"A One Sided Relationship"

Have you ever been sitting in on a conversation where you just can't seem to get one word in? Hopefully, I'm not that person that comes to your mind. I find it rude and annoying when the other person won't even give me a chance to contribute any input on the topic of the conversation. Now in may case this rarely happens to me because I am quite the talker. If anything I need to be sensitive to the fact of allowing the other person to share their thoughts and opinions. Recently, my wife has been gently calling my attention to the fact that I interrupt her when she is speaking.  Yes, I know very rude. Honestly, I don't realize I even when I do it. All the more for me to be aware and keep my mouth shut. Not everyone needs to know what I feel or really cares to know about my story.

When it comes to prayer I sense we as followers of Christ are constantly talking at God. Telling him are dreams, goals, plans, needs, and wants. We even sometimes might pray for others special needs, but our prayers our very self-fish. Our prayer's often start with "God I ". Our conversations with God consist of "I". God desires to be in a relationship with you. A real relationship consists of two individuals equally making effort to communicate in order to construct a relationship. I am curious to believe that there are a lot of one sided relationship Christians out there.  I wonder if God would wish us to stop talking at him and prefer us to just listen to him. If I were the Loving father and desperately longed to be in a relationship with my children then I would would be pretty annoyed at times. We come to him with our requests, but he longs comes to come to us with words of life .

Instead of talking to God and just try to LISTEN. I want a Fully functioning Godly relationship between me and the father.

ROCK ON!

UNITED Youth All Nighter

WOW! Friday-Saturday we had our annual youth all nighter. In attendance were 164 Jr. and Sr. high students far more then expected. Our goal for this event was to encourage our teens to invite their friends who had never entered through the doors of Trinity / UNITED. It was so great to see so many new faces in our facility. The event in my mind was a complete success. The all nighter was 12 hours of non-stop, fun-filled, activities. I was originally pretty nervous because I was expecting it to be pretty chaotic with all extra students. The students were respectful as far as I know, but this night would not have been possible if it were not for all our amazing leaders. 

Day 4 - "Heart for the Hurting"

Life today consisted of being in the church office, making phone calls, setting up for the all-nighter. Finally, I was unleashed from the church to do what I do best….spending time with students! I am gratefully for my job because I get to walk on the battle lines everyday to step into hurting kids lives. MY purpose is simple to be an agent of healing, so God might manifest his lover, power, and grace through in unlikely messenger. That messenger person is I. Simple, plain, but I have the heart of a lion. The raging, throbbing heart, which dwells within me beats for Jesus, the hurting. My heart beats to see healing restored to the victim of hurt. Here is where we get our hope.

Psalm 34:18 (NLT)

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 – "Runner’s Cramp"

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

In this passage scripture the author uses the analogy of a race to depict the Christian life. Personally, I’m not a very strong runner. I cramp quickly and as a result my pace slows down to an easy walk. Throughout the past ten years I have gained a few pounds, which makes it a little harder to run with that extra weight. Sin weighs us down and slows down our pace of pursuing a life, flowing relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

Day Two – “Remain in me”

John 15:1-8 (NLT)

Jesus, the True Vine

   “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.

7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

Jesus is with his disciples walking with them through a vineyard and explaining to them the importance of being connected with Christ. We are the branches in which we need God to prune off the weight of sin in our lives so we can bear bright fruit in order to bring God glory. God’s pruning process consists of allowing difficult circumstances to produce fruit. The fruit that God wants to see me bear in my life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. My lack of motivation to meet with Jesus daily will cause me to whither and die. In which causes me to feel disconnected to Christ. This passage gives us the stark reality of either choosing to “remain” or not to “remain” in Jesus Christ .

 

The Jesus Experiment -Day One

The Jesus experiment was birthed out of seeing a need for students to take ownership for the development of a relationship with Jesus Christ. One Sunday morning I was speaking in front of our teens. I asked them “In all honesty, how many of you feel like you are disconnected from God”? To my surprise twenty-six honest hands shot up in the air. The teens that raised their hands were students who would be considered committed Christians. They faithfully attend church, youth group, participate in small groups, or youth group activities. Yet, somehow they sense there is some sort of disconnect between them and God. I asked them another question. “Is it the church’s responsibility, your responsibility, or are both involved in the development of your faith”? All of our teens agreed to “both”.  

Our teens were open and honest. I was evaluating our youth ministry thinking what do we need to do different. In our discussion the students shared they had not been pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ on their own. I looked at my watch to realize that our discussion would need to come to a close. I was perplexed to what we might need to do on our part to develop disciples of Jesus Christ. It was clear that we were attempting to unite teens into a committed relationship with Jesus Christ, but the effort was one sided. For the next month and half I would be bombarded with image of twenty-six, honest hands in air admitting to some sort of spiritual disconnect. In my search to invite our teens to be followers of Jesus Christ I was enlightened to the fact that our students were being spoon-fed their faith. There were receiving two meals a week one on Sunday and a second Wednesday. I realized that there might be something that we need to adjust or create in our youth ministry to spark our students in to pursuing a relationship with Jesus.  

This is when I came up with the “Jesus Experiment”. The “Jesus Experiment” involves students committing their selves wholeheartedly to knowing Jesus for thirty days through the daily reading God’s word, reflection, prayer, and worship. The goal of the “Jesus Experiment” can summed up in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Philippians 3:8 (NLT) “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”. In this thirty-day journey we hope to see our teen connect with Christ and experience the power of knowing Jesus as their “Lord”. Here we go!