When asked to put into words what Faith Renewed means to myself and my family I am flooded with words and emotions and I'm not sure where to even begin.  I guess the place to start would be the beginning, Steph and I were both previously married and church was far from a priority in those relationships.  We both saw the importance of that as a base for a successful relationship so we began to look for a church home for us and Steph's two boys, Kaden and Reece.  I took a couple of Sundays and went to a few churches in the area to get a feel for what they were all about and was just far from impressed, after visiting a couple local churches I had literally met no one.  I had a couple other churches that I was going to check out and then Steph's mom called and told us that a local pastor had come into her work that day.  His willingness to have a conversation about the church made her interested enough that she recommended that we check the church out.  We looked some things up online, listened to a message or two, and for some reason we decided to all go check out Faith Renewed instead of just me first.  We walked in and immediately we were greeted by some very friendly faces that seemed genuinely excited to meet us!  The boys, still a little shy at the time, decided to stay with us in service instead of going to the childrens area and we enjoyed that first service.  On the way home I remember asking Steph her opinion, she said she liked it and was willing to give it another week and see how it goes.  We fully expected to walk in the next week and no one remember us, after all we had only been once and hadn't talked to many people, but when we walked in Pastor Terry walked up to us and not only remembered our names but the boys too.  We were blown away by just how involved he was in the body of the church.  After another enjoyable service and getting to talk to some more people we realized that we could stop our search because we had found a home.  In the, almost, three years that we have been attending we have developed friendships beyond anything we've ever known.  We have also had some amazing milestones with our new church family.....Steph being baptized, then both boys being baptized the same day, we got engaged sitting in the sanctuary at a Wednesday night bible study, got married and had our reception, I rededicated my life through baptism, and we welcomed our beautiful baby girl Piper to our family.  Through it all we have had our "Faith Family" backing us up.  One thing we have learned very quickly is when you walk in the door you are family and family is ALWAYS there for one another.  The first series we got to experience was "Flip My House", this series not only stepped on our toes big time but it really made us step back and think about how we lived our lives and also how we were raising our kids.  We started to gradually make changes to how we lived....cutting out a lot of bad language (yes we still slip from time to time but we try hard), cutting out a ton of movies, music, and tv shows that were really just garbage (as Terry said in one message during the series "garbage in garbage out", we still say that one all the time), and we completely cut any alcohol out of our lives (neither of us were alcoholics by any means and we never drank in front of the boys but in one service it came up that "you may be able to stop at one but will your kids?"...that rocked us).  The crazy thing to me is that cutting a bunch of stuff out of our lives wasn't hard, it wasn't disappointing, and really it didn't feel like subtraction as much as it felt like we were adding room for what really matters!  That series took us to a whole new level as a family.  Our boys have absolutely caught fire for the Lord through an amazing Faith Kids ministry and now also through Renovate, our youth ministry.  Kaden and Reece went from singing random junk from the radio in the shower to, very loudly, singing worship music in the shower! One of the most rewarding things for us as parents has been watching the boys learn and grow.  One of my favorite things is when I wake up in the morning and see Kaden sitting on the end of his bed reading his Bible before he starts his day.  While we have been at Faith Renewed we have found many ways to get involved, Steph checked kids in on Sundays in the childrens area, I have started volunteering with the Renovate youth, and Kaden serves in the preschool pretty much every week now.  Through our amazing youth ministry he has developed a love for learning about Jesus and also a love for working with kids!  The biggest thing for me personally is the fact that no matter what I am going through I will always have my church family there.  They have been with us through tough times and they have been there to congratulate us in the happy times.  I know how hard it is to feel accepted in a new church or really any church sometimes.  If Steph and I had walked into most churches the way we did that first day, as two divorced people who have made mistake after mistake, we would have been judged.....we don't judge at Faith Renewed.....because neither did Jesus.  I'm not saying that we are perfect as a church by any means but I can promise without a shadow of a doubt that we are a church of Jesus loving people who are hungry to learn more and more about what it means to walk with our Heavenly Father. One verse that has really been strong for us lately has been "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" -John 14:12  Personally I think this verse embodies what Faith Renewed stands for.....I have seen and experienced God doing "Jesus things" through normal every day people just like that verse says will happen.  I've seen deliverance from the bondage of addiction, suicide, anxiety just to name a few, I've seen people healed of MAJOR illnesses, and I've seen people lay their lives down for Jesus all at the altar of a small church in Mauldin/Simpsonville SC.  If that isn't exactly what Jesus was saying when He said Even Greater than I don't know what He is trying to say.

But God!

There comes a time in your life where you have to take a deep breath, step back and say "wait I think I already figured this out...why am I stressing so much?".  Ladies and gentleman that point for me is today.  Let me back up a little bit and explain.  I started this blog journey about a year and a half ago now and the initial goal was to be able to get my jumbled up thoughts from my head out to the public and hopefully someone would read one of them and it would help them in some way.  It started off fairly simple and even though there weren't a ton of people reading it I felt like I was at the very least listening to what God was telling me to do and frankly, that's all I was worried about.  Then the devil decided that he didn't like me listening to God and he started to work on me big time using something that I was very proud of....he began to tell me I was wasting my time and that no one was reading it so I really should stop.  You see, I have a big problem listening to what the world tells me I am instead of listening to what He tells me I am.  It's a problem that I have tried and tried to do better on for the last few years.  So now back to my initial statement....I have been keeping a secret from most people lately.  I decided a couple months ago that I was finally going to do something that I've always wanted to do....I'm going back to school.  When I initially went to school I'll be honest, I went to school to try to play baseball longer.  That's hard for me to even go back and read with the mindset I have now.  Life now is just a bit different...the reason I want to go back to school is so that I can have a better shot to move up with my job to help support my family better and to show my kids just how important an education really is.  If you didn't notice, my "why" is and always will be my family.  Truthfully I stopped writing my blog out of sheer laziness.  I felt like no one was really going to miss it and just faded it into the background of my life instead of making time for it.  Well lately this random jumble of thoughts I like to call my blog has been on my mind a lot.  So much so that I went back and reread a bunch of the old ones.  And then it happened, that moment I referenced earlier.  You see I thought God wanted me to write all of these for someone else to get help from....actually it was for me, others are just a bonus.  This go back to school journey I have been on started off like a rocket.  I signed up to get some more info on the program and then decided that I didn't want to wait that long so I went ahead and did my application for the school.  I got my acceptance letter and about a week later was contacted by the admissions counselor to start the next steps....she started going over them with me and I was so fired up about this whole process that everything she was telling me I needed to do I had already done.  I felt unstoppable.  Then the devil said "oh wait, Steve is getting excited about something time to throw up some road blocks".  the last month or so has been non stop issues with financial aid.  They ask for extra info and I send it in and a few days later they need something else.  I had finally reached a point where the excitement of going back was starting to lessen.  Thankfully, I have the BEST wife in the world who always encourages and supports me and I've learned to lean on friends who are more like family to listen and lift me up when I need it!  One of the best friends a guy could ever ask for said to me just the other day when I was stressing out about all of this "God's timing not ours".  Man did that step on my toes!  If you've been around since this blog journey started or have gone back to read old ones then you may remember that I did a whole post of His Timing Not Mine.  I talked about how I had applied for a new job and thought I had it but I had to wait and how hard it was to realize that His timing is perfect and sometimes it doesn't line up with my timing but it works out in the end.  That job that sparked that post is the same job I am now loving and the one I am wanting to go to school to advance in.  God has already set your steps in front of you.  There may be 20 steps where you would only like there to be 10 but I assure you God's path is FAR better than the one we have in our minds.  He wants us to prosper but He also wants us to do it the right way.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that God wants me to go back to school, He has had it on my mind so strongly.  Now I just have take a step back, take a deep breath and say " I already figured this out, why am I stressing so much?"  I pray that whatever you are going through you remember that sometimes it may seem like what you are wanting to happen is never going to happen because it has taken too long, but God.....those are the magic words....look it up, there are a ton of places in the Bible where something bad seems to be happening and then, "but God"!  God is going to not only show up in your situation but I pray that He will show out in your situation.  I'm going to simply trust Him completely and get back to what he told me to do quite awhile ago, so I will be back in the habit of writing what is on my heart.  I hope that you will join me on this journey and as always I love all of you and please reach out and let me know if there is anything I can be praying about for you!  

Don't Be a Saul

Hey guys!  I feel like first of all I should apologize to all of you....I have completely gotten behind on my very small goal of one blog a month.  I know that there hasn't been many page views on the last few posts but I still feel like God asked me to do these and I have slipped up.  So... where have I been the last two months?   Well, I have had two amazing experiences with the young people of our church, we had our third Immerse conference which was absolutely amazing as always (I'll write more about that at a later time) and I stepped a bit outside my box and went along on our FaithKids trip to Kid Fest (I'm sure this will end up being written about as well).  I've also continued on my journey towards better health and a better me and I am currently 55 pounds down and I can actually see my goal weight off in the distance....but even better than that, I feel like I actually have some energy to do goofy stuff with my kids again, nothing better than that!  Alright, on to the actual reason I am writing today....

I find myself listening to sermons from other churches at random times during my week, man I never thought you would hear me saying that, and sometimes a message just slams me in the face and this is my outlet to get it out and for other people to perhaps benefit from what I have learned and have on my heart from the topic.  Today I was listening to Pastor Michael Todd out of Tulsa Oklahoma.  The message really got to me today because I think this is one  that every one of us deals with.....so I'll ask this question.  How many times has God called us to do something and all we do is come up with excuses as to why we aren't good enough or cant do it?!?  Now I'm not talking about your buddy calling you up and asking to go hang out and you try to come up with an excuse to stay home and sit on the couch....I'm talking about your Heavenly Father marking you for a calling.  I'm not saying that He is calling you to be a pastor or anything of that nature (all though I wouldn't doubt that someone reading this does have that calling).  In 1 Samuel 9:21 (MSG) it says "Saul answered 'But I'm only a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel's tribes, and from the most insignificant tribe at that.  Why are you talking to me like this?'"  Saul was being marked as the first King chosen by God, but yet his first reaction wasn't dropping to his knees to thank God for this blessing, his first reaction was to start making excuses.  I think a lot of us do that every day.  I know for me personally I have had many instances where I felt like God was telling me to go and do something but I stood back and told myself that I didn't know enough or wasn't good enough to do what I was told to do.  When we sit back and wait and make excuses God will often times give us the word a few times in hopes that we will eventually listen....God left Saul in charge for 44 years even after he had disobeyed the Lord on many occasions, in hopes that he would repent because he was God's first choice....but then if you still aren't listening, God will move on to someone who will and that person gets the blessing that was originally for you.  Now here's the crazy part to me....there's not a huge clock in the corner showing you how much time you have until God moves that blessing and calling on to someone else.  So why in the world would anyone even hesitate for a second when God places a calling on your life?  I know for me its a fear thing....I was reminded during a great lunch conversation on my Kid Fest trip about something extremely important for me to remember, Fear is a liar!  I believe wholeheartedly that God placed me at that table at lunch with that person to remind me of that because there are times every day of my life where I will get a word from God for someone or will feel like God is leading me to do something and I let fear talk me out of it.  I encourage you, and myself, today....stop listening to what you say about yourself and start listening to what He says about you.  His plans are so much more than we could ever imagine!  I pray that we all spend a little more time listening to our Father and less time listening to our excuses.  I would love to be praying for you so please leave me a comment or send me a message with your prayer requests.  I love you guys!

No Cap Zone

Hey guys!  It’s been a little while...I apologize things have been a little crazy lately.  Felt the need this morning to post out of the blue and one thing I’ve learned is that when I get this feeling I need to go with it....so here goes. In the last year or two my faith has gone from pretty good to getting stronger every day.  I’ve seen God do so many amazing things in my life and in the lives of people I love.  I’ve prayed more than I ever have, I’ve even been in the Word more (and I can’t stand reading lol).  But I’m not here to say that I’m becoming a better Christian, if that’s our only goal we are falling far short of what He wants of us.  In the last two weeks I’ve started a journey that I really thought was all about me getting way over weight and wanting to be a better me for my wife and kids.  My phrase for the year is “I refuse to put a cap on what God can do”, I pray that every night and every morning!  I’m quickly seeing that I capped God by saying that I just wanted to lose weight and be a better husband and father.  He has taken me to a place of togetherness with Him that I thought was not attainable by me. My prayer life has skyrocketed, I’m in the Word more, we’ve started a devotional study, and the most important/amazing thing to me....I’m hearing and seeing Him more clearly!  I usually try to get up earlier on Saturday and try to get some chores done and out of the way with my headphones on listening to worship music....this morning I heard Him ask why I was just listening?!?  We don’t have to be at church to sing and dance to worship music....this morning I had my own private worship time just me and the Father (and some dishes). I challenge you today...spend some more private time with Him....that can look like many different things, but it ALWAYS ends the same!  There’s no better way to start a Saturday than in the arms of the Father!  This was a very short post but the blog will be back to normal very soon...I feel like a lot is being downloaded right now and I’m so excited to share!  As always please reach out if you have any prayer requests, I’d love to be praying with and for you! Love you guys!

Give Me Some Crumbs!

Hey guys!  I feel like it's been forever since I've posted....I've had a post brewing for a couple weeks and I was trying to download all I could before I sat in front of the computer.  Two weeks ago during our youth service Pastor Chris delivered an amazing message on crumbs.  Now that you are thoroughly confused let me explain and give my two cents on the message.  In the story of the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28) Matthew speaks about a woman that has a daughter that is severely oppressed by a demon.  I can't imagine having to deal with that sort of craziness.  The story goes on to say that Jesus was in the town she lived in and she came out as He walked by and cried out "Have mercy on me, o Lord, son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon."  Jesus did not immediately answer and then His disciples came to Him and said "send her away".....for she was not one of their people.  I feel like He stopped and looked at the disciples and shook His head at them and asked sarcastically, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?"  A lot of times we think that because we haven't been living "right" or because we have messed up that Jesus doesn't want to help us....but He is telling us plain as day in this story that that is not the case!  The woman came and kneeled before Him and said "Lord, help me".  His response, " It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."  To me this is Jesus saying to the woman....it's not right for me to give all my blessings to non believers.  Her response is a simple comment that has absolutely rocked me ever since, so much so that I have had trouble sitting down and putting it in words, she said " Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters' table."  WOW!  She knew that even the smallest of pieces of Jesus was enough for her.  How many times do we sit and think about how we haven't seen any big moves of God lately....maybe we went through a season where we saw healings and people being delivered from all sorts of things that have haunted them and now it seems like He isn't moving, all because you are only looking for the big things.  Jesus looked down at that woman and smiled at her and said "O woman, great is your faith!  Be it done for you as you desire", and her daughter was healed instantly.  It doesn't say that her daughter got healed a month from now, or a week from now, or even tomorrow....it was instant!  If you are truly hungry for a relationship with the Father why in the world would you refuse to eat the crumbs?!?! Someone who is really hungry will eat every little bit they can to truly be satisfied.  There is nothing wrong with expecting the big things....but are you partaking in the small things that will help lead you to the big ones?  I don't want to show up in Heaven one day and have God ask me how often I did the little things in order to feed my hunger and not be able to give a good answer.  In Matthew 7:21-23 the Lord says "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of the Father who is in Heaven.  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?  And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness'."  Can you imagine going your whole life thinking you were a good Christian and then hearing those words come out of the mouth of your Father?!?  I would be crushed.  Pastor Chris summed up why people will hear this someday...."Because they bit of the bread but they didn't bite of the crumbs anymore."  My wish for myself and for all of those that I love is that we would all sit at the feet of the Father and pick up every little crumb that the Father drops for us.  Why can't we be like this woman who was going through unimaginable things but still had the faith in God to know that even the smallest crumb can fix it all!  Another great example is in Mark 5....the woman with the issue of blood.....there were people crowded around Jesus as He walked through the town, so many people that no one could get near Him.  There was a woman there who had a discharge of blood for 12 years...12 years!!!  She spent everything she had trying to fix it, but it only made things worse.  She pushed through the crowd and came up behind Him and touched the hem of his robe.  She said "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well."  Jesus could feel some of the power rush out of Him and said "Who touched my garments".......the disciples thought He was crazy because everyone was touching Him.  The woman fell at His feet and told Him the truth.....his response is amazing....He said to her " Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."  The most amazing point that was made on this story to me is....Jesus did not touch her, she touched Him.  Are we just sitting back waiting on God to move in front of us or are we chasing after Him pressing into Him just hoping for a crumb?  You may say to yourself "But, I know that I am a Christian", but by who's standards?  We need to live up to His standards not what we think makes a Christian.  My biggest fear is that someday the Lord will say to me "I never knew you".....I challenge all of you to press in and not just sit back and wait on the Lord to move.  Get in your word (I know I need to do this a lot more), your Bible just may be the crumbs you need to become the person that He wants you to be.  This post is a bit different than most on this page but I felt like a recap of a great message that has been rocking me for two weeks needed to be put out there.  Its easy to get caught up in a rut and sit and wish that you were back at a time in your life where you were jumping up and down worshipping and seeing healings.  But God doesn't want you to go back to that time in your life....He wants you to just come after Him...with all of your heart!  I for one will be joining the dogs eating the crumbs.....hopefully I can look around and see all of you joining me.  If there's anything that I can be praying for you about please reach out....I love all of you guys.

What Is Your Identity?

Hey guys!  It's been awhile......we have had an unbelievably busy last few weeks and I've been dying to post again!  Just to give you a little background.....we had a chance to go spend a few days at the beach with Steph's parents and had an absolute blast as always.  Then as soon as we all got back to Greenville, Kaden and I hopped right in some vans and headed to The Ramp is Hamilton AL.  This was a CRAZY trip.  Two days and 4 sessions of the presence of God!  I really feel like in the last few years I have really grown in my walk with Christ but as soon as I walked into the room for that first session I could feel that this was about to be different......very different.  I've heard people say many times that "it is thick in here", meaning you can physically feel the Holy Spirit in a room.  I've felt this before.....but having over a thousand people in a room worshipping together increased that feeling so much that it was almost as if you walked into a wall when you entered the room.  I've rewatched these sessions pretty much non stop since then and there are so many things I want to talk and write about.  Finally yesterday while on my way home from work I got to experience something that was discussed during one of the messages....I was having some worship time in the car and I could hear God tell me to turn it off.  Think about that statement for a minute, I'm listening to worship music and God wants me to turn it off?  Basically, at least for me in this situation, this was God's way of saying "Steve turn off the music we need to have some quiet time together."  Obviously I turned the radio off in the car (that's really weird by the way) and just spent time telling Him exactly how much He means to me.  Thanking Him for all that He has given me and all that He is doing in me.  And then it hit me......one message from the Ramp kept coming back into my mind....God was telling me what He wanted me to write about.  This is definitely the first time I've felt God show me this clearly exactly what He wanted to be in the blog, it was pretty awesome!  I really feel like this post is meant for more than one person to read....usually I have a person in mind that may need to hear the message but this is different.... if you are reading this post the message is for you and if you feel like it isn't then it is definitely for someone that you know.   We all deal with this issue, me included.  The question is What is your identity?  Do you ever find yourself going through a tough time and saying something along the lines of " I'm just a screw up", "I'm a failure", or "I'm not a good parent"?  I do.  Here is where my "favorite" part of these posts comes in.....the story of how this applies to me.  I have times here and there where something just doesn't seem to be going my way and my immediate first thought is "I am a screw up" "Nothing ever goes my way".  And to be completely honest with you this past weekend while getting ready to go to a wedding I was getting dressed and nothing seemed to fit right.  Which of course lead to "I'm just fat and lazy".  Wow, that was a lot harder to type out than it was to say that's for sure.  The problem is, anytime we feel like things aren't going great or even just when we look in the mirror sometimes we are hearing what the devil says we are.  The great thing is there is someone much more important that has His own views on us, the Father.  I challenge you to sit down in a "secret place", somewhere quiet and free from distractions....spend a few moments thanking God for all the blessings in your life and then buckle in because your life is about to be changed forever....ask this one simple question and do it out loud, God loves to hear your voice, "God, who do YOU say I am".  For me personally it is "man of God", "leader", "someone who tries to lead his family towards the cross", and "son of the living God".  I mean seriously guys we need to do this and do it often, especially when the devil tries to attack....and he will attack.  He attacks people that he is afraid of!  So I ask you......who do you say you are? And does that line up with who He says you are?  I promise you if you spend some time just listening and talking to the Father, He will take away those feelings of inadequacy and all those things you thought defined you and fill up those empty spaces with His love.  If this message was for you please reach out to me, I want to be heavily in prayer for you on this issue and as always if you have any prayer requests please drop me a message and let me know.  Love you guys and I'll be listening for the next topic! 

The Broken Vase

This is very unlike me to post so soon after the last post but I feel like the Lord is telling me that someone needs to hear this story.  During one of the sessions at Immerse this weekend someone (I apologize if you are reading this I can't remember who it was) made a statement that I hadn't really thought about until tonight on the way home from our Wednesday night service.  He mentioned that he was getting this picture in his mind of someone sitting in front of a vase that was broken in a million pieces with a bottle of super glue trying to put it all back together.  Far too often this is what we do.....we sit and look at our lives, broken in a million pieces and wonder how in the world we are going to get it all together.  There is not enough super glue in the world to put our crazy lives back together.  The issue here is, God doesn't need you to put your life back together.  In 2 Corinthians 5:17 the Bible says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new".  What we miss is that we will sit and think all day about how we are in pieces and try to figure out how we can put our lives back together.....but while we stare at that broken vase, God is just trying to get us to look up and realize that He has placed a brand new vase on the table.  We need to stop looking at our past and thinking we aren't good enough or worthy enough and start seeing ourselves as God sees us!  To borrow from one of our great worship leaders Justin, stop looking in the mirror and seeing all the things that are "wrong" with you, start looking in the mirror and seeing Christ in you.  When we give ourselves to Christ we are just as He is.....beautiful!  I know this is a short post and also a quick turn around but I know that there is someone reading this that needed to hear this right now....or maybe you are reading this and someone you love seems to be stuck in this rut and needs you to tell them what you read.  Either way I am praying that each and every one of us can remember that we are indeed a new creation and that creation is beautiful! Love you guys!