Faith - Not Easily Shaken

It seems like at various points in your Christian Walk your faith is always tested. It might come with something that seems small and insignificant or it could be something that you feel like your just barely hanging in there. I feel like a lot of times as Christ followers things that aren't that big of a deal we can pretend that we were believing God for and act like we have had faith through a situation when it really wasn't something that we really had to cling on too. It's not something that you literally have to Trust God or you can't sleep at night. It's not something that if God doesn't come through then you feel hopeless or totally wrecked. I feel like i have a new perspective on faith recently because of the situation my family and I have found ourselves in. I came across this verse in Galatians 3:5 "So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." I think we all have bumps in our lives and some are smaller than others and then sometimes God mixes it up.. he desperately wants us to really have Faith in Him, because in that decision to have faith in God and resting in the fact that God takes care of us he blesses us. I don't know what season you find yourself in but I believe that there are little things and big things that you can right now actively give to God and have faith that God has EVERYTHING figured out. If you are like me and one min you are giving a situation to God and then the next your worrying like crazy, then I think this verse is clear that God blesses our Faith in Him and so continually make a decision to NOT BE EASILY SHAKEN!

10 ways to Celebrate even when your not with family

10 ways to celebrate even when you're not with family.


Ah, Thanksgiving. Most of us spent our formative years unhappily relegated to the kid’s table but were thrilled nonetheless to pilfer the dark meat from the platter making its rounds. The ideas of family and Thanksgiving dinner seem as inextricably linked as turkey and tryptophan.

But what happens when, almost immediately after graduating to the adult’s table, we find ourselves having graduated to a new phase of life—one that might take us hundreds or even thousands of miles away from our childhood homes, childhood friends, and childhood traditions? What alternatives exist for the momentarily orphaned among us who find ourselves with no family within a 300-mile radius come November? Plus, many of us have job commitments that negate the freedom that the four-day weekend promises. Others simply live too far away to financially shoulder the cost of a plane ticket so close to Christmastime. For others still, Thanksgiving simply isn’t as prioritized in their families as it is in others.

Modern Thanksgivings involve giving thanks in the unlikeliest of places with the unlikeliest of people: A new kind of family, people who don’t share bloodlines or any particular lineage. Together, they’re rewriting what being thankful means, and how it is expressed in the third weekend of November. For many twenty-somethings—those who hail from happy families and those who don’t—Thanksgiving represents a chance to revel in time spent together with loved ones (not necessarily family, but most likely friends), to participate in forming new traditions and new memories.

If you’re not going to be with family this year, for whatever reason, here are ten ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in some of those new traditions, creating new memories along the way:

Perkins/Village Inn/IHOP/Denny’s/Other “family” restaurant
These places are the ideal settings to eat a lot of semi-good and greasy food (and, if we’re honest, doesn’t that describe a lot of our Thanksgiving favorites?) and to hang out for hours upon hours. Grab a bunch of friends, settle into some comfortable booths and enjoy the free coffee refills for a day of thanks. Plus, you can get pie at most of these fine eateries! Bonus.

Picnic
This one might seem weather-dependent, but that’s only if you don’t get creative (and yes, summer-y climate dwellers, you should go outside). Regardless of where you go, pack a picnic basket full of summer favorites crossed with traditional Thanksgiving fare: Turkey sandwiches, potato salad (instead of mashed potatoes), cranberry jam, sweet potato fries/potato chips and, of course, apple pie. Put down a checkered table cloth, grab a guitar to start a singalong and make your Thanksgiving mobile this year.

Visit a nursing home or hospital
Sometimes in our planning, we forget about those in our community who are physically unable to join family or friends for a Thanksgiving dinner. So work with your friends to find a nursing home or hospital that might let you bring Thanksgiving food (and hopefully some good conversation) to people who might not get visitors very often. Just make sure to verify with the officials you talk to what kind of food to bring to avoid any dietary complications.

Friendly potluck
The most obvious one on the list: Invite a bunch of friends over. Have each of them bring a dish to share. And then, share. You’ll be surprised how amazing the day becomes (and how good of cooks your friends are).

Progressive dinner
A variation of the potluck idea, this one is a bit more involved. Essentially, you’ll move from place to place for each course of the Thanksgiving dinner. One person will host pre-dinner drinks and hors d’oeuvres, the next person will host a soup/salad/bread course, the next person will host the main meal and so on. That way the responsibility isn’t all on one person or on one home. Plus, you get to walk off your meal as you get from place to place.


Road trip
Just because you’re not traveling to see family doesn’t mean you can’t travel. Pile a group of friends in the car and head out to see places you’ve always wanted to go but have never gotten a chance. And if you have Friday off, even better—make a long weekend out of it and see how far you can get. Just make sure to find places to stay along the way. And for your dinner, stop at a local truckstop or roadside cafe—their food is probably just as good as what would survive hours in the car.

Thanksgiving luau
Just because it’s freezing outside doesn’t mean you have to give in. Throw a Hawaiian-luau for Thanksgiving this year. Make Hawaiian shirts and tacky grass skirts mandatory. Serve Polynesian food (get ready to hone your fish-cooking skills), listen to terrible Tiki-music and embrace the kitsch with your decor. And don’t forget that a limbo contest is a necessity.

Thanksgiving trilogy
Thanksgiving is a perfect day to kick back with your belly full of turkey and gravy and watch a movie. But why stop there? Have you always meant to watch that one trilogy but you’ve just never gotten around to it? So have a trilogy party. No one’s going to complain if you say, “Hey, after dinner, who wants to watch all three Godfather movies?” Besides, you can watch the first two and then sleep through the third one and be even happier. Other trilogies: Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones (it’s a quadrilogy, but still), Star Wars (two trilogies), Free Willy, Scream, Jurassic Park and the Three Colors Trilogy.

Serve in a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter
Chances are, your church has opportunities to serve in a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. It’s a great activity for a group of friends or a small group to engage in together—it’ll make you thankful for what you have and it’ll compel you to think outside of yourself and your own context. And on Thanksgiving, of all days, that’s certainly not a bad thing.

Game day
Holidays are the perfect times to break out those games that take way too long to play under normal circumstances—think Risk, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan and pretty much any game that involves things like “hit points.” Try setting up a different game in each room, so people can pick and choose what they want to play. The nerds will flock to Settlers, while the people who just want to laugh a lot will head to Catch Phrase or Apples to Apples. Plus, if you get bored with one game, there’s literally another one right around the corner.

If you're not with family, how are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving?

written by Revelant Magazine.... www.relevantmagazine.com

Droid VS Iphone

So here is the down low on the new Droid vs the Iphone.. Now I am someone who is soldout on apple so i believe I am a good person to have owned both the droid (google) and the iphone. Pro's for the Iphone are the overall interface is slightly quicker and easier to text. Another Big plus is the app store. The app store has over 100K apps, but that's not even the reason why the iphone wins in this category. The iphone has every app categorized and easy to find. The droid is very difficult to find what u are looking for and alot of apps that you click on (droid) don't even give u a screenshot what you are bout to download, this is important especially if you are about to pay for something. One more big plus for the iphone is the incredible ability to sync with your mac and itunes. Your pictures and Music are instantly imported to your computer, also music, podcasts. This is one of the best selling points for the iphone. I like playing games on my iphone and so far I have had a hard time finding the same caliber of games on the droid.

and now for the winning points for the Droid

First of all the network is far better with verizon. If you are a AT&T user and next year the iphone come verizon s to you would be crazy to stay with At&T!!!! I dropped so many calls and the network is just smaller. The Droid comes with a amazing 5.0 camera mexapixel vs the Apple 3.2 camera. You can do video with the droid and just hands down the camera for the droid is better. Another great thing the Droid offers is the next step in Google chat and Latitude which allows u to see where everyone is. This beats the iphone for me easily. The Droid also has turn by turn navigation that is insane! It works flawless and is the best turn by turn navigation that i have ever seen. The Droid has a bigger screen and has a higher resolution. I think the phone is very awesome and I am very happy with it.

Hope this helps for everyone out there that is a iphone user and thinking about switching back to Verizon or if you are thinking about getting an iphone.

Update

All,

I have had the swine flu all week and to be completely honest it was very difficult to sit around and do nothing for a few days. I tried to enjoy it but between my coughing and fever I found myself longing to be back at church, preaching it up a storm and counseling lots of awesome teenagers! I guess what I am saying is, it's a good feeling when your living the dream! I don't have the biggest house or the nicest car or all the money in the world but what I do have a purpose that when i lay my head on my pillow i can say to my self, WOW TODAY WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! I love it..

Also take a moment to pray for everyone out there who is sick and not feeling well because of the flu season..

Last week I preached a sermon called Do you have the Guts? I really challenged the students to step up this year and be gusty when it comes to sharing our faith at school and inviting their friends to church. It says in isaiah "Forget the Former Things do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

My first point

1. Forget the Former Things
People are always going to try and get you to remember who you used to be before Christ or before you stood up for what you feel is right, so just know that. We can't be a generation that is always looking back but looking ahead so that people around us also can see how we focusing on the mountain mover not the mountain.
2. It's a new thing!
Maybe you have messed up your testimony at school or work or you think you have made a fool of God. The truth is we will all continue to make mistakes, that doesn't mean we should continue to make mistakes but I encourage every single one of you to understand that God's mercies are new every morning and that God wants to do something new with you this year! Another part of the verse says "do you perceive it?" Do we see our schools or work place how God see's it? Do we see how he could absolutely change the landscape of Virginia Beach this year? How it's ready to happen it we will just grab it with faith? I recently went out to Officer Dave's Football team practice where he is helping the green run rec football system by taking in troubled students and helping them by football. It's called the Tuff Program and it's workin. The team was featured in the front page of the paper and they have won back to back championships in the league, not to mention Officer dave has started this league that is reaching hundreds of youth and parents. Just imagine 3 years ago Officer Dave meeting with the Green Run Rec officials and them saying "Hey noone wants these kids, they are losers, troulemakers , and officer Dave saying "I don't want them"! but you see he saw something that noone was else saw.
So let me ask you do you see what noone else see's? Through the negativity and the fronts? Do you see what God can do in your World?
3. Be Gusty and Courageous
I then talked alittle about Joshua and how he must have felt after Moses dying. We love the verse in Joshua that says be strong and courageous but we fail sometimes to read the next part of the verse that then tells Joshua to do everything according to the laws and don't look to the left or the right and you will prosper.
4. Telling someone about Jesus Verbally is just as important as Living it!
We have so many Christians who don't live it flat out. They are right there in the locker room talking about girls inapprotiate, they are right there at the lunch table gossiping about someone, they are right there on the bus cussing just like everything else! The bible says we are to be be of the world but not in it.. How awesome would it be if we have a group of people from our church who Lived it! they didn't look to the left or the right!

Remember that God is with you!! If he is for us than who can be against us! Amen ...

Hope this encourages you and provokes you to be gusty and courageous this season of your life!

I'm Not Naked!

We had a great week at church last week with a guest apperance from some crazy aussies! John James and Pastor Andrew brought a great word and the youth seemed to really respond. I am getting really exicted about planning for the invite night this year which will be Oct, 1-2! We are thinking bigger than ever! We really need God's help like never before and I believe our church is up to the challenge! More info will come!

This week the Title of my message was I'm Not Naked lol. Pretty funny for a sermon title but we talked about Adam and Eve in the Garden and how when they messed up they hide from God. They sewed fig leaves together to hide themselves. Gen 3:7 is interesting because God is walking in the garden and looking for his creation like he does all the time and something was different this time.. They were hiding.. he asks Adam Who told you that you were naked? and you get this sweet sweet picture of the relationship our Savior wants with all of us, were there is no hiding from sin,guilt,shame and other temptation. Up to this point Adam and Eve had never hid from God before. Can you imagine what God is thinking?

Jesus confonts this mentality that we have to be perfect to come to God and that we have to put on the happy christian front all the time. Jesus said in Matthew 22:16 "Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean". My Points for the night were

1. The inside will always come out
2. Run into Gods Light not into Hiding
3. Don't Give Up

I think we all should strive not to hide our junk from God, because he knows everything that is going on already and being our Father he knows what is best for us. Don't give up if your out there and your struggling with something, continue to give it to God and Run into God's Light...

DONT HIDE!!!!

Your Faith

This was my sermon for last week and I thought it would be cool to share alittle about it. I came across a bunch of verses in Luke ex. (Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well.") Look at the part "YOUR FAITH" Interesting Jesus is God and he has probably passed a bunch of sick people but this guy gets healed and Jesus says to Him.. "YOUR FAITH" I think alot of times people view the church as kind of a nursery.. safe colors, encouraging messages, and it becomes without knowing it this breeding ground for people to come back every week with no empowerment to be the people that God has calles us to be. Jesus said because of your faith! What kind of Faith are we carrying around? Jesus said in matthew if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can say to this mountain be moved! ALl it takes is for us to mustard up a little faith LOL... Think of how many Christians sit around and wait to be feed when it's time for us to realize we are empowered, and motivated to do something incredible. It's like in Hebrews when Paul is talking about still drinking baby's milk when we should be eating solid food. Here are three ways for you to with God's help to have more faith in your life.
1. Take Chances
2. Use Opportunities
3. Dream Big