life

life

Power Thief

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Brandon

This week always has me thinking and reflecting on Christ and His death and resurrection. It’s hard not to if you are a believer and even just somewhat involved in your church. It’s everywhere. One of the things that I have been asking myself lately is “Am I living my life in a way that reflects what Jesus did on the cross?”

I realize that is a very open ended question with a lot of different ways it can be answered, but let me explain what it means to me right now.

1. Do I stand firm on the freedom that was afforded to me through His death?
Do I rely on His grace, mercy, and freedom that came through the shedding of His blood or do I constantly struggle with the same thing repeatedly because I try to control and “fix” things on my own? I don’t even think we have began to scratch the surface of the freedom that came through His death.

2. Am I living in the power of His resurrection?
Seriously. Am I? The God of the universe came to earth and, not only died for our freedom, but He rose from the dead and defeated hell and the grave. Do we really, honestly, truly live in the power of that? Death has no victory any longer because of His death and resurrection but do I believe that through the way I live out my life?

3. Am I bringing that freedom and life giving power into my everyday life and those I come into contact with?
The short answer to that one is no. I’m not and I don’t. I can come up with excuses and reasons as to why I’m not or why I don’t do it, but the short of it is that I am robbing those around me from the life giving, resurrecting power of Christ by not offering that to them through my words and actions. Essentially a thief and hoarder of His promises and power. So either I don’t believe it enough to live it out in my own life to share it with others or I am so afraid of offending other I keep them from the freedom of the Cross. I think it’s a combination of both.

This is where my mind is now. I want to begin to fully tap into the life, power, and resurrection that Christ brought us so that I can see promises fulfilled in my life and in the lives of those around me. Will you commit to doing this with me? To do even greater things than He has done while we live out this life on earth.

Categories: church, faith, life, ministry | Tags: , , , ,

Second Chance

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Brandon

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As we start this week most of us are thinking about what it is leading up to this Sunday. The day that Christ defeated death and the grave by rising from the dead three days after being crucified. There is power, life, and freedom that came from the sacrifice that Christ made that is available now, but so many of us still live in the defeat and death of our sin instead of relying on the victory and power of what Christ did through his death and resurrection.

This past week, even now still, there has been a song that has just gutted me. God uses music and lyrics to speak to me, He always has – I believe he knows what reaches me since He created me so that’s what He uses. The song is by a group by the name of Rend Collective Experiment (who you should check out if you haven’t yet) and the song is called “Second Chance”. There is part of the song that I could just listen to over and over that states “Countless second chances we’ve been given at the cross”. Countless, innumerable, beyond our comprehension. No matter how many times we screw up, veer off course, or mess up there are countless second chances available through the shed blood of Christ.

This doesn’t mean that we have freedom to do and act however we want without consequences or that we are free to keep on sinning as if it doesn’t matter – what this means is that we have been set free from the oppression, guilt, and shame that comes with sin and that the act of Christ dying on the cross has given us countless second chances to continue to keep getting up and continuing on this journey to holiness.

So watch this video for the song, think about this week and the cross, and about the power that Jesus has brought to our lives through his death and resurrection.

Categories: church, faith, life, ministry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

Pimping the Presence of God

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Brandon

 

Next month there is a popular worship movement that is coming to town for an event and I was actually excited about getting the possibility to go to this night, they were someone that I have been wanting to see live for a long time because I enjoy their albums a lot. They are anointed, period. Then I found out that you had to pay to go this event, no big deal I get it. This is their profession and they have to make a living, so I get that there has to be some expense to help them put food on the table. In a perfect world where all Christians gave with a cheerful heart worship leaders wouldn’t have to sell tickets to support themselves and their families, but that’s a blog post for another time. Anyway, I digress….

I found the website for the event company that is organizing everything and selling the tickets and found out that they cost $25 a pop to get in for two worship leaders and a speaker. OK, it’s a mini conference, I’m still OK with it but a little out of my price range at the moment. Then I see this “$30 for Premium Seating”……

Seriously?

“Premium Seating”?

They describe the night as “a night of worship and ministry….focused on seeking the Lord through whole hearted worship, prayer, and preaching….come encounter the Lord, seek His presence, and be equipped…”

And for $5 more you can get a closer seat where God’s presence is stronger and you’ll experience more of an anointing than those schlubs that paid $25 for the “regular” seats.

Obviously the whole thing doesn’t sit well with me. As the title of this post suggests, I feel like we are pimping out God’s presence for the right price. It feels an awful lot like a group of people at tables selling sacrificial animals in the temple.

Maybe I’m overreacting, so be it. But I’m kind of burnt out on this mentality that if you pay the right price for the right seat at the right time that all the stars will align and God’s presence will come down like some big bolt of lightening and your life will be forever changed. Have I had powerful experiences with God in corporate settings? Absolutely. Even in large crowds like concerts and conferences. But I gaurantee you this – God’s presence and Spirit are just as strong and relevant and life changing in the cheap seats as they are in pimped out seats. God will pour out His Spirit on whom He sees fit, when He sees fit, and how He sees fit. Period. Why? Because He is God and His presence isn’t subject to the conditions that we place on its palpability in the moment.

The Bible I read says that He will pour out His Spirit upon ALL flesh not “I will pour out my Spirit on those who pay for premium seating and everyone else will settle for the leftovers”.

So join me in the cheap seats while I seek God’s presence and beg for His Spirit to pour into and out of my life. Join me in the cheap seats as I ask God to change me and anoint me to partner with Him in ministry to a lost and dying world.

Categories: church, culture, faith, life, ministry, Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

For Freedom We Have Been Set Free

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Brandon

 

I honestly wasn’t going to post this tonight. I was going to schedule it out for the middle of next week, but in the middle of writing this post God really impressed on my heart that someone needed to read this now. If that’s you, I’m praying for  you and that God speaks to your heart.

A few weeks ago Nicole and I finally took the opportunity to go watch Les Misérables in the theater. If you don’t like musicals or movies with a lot of singing, then it’s not the movie for you at all since there is only about 3 sentences spoken through the entire movie. I love the story of Jean Valjean and, ultimately, the story of redemption that plays out through the movie/musical/book. I enjoyed the movie a lot, I know some diehard fans didn’t, but this isn’t a review of the movie so we’ll move on. OK?

At the beginning of the movie it opens up with Jean Valjean working as a slave/prisoner in a shipyard. He and the hundreds of prisoners around him are singing this song that really stuck with me well after the movie. The two lines that continually repeated in my mind afterwards were:

“Look down, look down, you’ll always be a slave. Look down, look down, you’re standing in your grave.”

As I was thinking of this (and you’ll have to watch the movie to understand how this relates to his whole story too) and how this is a lie that we believe so many times. Unfortunately, it’s a lie that is mostly believed by those who follow Christ – it’s one that I struggle with daily. We mess up, we get back into a rut of sin that we have always dealt with, we go back to old habits, we pick up new habits, we harm a relationship with someone, we don’t follow God’s leading, etc….the list could go on and on. But the fact is that when that happens what’s the first thing that comes to mind most of the time, if not all? “I’m never going to change. I’m always going to be screwed up and do the same crap over and over again. I’m going to live and die like this no matter how hard I try.”

The devil is a liar.

The Word of God says differently. It says that we have been set free, that we have been born again, that our ransom has been paid – past, present, and future. Are we going to mess up, screw up, make mistakes? Absolutely! But we are no longer BOUND to the sin that used to dominate our lives – we are BOUND to God. It is for freedom He has set us free! Don’t look down and only see what you’re standing in because it’s not a grave, you are standing on the redemption that was bought for you through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We are no longer slaves. Are you hearing me? We. Are. No. Longer. Slaves. We have been set free. We are free.

I know that I am writing this for myself as much as anyone else, if not more so – but I know that there are those out there that are feeling pretty down on themselves right now and have the enemy whispering in their ear that they’re a failure and a screw up. Stop looking down – look up. Look up to the One who has adopted you in as a son or daughter. Look up to the One who has wiped the slate clean over and over again with an immeasurable amount of grace and mercy.

We have been set free. Believe that.

I am praying over this post and believing that God is pressing that truth into your heart right now. You are free. You are free. The enemy is full of lies and will fill you with them if that means that you won’t live in the freedom that God has provided. Stop listening to the lies. You are free.

If you want to contact me and talk to me personally or pray with you – all my contact info is here - I really believe this is for someone and I am praying for you.

Categories: church, faith, life, ministry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,

Movember

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Brandon

Did you know:

  • About 241,740 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed
  • About 28,170 men will die of prostate cancer
  • About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
  • Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 36 will die of prostate cancer.
  • Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. In fact, more than 2.5 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.

(Statistics from American Cancer Society)

Starting today I am going to be participating in a glorious event known as Movember. What is Movember you ask? Well, let me tell you. Movember is when mustaches take over November and bring class and dignity back to the modern world. Also, it’s when men, such as  myself, choose to grow a mustache in order to help raise money and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate and testicular cancer.

As many of you know, we men have a  hard time admitting that we need to see a doctor or are willing to even go in to get something like an…ahem…prostate check. But, as the statistics above point out, it’s not only the second leading cancer in men, it is also one of the most preventable cancers out there with regular screenings. Personally, this means a lot to me because my dad is a survivor of prostate cancer that was discovered after regular check ups.

So what can you do? You can follow my progress by logging on to my Mo Page and see how awesome my mustache becomes over the month of November. While you are there if you want to help out with the education and promotion of men’s health, you can donate on my page also.

Together we can change the face of men’s health (and grow awesome mo’s!).

Categories: life, Men, Uncategorized | Tags:

Sometimes I Want To Scream….

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Brandon

This is what I feel like doing sometimes, a lot lately actually. No, not because I own a PC/laptop (although it has induced this behavior), but because of something else – several things I guess – that have popped up in my Twitter and Facebook timelines over the past several weeks.

Unless you live under a rock you know that a few weeks back thousands upon thousands of people showed up at Chik-fil-a to show their support for….well, depends on who you talk to. They were either there to support the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman or they were there to support freedom of speech. Who knows, maybe they were there to support cows, I don’t know. What I do know is that it caused a huge uproar in the church world and in the secular world both.

Now, I do believe that the CEO of the company had the right to express his views on gay marriage and the family from his point of view, which happens to be a Christian perspective. I also believe that mayors and town officials should not be blocking the building of commerce in their communities because they don’t agree with the personal beliefs of the CEO, that isn’t for them to decide, especially when that company is not discriminating against anyone through who they serve their food to or who they employ within their company. Now, that’s all I have to say on that so let’s move forward.

Since that happened I have seen countless pictures with sayings and posts from people on both sides of the argument and, to be frank, I’m about ready to throw up from the deluge of crap that I see on a daily basis (yes, I understand I can filter out certain things through settings, but that’s not the point of this post). I have seen everything from “I have a right to believe what I want without being persecuted for it!” to “Why can’t I express what I want and not be considered close minded?” or “He’s being blasted for his beliefs in a country that was founded on the freedom of speech!”. Here are a few points and a few questions I offer in light of all this and discuss as you like:

- We (Christians) get ourselves into trouble when we start blurring the line between our faith and our patriotism and politics. Do they influence each other? Absolutely. Should we vote, voice our opinions, abstain from things, etc. because we live in a country that we have the freedom to do that in? Absolutely. But when our faith and politics become so intermingled that we lose sight of our purpose here on earth as sons and daughters of God, then we get into trouble.

- We (Christians) were never promised freedom of speech, rights in a certain country, or to live in a Christian nation. Jesus promised us salvation, eternal life, life abundantly, that He would take care of all of our NEEDS, among many other things – but he also said that there would be persecution, that people wouldn’t get us, that we would be aliens in a foreign land. Go and buy a chicken sandwich if you want to support freedom of speech, but don’t associate that freedom of speech as your right as a believer, it’s not. (Man I’m going to make some people upset aren’t I?)

- In our rush to prove that we are right, to prove our beliefs and values, to prove that we have rights as American – so many times we tend to trample over the very people Christ came to seek and save on our way to prove ourselves and stand up for what we believe. Is it worth trampling over the people we were called to “go into all the world and make disciples of” so that we can prove we believe that traditional marriage is the right view?

- What did going and buying a chicken sandwich and supporting freedom of speech accomplish in furthering the Kingdom of God? Maybe it did through some people or in some instances, but I’m having a hard time seeing it myself.

- Would Jesus have been standing in line for two hours to prove his right to freedom of speech or would he have been out there loving those who we were proving our right to?

I know that I’m stirring up controversy, but this whole situation just hasn’t set right with from the very beginning. I was literally sick to my stomach over the way that people were talking and reacting on both sides because I saw nothing that was helping to show God’s love to those who already feel completely ostracized by the church, instead I saw more division and more hate thrown by both sides. Are we looking at people the way that God sees them? Are we weeping over their souls? Are we anguished and hurting in our hearts because they are missing out on the most life changing relationship they could ever experience?

I know people are going to vehemently disagree with me, and that’s OK, but I want to make sure that I am following these three things in all that I do:

1. Love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength

2. Love my neighbor as myself (even the gay one who that I have to make sure all the time that I don’t agree with their lifestyle)

3. Go into all the world and make disciples

So, instead of screaming at my iPhone and computer, I’m going to discuss it with you guys because that is what this whole situation is missing right now.

Categories: church, culture, faith, life, ministry, Uncategorized

This Thing Called Grace

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Brandon

“Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused propensity to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just disapprobation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” -A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

This past week has been quite a learning experience for me, one that has caused me to rely on grace.

Just go back and read the post and comments directly before this one and you will see what I mean.  I decided to share my opinion on and observation that I had about a certain media inludgance that is poplular right now and it went viral and spread like wildfire across the internet. I was neither prepared for the popularity of the post nor the comments that I recieved from people about what they thought of me and my views. While I’m no stranger to the world of blogging or some commenters enjoyment of attacking the writers of those blogs, it was a first for me since the majority of my audience was my family, friends, and a few twitter followers.

As I was thinking about this today I immediately thought of God’s grace. Why? Well, let’s take a trip through Brandon’s scattered brain and see how we got there, it’s not a long trip, so stick with me. One of the things that was mentioned quite often through those who opposed either my view or me posting my view was that I was being very judgmental and that I was not extending the grace that I should be as a follower of Christ. Now I will be the first person to admit I am quick to judge – I do it all the time, based on looks, words, speech, skin color, or sexual orientation – I judge sometimes, too often. I would dare to say we all do at some point or another because it’s a quick, pleasurable reaction to others different than us – we try not to but we still do.

Still with me? OK, good. I was also thinking that people will never to be able to fully know me through one post and I will never be able to fully understand a person through one quick, trite comment that is hurtful. Did I judge some of those commenters as soon as I read them? You bet I did. I let some of them get to me, took some of them too personally, and was quick to judge those who wrote them. I also remember this: I have a God who overflows with grace. (See I told you we would get there.)

I sin every single day, usually more than once, and have to repeatedly rely on God’s grace to get me through that day and seek forgiveness. And you know what? He is waiting patiently, even expectantly, to run to us with the grace He so freely gives. You know what? That same grace is there for the commenters who didn’t have nice things to say about me. That same grace is there for those who indulged in the media that I talked about in my last post. That same grace is there for the convicted murderer on death row. That same grace is there for the liar, the theif, the adulterer, and any other wrongdoer that you can think of. Why? Because God’s grace is not a judge of character but is freely there for any who are willing to accept it.

Do we do what we want then and indulge in things knowing full and well it is wrong because we know that grace is there for us to cover a multitude of sins? Absolutely not, we should never cheapen the one thing that cost so much to give to us freely. But we do need it every single day because we are human and we sin, but we are chased by a loving God who is waiting to pour it on us whenever we need it because it’s what He longs to do, it’s what He sent His Son to earth for, and it’s what we are to offer those around us.

What is grace to you? What’s a time that you were offered grace or you offered grace to someone else?

Categories: faith, life, ministry | Tags: , , ,

Where your iPhone is, there your heart shall be also….

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Brandon

 

Before I get started let me just preface this by saying that this is about me and my heart lately and not directed towards anyone or any group of people. OK, now that’s out of the way:

Unless you live under a rock somewhere, most people know that everyone is speculating and talking about what the new iPhone is going to look like when it is most likely revealed in the fall. The iPhone 5, or whatever it’s called – who knows, maybe it will just be iPhone like the new iPad was, already has people salivating and lusting after it and it’s still months away and no one even knows what the final product is going to be. Seeing that it’s from Apple, I’m sure it will be a great product, but I’m a little biased.

Nicole and I have been talking about upgrading to the new iPhone when it comes time for us to upgrade at the end of the year. We both love our iPhone and use it daily for texting, tweeting, Facebook, taking pictures of our kids, etc. and would never go to another phone. Then God started dealing with my heart lately about several things and this came up as one of them. So, here’s time for me to be honest with the 5 people who read this: I have Apple envy.

I currently have my iPhone and that’s it, the only Apple product in our home. I have wanted an iPad for years but have never really had the money or the justification for getting one. I also would love any sort of MacBook – Pro, Air, whatever – I am way beyond using a Windows laptop. I had become pretty frustrated lately with the fact that I have wanted one or both of these for a very long time and it just never seems to work out for me to purchase one, I was getting irritated. Not counting people being given them as gifts, which did factor in some, but there were several people around me who just entered contests on a whim for an iPad or MacBook and they ended up winning it. Yeah, great for you – excuse me while I punch you in the face and run off with your new iPad. I can’t even tell you how many of those contests I have entered and never won, so it irritated me. What was I doing wrong that I couldn’t win something like this and a whole lot of people around me are?

Now, I understand that some people are in different phases of life – single, married with no kids, older kids, empty nests, etc. – that allow them to be able to purchase these items or have more expendable cash to get this than I do, but that wasn’t helping the jealousy issue that I was having, and still do sometimes. But, I have come to understand, it’s a heart issue and my heart was finding my identity and my worth in these Apple products that will fade away with everything else physical in this world.

So, when the end of the year comes around and it’s time for us to upgrade our phones, as long as the current pricing stays the same, I’ll be getting an iPhone 4s while everyone else is climbing over each other for the newest model. You know what? I’m OK with that. In the end I still have a nice phone, I will have saved $200, I have a roof over my head, an amazing family that loves me, and a God who cares enough for me that He supplies all my NEEDS. I want my heart to be found in Kingdom minded things and not found in my iPhone.

Are you going to get the new iPhone?

Where is your treasure right now and how has it impacted your heart?

Categories: church, culture, faith, life

What Happened to “together”?

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Brandon

“All the believers were together and had everything in common.” (Acts 2:44)

I have been thinking about this topic a lot, this whole aspect of being “together”. What does that exactly mean? Did the first church really have EVERYTHING in common? I doubt it, we are all unique individuals created by a creative God. What they did have in common was they spent time together reading scripture, sharing meals together, breaking bread – they had one common goal, learning more about God together as a community. What does that look like to us?

There was a tweet the other day by Carlos Whitaker that has really been resonating in my heart ever since I read it and I can’t shake it, here is what it said:

I think men need to blow up “accountability groups” and actually start studying scripture together. ‪#ImagineThat‬

Now I think, and I think Carlos would agree too, that there is a time and a place for accountability and that it is an important discipline that we need in our lives, it is imperative that we have people in our lives that will hold us to a higher standard and that will cause us to grow and mature as a person. Here is the thing that I think resonates with me, I have been in “accountability groups” before and some have been great and some have been not so great, but they all end up in the same place eventually. You meet together or call one another on the phone and ask the “tough questions” that you have agreed to ask each other, one or more of the parties involved will wind up confessing some sin or some area they didn’t quite make it in that week or month, you’ll discuss how you could have done better and what you’re going to do to change that, and then you pray together and go about your business as usual. Did that encounter change you?

My opinion is that, while it may be important, we get in such a rut with our “accountability groups” that we are in because that’s what we’re supposed to do, that we begin missing out on the true potential that is possible there if we are taking it to the next level. As Carlos says in his tweet, we need to start studying scripture together, really digging into the Word of God together. That may look different for everyone – it could be a study guide, it could be just reading a book of the Bible together and just getting together and discussing it along with asking the “tough” questions. Whatever that looks like, it’s something that I believe that we NEED to get back to – back to meeting together and having EVERYTHING in common, challenging one another through the practicing of the Scripture that we are reading and not just saying “Well, do better next week I’ll be praying for you”.

I want to have that in my life right now, deeply want it – to just dig deeply in God’s word together and push each other into becoming better men of God.

What does that look like to you?

Categories: church, culture, faith, life, ministry | Tags: , , ,

Write 200 words and call me in the morning

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Brandon

Sometimes writing is therapeutic, just sitting down to get things out that are bugging you or frustrating you. Sometimes it publishable material, other times it’s better kept to yourself because it could incriminate you with your psychopathic tendencies.

I don’t even know if I’ll post this when I’m done, but I needed to write.

Today was a tough day at work and I let it get to me very quickly. I am trying to take control of the situation, but sometimes, a lot of times I let situations take control of me. I did that today and caused myself to suffer and react.

Don’t you hate it sometimes when God uses situations to teach you the very thing you asked to learn more about? I am learning to listen to the voice of instruction in those situations more often than ignore it so it doesn’t have to be repeated over and over again until I do.

Today was one of those days, and tomorrow will be better but will probably have to learn something else.

Writing is therapeutic.

Categories: Identity, life, OneWord365

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