Appreciation Day 4

Day 4 of my appreciation blog. I feel like I am really starting to enjoy writing these and I feel that though sometimes I am not good at words when it comes to telling someone that I appreciate them, this is helping. So this blog goes out to a guy who no matter what is going on he will always stop and take time to pray with you if you need prayer. This is a guy who constantly checked up on me during a really rough time in life my sophomore year of college. Even when I was never around and falling out the church he always checked up on me and wanted to make sure everything was alright. This guy means a lot to me and I am glad that he has been in my life ever since I have entered college.

So this blog goes out to my friend Stanley Wingard. You always have a caring heart and want to me sure that people are truly doing well. You truly show 1 Corinthians 9:19 when it says that “even though you are a free man you make yourself a slave to win as many as possible.” This is so true because you are willing to put yourself second in order to glorify God and to help people. Man this is much appreciated and I am thankful that soon enough you are going to be down in Texas hanging out with me. Much appreciation goes out to you man. Love ya.


Also realized we do not have a picture together so this picture goes out to the greatness of sledding with a truck liner. 

Appreciation Day 3

Day 3 of this blog I think it is time to show some love to a girl whose friendship is dear to me here at WKU. So this blog goes out to the only girl I know who gives me a run for my money at being to competitive. Also the girl who at one time had to listen to me boss her around as Outreach Exec when she was in charge or intramurals. And then she had to deal with me as her co-leader for freshman family groups. So I want to show some appreciation to the one girl out of my friends here at college who has had to deal with me probably the most.

So Sara Clifton this goes out to you. I promise that in everything you do if you keep God number 1 you will amount to amazing things. Also know that if you ever become a general manager of a baseball team or hockey team that I will be calling for free tickets and free stuff. Also every team needs a Chaplin which goes right up my ally. But keep your head held high and keep pressing, you have had a great impact on many lives more so than you can probably imagine. Keep it up and remember to keep in touch when we both move away in about a month.

Also the picture below goes out to our days as being in charge or Freshman. 

Appreciation Day 2

Well day 2 of my Appreciation blog goes out to probably one of the most encouraging people I know. Always makes sure to check and see how people are doing and I honestly believe he cares. So this blog goes out to my man Marcus Bagwell. A man who challenges anyone who comes in contact with him to shine Christ in all times. A man who even though he seems to be doing a million things at once always has time to stop and talk to people. A person who honestly makes me want to be a better person and deepen my faith in Christ. It is a blessing to see your heart for ministry and how much you truly do put your best into everything you do. You truly show that everything you do you do as if working for the Lord and that truly is a blessing.

Man I remember the days when you were a freshman and I was helping lead worship and getting to know you from that experience. I am thankful to this day we became friends and you did not kill me from that experience. Because as you know a guy like me can me a sounds guys worst nightmare because apparently I sing loud enough without a mic.  

Love ya my man and I know God is calling you to huge things and I am excited to see where that will lead you. Whether that be here in the states or even farther away I know God will use you to change hearts as He already has. Keep it up man and keep in touch even though I am moving 12 hours away. Love ya

Appreciation

Well I have not written a blog in quite sometime. Not really sure why that is maybe I am trying to make the best of the time I have left and sometimes people get upset by my blog. Now it is not like me to care but I guess I want everyone to be happy until I leave because there is something not exciting about moving 12 hours away when you know someone that I call a friend is mad at me. Maybe it is just God trying to teach me a thing or two about not trying to upset people but those people this blog offends at time look past the point that everything I write is directed at myself and my battles with sin. I try not to write anything that I have not dealt with or are not still dealing with.

Well a long intro to this blog makes you wonder what this will be about doesn’t it? I am thinking about writing over the next month a series of blogs dedicated to certain people in my life that have helped impact me and my time here in Bowling Green as a student at WKU. Maybe it is because it is thanksgiving season or something but I feel this will be a good way to show my appreciation for people since it is normally not my strong point to show appreciation. Also do not feel upset over the next month if your name does not show up. Everyone who reads this means more to me then you could ever understand. I truly love all the encouragement I have got from you all. So please know that I do appreciate you even if your name does not show up.

Well first up on this list of people comes a dear friend who I am surprised we have become such great friends. This is a guy who I know did not like me very much at first but now we have become great friends and I know this guy truly would do anything to help a friend. From our days in D-group together or from our days just sitting and talking or to the more recent days of geocaching and ping pong. This guy has been a true encouragement to me. It is odd to think that for a couple years it looked like he was following my footsteps at the BCM. First taking over Campus Events after me and then taking over Outreach Exec after I did and to think about how this guy has challenged me in ways I could not imagine.

So this blog entry goes out to my boy Adam Drummond. You are a light in the darkness and even if sometimes it gets a little foggy out the light will always shine through. Keep strong my man I know God has amazing things planned for you and you have truly blessed many people. You are truly one person I will miss having around when I move away but I know that we will keep in touch. Keep your head held high and keep pressing!! Love ya man

Odd Dream

This post is about a weird dream I had. Will not be looking deep into scripture or anything like that just want to explain this dream. Now first off this has to deal with a girl and a little bit of my past so get ready for the joy that is ahead of you. Also if you are reading this you must be one of my true followers because I am not posting the link to this on facebook or twitter. So congrats to you for reading about my life.

Well this dream started with me hanging out with some old friends and some people I did not really know. You know reminiscing about the old days and some of the old stupid things we did in high school. For a dream I actually felt really good and was surprisingly one of the better feelings I have had in a long time. Maybe this is because I do not see my old friends very much or something, I do not know. Then while hanging out a girl from my past came in. Now kind of random because I honestly didn’t know the girl in high school and all I remember about her was that I led her on really badly. Yes I am honest about myself.

Well I found myself talking to this girl for a long period of time and found myself thinking I should hang out with her more. Remember this is a dream and when I woke up it was awkward and there are no feelings for the girl in my dreams. And yes technically it is the girl of my dreams because she was in my dream but no attraction to her in real life. Ok back to the dream, I found myself talking and talking to this girl and by the end of the night I got up the courage up to ask her to hang out again.

So when I asked the girl I figured the response would be yes but my past came back to haunt me. She looked at me and pretty much told me that she could not trust a guy who played games with girls and was scared of commitment. I woke up from my dream rather quickly and was very confused. I began to sit there and think deeply about what had just happened in the dream. I guess in some aspects the words she said were true about my past but are they true about my present?

I feel as though I have changed a lot since my high schools days. Now I did do a lot of things wrong and since girls are mostly the ones who read my blog I will not go into to much depth on that. God truly had to bring me out of a bad place when I came to know him and even after a few years of following him. I think my view of this dream is just how easily we can be manipulated by our past. Sometimes they can creep back up on us and we can let them bring us down but honestly it is just our past, it is not our future. I don’t know it was weird and I didn’t explain to well everything with the dream and my thoughts after but oh well. Hope you enjoyed reading a weird post.

Prayer Request

This is a very hard blog for me to write and to be honest the only reason I am is because I have faith in the power of prayer and in you my friends. What I am about to ask is really important to me, so please, I ask humbly for you to help me with one thing. I am not even sure how appropriate it is to use this form of communication to help me, but if you know me it is obvious to you that I am not good at asking for things in person. So this is the easiest way for a person like me, the guy who is very independent and the guy who wants to do everything himself to ask this request.

So finally to the request, I would like to ask you to pray for the salvation of my oldest brother. If you know my testimony than you know that my family did not start going back to church till when I was in middle school. My brother is 5 years older than me and had already graduated high school by the time this had happened. This being true he was never really in church.

I believe strongly in the power of prayer and I believe strongly in the power of God so I ask this one request. Just pray God to soften his heart to those who speak to him about Christ and that God grant the opportunity to share with him. Only God can save and I have faith that he will. This truly has been burdening my heart for some time especially since in 3 months I move to texas.

I believe many of us have similar prayer request, so if you do please post them on the comments below. If I ask you to help me in prayer then I should do the same for you. I believe prayer is powerful, so let us work together. I truly love you all.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Second Chances.......

This is going to be one of my most passionate blogs in a long time. Not sure why but for some reason tonight I became very passionate about this subject with some friends of mine. It showed me that I needed to write about it and maybe others can hopefully be able to relate and maybe be able to fix the problem. So what is this problem I write about? The problem is about second chances. We would all agree that Christ is the best about giving second and third and fourth chances for people but for some reason we as people do not do the same. We clearly see that the bible in Matthew 18:21-22 says to forgive people 70 times 7, which if you want to do math equals 490 times. But for some reason we cannot even do it once. This is very disheartening to me.

I was sitting with some friends and talking about how I would never truly be taken serious by some people where I am because of bits and pieces of my past. As much as I would try to show that Christ has changed me and that I have come a long way from the arrogant, self centered person I use to be, people would never accept it. This is a HUGE problem and we all deal with this in our lives. God begins to change our hearts and change some of our sinful nature but when he does a wonderful thing in us people do not believe it to be true. This can be because we have wronged them in the past or something and have even asked forgiveness but people are not willing to give second chances. The sad thing is everyone probably feels this in one way or another with people.

So often in life people refuse to take people seriously even if they have changed drastically. They still figure that they will fall and be the same old person that they were before. This is such a bad attitude and wrong biblically. I mean I can understand that if someone murdered a loved one or something like that it would be hard to give them a second chance but I am not talking about that. I am talking about the minor things that to be truthful are meaningless. And to be honest I believe these things hold us back from doing amazing things for God.

I feel like most of us feel this same way about things. We have at one time screwed up badly with some friends or something and because of this we are not able to really even be friends with these people any more. Even if we have apologized it stills feel like it did not work. We feel as though the only way for things to change is to just get away and start over with new people. I have to admit that in the midst of the fear of moving to Texas this is one thing I am excited about. I am glad to be able to start new and not feel like things I screwed up in 3 years ago or more are still hung over my head.

Maybe because I consider myself a pretty forgiving person, maybe because I have always had to be forgiven, this is why this subject has become passionate to me. I am not sure but I can guarantee one thing most of the people feel the same way. So often we have people leave churches or ministries because they have screwed up and people do not offer a second chance. I mean I can understand after a screw up you have to prove your self again but how long does it take for people to truly see the change. I mean look at Peter in the New Testament, he denied Christ 3 times and his friends knew about it but they forgave him and Christ said that the church would be built on him.

I admit that this blog may be very scrambled but I am very passionate about this right now. We need to stop being these people that do not follow what Christ says. We need to own up to our mistakes and first accept the fact that we are not better than others. We are sinful wretched people who are in need of just as many second chances as anyone else. Also we need to remember that the church will not be able to rise if we keep pushing people away even after they seek forgiveness. Christ wants to do a work with this generation and we need to do it together and accept the people that have screwed up, which is of course you and me. There will probably be another blog about this tomorrow so stay tuned.

Much Love,
Brent
1 Corinthians 9:19

Will we rise?

We have all heard the cliché about life being a rollercoaster, it has its ups and its downs and its twists and even loops at times. I have to admit that I was never the biggest fan of this cliché because a lot of times life is not as simple as that illustration. Plus who likes the idea that every time you reach the top you fall down farther than you did before? This thought has me thinking tonight about the people in my life, all of the people that I see and talk to on a regular basis. Then I began to wonder where they currently are mentally and spiritually on this short ride we call life. I would say that everyone can admit that at one time or another they have been struggling or hurting but have tried to act as though nothing is wrong. I am not sure why but I feel like this is happening more than ever right now. Life continues to throw us curve balls and so often we swing and miss horribly when it is thrown and just like most people we lower our head and walk away trying to hide the embarrassment.



More than ever I feel that we have to stop walking away and begin to stand in the midst of struggle and trust God. I am not sure what exactly it is that is going on in your life and will never say I can understand half the things you probably go through but I know someone who can understand. So often when struggles come we like to look at ourselves for answers and begin to think that the only way to get out of something is if I do something. To often we try to turn ourselves into God instead of trusting the one who has called out to us and has offered redemption to us. If there is one thing I can promise it is that things never get easier away from God and some of us have been running from God for so long that we do not even know what it would be like to be comforted by His grace.

Recently my heart has really been seeking revival. Of course starting in my own life and then moving to the community around me. I know God is seeking revival in your heart also and for us to all to begin to rise with one voice speaking out for the name of Christ. No one wants to run this race alone and no one wants to wonder where everyone has gone. Let us as people of God begin to stop being selfish and start becoming selfless. Stop being takers and become givers and to rid ourselves of hate and begin to Love the way that Christ did when he did on a cross. I know at times the pit we find ourselves in is hard to climb out of but maybe it is time to drop everything we hold on to and reach up to the arms of Christ that are reaching to grab us out of the pit.

I will close with 2 verses that I pray you think about. Let us rise together and reach this world, our time is short let us live for the only one who is worth living for. Love you all.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” -Matthew 11:28

“For out of the overflow of your heart the mouth speaks” - Luke 6:45

Mark 1

Recently I have felt that God has been calling me to fall back in love with His word. So I have decided to use my blog as an outlet for my adventure with Gods word. I am over the next 16 days going to write daily on each chapter of Mark. I pray through this that God renews a passion in you for his word in the same way he is doing for me.

A little back story on the book of mark before I start this adventure with you. John Mark who is believed to be the author of this book was a relative of Barnabas and he is said to have written down what Peter had told him about the stories of Jesus. This book is considered to be the earliest written of the four gospels, and estimated to have been written around 70 ad. This book is the shortest of the Gospels and does not have the birth of Christ and any teachings of Christ after his resurrection. Now of course there is Mark 16:9-20 which most scholars believe was added later and early manuscripts do not have and every bible that is not KJV has a little note that says the same. This section does have a possible teaching of Jesus after his resurrection but it is disputed more than it is called reliable. But I will talk more about that section in 16 days so stick with me and you will be able to read more about that.

Mark 1 starts out with a verse from Isaiah about John the Baptist who came before Jesus to prepare the way. John the Baptist was preaching and teaching repentance because he knew that Jesus would soon be coming to redeem the world. A verse that made a big impact on me from this section comes in verse 7. It is John talking about Jesus and he says that he is not even worthy to bend down and untie his sandals. It is easy to forget how holy Christ is and how honestly we are not worthy to even speak to him but he makes us worthy by his death on his cross. Even though John the Baptist said these things it was him that God used to baptize his son Jesus.

The first chapter also shows a very brief moment where Jesus calls out to Simon, Andrew, James and John and calls them to come and follow Him and he will make them fishers of men. Now this is always interesting to look at and many people always asks the questions would you drop everything immediately for Jesus. Now many people believe that these disciples had already heard of Jesus and some may have even been followers of John the Baptist. That is not an obvious from this scripture but ether way it is amazing how quickly they would leave their jobs behind to follow Him.

The next part of this chapter was also very meaningful to me in the fact that it is where you begin to see Jesus compassion for people. He goes to the synagogue and heals a man who has an evil spirit in him and after that goes to the house of Simon and Andrew and heals their mother along with lots of people who came to the door that night. This is such an amazing thought because it shows that if people come to Christ he truly does care and wants to help them. How often to do we come to him with the faith these people have that they will be healed? It is an interesting thought because I do not believe we do it enough.

In verse 35 Jesus wakes up in the morning to go to a place alone to pray. He did not even let his followers know where he was going. It is always interesting because in scripture jesus always goes alone to pray. How often do we truly get away to pray? Jesus even did it a lot. The chapter ends with Jesus healing a man with leprosy and Jesus tells him to not go and tell anyone of this but the man does not listen and tells everyone. Because of this Jesus stayed outside of cities instead of them because of the crowds.

So closing this first chapter a couple questions come to my mind for myself and you to think about. First is when is the last time we truly thought how Holy Christ is? He is so Holy that John the Baptist says he is not worthy to untie his sandals. The second question is how often to do we have faith that when we come to Christ he can help us like he did the people with illness? Thirdly is when is the last time you got alone and prayed and looked into Gods word? Even Jesus went to a quiet place to pray. So if you made it this far I hope god has renewed your passion for his word and that you will look back tomorrow for Mark Chapter 2.

Much love
Brent

Listen or Ignore?

I have recently began to realize that we all have one choice in life and this choice is one that is essential to everything we do and everything we may become. That choice is whether to listen up or ignore everything. Think about that, this choice can be used in every situation that we encounter in life. It could be as simple as a friend trying to talk to us about anything from a serious situation to rebuking us. It could involve classes and whether we should listen up or just play on our laptops and ignore the professors. And of course it comes into the most essential relationship that we can encounter in this life and that is with Jesus Christ. I will even say that this is the easiest relationship to flip flop both sides of this choice in life on. This is a very sad reality but I pray the words on this page God uses to not just impact myself but also you the reader. So here is your first use of this choice in life since I pointed it out. Will you keep on reading or will you ignore the rest of my words?

The word “Listen” is used in the bible over 400 times. It is something that if you were to sit down and read all the verses that have the word listen in them you will see many things. You could start in the garden when Adam listened to Eve and ate the fruit, or you could go to Matthew and see that Jesus is telling the crowds to listen and understand. In almost every instance the reason the word is used and comes about from ether God talking or a command that God said that was disobeyed. Like the case with Adam and Eve God told them to not eat of the tree of truth and knowledge but yet Adam listened to Eve instead of God. It is also used in Mark 9 with the transfiguration up on a high mountain and a voice came from the clouds and told Peter, John and James to listen to Jesus the son of God. The scriptures show a God who wants us to listen to him because he does truly know what is best for us.

The second option which is ignoring everything is the situation that we fall into the most amount of time. Let me just point out some prime examples of scripture that at times I ignore more then I actually do what it says. First is the great commission in Matthew 28:19. How often do I truly go reach the lost or step out of my comfort zone to do what God has called? Honestly not much, this is one example of myself ignoring God. Another great one comes from James 1:19 where it says be quick to listen and slow to speak. If anyone knows me at times I am opposite of that and though God has brought me a long way in this area I still have long ways to go. These are just 2 small examples in my life of how I ignore God at times. How many other things in scriptures would I be able to find that I do not follow if I tried? Probably a lot but I would rather not bore you with those.

The whole point of this blog is about the choice we have. Will we listen up and do what God is calling us to do or will we just simply ignore it. I honestly am not sure what we as people will do. I am curious to see what would happen if we would listen up. I know one thing and that is that emptiness that never seems to go away would truly cease. God promises fruits of the spirit if we seek him and one of those is joy.

So as I close this out I guess the question comes down to will you listen or will just ignore God?

Passion?

Well I have started to write about 7 blogs before I started writing this one. I have so much junk I feel like I want to talk about but for some reason when I start to write the words do not come out on the paper. Maybe I should try to work on that, but who knows. I was just sitting here looking at my last blog and it made me start to think about passion. I am not talking about the Passion that 20 thousand college kids go to every year to hope to get re-energized for Christ. I am talking about my own personal passions in life. Every one of us has passions that we have never told anyone, because for some reason some of the things that drive us in life may not be what people expect. For example it has taking me awhile since being in college to convince people that I have a passion for music and worship. It has taken God using me to actually lead worship at churches or campus ministries to get people to see that. But we also have passions in life that are very wrong and sinful in many ways. This is what I would like to write about for a little bit, the passions that pull us from who our primary passion should be and that is Christ.

Since I am about to graduate from WKU I have begun to look at my life in a different way and to look at what some of my passions are. I begun to notice that most of the things that I think would be hard to live without are actually pulling me away from God. It does not matter what it is, it could range from girls to movies, to studying, anything. I have begun to realize that many things are pulling me from the one who came down and rescued me. I think if you looked deep into your heart you would see the same thing I am writing about. If you want to test if your passions are right or wrong ask this simple question and answer it honestly: If God asked you to give up whatever that thing is would you be able to do it? Just look at what we as followers of God have become. We say we could sacrifice everything to God but yet we never actually do it and when God says surrender it because his will is greater we still hold on to what we should let go.

I know this is hard thing to think about, if it was not hard I would not be writing about it. Just imagine what it would be like to have our only passion be Jesus Christ. The sad thing is that I can imagine that some people reading this would say that that actually sounds a little boring and not interesting. I know people believe that because I also believe that sometimes. But God has a great purpose for us, but we have to be willing to surrender ourselves, our desires, everything to Him. Will it be easy? Of course not. Will it get easier with time? Cannot answer that question because I believe Satan will just try harder to get you to slip up, but I do know that Christ never leaves or forsakes us and that he will help us in those times.

So I as I close this tonight I pray you will take sometime to look deep into who you are and ask Christ to examine that also. All the deep parts of your heart that you have never let anyone see. Examine who you are and see if there is anything else you need to surrender. And I promise there is something, if there was not anything than you would be perfect and that is something none of us will ever be till we sit before the throne of God.

I love you all, let me know if there is anyway I could pray for you all.
Brent Phillips

Will the real FOLLOWERS please stand up........

Yes the title is cheesy to this post and I have to admit that for some reason the old Eminem song came into my head when I was thinking about writing this post. I just keep coming back to this thought that very few people around these day would people consider to be a true and honest followers of Christ. Now, I know everyone’s pride inside always at this point in reading something like this tells them that they must be talking about other people. But I want you to take a deep look inside yourself because I feel like this is something we all need to take a look into. If when you look deep inside yourself you see your own desires versus that of what Christ wants then we need to check out hearts. I continually look at myself and start thinking that I need to do something to become the follower that Christ longs for, to finally pray the way David prayed and to serve the way Paul served. But so often I end up fading back instead of letting Christ take control because I feel like I am the only one trying. I believe everyone reading this note has felt the same way when they feel God pulling their own hearts.

I am curious, to be honest, what a true honest follower of Christ looks like. I see what the bible says about it and I know what some people in history have done when they let Christ take control and finally let go. But I am curious what it looks like right before my eyes. Would I notice? Would I call that person crazy or radical? Would I step up and join them in living the way God wants? I can not honestly answer these questions and I think honestly that many of you cannot ether, but I know something, and that is that as followers of Christ we have a longing in our heart for more. A desire to get out of the mediocrity of this life, and to finally step up and let God use us for something that truly does matter.

I agree that it is hard at times and it makes it hard when you fall into a group of people that have let the complacent Christian walk be a part of their lives. Complacency at times is a hard beast to overcome and to over come it takes a lot of prayer and guidance from God. I just sit hear wondering what if we got over our complacency? What if we let God breaks us apart and reform us the way he would like to versus how we want to be pieced together? What if the question who are the real followers of Christ never had to be asked again? I sit here thinking about how many tables God would turn over in front of me before I finally get that his way is always better then mine.

This world needs Christ and there is no way around that and I believe we have stayed silent to long. We are not called to hide behind the walls of our churches or our campus ministries we are called to go. And sometimes that means it will not be safe. Just look at Paul in Acts 14:19-20. He gets stoned and dragged outside the city where he was preaching and what was the first thing he did when he got back up? Walked directly back into the town that just stoned him and dragged him and many people became disciples because of that. I truly believe God is calling us today to do some radical things for his name. And it is time we stand up and honestly mean it when we say “God use me.” Not another meaningless prayer we say every Sunday at church but a honest sincere prayer. Let us rise for God and let us go and change this world for His name. God is calling, will you listen?

“God is not looking for nibblers of the possible but for grabbers of the impossible.” - C.T. Studd

“He MUST become greater, I MUST become less” John 3:30

“Father make in me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to a decision, let me not be a single road. Make me a fork that man must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me"" Jim Elliot

Honesty....

So recently I have realized that my priorities are really messed up. I have become the person who on the day of judgment would look at God and tell him that I have done things in his name and have cried out holy holy but God’s response would be that he never knew me. It is so simple to look at our lives and see how at times we all fall into these categories. For me I have put so many things ahead of God and even though I still speak his name and even though I try to do things in his name, I am dying. I have begun to scream out but it seems at times like no one hears me. That is because it has always been easier to hide the truth about our hearts. Really think about that, no one in this world wants to be honest with people because honesty brings heartache. People do not take it well and if you are being honest about yourself people at times try to diagnose you and tell you how to get better when a lot of times you just want someone to listen. We have forgot the verse from James 1 that says be slow to speak and quick to listen. Sometimes we just need people to listen, and someone who truly cares. I have to admit that I have been doing things away from God a lot. To be honest I have been lying about how much I have been to church since leaving my last church. I know I am called to ministry and I care about the body but it can be hard because the last church messed me up to the core. This happens a lot but sometimes it can be more difficult then we ever admit.

I also have to admit that it is hard to get honest and true with God when no one around has truly surrendered it all to God. I know people that fight God on the calling in their lives and thus follow their own paths versus God. I know people that have begun to doubt it all because it is much easier to be in pain then to seek and find true joy in something. I know people that are like me that proclaim Gods name but do not mean it at all, and I think we may all fall into this boat. I truly believe that God wants something amazing from us but we are to stuck in our ways. I am to hung up on the fact that at times I believe it is all about me, when all honesty it is all about Christ. I do not deserve any praise but he does, he demands it. Even though we do not like that at times I think the thing that holds me back and everyone back is the idea that we are better then God. We try to make ourselves God, and because of this we do not confess when we are wrong and we do not confess our sins and we put ourselves in this idea of being perfect even though we are broken and falling more apart everyday. This life is hard and no one will ever say it was easy but I do believe that if we get our lives right with Christ even though there will be pain and heartache there will be joy. I do not know how to explain that but I know it is true. I will close this blog with a verse to think about. I love you all, even if you do not believe that.

James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the words and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Last Weekend

Disclaimer: I write the best when I am upset, or in deep thought. If you feel like at any point in this post I am talking bad about you or anything like in this post, I can honestly say that was not my intention. And if you know me, you know if I wanted to speak ill of someone I would own up to it.

Well this last weekend myself and 5 other people went to lead a “Youth Revival” at a church in Rockport KY. I have to admit that going there was not really what any of us really wanted to do. Most of us were really confused and thought a million different things instead of what we were actually supposed to be doing there. This brought about some very negative attitudes going into the weekend. Myself and the three other guys got there in the early afternoon on Friday and found out that just the 4 of us would be going to knock on every door in the town to invite them to the church for that’s nights service. Not any of the church members, just us. That kind of sucked and made us think negatively of the church early. So when the girls showed up we were all soaking wet of sweat because it was 103 degrees outside that day. The girls had it easy because they got to miss what was probably the hardest part of the weekend. I am sure they will disagree but oh well.

After the first service that nights our hearts began to change and be less negative about the weekend. We started to see just how much this church needed revival. The group began to work together at least the best we can. What happens when you bring a bunch of strong leaders together in one place? Lots of madness and when you have someone like me who is super laid back and does not worry about things it can be hard for me to deal well with people that do worry about everything. So I began to avoid people like that like the plague . Also on a side note by the end of the first day Adam and I were in a really bad situation with the people we were staying with. The girls did not understand why we did not stay the second night because we did not explain everything but I think they should know we wouldn’t just not stay just for the heck of it. And the people we told everything to told us to not stay there and I trusted their opinions.

The second day came and I would like to call day two “Adams Day” because he planned everything in it. He did the backyard bible club pretty much by himself, myself and the others just followed his lead. That night he preached the message which was awesome and even had the pastor in tears. The only thing we really did was lead worship and hang out. Was a really good day and the only part that was bad was before Adam, ryan and myself decided to drive back to BG for the night, people were worried about the interp for the morning, but it takes a little faith to understand that this weekend was never about us and God was in control .

The third and final day was probably the most stressful of all. By that point stress had sunk in so much that it began to make us in essence lose sight of why we were there. I look at stress as a horrible sin that can consume the soul so much that it takes away from giving God glory and comes down to us as people worrying about us and what we get for doing something. Well back to the day, I am as I said earlier an easy going person and do not handle people well that are not the same(yes I need to work on it), so I try to avoid all things that might make me not be easy going. Even if that means being short with people so that I do not get consumed in things. Yes that’s bad but I am being honest, so just judge away.

Well the final day went well and we all knew it was time for us to separate and to be as far from each other as possible. It was a good experience and the church really needed it and I think most of us left thankful for the time we had there. It showed that even though we are not happy sometimes about doing things for God that in the end we are glad God was able to use us. But if we are still bitter after it is all said and done then we need to check our hearts because there may be a deeper issue there.

I have heard at the end of the weekend that I was the most negative one there, which is laughable to me but it is all good. I would disagree but it is all good, I was leading worship which means I made sure the flow and everything went well during the service. So who knows, I wasn’t the point person and was never told over the weekend that I was being negative. But oh well, I think God received the glory even though I think he deserved a lot more. If you made it this far congrats and it has been to long since I have blogged.

As Always,
Love You All
Brent

A Tangled Web

I have been thinking a lot more then usual as of late. About many different things from where I belong in the church, to girls, to just random other crap that in the end does not matter.

About Church
As many of you know I have been a youth pastor and recently resigned from that church. I will not speak ill of the church on here so you can just go on and assume whatever you want to about that situation. Yes I am a very strong willed person but as much as people do not think I do, I do know when to be quiet and how to work with others. But I am a firm believer in some times God will call us to things that will be tough and may not end the way we want but it is how we stand during it all that matters. I still love God and even though I do believe that many church need to be revived and actually let the holy spirit work in them, i do still love the church. I am just currently trying to find out where I should go.

About Girls:
Do you really think I am about to talk about this on my blog? All i need is people trying to read into my words to try to figure out what I am thinking or what girl is on my mind. What am I in 6th grade? Of course I am a guy of course I find girls attractive but I am trying really hard to not put stock in that. Plus i graduate in Decemeber so no need to care to much right now.

This world is interesting and this is a little bit of what I am thinking about recently. If you could see in my brain it would seem a lot deeper then this and a lot more like a tangled web but I guess it is a good thing you cant. Also it is very late and I am tired so forget that fact that this may not make a lot of sense.

Thoughts

Here are some quick thoughts of things I may write about in the near future. Let me know if any of these you would like to read about.

1. It is impossible for 2 broken people who are both in a pit to fix each others problems. Reason I am starting to think this is because it is impossible to pull someone else up when you yourself are falling down.

2. So often when things are tough we are told to keep going and stay strong but is it possible that God wants us to stop and stand still for a second? Really been thinking about this a lot recently.

3. Should we even care about relationships? Meaning a boy and girl one, one seeking marriage.

4. Is there times in life when we are truly meant to be alone?

Just some thought going through my mind. Let me know which one you would like to read and I will write it.

For You.

Hmmmm…..hmmm…..what to write about tonight. Now I know that long hmm captivates you enough to keep reading and see what it is that I will truly write about. But would it be interesting for you to here that I am not sure. That is right one of the most opinionated, most outspoken people around is not sure what to write about. But I think this could be a good thing. I tend to talk to much and listen to little. Sometimes I speak without thinking about 1 John 4:7-8 which talks about Love and how we should care for each other.

So this blog is for you, my reader. The few that read what I write and think about what it is that I say at times and who I may even upset at times during these blogs. I do care about you all and truly do pray that anything I write will hopefully impact people in some ways. I pray for you all and thank you for your commitment to caring to read my blog and your commitment to Christ. I do love you all and want you to know I truly mean that.

So I would like you to take the time and write a brief comment, telling me what it is that you want me to write about. I want to be able to use this blog to help people or to be completely honest about things going on in my life. So feel free to comment and I will take some time and try to use my blog to appeal to something you are curious about.

Who Knows Better?

Is it possible that God knows better then I do or you do? I am sure you are sitting at your computer and thinking of course God knows better than I do, so why are you starting your blog with that question? Well then how about I ask a follow up question? How often do you act like you know better then God does? Now this one has got you thinking doesn’t it? We all in our life think we know better then God does at some point or another even though we will all admit that God knows better. Just imagine how often we are like the foolish builder from Matthew 7. The person who knew what God was saying but still went and built his house on sand. And then the storms came and washed away all the work that the man had tried to do without God.

The reason I am sitting here thinking about this is because I am not sure where I am heading in life. And I keep making back of plans that to be honest I am not seeking God on. Imagine how often we do that. We are not sure where God is leading us so we began to make excuses and back up plans because we do not trust that God will reveal his plan to us. We are scared of the mystery of God and the mystery that keeps us searching deeper into who he truly is. We do not like the unknown, and when we get to the unknown we try to run a different direction. But do we truly want to know everything? Would life be enjoyable if we knew exactly what would happen with our next step. Interesting thought.

So as I close this blog I want to encourage you that Gods plan will always, always, always be better then ours. And I promise you one thing and that is that his path will be perfect for those who are on it. I am not going to say it will be easy and I am not saying that when you seek out God that you won’t have to stop in your tracks and look around to see where exactly it is that God wants you to be. To often we make decisions without God. So when we begin to seek after him in every decision we may realize that God wants us in a different spot completely. Maybe a different school, or a different job, different line of work, anything. But again I promise Gods path will be so much better then the one we make for ourselves. Let us as Christians stop being like the foolish builder and begin to be like the wise builder and build upon the rock and the Rock is Christ.

I love you all
Brent

Options

So I am sitting here thinking about my options for what I can do after December. So here is a few options for what I could do.

1. GO TO SEMINARY
This is the option that I thought for the longest time was going to be where I ended up but currently not sure.

2. GO INTO THE MILITARY
This is one I have put some thought into recently. I could join the national guard or something and thanks to the many programs they have could always go back to school and pursue something else.

3. GO INTO POLITICS
Well, apparently this is one that a lot of people think I will end up in sooner or later so why not just go on and do it. I could work in a headquarters or something and draw govt. health care and some decent money but not a lot. This is kind of what my internship is doing right now.

4, GO TO LAW SCHOOL OR GET MY MBA
Well this one has been swirling around my mind a lot and will probably continue to swirl until I graduate.

5. TAKE SOME TIME OFF
I could always just take some time to try to figure out exactly what it is that I am being called to in life. But who knows

Not Sure

Well I have to be at my internship in less then 7 hours but I cannot sleep right now. I am wide awake watching “The West Wing,” which is a great show by the way, and I cannot get this simple thought off my mind and that is what am I supposed to do when I graduate college. It is a tough thought that we all must deal with at some time. Now of course I feel called to ministry but I am not sure I feel called to seminary or even called to be a pastor of any kind. Of course I have spent the last 5 years of my life working in ministry of some sort, whether it be from youth ministry, to campus ministry, to recreation ministry. But could that have been all God had called for me to be in Church ministry? Is it possible that God is calling me to a different purpose now? I would say that all things are possible but that I am very confused at this moment.

I know where ever I end up that I am going to do it for the Glory of God. Everything I do I want to share the love the of Christ with people and I do not believe you have to just work in a church in order to do that. Sometimes I think people go to work in the church just because it is a comfort zone and you do not really have to do anything to mess that comfort up. Sure you have to get out of your comfort zone once a month to go knock on doors or maybe go on a mission trip during the summer but from 9-5 you are usually sitting in your office at the church. Now do not think I am trying to down play working at the church because Ministers do a lot of good and not every church is how I just described but most are. I don’t know I am just confused at this moment so ignore my useless babble.

Well not sure where I will be in 6 months or if I will even still be breathing but I guess that is up to God to decide. I guess all I will do is put one foot in front of the other and keep seeking to give God all the glory. I guess no one knows what tomorrow holds and today is always the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. So who knows…………….

Overlooked Command

Warning: YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT LIKE THIS POST.

Now with me starting a post like that does that make you want to keep reading? Probably not but I have to be honest because what I am writing about most followers of Christ do not like to think about. It is one of those topics that we like to ignore and avoid what the bible truly says about it. I have to admit that I myself even struggle with the topic I am going to write about, and that is one reason I feel like I should write about it. So what is this topic anyway, what is it that I think you will not like me writing about? The topic involves being in the midst of “Christians” who continually sin and show no desire to listen to the holy spirit or to repent. That is right I can imagine the thoughts swirling around in your mind right now about what else I am going to write. But I want to look more at what us as believers in Christ are supposed to do according to scripture in these times. So I hope this little introduction has grabbed your attention enough to make you want to continue on.

Let me start by having you imagine a little bit with me. Imagine that you have an extremely intimate relationship with Christ, one where you feel as though you are walking in God’s will and one where the joy of the Lord is written all over your face. Now imagine a dear friend of yours has truly lost their way with Christ. You hang around this person a lot and have talked to them sincerely and honestly about what they are doing, just as true brothers and sisters in Christ are called to do, but yet they never seem to care or to seek Christ. You begin to get discouraged by this person but yet you never stop being around them all the time, and slowly over time your friend slowly begins to bring you down to where you have lost your intimacy with Christ. You have truly learned that it is easier to be pulled down then to pull someone up. So how do you feel? What do you think you should have done in this situation?

This situation is what this whole note is about, those situations with one of our dear friends who has fallen into such a pit that they begin to ignore everything that is about Christ. All of us have dealt with these situations at one time or another. The sad thing is that one person can influence a group of believers in such a negative way that a whole group of friends before long can begin to ignore God. It really is a sad situation and it is one that I have seen a lot since being in college. So what does the bible say about this, and I can promise that a lot of you will not like what the bible has to say.
I want to start with 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Did you just read that? I have to admit I do not like what was written by Paul in these verses, I wish I could just cut those out of my bible and ignore them, but if I did that I would be making myself more worthy then Christ and in someway act as though I am a God. But that is not right to love God is to accept and agree with whatever the bible says even if I do not like it. So looking at these verses I think we can see what Paul, says we should do. Understand Paul spoke to Christ and was taught by the disciples so clearly what ever he taught came straight from God. He says for us to not even eat with a person like this. WOW, that is tough. We do not ever want to go that far, because we long for our friends to come back to Christ and we do not want to leave them. But is it possible that God knows better then we do? So lets look at one more verse on this topic.
Lets look at Matthew 18:15-17
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Understand everything I am talking about here is about followers of Christ. You do not do this to people of the world the people without Christ. I look at the verses in Matthew as an outline of how to handle a friend who has gone astray. First go talk to them one on one, not with anyone else. Keep it between just you two because there is no need to go gossip about this situation. Secondly if your brother or sister in Christ take another person with you so that Christ can hopefully break through with your friend. If all else fails take them to the church, which your friend will most likely not let you do. This is where you have to just let them go. It is important to understand that your personal relationship with Christ is important and it can easily be brought down by another person.

I know this is hard and most of you probably did not even make it to the end of this post but if you did seriously trust in Christ because he does know better then all of us. Please do not just ignore these versus because if they were not important they would not be in the bible. And understand it will be hard, I haven’t even implemented this idea into my life because I know it will be tough. I let the verses speak a lot in this post so I hope you pray about this. Your personal relationship with Christ is important do not let someone who is running away from God pull you away from God. Again this is for believers and not for non-believers.

Also handle these things biblically, do not go crazy on someone or speak ill. Be humble and honest.

I love you all
Brent Phillips

You're Busted Part 1

I am thinking it is about that time of the year, you know the time when you finally get busted for everything you have been hiding, all of those hidden sins you thought you were always going to get away with but forgot to realize that God knows everything. Just take a deep breathe and then breathe out, doesn’t that just feel good? All the joys that come from truth are not evident at this moment but at some point they will be. You feel as though you are in a pit and everyone is turning their backs on you. Disappointment is a part of life and that is something you need to understand but sometimes there are consequences for your hidden sin becoming known. Because of course as you have always been taught there are always consequences for sin. But hey this could be a good thing, because now you have to rely on Christ much more, and he is your rock and your salvation.

I am not sure what this sin could be, it could range from Adultery, to Alcohol, to pride, to seeking acceptance instead of seeking Christ, gossip, slander, hatred, jealousy, or stealing. There is a list of what it could be that you have finally got busted with. Now understand I am talking more about being busted by friends and your peers then God because God clearly always knew.

But I write this so that you can be encouraged. Jesus never gave up on you and it is important to be broken before him so that he can change you into the person he wants you to be. And it is important to understand that sometimes it does take people time to trust you again. I understand that it should not be this way and that Christians should embrace their brothers and sisters in times of need but it a lot of time does not happen.
Here is my recommendation and my recommendation comes directly from the bible:

“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

It is important to just come clean with it. That is what I attempt to do with this blog and with people that I seek accountability with. Sometimes people are given a much worse name because when their sins are beginning to be seen by people they still try to stay hidden and silent about them. Just seek redemption and forgiveness from others and I believe you will find out that less people are trying to avoid you then if you were trying to avoid talking about.

This is part 1 of 2, I had another post I wanted to post but I felt that this needed to go first. I truly love you all and I pray you seek Christ and the redemption he gives and even when it is tough do not fret because He will always love you.

Love Brent

Delight.....

Tonight has been a pretty good night over all. Got to hang out with some awesome freshman at the BCM and got to hang out with some good friends. But that is not what this blog is about. That is way to simple of a blog post to be anything I would ever post. The real reason for me writing this blog is what came after all of that, after I was alone at my Apartment. What happened when I finally sat down and listened to God for a little bit. So I beg you to keep reading, you never know something I write may actually be something you need to read. Let me first admit that I have started to write many blogs but at some point people do get tired of reading blogs about my struggles. But thankfully this one is not about that. This blog is about me finally realizing some things.

So tonight I went into my room and thought I was just going to play some guitar and just fall to sleep but for some reason I opened up Chris Tomlin’s book “The Way I Was Made” I was reading it and in it was the verse Psalm 37:4 which says,

“ Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart”

Now I am not going to go all Joel Osteen on you but when I read that it made me wonder when is the last time I truly Delighted in the Lord? Then I started to think about how often I wonder why the desires of my heart that are truly of God never seem to come true. God has made us passionate about something and that passion is the desire of out hearts. If anyone knows me one passion I truly have is Christ and I have no problem admitting that passion wherever I am. I have a passion to share Christ and teach Christ and to be able to have an affective ministry for him. There has been some very rough ground recently in my ministry and when I read this it was obvious that the reason this is happening is because I do not delight in the Lord. That is a problem and we all deal with this at times.

So I after truly thinking about this and praying a little bit I sat down with my guitar and wrote a quick little verse that I will write below. But God is always faithful and even though sometimes we do not know why things are happening or where our Joy has gone maybe we should check what we are holding onto that Christ wants us to surrender. It may be tough at times but in the end it is always worth it.


Here is my repentance
finally I praise the father of Heaven
The one who watches my days.
You say I was made by you
and I finally see that truth
So God I apologize for living without You....

Struggle

I have recently found myself driving around late at night. No set destination, just me and my car on dark roads in the country. I drive as though I am hoping to find something in the midst of all the darkness that surrounds my car. “Is this all I am made for?” I continually ask myself as I continue to drive on. I am not sure why these thoughts come to my mind so late at night but it always seems that when I am alone I think this. Now some of you may say well you have little faith. And I will agree with that statement, I openly admit to having little faith at times. I strongly believe we all have little faith at times, I mean even most of the disciples did. I mean where were they when Christ was being crucified? Most of them were hiding because they did not want the same fate as Jesus. Clearly they had little faith at that time.

Of course I am writing this blog and after this someone is going to come up to me really sincerely(or so it seems) and be like “I just read your blog are you ok?” And I will say of course I am I just like to be sincere, and honest with people. I do not see why I should write anything if it is not truthful for who I am and what I am dealing with. I mean we are followers of Christ but not everyday is this nice Marry Go Round. It is much more like a roller coaster with huge hills, unexpected turns and loops that you were never expecting.

I find it important to write what I think and what I feel because it is important to love Christ in the low points just like in the high. I quote C.S. Lewis “We shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest” So I am being honest and the next part in italics is how I have felt over the last week or so. Please read.

O Lord, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.

You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you?

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness,or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.

This part in italics is Psalm 88. Now this is in our bible and it is clear that someone else felt the same way we do at many times. They feel alone and left, and they wonder if this is all they have been made for. So in closing I have to admit I have felt lost for a little bit. I have been told that I cannot do things I feel called to do. I feel like demons are laughing because doors are opening for me but they get there sooner and manipulate people to close the door. But I know God is faithful and will always be and nothing can ever separate me or us from his love.

So in the midst of the craziness and scattered blog that this is I hope you have heart. You are not alone, we all struggle(even though sometimes our pride hides it and we act like were perfect) We will fall at times but God will lift us. Just be honest and admit your struggles because honestly someone out there needs to hear this. Someone may need to know that they are not alone in there battles with this world. I hope you enjoyed this random and scattered blog.

Love You All,
Brent Phillips

I Love Blogs About Jesus!!

So tonight I have spent sometime while also watching 24 just going through peoples blogs and reading what they have to say. Now I have to admit that I do not know half the peoples blogs I went to. I would start on one persons blog look who was following them and then just follow an endless path of random people's blogs. Sounds creepy I bet! But I am not trying to be creepy just trying to be someone who likes to read and see what exactly is going on in peoples lives from all over America. And when I was done reading I had come to know one thing and that is, I love people who have a heart for Christ.

Some of the blogs I read were about some of the most deeply and profound things about Christ that I have read. And everyone I read seemed as though they were college students not old bible scholars. From people my own age. These blogs showed their passions and love for Christ and all his mysterious ways. I have to admit that I admire people like that. People who take time to just write about the love of their Savior and the love he offers to all of mankind. I find it amazing and to be honest if it was a girls blog I read, kind of attractive.(haha yeah I know lame)

So people keep doing what you do and share the Love that Christ has given you. Share your hurt and your pain and share how there is only one way above the hurt. Though sorrow may last for the night Joy comes in the morning. Keep writing keep going deeper keep striving for the one worth striving for. I love you all, and cannot wait to read some more of your writings.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brent

P.S. There is a part 2 to my last blog coming soon so be ready. And read it if you haven't.

What We ALL Need!!

Before you begin reading this I ask that you examine your heart first. Why do I ask you to examine your heart you might ask? Because I want you to be able to know what your heart truly looks like and how you are truly living while reading this post. I try not to write anything that will not first convict myself every time I read it., but to also convict those who take the time to read it. It is the reason I pray that God is my hands as they type and that God is the words that pour out onto paper. We all know that God is speaking it is just up to us whether or not to listen and I pray that God speaks through what I write here tonight. So please examine your heart before continuing on. Seek Christ and ask him what he truly wants to teach you and what he may be able to teach you through these words.

For the last couple weeks I have been in the intense searching and seeking period in my life. Now this is something we all go through from time to time and I truly think we should continue to seek Christ. In the midst of my seeking and searching I learned a few things that I feel helped change my mindset and I think will also change yours.

When I was done seeking I found out the one thing I was truly missing in my life and the one thing most Christians are missing in life is the brotherly and sisterly encouragement from the body of believers. I read Ephesians 4 and 5 and noticed that my life does not match up with those standards of how to love people and then I realized I have only met a few people who truly live that out. I began to think what if when we fall there was truly a body of believers that dropped everything they have to come help you up? They truly came out of know where to help you up and dust you off when you fail.

So many times today people fall into deep sin and instead of people trying to encourage them and help them we are quick to write them off and just constantly rebuke them for what they are becoming. Now do not get me wrong there is a right and wrong time to rebuke someone but sometimes all they need is a helping hand saying “Hey I am here grab my hand I am going to be with you through this trial”

I can think of a few friends of mine that I know that if I or some of my friends just stretched out a hand to help then they may not have fallen so deeply into the endless pit of sin that they did. I can think of a dear friend of mine who at one time was serving as a Youth Pastor and then the church this person was working out asked him to step down due to some dumb parents complaining about things. This was a very tough time on him and he fail into a pit and tried to cover up his pain with so many other things. When deep down he was screaming for someone to just reach out and grab him and say I am here for you.

What if we became a generation that stopped all the crazy judgments and tearing people apart and truly tried to lift them in their trials and temptations that they go through. If a brother or sister comes to you with a problem pray with them and say you will be here to help them no matter what that means. Ones salvation or relationship with Christ is so much more important then, school, friends, eating, or anything else. Lets start being the people that when we hear someone is in need that we stop whatever we are doing and run after them and show them the love of Christ through our actions. Allow people to cry on your shoulder and know that you are not judging them but truly loving them the way we are called.

I hope you stop and take a moment and just pray to God and ask him to help you in this. It is hard and I am the first to admit it that it is truly hard for me to do. But God is willing to help and He is looking for people to step up and be a light for him to this world. Sometimes we are like Peter and deny Christ and turn our backs but Christ is always calling us back. Sometimes it just really helps to have someone there with us to show us that light.

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up" - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
- Ephesians 4:29

Depression 101

I have really begun to fall in love with writing. I have been doing it just about everyday now. Who would have thought that a guy like me would have fallen in love with something like writing. Being able to use words to convey feelings and thoughts that one finds hard to say out loud is amazing. This blog I am going to use written words to once again write something that I find hard to admit out loud. Yes this is a blog that is all about me and the inner struggle that no one sees. I am usually a very straight forward person but even the most honest people still hold things inside. So this is me confessing some of the things that only God sees from me.

I decided the title for this note while walking around Wal-Mart at 2 in the morning. That’s right, the inspiration to write this blog came at Wal-Mart. Who says that place isn’t a good place to go to? Anyways, I have recently felt as though I may be struggling with depression. Not really sure why but I have for some reason been unable to sleep. I sit in my bed for about 3 hours before I finally fall asleep. I have to admit that this Depression is all because of myself and not the medical chemical imbalance problems in ones brain.

I feel God has begun to work in me in a way that honestly I was not prepared for. Thus myself has been fighting back very intensely. I know some of you are sitting here reading this and are thinking, “Why would you fight God?” Well honestly in some way or another we all fight God. I mean think about it God calls some people to be single but yet they continue to seek for a mate. Others he has called to the ministry but they fight him and act like their own life pursuit is much better.

Well since I have been fighting back I have just gone into this state of depression. I know God can cure me of it if I just submit to his will and run after his will and not my own. The thing is, Gods will for me is kind of scary. Following God at times feels like walking off a cliff blindfolded hoping that He catches you before you hit the ground. I know that is kind of an extreme example but I am explaining how I feel. Now how it may feel to you when you go through it. Everyone goes through things differently and everyone, even though we have the same emotions, feels things differently.

I pray that my honesty in this shows that I am human and just because I do write some very deep notes at times that I am human. I strive to be more like our Father in Heaven everyday but I come up short just like everyone else. And thankfully I do, because if I did not come up short if I was in my own mind perfect I would have no need for a Savior. Praise Jesus for my imperfection! Well I hope this blog has touched you in some way and I pray that whatever you are dealing with that you are open to admitting them. Accountability is a beautiful thing and it is through it that we can strive to be closer to Christ.

Love You ALL
Brent

P.S. Since I love writing do you think I should actually start grammar checking my notes? I never do that I just write and post.

Are you Like James "the Brother of Jesus"

My last blog hit a subject that I believe effects many believers of Christ and that is the idea of apathy or being complacent to Christ. Since posting that I have gone into a lot deeper thought process on this subject and it made me come to the idea that “Most church people do not have a honest and personal relationship with Christ.” I know some of you read that and you are thinking Brent you are ridiculous that is not true at all. I am going to approach this idea in a way that I hope makes you think deeply about that statement and that I hope challenges you to examine your own heart. Understand everything I write is about something that I myself have been convicted of and something I feels others feel also.

When approaching this I want to look at one main person and that is James the brother of Jesus. Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 both talk about James and his brothers and sisters as people who took offense to the things that Jesus was doing. You would think that someone who was under the roof of the Christ for most of his life would be a believer. James is said to be the oldest sibling of Christ of course younger then Jesus himself but could have still be very near his age. With this point I make my claim that most church people do not have a honest and personal relationship with Christ. James had the center of church in his home for years. They probably played games together and talked together a lot since they were brothers. But yet when Jesus was out telling people who he was James took offense to this.

I feel that today this how a lot of us are. We are in church every Sunday but yet we do not believe. We know all the truths, we know what it truly means to follow God, we even know some scripture but yet we do not believe. We have seen Christ do miraculous things for some people but yet we still do not believe. It is very easy to say this because if everyone in the church did truly believe then the church would be doing amazing things for God and would be moving faster and farther into the unknown then we have ever known.

The main problem is that people think that they have an alright relationship with Christ because they go every week. Honestly that’s not true because without the repentance and without honestly following God we are doomed. James himself talks about that even the demons believe in one god and shudder.(James 2:19) We have become very set in our ways and because of this a lot of times we do not even know that we are like James. It took Jesus himself appearing to James after his resurrection for him to truly believe.

For those of you who are reading this I want you to earnestly look into your heart. Look and see if you are like James. See if you have been the one who has been in Church but yet honestly deep down never believed in the one who offers salvation to all who call on his name. (Please talk to me if you have anymore questions about this I would love to talk with you or take out to lunch if you want to talk more.) Also I want everyone to look and see what it is that you need to give up to truly do what God wants you to do.

I envision a world that has stepped up and pursue God in such a way that everyone who encounters them must also encounter Christ. Let us step up and Worship God the way he longs to see us Worship. Let us immerse ourselves in His Word and Pray without ceasing. Let us be like James after he encountered the risen Christ and take a stand even if that means be martyred like he was.

Thinking....

I have recently been wrestling with the idea of writing a book. I know it may sound silly but one thing I long to do in my life is to reach people from many different areas. I long to help disciple and to teach everyone around me.

The books focus would be looking at the church in the way that our generation does. What it is that people our age want to see and how we want to see a revolution happen. A lot of books that are released today are pointed to more to the later adult hood age. Even the people that write to people of our age are 30 years older then us most times. I wanted to know your thoughts on this idea and if you think it is something I should pursue. If you think it would be something that maybe you would read or something you think I should undertake let me know. Feel free to be honest and you can even hit the anonymous button if you do not think it is a good idea, so that you do not feel like i will think differently of you.

I feel our generation needs to be herd and I think this would be an interesting book/study that will help people understand.

Thanks
Love You All
Brent

Complacent Christians are the Devils Greatest Weapon

It has been over 24 hours since the thought "Complacent Christians are the Devils greatest weapon," came to my mind. Complacency for those of you who may not know what that word means exactly means, one has become apathetic to ones need or problem. Ever since then I have been processing through writing this and what exactly I should say. I have to admit that this in my mind if probably the most important writing I have ever done in my mind. More important then the “where is worship” series I did. This is on a thought that has convicted me and has begun to change my relationship with God.

I began to look at scripture and the main scripture that comes to mind when thinking about complacency is Revelation 3:14-22. In this passage you have God talking to the church at Laodicea and he tells them they are nether Hot nor Cold and since they were nether he was going to spit them out of his mouth. This is the main spot in scripture that I feel really attacks the idea of Complacency. The followers of Christ at Laodicea have become so apathetic in their view for Christ that he says since they are nether hot nor cold he would spit them out of his mouth. I do not know about you but someone spitting something out there mouth does not sound like a good thing. Is this something that we really want done to us as quote unquote followers of Christ?

I have to be honest this thought scares me and makes me look at the world around us. I see a lost and dying world who does not care at all about the creator of this world. The worst part of all this is that Christians have become apathetic to Christ. We do not care anymore, we have allowed sin to creep so far into us that we can not even understand Christ love anymore. We have no love for His word or to pray to their father in heaven, we have a huge heart issue. We should be reaching out but instead we are becoming more like the world everyday. That is why I say we are the Devils greatest weapon.

Every time I look out at my quote unquote Christians brothers and sisters, it seems that we have become more worldly then the world. I understand that this life is not easy and we all fall short of Gods glory but there is difference between being complacent to sin and occasionally messing up and then repenting for it. As Christians we have become a un-repentant group of people and that is the very reason why more people are turning away from Christ then turning toward him. I had a friend say to me the other day that every youth pastor they know do not act like it outside of church. This is what made me think about all this.

I pray this has hit your heart and has convicted you in the way it has convicted me. We need to not conform to the patterns of this world but we need to transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Romans 12:2) :We need to stand up for once and throw away all the garbage that is dragging us down. Whatever it is, cursing, smoking, drinking, porn, lying, and pick up our crosses and run after Christ. The one who saved and redeemed us. It is when we allow God to change our hearts that we can truly change the hearts of others.

I love you all

Just read/Listen

Just so you understand I really did wing the song, I did not have any words written out or chords prepared or anything. I basically had something on my mind and wanted to do a song/prayer. Usually if I have a lot on my mind or anything I will pick up my guitar and just start singing. This is the first time in my life that I have added something I randomly was singing onto my blog or anything. So please do not judge thats it off tempo or some of the words do not flow well, I just liked the words that came out and I wanted to explain what it is from.

Tonight after the WKU basketball game I got back to my apartment and I got a phone call from a lady at the church where I work. She had informed me that one of my youth's father had died. Understand that I haven't been at this church even a month yet but I was filled with concern for her. It is of course hard to reach out to someone who barely knows you and it is impossible to find words to make any sense of a situation like this. Basically the only words that one could say during this time is to say "I am sorry" and offer to pray with the person. Saying things like "This is Gods will" or "We don't understand Gods timing" honestly do not help. And honestly for young people it can bring a sense of anger against God. So with all this going through my mind I turned on my webcam and started to play guitar and sing. The words I liked a lot and I may rework them a little bit and rerecord it sometime.

The words will be below this but there is one line that stuck out to me after singing. In the song I say "words theres so many words but none can explain the brokenness you feel inside" I wonder how often when trying to help someone we try to make them put words to there feelings when honestly feelings a lot of times do not have words that truly describe them. Well enjoy the song and I hope it can help you in some way.


Words cannot express the feeling you must feel,
Words cannot express a broken heart,
God she needs You now she needs your touch
God come down from heaven; show her your the one
God come down
she needs you now
words theres so many words
but none can explain
the brokeness you feel inside
I come before you now
hoping you will see
the Godwho loves you
the god who loves you
God come now
She needs your grace
Shes broken down inside
and she says it will never be the same
so god come down
she needs you tonight
really now she needs now
So come down from heaven
show her you are who you are
she needs you now
So God come down she needs you

Thought on Haiti

I have been sitting here thinking and praying deeply about what has happened to Haiti. So i wanted to give you all some thought on what we as Christians should be doing.

First off let me throw out some facts about this earthquake that you may not have herd.
• quake struck on January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.
• The 7.0 magnitude quake's epicenter hit just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants
• 3 million people are in need of emergency aid after major earthquake
• The major quake sent 33 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 4.2 to 5.9
• Fear Hundred of Thousands of people may be dead

So what are we as followers of Christ supposed to do? First lets look at scripture.

Matthew 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age"

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

First I think it is important to understand that scripture does call us to go to the ends of the earth and to make disciples. To us as Americans we need to understand that Haiti is the "Ends of the Earth" as it says in Acts 1:8. We as "Christians" need to understand that if we are not going and making Disciples we are out of Gods will for our lives. The final command God gave us before leaving this earth and going up into heaven was for us to go out and be his witnesses.

Acts 2:44-45 "All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need"

The context of this verse is that it is right after Pentecost and the believers are meeting together everyday and learning from the apostles. These verses come to my second point in that we should be giving to those in need. Scripture talks a lot about giving to the poor and those in need and i picked out this one verse because it is talking about the church. We look at a place like Haiti and we should know that they are in need and we should be willing to help in whatever way we can.

I look at my life and I am a college student (which means poor in American terms) but I am honestly very blessed. I have payed off my rent until June and only have a small cell phone and insurance bills to pay. If i break down how much money I have left over each month after these bills i have plenty of money to be able to give to help out.

Understand I am not some kid who is well off whose parents give him everything, I pay my own bills and work to be able to pay my bills. And I have to admit that I have to much, I own over a hundred DVD's have lots of possessions that honestly are meaningless. I think we are all in this boat, even if we say we have nothing we honestly have more then most people in other countries understand. A few more quick facts

- According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
-Number of people in the world living on less than $2 a day: 3 billion
-Number of people in the world who went hungry last year: 852 million
-Number of people in the world who are going hungry this year: 854 million

I wrote this to hopefully make you think about some of the things I have been thinking about. We are called to go and to help those in need, so during this time let us pray about what it is God wants us to give. For some of us he may ask for surrender, others he may ask to give everything we have to help those in need, and others he may tell you to go and help. Let me leave you with one final scripture to ponder on

1 John 3:17-19 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him