I’ve heard it over and over from pastors, working moms, big brothers, and volunteers. Easter is like the Superbowl for anyone who works in a church. All the work we do, the meetings we have, the lives we try to reach, are all because of the events that we remember on Good Friday and Easter. Jesus Christ took our sins to the cross and paid the ransom for our lives. Three days later, He rose from the grave and He lives as our Savior.

While it can be exciting to look at Easter in that way, I feel it lacks something. When you look at the game of football, you see that it starts with preseason drills and games that don’t matter in regards to standings. The season starts and every team works to win as much as possible in order to make it to the playoffs. The Pro Bowl happens and the all-stars get to show off a week before the big event. After at least 60 minutes of kicking, running, passing and tackling, a champion is decided and a city celebrates. Then comes the off-season.

As Christians, we have a preseason where we learn the basics of our faith. Sometimes this happens before we profess our faith in Jesus Christ, and sometimes it is a process of learning after we commit to Him. Once we have committed our lives to Christ, the season starts. We evangelize, invite friends, neighbors and coworkers to church, mentor students, disciple new believers and help people in need. We gear up for the playoffs around Christmastime, putting on concerts and pageants. We buy gifts for our families and take coats and toys to people less fortunate than ourselves.

Then comes a little break before Easter. This is kind of like the Pro Bowl. All the all-stars keep playing the game. Pastors preach hard and church staffs look towards Easter as the next big event for The Church. The Superbowl is coming.

After Easter weekend, many church attenders go into the off-season. Those “Chreaster” Christians who only go to church on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday.The problem is, there is no off-season in Christianity. After Easter, it’s okay to rest and regain your composure, but you are not done yet. It’s time to get back up and do it again.

Decisions to follow Jesus were made around the world on Easter weekend. Those people need to be discipled so that they can carry on the mission of The Church. Jesus calls all Christians to go and make disciples.

If you call yourself a Christian, this is not the of-season for you. Go and make disciples. Go and make disciple-makers.

ep•i•dem•ic | ˌepiˈdemik |
noun
a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time: a flu epidemic.

• a disease occurring in such a way.
• a sudden, widespread occurrence of a particular undesirable phenomenon: an epidemic of violent crime.

adjective
of, relating to, or of the nature of an epidemic: shoplifting has reached epidemic proportions. Compare with endemic, pandemic, epizootic.
New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd edition © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Is epidemic too strong of a word for the current state of Christian men who struggle with pornography? Is it really that big of a deal to look at porn and masturbate? Maybe epidemic is not the right word. Maybe I need a stronger word. The truth is that pornography is affecting our lives in ways that many of us might not even realize.

To put it bluntly, Satan wants to ruin your life. The weapon in his arsenal is the lie. He plants lies in your mind until one sticks and you start believing it. Let me start with some lies you might be believing.

• It’s just a way to relieve stress.
• It doesn’t really hurt anyone.
• It keeps me from committing bigger sins like adultery.
• It’s educational.
• It’s just a part of being a man.
• I won’t need it anymore when I get married.
• It’s just masturbation, I’m not sinning if I’m not lusting.
• It’s the only way I can fall asleep.

You can find responses to these lies and more in Mark Driscoll’s FREE e-book, Porn Again Christian. I want to specifically recommend chapter 6 based on some recent conversations I’ve had with multiple friends in recent weeks.

Let me tell you my story.

I first started hearing sexual subject matter around the age of ten when a friend of mine explained what a boner was. I didn’t really think anything of it at the time but that would be the start of me exploring my sexuality. Not having very many friends in sixth grade, I would listen to the things that the other kids were talking about on the bus. I would imagine myself in the situations they were describing and undress girls in my mind.

In seventh grade, I had a couple friends from my church come over to my house to hang out. We got on the computer and one of them showed me how to find free pornography online. It only took one look to get hooked. For years I would surf the web looking for new places to find images of naked women and hard-core porn. I even got caught by my mother at one point, but that only stopped me for a few days. I just learned how to hide it better.

As high school progressed, our internet connection got better, and I upgraded from finding pictures to free pornographic videos. Some sites would ask for my age, but I would just lie. I was hiding the truth from my parents anyway, so what was the big deal. I was highly involved in my church and youth group, and was even a leader with the middle school. I led worship at youth group and went on at least one date with half of the girls there. I went on mission trips and even got baptized. I had a double life, but no one knew about who I was when I was alone in a dark room in front of my computer screen.

During my senior year in high school, there was this girl that I really liked even though she had a boyfriend. I don’t know if she noticed that I liked being around her, but she set me up with her best friend. I convinced her to come to youth group with me once or twice, but she wan’t into it. To be more accurate, she didn’t like the Church or the people because she believed them all to by hypocrites. It wasn’t long before our relationship started getting physical, and I was proving her theory correct. I was the biggest hypocrite of them all.

The first time I had sex was like the first time I saw a photo of a naked woman. I was hooked and it became a part of who I was. It wasn’t even a special thing to me any more, but rather a few minutes of fun that I could have whenever I wanted. My addiction to porn had desensitized me, and the feeling of sex just made me want it even more.

When I graduated from high school, my relationship with that girl began to cool down. I was getting ready to go off to college and she was getting ready for her senior year. A couple months into college, I called her to break up with her. I wanted to move on form high school and focus on my studies. She asked if I had found another girlfriend at school. My answer was no, and then she proceeded to tell me that she was pregnant.

At that moment, my life changed. I fell into a bit of depression, though I think I hid it well. I would sleep late and barely make it to my classes. For a brief time I wanted her to have an abortion. I did not want this to taint the image I had made for myself and I just wanted to leave it in my past. She said no when I brought it up, and I realized that I agreed with her. I knew I had to tell people because there would be no hiding it.

I was asked to step out of the leadership roles I had in my church with the middle school and worship ministries. My mom did the things that I should have done in caring for my pregnant x-girlfriend. I could barely live with myself for that entire season of my life, but I still hid it from everyone at school. That was still a separate world for me.

It wasn’t until mid February, 2001, that I began to show signs of life to the world around me again. For the month prior to that, I had been wrestling with God about my whole situation. Why would he let me fail like that? Why couldn’t I resist those temptations of the flesh? At times I wanted to run away from Him, and other times I knew He was holding me close. In February, I accepted that my sins were paid for in full. I knew I would be facing consequences, but I didn’t have to burry my head in the sand anymore.

I shared the fact that I was going to become a father with a girl I met at college. She was the only one there that I told because she was the one who I knew I would some day marry. Less than half a month later, my daughter was born and I began to tell others at school. Although the next few years were an incredible time of growth for me, I still struggled with an addiction to pornography.

I would have stretches of time when I didn’t even think about porn, but I would inevitably fall back into it. Each time I went back, it was harder to pull away. As I approached my wedding day in 2004, I thought that I would finally be rid of this addiction. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The urge to look at pornography subsided for a time just like it had in the past, but it came back as intense as before.

A few years into our marriage, I grew tired of feeling like a failure. I could not handle the guilt from lusting after women who were not my wife. I knew it was affecting my relationship with my wife, and I did not want to hurt her, no matter how obvious or hidden, any more. I broke down and shared with her about my problem with pornography. I’d like to say that I never looked at another pornographic image again, but I would be lying. It has, however, been a long time.

I tried programs on my computer that would tell people when I visited questionable sites. I tried having accountability partners to keep me on track. No matter what I tried, I was still plagued by pornography. Finally I just started turning to God. I would pray when I felt tempted. I would open my Bible instead of my computer. I would read Scripture until I fell asleep instead of laying in bed thinking about getting off. When I put God between where I was and pornography, things started to change.

I have yet to arrive though. I still have to consciously choose God and my wife over images and videos on my smart phone. I still have to consciously choose Scripture over eye candy. I still have to look away rather than take that second look when a girl walks by wearing figure-enhancing clothes. I am not free from temptation, but I am free from the grip that Satan had on my life.

When I read through Driscoll’s e-book again, there was one part that I gravitated towards. It is a declaration; a stake in the ground against the lies that Satan wants me and every other man to believe. When I personalize it, it reads:

[I am] not an animal. [I am] the glory of God.
[I am] not a pervert. [I am] the glory of God.
[I am] not an addict. [I am] the glory of God.
[I am] not a victim. [I am] the glory of God.
[I am] not a fool. [I am] the glory of God.

Please pray for me and every other man. Pornography is a disease that is hard to get rid of, and recurs easily. Take a stand against the epidemic. I am praying for you.

The thick fog that we drove through on the way to the cabin slowed us down enough to discuss what our expectations were for the weekend. Being on similar yet completely different walks in this journey of life, our expectations were all unique. One thing is certain though – we were all expecting big things.

I have not hidden the fact that I have been searching for answers from God regarding my calling. When I was in middle school, I went on a retreat where one of the other students received a call to go into ministry. I wanted so badly to experience what he did. My sister was a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the time, and so naturally this great desire in me to “hear a call” turned into an idea that I was being called to be a missionary. I’m not saying that I faked the calling of God on my life at that point, but I didn’t really understand what I was saying when I told my leader that I felt called to become a missionary.

Over the course of my high school years, I went on every mission trip and retreat that I could. I volunteered with the middle school ministry and learned to play guitar so that I could become a worship leader. I got baptized in a pool and began to own my faith. I had huge wins in my life and major failures, but God still had a plan for me. The memory of what I said on that retreat began to fade, but I would be reminded by that old leader whenever he saw me. He had moved on in his career and I only saw him once every few years, but every time he saw me, he would say “I haven’t forgotten that call to ministry.”

Nearly eighteen years later, I’ve thought my calling would be anything from a music career to student ministry, but I still don’t know for sure. My goal for the weekend away was to seek clarity from God. I wanted Him to reveal the plans he has for me.

I’ve been a part of the emerging leaders group at my church since it started. Emerging leaders is basically a learning track for younger employees to become leaders in the church. Being a part of this group has been almost frustrating to me at times because of past instances when I had felt overlooked. I always looked forward to our meeting though because I knew I would have much to gain from them. I can truly say that I am a much better leader now than I could have attempted to be just a few years ago.

Over the past few years, I have had this desire to be in a pastoral role of some sort. I would even go as far as to say I felt like God was calling me to become a pastor at times. I thought an open door to become the high school director was for me. That door closed. I thought I could fill the role of worship leader for two of the campuses that opened, but my role did not change. I even thought that an expanded role at a campus that included what I do at our Wexford campus might open the door to move towards becoming a pastor. That expanded role was never created, but instead filled by three part-time employees.

With every dead-bolt locking before I could even get my hand on the doorknob, I felt like I misunderstood God. Maybe the idea of becoming a pastor was nothing more than a thought. Maybe I was thinking about it so hard that I just wanted it to be God’s call on my life. So this was my prayer.

God, please help me. Help me to understand if this is a desire that you placed on my heart or just an idea on my mind. If this desire is from You and not me, please make it clear to me.

I did not share with the other guys what I wanted clarity about. I just told them that I wasn’t sure whether my desires were put in my heart by God or thought up in my mind as an encouraged lie from the enemy. I told them that I was asking God for clarity and seeking Him with the expectation that He would lift the fog.

We went through the weekend with prayer, worship, hiking through God’s creation, fasting, and resting. While we were praying around the fire on Saturday evening, one of the guys began to recount the day. He mentioned how I had been their guide through territories where they had never been. He talked about how I cared for them throughout the weekend and tended to their needs. He thanked God for my servant’s heart. I have to say that I was almost uncomfortable by that point. Even writing these things now, I feel as though I am boasting. It is difficult to talk about your own humility in a humble way, but those are the things he was saying as he prayed.

As DJ recounted those things, the image of a shepherd came to my mind. A shepherd guides his flock to green pastures. A shepherd tends to the needs of each and every sheep. A shepherd cares for his flock and protects them from danger. A shepherd is a leader. If you think about the role of a pastor, the image of a shepherd can help in defining his responsibilities. That image was the clarity I was looking for that weekend.

I still don’t know how this calling on my life will play out. I don’t know what my next steps are or what my pastoral role will look like. I do have a general direction to move towards though. I am surrounded by great leaders who can help me navigate my next steps and develop a path to follow. Even though I feel like God gave me clarity, I still feel like Gideon with his fleece. I want God to give me confirmation.

Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
Judges 6:36-40 ESV

I have recently received confirmation from God about other areas of my life, so you might think that it should be easy for me to trust Him in this. Instead I want to be sure and receive more signs from Him to know that I am hearing Him correctly.

LORD, please don’t be upset with me. If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind making the fleece dry this time and the ground wet?

The posts in response to the retreat I went on a couple of weekends ago have been straightforward up to this point. This one might turn out to be a little more abstract.

As humans on this earth, we all go through struggles and trials. You might think that those who are born into a life of privilege are not susceptible to difficulties that you have had to go through, but that does not mean that they have struggles of their own. One thing I learned from spending a couple of days away with a couple of friends is that we all have crap in our lives that we are dealing with on a daily basis.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4 ESV

Other versions use the words perseverance or endurance in place of steadfastness, but the idea is the same. You have to face opposition if you want to grow as you strive to finish. Take working out at the gym for example. Why do people pay so much money to work out at health clubs? They go to the gym so that they can use equipment that gives them resistance. Sure, some of them just want to sit in the steam room or hot tub, but chances are that they got memberships because they wanted to get into or stay in shape.

God is continually shaping us into the person He designed us to be. Just like a father guides his son to respect women and live with integrity, God guides us to become perfect and complete through Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit. If the testing of your faith brings perseverance which leads to being made perfect and complete, then you can be filled with hope for what God has promised you.

Going back to the weight lifting metaphor, the renewing of strength is a result of the trials and hardships that you endure. Without some form of resistance, your muscles will atrophy and become weak. If your life is easy and you are not facing anything that pushes you back, then your faith can likely atrophy and become weak in the face of anything bigger than yourself.

So when you are facing trials and difficulties, you should “count it all joy,” because you have something to hope for. The strength of your faith is being renewed and built up. God has a promise for you, and your job is to keep pressing forward towards that promise.

What part of your life do you need to let go of? Are you worried about where your life is headed? Maybe you feel like you don’t have the right job or your finances are a wreck. Maybe you need to forgive someone and you’ve been holding on to the pain they caused for far too long.

It is a common practice among churches and youth groups to occasionally offer these types of things to God in a metaphorical and even ceremonial way. Maybe you write them down and nail them to a cross on Good Friday. Maybe you throw them into a bonfire on a youth retreat. I watched as people wrote the things they needed to sacrifice on flash paper and then lit them on fire before being baptized. However it is done, there is significance in the act of physically letting go and offering them to God.

While I have yet to find anything in the Bible that says you should do those things I listed, God does speak clearly through His Word that we do need to let things go. Christ already paid the price for our sins. Everything that holds you back from the power of God was taken to the cross by Jesus Christ.

If you are still holding on to sins, there is a way to let them go.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16 (ESV)

If philosophy, traditions, or the ways of the world are holding you back from experiencing the Glory of God in your life, you need to let it all go and know that God made you alive with Christ. Don’t carry the baggage of your past sins with you because Jesus Christ “canceled the record of debt that stood against you” on the cross.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:8-14 (ESV)

Maybe it’s pride that is holding you back. Remember that as a member of the redeemed, you have been set apart from the world so that you can only boast in the saving action of the cross. What you do, short of accepting the gift of life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, does not matter in the story of your salvation. Your status in the world does not amount to anything because you were made a new creation through the blood of Jesus.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Galatians 6:14-16 (ESV)

If you have been struggling with something and cannot seem to shake it, I’d like to recommend that you share it with someone. Just like I shared in The Brightest Ember, you cannot do it alone. You need to be a part of the Church. Confess what you are struggling with. Take it to the cross. Ask others to help you though it.

Saturday was filled with hiking through God’s creation. We visited Cucumber Falls, Ohiopyle Falls, and the Youghiogheny Dam. After a long day of fasting and experiencing the wonder of God through His creation (and needing some aspirin for the old guys), we gathered around the fire at the cabin to pray.

As I was stoking the fire to get it going, I began to think about the hot coals and embers that keep the fire hot. If you were to take one of the hot embers from the middle of the fire and put it off to the side, it would not be long before it cooled down. The orange glow would fade and the ember would eventually be nothing more than a cold black piece of charred wood.

This is not unlike a person in the Church, in The Body of Christ. When you are engaged and involved and growing in community with other believers, you tend to stay hotter in your faith. The joys in your life encourage others and keep their faith hot. When you share your struggles with fellow Christians, you have the support of the Body of Christ to keep you from growing cold. If you remove yourself from the Church, who is there to share in your joys and struggles?

One of the most frustrating things to me is when someone explains to me that they do not go to church because they don’t like organized religion or they got tired of the hypocrites. I understand why some people tend to be more anti-establishment than others. I know what it feels like to be burned by a hypocrite that you thought was on your side. Can I pose some questions to you though? How strong is your faith? Are you filled with The Spirit of God? Is the love of your Savior so overwhelming that you can’t help but share your faith with others?

I suppose that many people who attend church would answer those questions the same way that an unchurched “Christian” would. Church attenders are not really involved in the church though, are they? When you stop being the Church as soon as you walk out of the church doors on Sunday, can you really say you are a part of the Body of Christ? A hand cannot survive apart from the body. Can you survive spiritually apart from The Church?

As we were about to start praying, I looked into the fire and noticed something bright. I could not take my eyes off of this bright ember, deep within the fire. It appeared as though it was as bright as the sun, yet it was not blinding. If I were to have pulled that ember from the fire, it may have continued to glow for some time, but eventually it would have cooled down.

I want to be like that ember deep in the fire, burning so bright that people cannot take their eyes off of the light. I don’t want them looking at me, but at the light that comes from within. I want the light of Christ in me to be like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV)

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)

This is the second post in a series of posts as I decompress from an amazing weekend of seeking God. You can find an introduction to this series as well as links to the other posts here.

If there was one theme that was true for the three of us who went to my cabin this past weekend, it would be the proclamation that the enemy has already been defeated. From the text message that one got from his wife about one of their children getting sick to the fact that something goes wrong at work any time I am away for a weekend, it seemed as though the enemy did not want us to accomplish our goal of seeking God.

The enemy has been defeated
And death couldn’t hold You down
We’re gonna lift our voice in victory
We’re gonna make Your praises loud

Shout Unto God – Joel Houston | Marty Sampson © 2004 Hillsong Music Publishing (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

After driving through heavy fog that would have stopped the faint of heart, we arrived at the cabin in the middle of the night. Our plan was to fast through saturday as we prayed for our pastors and the leadership around us as well as seeking God for direction in our own lives.

Fasting for a day might not sound like a big deal to some people, but for the three of us it was. As we all woke up saturday morning, I pulled out my guitar and we read through Scripture. At one point, I began singing the chorus of Shout Unto God (quoted above). Between the text messages that came from spouses, the relational situations, and the fact that we knew we headed into spiritual battlegrounds, we knew that this proclamation would be important all weekend.

I began to say that the enemy has already been defeated, he just didn’t get the memo. Even though the enemy was defeated by the resurrection of Christ from the grave, he still does everything he can to drag us down. He hates it when we seek God with all of our mind, strength, heart, and soul. He seeks to distract us from our Savior, and he tried this past weekend.

Early saturday evening, I received a call that one of our main pieces of equipment that ties all of our video aspects together had malfunctioned and died. This was not only an attack on me being away, but an attack on our entire team. While God does not need technology to further His Kingdom through us, we do leverage technology as a tool to do His work. Without the technology that we have, our current multi-campus strategy is not as efficient.

I sent a text to my boss, proclaiming to him that the enemy has already been defeated, and an equipment failure will not stop the Word of God from being spread. They were able to patch what they needed to get most things operational, and the congregation worshiped. Pastor Scott preached his sermon and even mentioned the fact that the enemy has already been defeated.

On sunday morning, I woke up to another text message from my team. Ten minutes into the 9:00 service in Wexford, the power went out. Yet again, the enemy was on attack. He wanted to distract me from my business with God and he wanted to stop the people of God from worshipping and hearing God’s Word. Yet again, he failed. At the cabin, we turned our focus towards praying for each other, just as planned. At church, many people commented on how they felt the presence of God in that service. Worship happened. Prayer happened. Preaching happened. The enemy cannot stop the will of God.

If you are feeling discouraged and it seems as though nothing is going right in your life, take heart. Turn your eyes to The Savior, Jesus Christ, and know that He has already defeated the enemy. Lift your voice in victory, for God has already won.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39 (ESV)

I had the privilege of taking a couple of days off this past weekend to go on a bit of a spiritual retreat with a couple of my friends. Leaving friday night and returning sunday evening, we traveled through the heavy fog to one of the most beautiful state parks in Pennsylvania. With a family cabin nearby and amazing weather this weekend, it was the perfect place and time to go.

When telling other friends and coworkers, we got responses indicating that they thought we were just going there to drink, fish, shoot stuff, play poker, and go white water rafting. While we did play cards for a little while saturday night, our purpose for going on this “retreat” was more about going on the offense in our spiritual battle. We went to pray for the people who lead us. We went seek God’s direction for our lives and families in the coming year. We went to hear from God.

I am still decompressing everything that we experienced this weekend and as I do, I want to share some of it with you. I want to say that God “showed up,” but I know that He never left. We just opened up to Him in ways that we might not have if we hadn’t gotten away from out everyday distractions. God spoke to us through prayer, fasting, silence, and experiencing the glory of God through His creation.

Over the course of this week, I will share more about the entire experience:

• The Enemy Has Been Defeated
• The Brightest Ember
• Laying Down Sacrifices At The Cross
• Hope And The Renewing Of Strength
• Clarity Comes

Normally when I take vacation days on a weekend, something goes wrong. It’s like job security even though the problems never really have anything to do with me being gone. This past weekend was no different as a major piece of equipment died saturday night, and there was a power outage for nearly an hour on sunday morning. You’ll have to check out the Journeymen Podcast later this week for more on that story.

One of my favorite videos every year is Google’s Zeitgeist. 53 Sundays and Mondays. 52 Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. 366 days in all. A lot can happen in a year, and this year is no different. There have been great victories, major defeats, amazing adventures, and difficult tragedies. With all of the difficulties we’ve experienced in the past few months, it can be hard to remember the good things that happened this past year.

World Celebrations of 2012

• Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 60th year as Queen of England on February 6.
• The 2012 Summer Olympics were held in London, England from July 27 – August 12.
• The Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars on August 6.
• Austrian skydiver, Felix Baumgartner, became the first person to break the sound barrier without any assistance on October 14 by skydiving from the Red Bull Stratos.
• The world did not end on December 21. Was anyone really surprised?

Personal Celebrations of 2012

• We started hosting an international student in our home in January.
• We launched the 4th campus of North Way Christian Community on January 29.
• My oldest child turned 11 on March 2.
• My wife and I celebrated 8 years of marriage in July.
• In September we opened our home to 2 international students.
• On September 30 I left my 20′s in my rearview mirror.
• I was asked to be a part of a new church consulting group in November.
• My wife left her job to stay at home at the end of November.
• We decided to trust God with our finances and began giving a full tithe in December.

Top 5 Posts of 2012 (most views this year)

1. A New Chapter 12.12.11 – 543 views
2. Gays and Chick-Fil-A 7.27.12 – 261 views
3. The Internet, Open-Source, and Government 10.2.12 – 181 views
4. Stewardship of Time 3.16.12 – 150 views
5. StrengthsFinder 2.0 3.9.12 – 145 views

With 2012 coming to a close tonight, I am looking forward to 2013. I believe that this coming year is going to be a breakthrough year. My theme song for this year is God of This City because of one specific line:

Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done…

That is my prayer and hope for 2013.

When people ask me if I have any resolutions for the new year, I first wonder why they are asking me about pixel dimensions in the new year. Seriously though, I don’t really like making New Years Resolutions. It’s not that I don’t have things I’d like to accomplish in the new year, just that I tend to fail at resolutions. The most ambitious resolution I ever made was to read through the entire Bible, cover to cover.

I’m not going to make a New Year’s Resolution this year, but I do have some goals as well as some themes that I plan to pray through in the coming months. These goals and themes might last the whole year or maybe just a few weeks.

Goals

1. Get my weight down to 200 lbs.
2. Remain consistent in my time with God through prayer and reading His Word.
3. Start working on my Masters Degree this year.

Prayer Themes

1. God will reveal His plan to me as I surrender my plans to Him.
2. This will be my most financially prosperous year as I surrender my finances to God.
3. This will be a breakthrough year where God does greater things through me in my family, church, city, and region.

The goals I’ve set for the foreseeable future are things that can fall within my own control. If I eat right and exercise, my weight will come down. If I discipline myself enough, my time with God will be consistent. If I make the time in my schedule and come up with the finances, I can start taking Master Level classes.

My prayer themes are quite different though. Only God can reveal His plan for my life. My surrender to Him plays a role in this, but it is all up to Him if, when, and how He reveals His plans to me. The same goes for my finances. I’m still in the process of learning how to trust God with my finances, but in the past month that trust has gained a huge amount of ground. As I gave back the 10% that He asks for, He made the 90% go much further than the whole amount used to go.

The final prayer theme is my favorite. Maybe it’s because in encompasses the other two, but I think it is so much more than that. I felt the other day that God wanted me to tell someone that God has planned greater things to be done through him this year. I am praying that He is planning for greater things to be done through me this year as well.

Pastor Steven Furtick had a recent sermon series entitled Banner Years. The series was primarily focused on the plans for their church, but it was very applicable to life. I want this year to be a banner year for me and my family. I want to see the greater things that God has in store for us and for our city.