Deep Well Discipleship

PRESS ON Confession time, and this ones pretty obvious, my writing is sporadic at best.  I started blogging about my cancer last fall and when I started chemo I didn't feel like writing about it much less thinking about it.  I can honestly say that chemo is not only the most horrific thing I have experienced but it is the assuredly, at least at this time, the worst.  Throughout the process of treatment and feeling sick I found myself angry many times.  I cried out to God "Why me"?  I asked God why His intent was to kill me.  I was hurt, devastated, and lonely but God heard my cries and simply said "Why not you?"  I was shocked and stunned at this thought but I soon found my way into Philippians 4:11-14, that infamously misused passage of scripture.  It was there God spoke deeply into my pain and reminded me of His glory. Paul writes "...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I...

THE END IS NEAR... Over the years there has been no shortage of people predicting the end of the world.  From the fears of Y2K, to Harold Camping, and the Mayan Apocalypse, there is always someone to step up and be the next prophet of doom.  One of my favorite groups back in the 1980's was the band from Athens GA, R.E.M.  Their hit "It's the end of the world as we know it" was catchy and fun.  It jabbed at the excess of America and of course the end of the world.  The lyrics made your head spin, as the masses attempted to sing along to the fast paced lyrical montage, yet everyone would sing the chorus... "It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine." So there are a few wondering if it will all come crashing to a stop tomorrow and everything will end.  This does not disturb me as I trust Christ and know that if indeed today was the last day, it is with Him I would find shelter from the storm.  My concern has always been with Christian...

As a child the most dreaded phrase I could hear was "What are you eating?  You know, you are what you eat."  My biggest fear is that I would one day look like a pepsi and hershey bar.  As genetics would have it I could easily eat like this and not gain a pound, all the way through from elementary through the military.  It wasn't until college, post military, that this saying started to truly take form in my life, more importantly in my waistline.  Last summer I was diagnosed with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, a virus had attacked my heart and for the first time I truly began to understand "You are what you eat" and if I didn't change my habits wrong eating would be life ending, sooner rather than later.  (Needless to say moving from Missouri to Texas took a toll on these changes but we are back on track as of today!)  So in the end the food I eat will play a part in the life that I live here.  Guess those folks who told me that as a kid weren't so ...

WOULD ANYONE CARE? I have been reading through Darrin Patrick and Matt Carters book "For the City".  It has been challenging and convicting to me as a pastor and leader.  The question that has weighed on me most heavily as I have read this is, "If FBC Seminole shut it's doors, would anyone in Seminole know we were gone and would they even care?"  This question was posed in chapter one by Matt Carter in regards to his own church in Austin Texas.  Stop for a minute and ask yourself this question.  Would anyone care if your church shut their doors for good, would they even notice?  The answer is haunting and sad because for many of our churches the answer is that they wouldn't. Why is this happening?  For many churches their concern is not the community around them and reaching them with the gospel but instead it is focused on programs, finances, and numbers.  Nothing, by the way, is inherently wrong with these things but instead of these...

Matthew 4:19 And he [Christ] said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (ESV) I remember hearing this call in my life.  I was 9 and sitting in the front room of my parents home in Shelbina, MO.  The youth pastor, Denny Daum, sat in the mustard colored swivel rocker and I on the footstool.  I don't remember if it was spring or fall.  I can't recall if it was sunny or cloudy.  I can't remember if anyone else was present.  But I remember in the moment of that conversation when I heard the call, the voice that pierces to the very core of who we are, the deep awakening of the dead man (or boy at the time) to come to life.  In that moment of our conversation I realized I needed to repent and follow Christ Jesus.  That walk ever since has been one of intrigue, difficulty, indelible grace, joy, peace, sorrow, grief, trial, tribulation, miracles, hope, and more than I would have ever imagined in my finite mind. When Christ call...

Whatever your thoughts are about the President of the United States one thing is certain, that has to be a lonely place.  As the leader of the nation you are on stage for everyone to see 24 hours a day.  When you are on vacation you are scrutinized for where you went, how you got there, and what you are doing.  Every decision you make is analyzed and spun in multiple directions to feed the political masses along party lines.  You may or may not agree or like the President, but the one thing I am certain of I wouldn't want that task.  His role of leadership defines not only the nation but who he is as well.  People much less qualified than the president constantly call him out, claim they can do better, and always reference all of the problems that he has not taken care of while diminishing anything good as mediocre at best.  In todays world critics hide behind blogs, tweets, and Facebook profiles - criticizing without offering solution (or outrageous s...