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!