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.