Daily Devotion

LOSING YOUR LIFE TO SAVE IT 
So many of our Savior's teachings seem paradoxical on the surface, but underneath they are brilliantly true. How can life be saved by losing it? How can life be lost by striving to keep it? These deepest truths are proved out, not in the classroom or the lecture hall, but in the very minutes, hours and days of our lives.
A missionary doctor was killed in the second World War, leaving behind a young and shattered widow. Departing India to return home, she boarded a ship not wanting to live herself. She spoke to no one on the journey, and stayed alone as much as possible. Also on board the ship was a boy whose missionary parents had been killed in Burma. He too, was returning home alone. The boy approached her one day and said, "You know, we are the only two people on this ship who speak English. Maybe we could be friends." The widow was too absorbed in her grief to respond. They parted in silence. But that night, the ship was torpedoed, and began to sink. The widow felt no fear, only relief. She did not fight death. But in the chaos of the hour she saw the boy alone, clinging to the rail and weeping. In pity, she put her arms around him and held him close as the ship went down. Two days later the two were rescued from the South Atlantic, and rescuers said they could not tell who had saved whom!
When we lose our lives in service for Christ's sake, loving others and giving ourselves, we find real life. Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Will you give your life away?
MEMORY VERSE 
MATTHEW 16:25 For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.

Signs of Old Age

I admit, I wouldn’t label myself as being old, but when a student said to me “What are you, like 40?”  It got me thinking…what makes me look and act so much older to my students, and here are some answers and TOP 10 SIGNS OF OLD AGE:

1. You get bored after 3 minutes on Facebook
2. It takes you 5 days to recover from a pick up basketball game
3. Your wife tells you everyday to get your eyes checked
4. You think it is a good idea to get White Castle, but the rest of your body thinks it is a very bad idea
5. When choosing an outfit comfort rules over style
6. When you are young it is “Why this” & “Why that”…and now it is “What?”…… “What?”
7. You get the most laughs when you do something athletic
8. The two words that give your heart complete joy are “Nap Time”
9. It takes you about five min to txt two sentences
10. You think Lady Gaga is a character on a children’s program on the Public Access Channel 

Sadly, most of these are true about me…does that make me seem so much

Ambition Without Risk?

The illusion of safety on American soil was shattered by 9/11. Collapsing along with the twin towers was the assumption that our businesses, homes, families, and all our assets were safe from harm. Personal and national security became priorities for government and industry. Terrorism does that. It slaps the slumber out of our postmodern mentality  by reminding us of an unpredictable future. And as a father of two, I was grateful for the wake-up call.

As I write this, the world has been rocked by a recession fueled by the overreaching ambitions of entire sectors of the economy. The response will be predictable: more hastily passed regulations aimed at limiting risk and protecting our supposedly secure and stable way of life.
In an increasingly fragile world, postmodernity develops an understandable aversion to risk. We make self-protection our passion and have exit strategies from anything that threatens what we need or want.

The Lie of Security

I’m all for minimizing risk and taking responsible steps for protecting people and assets. But postmodernity leads us to believe we must tightly customize and control our safety. Sociologist Anthony Giddens observed, “The measurement and management of risk is more central to our culture than ever before, as the unavoidable cost of navigating a world that we feel that we can actively shape.” Postmodernity loves control and that makes “risk” very unpopular.
But here’s the thing: When risk is avoided, ambition grinds to a halt. You can’t fear one and expect the other to flourish. If we want to stoke ambition—I’m talking about aspirations for the glory of God—we will have to come to terms with risk.
In Hebrews 11, Abraham is commended because “He went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb. 11:8). Abraham’s ambition to obey God led him down a puzzling path. He went forward, not foreseeing the outcome. Ambition for God meant going, not knowing. And between the hills of “going” and “not knowing” lies the valley of risk.

The Mysterious Suspense of the Christian Life

The Christian life is a kind of mysterious suspense; we act on godly ambition without knowing the result. Like Abraham, we’re going out, not knowing where we are going. It certainly creates a lot of adventure. But it also raises an age-old question: “why?”
Risks and uncertainty are daily reminders of how much greater God is than we are. Think about it: God is all-powerful, controlling all things. God is right now spinning the entire universe like a basketball on his big finger, and at the same time controlling the amount of times you blink as you’re reading this paragraph. Pretty remarkable, huh.
We’re far less impressive. Risk happens because we’re not omniscient or omnipotent. We’re human, we’re finite, our knowledge has limits.
We take risks, God does not.

Risk Is a Gift

Risk always leads us to experience God in a deeper way. Risk rescues us from misplaced security by anchoring us in the eternal. Have you noticed how your desperation for God increases with the uncertainty in your life? The new job, the new child, that new ministry—all of a sudden we’re desperate for God. God delights to put us in this position because it postures us to depend on him and to exercise faith toward him.
It’s how he rescues us from the misplaced security that is such a consuming distraction in the postmodern world.

Tribe Wars!!

Tribe Wars Has officially Kick off. And all I can say is WOW!! This first week we had 49 kids show up and the second week we had over 35! God has been blessing us with a great opportunity  to share His Gospel with the next Generation. I am just blessed to be apart of what He is going to do in this town!! So Hold on people we are in for an amazing ride, don't loosen your hold you might get bumped off!!

Daily Devotion

Psalm 16:11
You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever. 
Meaning in life is found in your relationship with God!
We try to appear happy and confident to other people, but many of us struggle with a feeling of emptiness about our lives. God made us to live lives of meaning and purpose. When we feel empty, we immediately look for a way to remove that emptiness and to fill it with something.
Some people immerse themselves in their work or their studies. Others resort to drugs or alcohol. Some strive for achievement or recognition. It is not only non-Christians who take these paths. Believers also can lose sight of God.
God wants us to know that He has made us to find meaning in Him. Feelings of emptiness should be a signal to us that we need to focus more on our walk with Him. Anything else that we look to as a way to fill up our emptiness is an idol to us. We are allowing that thing or activity to take the place that only God should have in our lives.
God will oppose that misplaced allegiance. You'll never find the peace, meaning, fulfilment and wholeness that you seek until you find it in God. But when you truly build your life around God, He'll meet every need.