Filed under: Ministry, Stories, Think About It | Tags: church, live, Ministry, personal, prayer, twitter
The other night, after having a great brunch with a friend, and doing some homework, I got a little overwhelmed with life, even to the point of becoming a tad depressed. Then I talked to my dad. Both of them. My dad called me on the phone and we had a wonderful conversation just about all that’s going on in both our lives. It was nice to know that we were struggling with some of the same things. We were open, honest, and vulnerable about our lives. And it felt great.
Then we prayed and talked to our Heavenly Father. It was just what we both needed. I don’t know about him, but I was crying so hard by the time we finished — I mean that ugly cry too — that I couldn’t even breathe out of my nose. But I felt so much better. Like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder. There was little doubt in my mind that my Twitter family needed to hear what I had just received. Below is what I shared. (If you’d like the high-res photo, click here)
Filed under: Ministry, Relationships, Think About It | Tags: Affairs, Da TRUTH, marriage, Pastors, Relationships, sex, Tye Tribbett
I had planned to blog about the new Disney movie, “The Princess and The Frog,” this week, yet I feel something more pressing right now. (Please believe that I’ll come back to that topic though).
It seems that 2009 is becoming the year of the affair. I don’t know that a month goes by without someone admitting (or being exposed for) an extramarital affair. And honestly, it break my heart.
Now, I have been silent about the whole Tiger Woods incident because I really had nothing new, appropriate, or beneficial to add to the gossip and speculation currently in circulation. However, after reading a tweet (and subsequently doing a bit of research) I found something that I was equally shocked and disappointed about (which I won’t go into the details of because you can find them for yourself). Allegedly, Gospel artists Da T.R.U.T.H. and Tye Tribbett have both recently had extramarital affairs. I guess we can chalk them up beside the dozens of other Christian artists and pastors who haven’t been completely appropriate in their sexual relations — whether with the opposite or the same sex. (I know they’re only allegations, but many times, the allegations are equally as damaging as the confirmation of the affair. Do we need examples? I think not) (more…)
I used to love to ride my bike when I was a kid. It was something I would do nearly everyday. My favorite thing to do — find the biggest hills my neighborhood and race down them with my friends. The only catch was that at a certain point we would stop pedaling and just coast. Man, we would fly. We would go faster and faster until we reached our top speed at the bottom of the hill. We’d maintain momentum going up the hill from which we just came down, but we could never, as hard as we tried, coast all the way to the top. There would always come a point at which we would have to pedal and push forward to make it up the hill. Either that or we’d turn around and roll back down the hill only to come to an eventual stop at the lowest point.
Too many Christians are coasting. They’re not pedaling, pushing ahead with intentionality. Instead, they’re content with letting yesterday’s successes sustain today’s movement. Coasting in nothing more than mediocrity covered with the guise of forward motion. (more…)
Filed under: Ministry | Tags: E3, Joshua Yarbrough, missions, transforming communities
Joshua, the last two days we have heard about two important experiences that shaped your thinking about our responsibility as Christians, concerning the poor, and the necessity for community development in rescuing people from the horrible affects of extreme poverty. You mentioned that we have a responsibility to get involved. However, these problems seem way to big to wrap my head around. I can’t imagine how someone like me can make much of a difference. You seem to believe that I can. Will you share more about this with us?
JOSHUA: First, I would encourage everyone to try focusing on their personal responsibility to share love and spread compassion to others around them and to the regions of the world that most need it. It isn’t our responsibility to single handedly change the world. That is much too big a task for any one person, one organization, or even one government to achieve. God has commanded us to love our neighbor. As I have wrestled with what it means to love my neighbor I have learned that there is transformational power in baby steps. We take small achievable steps to do what we should and trust that God holds the bigger picture, causing us even unknowingly at times to do the necessary things that will result in the world He desires. The beautiful truth in all of this is that God loves us, has our best intentions at heart, and even though this world will never be perfect He desires to use us to build a world that is ultimately for our benefit. (more…)
Filed under: Ministry | Tags: communities, E3, Joshua Yarbrough, Ministry, transformation
Yesterday, we talked about a fundraising event for Josh Yarbrough, coming up on Saturday, November 7th, as well as Josh’s personal experiences and how he began walking down this particular path in ministry.
Now, Josh, in yesterday’s post, you mentioned that there were other experiences that also shaped your thinking in regards to community development. Can you elaborate on that? Tell us about one of those experiences and why you feel, especially for those who are Christians, why the work of transforming communities is so important?
JOSHUA: Like I mentioned yesterday, my experience in Belize exposed me to poverty for the first time and it had a profound impact on me. However, even after coming to Christ it took me a little time to realize the seriousness of our responsibility as Christians to the poor and how much of Scripture is dedicated to them. I have found that our personal experiences can cause us to discover themes in the Bible we didn’t see before. I think that is what happened to me on a mission trip I took to Peru five years ago. (more…)
Filed under: Ministry | Tags: communities, E3, Joshua Yarbrough, Ministry, missions
Joshua sharing the Gospel in Rwanda
For those of you who don’t know, my friend Joshua Yarbrough is a great friend of mine and a very cool guy. He’s also committed to transforming communities for the glory of God and making a tangible and positive impact there. As some of you may have heard, he and his wife, Monique, are hosting an event on Saturday, November 7th. From what I’ve heard, this is going to be an incredible event with live jazz, food (which you know I love), and plenty of cool people. There’s been a lot of talk circulating about it that I thought it would be a good idea to have Joshua share with us what this event is all about, so, I have asked him to do three posts over the next three days. I’ll be asking him some questions that I thought people would be curious about.
Having said that, Josh, what can you tell us about the purpose of this event on November 7th?
JOSHUA: First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share with your readers what we are doing. My wife and I have been working hard since March of this year preparing to launch a global initiative for an organization called e3 Partners (www.e3partners.org). They are a church planting organization that is currently operating in 44 countries and in hundreds of cities. I will be serving as their Director of Community Development Strategies which means its my job to build this new division that will empower thousands of churches to address issues such as poverty, education, healthcare, justice, and reconciliation. The event on November 7th is a celebration of this new initiative to transform communities all over the world for God’s glory. And, as you can imagine, a vision this large will require an army of people doing all kinds of things to get this moving forward. We will share a little how people can get involved as well. (more…)
Filed under: Ministry, Think About It | Tags: church, controversy, homosexuality, interviews, sin, television
Recently gospel, or secular, or whatever you want to classify him as, artist Tonex gave an interesting interview on “The Lexi Show” about his life and a the controversy surrounding his life and the allegations of homosexuality. I feel like the interview left a lot to be desired, but I’ve included the clips below so you can judge for yourself. It’s about 25 minutes of video, but it’s very intriguing to watch. Take a look.
PART ONE
My life, since February of this year, has gotten so much more busy. Between working at One80 some mornings (5-10am), doing my regular graphic design, serving in ministry, having a small group amongst my other friends, and wanting to just ‘do’ stuff, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. And when I head back to school this fall, it’ll only get worse. But I believe that something will change before then that will allow me to focus on the truly important things in life.
Between occasional shots of “5 Hour Energy” and getting 3 or 4 hrs of sleep at night only to come home in the middle of the day and sleep 2 or 3 more, I was (maybe still am) tired.
I make mention of this to say that we HAVE to slow down and take a break once and a while. This past weekend was incredible. It was the complete opposite of the weekend of Easter. I did nearly NOTHING and had a great time doing it!
I didn’t go out Friday night (I actually decided to stay in and not play a softball scrimmage we had for the sake of rest) I woke up early on Saturday to teach my running class, came home and napped before heading out to teach our membership class and chill out at a friends house (which was really, everyone-fall-asleep-on-the-couches time) I slept in on Sunday, went to church, had lunch with a friend and went back home.
My slow weekend made me realize that I CAN say no sometimes and there is nothing wrong with resting. If I don’t stop and slow myself down, no one will do it for me.
I know there are demands on everyone’s life, but if GOD took a day off after creating the world, I don’t know why we try and out-work him. I WILL be more intentional about getting done what needs to get done, but not burning myself out. If I’m burned out, I’m of no use to myself, nor anyone else, and least of all GOD!
In the light of this weekend you will see me take a few months off from serving and rest and relax, but it’s important that I get things in order first so I don’t just leave people hanging (that’s tacky!)
I got my rest… Are you getting yours? If not, what do you need to change in order to? Think about it and MAKE IT HAPPEN!
