Friday, December 28, 2007

Reflections

As 2007 comes to close, here are a few passages or thoughts that God allowed me to "chew on" this past year:

It's all about His glory.
Romans 11:33-36

My thinking must be different than the rest of the world.
Romans 12:2

Obedience is everything.
1 Samuel 15:22

Who am I to try to explain God? The more I know the less I understand.

God may ask you to do things that others will say "that's not right."
Isaiah 20:1-3

Majority doesn't rule, God does.

Would you really want to know God's will for your life? Really?

Few people get it.
Matthew 7:14 , Isaiah 6:9-10

The next reformation I believe will be led by the ordinary. Exodus 3:11 , Jeremiah 1:7

Others will try to steal your joy.
2 Samuel 6:20-23

As you get closer to God others become jealous.
Numbers 12:1-16 , 1 Kings 22:24

When you love things, you use people. We are called to love people and use things. God gave us the antidote for the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life: Integrity, Humility, and Generosity.
1 John 2:15-16

We must care about the "least of these".
Matthew 25:39-46

The world will come to Christ when we have unity.
John 17:23

We must play offense, not defense!
Hebrews 10:38-39

Conquer evil by doing good.
Romans 12:21

Could I be as obedient as Elijah and say one 17 word sermon and then go sit out by a brook and with a widow woman for 3 years before my next sermon? Would people call me lazy?

Could I hang in there like Isaiah and Ezekiel and preach for decades without anyone turning toward God? Would I be called a failure?

God made me so He could show the world how much He could love someone.

My passion for Him must NEVER become lukewarm.
Revelation 3:15-16

I must seek righteousness, love mercy, and walk humbly. Micah 6:8 , Ephesians 4:17-24 , Ephesians 2:15 , Philippians 2:3

Need an answer? Fear of the Lord brings wisdom and understanding.
Psalm 111:10

God spoke to Moses plainly because he was faithful, obedient & humble.
Numbers 12:6-8

No more small thinking.
Ephesians 3:20-21 , Isaiah 49:4-6

Faith is believing God is who He says He is and will do what He has said He will do. span>Romans 4:17-18

Rescued, redeemed, washed…speechless!
Ezekiel 16:59

Worship is not about me, it is something we do, regardless of how we feel about it. Worship is the act of obedience to the revelation of who God is.
Isaiah 6:1-3

I am a container for the Almighty God!
2 Corinthians 4:7-12

I will go!
Isaiah 6:6-8

I will live a life that makes no sense unless there is a Heaven!

I will live a life that makes hell shake!

I will settle for nothing
less than the Kingdom of God!

Serving my King!

Can't wait to see how God uses you in 2008!


Thursday, December 27, 2007

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Marbles



Anybody lost their marble?








You remember, the reminder you were supposed to carry around in your pocket all week…oh, that thing.

Well, I'm staring at my "replacement" marble, yes I lost mine!

I love making people feel better about themselves!

If you remember, the marble was supposed to remind you:

  • That we were made not to sit still.

  • That if we place our life in God's hands we are an unstoppable force!

  • That we are different, but the blood on the cross makes us the same.

  • That He placed the message in our hands.

  • That in His hands we become warm (loving).

  • What God has done for us – a "stone of remembrance".

  • Marbles is a game. We should have fun together being the people of God.

  • That as we hold it up against the night sky, we realize how BIG He is and nothing is impossible!

  • To pray!

Please share your story with us about what God is teaching you and how he is using you to reach out.

If you have not realized it yet, the teaching on Sundays will coincide with your daily devotions and your small group discussions.

This week is all about reaching out, here are some ways you can do that:

  • Pray for 3 people who don't know the Lord

  • Invite someone to church

  • Seek opportunities to share

  • Host a new small group

  • Random acts of kindness

Reach out and bring a friend with you on Sunday!





Thursday, October 11, 2007

WOW

Wow, our church family continues to grow, we had 127 people this weekend! Here's the coolest thing - for the past two weekends in the blank on the response cards that says "How did you hear about us": more people have written in the word "friend,"
than anything else. Way to go FOTH family!!!

The process is working the way Jesus modeled it, where someone meets Jesus and then they go and tell those close to them about Christ…and then they bring them to a place where they meet Jesus…and then Jesus changes them…(Please see John 1:35-51…this process actually happens in back to back stories!)

(Just a thought–MAYBE the reason that evangelism is NOT taking place in many churches across America is because "Christians" don't know any non-Christians. Many are simply in their holy huddles–discussing theology and trying to redeem culture–when Jesus had a goal of hanging out with "sinners" and trying to redeem them! Just a thought.)

So…the challenge is to invite people who need to hear the Gospel to come hang out
with us. Invite them to church and the park this Sunday, and we will do what we promised; every week we will tell your friends about what Christ has done for them, all you have to do is say "come and see". I personally think that this coming Sunday will be the best weekend that we've had in our six week history!!!

One of THE main reasons our church will continue to grow is because the people inside haven't forgotten what it was like to be outside. The people who have received God's grace are still aware of those who need God's grace. The people inside are NOT content with playing Christian games…but rather are bothered by the fact that there are people right here in this community that, if they died today, would spend eternity in hell…and that fact does not allow us to rest at night.

FOTH…as long as we have a passion for Jesus…a passion for people…and a passion to see people meet Jesus–we will continue to see God do amazing things.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Monday 9.10.07

"To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far" Phil 1:21, 23


"As long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord…We…would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" 2 Cor. 5:6, 8


Poe Weatherford went home to be with the Lord this morning. If you are reading this e-mail you were touched by his life, whether you realize it or not. Poe had a "kairos" moment during the war, a moment when things would never be the same, he accepted Christ gift of salvation and surrendered his life over to serving our King. Some of you may have found that same gift through the portrayal of Poe's life in an event at Parkway Church entitled "Let Heaven and Nature Swing" and your life will never be the same. Many of us though were touched because of Poe's influence on his youngest son Scott. Poe was/is Scott's hero and had such a tremendous influence on who Scott is as a Christ follower. It was Poe who encouraged Scott, when everyone else thought he had lost his mind, to leave the music ministry and go to a small south Texas town and become the Pastor of a group of 39 people meeting in a mall, even though he had never preached before. I am one of those lives that were changed because of that encouragement, along with thousands of others. Because of Poe's legacy and influence my hometown is a better place. It was Poe who wanted to make sure that is was God's call in Scott's life to leave Parkway Church and start completely over in Tallahassee, Florida. He also wanted to make sure it was my calling as well and that I hadn't been "talked into something" by his son. After he was sure that God had called us to this journey, he became our biggest champion, as well as our first member! Some of you have found a new family because of that encouragement and legacy! But most importantly, a few of you have found a God who loves you so much He would take all of your sins and pay for them on a cross! I truly believe that thousands of lives will continued to be changed in the future because of one man's decision to accept what Christ did for him, surrender his life to him as his Lord and live a life that honored God. Poe probably had no idea that he influenced so many of us, until now. Who are you encouraging to follow "the Way"?


"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath." Psalm 39:4-5


250,000 people every day go to Heaven or Hell.


God, please don't let me ever get comfortable with that number!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

That the world may know...

Just a thought – We spend so much energy and resources on reaching the lost, when Christ said that it is our unity that will bring the message to them. What if we spent more effort on being united?

Pray that as a church we will partner with anyone who believes in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission!

“I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:23

Friday, September 7, 2007

No sense

I've asked this question the past two weeks and I'll pose it to you:

'What are you doing that makes absolutely no sense unless there is a heaven?'

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Romans 12:2

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Risky business

I spent time this morning reading about King Uzziah and was reminded: hanging around the holy is risky business.

Holy ground is dangerous ground.

The holy is never, never something of God that we can take as if we owned it and use it for our purposes.

Pray that we will never force our agenda or think we are in charge!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

This vehicle stops @ all RR Xings

God gave me a great sermon illustration in my stupidity!

We decided to bring the Waverunner with us to Florida instead of selling it, but I wasn't too excited about pulling it the 900 miles. I strapped it down good (you know the bumps on I-10 through LA) and off we went. Tami was behind me in her call and while driving on Hwy 59 in Houston she called to tell me the license plate was about to fall off. I pulled off and put it back on, well where we pulled off there wasn't an easy way back on to 59. We meandered our way down some side streets until way came to a 5 way stop. It was really a regular intersection, but the “light rail” came across it at an angle.

Well, I had seen the train off of my right shoulder and stopped at the red light behind the white line and the RR crossing arm. The light turned green and I looked at the train and it was not moving, thought “okay, he's waiting on me” and I preceded to enter the intersection only to hear a thud on my roof and ding, ding, ding, and it hit me I was a ding-dong!

The crossing arm (the real heavy type) had come down on top of my truck, and I'm stuck, you see if I pull forward it falls into the bed of my truck crushing the surfboard that was back there or gets stuck between the truck and waverunner. So I'm sitting there looking like an idiot to the people on the train, the people in the cars around me, my wife who is behind me and did I mention to the cop who was across the intersection! So I sit there stuck waiting on someone to come to my rescue. I can't do anything.

I see the police car back up and start to come to my aid and the thought hit me...my license plate is expired! Not only am I an idiot, but I'm going to get a ticket!!! Well, before the police officer could get there the train driver decided he had enough laughter and proceeded through the intersection and the arm lifted! I was stuck and he came to my rescue.

Wow, how many people out there are stuck in life and waiting for someone to come to their rescue!!! God has called us to be the light in a dark world and show them 'THE WAY' out of a stuck life!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

My new "ride"

Wow, this was a suprise! A friend of mine had Tom Sterne make this custom board for me...thanks George!!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

My Calling

A little over two years ago God led me to this verse:

“But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 5:19

It changed me. Changed my perspective. Changed my views. Continues to change me.
You see all of my life had been about being great on earth, not the Kingdom.

God started stirring in me. I hung out with God more. I learned to listen to His still, small voice.

In February of 2005 I took a trip to see Andy and Mike, they are former staff who in the early days of Parkway Church were part of our leadership team, who both were called by God at the same time to leave Parkway for different churches on the East coast. After my visit I felt like we (Parkway) needed to return to our roots. And so I came back and we started a process to reorganize our structure to return to the vision that God had given us.

Then in May of 2005, after just having completed our organizational makeover and feeling pretty good about myself, God rolled me on the floor at a conference at Saddleback. It was the first time I heard about the Peace Plan. I realized that I had no idea how big God really was and what He was doing in the world. Rick Warren gave a message entitled “How to get ready to be used by God”. I started applying the steps he outlined.

Step 1 – Purifying my heart – started confessing sins specifically, my prayer every morning “God make me a man after your own heart.”

Step 2 - Sanctifying my body – to dedicate for special purposes, to be used by God.

Step 3 – Simplifying my life – I had to limit the distractions (the opinions of others or the desires of God) and debt.

Step 4 – Fortifying my faith – Study the Bible, read Christian books, my prayer life had to improve.

Step 5 – Applying what I already know – Jesus I am yours.

My walk started to change. And those around me noticed it.
I also started doing some unusual things for a boy raised Presbyterian. I started being on my face before God, fasting and prayer walking. I also started having a conversation with God instead of a monologue.

I learned that God wanted my obedience more than He wanted my worship. I felt He was testing me to see if He could trust me before He gave me the next step in my journey. The passion was growing greatly in me, it was a consuming fire. There was something rising up in me that I want to call a spirit of Holy discontent. In my passion to be obedient my values started changing – I was consumed with being used by God to change His Kingdom. Tami told me once, “you’re constantly thinking about changing the world; I just want to change the paint color in the kitchen.” I no longer valued the things that used to bring me pleasure. My passion to be obedient was so consuming that people didn’t get me and I started facing criticism.

But my relationship with God was becoming more and more intimate and I craved more. I really started to hear His voice.

The call in my life was becoming clearer – to move a younger generation to be on mission for God through the PEACE Plan.

A year ago in January of 2006, I told Scott that I felt that God had told me clearly that the face of our staff was going to change and that the way we do church would totally change within 2 years. Little did I know at the time it would come to this.

Over the next few months God repeatedly revealed things to me that eventually came to pass.

· In June, after watching a Fox News report on the PEACE Plan, God told me He would use me somewhere in the world. He was asking me to get ready, He was going to take me somewhere. He did. He took me to Virginia to stay in a house with 16 of the most influential Christian leaders from Nigeria, Congo, India, Albania, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Dubai, & Russia.

· In July, He asked me to fast, take my Bible and prayer walk the property, and to go up on the roof and pray – As I looked out I saw my path in the dew, I felt God was leading me away from home, but that He would bring me back but through a different door.

· In August, He told me that I would travel the globe to have my wisdom built, and that He would use me greatly when I was 50. I got the opportunity to travel to India and train 3,000 leaders for Purpose Driven.

· That friendships would change. They did, my best friends turned against me.

· That He would use Jimmie Davidson greatly on a particular Sunday. Jimmie is a friend who pastors a great church called Highlands Fellowship. I felt awkward but I e-mailed Jimmie and told him what God had told me. He called me that afternoon and told they had the most incredible Sunday in the history of their church. God told me not to doubt even the little things He tells me.


In September, I laid the church on the altar for the first time. This was huge for me, because this was the church that changed my life, in my hometown, I thought I would never leave. I remember prayer walking @ 4:00 in the morning down a golf cart path listening to the song “Enough”, realizing that if Jesus was all I had would that be enough?


In January at our Executive Staff Retreat we spent our entire time on bringing glory to God. We spent time looking at a passage of scripture referred to as the Doxology.
One of my favorite things growing up in the Presbyterian Church was singing the Doxology.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today I am really beginning to understand it and try to live it out.

Doxology
33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[
d] knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"[e] 35"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"[f] 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Romans 11:33-36

Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him and for him. First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not to something (such as being a pastor, leading, teaching, the church) or to somewhere (such as Parkway or India).

You see I had confused my secondary “callings” as primary, Parkway, this family, this community, the next generation, the PEACE Plan, as good and noble as they maybe, they are not my primary calling.


Oswald Chambers wrote, “Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him…The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him.”
God was asking me again “will you really lay Parkway on the altar?” I remember Joanne Hickman asking me almost 9 years ago, if my calling was to the ministry or to Parkway. I said that it was to ministry, but that I was called to this place. I said that, but I don’t know if I was ready to live that.


The call of God in our lives means to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God himself.


During that retreat I started doubting my leadership. Prayer walking at the retreat, I asked God to light my path, He told me that He already had, well I said “then God give me a people to lead.” Scott told me the next day he was going to Tallahassee.


We started to put the house on the market because of Dave Ramsey and trying to get debt free. I also felt like God was going to allow me to see so much poverty that I would have such a distaste for materialism. But, I had no peace about the timing. No peace about the houses Tami wanted.


Then the week before we go to India, Scott calls and says God told me “you are supposed to go with me and to give you the campus”, click. I grabbed my MP3 player and walked out to pray and the song that came on was “It’s Time” – I can hear the calling, it’s time.


I felt like God told me He would reveal something to me in India. And He did. When we were in India, we learned that the Holy Men there pray and then plan, we usually plan then pray. Trust me I didn’t have a plan.

The house sells while I am in India; we have a 60 day close.

Genesis 12:1 - The Call of Abram
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

"Abraham believed God …." (Romans 4:3)

Abraham believed God to be a loving Father;

Abraham believed God wanted fellowship with him;

Abraham believed God would speak with him;

Abraham believed God would listen to him;

Abraham believed God wanted to use him in a great mission;

Abraham believed God knew more than he did when he was called to birth a great nation;

Abraham believed God was telling him to go, even if it was to a land he did not know;

Abraham believed God would guide and provide step by step.

Abraham "went out, not knowing where he was going. " (Hebrews 11:8)

Abraham acted on his belief because he was in intimate fellowship with the Father, and this up close and personal relationship showed Abraham that God could be trusted to do the things he said he would do and to fulfill the commitments he promised to complete. Abraham believed God. I believe, God; help me overcome my unbelief.

"Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led," wrote Oswald Chambers. "But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason – a life of knowing him who calls us to go."

At this point in my life, I have felt a freshened call to offer myself as a living sacrifice and to serve my King and to a secondary calling to do whatever I can each day to encourage and cheerlead a younger generation to be on mission for Christ.

On the way driving to Tallahassee over Spring Break, I kept thinking about a name for this movement. And the word “gathering” kept coming up. Somewhere about Alabama God reminded me of Hebrews 10:24-25:

24and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

This is a time in one’s life that we come to a crossroads and we choose a path that effects us for the next 20, 30, 40 years. We usually quit gathering together, or going to church. God is asking me to be a guide and point out the right path for this generation.

This is a generation that wants action. I stepped foot on campus for the first time last Wednesday. They were having a fair of some type and I found several Christian organizations who were doing acts of compassion, but were not united with each other. It is then when God revealed the plan to me, to use the PEACE Plan to unite the groups on campus and to bring in others who wanted to make a difference with their lives to a relationship with their Lord and Savior. I believe that God is asking me to go and unite the tribes and start something that might spread across every University campus in our nation to move a generation. God is asking me in a 4 year period to bring them in, build them up, train them for, and send them out to plant seeds that future generations will harvest all across the world. My hope is that when God sends them out they will either plant a church or a small group wherever the Lord leads them. I truly want to be a planter.

The other morning as I was on my face, I started weeping because of how God had used me in people’s lives, Richard and Donna, Liz…we shared our lives with you and God did miracles. “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” 1 Thess 2:8

The overwhelming feeling that God would use you to touch someone’s life in such an incredible way is so overwhelming. I was reminded that He takes what we have, he breaks, he blesses, and he multiplies.

He multiplies…I was standing in His way, you see I like watching the crop grow, the fruit of “your” labor, God was saying I want to use you to multiply, not add, “Brian, I am really Big and it’s not about you, your labor, or your desires.” He wants me to plant seeds that I may not get to see, until possibly Heaven. He is asking me to trust Him and his timing, not mine, and not to seek my glory, but His alone.

I must answer the call of God in my life and be obedient.

I have been in Victoria for 43 years, this is the community that I was born and raised in, this is the church that saved my life, this is the church that took a risk on me and allowed me to grow, this is a church not only for my friends but of my friends, this is the only community that my family has known (me, my wife, my kids, our parents), this is a great church with a great future, Tami owns a business here, it makes absolutely no sense for me to leave, we could be comfortable here the rest of our lives.

I am going to a place where I know no one, where I have no income, where housing prices are double, to a university that I’ve only stepped foot on once, to a calling that I don’t feel I am adequate for.

15 years ago a young man answered a call to a place he knew no one, to do something he had never done before, to do something almost everyone said was foolish. I thank God that Scott answered that call; I am one of those lives that was changed because of his obedience. It is time now for me to be sent out from here as a missionary to a foreign land to plant seeds for my King.