God's will

"I have found His will is always good; but the best thing about it is that I find Him there.
…
Almost every young person you counsel as a pastor wants to know God’s will for his life. How much more important it is for him to know God than to know what His will is! If we know God, His will becomes evident. We can’t miss it; it will come."

Dennis F. Kinlaw

Less than 25% in US are married w/kid(s)?!?!?!

I had to post this, it's amazing to me. Less than 25% of Americans are married with children. By 2010 it is suppose to drop to 20%. Divorce rates are high, living together is growing in popularity. America is in big trouble.

how human?

How human was Jesus? That was the question raised tonight in the dorm. An interesting question. Did he take a number one, how about a number two? The debate was raging on how did he struggled. Did he experience being sick? Did he get the common cold? Could he have gotten leprosy? He was ordinary and yet, not ordinary by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, he did bleed just like we do. He was tempted just like we are, but without sin. Did he struggle with the normal things as he grew through puberty? How did he deal with being single in his 30s? Did he doubt his own divinity or want to throw in the towel in ministry? How often did he feel discouraged? Did he feel depressed in his ministry?

let it come alive.

“The great tragedy of the Reformation was that when Luther died, Piper said [another Piper], Melanchthon edited his work. And when Calvin died Beza edited his work. Melanchthon encouraged the people of Germany to read the Bible to find Luther’s doctrine in it, while Beza encouraged the people of Geneva to read the Bible to find Calvin’s. Thus the Word of God was stifled again.
That was a comment for which I will never cease to be grateful. I am Wesleyan in theology, but I need to be very careful that when I read the Bible my concern is not to find what Wesley taught, but to discover the Word of God. If Wesley opens the windows on the Word of God (and he does for me), three cheers for Wesley; but the important thing is that the Word of God comes alive for me, so that I can share it with others.”
Dr. Dennis Kinlaw
from Preaching in the Spirit

one of those days...

Do you ever have those days where you’re given a lot of information and you’re not sure how to process it all? I’m there today. I just got back from visiting UK and am trying to figure out how best to go about setting the gold standard. Advice seems to run parallel and in tangent at the same time. Everyone agrees they want me to show up and hang out, but they really want me to come to their weekly meeting. I am just now realizing everyone wants me to be another body in their meeting, you know, helping the momentum grow. I'm not sure that's the best use of my limited time, actually, I think it's a horrible use of my time. God, grant me the wisdom to handle this correctly.

headship of the church

I've recently had a conversation with a person dear to me about being part of the body.

We all agree that it is an important thing to not be a solo Christian. Many errors come from not partaking of the Christian community. Another danger is not putting yourself under the headship of the church. 3 John 1:9-10 gives us the example of Diotrephes, a heinously sad example of a man. “Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.” Here Diotrephes decides he doesn’t need to listen to John, the apostle, the man who spent three years with Jesus and was specially commissioned to lead the church! Or for that matter, any of the other church authorities! How often can we say the same thing? Regularly I meet young 20s who will have nothing to do with the church leadership. I agree we need to listen to what God is telling us, but without the context of Christian community, part of a local congregation, I believe we put ourselves in a great danger, bypassing the authorities God has prepared and instituted, both in the leadership of the church and also by not honoring the older men and women of our church. Please share your passage references and thoughts.

my Andimal

I realized that I haven't put a picture of Andi up on the web.... This could really backfire on me if one of her stalkers starts using it as their background... For my faithful, and not so faithful readers, here's a picture of my favorite girl in the world.

it is not the will to do great ministry....

"The will to win is the most over-estimated phenomenon in sport. It’s not the will to win – everyone wants to win. It’s the will to prepare to win that makes winners."

-Bobby Knight

prove what you know?

I just learned that you can't always prove what you know, and that's ok, you can still know it. A simple fact we overlook many times. I can't prove that I ate Oatmeal today, or that I had a pain in my ankle on Tuesday night, but both happened and I know them. Next time someone tells me to "prove it" because I "know it" I'll help them understand you can't always prove what you know. To prove something you have to have publicly accessible criteria. Thanks Dr. Walls.

life in Wilmore

I haven’t written on my blog in quite a while. I thank you for being faithful to a human who is less than faithful to his readers. It’s not that I don’t like you’re enjoyment, but blogging is just a hobby, something for me to do in my free time. Lately, that’s been non-existent. I am not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed spending time with my girlfriend before I left and now that I’m down at school, I’ve spent most of my waking moments preparing for the semester and making connections and setting the workings for the college ministry in place.

I should slow down a bit. I got the job of college minister at my church, First Alliance in Lexington. I felt a burden last spring that I needed to start doing ministry. I knew I needed to do it before then, but Greek was suffocating at best and left little time for normal things, such as reading my other class books. Now that I’m the college minister, I’ve been working hard at building relationships with campus groups at UK such as Crusade and the Wesley Foundation. I believe that God is asking the college ministry at FAC to reach out and start making an impact at UK. This means that I hope to equip the Asbury college students and send them out to UK to do evangelism, Bible studies and discipleship. I hope to also continue working with the UK students that are FACers. Needless to say, the first couple weeks down here are busy off the hook.

In other news, my new roommate is cool. He’s laid back enough and works with me on the things I love most. I am sleeping peacefully all night now. It’s a blessing that is ministering to me. My classes seem great, I need to be disciplined enough to make sure they get enough of my time. Of course, Andi, my girlfriend will be getting my time as well, and before anyone gets my time, God gets it. That’s a pulse check with me. I haven’t seen nearly anyone on campus still. It will happen in time.

The best story I have for you is that Andi, who gave me two goldfish last spring is watching them this fall in a twist of irony. Buwha ha ha. She thought she was going to get out of it, but somehow before I left, she took them. Now she’s trying to get me back by adding more fish to the tank. I should add that she bought a new tank and is now talking about upgrading the tank. It happens every time. I think that’s why they sell small tanks at the store, they know how people think and how they will be tempted to upgrade. It’s like crack, only fish owner crack. I told her that she is keeping the new fish. I’m not taking more fish, I was gracious once and spared their little fishy lives, but I don’t think I’ll tolerate more fish. I’ll keep you updated, semi-regularly.