Amplify weekend was awesome. 35 students for 3 days, two nights-- it was fun, it was hard, it was exciting, it was tiring-- i have heard it all. Pictures coming soon.
Next Wednesday is My Praize 2007: SCARS... we all have a story to tell... come join us as the students of Live Oak Church share their stories through dance, song and words.
shoot, i tried to hold out but loyc now has a myspace page. in no way am i trying to get you to have one. but my thought is-- if i can our youth church out there and get more traffic into our blog page so they can read about what we are doing maybe get interested in, ummm... GOD! then let's try it.
We are planning this year's "My Praize" for Wednesday, November 14. This years theme is "Scars." We want people to walk away believeing in the power of showing off our scars. Our scars are indications that we survived something. While hiding our scars may be easier-- I believe God wants us to show them off. Showing our scars and telling our stories (the churchy term is testimonies) will help some one else. Scars can be from past hurt, abuse, relationships, disappointments-- some scars can be seen ( i have a scar on my forehead from a baseball) and most are invisible to the naked eye. 
strike a pose
in the gulf
sisters?
all smiles
the whole gang on sunday
the ladies before service
The story goes as follows: God promised Abraham that his family would be so big-- you couldn't count 'em. Abraham waited what seemed like forever for the promise to come true. Finally, when Abraham and Sarah were very old, they had a son, Isaac. Then God decided to test Abraham. He told Abraham to give up his son.
My wife uses ziplock baggies for everything. Obviously for food-- sandwiches, crackers, fruit, vegetables-- but also for traveling-- jewelry, clothes, toiletries. She uses the plastic bags to separate, protect and keep things safe.
God is a ziplock kind of God. In John 10.27-30, Jesus says that no one (especially the Destroyer and Thief) can snatch them (sheep) out of his hands. When we put our life in God's hand, we know we will be protected and safe no matter what.
So how do we get in God's hand? Verse 27 says we must "listen and follow" him. To be underneath God's umbrella of protection, we must listen to Him and follow Him. We can listen to Him by attending church serves (like the turnaround on Wednesday nights and Sunday morning). But we don;t have to go to church to listen from God. We can read His word, meditate on Scripture, sing songs that praise Him.
How do we follow Him? Put what ever you "heard" while listening to Him into practice. The word "follow" is an action verb. So put your faith in action. When confronted with a choice between doing right and doing wrong-- chose to do right. To follow Him means to be like Him, do what He would do, speak like He would speak.
Personally, whenever I am disobedient or don't listen and follow Him, I step from underneath His umbrella of protection and feel vulnerable. Get under God's umbrella, ella, ella-- ehh ehh ehh.
The reason I am intrigued with Joseph is becuase he grew up in a household with a strong generational curse that was overflowing with lies, jealousy, favoritisim and adultery-- to name a few. Joseph grew up with one dad, four sets of mothers, four sets of siblings. That in it of itself is cause for deep anguish. Add to the fact that his brothers hate dhim so much that they beat him to the point of death and sold him into slavery. From Abraham to Joseph, I believe each generation had a chance to stop it but Joseph was the only one who said enough was enough. So I want to go through each generation and what they did and how the generational curse multiplied and carried over to the next generation hardache and pain.
re-reading through the family line of abraham, i found something really disturbing... each father passed on to the next generation un-godly examples of adultery, lying, jealousy-- to name a few. abraham was the father of isaac; issac was the father of jacob; jacob was the father of joseph. you realize that joseph grew up in a grossly dysfunctional family? he had one father, four sets of siblings from four different mothers, their was favoritism, jealousy, sexual deviance, lying, cheating, pain, cover up... and joseph decided it stopped with him. 
Tomorrow night we'll conclude our series on "A Daily Dose Of..." with KINDNESS. To recap tho, we talked about FORGIVENESS on the first Wednesday of this month. Remeber: Un-forgiveness builds a wall of anger, bitterness and hatred. So forgive (free one from consequence, blame or guily) like God forgave us through His son. Last week we compared our life to a boat in FRIENDSHIP. We all have a boat and depending on who we allow on our boat will determine if our boat sinks or floats. Throw over board those that cause you to act, think or speak in negative ways.
Eddie James is leading Praise and Worship. I heard them a month ago at Sonfest. They were awesome. They have a cool multi-racial band and back-up singers including a converted Muslim who plays the bass or guitar. Check out his songs here.
John Gray is an interesting man. I had the privealge of driving him around during Sonfest. He is currently the singles pastor at Jentzen Franklin's church Free Worship Chapel. His passion is singing and ministering. He has toured with Kirk Franklin and DC Talk. Check out his songs here.
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