Finally, when we could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy to visit you. He is our brother and God’s co-worker in proclaiming the Good News of Christ. We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles. -1 Thessalonians 3.1-3
This blew me away. This is from one of Paul’s letters to the church of Thessalonica. He is describing his longing for these people that he has visited, told them the gospel and ways of living, and has had to leave. What amazes me is how much he cares about these people. He says that he prays for them everyday. He says that it hurts him to not be able to know how they are doing with their walk with Christ. Paul wants to visit them so bad, but he can’t. So he sends Timothy, a close friend, to go on his behalf. Paul loves these people so much that he will literally do anything to get in touch with them. He wants to be able to encourage them and push them forward in their faith.
I wish I had these kind of relationships. There are a ton people who I care about deeply and want to see them live a fulfilling and exciting life with God. Some of them aren’t doing good, and I know it. I want to help them.. but how far am I willing to go? Paul sent Timothy probably a hundred miles away to visit the people he wanted to reach and help. I have a hard time driving 20 minutes to reach these people. Paul prayed for these people everyday. I used to pray for those I wanted to meet Jesus consistently, everyday. But somewhere down the line I stopped. Is it because I don’t care anymore? Is it because I’m lazy?
If I care for people this much, I need to take action. I need to do whatever it takes in order to encourage and lift up those that need encouragement and lifting up. I don’t want them to miss out on what could be. I’m going to take after Paul in this aspect, and do whatever I can to heal the brokenhearted and to push forward the faith of my friends.
Today was the third and final day of our stay in pennsylvania. First off this trip was a blast, and I’m so glad I could be apart of it. ok..
I was very happy to be woken up by Larry this time and not Krystal. What a better way to start your day! We arose and got all our stuff together and headed out. We got to church and had some bagels and doughnuts. I haven’t mentioned in the past few blogs how weird it was being in a small church. I’m not used to it, I never really have been in a small church like TFHF. But I didn’t not like it, it was just uncomfortable a bit. But I got used to it and really enjoyed the people we were with and the relationships we formed.
For worship we did several of songs we did the previous night, mostly our songs plus “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Tomlin. We also added in “How He Loves”, which is my favorite worship song. I really loved hearing the congregation sing out that song. After we did our praise set, we sat down and Larry’s Dad, or “Big pimpin” got up to speak. He gave everyone a look back at how their church was formed and the hardship they’ve overcome over the past year. It was sad to hear about everything that has went on in that church. A split between the church, sicknesses, broken marriages, and people losing their jobs has been very burdensome. But through all this, Larry spoke on how they’ve been praying for God to refresh them and renew their passion. Larry and the church leadership team was convinced that us coming down were the answer to their prayer. I wasn’t expecting that. Did God really send us to “refresh” this team? It sounds pretty wild, but I believe it as much as Larry does. They expresses so much thanks to us, and I am honored and humbled by their generosity that they shown us. After his message we did a worship set and their were some more spontaneous speaking. I really enjoyed it. After this we hung out with our friends and ate some dinner. We formed some awesome relationships with these guys and I am incredibly thankful for them. Like Mitch said in his blog, I really do believe we came for a purpose. Not only do our churchs have basically the same name, but our message is the same, and our hearts are aligned with Gods. Much that has been laying on our hearts were laying on theirs. It was God. Period. After we said our goodbyes we headed back for a long 6 hour drive back home.
One of my favorite parts about the trip was I got to spend a lot of time with Mitch. If you don’t know him, head over to his blog. He’s my drummer and best friend. He’s been blogging about this trip along with me.. so go on over to his blog and encourage him to keep it up ;)
So this it what went down day numero dos of our roadtrip to pennsylvania. I guess we were supposed to wake up around 7:30 or so, but we woke up to the annoying sound of krystals voice around 8:30. Once we got up and around we headed to the church. When we got there we worshipped God with a few songs while I played acoustic, and then I led a devotional. I talked about how we ultimately choose how our days go simply by turning to God in the morning. If we seek Him above all, everything will fall into place how he wants it to. I gave some examples from the past two Thursdays I’ve had that sucked majorly, but turning to God made everything work out somehow. I didn’t talk about most of what I wanted to talk about, because I left my notes back at home. I wanted to talk about how as christians we’ve almost forgotten about God’s model for repentance and righteousness. Seriously. We don’t understand that God knows that we’re going to fall short. He knows that we aren’t perfect, even though he demands perfection. Really, it’s hard to go one day without screwing up somehow. Thats why at night before we go to bed it is a good idea to reflect on the day before you and repent for the things you’ve fallen short from. When the sun arises, breathe in God’s breath of righteousness. Seek Him and enjoy being completely blameless before God. It’s the most amazing feeling in the world.
After I spoke we ate an amazing breakfast. Ski eggs are AMAZING. And french toast with apples somehow in them. After breakfast we started rehearsing our songs and it somehow turned into a worship session. Sound was still kind of poor, but I was more focused on thinking about the words we were singing and asking God to consume me. Scott did a teaching after we did worship. It was about worship and it was really good. And honestly, really long. I lost him about half way through and then got back on track somehow. Following his teaching we went to DINO’s and had lunch. I had twenty of the best wings I’ve ever had. yum. Then we went back to the house and Mitch and I took a nap. I slept for about an hour, but it felt like at least 4. Then I heard that sound again that made me wake up.
Time for church again. We went and did some more rehearsing and sound checking, then Larry did a teaching. I love hearing Larry teach. He talked about how we as christians struggle with identity. He showed us today that we should not claim to be sinners saved by grace. We should not be defined by sin. We should be defined by the grace that saves us. That sound so similar but if you think about it they are completely different. Again, God knows we aren’t perfect. Only He is. But we are redeemed by His grace. That is who we are.
Then we started our worship set. We played 15 songs, which took about two hours. It was one of the longest sets I’ve ever played. We played a lot of the songs we usually play, but also did a lot of Scotts (TFHF’s worship leader.) It was a lot easier to engage in our songs, but we enjoyed playing a variety of music. I’ve never played so much Chris Tomlin songs in my life.. nor do I want to. Worship went really great and I was happy with it. It did take a lot out of me though. Following the worship night we went to Larrys familys house for a bit and then came back to the house. Time to crash!
A few weeks ago we all gathered together each service and visited the new church building, which has undergone quite a few changes since the last time we’ve visited. Lightings done, walls are done, carpet just got rolled out last week.. it looks awesome. Sorry for getting this video done so late but here we go. Just a couple short weeks…
So often do we get into circumstances where we worry. We worry that we won’t be able to afford something, that we won’t succeed in what we want to do, or that we aren’t good enough. Or we worry that people we love would get saved. These are definitely things to be concerned with, but not to worry. Worrying and fearing is not of the Lord. This constant “what if, oh my” thinking does not make anything better, if not it makes it worse. God wants us to hope, He wants us to seek. Do not fret over your desires but be prayerful Trust God in that He has everything under control and planned out. The bible says that if we “seek first the kingdom of God”, all our needs will be met. Not only your needs, but what you desire that is aligned with the will of God. Psalm 37.4 says “Delight Yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Never forget that you are of the saints, that God wants you to be blessed. So whatever is on your mind right now, may it be something financial, or what school you want to go to, or maybe a family member. Whatever it may be, offer it to the Lord. Do not worry because it is in the hands of God. Put Your faith and trust in Him and watch His perfect will work itself out.
This past sunday was our first ever “worship getaway”. It was pretty awesome and we had a lot of people. It wasn’t quite what we expected (the cabin we had reserved got flooded with water), but we made the best of it. We hung out, ate some food, smashed each other in the snow, did some visioncasting and worshiped a bit. Really excited to roll out these worshiper training groups. Alex Aiezza provided us with some laughter as you can see in the video below.
Check this out. All these people are taking a trip to Uganda to experience the poverish communities and connect and bring hope to children. They are using the influence they have over the internet to spread God’s love to that region and the rest of the world. Read up and support!
It is really horrible what some people do to other people. Why do people put down other people? Is it because people put them down too? Is their some chain of hate that just keeps on going? Who is going to stop it? Christians can stop it. Those who follow Christ can put an end to it. If we be the difference in the world, we can break the chain. With the power of Christ in us, which is love, we can spread encouragement and hope across the world. Maybe if we start right now, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our church’s, maybe we can lift those up who have been pushed down. I am completely convinced that God uses us to do great things. If we gather together as one, we put aside our differences and put together our strengths, we cast aside our prides and put down our crowns, and we sacrifice our comfort, we can do something amazing on this planet. Lets do together what Jesus would be doing if He was down here on earth. Lets lift up and develop men and women who know who they are in Christ. Lets do it in the name of Jesus and not in the name of [insert name here]. You are being called to do something, right now. Go do it!
Wow I haven’t posted anything that matters in a while. My last two posts were mobile, wow I’m lame. Here’s the latest update on all things me.
New band! About five weeks ago we started a band called Red Letter Statement. It is a few members of our worship band put together. We played our first show for the C4 battle of the bands, and it went very well. We’ve put together about 6 songs so far and we’re writing some more. We’re looking to record with Jesse Sprinkle in the late winter/spring.
Check us out [add us!] on:
Last Wednesday I got the opportunity to share a message with the junior high [Fuse] group of Overflow. It was my first time speaking at church. I spoke on the topic of worship. It went pretty well, really showed me what I have to work on.
Worship has been really good lately, new things to come in later posts!
The swerve lab is a part of Craig Groeschel’s and Bobby Gruenewald’s where they have church leaders email questions and the readers get to answer. They posted my question on youth preparing for full time ministry.
