Jayden's Journey

Jayden is now at Children's Hospital for probably the next 2 weeks as he will undergo open heart surgery tomorrow to fix the pulmonary valve. We came in on Monday October 31 for another balloon operation hoping that would be all that he needed, but both tries failed. The first balloon actually burst because of how tight the valve was and they decided that they should do surgery to open the valve to release pressures in his right ventricle. He will be going in at 8am and the surgeons said that it would most likely take from 3 to 4 hours in the operating room. He is healthy, strong and getting big as he is almost 12lbs but he just needs a little help in his heart. We are still believing that God is going to touch him, but we are ready and prepared for everything. Dr. Overman is his surgeon along with Dr. Dalinko as his anesthesiologist. He has a great team and is in the best place in the world. Please pray for him tonight and tomorrow morning! Thank you for all your prayers and everything that you have done for Rachel and I. We love each and everyone of you. We will keep you posted so check this out tomorrow. God Bless!

Setbacks become Slingshots

We just began a new series called "SIMPLE" and a question that I ask is this, "Does life have to be so complicate?" I've asked myself this many times before, and let me just tell you right now before I even continue on, that life is complicated, and just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that life should be, or will be SIMPLE. Being a follower of Christ Jesus will complicate your life, but it will complicate your life the way that it needs to be complicated. For example; Marriage. Marriage is a great thing, and I am happily married to an amazing woman of God, but it will complicate your life more then it would be if you remained single. I now have to check with Rachel before I decide to go on a trip, I have make sure her needs are met, and I can no longer do what's best for me but I do what's best for us. It complicates life, but it complicates it in a good way! Sin on the other hand complicates life the way that it shouldn't be complicated. It keeps us focused on earthly things when our eyes should be fixed on Christ Jesus.

We have all had situations take place in our life that have made things complicated. Maybe you've experienced a divorce, lost your job, lost a loved one, found out that you have an incurable disease, lost your home or whatever it may be. The honest truth is that we cannot control the experiences that we face in our lives. And I feel that people just can't come to terms with that truth. We try so hard to wrap our small minds around God and try to have all the answers to life (I'm guilty myself). But we will never have all the answers to life, and we will never be able to control our experiences in life, but we can control our attitude towards each and every experience that we encounter.

One of my favorite stories in the bible is found in Genesis, and it's the account of Joseph life. As a teenage his brothers faked his death and sold him into slavery. I can honestly say if that were me, I would be bumming out pretty hardcore. But Joseph kept the faith and things got a little bit better until he resisted sexual advances made on him from Potiphar's wife. He was then unjustly thrown into an Egyptian dungeon on attempted rape charges and for thirteen years things went from bad to worse. But Joseph never lost faith because his faith wasn't contingent upon his circumstances, and after thirteen years of SETBACKS in his life, God used to SLINGSHOT him from being a prisoner to prime minister over Egypt.

If your going through a difficult time right now, keep the faith. Chances are God setting you up for something greater!

Prayer

Are you weary of praying? Do you ever feel that your prayers are ineffective? Do you ever wonder if God is really listening? Why pray? What's the purpose? Prayer doesn't really work, it's just a unique coincidence. I believe that at some point in our walk with Christ we feel this way about prayer. The last few months have been emotionally, physically and spiritually challenging on me. I have asked some of these challenging questions a lot during this time, and the funny thing is, is that God keeps revealing Himself to me in new ways everyday.

Through prayer God gives us His peace, He comforts us, and He even helps us understand things. But those reasons are enough for self-sufficient people to fall on their knees and pour out their hearts to God. I believe that there is something more that draws people to pray. I believe that people are drawn to prayer because they know that God's power flows primarily to people who pray. The bible is full of passages teaching us that God is ready, willing and able to answer our prayers.

One of my favorite stories in the bible that shows how prayer works is found in Exodus 17:8-13 and it's about a battle between the Israelites and Amalekites. Moses takes his main man Joshua and tells him this, "Hey here's the plan, you take our best men and meet the Amalekites in battle and Aaron, Hur and myself will watch and pray on this hill and we'll see what happens." Sounds crazy right? Not to Moses, because he knew that God would fight for them. The moment that Moses lifted his hands, the Israelites began to win. The moment that he dropped them, they became overwhelmed, overrun, beaten down, pushed around and defeated.

Such is true to those who live a prayerless life. If you don't pray, you choose to cut yourself from God's prevailing power, and what's sad to me is that there is a surprising number of people that are willing to settle for lives like that. I may be tired, I may feel defeated, but I choose to pray because I serve a VICTORIOUS God that is ready and willing to answer me.

Sweaty Christians

I think for most people that have played sports, or people in your family that have played sports realize that sweaty and nasty equipment is just a small price that you pay for being an athlete. For me, sports was a way of life and if you were to ask my mother, she would tell you that that not only were the clothes smelly but there was a very large pile of them as well. You see for most guys, we just throw things in pile, turn our boxers inside out to get more use out of them, and all throughout high school and college sports I would only do the laundry once a month.......maybe!

College for me was a great time, but I was straight up messy. My basketball shorts and clothes would be all over the place. But college was also the time were I met my beautiful wife Rachel, so what do you do when she wants to come over and visit? (I went to North Central University where you could have open dorms once every 3 years so when a girl would come over, it was a big deal!) Like any guy, I would just throw everything into one bag and shove it under the bed! The problem was the smell though. No matter how clean the room looked as soon as she walked through those doors, her world was going to be rocked! (And it wasn't going to be because of my charm) So I would take a bunch of my fabric softeners that you throw in the dryer, load up the heaping pile and strategically place them in the clothes, in the ceiling tiles, in drawers, and everywhere else I could put them. Brilliant right? The next morning I couldn't breathe because the stench was so bad.

My point is that I have seen so many people in life go through the motions, say the prayers, go to church, look great on the outside but are not completely cleaned! We all have sin and we all fall short of the glory of God all the time, but more time then not I have seen people that just try to cover it up. Just like when I would try to cover the scent of the clothes. It would work for a little bit, but the next morning it was worse then ever. If we are trying to simply come up with quick fixes for everything in our life, we will end up doing more damage in the end.

Becoming who God created us to be takes work. Riding ourselves from sin and the temptations of this world takes work. It doesn't just happen over night, or when we say a prayer, get a vision or a dream. It happens when we begin put that dream into action. Remember that God is the Creator not because He imagined or envisioned creation. It was because He acted and brought it into existence.

Why should it be any different for the creation that was made in His image?

Childlike Faith

John 14:12-14 says, ¹² I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Now I've heard this passage many times before, but there is something so profound that really hit me today as I was reading this passage of scripture. Jesus says that anyone who has faith in Him will do even greater things then what He did here on earth. WHAT? How could that even be possible! I mean Jesus raised the dead, He made the blind see, He told the lame to walk, He walked on water, He told the waters to calm, He healed blood diseases, healed the deaf, He healed lepers and fed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of sardines (Just to name a few). If you want my personal opinion, that's pretty amazing, yet in John 21:25 it says, ²⁵ Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. That's awesome but Jesus himself says, "Even greater things you will do, if you have faith in me!"

I ask myself this question, "would I be able to handle all of these miraculous things that Jesus performed today?" I mean think about it! What if you were at a funeral, and you're sitting in the front row and as the pastor is doing the sermon, all of sudden grandma Louis sits up from the coffin and walks out the door! I think all of us (including myself) would probably freak out and probably some of us would meet our LORD a little bit quicker as we would all be falling out of our chairs from heart attacks. But Jesus says, "Even greater you will do!"

I believe that God is waiting for and wanting us to have faith like a child, and He wants us to bring glory to His name, but are you ready? Are you willing? Do you actually BELIEVE in His word? That you can ask for anything in Jesus' name and He will do it!

My prayer today in my life, and for yours is that we have childlike faith and just believe in Him and to know that even greater things are yet to come. "God you must increase, I must decrease."

Believe

I serve an amazing God. But what happens when things don't seem to go the way you expect? What happens when your life seems to be crumbling before your very own eyes, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it? What happens when the unexpected happens? Someone dies, a disease hits you, your family falls apart or your marriage crumbles? In my few short years in youth ministry I have seen crazy things happen in young peoples lives. I have seen family destroyed because of drugs and alcohol. I have seen students that have lost brothers or sisters or parents to cancer. I have seen students go through things that I myself cannot even imagine going through, and I come to church and I preach about faith, I teach about faith, and I tell stories about faith. I tell them that God is in control, and that he will always be there for them, he will never leave you, that nothing can separate them from the love of God.

Yesterday was probably the most difficult day of my life. Rachel and I found out that our little baby boy has a heart condition and will most likely need to have surgery the day he is born. A whirlwind of emotions instantly hit me, and for the first time in my life, that situation in my life was completely out of my hands. Now the question was, "Do you really BELIEVE what you preach?" I cannot explain what has happened to me in these last few days, but all I can say is that I serve a big God! And it doesn't matter what the doctors report says, I BELIEVE that my baby boy is healed, that he will be born with a perfect heart, a strong heart and will grow up to be a mighty man of God! The same power that conquered the grave lives in me, the same God that rescued the Israelites from Pharaohs hand, that parted the Red Sea lives in me. I thank God that he has given me faith to believe. For the very first time instead of preaching about faith, instead of talking about faith and instead of sharing stories about faith, our students got to watch us PRACTICE faith!

Today I want to challenge you to BELIEVE that God is able. Believe with me today that God can do the impossible. Today maybe you're going through one of the most difficult times of your life and you feel empty, alone or scared. Trust God, and instead of reading about it or learning about it, let's practice it today!

I say this in anticipation and excitement. Watch what God is about to do! He makes all things work together for our good, and sometimes that's hard to except, but I know that in three months the doctors are going to be in awe of what they just saw before their eyes in my baby boys life!

Salvations

I can't begin to tell you how faithful God has been to me in these last few months. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, "If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself" and even when I fall short, God comes through time and time again. The last four months, God has taken me on an amazing journey. In those four months our attendance at Skyline Student Ministry has grown, but more importantly, 58 students have given their lives to Christ for the very first time! For me though, I have never been so challenged in my life. Why? Because I want to se more people come to Christ!

I once read a quote from Walt Disney that said, "God forgive me when my dreams come true, because that means I have dreamt too small." A book that I just began to read says, "What happens when you dare to ask God for the impossible?" And even though I have looked back on these last four months and have been taken back by what God is doing through Skyline and the leaders, there's a part of me that is wanting more. I have been challenged because I took a good look at the people that I associate with, and realized that almost everybody that I am with, is a believer in Christ Jesus. This saddened me because if Jesus were hear right now, chances are that he would not be hanging out with me. Frances Chan in his book Crazy Love compares Christians that surround themselves with JUST other Christians are like "manure" when piled up, it's just a big pile of nastiness, and is useless, but when spread out over a field, it actually nourishes and helps grow! Isn't that we are called to do? To be a light into the darkness? I'm not saying that it's bad to have Christian friends. By all means, having godly influences in your life to keep you accountable is great, but are we being the hands and feet of Christ, are we being a light to the darkness if the only people we associate with are Christians?

My prayer and vision for this year is this; God I pray that my dreams and visions are intimidating to me, because then they are not insulting to you. Imagine if thousands upon thousands of people, millions upon millions come to Christ, simply because someone would be willing to make a stand.