Born to be wild!

What were you born to do?
~this is one of the questions Pastor Byron asked this morning. A very though provoking question. He spoke this morning on Rahab the prostitute, the story is found in the second chapter of Joshua if you would like to read it, but it tells of how Rahab allows two of Joshua's spies to stay at her place and hides them from the King and tells him that they were there but were no longer. This eventually leads to the fulfillment of God's will when Joshua's army conquers Jerico. All of this to say that Rahab wasn't born to be a prostitute, but a servant of God. Pastor Byron asked the question, "do we let our biggest failure define who we are?" I know so often in my life i do, but i realize that i was born, like Rahab, to be a servant of God. My failures may not be as extreme as hers, but nevertheless i often let them define who i am. That is exactly what the devil would want me to do. But because of Christ i have victory over my failures. "The power of God works best in weakness."( 2 Chorinthians 12:9) We sang a song this morning that i know satan hates to here, it's called Shout unto God, it's pretty much a chant and the words are:

the enemy had been defeated
death couldn't hold You down
we're gonna lift our voice in victory
gonna make Your praises loud

shout unto God with the voice of triumph
shout unto God with the voice of Praise
shout unto God with the voice of triumph
we lift your name up, we lift your name up

Our lives should proclaim the truth of this song. No more living like were defeated. No more walking with our noses to the ground. But living every second to bring Glory, Honor, and Praise to our Creator, the One who gives us victory, the One who took our filthy lives and made use clean and whole.

Another EYE OPENING sunday at C3!

Sunday morning at C3 was amazing as Pastor Byron continued the series Barbaric Grace. Below I have typed a few of the things that He said that really hit me.

"Comfort keeps us from success."
~As humans we all tend to gravitate toward comfort, but God often calls us to do things that are outside of our comfort zone. I am confident enough to say that if God hasn't called you to do something that is uncomfortable then you aren't listening well enough.

"Faith is the only thing that defeats fear."
~One thing I like to remember when stepping out in faith is that God will never fail. I often have insecurities about myself and doubt that I’m good enough to do what God is telling me to do, but I have to remember that I didn't create myself. It was God who created me this way so if I doubt myself then I doubt God. Therefore, I should drown my fear in faith.

"Why do we define ourselves by what others think about us?"
~I’d like to say that this question doesn’t apply to me, but I would be lying to myself. It’s ok to be cool and to be liked by others, but when that becomes more important than being the person God wants me to be then we have a BIG problem.

"Jesus feared the cross, but His love for us was greater than that fear."
~Love from the father does a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick on fear.

I want to serve God. How do I do it?

I have talked to so many new believers who are so stinkin ready to serve God they can hardly stand it, but a lot of them think that in order to fully serve God they must become a minister, or a bible scholar. This couldn't be further from the truth. Yes God calls people to become pastors and bible scholars, but God calls the majority to other things. God has placed a skill and a passion in everyone of us. I believe in order to serve God to the utmost we need to purse our passions and develop our skills for the purpose of Christ. God doesn't call us to do things that we can't do, he has placed inside of us all we need to fulfill His will for our lives. I know that many people don't really know what their passion or skill is, and to be honest if you don't know you can serve God just as much as someone who does. The bottom line when serving God is loving Him and loving others and we can all do this.

Our story isnt written by what we think, but what we do.

Tonight rob bell is speaking at hard rock live, and several people at C3 are going... I'm not one of them :( but anyways, i decided to check out his church and see if they had a podcast that i could listen to. Well they did and guess who was there guest speaker this past sunday. One of my favorite authors, Donald Miller. His message was about story telling, and what it takes to make a great story, and how each of us tells a story with our own lives. It was a great message, you can get the podcast if you go here and click on add podcast to itunes. Anyway, i had heard this analogy before and i loved it, but what hit me smack between they eyes was when he concluded with, "Your life story isn't written by what you think but what you do." That is so true, you can know the bible from front to back and you can pray like nobodies business, but what is your life story? What are you doing? Donald Miller also said, when writing a story you should first come up with a climatic moment and then figure out how to get your character there. For us as Christians our climatic moment is when God says to us, "Well done my good and faithful servant." What are we doing to get there? What am i doing to get there?

Blah!

So, i have been feeling a little under the weather lately. So much so that i didn't even feel like blogging this week. But now I'm feeling a lot better, but I'm still not 100%. But hopefully i will be by Sunday.

So i think i am going to start doing a quote of the day on my blog. And today's quote comes from my roommate Barry Oser who, after saying that he mispronounced the word thesaurus until he went to college at the age of 20, said, "Dude... I'm stupid man... I have the vocabulary of a freakin four year old..." It was funny at the time. I don't know if anyone else will think its funny... but i did. Oh, and he's a very smart dude by the way.

A lot of my friends from back in the GA have started blogging. and it is a really cool way for me to keep in touch with whats going on in their lives. One thing that i have learned since i have moved to orlando is that there are awesome people everywhere. I miss my friends in georgia, but i have made tons of new friends in orlando in the three weeks that i've lived here. Sometimes people are just so freakin nice. Its so amazing.

Barbaric Grace!

bar·bar·ic

1.	without civilizing influences; uncivilized; primitive: barbaric invaders.

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Today Pastor Byron launched a series called "Barbaric Grace". It truly opened my eyes to how barbaric Christ was and how Barbaric we should be as Christians. The whole idea of church and the system of church has become so civilized. I don't think that this way of doing church is from God. You don't have to agree with me but just hear me out. I think that a lot of churches have become so routine and boring. Get all dressed up on Sunday morning, sit in the same seat on the same row in the same pew, sing the same songs our parents use to sing, say hey to the same people we always say hey to, talk about events that we can have to attract lost people, but it always ends up being the same old shindig every year. All of this sounds very civilized and BORING! Of course at this type of church one does leave with a feeling of satisfaction, the type of satisfaction you get when you do something you really don't want to do but you know its best when you do it. Like going for a run. Well i think that church, rather than being one's run, should be one's meal before the run. It should prepare us for the battle that we fight during the week. I truly feel that C3 does that, but back to barbaric grace. It was barbaric for Christ to go to the cross, but it was through that barbaric act that His grace covers my sins. And because of this i feel that i owe my life to Christ, and to follow Christ's example I feel that if i were civilized about my faith and the way i live, then i would be disobeying God. I feel that God wants us to be barbarians when it comes to our church, our lives, and our worship and there is honestly no other way for Christians to be.

Hillsong United Conference.

So this weekend was amazing. Me, Darrell, and some friends from back in Georgia went to the first ever hillsong united conference in America and it was really amazing. I learned so much from it and i would love to share it with you, but honestly right now it is all a blur. I was given so much information and it hasn't quite had time to digest yet, but when it does i will let you know. :)
I am super excited about church tomorrow as we launch this new series called BARBARIC GRACE! Its going to be wild!!! I let you know more about that tomorrow.
And one more thing... is it weird that as i am writing this, everything I think of to write is in an Australian accent. If you don't know, hillsong united is from Australia, so everything i heard this weekend was said with an Australian accent.... Anyways, Have a great day!