The first 4

Simple fisherman. Not necessarily poor, but they were either self employed, or as in the case of James and John, they were a part of a family business. Nothing wrong with what they are doing for a career, but if you look deeper into why they're doing it, you find encouragement.

All the good little Jewish boys didn't take up the family business, or start out entrepreneurs in the beginning. They studied Old Testament laws and wanted to be accepted to follow a rabbi. It was actually quite a strenuous process they had to go through in order to be counted worthy and chosen to follow a religious teacher of the day. I won't quite go through all of it here, but you had to be considered the best of the best to take on that role. It was a role that the disciples weren't counted worthy enough to fill. Which is why they were fishing, or collecting taxes, etc.

So here's what I see. I see 4 guys; Simon, Andrew, James, and John, already told they weren't the best of the best by the religious leaders. Told to pursue another trade and forget about life of ministry because, according to the religious leaders opinion, they didn't have what it takes to be a religious leader. Then Jesus comes along and says, "follow me". By asking them to follow him, Jesus says they can be like Him, He believes in them, they have what it takes, and they can be used by Him.

Jesus instantly gave these 4 guys a brand new identity. Everything changed in an instant. They weren't looking for man to teach them, they were looking for God to teach them. They weren't looking to duplicate man, they were looking to duplicate Jesus.

Who is identifying you? Where are you looking for your identity? At what point did rejection alter the course of direction for your life? Remember this. God created you. Not man. Not your professor. Not even your pastor. I'm not saying they can't and won't help lead you. I'm not saying that if they tell you something you don't want to hear, that they're wrong. What I'm saying is don't let mans qualifications limit you to what the holy spirit wants to do through you. Look to God for your identity. If your identity is created by any man other than Jesus, then you're worshiping the wrong guy. Choosing to follow God will bring change. That kind of change is great. You may not understand it, but you need it. We all do. Let God decide who you need to be. Then follow Him as He teaches you how.

CHUPPAH!!

Alright, so I just got back from Florida for a friends wedding. It was a lot of fun, and I realized how much I miss Florida, but that's a whole other post all together. Anyway, it blows me away how awesome God is and how faithful He is ALL the time. Here's what happened:

If you don't know what a chuppah (or huppa) is, it looks like this:

They're seen mostly in Jewish wedding ceremonies. They're just a canopy the couple is married under.

But there was a problem with the church scheduling where they got married two days before the wedding. Someone scheduled a funeral at 10:30 and Josh's (my friend) wedding was planned for 2:00 the same day. There has been a lot of history with two of the deacons at that church and with Josh's dad. So it was thought that the scheduling mishap was done intentionally. So, with that thought, and the combination of several other surprise problems 2 days before the wedding, I can understand why there was a little extra tension. But to be honest we were thinking the worst of everything. Saying things like, "they're going to have to have the funeral with wedding decorations."

So when we were setting up everything on Friday, (wedding was the following Sat.) the people who were setting up for the funeral came in towards the end of the night. Josh spent a lot of time working on building a chuppah for their wedding, and it was quite fragile. But unfortunately, the funeral had a slide show that the chuppah was blocking. Josh had already decided that it wasn't going to be moved just because of how fragile it was and well....he spent a lot of time on it. But the guy who passed away told Josh that if he allowed him to move it, he would make it worth his while. So he's thinking a couple hundred dollars max. But get this..When Josh went to talk with him, the son said this, "I have a construction company and if you let me move that, I'll move it tonight, and have it back before you get here tomorrow. I'll also have my guys secure it for you so there's no way it will come apart. AND, I'll write you a check for.....5......thousand dollars." Yup that's right...5,000 dollars for about 15 min. worth of work. This guy offered to write him a check that was more that what his entire wedding cost. You can tell this guys wasn't just throwing money around, but that's how much it meant to him for his father had a nice funeral.

Ya know, I believe with all my heart that this was all Gods doing. And I can't say for certain that it was mainly to give Josh and Andrea a check for 5 grand, but you wanna talk about a huge lesson here. A lesson that says:

1. God's got everything under control
2. Don't sweat the small stuff
3. Love your neighbor
4. God's faithful even when we're not

Seriously, how easy is it to lose focus when things don't go our way? Or when things aren't perfect, how easy it is to dwell on that rather than focus on God. How quickly we worry about what's going on rather than how we can represent Christ? Wanna talk about a great father, He takes our moments of disobedience, or unfaithfulness to show us a lesson in love. In Josh's case, he got a lesson and a bonus $5,000.00 on top of it. It takes me back to a part of my testimony when God made it clear to me that no matter what the situation, no matter what the problem, regardless of what's going on...I'll make it. I'll make it through. You'll make it through.

Everything

This is great. I wish I knew who the original creator was...or even who did this version, but I couldn't find it. But it is really well done.

Modern Church

I was recently asked a question about some of the biggest social issues facing the church today, and there are many many issues facing the church, but the first thing that came to my mind saddened me a bit. Immediately I thought that the church is at a point now when it is going to have to take a stand and say, "Yes, we are different from the rest of the world." Yes, it says it throughout the Bible repeatedly, but now, with the goal of being "relevant" to the unbeliever there are many cases where the church is becoming so "relevant" that you can't really tell a difference anymore. Yes, I do believe the message of Christ if very relevant to todays society, and I do think that the love of Christ can be spread through modern and creative ways, but I don't think that the church needs to start leaving out pieces of the Bible because it may be offensive or because they believe that it may be flawed because of interpretations. I was talking with one of my friends in Florida about this, click here for his blog, and two peices of scripture came up.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (The Message)

^19-23Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

This means contexualize the Gospel. It is key in reaching the lost. But often this next verse seems like it is often overlooked.

Jude 1:3-4 (New International Version)

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

I love the word "contend". We can't sway from the truth that we know in order to connect with those who are lost. The truth will make people uncomforable. We have to face it. It's going to happen. For us to say that we need to change the message in order for people to recieve it, is saying that we are able to communicate who God is and what He wants better than He can. Now we're creating our own truth, and changing the grace of God into a license for immorality. That doesn't mean have a fire and brimstone message every Sunday, but it means do not alter the truth to create comfort.

This is where the power of prayer comes into play. Anyone who has talked with me for more than 5 minutes about my philosophy of ministry has heard me say this: It is critcal for me to prepare as though the end result is up to me, but pray like the end result is up to God. I realize that the end result has nothing to do with me and my abilities, but is completely reliant on the power of God. I'm simply saying that we should prepare to the best of our abilities, but pray that God uses our ministry, and that God honors our obedience and diligence to reach the lost by breaking through and speaking to the core of their heart. Pray humbly that God takes our words and our actions, that are otherwise useless without Him, and speaks to their heart in ways that only He can.

We simply need to remember this:

As cliche as this is, it's true. We need to accept and love the sinner, but not the sin. Introduce them to a God who chose to carry the weight of their sins so they no longer have to live in it. Introduce people to a love that wants to make them perfect before the throne. Contend for our faith.

I finally get to join the crowd in saying, "I saw it!"

Fireproof. Yes, my wife and I are no longer having to confess of not seeing this movie. We were a little leery to be to be honest. Nothing against Kirk Cameron, but normally movies like this come off as cheesy, low budget, and have horribly cliche dialogue. So bad in fact that the message that the director was trying to convey is completely missed. BUT! I liked it. I must admit, I shed a tear or two. It really did hit on a relevant topic of today. The amount of marriages ending in divorce today are mind blowing.

Anyway, I liked it.

Thanksgiving in the City!!

Hey everyone, I'm here in NYC watching the Thanksgiving day parade...errr..I mean football...
What a day! I've got so much to be thankful for this year. What are you thankful for?

Today, I was welcomed

Well, today, I was finally welcomed to upstate NY. I'm not talking about being welcomed by people. No, no. I was welcomed by the wonderfully slushy roads caused by the superb northeast winter. (do I sound bitter?) My wonderfully bad tires, and light weight car were no match at all for the slushy, snowy, twisty, hilly road they call Day Hallow. The ditch however was ever so thoughtful to catch me and hang on to me until Steve Carter could come to my rescue. (for those who may not have caught that...I lost control on Day Hallow rd., and went in the honkin ditch unable to get out.)

I was pleased to see there were a large amount of people who stopped to see if I needed help. However, it was laughable that all the vehicles that did stop were cars as small as mine (some smaller).

There were a lot of people who stopped to help out though. That was very encouraging. I guess today two things happened.

1.) As previously mentioned, I was welcomed to upstate NY.
2.) By the chosen method of welcoming me to upstate NY, I was proven I'm still a southern boy by coming in contact with the ditch.

Grateful Expressions..

I must say, that I am guilty of being grateful for the wrong things on occasions. Well, let me take that back. Not grateful for the wrong things, but I have expressed more gratitude for the wrong things. Does that make sense?? Let me explain.

It's sometimes hard to hide your emotion when you get really really excited or are really thankful for something. For example, have you ever been able to go on a roller coaster you love, and not have a huge smile on your face (prior to getting sick)? Doubtful. Or how about opening a present that you really, really wanted, or really needed and possibly shed a tear because you were so grateful and happy? Rarely. I get really excited if there's a mistake when I go through the drive through and find I was given an extra order of French Fries!
My point is simply this. How easy is it to over look the best gift we have ever or will ever receive. I"m talking about the cross. It's almost as though we don't fully understand the Gospel. We no longer are under the same laws as old testament scripture. I mean, before they could even go and worship God they had to bring a sacrifice of some sort. That may sound simple, but it was a very complicated process. I could only imagine what it would be like.

Walking around one day, and wanting to repent of our sin and worship God. So, immediately I start to think, hmmm, what can I take to the high priest as a sacrifice. So after hours of the constant weight of my sin, and draining mental process of thinking of a sacrifice good enough. I take my sacrifice to the high priest only to hear...."oooohhh, I'm sorry, but this isn't going to work..Come back when you have something better" AAhhHH, WHAT! Get the crap out of here! Now out of anger I go and sin again, and THEN, I have to find a sacrifice to cover the first sin, and because of my jacked up first attempt, I gotta find TWO!

Ok Maybe it didn't look exactly like that, but you get my point. Here's the beauty behind the cross. We no longer have to go through the very narrow process to worship God! We can just say, "Hey!" and we're talking to God. Just say "I'm sorry"and God hears us. Actually no matter what we're doing, we're in His presence. We serve the God of Jacob! We can wrestle with God, we can listen to God, we can seek Gods face! Isn't that flippin awesome! Do we really understand what it means when we say, "The price has been paid!"? Do we understand what was paid when we say, "Jesus, paid it all"? So, if you visualize a cross before you worship, or if your church has a big cross behind the pull pit, do we just think of the name Jesus, or do we think of what Jesus did? Some may even overlook the constant reminder of what that means, and say, oh yeah that's just here cause it's a church. Some may say, "Yeah, Jesus died on the cross." OK, true, but that's wrong. We should say, "YEAH!!! Jesus died on the cross!!!" OK! Do you know what Jesus CHOSE to do for us because He loved us? He became our sacrifice that was taken to the high priest, so because of Him, we can actually worship freely! Because of Him, forgiveness is an easy thing to get! We're not under old testament laws, only though Jesus can we get to God! Look at what it says in John 14:6

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."

Is that not a reason to get really excited! Is that not a reason to smile, laugh, weep tears of joy, even scream uncontrollably. Do you see it now? The Cross...A Gift! Freedom..A Gift! Repentance...A gift!
How are we expressing gratitude? What are we expressing gratitude in? Do we express more gratitude in free french fries than we do God? What about the gift Jesus chose to give us? Do we really acknowledge it? My grandmother used to threaten to take back my Christmas gifts if I didn't cry. She never did, but could you imagine if that's what Jesus did. Thank goodness our gratitude doesn't really have to look a certain way. We all have different expressions. The only thing we need to do is accept this gift, and be real in however we say thank you.

Grrr....!

Ok, so when did puppy's start getting rebellious attitudes...? Seriously, sometimes it feels like I'm raising a rebellious, 13 year old freshman boy in high school trying to fit in with the bad crowd to be noticed. Ok, I know, some of you are thinking...,"really Aaron, it's a dog." But I tell you this, if the dog is not getting her way, and decides to look over her shoulder at you and relieve herself right where she knows she's not supposed to....there's a dog with an attitude. Need another example, ok. She gets mad about something and when you try and talk to her, she ignores you..and this isn't just any "won't look at you", it's like the little boy teasing his sister saying, "I'm not touching yooooouuu!", only she's saying,"I'm not seeing yoooouuu!"

I have a new hero. Cesar Millan aka, the Dog Whisperer.


This guy is awesome! The most undisciplined dogs I've seen are miraculously changed. With one (or two) snap of the finger and one SHH! of his voice, the dog stops and listens.

I must go and watch a couple of more episodes so, I can become a dog whisperer too.

Ok, now that I've vented a little bit, I think I'll go and SHH! Lyla for a little bit.

Whoa..

A friend of mine posted this on his blog, and I wanted to share this. Whadda ya think?

Been a while, but we'll give it another whirl!!

Alright, it's been a while since I've blogged. Actually it stopped shortly after I started this blog.?. However, I believe that I am ready to give this another whirl! I shall begin blogging again. I cannot promise that it will be interesting in the slightest, but, there are a lot of things I believe I may be able to blog about.

So, I'll start by updating on what's new with me.
First and foremost, I am now married to this beautiful girl!

We've been married since August 30th, and are now living in the lovely historic district of Owego, NY. and now we have a wonderful, sometimes stupid, puppy.
I'm also working now for a phenomenal church in Endicott call Union Center Christian Church
as the worship arts director.

Alright, now that your updated, blogs will follow.

Big NYC!!

I'm here again!! I love New York! I never believed that t-shirt before I actually got to experience it. Now I own 3!!

New York is definitely an awesome place but flying in at night was simply amazing. Even though Derrick stole my window seat after I went to the 2 square ft. bathroom. It was still an awesome sight. A great start to what I'm sure will be a great week.
It's D's first time in the big apple so that will be a fun experience. It'll be like seeing someone go to Disney World for the first time. A lot of stuff to do so it's time for me to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow!

Tired

Wow what a day! Sundays are a tiring day as it is with tearing down the stage at church and all that, but today was particularly long with the time change last night...I ended up not getting to bed until 4 am. I'm not a fan of staying up late like that anymore. Not fun.
But I do have to say that it is definitely worth it. On Sunday morning it's awesome to walk in and see how God provides for us in so many ways.
First off, the stage we stay in there setting up till the wee hours of the morning is such a blessing. Secondly, it amazes me each week to see how no one who stayed to help set up on Sat. night is falling over chairs as they walk in Sunday morning. Then to top it off everyone stays after and helps tear down. It definitely would not be possible without any of you. Thank you all so very much.

Open your eyes

It amazes me at how easy it is to not see Gods answer to our prayers. We can pray and pray and pray for something and then start praying God, why aren't you answering me. Only because Adam has started telling the corny preacher jokes on Sunday mornings I'm going to tell an old one now that probably everyone has heard.

It's about a guy who had a lot of faith in God. Everything he did was done in complete faith that God was going to take care of him. When one week there was a horrible storm that came through. After each day the water would continue to rise higher and higher. People knew that if it didn't stop raining that there was going to be some serious issues. Since it showed no sign of letting up some people started leaving town while they still could. But this guy stuck around saying God is going to take care of me, he always does. If He wants me out, He'll let me know. Mid way through the week it was getting so bad that he could no longer stay in the first floor of his home, so he had to stay on the second floor. During this a man came buy in a boat and saw him through the window and told him to get in the boat so they could go to safety. The man living by faith said no, God is going to provide what I need to get out. The man in the boat looking very confused, said ok, and went on his way. Couple of days later he could no longer say in his house. He had to go to the roof to stay out of the water. Another boat came by and told him to get in so they could go to safety, but his refused again and said, I'm continuing to pray that if God wants me out of here He'll provide a way. So the boat left, and as it was leaving the man started questioning God. Asking, what's going on God I'm living by faith, I know that you'll provide a way out for me, I just don't understand. Then after realizing that he was questioning God he stopped immediately and apologized. But the rain never let up it was to the point where the water was up to his neck and he had no where else to go. About this time a rescue helicopter came by and threw down a rope, but the man realizing he already doubted God once didn't want to do it again, turned down the rescue squad. Unfortunately the man died. But in Heaven he asked God I don't understand God, I've lived faithful to you and every day of my life walked by complete faith, why did you let me drown? God told him, look don't put that off on me, I gave you a week to leave town, then I sent you 2 boats and a helicopter what else do you want?

Ok haha chuckle chuckle, cheesy joke for the day is done now. But I look at this and to a point it happens everyday on a much smaller scale. What is it exactly that we're looking for? God is constantly speaking to us and guiding us. When are we going to learn to hush for a while and listen to His responses? I am totally guilty of this, probably more often than others, but here recently I have been seeking Gods guidance and direction in a certain area of my life, and found myself getting frustrated because I felt like He wasn't answering me. But through a couple of AMAZING meetings that I've had this week, it's like....Ooooohhhhhh ok, DUH!?! So that's why that happened, or that's why I went through that. So you really were trying to answer but I was talking to much to be able to see your answer. Whoops??!!?

I've come to realize a couple of things.

1. If I'm going to ask a question, listen for the answer.
2. I also need to pray for discernment between my selfish desires and desires that God's given me.
3. Don't be surprised if I'm not answered right away, sometimes I'm not ready yet. Let God prepare me.