DO IT AGAIN DADDY!

Today I spent my last day of vacation, with my mom, dad, two of my sisters (Amynda & Emily) and two of my nephews (Xander,4 and Asher, 2). We spent the day at the lake and on the boat, because let's face it we're river/lake rats :) I grew up in the water and LOVE IT. There is another story in itself right there, but that is for another time.

Today I had a valuable lesson taught to me by, yep you guessed it, my nephews! God is just incredible the way he teaches us things and lets us learn on our own accord. Unfortunately, for me I generally have to *"learn from my own mistakes". Yet, I enjoy things so much more when I really open my eyes and my heart and just listen to Gods little lessons that he teaches us everyday. Today's lesson was twofold: Have a child-like faith and trust in God. And Secondly, HAVE FUN WHILE YOU'RE DOING IT!

It is very obvious that God delights in our faithfulness and trust we put in him. And often times we as 'grown ups' get in our own way of our own relationships with God. We over think and over analyze things when really God just wants us to K.I.S.S (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!)

While our boat was anchored and we were all relaxing, of course, the boys were having a blast swimming and splashing around. But what the boys most enjoyed was jumping off the side of the boat. At first they were scared to even touch the water let alone take a 'leap of faith' into it. Then, after being told dozens of times "It's okay, I won't let you fall", they would climb up and mommy would steady them, and they would jump as high and as far as they could into 'mam-maw, papaw, auntie Em, or unckie Zack's' arms. And they would hit the water go under for a split second and come up with a HUGE GRIN and just say "DO IT ADIN!"

Isn't that just like us as Christ-followers? We are fearful of what God has in store for us, that we might go under, but when we finally do take that step we realize that we are in Gods hands and he won't let us go under.

I know for me, God is constantly testing me and my faith. And at first I'm scared and I'm nervous and I think to myself 'What if I go under?' 'What if I fail?'. God is there with His arms open saying "It's okay! I'm not going to let you go under!"

Here is the best part...When I DO put my faith in God, when I DO trust Him, when I DO jump: I HAVE SO MUCH FUN!

We need to learn to listen to God, to have an open mind and an open heart so that God can teach us DAILY. I want to become like my nephews and when God says "Jump." I jump. And come up with a huge grin on my face and say "DO IT AGAIN DADDY! DO IT AGAIN!"



*A smart man learns from his own mistakes. A wise man learns from other peoples mistakes.

Christians: Offense or Defense

So last night I went out with a good friend from high school, Steve Moore. He and I have been good friends all throughout school, but yet were never really "great friends". We each had different social groups and sets of friends, but we always seemed to have a connection that none of our other friends seemed to have had. That connection we later found out was our calling that God has placed on our lives and more importantly, the thing that binds all of us believers, Jesus Christ. He and I have very similar backgrounds and up bringings. And at the same time we each have almost identical struggles.

In talking with each other we each shared our testimonies and our new lives in Christ and how God has been doing some INCREDIBLE things in each of our lives. One of the MANY things he said last night left a lasting impression on me that really made me reevaluate my strategy with dealing with sin, temptation, and evil. And what he said was this:

"The Lord is calling the Church to stop being on the defensive! When we are on the defensive we dwell on our struggles and hurts. We need to attack, for when we are focusing on the Lord to make war we forget about the attacks of the enemy, because he can't attack when we are attacking him, he is too occupied with backing up in fear of the Lord!!!"

...I sat there with the biggest grin on my face, because something SO SIMPLE, was SO PROFOUND!

Something I realized recently is one of the most awesome things about God and the Bible. And that is, is that they both are uniform all the way through. From Genesis through Revelation. When we as Christians are on the attack we see no need to want to sin. He went on

"What I mean is...as Christians we get so caught up in trying not to sin! Well, to be honest that's impossible to accomplish. We are just dwelling on our flaws and sins and trying to not do them. Well as you know that can be very hard! But if we go on the offensive, (doing the Lords work) by going out and trying to do the Lord's will (let people ...know His love), we don't even give acknowledgment to the sins we struggle with, because we are so caught up in doing the Lord's work. At the very name of Jesus, Satan must leave, and when we are walking and proclaiming the name of Jesus the enemy can't even stand to be around us. So if we are constantly attacking, we don't have to worry about a defense, because you cant attack and defend at the same time, you either are attacking or defending! And when we defend we just wait for bombardments from the enemy and try to dodge them! Well I say screw that! I'm done dodging, it's time for him to start dodging my attacks!"

Immediately, I was reminded of Romans 6. When Paul talks about being dead to sin and alive in Christ. That should we just continue to sin because it's in our nature? He says by NO MEANS! He goes on for awhile and proceeds to say "13Do 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. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

When we are on the offense we don't even THINK about sinning because we are doing God's will and GLORIFYING God and not GRATIFYING ourselves.

How about this: Instead of trying to NOT sin. How about we try to GLORIFY God in EVERYTHING we do.

He reminded me of the way Jesus taught the disciples to pray...."Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done..." Often times we read/say that line without a second thought. But the AWESOME thing about that verse is this: When we become sons and daughters of Christ, he gives us ALL of his power and authority. That when we pray "Thy Kingdom Come" that LITERALLY MEANS, that God allows Heaven to visit us here on earth. That when the presence and power of God comes down on us, He is giving us a taste of Heaven.

And that is just a taste of how awesome the God that I serve is!