If the Lord wills...

Wow. Four words is all it took to humble me this morning. Amazing how the Word of God can have that impact on someone.

In recent conversations with different people the question, "What do you plan on doing after college?" Has come up and my response has always been, graduate, get a job, buy a house, buy a car, get involved at a church, and for the sake of my Grandmother's sanity, have a wife. Don't get me wrong, these are all great things to plan for, hope for, pray for... But how often do we get caught up in our own good intentions and start thinking, "Hey, this is attainable! I'm doing really good!" Then we stop planning, because the plan is in motion. We stop hoping, because we start getting a glimpse of the final product. We stop praying... Because God has provided a means.

James 4:15 says "If the Lord wills..."

In this passage James is telling of merchants who plan on doing business in cities far way, the are PLANNING on going in the future, HOPING to make a profit, but no where in there does it talk about these merchants putting it in the hands of God.

The scripture goes on to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

If it is the Lord's will for you to live and you are living in the Lord's will, THEN you will carry ou the plans He has made for you.

If it is the Lord's will for you to do these things, and you are living inside of God's will for your life, you have nothing to worry about!

However don't think that just because it is God's will for your life that will just automatically happen. Some people think that they can live their life outside of the way God expects us to live, and still be in the will of God. This baffles me!

If you want God to open doors for you, you have to be in the right room.

Matthew 6:33, straight from the mouth of Jesus himself.
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Leaving THE Legacy

This week my aunt's father, Rev. Paul Green passed away. At his funeral on Wednesday my uncle Johnny Roberts, pastor at the Bod.tv, spoke of his legacy. He knocked it out of the park. Even more impressive and inspiring than the message he delivered to a mourning family, was the message that Rev. Green lived and the legacy he has left behind. His story is so uplifting and inspirational that it can't be contained. There are so many stories that can be told about Paul, about how many lives were impacted by his life, but the one story that is so incredible happened just this last Thanksgiving. I can't do the story justice, the following comes from a blog post by my cousin Jake Roberts.

"Tonight we went around the room at my grandparents house and told what we were thankful for. At first I was a little skeptical, and I wasn’t sure what would come from it (jokes? corniness?). But once we started it went to a pretty serious level. It was really cool hearing all the things my family was thankful for. Once we were done, my grandpa walked in the room to get to his chair (which I learned you’re not supposed to sit in! haha). But when he got in the room someone asked him what he was thankful for…

Now you have to understand something about papa Paul… He is 76 and he has had alzheimer’s disease for the past 10 years. The past 6 or 7 months he has gotten really bad and I honestly don’t think he knows who I am anymore. So when they asked him, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. So there was the usual pause as he looked off into space and we weren’t quite sure that he had fully comprehended the question… And then he spoke up.

As tears filled up his eyes he said, “I’m thankful for, well, I’m thankful for Jesus Christ. I’m thankful for what he did for me and how he has saved me.” He then found himself at a loss for words and simply said, “Jesus, He’s a good guy.” Then he went on to talk about God and the blessings He has poured out on him and his family. And how every day it brings tears to his eyes to see how good God is to him.

Silence fell over the room…

Not a dry eye in the place.

We watched as this man who is losing his memory displayed his intimate love for his Savior. He may not fully comprehend what is happening around him, but there is no doubt that he is passionately in love with God. Oh to be in love with God to the point that it brings tears to your eyes at the mention of His name.

We closed it up by singing Amazing Grace together, and watched as my grandpa closed his eyes in worship.

What a legacy I come from.

Are you in love with our God who is crazy in love with you? Does it show in your life? When is the last time you stopped to thank Him for all he has done for you?"

-Jake Roberts

At this point in his life Paul was in the very advanced stages of Alzheimer's, so much so that he forgot how to sit in a car, which I witnessed. Everything had been stripped away, everything, nothing could be accomplished without the complete assistance of another. He didn't remember anything.

But he never forgot his Lord.

When everything is gone. When your life is stripped of all accomplishments, possessions, relationships, memories, health, pride. When you are stripped to the very core of your being, what will be exposed? Your love for the Savior or nothing...

Thank You Paul for the life you lived and this life that you've impacted and challenged by simply leaving THE ultimate legacy. A legacy that points straight to the One.

All That I Can Say

This is all, this is all that I can say right now

I know it's not much

But this is all that I can give

Yeah, that's my everything

-David Crowder

If you haven't heard this song, All That I Can Say by David Crowder, you should do so now. I'll wait...

This song is the perfect description of life, and how it should be lived. It's a cry saying "God I'm doing all I can to live for you, I don't feel like it's enough, but I will never be enough, so I'm just giving You my everything."

As we go through life in this fast-paced world that we live in, we must stop... and rest in Him. Knowing that we have done all we can to glorify Him. Living your life like this can push you to that point of pure spiritual exhaustion. Sometimes we get so exhausted and caught up in being beat down that we don't even see Him right there next to us, holding us, enduring the pain of life with us, taking care of us...

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

-Matthew 6:33

Life is a struggle...

This week has been a very humbling one for me. And as much as I hate to admit it, it was a much needed humbling, at that. I have seen several failures and been shown so much through the past few days. Here is a tidbit of what I rediscovered through these failures.

When we get caught up in what we think is right for us and don't look to God, we get frustrated, and not by coincidence. God has to put us through these circumstances to grow us. As soon as he sees that we are going stale or getting comfortable where we are, he forces us to move, through a decision, opportunity, or occurrence. We don't always move toward Him like we should but we always move. It's through this movement that we become closer to or stray away from what God has planned in our lives.

This week I had the incredible opportunity to lead worship at a See You at the Pole Pre-Rally at Hilltop Baptist Church in Morrison, OK. There is nothing more exciting, fulfilling, and humbling, than leading passionate students in worship to our God. Whether it's 55 students, sitting in church pews, using a borrowed sound system, or 300 students, with the best lights and sound equipment money can buy, it's all worship and God hears it the same. The magnitude of me is ALWAYS less than the minimum of Him.

What can we learn from Kanye's mistake?

How out-of-line was Kanye when he interrupted Taylor Swift in her exception speech at the VMA's? Without question... Very. Disregarding the fact that I believe it was in deed staged from the beginning, Kanye was way out-of-line to step in and say, "Congratulations, BUT Beyonce was better..."

I think we, as the church, often do this when new leadership steps into vacant roles where we were once satisfied. We say, "Glad you're here, BUT there's no way you are as good as the other guy." I have found myself guilty of that in the past and seeing the whole Kanye thing unfold, has lead me to see how foolish that attitude really is.

Maybe Beyonce's video was better, possibly one of the greatest of all time, that doesn't give Kanye the right to stand in front of their peers and say so, so bluntly. Quit talking about how, "It just isn't the same without 'so-and-so'. Things went a better with 'them' here. We should go back to the way it used to be." If you want to see a change in the way things are run, do something. Come up with a plan, and present it to your peers instead of just complaining to them.

Today I was reading an assignment for my Intro to Industrial Engineering class about management. In it were 14 points of management. As I read the 14 points of management for a company or industry, I thought to myself this a are very good model for how leadership should look in the Church. Here are a few that stuck out to me.

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service.

-Always be intentionally getting better.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

-Figure out what the people want, what's cutting edge, and simply apply it.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.

-Make sure you do it right the first time. Don't give someone room to criticize you because you didn't do your best.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag.

-Realize that the popular or wealthy aren't the only people worthy of your time.

5. Institute leadership.

-Duh...

6. Break down barriers between departments.

-Make the Church a place where everyone gets along, make it personal. ELE(Everybody Love Everybody).

7. Eliminate work standards.

-Goals are good, Quotas are bad. Lead by example.

8. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

-Train volunteers as intensively as staff, take it upon yourself to improve.

These are just of a few of the Principles of Management as seen by W.E. Demming out of his book Out of the Crisis.

As the era of the "Mega Church" continues, running the physical/financial component of The Church is definitely business like. If this is true should we not also work as though it is a business, in which the ultimate goal is to be efficient and be profitable, in other words, live our lives for the glory of One and lead others to that One...

The Beginning

I have decided to start a blog because I often have thoughts I want to express but don't have a place to express them. Facebook is to social and "light" for some topics, Twitter to brief, and none these "thoughts" are personal enough to share with a close friend directly. I want some where to think out loud. Done.