I pray for Carlton Pearson. I pray grace and mercy on his life. He is a broken man. I pray he sees the truth, without losing the passion he has found for the Lord. I pray that people who have hurt him come back and love him again. I pray that he figures it out, because what he STILL has a lot to offer the world as an orator for God. I pray that in his brokenness he is able to find love and relationship again. I have made some mistakes when my friends have made errors in their lives. I apologize for that, and want to be the right kind of friend from here on out. To my friends, heros, and those I love…Im with you. I am all in for the next 50 years…or more.
Today I was reading the story of the events that took place before the crucifixion. I have heard this story a million times so i was praying for something fresh. Then it dawned on me as I finished reading. The “characters” in the bible all where real people who wrote the stories of their lives, letters, and events that they experienced. The craziest thing about it all is that the guys who wrote the bible, especially the new testament, all where just normal guys. They had flaws, they had issues, they struggled with stuff. They did not live a perfect life. They where full of questions. These guys, who really helped to transform history all where real, normal dudes. God uses normal people, just like you and me, to transform history. So what is keeping you from being a history maker? Do you think these guys had a clue the day they got recruited all they would see and experience, and most of all learn? NO WAY! if they did they would have been scared or worse full of pride that they where chosen to be part of Jesus posse. It is normal people who do abnormal things. It is normal people who decide to live a different way, and thus change the course of generations. Now its your turn. What can you do TODAY to leave an impact? what can you do today to change the course of your destiny?
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