To the Praise of His Glorious Grace

The past few weeks, I have not been using the gift that God has given to me. Ever since my freshmen year of college God has revealed to me that He has given me the gift of boldness in evangelism. I know that evangelism is not a gift, but a command so that is why I see that boldness in it is what He has blessed me with. As I purposed to use my gift in the beginning of college to the glory of God, many people were raised from the dead and brought into Spiritual life and many blind eyes have been opened. The more I practiced evangelism, the more I saw my knowledge of it and passion for it grow. This summer, God told me to try out this youth internship at a church to see if it is really what He wants for me to pursue because I love youth ministry as well....or did. This has been an amazing summer and I love it, but God showed me that this is not for me at all. I have a burning passion, a pumping heart, an all out raw desire to tell people straight up the Gospel. So, because of m...

My brothers and sisters, God's creatures which He created for making His name known and for showing them the depth of His love and grace are being told a lie everyday they are here on this earth. Most of my brothers and sisters are believing this thief which is trying to brainwash them into thinking that they mean nothing to anyone and that they are simply here to take up space and find pleasure for this moment before it is all gone. Satan is the liar and he is telling them that they will always be able to feel good if they just follow him and give in to the temptations which he presents. We act as though it is just our flesh but it is so much more than that! Satan is waging a war with our friends and we are just standing by and shaking our head acting as though it is their fault and their sin and they need to change. They are in a battle everyday and they don't even know who is fighting them. You see, he masquerades around like an angel of light the Bible says and every...

I am going to lead a group this next semester in evangelism at Valdosta State. We will be involved with showing people their sin through the law and explaining the grace that God gives once His people receive His free gift of eternal life in Jesus who died to take our sin upon Himself. Basically, what we will be doing is going out as often as we can as a group on campus and talking to people we either know or don't know about the amazingly good news of the gospel. These people have the choice to either follow the world or to follow Christ and we are simply presenting this choice to them and showing them that it is a black and white matter. We will attempt to do this with an intently listening ear and absolutely loving heart. If what we do is not out of love, it is in vain and will most likely profit nothing for the person. We will also be intent about praying hard for our campus to have soft hearts and ready ears to listen to the message of Christ. If we do not do this, we a...

so I was at a friend's lakehouse the other day and we were all in the boat talking about how the day had gone when my friend says yeah and remember when Austin did such a great job blah blah blah....as he brought me up as a topic about how good I had done tubing, I immediately felt pride come swelling up in my chest. I practically stuck my chest out and smiled as he was talking. As this happened, I thought about how foolish my heart was to act as though my simple water tubing experience proved that I was the best there ever could be. The simple fact that I was above the rest practically turned me to boasting about myself. I can really understand that verse in the Bible that says the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things because I experienced it that day. We all crave this power and position to know that others either look up to us or rely upon us and it is totally against the very nature of who we are as humans to practice humility amongst people. If anyone deserved to...

Most people I know including myself don't really follow the Bible like we say we do. When in the end of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, and 1 Peter the Word says to greet your brothers in Christ with a holy kiss and in many other places the Word emphasizes outwardly showing the love you have for fellow believers, why don't we do it? I know that in this day and age it is very unusual for a man to give another man a hug or to grab their shoulders while they talk to each other and it is much more comfortable to just shake the hand and pat the back to say hello, but if we really do care about one another then why do we often act like their just any other random guy to us? I have never seen guys so excited to see each other and love so outwardly shown when greeting one another as I have when I helped out with the Kairos prison ministry at the maximum security prison this past year. As about 40 of us volunteers lined up on one side of the prison gym right near ...

I was reading Joshua today and noticed that God tells him to be strong and courageous 4 times in 1 chapter and one of those times, He spoke through the very people Joshua was to lead! The third time God straight up tells Joshua, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; don't be afraid nor dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Saying that sounds like God could see Joshua's heart and knew he was afraid, so God is like, "Are you not listening to me? I am with you! Man up!" I can't tell you how many times in so many different places and situations God has commanded me to go way out of my comfort zone for Him. Every time, I get all scared and think the worst will happen and God has to remind me, just like He did to Joshua, to be strong because He is with me. I mean, its kind of ridiculous to be scared when the very God of ALL creation dwells within you and goes before you and behind you AND with you everywhere you...

Here is where I'm gonna post a bunch of questions I have always wondered, but never asked.... Should we, as followers of Jesus, be so focused on Him that we don't care about the schedule sunday and just worship Him or should we be focused on making sure the schedule is just right Sunday so that we can create the best atmoshpere for worship? Should we, as followers of Jesus, be more worried about sharing Jesus the best possible way so that people understand and see our love, or desire to share Him before time runs out so much that we tell everyone we know whenever we can? Should we be care about how adequately we disciple new believers or is adequately sharing Christ and letting them understand what it takes to follow Him enough without it? Should we have "invitations" in every church service for nonbelievers to receive Jesus or will the worship/the Word be enough to draw them to the Father? Should we be more focused on edifying the body or on reaching the lost or is i...

I got a call from my mom the other day and she told me that her old friend from the neighborhood was recently diagnosed with cancer and was only given about 2 weeks to live and she is unsure if the woman knows the LORD GOD personally. Then a call about five minutes later was my mother again and she said, she has now been told that if she lives past 7 days she will be lucky. Last night I talked with my mom again and she told me she went to go visit Tony, the woman with cancer, and got to see first hand what this disease had done to her. As Tony lay there, she was apparently paralyzed throughout most of her body, but still had a huge smile on her face when her old friends from the neighborhood a few years back came to see her. My mom said from the second she walked in the door, she knew Tony was born again. She told her three good friends that there will be no crying in the hospital room, because she is about to go be with her Daddy. As one woman was fighting back the tears, she f...

I got a call from my good buddy Doug, also my roommate the other day....actually I called him, anyway we talked about visiting Southeastern Baptist Seminary this week. So now that I have all this free time and have already prepared for wednesday's lesson for the youth, I was checkin SEBTS out online. There are a lot of really cool things about it now that I look at it. I really wish I would've just looked for a few minutes, but it has become my whole day. Now it is like I don't know if I should or shouldn't go to seminary. I mean I know that if I go I will hopefully grow a lot and become more knowledgeable about God and His Word, but shouldn't I also be filled with a desire to get out there and spread His Word everyday and not be in need of some certificate to tell me I can do it. I mean, life is short and people need to hear the Word. So what if God wants me in Africa right now and here I am in this little American seminary for like 4 years? I don't wan...

So I was thinking the other day about how I am overly blessed...or should I say cursed? It almost seems like a curse at times the blessings I have because I take them all for granite and choose to live the life of a couch potato and sometimes just tan in the light of all my shiny things....basically making them gods to me instead of worshipping the one true God. God threw a verse at me that says, "To whom much is given, much is required." So after thinking on this for a while the situation of my blessings was laid bare and I saw it all as it should be. God has blessed me with a family of believers waiting for me when I showed up back in 84, also with a loving family in a upper middle class home and life, a chance to hear His Word everyday, plenty of food, friends, college, jobs, clothes, cars, cell phones, playstations, tvs, guitars, new shoes, and the list goes on and on. I take about 98% of all these things for granite everyday. I must learn to show thankfulness and gratitu...

I went to Centrifuge with the youth group a few weeks ago and came upon a very awing word from God. There are several tracks to choose from and mine was Messy Games, which involved slip n sliding down a slide with chocolate, and syrup, and all other kinds of stuff on it. As the track came to a close, I washed off and was about to walk up the hill to my dorm when I noticed that there was a bunch of leftover ice cream buckets and syrup bottles and other nasty trash all over the field with only one girl left to clean it all up. I immediately thought in my mind, "well, thats a bummer" without even wanting to go help her. As I turned to climb the hill, God hit me with a statement: "The Christian life is meant to be uncomfortable, not comfortable." I stopped and turned around to clean up all the trash pieces with her and learned a lot through that experience. In my life, I am so used to taking the comfortable route and always escaping those uncomfortable situati...