Posts Tagged With: 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: church, cross, faith, life, promises

Second Chance

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Brandon

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: Easter, faith, freedom, life, resurrection, sin

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: church, faith, life

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: church, faith, journey, life, transparency

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: bible, church, community, life

My Own Flame

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Brandon

Have you ever heard a few lyrics to a song, a line in a movie, or heard a few chords of music and it speaks to something so deep inside of you that you barely even knew it existed? That is what happens with me a lot of the time either because that is how God speaks to me or because I’m an artistic, creative person, probably both. The past few days have been no exception.

Without going into a lot of details God has really being doing something…..let’s say interesting….in me recently. I discovered a new worship album via an Instagram post from Carlos Whitaker over the weekend and it has absolutely blown me away, I highly recommend it. It’s by Will Reagan & United Pursuit, I had never heard of them before this but I’m so glad I found them. There is a song on the album called “Help Find My Own Flame” that has blown me away because it is exactly what my heart has been crying out for without me even knowing it. (Listen to it here on YouTube) Here are the lyrics:

I don’t want to ride on somebody else’s passion
I don’t want to find that I’m just dry bones
I want to burn with unquenchable fire
Deep down inside see it coming alive

Help me find my own flame
Help me find my own fire
I want the real thing
I want Your burning desire

Do what only You can do
In my heart tonight,

There’s no better time
There’s no better time
There’s no better time
There’s no better time

For so long when it has come to my relationship with Christ and trying to find out what my gifts are or what my calling is I have always been trying to ride the tailcoats of someone else’s passion, someone else’s heart. It may be their passion and heart and fire for God, but it hasn’t been my own. I need my OWN passion for God, my OWN fire in my belly for who God is and the plans that He has for me. Like the song says, I don’t want to find that I’m just dry bones because I’ve been spending my entire life piggy backing on someone else’s passion and desire for Christ and don’t have my own personal fire for Him.

So this song is my prayer for my life right now. I need my own personal fire in my life….an unquenchable, burning fire that can only come from God….I yearn for it, long for it, desire it with everything in my being. I want to know the things of God, I want to hear His voice, I want to know His heartbeat, I want to be everything He has designed me to be before he formed the earth.

I don’t know if this applies to you but this is my heart’s cry right now. Is there a song or a book or anything that God is using to speak into your life right now? What is He speaking to you? What are you going to do about it?

Categories: faith, life | Tags: faith, growth, life

Missionary Day Two: Mission of Hope – Haiti

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Brandon

Today I am featuring the mission organization that I worked with the first two times I went to Haiti in 2000 and 2003. They have grown dramatically since then and are doing some amazing things, ready below.

Who: Mission of Hope – Brad & Vanessa Johnson

Where: Haiti

Website: http://www.mohhaiti.org/

What They Do: This mission organization has grown by leaps and bounds since my first visit back in March of 2000. They are in the process of creating a second campus, have medical clinics, a hospital, orphanage, school, church, and are now making prosthetics in response to the large amount of amputees from the 2010 earthquake. They are doing amazing things and living out the love of Christ in practical, tangible ways.

What You Can Do: There are several easy things you can do to support this mission. You can text “Haiti” to 27722 to donate $10 directly to the mission or you can contact them about sponsoring a child. If your church is looking for a short term trip there is information on there about that also.

Categories: faith, life | Tags: faith, haiti, life, missions

Missionary Week: Day One – Barnabas Task

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Brandon

This week I am going to feature a missionary each day to focus on what is going on beyond our borders and what you can do to help:

Who: Barnabas Task – Tom Hinton

Where: Santiago, Dominican Republic

Site: Barnabas Task

What They Do: This is the organization that I worked with when I went on my trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti in July of last year. Tom moved to Santiago with three goals: bring clean water, promote micro-finance, and teach health education. I saw two of those three in action while I was there with the relationships that they had with local businessmen and women and seeing the miracle of a water station finally coming into play in Cien Fuegos, a hugely impoverished village on the outskirts of Santiago. They have planted a church with the upper middle class in Santiago that will eventually plant their own church in Cien Fuegos. This ministry is very near and dear to my heart and I believe strongly in what is going on.

How You Can Help: First and foremost pray and then pray some more. God is doing great and amazing things on this island and in this city and there are even greater things yet to come. Second, you can donate through the above website and all your money will go to fulfilling those three goals.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s missionary…..

Categories: faith, life | Tags: faith, life, missions

Gross Misconceptions

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Brandon

Where do we get our view of ourselves? How do we get to the point that we see ourselves as one thing or another, good or bad, skinny or fat, handsome/pretty or ugly?

I know there are lot of theories and facts out there about why we view ourselves the way we do. It could be because of the way a parent treated us or being teased growing up or because we were popular and feel we have a certain image to live up to. However it happens, we get to a point that we view ourselves a certain way and, if it’s the wrong way, it’s hard to break free of that.

Last night I was talking to Nicole about my own misconceptions. I was talking about how even though I’ve lost weight and I am literally smaller than I once was and wear smaller sizes, I still look in the mirror and see the the old self that was bigger and out of shape, not the person I am now. I am just now getting to the point that I can get past the overweight, chubby , “stocky” person I have been most of my life. Granted, I still have a long way to go, but I have also come a long way.

It’s getting past the mindset that we put ourselves in. How often do we do this in our relationship with Christ? When we look at ourselves do we see a new creation? Someone who is wonderfully and beautifully made? Or do we still see our old, sinful selves and beat ourselves up for it?

So many times when I mess up I beat myself up for it over and over again and wait for a punishment to greet me from God. There are consequences for our sins, be we are also covered by grace through His blood. We have been made new.

I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else, God please help us move past these gross misconceptions of You and ourselves and let us see You for who you are and see ourselves through your eyes.

This has been a very cathartic post for me, feel free to share your own stories/experiences in the comment section below!

Categories: faith, life | Tags: God, life, something to think about

Posts Tagged With: life

Power Thief

Second Chance

Pimping the Presence of God

For Freedom We Have Been Set Free

What Happened to “together”?

My Own Flame

Missionary Day Two: Mission of Hope – Haiti

Missionary Week: Day One – Barnabas Task

Gross Misconceptions

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