Planning my Funeral?

Recently I have been thinking about my funeral. I know what you are thinking… “Brandon you are 23 years old, have a wonderful family, you are in good health, and have a long life ahead of you. Why on earth would you waste your time or burden yourself with such a daunting subject?” Honestly before a couple weeks ago I had not given it much thought, but there have been a few things that have jump-started this thinking.

First, I read Michael Hyatt’s book “Creating Your Personal Story.” This book was spectacular. Hyatt discusses how important and helpful having a plan for your life can be. He discusses how it helps with purposeful living. The way he starts though, is telling the reader how in order to know how you are going to get somewhere you must first know where it is you want to end up. So he sets this up by having the reader imagine their funeral and what people will say about them at that occasion.

The second thing that has happened is my great-uncle has been hospitalized with pneumonia. He was put into an induced coma to reduce the stress on his body. Then a few days later he had a heart-attack. While he is still alive (THANK GOD!) it helped jump-start this funeral thinking.

I’m at a point in my career where I have been considering a change (This may be dangerous posting online since I have only discussed this with a few people). I feel God’s call and pull in my life, but so far it has been difficult figuring out where that pull is coming from or to what it is leading. My head begins to spin when I think about the possibilities of where God may be leading me next.

There are so many things that I have talked about becoming. I want to go to Australia, I want to read more, I want to write more (maybe even a book), I want to be a great husband and father, to be used by God to reach out to hurting teens. Who is it that I want to become? Who do I want at my funeral and what do I want them to be saying about me? I spent several hours thinking about these things. I was really surprised by the subjects and people that popped into my mind. When I started thinking about what I wanted them to say the words just started flowing onto the page.

Now I know that just because I have this “life plan,” which I am not even close to completing, doesn’t mean that I will have all the answers but I believe that this accompanied with prayer, continual Bible reading, and a faithful life, I will have a pretty good road map and be able to make a more informed decision, on anything God may be doing in my life. I would serious encourage the reading of this book and then creating your own personal life plan! Hyatt even gives worksheets and resources to help in the process! May we all continue to seek God’s Kingdom above all else and find what it is He desires for our lives!

"Do Unto Others"

Today I was sitting and watching the first 45 minutes of "The Last 10 Yards" (because after coming home from watching 27 3-4 year olds all day I need just a little time to veg out). While three of the characters are getting something to eat they begin to briefly discuss their "religion." Jimmy Tudeski looks at Nicholas Oseransky and says "Do unto others before you're turned into a pillar of salt" Oz relplies "A pillar of salt?" Then Jimmy retorts "Ya! Moses said that. Read your Bible Oz!" I laughed and then went on to do some things around the house. A little later that conversation played back in my head and I began to think of how sad it is to think people really do have that little knowledge of the Word of God. I know, I know it was all meant to be funny, but it's not so funny when it happens in real life.

Jay Leno used to do (and maybe still does but I have not seen his show in forever) a segment "Jay Leno goes Jaywalking." He would walk the streets of New York and ask random people general questions about life. In at least two of these Leno asks questions concerning the Bible. It is crazy how many people out there do not have a general idea of what the Bible says or teaches. And it is not just the "unchurched" population that doesn't know.

I attended Central Christian College of the Bible from 2006-2011 (i graduate in May!!). It has been a wonderful experience and I have really learned above and beyond what I ever expected. I was very surprised to find though, in the first few New and Old Testament classes we took that we had to memorize the books of the Bible in order. This was something I had learned in Sunday School in the 6th grade. Now this is not meant to be a rant on how superior I was, rather it was surprising to me that people who had grown up in the Church could not do this task.

How do we expect the world to come and find the truth revealed in Scripture if we do not know it ourselves? It is impossible to lead a person to a place we have not gone. How safe and confident would you feel if you were going sky diving, spelunking, walking down the Grand Canyon, or going on any kind of guided tour and the tour guide started out by saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for accompanying me today. I'm sure we are going to have a lot of fun. I have never actually done this before, and I have no idea what I'm doing, but I am sure I can get us through this." If your answer is anything but "um, no thank you," there is something seriously wrong.

We must begin to get into the Word of God ourselves on a daily basis so that we can lead people to Jesus. We must be experiencing the love of Christ, the active work of the Holy Spirit or nobody is going to come follow our lead, or if they do, we will be leading them in the wrong direction and the Bible is very clear about how important a teaching position is. Let's start each and everyday (or end it but I prefer to start I believe it sets the tone of my day) in God's word. Let's memorize it, "hide God's word in my heart," and let it change us. See the Holy Spirit really does work through the Scripture and reveals things to us and changes us. It's when we begin to allow God to work in our lives, when we begin to really know Scripture that we are going to be able to teach it to others, and then lead them to this wonderful salvation that we are commanded to tell the world about! Let us from this day forth continue to be changed by God so that we can "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."

keep it secret, keep it safe

At Cornerstone we have been going through the Lord of the Rings. We watch a 30 minute segment and then teach a lesson using something from the 30 minutes as an object lesson. It has been a lot of fun and the youth have really enjoyed it. Well instead of watching the last movie like this we decided to have a movie day to wrap it up, so we are watching all three today.

"Keep it secret. Keep it safe" That is the line Gandalf says as he leaves the ring with Frodo. It is a great plan. Gandalf realizes they still have some time but does not want to take the chance of the ring falling into the wrong hands in the mean time. Even speaking of the ring can get Frodo into trouble. No words, actions, or even a lot of thought should be given to the ring once it has been put away. I think sometimes we Christians take Gandalf's words to heart, and while it was great advice for Frodo, it is terrible for us.

Jesus came into this world and showed us how to live. He taught and displayed the way God desires us to be. He spent his whole life making sure His ways were in tune to God and then spent 3 solid years teaching about it. But Jesus wasn't just some good prophet showing us the way back to God. He was and is God! He allowed Himself to be beaten and crucified because He knew He was doing good, He was doing the right thing. He was doing it for us, making the ultimate sacrifice so that our relationship with God could be repaired. God loved us so much!! Jesus loves us so much!! Then He raised from the dead. This isn't some sad story that just ended 2000 years ago with the death of Jesus, He is alive and things have never been the same.

But we are 2000 years removed from the hype that followed these wonderful events and I think it greatly affects the way we respond. Instead of going and telling our friends, neighbors, family members, and the world we spend our days making sure we are keeping the message secret and safe. We have been saved, and we want to make sure our "personal lives" are in tune with God, but outside of that, things get a bit scary. People may not like us if we mentioned what we think about certain topics. Others may laugh, scorn, or even persecute us for the very things we believe.

We cannot separate our "personal lives" from any other part of our lives. When Jesus saves us, when the Holy Spirit fills us, it is not just the part of us that sits in our Lazy Boy and reads the Bible. He saves all of us, the complete person. And it is that person that must then get out of the chair and do everything we can to not keep it secret. We must not allow ourselves to sit on the sidelines but we must actively search for ways to spread the GOOD NEWS! What would the world look like if instead of taking our cues from famous icons, tv shows or even the Lord of the Rings, we instead heard the words of God and then acted on them (James 1:22-25)?

I Want a Faith Like That

Ok so the title isn't exactly "mine." I may have stolen it from a song by some muscularly armed Christian singer, but its true! In the Sunday School class that I have been teaching, we have been going though the book of Genesis. Now I know for many people when you think of an interesting subject to be studying, the first 5 books of the Bible don't exactly scream "EXCITEMENT!" However, I thought it would be a good idea to start in the beginning. There are a few students who have not really studied the Bible, or not for very long so it made sense. So we discussed Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. For the last few weeks though we have been studying the life of Abraham. I have never been more amazed by this man than I have been in preparing for these lessons. Maybe the students are not getting anything out of my lessons but I sure am (which I do know is a problem and if they are not getting anything out of them I need to change something but the point is that I'm learning)!

Abraham was a man living comfortably in a city where everyone knew his name. By this time in history, the flood was no longer a big deal. It had come and gone, and people had gone back to what they were doing before, worshiping anything else than the God who created them. So Abraham in probably in a family business, associating with people he knew and loved. Then, one day, Abraham hears a voice. We are told that God speaks to Abraham (Abram at this time) and tells him that He will make Abram a great nation. He instructs Abram to leave his father's household and "go to a land I will show you." So naturally Abram sits back to think about finances, how this will affect others, if this request even makes sense.... ONLY NO! The next verse says "So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him." Oh did I mention he was 75?! He's not some young pup who is itching to leave the house. This man has a life established, but because God instructed him to do something (not even a clear something) he gets up and leaves! Abraham goes on to cutting off his foreskin, talking with God to help save two cities, and almost sacrificing his son. He does all these things and we never find in these accounts where it says that his faith wavered. Actually in Hebrews 11 we find that Abraham actually believed God would resurrect his son if he killed him. Abraham had never seen anyone raised from the dead before. But he believed God so much when God told him that he would have a son and become a great nation that he could not believe anything else.

How amazing is that? Even when things got crazy and Abraham couldn't make sense of why God was doing what He was doing, Abraham believed Him. Sure there were a couple times when Abraham lied to save his skin (which was wrong) but the majority of the time Abraham's faith in the Almighty was unparalleled by any other example we are given. What would it look like in my life to have a faith like that? Would I be able to pack up and "go" if God told me to do so, even if he didn't say specifically where or even why? What would it look like for me to follow our amazing God through everything knowing that as long as I am following Him, He will take care of me? What does that even look like today? May we all find that kind of faith. May we all be transformed by the amazing saving grace of God through Jesus and be transformed into faithful followers, no matter what.

frustration abounds

AAHHHHH!!!!!! That's it. That's all I feel like screaming. The heart inside my chest feels as though it is being ripped right out. Someone has crushed through my ribs, grabbed hold of my heart, crushed it, and pulled it out. Of course that was only after kneeing me in the gut, pushing me over and repeatedly kicking me in the stomach while I lay there helpless. What makes this even worse is that it was done by a friend. This friend that I roomed with in college for 2 1/2 years. We even stayed together over part of a summer in Moberly. We told each other everything: dark secrets from our past, things that were bugging the crap out of us presently, our hopes and dreams, and the wonderful things that we have experienced. This man was my best friend. Sure we had our hard times, times where we would get upset with each other. One of us would do or say something stupid and that would cause some tension between us, but that is what happens in friendships, especially when you allow someone to get that close. But this... now... this is almost more than I can handle. I will go on with life, forgetting about how pressing of a matter it is, and then: WHAM! The memory hits me again and I am left on the ground in the fetal position, tears staining my face as I cry out to God. What happened? How did you get to this place in your life? Why can I not see the friendship repairing and you seeing what you are doing to your life?

You see, some of you (if anyone actually ever reads this lol) will not understand, but one of my friends has just recently decided he is gay. Not only has he decided he is gay but he continues to believe he is doing nothing wrong under the Christian world view. I have always known he has struggled with his sexuality. That is nothing new. I mean if I had the life he had, and dealt with the crap he has had to deal with, I would have struggled with my sexuality too (not that he will admit it now). He would share with me late at night about the struggle he was having with his flesh. The struggle to fight the strange urges he would have. He would weep over how difficult life would be at times, he would binge because life was so difficult. It was hard to see him like that, but I tried to be there, as much as he would let me. Sometimes he would pull away and would no longer talk with me. It hurt, but I understood. I tried to be there for him whenever he needed it. But now... now he is saying that he never even struggled at all. Now he is saying that he has always been the man he is. He is claiming that he lied to me those late nights as he cried and poured himself out to me! Not that I believe him. But it hurts to know that he is trying to take all of that back. To say that the very foundation of our friendship never even existed. That's just a kick in the place where you don't kick. He says he has always known he was gay, and although he really doesn't have Scripture to back up his point, he refuses to see his error. Romans 1:26-27 clearly does not deal with just having sex outside of marriage but he so desperately wants it to, that he has convinced himself that is what it means. He has given up the fight and has replaced it with what feels good. He has given up the marvelous light for the darkness. I am not one to say whether someone is a Christian or not, that is not my call. I will say that it is a dangerous place to be, to just throw Scripture out the door and believe what you want to instead of looking at the truth it reveals.

This situation has made me look into my own life. I never want to find myself living one way when Scripture is clearly telling me to live another. I never want for someone to point out the Truth of the Word of God and for me to turn my back and say "yeah well that's what you believe but I'm still going to live this way anyway." What a dangerous place to be. May God allow me to live in the light of His Word. May God expose my sin so that I do not live in it. We cannot live both in the darkness and the light. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot have two identities. Gay and Christian are two complete identities, eventually one will win out. Murderer and Christian are separate, Liar and Christian, anything that identifies us apart from Christ will separate us from Him.

Divorce

I have a 20 minute commute everyday to work. On these rides, instead of sitting in the car listening to the air rush in my windows because of the lack of A/C, I turn on the radio. But instead of listening to music today something else caught my ear. The two radio hosts were talking about divorce. Apparently there is a study being done that perhaps divorce is contagious. What spiked this conversation is a study that came to light after former Vice President Al Gore and his wife announced their divorce and then their oldest daughter separated from her husband. According to the article (found here: http://www.momlogic.com/2010/06/is_divorce_contagious.php) James H. Fowler has done a study and found that divorce among family or friends seems to greatly increase the chances of you getting a divorce. Now when somebody first hears this it may seem a little far fetched. Why would the divorce of someone close to you increase your chances of getting divorce? Isn't it ultimately the choice of each couple? But to rule out the fact that we are influenced by our surroundings is just not smart. On the radio show I was listening to on the way to work, the hosts thought this made perfect sense. I mean if you have a friend who is going through a divorce and now they are talking about all the freedom that they have, or all of the great times they are having now because they are not fighting, that would sound very appealing. Then there were the phone calls. People called in giving accounts about this very thing happening. One man said that within 3 months in his group of 6 couples all six of them got divorced! There were several other cases just like this. How crazy is it that divorce is now being grouped with other social behaviors that run through a group like speeding or a way of dressing?! This was something that just really pulled at my heart. Divorce is such a horrible thing. It destroys families and not just the immediate family. It tears apart friendships. Marriage is such a sacred and amazing God given gift. Sometimes we can forget how precious it is and we just rush into it or we don't respect it once we are in one. God loves marriage but hates divorce. If divorce is really so influential as to rush through a group like waters in a flood then we must be prepared. We must guard our marriages now before we are tempted to do the thing everyone is doing. We must build our marriages on God and let Him be the stronghold in all times. If we are in God's word together and applying it together. We must be in each others lives. There is no excuse to not know what your spouse has done all day, the two of you are one, communicate! Know what makes each other tick, what brings you joy and by what you are brought down. Also it helps a ton if you are not rushing off to your friends and sharing about all the bad things that your spouse has done (talking about stupid remarks not abuse, abuse should always be reported) but instead talking with your spouse about why it hurt. The conflicts will be resolved and your friends wont only hear the bad about your spouse and hate them. Let your love grow for one another now, and you will be able to take on the storm of the divorces around you and you will not fall.

Things are happening

Well it has been a little while since I have posted anything on here. I did those first four posts pretty quickly and then things just got busy I suppose. Break for school ended and I had to rush to get things done on time and make sure that I was not falling behind in my work. But I got everything for the semester done and I did pretty well in all of my classes. I am officially done with class for college. Four years have just flown by and somehow I have gone from being an incoming freshman to a man who has completed all four years (I still have to complete my internship requirements so I have not quite graduated yet). I greatly appreciate all that the professors and the rest of the staff at CCCB have done for me. I have learned so much and I truly believe they have enabled me to be prepared for full time ministry. Which brings me to what is going on now. June 1, 2010 I started at Cornerstone Christian Church in Bowling Green, MO as their full time Youth Leader. I could not be more excited! I was not expecting to come on full time at least for a while because of the small size of this congregation but God has provided! It has been amazing to work here these 2 weeks and be able to accomplish everything that I have. When you sit down and plan out your week in hour increments and stick to that schedule (except when something else that cannot wait comes up) I have found my time to be used for all that it is worth. I would really encourage anyone reading this to sit down and think about what you need to get done this week and plan it all out. It also helps to set some goals for yourself. What do you want done in the immediate future (today, this week, this month)? What do you want done in the near future (the end of the month though 6 months)? What do you want done farther out (7 months to a few years)? And even 5 years from now? It takes some time and some praying but it is an amazing tool that I believe God will use. That is the other thing. In making all of this up make sure you are consulting God. As Christians we should be seeking Him out every single day for our lives. There is no spot in our lives that we should not be abiding in Him. This is also very difficult and takes time and effort but the rewards are great! I have been learning all of these thing lately! Its really hard to not try to take complete control instead of letting God lead. I'm finding it especially hard in my relationship with my wife and with the upcoming birth of my child. I want to just lead, which as the head of the household I am supposed to do but I am to do it under Christ. Well I could keep going and going but I think that is all I wanted to say for today. Hopefully I write again a little sooner than this last gap I had.