"Epic: Living a Story Worth Telling"

Think about that statement...Living a Story Worth Telling

I shared with the teenagers that their decisions of today and what they do with their time; will reflect on the stories they share in the future. They will be stories that will be shared with their future spouse, their kids, and their grandkids. If they get in trouble with the law, it will be shared with their future bosses and reflect their character. If they serve the community and are out trying to make a difference; that also will share about their character with their future bosses. What we choose to do with today; will be part of our story tomorrow. Are you living today in the way that you want to tell tomorrow?

(The current youth series from Life Church that we are using with our youth!)

If I ever become a Bible professor...I have the perfect debate topic for my students!

When we read Scripture, we find that two Old Testament characters seem to be able to avoid the sting of death. Do you know who they are? The first Bible character is Enoch; who we can find located in the beginning of the book of Genesis. He was known as the guy who walked with God and because he was so faithful, God took him Heaven. The second Bible character is Elijah; who we can find located in the beginning of the book of II Kings. He was taken to heaven by a chariot of fire.

Now here is where my debate thoughts and questions comes into play:

When sin came into the world it passed to "all" men, thus all men will experience a physical death. So if God saved Enoch and Elijah from the sting of death; does this affect His character? Does it open up a new way to get to Heaven? Jesus is supposed to be the only way to Heaven, for Old Testament people they looked ahead to the Savior and for us we look back to a Savior. Though, if we walk with God like Enoch or even better than he did, can we also get to Heaven without the need of a Savior. Take these thoughts and question into consideration of the debate you're assigned.

Debate 1 Enoch and Elijah were spared from death and these two cases do not affect the character of God when he said all men have sin and death is the result of it. Also these cases for not put any holes in His redemption plan

Debate 2 Enoch and Elijah had to experience a type of physical death before God took them away; and if death occurred this would protect God's character and the redemptive plan

Jesus at times seems to go out of His way to connect with one person...

enjoying my study on Mark 5! So at the end of chapter 4; we see the disciples, Jesus, and other people load up boat to cross the Sea of Galilee...Then the storm hits and Jesus calms the storm! Crazy stuff! But if that wasn't crazy enough, when they land the ship; they are met by a crazy demon possessed man! Jesus intervenes and sends the legion of demons into a herd of pigs; and then we see them get back on the boats.

Now here is where it gets interesting for me; because it is all left up to interpretation and assumption. From the passage, I would calculate that to cross the sea they went anywhere from 8 to 13 miles (depending where they launched). Then the only thing we read that happened was that Jesus changed a man's life. Wow, it is almost like Jesus was on a divine path to reach out to a man that people feared and shunned! Could have he done other things on the other side of the sea, possibly. But from my reading of Jesus life, He does this from time to time (woman at the well) and goes out of the way to impact an individual's life!

Being in the Community

Yesterday, was just another reason I love to be in the community as a pastor! I spend lots of time at coffee shops, the gym, and other places where I can be an impact. While biking home yesterday, I notice out of my peripheral a teen sitting on a picnic table and on the table what looked like a bag of weed. Yes, I'm very observant; had to be, I have worked with at risk teenagers that needed constant super vision. I did a 180 and went back to the teen. He had no time to put his bag away, and denied it being anything but herbal...Spent some time talking to him about not going down that path, and that I came back to talk to him because I cared enough to make sure he wasn't, and would hope that someone would have done the same for me when I was a teen...

The more I spend time in the community, the more I tend to see and have a chance to interact with. Stuff like this happens around us all the time, either we are too busy to notice or we just don't care or we think it's another persons problem; whatever the issue is there are hurting people all around us! What are you doing in your community? I have recently found out that in Green Bay, there are over 900 kids that are homeless! There are kids that during the school year that eat lunch at school on Friday and their next meal is the following Monday at school! And these are just two needs within the community...

Collecting thoughts after our youth lock-in

My first thoughts after the lock-in were: I wish I would have done this...I didn't use all these great ideas...I survived the night!!! 

Now looking back, my thoughts are so much different. Yeah, I have lots of great ideas I didn't use, but the night was a success. We created an environment that was fun, that brought youth together, and I got to spend 13 hours with 13 great teens! I give God the glory on this; because leading up to the event, I was skeptical on who would actually come...This has been our biggest youth event! So it was totally worth all the hours of planning; the sewing of marshmallows, making snacks, dragging couches from room to room, collecting all sorts of random clothing and gadgets for a photo shoot, and so much more...

Thank you all; for donated snacks, for donated soda bottles, for donated time of helping!