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!

Immerse Yourself In Him!

Happy October everyone!  Well, well, well......where to start?  This past weekend was a  complete game changer.  Our youth pastor along with two other youth pastors hosted the Immerse conference Friday and Saturday.  To say that it went well and that lives were changed would be the biggest understatement ever.  We had roughly 200 people in attendance (up from just over 100 in January) at a local church.  Through this conference we saw amazing worship (even had up to 8 worship leaders on stage at once, a feat in itself), amazing messages delivered by amazing pastors, and the coolest thing I've ever been apart of.....our third and final session started like every other session and as the worship team played and Pastor Chris started to prepare himself to give the final message of the conference, something really cool started to happen.  All over the room young people began praying over each other, breaking bondages in each others lives, praying healing over each other, and just all around being the church.  It was UNREAL!  So much so that plans needed to be changed......no need for a message when the youth were already soaking in the Holy Spirit! 

I'm gonna go ahead and get back to my old format and share a very transparent story.  One of my biggest challenges lately has been hearing God and then without hesitation doing what He tells me to do.  Last week I got to experience the joy of being given a word for someone, following through on telling that person, and getting to see the joy in someone's face when you hit it dead on!  I was flying high!  That turned into inviting someone I don't really know to come to the conference, I felt like a crazy person but if God wants me to do it I have to do it.  Much to my surprise the person shows up on Friday night. For me, I was starting to feel  invincible.  Then the devil decided he had other plans.  During Friday nights worship I kept getting the same word over and over, then I kept coming back to the same person.  I fought it off as much as possible but around every turn there they were.  So I swallowed my pride and went to the person and told them the things I was hearing.  This person looked at me like I had three heads.  Almost immediately I was crushed.  I felt like maybe I wasn't hearing God after all.  I went home that night conflicted.....I was fired up from a great service but also doubting myself.  I showed up the next morning excited for the day but also with what felt like a huge dark cloud following me around.  Then during one of the first worship songs of the day the worship leader broke into some spontaneous worship and said something that will always stick with me and I hope it sticks with you too.  He said that "sometimes the dark cloud you feel over you isn't really a dark cloud at all, sometimes it's God's shadow as He is protecting you".   Immediately my mood and expectation for the day completely changed!  And thanks to one simple sentence I got to be a part of something that will forever be one of my greatest acomplishments.....I, along with one of my best friends, got to be vessels for the Lord as He was accepted into the life of a young man that had been going through quite a bit of tough times.  By far one of the most rewarding things I have ever been a part of!  I pray that all of you would take a step back, especially in what seems like "dark cloud" times, and realize that maybe, just maybe, it is just the shadow of the One who is protecting you from even worse things.  Remember guys, He has a plan for us....a plan for us to prosper! 

If any of you have any prayer requests please reach out....there is nothing better than praying for friends and family.  Love you guys!

Immerse Week

Hey guys!  We've come to, what I am expecting to be, one of the best weeks of the year!  It's time for fall Immerse!  For those of you that don't know what Immerse is I will give you a little background.  Three local pastors (Chris, Adam, Andrew) had a vision of the youth of Greenville coming together as one to change our city and beyond.  In January we had the first Immerse conference here in Greenville.  We saw things during that weekend that I, as a father, wished I didn't have to see.  Young people that I see multiple times a week being delivered from things such as eating disorders and even suicide.  I also had a chance to experience the Holy Spirit in a way that I never thought was possible for me.  I remember sitting on a chair in the back of the service with my head in my hands crying uncontrollably wondering if I was even worthy of the things I was hearing Pastor Andrew speak about.  Then it was as if I was standing there looking at myself with my head down and I could see Jesus walking up behind me and placing his hand on my shoulder and then wrapping His arms around me.  In that moment ever care and worry that I had on my shoulders was immediately lifted off of me.  It was an amazing moment that I will cherish forever, and that I will never forget.  Now we are coming up on what promises to be an even better conference this time around....these three pastors and their wives know what to expect now and have put a ton of time into organizing a great event.  Last night we got together as volunteers to prepare ourselves for the event and let me tell you.....the Holy Spirit was already thick in there!!  During our time we received an amazing prophetic word from one of our Pastors for the event.  He said he saw kids arriving in the parking lot in ankle deep water, walking into the building into knee deep water....the closer they got the deeper they went, until they were completely immersed in the Spirit!  Wow!   This word perfectly plays into our message today at church.  Todays message was on Ezekiel 47 3-6......."And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles.  Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees.  Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.  Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.  He said to me, 'Son of man, have you seen this?'  Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river."  I just love how the Word is so timely and plays into things you are going through in your life.  God is so good!  If you are free this weekend, and frankly if you aren't free then find a way to be free, you NEED to be at Greenville First on Haywood Rd.  You do not have to be a youth to attend this conference......I can promise you it will be worth it!  God is not just going to show up I guarantee He will show out!  I want everyone of you to get to experience what I did in January....if we all did, this world and our city would be a MUCH better place.  Come see me this Friday and Saturday at the Immerse Conference, say hello and tell me about your experience!  There's nothing better than hearing about the amazing things God is doing!  As always guys, if you have any prayer requests or needs please message me so I can be praying for you! 

All He wants is you!

Hey everyone!  I hope that you are all getting back into the groove now that school is back in session, I know everyone's routine gets completely jumbled up the first week or so.  This blog process for me has been a pretty wild one, usually I get a word from God and I just start typing and I end up with a blog....today is a little different.  Today I'm going to take something I normally add into the blog, a personal story, and use that to build off of.  So, here is a little bit of background....believe it or not I used to be a pretty fit guy (hopefully again sometime in the near future) but sometimes life gets in the way and you start neglecting yourself physically.  I've gotten out of shape and gained quite a bit of weight and have really been down on myself.  Then something great happened, I had had enough and decided I wanted to try to do something about it.....and thankfully a friend from work made a comment about us deciding to do a race through work so that we could hold each other accountable.  I thought it was a great idea, after all any time in the past where I have succeeded in getting into better shape it was in preparation for some sort of event.  I began trying to go out and do what I have affectionately named a wog, a walk/jog.  Around this time another person from work/good friend mentioned that he was doing a 5K even sooner and he asked if anyone on the team would like to join him.....of course the competitive athlete came out and I said I would.  Little did I know I was making a big mistake trying to run in old shoes with a bunch of extra weight.  I developed what I later figured out was a problem in my ankle which began to cause some pretty scary swelling in my foot.  Steph and I were worried to say the least.  I got an awesome birthday gift from my Dad of some new running shoes and it helped tremendously but I was still getting random swelling when I wasn't running.  I had made up my mind that I was going to try to at least finish this 5K even if I had to walk the whole thing before I tried to have a doctor look at my ankle.  Fast forward to this morning, I woke up and headed to the 5K.  As we headed to the start line my ankle felt pretty good and I figured it was my lucky day and I could at least do a good wog and finish.  I started with a jog as long as I could, admittedly not very far, and then proceed to walk a little and jog again and so on.  At around the 1 mile mark BOTH of my feet had swelled to a point where I was struggling with feeling my toes.  Fear creeped in very quick.  I started just walking and the farther I went that more worried I got.  At 1.5 miles I had made up my mind that when I reached the people at the 2 miles sign I was gonna throw in the towel.  Then I had a moment that just may change my life, I began to pray for God to take away the swelling in my feet.  Now I have seen crazy healings take place in the past but I have never had one actually happen for me and definitely not when it was just me doing the praying.  So I spent that next half mile of a walk singing worship music and praying, out loud with random strangers near by.   Guys if you know me you know that is a HUGE deal.   I have written on a few occasions about the need for us as Christians to get out of our comfort zone and allow God to be our comfort and I had made up my mind that I was gonna go all in for half a mile before I called it a day.  Well, I started to see the 2 mile marker coming up and I was still struggling bad and I was trying to figure out how to quit, I've always prided myself in never being that guy but here I was about to do it.  Then it happened!  As I walked past the 2 mile mark and began to turn back towards the person volunteering there it was as if someone flipped a switch and all of the sudden I had NO swelling in either foot.  Yes, I was still very sore but I could feel my toes again.  So I began to wog again....I was dreading having  to give up and God showed out and made sure I didn't have to.  I was able to do my alternating walk and jog combo for the last mile of the race and actually be running when I crossed the finish line!  I sit here typing, about 12 hours later, sore as can be but no swelling in my feet at all!  "Worship your Lord your God, and His blessing will be on your food and water.  I will take away sickness from among you" - Exodus 23:25   I wish more people, including me, would spend more time alone worshipping Him....the effects that it has on your life are beyond words!  I hope that you will all join me in spending at least a little more time every day just in worship and prayer.  I know this wasn't one of my normal blogs but today completely rocked me and I needed to share it with all of you.  I know there are some of you out there that have needs that I can be praying for, but not many are reaching out for prayer......change that......I'm here for every one of you, always will be!  And just a reminder.....we serve a God that cares about even the little things that you are struggling with.....and He is always there for us!  Love you all!

Relationship Goals

Hey guys! I hope you are all enjoying your summer!  I've had something really weighing on me lately and of course at every turn things have been put in my path that back up my thinking.  Lately, all I can think about is how it seems like people are too worried about their church.  Take a deep breath, I'm not saying church isn't important, far from it actually.  I just feel like we as a people have shifted to a thought process that puts too much emphasis on where you go to church and the fact that you "show up".  Have we forgotten the fact that our relationship with God is supposed to be the most important thing?!?  Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.....one of my favorite lines.  I have come to a place in my life where just showing up to church once or twice a week and soaking up someone else's relationship with Christ just isn't enough.  I was listening to a sermon recently that has really had me thinking, it was about the story of Thomas.  John 20:25 says, So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"  But he said to them "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe".  Most times this is taught as Thomas doubting the Lord (Doubting Thomas) but if you really sit and think on this that was the farthest thing from the truth.  Thomas was not going to be satisfied with just hearing about someone else's encounter, he wanted to have his own encounter.  Think about it for just a minute, are you striving for your own encounter with the Lord or are you just relying on hearing about someone else's?  Do you go to church to hear about your pastor's relationship or do you go to learn more about how you can encounter Him yourself?  I feel like we have all been at a place from time to time where we show up at church and go through the motions just listening to "story time"...that is one of the many things that is wrong with the world today.  Recently I have realized that if I truly have quiet time with Him, He actually speaks to me.  Actually, He speaks to all of us all the time!  We just don't realize it because we are not in a true relationship with Him.  It's like in John 10:27 where Jesus says "My sheep know my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me".  It doesn't talk about following Him because someone you know heard from Him.  He speaks to all of us, it's just a question of if you are willing to listen.  I know I have said this before but being a Christian is not about comfort...He WILL ask you to do things that are not comfortable for you.  Lately with me personally it has been speaking a word over me about people in my life.  When I get these words I can not just sit by and think "that can't really be God" just because it may be a little weird to walk up to someone and tell them that God gave you a word to speak over their life.  Trust me it is very uncomfortable sometimes.  But you can also trust me in how amazing it is when you listen and get to hear a friend or loved one tell you that they needed to hear what you spoke over them.  Think about how impactful it would be if you were really struggling through a situation that you haven't told anyone about and then someone walks up to you and knows exactly what you need to hear in that situation.  Tell me that isn't a God thing.....and to top it off you got to be a huge part of it!  But, if you haven't fostered that relationship with God on your own you won't get those moments.  God can't give your pastor a word to be passed over to you and then passed along to the person that needs it, that's just not how it works.  We need to stop relying on other peoples relationships with the Father and start building ours so that we can truly experience the amazing things that He wants to do both for and through us.  I pray that you all take a few moments to ask God to come into your life so much that you absolutely explode in His goodness.  If you stop worrying about checking church off your list for the week and getting to enjoy your entertainment and "story time" your life will be changed so much.  I'm gonna leave you with a quote from a sermon I was recently listening to...."The success of the Kingdom man is attributed to just one thing, that one thing is the obedience of the spoken word of Jesus."  I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your summer and if you need any specific prayers please feel free to reach out, I'm always here.  Love you all!

YES!

Hey everybody!  I hope you have all been enjoying your, way too hot, summer!  I was thinking about what I wanted my next post to be about and I kept coming back to the same word, YES!  How many times have you had a feeling God was telling you to do something that was WAY outside your normal activities?  Id be willing to bet we have all had those moments....I'd also be willing to bet most of us have had those moments and said "I really don't want to do that right now" or "I can't do something like that".  Funny thing is, God didn't ask you to go talk to that person in the store that you don't know, but only if that's okay with you.  God doesn't ask you to do things that make you uncomfortable.  I know, I know, you are very confused right now......you see, He doesn't ask you to be uncomfortable, He expects you to be uncomfortable.  It's in those times of being uncomfortable when the biggest breakthroughs happen.  Do you think it was a comfortable confessing your love for Jesus knowing that in those days you could be killed for doing so?  I'd say that is a no, but they did!  I saw a really cool article that the writer was thinking about comfort and the lyrics of an Andy Mineo song came to her mind....."So if you wanna live a comfortable life, make sure you never love nobody, be selfish, and never sacrifice"  Wow!  Think about that for a second.  Are we getting to comfortable in our every day lives that we can't respond with a solid YES when God puts something on your heart?  If the Christians of the world were more willing to give God their yes just think about how many more people would hear the Gospel.  I hear people all the time say they want to hear God more.....believe me you hear God every day, the real question is do you listen??  I've made that comment on more than one occasion and it is usually met with the response, "well, how do I know it's really God".  That leads me to my personal story for this post.  Steph had been baptized, the boys had both been baptized, and I had been baptized years before.  I watched the walk the three of them went on that lead them to baptism and to be honest I was a little sad.  I knew in my heart that a lot of what they did to get to that point I had not done.  I was baptized for the right reasons but I hadn't truly handed my whole life over to Him.  I started to feel this heaviness on my heart saying that I needed to rededicate my life to Him through baptism.  I had already started making the necessary changes in my life but that was a piece that I had not thought about before.  I wrote it off as a jealousy thing from my own head.  I thought I just wanted to be baptized in the same place as my family.  Then, after hearing it for the 100th time, I went to Pastor Terry and told him what I was feeling....mostly (in my head) so that he could tell me I didn't need to be baptized again and that I was crazy for thinking so.  His response is something I will never forget and something that I apply to a lot of situations in my life.  "The devil isn't gonna tell you to be baptized, it must be from God".  When God tells you something you have to act on it.  You know the devil isn't going to tell you to do something that would even remotely bring praise to God, so what are you waiting for?!?  That person God is telling you to go sit and talk with at work or school, they could be dealing with some really dark stuff, your willingness to be God's hands and feet may just save their life.  What about that family member that is sick?  What if God was going to use you to speak healing over them, but you didn't feel comfortable doing that?  I don't know about you but I'm sick of "comfortable Christians", let's stop talking about what we need to do and how to do it and just get out and do it!  Let's all get to that place where we expect God to put us in those uncomfortable situations because we know that out of those moments amazing things are about to happen.  I encourage you to join me in giving God your YES no matter what!  Check out the song below about just that.....and feel free to message me with anything that I can be praying for you about.  Love you all!

Father's Day

Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long since my last post.  Life gets a bit hectic with a new job and a newborn.  But that brings me to the topic tonight, Father's Day.  I sit  here on the eve of my first "real" Father's Day (even though I see the boys has my own and have celebrated with them in the past this is my first technical Father's Day) and I think back to how I always knew that I wanted to be a Dad.  There were a lot of things I wanted to be through the years but the one thing that remained constant was having a family.  And now as I sit here watching my amazing wife play with my beautiful daughter, there's no better sound than Piper laughing in the background while I write.  In the last few years having Steph and the boys in my life I have come to realize that being a father is not all fun and games.  There are tough times where you have to be strict, there are times when you have to be a shoulder to cry on, there are times when you just plain get to have fun, and there are times when you get to step back and say "man I am so proud of you".  I can't help but think about how our Heavenly Father does those exact things for us.  Sometimes He steps on your toes a bit to make you realize what you are doing is probably not in your best interest.  He is ALWAYS there when we are struggling and need a shoulder to cry on ( more on that in a minute).  He puts us in situations where we can have so much fun we can hardly stand it.  And last but certainly not least, He watches over us and says "man I am so proud of you".  I think a lot of men really miss the boat trying to be so many different things for their kids, when really all you have to do is be like our Heavenly Father.  I've found that more and more every day as I grow in my relationship with Him and start to really listen to Him when He speaks to me, I become a better father at the same time.  If you've read my couple posts to this point you know that I always try to tie in an actual story from my life and be totally transparent, so here goes I'm gonna lay it all out there.  I couple of days ago at work I got a message from Steph that the boys were going to have to go spend the night with their dad on Father's Day, meaning my time with them would be cut big time.  I was crushed, I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  The devil immediately started throwing thoughts in my head about how I'm not really their dad so it's only right that they should go with him, he's the better dad anyway.  So I let it play over and over in my head and to be honest spent most of my ride home crying.  Then something awesome happened I realized I needed two things, I needed to be at church and I needed my brothers to pray over and with me.  So after our Wednesday night service i pulled aside a good friend and our Youth Pastor and laid it all on the table.  It's unbelievably freeing to be able to have people that care about you that can listen to you and then they are obedient to what The Lord is saying to them about your situation.  The first thing that came out of that conversation was a line that I will never forget...."Fatherhood is not a position it's a calling".  Sometimes I get caught up in the "position" and I forget the "calling".  Without a doubt God has called me to be a father to these boys and to my beautiful little girl.  He wants me to show these boys (young men) what being a man of God is and how a relationship centered in Christ is the only kind that is worth anything.  When my time is up here and I stand before God He isn't going to ask about my position here, He is going to ask how I used the calling He put on my life.  Personally I want Him to look at me and say "man I am so proud of you".  There is really nothing better than a father that is proud of you!  I also want to take a moment to say how unbelievably proud of Kaden, Reece, and Piper I am!  They, along with the woman of my dreams, have been the best thing that I could ever hope and dream for in this lifetime!  So I wish all of you Father's out there a Happy Father's Day....and don't forget "Fatherhood is not a position, it's a calling"

His Timing Not Mine

This may be the absolute hardest part of being a Christian....waiting.  The Word tells us in Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope".  That is an amazing promise....but man in the flesh it is not something that comes easy!  I've realized rather quickly in the last two years or so that sometimes we get a little ahead of ourselves and we start making our own plans.  Sometime those plans do actually line up with God's plans,  but because we are human and we live in a "microwave society" that wants everything right away, we get caught up in our own timeline and we want our blessing right now.  We have to take a step back and realize that God already has a plan in mind for us to prosper...so we have to trust Him and let it be in His time.  I'll give you a pretty cool example that has absolutely rocked me lately.....I had decided that it was best for me to look for a different job, one were I would have more time for Church and more time with my family.  After a lot of prayer a job popped up that was going to "check all the boxes" for me.  I had a phone interview and a face to face interview and was convinced that I was about to have another job.  That's where the problem came in, I was making the plans not God.  I started to get frustrated and a little down thinking that things weren't going to happen for me.  Then something awesome happened, at my current job we got a new assistant store manager.  One day he walked up to me and asked me about my tattoo (2 Corinthians 5:21 "For He made Him who knew no sin, To be sin, So that in Him we may have the righteousness of God").  His response..."oh you are a God guy....that keeps a good balance in your life".  This was a huge moment for me, I'm not one to make a big "scene" when it comes to talking about my faith... but that had to change and right at that moment!  I simply told him that in my opinion he was wrong with that statement....because when you have God in your life it's not for balance, God gets it all!  After a nice long talk (right in the middle of a long shift) he proceeded to tell me all about his upbringing and his experiences with church.  Keep in mind I had talked to this man a grand total of about two times.  we had an amazing discussion and I think that God needed me to still be working there long enough to have that conversation.  You see, if things had happened on my timeline I wouldn't have been able to help him talk through some old issues and plant the seeds necessary to hopefully get him and his family back in church!  Sometimes we have to step back and just let God show out on His own.  It took a while but I'm now in the middle of my two week notice so that I can go start that new job....God showed out, but it was in His time!  Makes me think of yet another amazing song... Take Courage by Kristene DiMarco....

Slow down, take time
Breathe in He said
He'd reveal what's to come
The thoughts in His mind
Always higher than mine
He'll reveal all to come

I know it's easier said than done....I've lived it many times....but we as Christians MUST allow God to work in His time!  He will provide for us I'm sure of it!  Sometimes we just have to rest in the fact that He is God and we are not....trust because He's in the waiting!  As always guys, I love all of you and please feel free to reach out with any prayer requests!

Steve

Even Greater (Explained)

I’m sure there are a few of you wondering why I named this blog “Even Greater”. Even Greater has become a life motto for me recently....I took Kaden to a youth conference put on by our church youth group and youth groups from two other local churches....the last session of this conference Pastor Andrew spoke on the promise that “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12). This message absolutely floored me and even to this day when I think about what this means I get chills. Think about it for a minute, Jesus performed miracles throughout the Bible....Stuff that you would have a hard time even thinking were possible. But yet He says that if we believe in Him we can do all those things in His name as well.  That in itself would be amazing, but He doesn’t stop there...we can do Even Greater! Can you imagine if we were really able to perform miracles even greater than those done by Jesus?!?!  Oh wait....we can!!!  The weekend of the conference I saw a young man who had been into drugs and had contemplated suicide fall on his knees at the altar where his peers surrounded him praying for that bondage to be broken. This young man came face to face with Jesus that morning and his life will never be the same!  I saw teenagers walk up on stage take the microphone and speak a name that was given to them by God and that person be in the room and needing to hear what God spoke to someone else for them. Now this one is gonna really blow your mind, some of you may even call me crazy on this one, one Sunday we were praying over a young mans back and hip because he was having a lot of pain....half way through the prayer PC gets a clear vision that we are praying for the wrong thing. We sit him down and realize that his one leg is longer than the other which is cause his back and hips to be out of alignment, a few of us laid hands on his leg and prayed for healing and his leg grew!  Yes you read that right, if I hadn’t been there I would have laughed at the thought....but I was, and it definitely happened!  I’ve physically seen God work through his followers and heal bodies and minds so many times that my head starts to spin.  Guys, my prayer for you is that you realize “The One who put death in its place
His life is flowing through my veins”. The Lord wants to work through you too!  And while you are at it, make sure you give the glory to the one who deserves it all!  You explaining to someone what and why you just prayed for them could be the thing that leads them to Jesus themselves or at least plants a seed. I think we all can agree that winning souls for the Lord is well worth it!!  Do yourself a favor and spend some time watching this video and truly listening to the words and thank Him for all He has done for you and all He will do through you!  Love all of you and please don’t hesitate to write me and ask for prayer. 

Miracles 

Steve

In The Beginning

Welcome to the first post of Even Greater!  I know that you all probably know me already but I’m going to take this time to introduce myself.  My name is Steve, I grew up in PA (near Hershey) and have been living in SC for 14 years. I am married to the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, Stephanie. Steph came into the relationship with two amazing boys....I refuse to call them my step sons, they will always just be my sons!  I dreamed my whole life about being a dad and God blessed me with the family I always wanted.  Then just because He is God and he can do amazing things He recently blessed Steph and I with a daughter, Piper Grace!  The purpose of this blog is basically just to voice all the thoughts God gives me from time to time. I’ve seen some absolutely amazing things in the last year or so and I refuse to keep any of that to myself!  A lot of these posts will seem like ramblings from a crazy person but I promise you there will be a point in there somewhere and I will usually add in some music to go with my thoughts. So please read along with these thoughts, listen to the music, spend some time in worship with the Father, and please do not hesitate to ask for prayer!  I love each and every one of you!