the phone call

^4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— ^5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel (Col 1:4-5, NIV)

As a minister to students I get alot of phone calls, the majority of them are bad. 

"you wouldn't believe what came out of one of YOUR students mouths at school today"
"my daughter has no respect for me, will YOU teach them to honor mom and dad"
"will YOU do something about that boys anger, he spun the tires leaving parking lot"
"she is always starting so much drama, will YOU do something"
"i've heard enough, so i'm not coming back, until YOU do something"
"YOU have a student causing trouble, YOU should do something"
"my children are fighting, will YOU do something"

and i could go on......

The few and far between phone calls/emails i get are about their faith, how God has moved in their lives, how they are impacting others, how impressed parents are by what their child is doing or not doing.  I know it's happening, I see it happening.

So to my students may you know that I have seen your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for one another, and it springs forth in your life.  Keep up the good work.  May others see what impact Christ is making in your life, may it be evident.

have a God filled rest of the week, Chris

random thought

ok so todays blog is just some random thoughts, or thought, i have had.  Just finished Joshua and havn't decided what NT Book i am going to begin reading, but i should have decided by tomorrow.

Passion, where is it?  what has happened to it?

ok let's start with What is Passion?

Webster's definition:  a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept

(Merriam-Webster, Inc: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 10th ed. Springfield, Mass., U.S.A. : Merriam-Webster, 1996, c1993)

 

I can go with that, so the better question is where is our strong liking, or desire for devotion to CHRIST?

 

Now listen, I absolutely will not say I am more passionate than others, that's not fair.  REality is some days my passion is greater than others.

 

I have some students that clearly show they have a passion for Christ, and other's well, they act like they could care less.  I struggle with this angering me, How can we act like we can care less about Christ with what He has done for us.  I struggle with watching the ungratefulness that generations both young and old have for Christ and His bride (the church).

 

So what changed?  How did we get to this point?  what do we need to do to change it?  How should we measure passion? 

 

What does God think about passion?

 

^15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ^16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

(Re 3:15-16, NIV)

 

Lord I don't want to be just luke warm.....who is with me?

 

Chris

They will, I will, so .... will you?

^14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ^15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Jos 24:14-15, NIV)

We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”  (Jos 24:18, NIV)

 ^21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

^22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

^23 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

^24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” (Jos 24:21-24, NIV)

 

There is a progression in these verses, it begins with Joshua telling them that He will serve the Lord, then the people say "we will", Joshua tells them (more or less) that they had better be sure of this, and they respond "we will", Joshua then tells them if they are going to serve they need to promise (22) and they said "we will", then Joshua tells them again listen if your going to do this you have some work to do (23) and they again responded, "we will".

 

Its all about choice though.  I make that determination, you make that determination.  The problem is we say we are going to make this choice, that we are going to worship and serve God, and then God shows us some stuff we need to work on and unfortunately we back off from our promise/choice.

 

God did not design me or you to be robots, so the choice is up to you.  I am going to serve, worship, be used of God, so will you?  You decide....

 

Chris

10 things i've done, and would do again

Just thought randomly for fun i would list 10 things today that I have done, that I would love to do again, and they are in no particular order:

1. I camped once with my parents when I was a kid at lake hartwell, you know "real" camping, tents and sleeping bags, havn't done it since.
2. I spent a summer in London in 1985, loved it, and would go back in heartbeat if i could, would love for my kids to experience what I did.
3. Take an Out west trip again, saw Grand Canyon, was in Tombstone, four corners, saw some of the rocky mountains, went to Dodge city, you get the picture.
4. Went to pocono mountains for our honeymoon, there was a family resort close to where we stayed.
5. Brandy's baseball team is Braves mine is Brewers, we went to see braves v. brewers in Atlanta couple years ago..
6. Went all out about 11 years ago at disney, a full package, stayed on the resort, had all meals paid for, park hopper passes, got to ride monorail or other disney transportation everywhere we wanted to go, would love to do that for rebekah, samantha, and olivia. (ps this was before mortgage and three other kids, haha)
7. Philadelphia, loved the city, would greatly like to revisit
8. My dad and i took "father and son" trip, coupla years ago, didn't last year, would like to do again.
9. Disaster Relief, love helping others and sharing Christ
10. i got to drive a stock car at Charlotte motor speedway, def would do that again

and a bonus def do again:

• my life, love my life and would relive the whole thing again to this point :)

have a wonderful day, Chris

How big is your God?

⁹ Joshua traveled all night from Gilgal and took the Amorite armies by surprise. ¹⁰ The Lord threw them into a panic, and the Israelites slaughtered them in great numbers at Gibeon. Then the Israelites chased the enemy along the road to Beth-horon and attacked them at Azekah and Makkedah, killing them along the way. ¹¹ As the Amorites retreated down the road from Beth-horon, the Lord destroyed them with a terrible hailstorm that continued until they reached Azekah. The hail killed more of the enemy than the Israelites killed with the sword. (Jos 10:9-11, NLT)

Israel has always had troubles around its borders.  Amorites where always trying to take over, Joshua knew it and God knew it.  So God told Joshua to gather men together and head towards Gibeon.  He did not knowing fully how exactly God was going to handle it.  In fact here is what God told him:

 ⁸ “Do not be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for I will give you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.” (Jos 10:7, NLT)

So we knew that God is a big God, we know that there is alot he can do.  He created everything (Genesis 1), He sustains everything.  These verses show us he pelted them with hail and killed more with the hail than Israel killed with the sword (vs. 11).  But did you know God also can make everything stop:

^12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“O sun, stand still over Gibeon,

O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

^13 So the sun stood still,

and the moon stopped,

till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. (Jos 10:12-14, NIV)

It's no wonder it threw everyone into confusion.

so, If you believe in a big God that can create and control His creation, then why do we act like our God cannot control or handle the problems in our own life.

So How big is your God?  How you answer that determines how much of your life you give to Him.

have a great weekend, Chris.

a person i met, and a God story to tell

God granted me the opportunity last week to travel to New Bern, NC to assist in cleaning up after the mess Hurricane Irene left behind on the NC Coast.  When I get to do trips like this it is always interesting, you learn more about the people you go with, you meet some other awesome Christians from all across the state, and you get to hear the "stories" from people's experiences that you are helping out.  Today I want to share with you about one in particular person i met (and i met many while there) and one amazing God story.

Meet "Mamma Shorty":

Mamma Shorty was in a nursing home until about a year ago, her daughter (left of picture) decided to move back home with Mamma Shorty, so that she could get her out of the nursing home.  This home has been in the family for 5 generations now.  The home was undamaged by Irene, but Irene did manage to destroy a coupla big trees in there yard.  These trees where still standing but they did have what we call "widow maker's" (big limbs hangin on by a mere thread).  So we cut down the trees for her and her daughter.  They are amazing women, Mamma Shorty's daughter would pray, and mamma Shorty, would be "amenin" haha.  Sweet ladies and so appreciative of us being there.

A God Story:
Don't know the guy's name but he was living in a rented trailer.  He kept asking the owner to cut down some trees around the trailer because he felt "unsafe" about them.  The owner kept refusing.  The tenant got fed up, and moved out End of July/first of August.  Glad he did see picture:

Fortunately the trailer was still unoccupied during the storm.

One last thing, As NC Baptist men Disaster relief, we have always held an outstanding reputation anywhere we have been to assist.  New Bern was no different.  On Friday we took a late lunch and stopped at Chick Filet to grab a bite.  The Store manager literally went out of his way to run to the door and open it for us, and shook our dirty hands when we walked in, then it was like we where celebrities in there by the way not only the employees and customers talked and treated us.  I don't recall ever being told "thankyou for what your doing" so many times in my life.

It's an honor to serve, have a great week, Chris.

Hurricane Irene

I am proud to be part of one of the largest Disaster Relief organizations in the world.  NC Baptist men is world wide, and works hand in hand with Red Cross and other government agencies.  Why? because we are efficient and do it right :).

My heart for Disaster Relief began with Hurricane Katrina, as it did for many.  Since then I have made several trips to assist.  There are alot of things in this life that i cannot or will not be able to do.  But God has granted me the opportunity to be able to do this.

Disaster Relief has been an eye opener on several occasions to me, to realize how blessed I am to have a home, cars, job, and family.  To realize how fortunate I am to live where i do, that in Asheville very rarely do we have to deal with weather related Disasters.

When they call, as often as i can, I go.  I got the call, have assembled a small team, and we are leaving to head to New Bern, NC, leaving tomorrow.  I say this so my readers can know that I will not post again till next week, but also ask that you pray for myself and my team for travel and while we work.  I look forward to sharing next week about what happened.

blessings and enjoy a couple of pics from when we got the call to go Raleigh after tornadoes.

Chris.

I meant what I said

Love my twins (who are now 4) tremendously, however they are at that age where, they push their absolute limit with me.  I warn them not to do something and give them consequences time out, bed, or spanking (yes i spank my children).  It amazes me how many times it gets to the point where i Have to give them the consequences, makes me sad...  Did you know God feels this way:

But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel. (Jos 7:1)

and...

^11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. ^12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. (Jos 7:11-12)

When Joshua overtook Jericho God was very specific about something NOT to do:

^18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. ^19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

(Jos 6:18-19)

 

 

 

Moral of the story:  Just as I don't want to punish my children, neither does God; however if He doesn't we will just keep thinking we can get away with not listening. 

 

harsh reality, but true, blessings on your day, Chris

The Craziest thing I ever heard

^3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ^4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ^5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”

(Jos 6:3-5, NIV)

 

Joshua led the people to Jericho, when they got there, in the beginning of chapter 6, it tells us the city was well fortified (aka a big wall).  What God tells Joshua to do is the absolute craziest thing i have ever heard, or so it would seem.  God tells him to march around the city for six days, then on the seventh day march around seven times, play horns, and shout.  Yep, that it, play horns and shout.....and God said the walls would collapse.

 

Now imagine what kind of faith it takes here to follow through with this.  Imagine how the people laughed and mocked Joshua. 

 

Guess what???

 

seventh day, Joshua did what He was supposed to and: 

 

^20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.  (Jos 6:20, NIV)

 

God grant me the faith and trust to do what seems to me the craziest thing, no matter what it is You ask.

 

have a blessed day, Chris