Right or Wrong? U tell me!

I had a young kid, I would say may have been 12 yrs old, ask me a doozy one time and this question came back to the forefront of my mind as I stumbled upon an interesting website today.

SOOO…. I would love to hear your response! Please don’t take this more serious than what it was intended, which remember came from a 12 yr old.

Q: If it is so wrong for us to misuse a drug to get ourselves to sleep then why is it okay to drink coffee to stay awake?

A: _______________________(I want to hear it!)

Before you answer I would like for you to take a look at this website and just browse around a little. There is an extensive list of food and drinks containing caffeine, and you can enter your weight to find out how many you would have to drink or eat for it to kill you. It’s sorta humorous, but a little scary to think that caffeine is that potent.

Ex. 48.6 cups of Starbucks Grande Coffee to kill me at 235 lbs. Just imagine what it is for someone small!

Attention: This is not an add against Starbucks, coffee, caffeine, or small people. This was a site that was found and reminded me of an interesting question, so I posted the thought to see what others might think. Seth was not harmed in the experiment, but did consume far to much of his favorite Starbucks Christmas blend coffee during a boring show at Branson once and it hurt my kidneys a little. *jk*

Speaking to generations

When I was a kid the belt spoke very loudly to me, and often.  Today, it seems as though there are so many alternative methods spoken of to reach kids.  I on the other hand think that if they brought back the idea of a belt it would instantly cure A.D.D. children.  Just a crazy theory I have.

That is the correction part of life though, the moments when kids mess up.

What I am interesting in knowing is what are all the ideas and methods to teach kids today, that are effective.  Sure we have tons of solutions for correcting, but what about building up or molding into the kid you don’t have to beat their whole life.

I am speaking to kids all summer long.  Teaching them the things that will be stored in their minds and taken back home with them to continue to be changed is the idea that I have in mind, but if I am ineffective then they go home empty handed.   Some will be returning to the children’s home, some to an abusive family, some to pre-Christian families, and others to that mode that I like to call “just trying to fit in.”  They need their 2 weeks with me to be something of intense learning and growth, but what will they find instead?

I have been reading and studying books that cover the topic of dealing with teens today.  Some are really good, but still pretty vague on how to really reach them.  I don’t just mean be the guy they think is so cool for an old man, but the one they walk away knowing they can get in touch with anytime and will be willing to listen and help.  In order to do that I have to be effective.  Another words, I have to become someone much better at this than myself or they walk home with exactly what they came with.

I would love to hear some ideas, things that have worked for you.  If you don’t mind, I would love to hear the things that haven’t worked for you as well so that I make sure and stay away from that if I need to.  This isn’t something that I just need for the next few weeks either.  I could use this advice for years to come.

How do I better communicate with this generation that is from ages 13-22?  Take my hand and lead me as you type your words of advice.

A mark of realness

Today marks 3 years of sobriety for me. 3 years of never relying on men like Jim Beam and Jack Daniels to give me peace, and finally understanding the freedom I accepted in a man I meet every day, Jesus Christ. The days of walking on sand and feeling the rain are now days of walking the paved road and seeing the sunshine even through the rain. Alcohol was what I thought would get me through the miserable times of war, stress, and just dealing with the military. All the while I knew that God was watching over me and giving me chance after chance at understanding His grace and mercy to live free. I had gotten so bad at times that I would abuse the abilities the military had taught me to give IV’s to wounded soldiers. I was a certified combat life saver. The way that I used that though more than anything was as a whiskey drip. We would literally inject whiskey into the bag so that it would go straight into our bloodstream. One of the things that never crossed my mind was to do it just to have friends. I loved the taste, the feeling of relaxation, the peace that allowed me to sleep without nightmares. These were all things that I have found to enjoy life so much more without. God delivered me through all that time of relying on something other than Him, and He has since shown me the love that He has for His children as He gives me His work to do every day. This is not work that I regret or run from. This is not work that I have to deal with, but have the blessing of being apart of. For so long I lived in hiding, never wanting anyone to know that I battled with this issue. Since June 1 of 2005, I have never felt the urge to make a bottle of whiskey my God, but have grown to love more the God that has set me free.

Life is so real now! I feel more alive, take things in more, and can’t stand the idea of turning to anything other than God for something that is real.

My friends Aaron Reddin and J.P. Morgan(not the bank) work with people on a daily basis that are battling addictions. They are great with handling people with struggles to hold on to things other than our Savior. I pray daily for people who are willing to deal with people like I used to be. Those with the patience and love to extend to anyone who is battling with something in their life and feel they have no where to turn.

Today say a prayer for those battling addictions, and also for those willing to reach out their hand to bring them out of the struggles.

Biggest Loser

Well, I am headed out Sunday to begin a new adventure in life. I am starting to work on a number of things that have been troubling me for some time. These are all things that have really been getting in the way, and God has been bringing them to the forefront more and more every day. For the next 3 months before school starts back up I am dead set on losing these things. This will not so much have a physical presence of the “Biggest Loser” that you see on TV, but hopefully I will be losing so many things that keep my heart from truly being 100% healthy and full of God. So, I must become the Biggest Loser to become spiritually healthy.

1.) Run, workout, and ride my bike every day.

2.) Eat healthier, detoxify my body, and snack only on whole fruit.  I am drinking nothing but water, eating no fried foods, and not eating out.

3.) Wake up every morning and spend time with God before I ever take a shower, run, eat breakfast, or anything.

4.) Spend time praying for specific people, ministries, and things that have a place in my heart.

5.) Be in the Word every morning, noon, and night.

6.) Read, read, read. I have already made a small collection of books to read this summer. I will focus on 1 at a time, and read everyday. These books consist only of discipline, ministry, spiritual, and teaching ideas.

7.) Share the Word everyday. I will make sure that every day I take the time to share with someone what God has laid on my heart.

8.) Forget money, save gas, and live free. I don’t believe that God wants us all to be rich monetarily, because he has never given me a job in ministry that has paid more than $350 every 2 weeks. This is not a complaint about the money, but about how I’ve handled it in the past. My efforts are to let God lead me to do with His money as he sees fit, to show me how He wants me to make it no matter how much I make. I will not be driving hardly at all this summer, so I will not be paying the Oil Companies anything this summer. I have been offered a chance to live free this summer, all my meals included, if I will work with kids that need personal attention. This is a sign from God! He promises to take care of us. I am getting married in Oct and don’t really have anything to offer this marriage financially, so God is making it easier on me the summer before I get married. I am telling you, He is one smart cookie!

9.) Get rid of the Golden Calves. I have cleaned out my closet and kept very little, I have given many things away, and I am laying things down, all for the sake of Christ. I don’t collect much, but walking through the house the other day I realized that I have collected to many Golden Calves(toys that I don’t need) that take up far to much of my time that should be spent understanding God’s call.

10) Become peaceable. Recently I failed a psych test. The results were something that I have tried not to think about all along, but knew they might come up at some point. I tested positive for PTSD (post tramatic stress disorder). This is something that I struggle with in my sleep more than anything, but also have rare moments where I react in a hostile way that isn’t appropriate as a Christian. It only happens when I feel that someone I am really close to is getting treated unfairly. Ex…when my dad gets a terroristic threat over the phone that someone has a hit out on him, when someone makes Jenny cry because that is not easy to do. I am also hoping that this will help me to become more encouraging. I have never in my life done that enough. I grew up in a house where it was very seldom done, and always said that I wouldn’t turn out that way. So I am going to let God do something about that this summer even if it hurts! This may also help me to get the military mentality out of my system period. I expect reality out of people because the military got it out of me, but not everyone is comfortable with that. As my friend Clarence put it to me, learn to just love people with everything you have!

Like I said, in order to accomplish this I WILL become the Biggest Loser. I can’t wait! I am extremely excited to see what God does with me, even in the moments He rips, tears, and ponds on me to get me back into shape.

I’ll do it tomorrow

There is a list that hangs from my dash that covers an entire piece of paper of things that I need to get done.  Each afternoon I take a hard look at the list and mark off the things that I’ve finished, but it seems that throughout the day I have added things and it makes it look as if I’ve done nothing.  So I tell myself every afternoon as my day comes to a close and I head off to work out, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

A person never really thinks about what they are saying when they say things like this, that is until you wake up one morning with a call that makes you not want to get out of bed ever again.  I got that kind of phone call yesterday morning.  A man that I consider a dear friend, one that I adore taking advantage of just listening to him give me advice, had lost his son in a terrible accident.  John Dobbs son, John Robert Dobbs, was killed in an accident late Tuesday night.  The best article that I’ve found on this accident is HERE.  He was set to graduate Friday night from High School.  His father has told me a number of times the plans that his son had to go to college and what he eventually desired to do in life.  I never got to sit down and carry on a long conversation with John Robert, but we have spoken on several occasions briefly.  I have told his father several times that I would LOVE to have him come to UCA and join our college ministry.  Every time I saw John Robert he was leading something whether it was a devo for the youth group, a group outing to Waffle House, leading singing in church, reaching out to the elderly of the congregation, and so many other things.

Each time we went to the coast on mission trips, he was there.  However, I let myself get so busy while we were there that I kept saying that I would try and spend time with John Robert tomorrow.

For John Robert it seemed as though life was a can’t wait till tomorrow thing.  I am not saying that he thought that way at all.  What I am saying is that for John Robert, tomorrow seemed to hold so much in store.  He was full of life and every time you looked into his eyes you just knew that the Lord could use him in so so many ways.  Tomorrow had value.

My list continues to get longer, but someday that list will end.  Not because I finally finished everything that I needed to do in life, but because I am not immortal.  There is a place called Heaven that is not being prepared just so Christ can stay busy.  It is being prepared for people that get the Lords work done today, and don’t have the problem of saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”  John Robert got it done.  There is not enough tears in the ducts for that family and all they have meant to me, but there has been many moments since yesterday that I have imaginatively introduced John and Maggy, and their family, to God and just watched our God interact with them and try to heal their wounds.  God loves that family, and He carries love to so many others through the lives of the Dobbs family.  God WILL heal them and all who grieve with them, and we will all carry on the love of Jesus to others every time we think of John Robert Dobbs.  That is his legacy.  A leader that loved much!  God bless you John and Maggy!  Your son Honored his parents well.  What a proud papa and mama you have to be.  I love you John Dobbs!  Know that we at UCC are praying for you at all times.

Nothing but Blue Skies

Patch Adams introduced me to this song in 1998 as he would sing it to a grumpy old dying man as he sat bedside. This song is a favorite of mine and it even sounds good hear Willie Nelson sing it ever now and then. What I have come to be known as among my soldiers as is the old man trapped in a young mans body. They always laugh at the fact that I only listen to classic country radio on 105.1, and how I have lots of sayings that they have only heard from their grandparents, and how I believe that manual labor is the greatest jobs on earth to find, John Wayne is one of my favorite actors, and The Bishops Wife staring Cary Grant and the western Tombstone are my favorite movies. All these things are fact and I can’t really argue them, but I do love newness as well.

The new name of my blog for instants, is one thing that I do enjoy looking at. There are some other new blog things that I really enjoy looking at as well and I would love to introduce you to a few of them!

Brady Bunch(yes, this is his name), a fellow door greeter friend of mine has found an extra bit of time on his hands these days and decided to dive in with Dusty, Doug, Amanda, Me, and some others of our church, and start himself a blog. He has also started one for his beautiful baby girl, Baby Abby.

Aaron Reddin, a new found friend of mine that plays a key role in the life of homeless around Central Arkansas has taken the opportunity to jot down some thoughts that the Lord plants in his heart as he lives the life of reaching out to those ignored far to often. He is an encouragement to be around and a blessing to have as a friend!

Danny Holman, was a cross town youth minister for a long time, but made the move into a pulpit in Greenville, MS this past year. He has been gracious enough to let me crash at his old pad for a few months now, and has blessed our ministry at UCC with his son Neil. He is a forward thinker and one great speaker! He is also the man responsible for getting me hooked on N.T. Wright. If you are ever down around Greenville, stop in a have a listen! He is a man that is in the Word!

This is the kind of new that I love seeing!

There is one other new/not so new thing that I just simply would be sick if I forgot to mention. Conway, AR is the new home and proud owners of a TACO BUENO!!! GO CONWAY!!

As for newness and the changes that life has in store… nothing but blue skies is all I see!

Check out these new blogs and be blessed!

Faith is a blessing

Have you ever really just sat and thought about how much you depend on this thing called faith?

There are different types of faith. There are faith in technology, faith in people, faith in security elements that are suppose to keep you safe, and of course there is faith in God, I am sure there are others but I believe you understand what I mean when I say we have faith in a lot of ways in our life.

Here is where God really showed me just how much of a blessing it is though.

I was driving the old highway back from Searcy through Rose Bud and Enola just because I wasn’t in any hurry and I love the scenery through there better than taking the interstate. The drive wasn’t really any different than any other time in my life that I have driven that highway, but God chose to stand out a little more that day I guess. I was driving along looking across the horizon and happened to take notice of how it was raining ahead of me about 10 miles. It was the neatest scene to be able to just look and see it raining off on my right and then look off to the left just a bit and see it raining that direction as well. Then looking around you could see that there were gaps in the rain, for instance it wasn’t raining straight ahead. I drove a little while longer and had the sudden urge to just stop on the side of the road and really take notice of how powerful God has to be to just pick and choose the pattern that he wants it to rain in. So I stopped, got out, looked from side to side to see all the different areas where it was and was not raining, then I tilted my face toward the sky, and closed my eyes just for a second to thank God for that moment. When I did this, a mad rush of hard rain began to smack me in the face. I quickly opened my eyes and grabbed the door handle to jump back in the car to prevent getting soaked. Then as soon as I grabbed the handle, it stopped raining. It was almost as though God were saying to me, “Yep, it’s me!” I went ahead and got in the car anyway and got back on the road, but I didn’t travel far before he opened my eyes to other things of faith as well. Not far down the road I look off to the right on the edge of a field where a cow is standing still as her calf is under her feeding. The calf is barely old enough to stand as its legs are so fragile and wobbly. I had never thought about it before, but that calf has tremendous faith in that cow that whenever the belly is groaning it can always go to the cow and be fed. Then not far from there I passed through Enola and looked over at the local park where a father and daughter were out playing together. I tried to imagine the amount of faith that little girl has in her father to always keep her safe, always feed her when she is hungry, always be there for her no matter how bad life gets, and to love her. She is barely old enough to talk maybe, but she already has faith in something. Then when I got home, it was rather hot in the house so I went to turn the air conditioner on. Wouldn’t you know it on the hottest day of spring, the air conditioner had tuckered out on me. I was sweating like a stuck hog! Then I instantly realized that the reason I was so upset about the air conditioner being out wasn’t the fact that I was hot, I survived 156 degree day before, but it was the idea that anytime I got hot I could just turn the air conditioner on and be comfortable again didn’t come true this time. It had let me down!

There is comfort in being able to believe in something. It is a tremendous blessing to know that whatever the case may be, something or someone will always do the trick. To know that a light switch almost always does what it was made to do, that a car will almost always do what it’s suppose to do when we turn the key, that when spring comes everything will bloom again, that every time I walk through the doors of Holly’s Country Cookin’ Restaurant there is going to be some of that amazing macaroni & cheese, that when we become a part of a body of believers there is someone there who cares. The dreadful thing about all of these is that we get let down from time to time if we really base our life around these things to much, but oh how good it feels to believe in something so strongly!

Then God makes it rain down on our face to wake us up to realize that there is nothing as great as knowing that the God who can make it rain on the right and left but keep it dry in the middle, is the very God that watches over us and is there to feed us when we are hungry, there to keep us safe when we are scared, there to give us comfort when we feel alone. It is great to have faith in a lot of things, but to focus everything on them and miss out on that one shining moment when God decides to send the rain, you completely miss the biggest blessing of them all.

The love of God, the gift of His Son, the promise of a victory over death in the end, now that is something to have faith in!!! This is one choice to have faith in that you will find no let down. Of course it’s not all pure joy and laughter all the time, but God is always watching over us with open arms to hold us and you can take that to the bank.

What a blessing it is to have faith in a God that will never leave us, nor forsake us!!!

Finding ourselves in the River of Poo

So here is the post I promised about my weekend at the retreat in Indiana.  The other topics will come in future post.

So the title strikes a little curiosity maybe?  I am posting a video that will help you get an idea of what I will talk about in this post.

Well this was not the theme of the retreat, but it was one of the points that really struck a cord with me.  We were talking about the pattern of destruction that Satan tends to use to bring us to a finding that we are swimming in a sewage pond.  He first begins by making small things seem unimportant and it desensitizes us.  Before we know it our life is being consumed by things that aren’t really what we desire for ourselves at all.  It’s sort of like when Paul talks about finding himself doing the things that he doesn’t want to do, and being incapable of doing the things that he knows he needs to do.  We continue to spiral downward at a slow pace.  Satan doesn’t want us to figure it our before we get into the River of Poo.  He wants it to be a slow process without any alarming elements to bring us to the realization of where we are headed.  Then we wake up one day and there we are!  Right smack dab in the middle of that river.  By the time we get there we have lost sensitivity to even really caring anymore though.  So we bask in the warmth of the water, and get comfortable.  That doesn’t even sound possible does it?  But we do!  We get comfortable in the pit of destruction because we have lost touch with what is right.  It starts out by compromising things that we know we shouldn’t do, but justify it somehow.  We continue down that path a little more each day, and that is one more step in the wrong direction for our lives.  Then we begin to not even have that feeling inside that tells us it might be wrong.  Again this is just one more step in the wrong direction.  Then we lose all sensitivity to ever even caring whether it is right or wrong.  Most of the time we find this in moments of complacency.  The devil finds great joy in idol hands.  We are told to never become complacent, but we end up there because that is the destination of the path we are traveling.  After sliding down that steep decline we soon just throw our hands up and slide all the way down into that river.

It is only when we begin to drowned in that very river, that we turn our eyes to the Lord for help.  I sort of see this Peter sinking into the water and looking up and begging Jesus to save him kind of scenario.  He reveals to us his path that can lead back up that incline.  At first is seems as though it is so much work.  After all, all we had to do to get into that river was to just toss up our hands and slide on down.  There was no work involved.  To take that first step out we have to shed that old self and turn our lives back over to God.  This is then where our lives begin to be led by the Holy Spirit and we come to understand what was meant by lay your burdens down.  Jesus says for us to give them to him and he will give his to us, because his are light and easy.  There is no longer any strain to get to the top of that incline when our burdens are no longer of weight.  It’s no longer work, but just a pure and holy exercise of pleasing God.  When we find ourselves back at the top we find that our life is all about spending every moment pleasing our Father in Heaven.

Oh the mercy and grace that our Father has extended to us!!!  We are not deserving at all to get out of that river.  The God that we serve, the Father of our Savior, doesn’t want us to have to ever experience that moment in life.  However, we tend to find ourselves there more than we would ever care to admit.

This past weekend was meant to be a recon mission for our ministry to gain ideas of how to help restore the State Retreat in Arkansas among Campus Ministries.  We were able to walk away with some great ideas, but even more, I was able to have my cup refilled after too long a period of an extreme desire for something such as this.  There aren’t words to express just how much this retreat meant to me in my journey.

Like I said at the beginning, I will cover the remaining 2 topics I promised to post about, in the near future.  I hope that in some way they are able to convey just how much they have meant to me in my life this past week.

Latest lessons learned

What a semester it has been! The classes I am taking this semester have required me to be doing a lot of typing of 10+ page papers and when I have a free moment away from that, I truly don’t desire the feel of hitting keys. Things have slowed just a bit, so I thought I would take a moment to catch up with you.

There are a few major things that have happened in my life since last writing, but one thing at a time shall we.

You know the old Satan tactic of leaving you alone until you are feeling strong, right? Well I had arrived back in Conway after a wonderful weekend at the International Soul Winning Workshop in Tulsa, OK. I came home a day early to practice my sermon for Sunday morning, my one sermon a year weekend, and get some rest. After returning home I received a phone call that a former student of mine decided to take his own life. This was such shocking news that it took me a week to realize it was real. My sermon immediately changed from the fear we face when following God’s will, to the urgency that we need to have in delivering Jesus to a lost and dying world.

This young man was a source of strength for each and every one of his friends. He was so eager to do God’s will. He was the only Christian in his family. His father is on his 6th wife now. He was basically raised by a handful of families from his home congregation. They taught him love, more importantly the love of Christ. JP Morgan and I baptized this young man 3 summers ago, and this was after he had become a huge part of our life. I used to watch him and wish that I had the ability to light up a room like this young man when he entered the room. He never greeted with a handshake, always a hug. He hated the feeling of discomfort in the same room as him. He prevented this by getting to know everyone there.

Does this sound like a young man that would put a gun to his head?
If you knew him, you would have felt the same way. There is no way this happened!

We can be as strong as humanly possible, but it’s just humanly. We are weak in this flesh we call our temporary residence. There is not a mask or stature that can hide the fact that we are human. We can be strength for others, but we ourselves need a source of renewal when we have poured ourselves out. We can keep the mask on and always try to appear strong so that those who depend on us will never feel they can’t turn to us. This solution is truly what got him to this point. He had people to turn to and they were all there for him whenever he needed them, but if he turned to them it might make him seem weak.

The sermon…well it was one of those moments in time when you just wish that you could get someone else to see life through your own eyes. I am not the best at expressing things to get people to that point. Urgency was talked about, having an extreme passion for Christ was talked about, and a love for each other as well, but I just couldn’t get a feel of the level of soaking it up that was in the room.

I will wrap this thing up, but I won’t leave you out in the dark about the other events that have occurred.

1)Weekend retreat in Indiana 2)the moment the holy spirit revealed to me a message 3)and my chance to get away

These are the 3 things that I will try and fill you in on in the next few days. I need to get that done before finals week, right! haha

Time to read

For so long now I have had this feeling of just how bad I really need to read more. I feel like all I ever have time to do anymore is just read textbooks. Makes me feel really nerdy to be completely honest with you.

Now I don’t have a choice really. I am getting married October 11th of this year and don’t really know a lot about the subject except what lessons I’ve learned from watching other people. So, Jenny went out and bought us a few books to read. I will not mention them, because so far the one she got for me to read is not all that wonderful. Then again I am only a few chapters in, but I haven’t learned anything that common sense hasn’t concluded for me already. However there is one book that I took it upon myself to go out and buy. I posted a picture of the book, just so you would know what it looks like in case you felt the urge to seek some help in the department of marriage. The book is “Sacred Marriage: What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?” by Gary Thomas. The subtitle is what caught my eye. The reason being, I have heard so much about marriage for so long that there is really not much about her needs, and his mindset, blah blah blah, kinda stuff. This hit me because it is real! There is a spiritual connection between two people that has to be understood in order to be happy. This spiritual connection makes us complete. This book really helps you come to understand the true connection that you and your spouse have together with God. You don’t hear about, how she is sensitive and he is a beast, kinda goo. It is all about the spiritual aspect of the relationship.

Enough about that book, now to another thought that I have about reading. I am really trying to gain a wider base of topics that I read about these days. For so so many years all I would read was religious books. Before that I used to get in trouble from teachers, because all I would ever write reports about were sports books. Well it has landed me a wealth of knowledge about sports, enough to be dangerous with religion, and nothing about anything else in life.

What got me thinking about this was a quote of the day site that I read regularly, but it was a specific quote they had up a couple weeks ago that had me really thinking about the level of knowledge that is out there to be obtained by reading a wider array of topics.

Maybe if I post those quotes, you might see why it had me thinking and why it gave me the boot to the caboose to get to reading.

“The big advantage of a book is it’s very easy to rewind. Close it and you’re right back at the beginning.” -Jerry Seinfeld

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. -Jerry Seinfeld
Do you see?

Well if not here are some quotes that are examples of things said by a person who obviously doesn’t think much, and could definitely use some regular reading time.

I have opinions of my own –strong opinions– but I don’t always agree with them. - George W Bush

They misunderestimated me.- George W Bush (this statement was said during a speech made in Bentonville, AR on Nov. 6, 2000)

Well whatever you do, don’t misunderestimate (not even a word) the President or underestimate what reading can do for you.

If you are in a struggling relationship, about to jump into a marriage, or just would love to build upon what you already know about your relationship with the opposite sex, take some time to read “Sacred Marriage.”

If you aren’t interested in any reading at all on marriage, which that would probably include all of our college students right now, then please take some time to visit a book store near you and sit down and just grow in knowledge.

We could always use a smarter President!

Finding the words

One minute I have this overwhelming feeling that God is leading me one direction, then it comes to a screeching halt with the next turn. This past weekend I just couldn’t get it out of my head how that as Christians we often fall into this pit of lies from Satan that we should never have to experience pain as a follower of Christ. I would see flashes of scenes from the life of Paul and the struggles he went through, Stephen as he was balled up on the ground taking blow after blow, Peter as he saw the look in the eyes of Christ when he heard that rooster crow and his heart dropped to his feet. That is some pain. Those are all spiritual giants.

I realized that there is good hurt that changes our name like Paul, there is pain from the rocks that are tossed at us from the world, and even the pain from just knowing we hurt someone by our choices. We will hurt, it is inevitable. Christian or not, there is pain. Christ suffered, and God said that every woman would through childbirth after the incident in the garden of Eden.

So if we know it’s coming, what do we do about it? There lies the difference between being a Christian or not being one. Believers know to not turn away from Christ, non believers don’t understand that idea.

Then again, that is what was on my heart all weekend. Then it’s like I took a nap and woke up with nothing. God is making it seem like He wiped the slate clean of ideas. Is it because He doesn’t want that message preached, or is it because He is about to pour something really big into it’s place?

I don’t know, but I sit here writing wondering what it is exactly that I should be preparing for to speak on at the end of March.

I’ll be your Huckleberry

or teddy bear, sweetheart, valentine, sugar pie, or whatever your favorite pet name might be. What a gender separating Holiday! Definitely a Hallmark holiday, and a day when the female (if done right) walks away feeling like a champ while the guy might get a taste of chocolate if he’s lucky. That is the reason I have discovered that if you take them out for a nice dinner, you get something out of it too.

Yea, I love Tombstone! Which reminds me that one of the students borrowed that and I need to get it back.

So back to being the Huckleberry for a day. Jenny and I partially celebrated ours last night. (Note: if you have the same name as a celebrity there is a good chance you can find a t-shirt with your name on it for her to wear at cafepress) We hope to finally get to spend some time together Friday afternoon and actually go out to eat, but I was just bursting at the seams to give her my gift that I had thought so long and hard about. She liked it of course. (not like she would tell me otherwise,right)

My whole thing with Valentine’s Day is that, like Christmas, we are so willing to go to extremes to show our love for the reason for the holiday. It’s good, great, grand, and wonderful, but I would love to see a month of extreme love or something more like Black History month. A whole month in which you have to rush around to find the perfect way to say “I love you” to the people you care about the most. Yea, in a dream world we are talking all year around. Someone has to get the fight out of them at some point though, so it naturally can’t be all year around. That would mean that there would be at least a day or two where someone didn’t feel extremely loved.  If we can dedicate long periods of time for Lent, Black History month, and Hanukkah, then why can’t we do the same for love? Seriously, there is a whole chapter of the Bible that we can call out by name because it talks so much about love. For the most part we have a difficult time treating people with love all the time the way we do on this day. We could always use the extra practice. One day a year has yet to be enough. The divorce rate just might go down if we do! Democrats and Republicans might actually get along during Election year, na maybe not, sorry. Got caught up for a second there in the whole truly loving people idea. Went way to far with that one I guess. People might actually begin to feel from Christians what Christ intended all along if we make this thing a month.

I can’t afford that either, but I still don’t think it’s a bad idea. To give you a short answer why I believe this, here it is:

As the famous words of DC Talk go, “Love is a verb.”

The truth is, 21 days becomes a habit. Maybe we might actually catch on if you gave us a month.

Status too

Ok, so I know I’m not a loser. I didn’t mean to give you the impression I think that at all. The place I find myself spiritually is not the place that I want to be forever, but it is a far cry from where I ever thought I would be growing up in a small legalistic country church. The young lady I am engaged to is not the person I thought I would ever have a shot at marrying by any stretch of the imagination. Making it through trials that come with being in the military is something I was never able to see the end of the tunnel until now. I am deep into my major in school and even though it is so much tougher, I love it so much! There is one huge challenge after every day of attending class, and it helps me see growth toward my potential.

However, I am not wanting to type a whole journal entry on status in life again. This is just an update on what God has shown me since writing the first one.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 Paul talks about several things it seems, but there is one that God whispered in my ear as I studied.

We are FREE in the Lord, but that only makes us servants to ALL. Our status in life is that we are free, but there is responsibility in being free. There are all sorts of things that we can wrap ourselves up in as we journey through life. We can work our tails off to become President of the United States (please work harder than the last one), or we can try to obtain a college degree. These things give us our place in this world according to society. So we jump into our studies so intensely that we don’t allow time for God. We jump into anything and everything that will look good on a resume. Some people even stick around to try and gain a masters degree. Yea, I think I might be giving that a shot myself. But when it comes to anything that we choose to do in life, why do we allow it to handcuff us and lock us up? We forget that God is the one who blessed us with getting accepted into college. We forget that God is the one who blessed us with the knowledge to even obtain a piece of paper that says we completed college. So we have to in turn give Him some part of our day, week, month, year, or something. We literally reject the freedom He extends, and we make our status our idol. Then we lose that freedom because of the chains that bind us together with our idol.

If you want to be bound up in something, choose servanthood. The freedom that God blesses us with doesn’t mean that we are free from ever having to get up off the couch and stop watching TV. The freedom that we gain is so overflowing that we extend it to others around us by being a servant of Christ to them. We want others to come to know and understand this freedom in their own lives. Just watch and see the chains that your friends are carrying as they go throughout their day. You have a freedom that can help loose those things! It’s not work, it’s love! It’s being Christ to those He came to save!

My status, your status, everyones status, is that we are all nothing without Christ. We are uneducated people without Christ. We can have all the man made titles that loans can buy, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom(Psalms 111:10). To live is Christ as Paul would say. So President of the U.S. or president of a fan club, if you haven’t experienced the freedom that Christ offers, than you aren’t living.

That would make your status: Dead (opposite of live)

Status in life

This past weekend I watched in awe as Tiger Woods won his 8th straight Buick Invitation.  For all of those who don’t know he is tying and breaking records of golf legends such as Jack Nicklaus.  However, what you may not know is that Tiger just turned 32 on Dec. 30th of this past year.

I will give you a moment to wrap your mind around that thought (32 yrs old)!

WOW!

I turned the BIG 30 back in September of this past year for all those who didn’t know that fact.  I still have two more years to get as good as Tiger.  As a matter of fact I will always have two years to be as good as Tiger if you really think about it long enough.  He will always be a couple of years older than me and I am also quite sure that he will always be better than me at golf.  I am good and all, but I have to humble myself and admit that Tiger is the greatest in the world at this sport.

Just a small stat for ya here before I make my point.  Tigers career earnings to this point (32 yrs old) in his life are $89,413,633.  This is only the money he has earned by teeing off and winning the event.  This does not include commercials, endorsements, or and other earnings made on the side.

If I were really naive I would think to myself that I must be a total failure in life, because I am 30 and I have yet to even make my first million.  As a matter of fact I’ve even yet to obtain a degree of any kind.  In the worlds eyes I must truly be a miserable measure of a man.

Sounds dumb doesn’t it?  The saddest part about the whole idea is that at times I have honestly sat and thought to myself, I have failed in life.  People have a look on their face like, what a loser, whenever they hear that I’m 30 and still in college.  They also give me this strange look when they hear that I only have a part time job working with college students trying to teach them the message of Christ.  Part-time job, no degree, 30 yrs old, and live with 3 other guys in a trailer, what a total loser!

I would honestly love to have the sweet swing of Tiger Woods, the unbelievable athletic ability of a Lebron James, or even more so the baseball abilities of Albert Pujols.  The fact is, God needs me to do something different.

While our group was down on the coast at the conference a couple weekends ago I had the honor of sitting and listening to Chris Seidmon and Randy Harris speak a few times apiece.   I spent the past 11 yrs of my life being mentored by Willie Sandlin who passed away in 2007.  Today I had lunch with my Spiritual Mentor that came to town and stopped by to see me.  I have the blessing of working with Dusty Rush and Jason Turner each and every week.  I get to learn about campus ministry from guys like Chris Buxton and Kevin Wooten.  I have been blessed to get to know John Dobbs, Clyde Slimp, Tom Martin, J.P. Morgan, and others over the past few years.  What I’ve come to realize more than anything in this world is that I find more joy in my heart and peace in my life by getting to spend time with people such as this and learning from them then I have ever desired to be a millionaire!  God has placed within me this overwhelming joy that comes alive by being in the presence of spiritual giants and learning from them, then I have ever gained from any accomplishment in my life.

Yea, I have the military under my belt, war, medals, sports trophies, college baseball, etc…, but the world wants us to believe that it’s all about the status that you achieve in this world that matters most.  I believe that it’s the people you know.  What community you choose to surround yourself with.  Who influences your life the most.

I don’t want to be a millionaire honestly.  I am truly scared of the person I might become if I ever came close.  There is no way that I would ever want to give up knowing Christ, the community of believers that He has led me to, or the spiritual giants that He has surrounded me with.

I am blessed, but not by the worlds standards, but that my life is full of grace(Greek word here means “gifts”).

May our status be determined through the eyes of God, and may we stop seeking to obtain things that God is not calling us to obtain.  Who knows what you will become if you get them.  We all know what we will become if our status is given to us through Christ, and that is always saved!

Praise God! I’m saved!

Overpowered by a Mad Virus

What a trip to Panama City Beach it was! Great conference, great speakers, great praise & worship, great housing, beautiful waters crashing onto the sand, but too bad we couldn’t even walk outside to enjoy it!

Sounds crazy, well believe me we were in awe all weekend long at how terrible the weather was on the beach. The beach of all places! It rained the entire first 2 days along with being in the lower 40’s. Then on Sunday morning, last day, the sun comes out and you roll out of bed to see the most beautiful sight ever. Then it draws you in like a sucker, because it makes you want to walk outside thinking it will be in the 70’s. WRONG!!! We walked outside alright, but it was in the lower 30’s!

So this year there were walks on the beach, but they were short. There was gazing at the beautiful ocean, but no new members of the polar bear club.

We have returned home to discover all of the side affects of such terrible coastal weather. I was in bed ALL DAY yesterday and so was a few of the other students. Some of Arkansas Tech’s campus group was hit hard as they are down for the count with this MAD VIRUS as well.

I am up and in the office today, but not going to be hanging out in public places anytime soon. Memory slips my mind if there was ever a time in my life that I felt this terrible. And I am not even close to being the only one!

You are probably thinking that I was totally wrong about my last post then right? Well, don’t count on it! The Holy Spirit was alive and kicking in Panama City Beach as always! I can’t tell you how much of a blessing it was to see the impact the Lord has had on the lives of some who you would think have every reason to hate God.

2 young ladies from Moldova, which is located next to Romania and the Ukraine, testified to the life the Lord found them in and how He has rescued them from a life that would eventually find them as prostitutes somewhere in the world. They gave their reason for the hope that is within them, and it is Jesus! After their testimony Randy Harris, one of the keynote speakers for the event, stood to proclaim that “Satan has left the building!”

It was truly one of those moments in your life where you just know you got to witness a “Holy Moment” in God’s work.

Mad Virus or not, Satan can’t take away the feelings that soar from the chance to be a witness to the work of the Holy Spirit within the youth of America and Moldova today!

Praise be to God! For His love endures forever and ever and ever!

The strange feelings moments

Strange title I know, maybe a little bit confusing sure, but as I sit here at a makeshift desk in Conway, AR this very second I have such a strange feeling inside me.

It’s one of those feelings like you just know something great, unbelievable, unfathomable, is about to happen, but you don’t know what direction to look.  It’s as if your life is resting on the ledge of surprise and if you move to slowly or to fast the greatest things may just pass by without your recognition.

For instance, I’ve had this feeling before so I should be able to help you understand a little better at some point, Jenny and I were at Busch Stadium back in September of this past year watching the greatest team on earth take on the Houston Astros.  The crowd began to leave as they were down by four runs going into the final two innings of the game.  Honestly the games started getting a little boring, because all of the big name players were not even playing for the Cardinals that night.  Then came this strange feeling.  I looked at Jenny and said(no lie),”Something amazing is coming, I just know it is.”  She just looked at me and I know what she was thinking, “he is such a little kid sometimes,” but that feeling was there and I couldn’t sit still.  Well the bottom of the 8th and the Cardinals come to the plate and wouldn’t you know it Jim Edmond’s comes to the on deck circle to get ready to pinch hit.  He got up and lined one straight down the 1st base line and got a single.  The Cardinals put one on the board that inning before taking the field for the 9th.  Then when they came up to bat again, the feeling was even stronger.  The first three batters got on base, so the bases were loaded.  Boom, it hit me even harder, there was something really great about to happen.  Sure enough, one of my favorite players of all time, Albert Pujols, steps up out of the dugout with a bat in hand and his helmet on!  This was HUGE!  I for sure thought that I was going to have made that trip all the way there and not even have gotten to see Albert even play.  He got intentionally walked and the next 3 batters got out, leaving the bases loaded to end the game with St. Louis losing by 2.  It was a great night though because I got to see Ole Alby stand in the box with the bases full and cheer for him to hit that game winning home run.  What an amazing feeling it was!

All that to tell you this, our college group is leaving Thur. night to head to our annual college ministry conference.  We are taking a little over 30 people and 4 vans.  We will need your prayers for a safe journey to and from.  But that feeling, I have it right now.  I am not sure if it is for the trip, or if it’s for something else.  Is there something great about to happen here in Conway, or is it going to happen on this trip.  Maybe you can figure out that I am also harboring another feeling inside of me.  I am worried a little that I might miss that something great.  Then I will have to carry around the wonder of if it will ever happen again.  I pray that this feeling is because something great is about to happen in the lives of these students here.  There is a deep need for revival among us this very moment and I don’t want to miss a second of a life being changed because of the work of God.  I want to celebrate with them in that, and know who to encourage and in what direction.

And if it’s going to happen somewhere else, I want to be a witness to the greatness of God all around us.  The joy that comes with celebrating with brothers and sisters in Christ because of the work that is going on in the hearts of His children everywhere.

Do you ever find yourself in one of those strange feelings moments?

Please, lift us up this weekend, and believe me I will have a much longer story to tell than the Cardinals game story for you if that something great happens in our group while we are gone.

The Year in Review

I know I am a little past time to have this out, but I have just been reflecting here lately.

Over this past year I have lost a college student and a mentor. Yea, I know, starting off on a sour note with this review, but I wanted to end with all the great things so that you walk away as I am, looking forward to what the year brings. We also lost a former elder in our church who was a truly amazing man.

Went through the stress and heartache of getting the call to redeploy to Iraq for my 3rd journey into desert places. The news lasted for about 5 months before I learned that my body was beat up enough and wasn’t capable of handling such a task.

America’s past time was once again tainted with scrutiny and my favorite come back kid was included in the scandal.

The Cardinals had a not so great season and I attended my first ever game in New Busch stadium with Jenny.

My cousin and her husband had their first child, Lexton Philip, and he is already looking like a baseball player, or at least a golfer.

I knocked out one more year of college.

Began practicing some spiritual disciplines to try to continue to reach for the greatness that is out there for me to take hold of. We were all made for something more than what we have at our fingertips. We aren’t living in a 2 dimensional world. There is something far greater and I want to continue to make strides in the direction of becoming more complete spiritually.

Speaking of becoming more complete, I met the L of my L this year and it made all those hard times so much more bearable. Jenny and I started dating almost as soon as ‘07 started, and it helped me so much spiritually, mentally, and physically. I am much more cheerful, healthy, and humble, because of the love that I have found in her over this past year.

There is one final blessing that I have to mention. Jesus Christ didn’t come back to claim His own this past year. I am just as ready to go as the next Christian, but to live is Christ as Paul would say. We have that new chance this year to grow to be just like Him in all we do. Today and everyday He gives is one more chance to reach just one more soul that would die without Him if He came. He is here in our presence every hour of every day, and that is the same moments that we should be striving to become more like Him in our walk. We have to grow to have a greater sense of urgency for Christ in this new year He has blessed us with. An urgency that brings us before the foot of the cross each morning as we wake up anew. This urgency can bring us to the understanding that if Christ were to come, we would lose so many people we claim to love so dearly. People need the Lord, they just haven’t realized it yet. But who is gonna tell the world about Jesus this year?

Let’s make it Urgent!

Don’t let this one get away

For months now I have been having so many people say to me, “Seth, you better not let this one get away.” So after never having anyone say, “She sure is lucky to have you,” I realized that I look better when she is around. I act better, smile more, laugh harder, definitely have more people come up and talk to me, and enjoy a Cardinals game even more, when she is around. I have been told before that I do some pretty dumb things, but even I am not dumb enough to just let a young lady as special as Jenny just waltz right out of my life.

SO after spending a couple of months studying diamonds, visiting jeweler after jeweler, praying very intently, and sneaking around so that she would never have a clue about any of this, I asked her out to eat!

Yep, I told her that I would come pick her up and we were going to meet a friend for some Dixie Cafe which just happens to be one of her favorite places to eat. So, I came and picked her up and we headed to “pick up our friend.” We showed up and guess what…there was no friend! So we went in and the lights were off, but there was some really great music playing(Frank Sinatra to be exact). I search around a little for the light switch and found the dimmer which made for an even better romantic mood. haha cause that is me right! kiddin! Anyway, when the lights came on there was a single table sitting in the middle of the room with just a couple chairs, a couple dozen roses, and a dozen candles. I walked her over and sat her down. I held her hand and whispered some sweet nothings to her and then went to get the chilled bubbly. When I returned I poured us both some 1946’s finest wine (Sparkling Grape Juice) and sat down to tell her just how much she meant to me. After all the cheesy lines, I picked up a round box that was covered in candles in the center of the table and someone had placed a small box underneath. I untied the bow on the box and got down on one knee. I opened the box to expose a ring designed by me and hand made just for her. I asked her to marry me, and she didn’t answer. After a couple of minutes, or so it seemed, she wiped all the tears off her face and looked at me and said “Yes.” We hugged and laughed for a minute, and then I told her that I had one of her favorite meals planned. I went to the back and brought out our meals which came from Dixie Cafe(so I didn’t lie) and we sat down, ate, and talked about our future together.

And ole Franky Blue Eyes continued to sing! Our church family was the first to find out.

So to all my critics, I am not going to let this one get away!

No date yet, no place yet, or any of the other 100 questions, but when we have answers you will know.

Please be in prayer about the future for us. We want the Lord’s will to be done in every aspect of our relationship and will need your prayers to accomplish that very thing.

Failed attempts

Some of you may have noticed that I made a few post over the past month that only came up as titles and no body. For some reason the body of writing never showed up and was lost. I hope this shows up now that I think about it. The new year is here and I am trying to not make resolutions for this year, but instead make decisions that will have great affect on my future and rely on accountability from others to stick to those things tightly. Over the years I have failed miserably at sticking to my New Year resolutions and realized that for the majority all of them were really wasteful thoughts. I would stick to them for a month or three and then realize that it didn’t really make any difference in my life whether I did them or not and so they became just another failed attempt at disciplining myself. I have never been a person that has accepted failure well, and do not want to continue setting wasteful goals and failing over and over again.

This year I am vowing to more spiritual impacting goals that can change the course of our ministry and my walk with the Lord. I wanted to list some of them for you, so that when you see me you may challenge me as well to not fail.

1) Devote time in prayer each day for certain things that come about in my daily walk.

In the time that I have spent praying, I find that I miss more days than I hit with my prayer time. If I devote an exact time each day to this and put nothing else above my time of conversing with the Lord then my prayer life will become more effective.

2) Spent time each month with mentors in study of spiritual matters.

As some of you may have read, I lost my biggest mentor this past year and have struggled to move on and jump into relying on another mentor to become as important in my life. I truly need that time to just sit and learn. Without a Bible degree or sitting in Bible classes on a regular basis, I feel like I am killing time that I could be learning so much. I have plans of getting a Masters in ministry after finishing at UCA, but don’t want to wait till then to learn all the things that can change lives NOW.

3) Be more organized with my schedule and sleep.

This year I received help in regaining my energy after an illness that was keeping me drained. I misused that and made it into a negative thing and have gotten in the habit of keeping the late night candles burning. I know that with early bedtimes and keeping track of appointments, that I will become more affective on the campus of UCA.

4) Take the hand of a homeless man.

The Christ that we strive to follow had no place to lay His head. The whole world rest in the hands of a homeless man. For years now I have said I was apart of the body of Christ and have communed with Him each Sunday, but continue to walk past and ignore those who are different than me. Our college group is taking on the challenge of working with a homeless shelter in Central Arkansas to help those who have no place to lay there head. The Lord has put the homeless on my heart and I can not continue to push that away.

5) Become more positive.

I know and others have noticed that I struggle with not dwelling on the negative so much. I want to be more encouraging and to do this I must become a more positive person. There is nothing negative about the love of Christ, and that is the news that I want to bring to a dying world where the young continue to walk away from Christ because of the negativity they hear in the voice of the Church. It’s time to build back up that Church that’s foundation is Christ and nothing negative.

These are the major things that I am striving to work on as this new year begins. I ask that you pray for the changing of the heart Christ gave me, and that you jump on board as someone who keeps me accountable for these things and anything else that hinders my walk with Christ.

In Him,

Seth Simmons

The First

I once had a friend who would stand in line and get up to the front and start letting one person at a time in front of him.  It was the strangest thing to see, but have you ever done it?  The whole idea was that he loved to be next.  He said the greatest feeling in the world to him was being next.  To him, you just couldn’t beat that feeling.

I’ve tried that a time or two, and yea it feels good.  However, I got to experience some first this holiday that have felt pretty great also.

This was my first holiday with Jenny.  I haven’t ever gotten to do anything with her family except help them pack some stuff and help them get their girls out of the apartment they lived in.  I’ve seen them a few times, but never spent a holiday experiencing their traditions.  Jenny and I spent Wed. afternoon with my parents as we went to grab some lunch and then we hit the road toward Branson, MO.  Her family has time shares in Branson and spend a week every Thanksgiving and Christmas there.  I am not a fan of anywhere that takes too much time to get around because of heavy traffic, but I will have to adjust.  We did the outlet mall thing for a couple hours and then found a church to attend for Wed night.  It was an interesting little place.  That was my first time to ever experience what is known as an Anti-church.  Then after church Jenny and I took her sister and her friend Rosa to my first Branson show.  It was the Haygoods.  No comment on the show, but it was my first.  Then on Thur we had a wonderful home cooked Thanksgiving meal together.  Her Dad and I sat and watched some football afterwards and I kinda got the idea that maybe he likes the Cowboys.  This was after I made a few negative comments about how I feel about the Cowgirls.  Guess we can’t all have great taste in sports.  That afternoon we headed back to the great state of Arkansas and decided to tour Big Cedar Lodge just outside of Branson on our way.  Talk about some God country!  So amazing!  My first taste of the beauty of the Ozarks.

The next day was Jenny’s first time at a Simmons family get together.  They aren’t quite as big as they were before I entered the military when my Grandpa was still with us, but we did have a great showing.  Of course there was tons of amazing food to be eaten and football on TV.  Not just any football, but the Hogs!  It was the first time I have ever witnessed the Hogs beating LSU!

Most of the time if feels good to be next, but I have really enjoyed the first experience over these last few days.  Jenny’s living in Tulsa now, so we don’t get to see each other much at all.  I spent a lot of time thinking about all the ways that God has blessed me over this past year.  I’ve been giving those memories to God as I have seen them play out from day to day.  Getting to spend our first holiday together with each others family was definitely at the top of the list.  It has me looking forward to our first Christmas together now.  It’s just such a blessing to be with her this holiday season.

So I have to say that sometimes first can be the best feeling in the world!