What A Ride!!!!!

I want to clue you guys in on a radical, and yes I mean a complete radical...One who I have often times referred to as I am walking in my journey as a youth pastor. One who does not have it all together, whose life is a mess, and who is continuing to learn about Jesus, and how to walk with Him... This guys name is Mike Yaconelli, and he passed away a few years back after he gave this message at a youth conference. If you will please watch all of this, and then leave me a comment on what you thought!! I know, mom, you may have to wait to watch this til you are at my house, but I encourage you to remind me to watch it!!!! Man this guy is amazing, I have been presently studying his book called MESSY SPIRITUALITY, and classify it as a must read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So watch the video, and then I will come back to the blog afterwards...Mike died in a car accident.



What is so neat about this video, is the fact that he truly knows where He was called in life, and the fact that he would push the envelope is just evidence of who he is in Christ. You may not agree with his terminology of some things, but he is real. You may not agree with his methods, but he is real. You may not agree with the way that he looks, and really he does not care. What he cares about is God!! What he cares about is being there for the teens. What I have learned from this, is my office can be here at the church, but that does not mean that I have to hunker down there and plan all day, it means I need to be out seeing my teens regularly, showing up at their schools at their sporting events, going to mickey d's with them, and doing life with them. At this current time, we have some teens in our youth group, that not too many churches would want in their church, ones who possibly do not believe in God, ones who claim that they really do not think that much of Jesus....But man I am glad our church is the way it is when it comes to these things, and in all honesty if it was not, then I would have to get grounded every week by allowing them to come,lol....Right now I am so encouraged by Mike, and by God, that I am where I need to be, and teens, we need to focus on each other, and focus on being Jesus, although unlike Jesus, we will never get it all right......you may be a mess, but Jesus loves you right where you are at, and as I read a christian shirt..... He loves the hell right out of you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing sentence, and realization that because of Jesus' love,we who believe in Him and live with Him, will never have to experience that !!!! Our job, to clue people in on God's love for them......man what a ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please do not view the video as someone being a rebel, but someone being who God has created him to be, and who we all need to be!!!!

Until Tomorrow....or maybe later tonight
Tug

Where are you, Tug????

LOL, what a title for a blog, but yet it is really kind of interesting.....in my studies this week, as I am studying experiencing God, right along with the teens, and then discussing it with about 15 of them every wednesday night, I have realized that God is always looking for us in fact, I thought it was amazing this week in Day 3 and 5 of week 3 Where God came seeking after Adam and Eve, even though they have sinned against Him, He once again sought after them, although there outcome of getting kicked out of the garden was not the greatest, I think it is amazing that God had fellowship with them every day.....walking in the garden with them!!!! Then when they sinned God came after them to restore their relationship.....Was he happy with them, He went to find them, even though He knew exactly where they were, and that they had sinned against Him... In Genesis 3, you will see the story, that they were hiding from God after they sinned, as many of us sinners do, we hide from God and do not want to ...i guess man up to our sins!!! Well here is a perfect story of God's love, not only did He know where they were, but He knew exactly what they did, but yet found and asked the perfect Love Relationship question!!!!! "WHERE ARE YOU , HE SAID?" (Gen. 3:9) God knew that something had happened to their relationship, because they were not in His presence!!!! You see, when your relationship is what it should be, we will always be with the Father,we will be ready and waiting for his next move!!! Instead sometime, we like to try and take ourselves, and hide from God!!

What I really am discovering, is rather than us running after God, God runs after us as well, HE TRULY WANTS TO BE WITH US.....And even when we sin against Him, He wants to provide for us....In this story, although they sinned and were ashamed, God still provided them with clothes to cover up with!!!! WOW, what an expression of love that I truly have never seen!!!! God, pursues us, provides for us, and then will not leave us alone.......as Monica in our youth group calls God, HE IS OUR STALKER!!!! The sad thing is sometimes we do not see Him, and sometimes when we do, we run our own way, and try and get away from Him, still to find out that He is right there where we left Him, the question is why do we run, why don't we just give this relationship what every relationship deserves, our undying love!!!

I know in my relationship with my wife, a big thing is the time that we spend together is about us, and we shut everything out.....well at least we need to!!! along with my relationship with God, I am seeing this about my wife too.....but just like every relationship, time is a big thing, and God wants us to spend that with Him....If Adam and Eve would have stayed in His presence, what would this world be like today?????

So my challenge to you, is to encourage you to really relate to God, and let Him know where you are at, alot of times as Christians, we feel that God knows where we are at anyways so why do we need to tell Him....In a relationship, conversation is not just one way, so we cannot leave it at that.........

so what I am learning is to try and hear God before he knocks!!!!

Rev 3:20 says, "Here I am!! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with ME."

You see if I am in God's presence, He will not have to knock, the door will already be open, and He knows where His seat is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welp, hope this was encouraging to you!!!! And Dennis, if you read this one, I LOVE YOU BRO, THANKS FOR THE REPLY, AND I MISS YOU AS WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until Tomorrow
tug

The Woman behind my FAITH

I want you to right now sit back and think of those who have impacted your life, those that you can never get out of your head, those who you have had great times with, you have cried on, skipped school to spend time with, danced with when they never would dance with anyone else, learn from, get a ruler broken over your rear by this person, could'nt wait to hear this persons' voice on the other end of the line, was driven by, encouraged by, loved by, and you can honestly say that if it were not for this person in your life, you would definitely not be the person that you are today......I know alot of those items that you read, you could probably not relate to....but that was Grandma to me......

This Blog site, is dedicated to her, the woman behind my faith, the woman behind my mom's faith. I really want you, who read this to see the severity of the impact that you can have on one individuals life. My grandma was that to me!!!! It has been over 2 years since her battle with brain cancer was brought to an end, and the time was right for God to take her home, or at least that is what He wanted to do. I still cannot bear thinking of life without her, and I wish that it was not real.....that is the reason that I have only visited her grave once since she has passed away.....I cannot think of her being gone....It truly tears me up!!!!! Anyways, this lady was everything to me, growing up, I would act like I was sick, to miss school and just spend time with her, listening to her do her victory song, after beating me in board games, til the end when it hurt so bad to have her at home, and know that she could not play that game with me anymore, because of the effect that this cancer had on her!!!!! When you love someone so much, it is so hard to let go, and I am praying that God will give me that, not that I want to let go, but just that it would be easier!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the woman behind my faith (sorry I am rambling) but when I talk about this, I have so many thoughts in my head!!!!
In 1 Timothy 1

Encouragement to Be Faithful
3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

This passage is the passage that I hang on to, I know without a shadow of a doubt, that my faith would not be as existent, if it was not for my grandmother, who passed it on to my mother, and then to me!!! Every day of grandma's life was spent trying to impact others for Christ, even while she had cancer she was witnessing, and if I remember right, at her funeral, one of the nurses that took care of her, trusted Christ!!!!!!!! up until the end she was committed!!!!

I do not want to get rid of my thoughts of Grandma, but I want to be renewed by them, I want to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, I want to be the person that Grandma was to God, a fully devoted follower, with none of her self in the mix, and I may even break out in the victory song from time to time....So as you are possibly gonna start reading these blogs, I want you to know that I am going to do my best to be renewed in Christ daily!!!! What a great way to do this, write a message to others about what is going on in your life spiritually and hope to impact them only by Christ!!!

So in closing what I would like to add, and I know this is really long!!! There is this song that is out by disciple, and I have changed some of the lyrics, as if I would write it to grandma!!!!

The song is called Things left unsaid-Disciple

It's just a matter of time a few years ago
I saw you, you were fine
Remembering what you said
About the book you read
The one that taught you
‘bout the Beginning and the End
Oh how we'd talk
For hours upon end
What I would give Just to do it again
But you're lying there In this hospital bed
Won't you open your eyes And let's talk once again

If you fly away tonight I want to tell you that I love you
I hope that you can hear me I hope that you can feel me
If you fly away tonightI want to tell you that I love you
those were the last words you told me When we were face to face

Well I've been here all night
And I'm watching you Breathe in and breathe out
I wish this weren’t youI wish this was a dream
I wish you’d have life And then it would seem
That there could be hope I could say to your face
If it weren't for you That there would be no grace
That's covered my life You took the time
To speak into my mind And my heartWords of life

If you fly away tonightI want to tell you that I love you
I hope that you can hear meI hope that you can feel me
If you fly away tonightI want to tell you that I love you
those were the last words you told meWhen we were face to face

So goodbye for now
And I'll see you again Some way, somehow
When it's my time to go to the other side
I'll hold you again And melt at your smile
Now all I have Are the ones that I'm with
And you taught me not To take for granted
The time that we have To show that we care
Speak into their minds And their hearts While they're here
And say I love you

If you fly away tonightI want to tell you that I love you
I hope that you can hear meI hope that you can feel me
If you fly away tonightI want to tell you that I love you
those were the last words you told meWhen we were face to face