Merry Christmas all!
Just heard this boy on YouTube who called in to a talk show. Logan is a 13 year-old boy who lives on a ranch in a very small town in Nebraska. Logan listens to Christian Radio station 89.3FM KSBJ which broadcasts from Houston, TX. Logan called the radio station distraught because he had to take down a calf . His words have wisdom beyond his years.
He understands what it's all about. Enjoy:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY
Remember The Reason...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
An Open Letter To Rockway
This is what it is all about! I am with you brother.
My name is Jeremy Adams & I moved here to the metroplex in April of 2005 from Indiana (GO COLTS!) and have been coming here to Rockway ever since the end of that summer.
Just a little bit about myself, I’m the guy who when somebody quotes a verse and says, “we all know this one,” right before they read it; well I’m the guy who doesn’t! Sure after I hear it, it sounds familiar but I was totally faking when I smiled, nodded and gazed off as if I was rehearsing it to myself before they ever got it out! That’s me!
Now you can roll your eyes if you want, trust me, I’m used to it! So go ahead, roll ‘em, but the very first time I walked into Rockway, it felt like home. In fact, I left a bit shaken because I honestly felt like I had just witnessed people worshipping God in a place where some pretty amazing things were about to happen. It wasn’t any one thing, I mean the music was awesome, the youth had just got back from camp & kids were bouncing around all over each other crying, hugging, laughing, everyone was so nice & Keith delivered a powerful message about being overwhelmed! (just for the record I should have taken better notes) It was crazy! I remember crying in my car on the way out of the parking lot, for two reasons, number one because I’m a big sensitive crier and that’s what I do and number two because I truly felt like God just took me by the hand and walked me right into exactly where I NEEDED to be! And to somebody living like I was, that was terrifying because that meant DRASTIC CHANGES and immediate uncertainty of a relationship I had literally given everything I had to! But I was overwhelmed by these feelings put on my heart that I HAD TO change and Rockway was where I NEEDED to get plugged in. And it just felt like BIG, BIG things were in store here!
Two years went by and up until this past summer though I had read a lot, prayed a lot, met some great people, some of which played a big role in keeping me afloat, during my “train wreck” than they probably realize. (thank you so much Joe) But honestly my heart hadn’t changed much! I was no more saved than the first time I walked in here!
You see in the midst of trying to become the man God created me to be, MY WHOLE WORLD was pulled out from under me! Even though the possibility of it happening had crossed my mind and even seemed to be certain, I was still devastated when I lost the woman I loved because, “I wasn’t the man she fell in love with anymore!” And, “I was taking this church thing way too seriously!” So just four months after our baby boy was born it was already over! I was living with my parents and right about here is where I tried to take back control, at least when it came to my feelings for a woman who didn’t want me anymore! So in a sense I did the ever so popular, “Okay God take it all, but wait just a minute! Not that! Not yet anyway!” For some reason my heart just wasn’t ready to give up on her, I just wasn’t able to fall out of love like she did! And I continued to struggle with this for well over a year!
You see no matter how much I learned, or how much I prayed, the truth is I’m weak! My heart was still wanting to talk me into leaning in and kissing her. And sometimes I did! My heart still wanted to talk me into sleeping with her! And sometimes I did! My heart still wanted to talk me into loving her more than God and for some reason a lot of the time it felt like I still did! I prayed and prayed to leave her alone! I begged God for the strength to be what he made me to be and I even asked God to change the way I saw her! When I was around her it was like my brain just shut off! I mean, it’s like I looked straight past the fact that she didn’t love me, that there was so much sin tangled up in that relationship (or lack of), that she wanted no part of a relationship with the Lord, or that there was no way I could have been with her and been the man God created me to be! I would be beating myself up wondering how in the world I could still be struggling with this! I obviously had a serious lack of respect for hell! That sounds weird, but it’s like I was living my life trying to learn about Jesus, but if I didn’t make it to heaven it wouldn’t be so bad! I mean somewhere in my brain-dead skull I must have thought I had a suite reserved in hell with a walk-in ice box to keep me cool!
As I struggled with this the answer began to really press on me! I had never turned from my sin, it had turned from me!(Acts 2:38) And I was a fool chasing after it! I mean the night I was baptized at Rockway in November of 2005, I left the church and went right back home into my sinful lifestyle! Nothing had changed inside of me except I was learning more about the Bible, learning more songs about praising God. But was I praising him? Not really. Honoring him? Certainly not! Why?
SOMETHING WAS MISSING!
I honestly felt like a torch waiting to be used to lead people to God, but at that time there was just NO FLAME! And without that flame, you don’t know where you’re going and people are sure not going to want to go where you’re going!
So how in the world was I going to get from this to the, “light of the world” Jesus tells about in Matthew 5?
Let’s look at 1 John 1:5-7 and see what it says about people like me!
This is the message he has given us to announce to you: bWell it seemed I was still a lost liar!
In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist tells that he baptizes with water those who turn from their sins and turn to God, but says that someone whose sandals he’s not fit to carry is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
I had to find a way to turn from being trapped in sin, because I really wanted that FIRE! But I was trying and I kept on struggling, just as trapped as ever! What was I going to do?
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Right about here is where the things weighing on my heart took a turn from being all about me & my struggle to reaching out to others stuck in a sinful lifestyle.
Luke 6:41-42
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite, first get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friends eye.”
Not that anyone might be as pathetic as I have been, but maybe there are several trapped in a sinful lifestyle? What if as a church we removed every log from every eye? So that as a whole we are ready when people come in here with a speck in theirs to be able to be that righteous “family member” they come to when they feel trapped and are looking to be delivered from their sin, to be healed!
I truly felt that I just might not have been the only one who’s been sick and tired of going through the motions and wanted so badly to be filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit! To be set on fire! It was really beginning to feel like this was being placed on my heart for more than just me!
Galatians 5:24-25
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
Anybody feel like they aren’t following the Holy Spirit’s leading on every part of their life?
Quick curveball! But it’s my story so I guarantee it has to be confusing!
Philemon 1:16
He is no longer just a slave; he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean so much more to you, both as a slave and as a brother in the Lord.
This was part of Paul’s plea with Philemon to forgive his runaway slave Onesimus, but the, “he will mean so much more to you,” part was really throwing itself into the mix of emotions God was and has been weighing on my heart.
Try to daydream a little while you read, if that’s even possible! But picture yourself sitting at church on Sunday morning! Picture the usuals who are in your usual area. Maybe mix in a few new faces if that doesn’t trip out your imagination too much! Really look at them closely and ask yourself, “do they really mean much to me?” I know that there has been a lot of growing relationally as well as spiritually in the home teams, but some of us haven’t let that really grab a hold of us! Some of us are probably being “checked” in our hearts a little right now! We need to get in on the more hugs and less handshakes craze that’s beginning to take off at Rockway!
Think about this for a minute. Reflect on the things God is placing on your heart right now. Maybe there is something that’s been allowed to remain in the way of whatever it is that weighing on you! Maybe you are real, real close! Maybe you don’t know what’s on your heart! What if Rockway Church really blowing up in this community is waiting on you and me? That may sound crazy, but is it? Really? What if it’s starting to come together but it’s waiting on others to catch fire?
Right about here is where I stopped being nervous about what all this going on in me was about and just wanted to GET THERE! I didn’t want to be “on the fence” anymore! It was really starting to make sense, I was just a little confused why I was feeling led to write it all down! I mean I love to write, but this was different! So I did! I knew it would sound and look funny to some, but I didn’t really care, I just wanted that FIRE and was feeling led to share it with anyone else who felt like they were carrying around a “flameless torch!”
Here goes!
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.
What is hindering your progress? For me it was a relationship I was foolish enough to desperately try to negotiate into Salvation! What is it for you?
Ezekiel 36:25-27
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.
In the movie Pursuit of Happiness, Will Smith’s little kid tells him a joke. I won’t get this right, word for word, but there’s a man drowning in the middle of the ocean when a boat comes up next to him and a man yells out, “here let me help you!” But the man in the water says, “No thanks, I’ll let God save me!” So the boat went away. The man continued to struggle and another boat came up beside him and a man yelled down to him, “Hey, let me help you!” But again the man in the water yelled back, “No thanks, I’ll let God save me!” So that boat went away also. So time went on and the man finally drowned and went up to Heaven. When he got up there he asked God, “Hey, why didn’t you save me?” And God said, “Hey dummy, I sent you two boats!”
Some people are growing impatient, thinking, “God why am I still lost?”
And He just may be saying back to them, “Hey dummy, I sent you right to My family, your family!”
Okay, here’s the point of what this was all about. My stony heart of sin had to go! Even though I knew that and was praying for help, there was still more that could be done!
It was time I let my family pray with me for deliverance from my sinful lifestyle!
And it is my prayer that anyone else carrying that “I‘m still a lost liar” baggage around with their “flameless torches“, realize that they have already been sent right where they need to bring all that baggage and dump it out!
In the end of Hebrews 12:1 it says, “And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us! So picture “your race” right now, does it involve a lot of pulling off to the side to catch your breath? Mine sure did! Does it involve any backpedaling? Mine sure did! Does it make you want to give up and leave you feeling hopeless? Mine did sometimes! Now picture a bunch of people running TOGETHER. Pacing each other, running through obstacles TOGETHER! Wouldn’t you agree that when you run with others or work out with others it kind of pushes you? You get that “deep down” encouragement that won’t let you make them have to finish without you! Maybe that’s what “your race” has been missing. I know mine was!
Now I know what that “afraid to confess to others” fear is like, but I also know what it feels like to face that fear and fall down on my knees and let my family, that “huge crowd of witnesses” pray with me, for me! Honestly I don’t know if it was only a few that gathered around me in the front of the church that Sunday morning, but it felt like a hundred! I don’t know why, but it just felt like as others began to pray for me and my struggle chunks of that overbearing weight were being lifted off of me! Facing that afraid to confess it fear is what begins the changing of which race you are running. It may not happen instantly, but when you pull off to catch your breath, you’ve got the others running with you there to encourage you to get back on the track!
We have a race to run!
Let’s continue to put the pieces of this Rockway family TOGETHER!
Romans 8:12-14
So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you keep on following it you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
My name is Jeremy Adams & I moved here to the metroplex in April of 2005 from Indiana (GO COLTS!) and have been coming here to Rockway ever since the end of that summer.
Just a little bit about myself, I’m the guy who when somebody quotes a verse and says, “we all know this one,” right before they read it; well I’m the guy who doesn’t! Sure after I hear it, it sounds familiar but I was totally faking when I smiled, nodded and gazed off as if I was rehearsing it to myself before they ever got it out! That’s me!
Now you can roll your eyes if you want, trust me, I’m used to it! So go ahead, roll ‘em, but the very first time I walked into Rockway, it felt like home. In fact, I left a bit shaken because I honestly felt like I had just witnessed people worshipping God in a place where some pretty amazing things were about to happen. It wasn’t any one thing, I mean the music was awesome, the youth had just got back from camp & kids were bouncing around all over each other crying, hugging, laughing, everyone was so nice & Keith delivered a powerful message about being overwhelmed! (just for the record I should have taken better notes) It was crazy! I remember crying in my car on the way out of the parking lot, for two reasons, number one because I’m a big sensitive crier and that’s what I do and number two because I truly felt like God just took me by the hand and walked me right into exactly where I NEEDED to be! And to somebody living like I was, that was terrifying because that meant DRASTIC CHANGES and immediate uncertainty of a relationship I had literally given everything I had to! But I was overwhelmed by these feelings put on my heart that I HAD TO change and Rockway was where I NEEDED to get plugged in. And it just felt like BIG, BIG things were in store here!
Two years went by and up until this past summer though I had read a lot, prayed a lot, met some great people, some of which played a big role in keeping me afloat, during my “train wreck” than they probably realize. (thank you so much Joe) But honestly my heart hadn’t changed much! I was no more saved than the first time I walked in here!
You see in the midst of trying to become the man God created me to be, MY WHOLE WORLD was pulled out from under me! Even though the possibility of it happening had crossed my mind and even seemed to be certain, I was still devastated when I lost the woman I loved because, “I wasn’t the man she fell in love with anymore!” And, “I was taking this church thing way too seriously!” So just four months after our baby boy was born it was already over! I was living with my parents and right about here is where I tried to take back control, at least when it came to my feelings for a woman who didn’t want me anymore! So in a sense I did the ever so popular, “Okay God take it all, but wait just a minute! Not that! Not yet anyway!” For some reason my heart just wasn’t ready to give up on her, I just wasn’t able to fall out of love like she did! And I continued to struggle with this for well over a year!
You see no matter how much I learned, or how much I prayed, the truth is I’m weak! My heart was still wanting to talk me into leaning in and kissing her. And sometimes I did! My heart still wanted to talk me into sleeping with her! And sometimes I did! My heart still wanted to talk me into loving her more than God and for some reason a lot of the time it felt like I still did! I prayed and prayed to leave her alone! I begged God for the strength to be what he made me to be and I even asked God to change the way I saw her! When I was around her it was like my brain just shut off! I mean, it’s like I looked straight past the fact that she didn’t love me, that there was so much sin tangled up in that relationship (or lack of), that she wanted no part of a relationship with the Lord, or that there was no way I could have been with her and been the man God created me to be! I would be beating myself up wondering how in the world I could still be struggling with this! I obviously had a serious lack of respect for hell! That sounds weird, but it’s like I was living my life trying to learn about Jesus, but if I didn’t make it to heaven it wouldn’t be so bad! I mean somewhere in my brain-dead skull I must have thought I had a suite reserved in hell with a walk-in ice box to keep me cool!
As I struggled with this the answer began to really press on me! I had never turned from my sin, it had turned from me!(Acts 2:38) And I was a fool chasing after it! I mean the night I was baptized at Rockway in November of 2005, I left the church and went right back home into my sinful lifestyle! Nothing had changed inside of me except I was learning more about the Bible, learning more songs about praising God. But was I praising him? Not really. Honoring him? Certainly not! Why?
SOMETHING WAS MISSING!
I honestly felt like a torch waiting to be used to lead people to God, but at that time there was just NO FLAME! And without that flame, you don’t know where you’re going and people are sure not going to want to go where you’re going!
So how in the world was I going to get from this to the, “light of the world” Jesus tells about in Matthew 5?
Let’s look at 1 John 1:5-7 and see what it says about people like me!
This is the message he has given us to announce to you: bWell it seemed I was still a lost liar!
In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist tells that he baptizes with water those who turn from their sins and turn to God, but says that someone whose sandals he’s not fit to carry is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
I had to find a way to turn from being trapped in sin, because I really wanted that FIRE! But I was trying and I kept on struggling, just as trapped as ever! What was I going to do?
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Right about here is where the things weighing on my heart took a turn from being all about me & my struggle to reaching out to others stuck in a sinful lifestyle.
Luke 6:41-42
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite, first get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friends eye.”
Not that anyone might be as pathetic as I have been, but maybe there are several trapped in a sinful lifestyle? What if as a church we removed every log from every eye? So that as a whole we are ready when people come in here with a speck in theirs to be able to be that righteous “family member” they come to when they feel trapped and are looking to be delivered from their sin, to be healed!
I truly felt that I just might not have been the only one who’s been sick and tired of going through the motions and wanted so badly to be filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit! To be set on fire! It was really beginning to feel like this was being placed on my heart for more than just me!
Galatians 5:24-25
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
Anybody feel like they aren’t following the Holy Spirit’s leading on every part of their life?
Quick curveball! But it’s my story so I guarantee it has to be confusing!
Philemon 1:16
He is no longer just a slave; he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean so much more to you, both as a slave and as a brother in the Lord.
This was part of Paul’s plea with Philemon to forgive his runaway slave Onesimus, but the, “he will mean so much more to you,” part was really throwing itself into the mix of emotions God was and has been weighing on my heart.
Try to daydream a little while you read, if that’s even possible! But picture yourself sitting at church on Sunday morning! Picture the usuals who are in your usual area. Maybe mix in a few new faces if that doesn’t trip out your imagination too much! Really look at them closely and ask yourself, “do they really mean much to me?” I know that there has been a lot of growing relationally as well as spiritually in the home teams, but some of us haven’t let that really grab a hold of us! Some of us are probably being “checked” in our hearts a little right now! We need to get in on the more hugs and less handshakes craze that’s beginning to take off at Rockway!
Think about this for a minute. Reflect on the things God is placing on your heart right now. Maybe there is something that’s been allowed to remain in the way of whatever it is that weighing on you! Maybe you are real, real close! Maybe you don’t know what’s on your heart! What if Rockway Church really blowing up in this community is waiting on you and me? That may sound crazy, but is it? Really? What if it’s starting to come together but it’s waiting on others to catch fire?
Right about here is where I stopped being nervous about what all this going on in me was about and just wanted to GET THERE! I didn’t want to be “on the fence” anymore! It was really starting to make sense, I was just a little confused why I was feeling led to write it all down! I mean I love to write, but this was different! So I did! I knew it would sound and look funny to some, but I didn’t really care, I just wanted that FIRE and was feeling led to share it with anyone else who felt like they were carrying around a “flameless torch!”
Here goes!
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.
What is hindering your progress? For me it was a relationship I was foolish enough to desperately try to negotiate into Salvation! What is it for you?
Ezekiel 36:25-27
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.
In the movie Pursuit of Happiness, Will Smith’s little kid tells him a joke. I won’t get this right, word for word, but there’s a man drowning in the middle of the ocean when a boat comes up next to him and a man yells out, “here let me help you!” But the man in the water says, “No thanks, I’ll let God save me!” So the boat went away. The man continued to struggle and another boat came up beside him and a man yelled down to him, “Hey, let me help you!” But again the man in the water yelled back, “No thanks, I’ll let God save me!” So that boat went away also. So time went on and the man finally drowned and went up to Heaven. When he got up there he asked God, “Hey, why didn’t you save me?” And God said, “Hey dummy, I sent you two boats!”
Some people are growing impatient, thinking, “God why am I still lost?”
And He just may be saying back to them, “Hey dummy, I sent you right to My family, your family!”
Okay, here’s the point of what this was all about. My stony heart of sin had to go! Even though I knew that and was praying for help, there was still more that could be done!
It was time I let my family pray with me for deliverance from my sinful lifestyle!
And it is my prayer that anyone else carrying that “I‘m still a lost liar” baggage around with their “flameless torches“, realize that they have already been sent right where they need to bring all that baggage and dump it out!
In the end of Hebrews 12:1 it says, “And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us! So picture “your race” right now, does it involve a lot of pulling off to the side to catch your breath? Mine sure did! Does it involve any backpedaling? Mine sure did! Does it make you want to give up and leave you feeling hopeless? Mine did sometimes! Now picture a bunch of people running TOGETHER. Pacing each other, running through obstacles TOGETHER! Wouldn’t you agree that when you run with others or work out with others it kind of pushes you? You get that “deep down” encouragement that won’t let you make them have to finish without you! Maybe that’s what “your race” has been missing. I know mine was!
Now I know what that “afraid to confess to others” fear is like, but I also know what it feels like to face that fear and fall down on my knees and let my family, that “huge crowd of witnesses” pray with me, for me! Honestly I don’t know if it was only a few that gathered around me in the front of the church that Sunday morning, but it felt like a hundred! I don’t know why, but it just felt like as others began to pray for me and my struggle chunks of that overbearing weight were being lifted off of me! Facing that afraid to confess it fear is what begins the changing of which race you are running. It may not happen instantly, but when you pull off to catch your breath, you’ve got the others running with you there to encourage you to get back on the track!
We have a race to run!
Let’s continue to put the pieces of this Rockway family TOGETHER!
Romans 8:12-14
So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you keep on following it you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
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