Welcome to New York!

We made it and here is the first pic in state.

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New York Missions Trip// Day 1/2 of 1

Well we always hope to get a running start. This trip was a bit of a stumble at first but the team is doing awesome. Arizona is one of those states where when it rains nobody knows what to do. The first bit of news was that we would be about 30 minutes late. No big deal, we had 1 hour and 5 minutes for our connection flight. Well 2 hours later we actually took off.

As Ray M so eloquently put it, "It was a lesson of patience of God." In that meantime Joe T had fell asleep as the plane was backing out, about an hour and a half later he woke up to the plane moving again still on the tarmac and he thought he was already in Atlanta, not realizing that it would be light out. They quickly assured him NOTHING has happened since he fell asleep.

Currently we are sitting in Atlanta Concourse B waiting for our flight out at 240p, which puts us into New York around 5ish ET tonight.

Check back often, we will be updating this blog whenever we have time or anything changes, we will also post pictures too. Don't forget to follow my twitters of this trip HERE, or you can text message 40404, and type "follow shaunmayfield". Those updates will be sent out much more frequent.

Oh yeah, Jared B Told me to say "hi, everybody".

Love you all,

The eikon missionary team!

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Encounters With God - Altars//Week3 Finale

Here is the TwitterNotes of Week 3 of Encounters With God where we discuss altars.

Encounters With God - Self Sacrifice

The central issue of life is worship.

Romans 12.1 - I urge you in view of God and his mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

Some people sacrifice their bodies to meaningless and trivial things.

Their hands, feet, eyes, ears, tongues and hearts are sacrificed to time-consuming activities that are largely insignificant

John 15:10 - If you keep my commands you’ll remain intimately at home in my love, that’s what I've (Jesus) done - kept my Fathers commands and made myself at home in his love.

Matthew22:37-39 - Jesus said "Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence" and "Love others as well as you love yourself

If God doesn’t exist then worship is insanity. But if God does exist then nothing is more logical or reasonable than worship.

If worship is sacrifice, and true worship is self-sacrifice then it is time that we begin sacrifice our desires.

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My birthday lunch.

Not a better place to eat for your birthday. Simply amazing.

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Isaiah Michael Grubbs

My newest nephew born at 1218am, 7/7/08. 8lbs 1oz. 21 1/2 inches.

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Conversations of LIfe - 1

This is a conversation of a good friend of mine, a student in Atlanta Masters Commission, RC. He is a great kid (a 21 year-old man), with an awesome heart, loves to bike freestyle and MTB, and even enjoys disc golf.

AIM IM with RC 7/3/08 4: 11PM

RC hey bud.
SM hey man
SM outta cali yet?
RC nahh
SM or stayin for the 4th
RC yea
RC how's the disc golf?
SM went good, nice to get out but a little warm, you ever play?
RC I'm jealous, of course, we have the third hardest course in the nation in my hometown
SM that is awesome

RC hey, I have a couple questions for you...
SM sure..
RC you're married, right?
SM yes
RC ok, How did you KNOW that your wife was the girl for you?
SM God, i know that was the answer u were expecting to hear
RC haha, well, I mean, what made it click in your head? like, there had to be something that just TOLD you that she was IT
SM i had made a vow that i would not date until it was the girl god wanted me to marry
and then when we wanted to date i prayed about it and knew that was what i was suppose to do
many said we were young and didnt know, but i knew
RC how old were you?
SM then, 19 when we started dating
RC not bad... yea...I'm just asking cuz, well, I met this girl... and I think she's perfect... well, more than perfect, if that makes sense
SM if there was one thing that you could change about her what would it be?
RC where she lives, lol, hmm... lets see... I'm really not sure... dang
just curious, what is the point that you are trying to make? cuz I think you have one...but I don't know what it is
SM haha, sometimes we look at people and wish we could change things about them. No matter how perfect she may seem now, sooner or later you will find something u wont like
RC mmk
SM you must be able to accept those things that you cant change
RC i was just about to ask how you handle that...
SM the truth is you cant change someone else, you can only change your perspective of that which you dont like
RC wow. thats good
SM that will help you not only in marriage but in every relationship you are in!
relationship/friendship/etc
RC yea... dang, thats good ;0 you're the freaking man...
SM in changing our perspective it allows them to keep their own personality and character
and be themselves and allows them to live more whole
RC wowww. yea, I need to get to AZ.
and chill with you for a while
SM when we try to change them we force them into our box of perfection then they always are trying to live UP to our standard and then they end up feeling like a failure
and in marriage that is not healthy, she then feels like she is hurting you then makes you go on a power trip and puts u in control and not in a healthy manner
RC wow.... i never would have thought of something like that
SM marriage isnt about power, its actually about submission, "wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives"
RC loving is submitting, yea?
SM in loving our wives we submit to their needs, they submit to our spiritual authority
two different kinds of submission
RC wow...
SM control authority and spiritual authority
RC yea
SM that will get u mileage in a relationship
RC it makes so much sense!!
SM good, and know that girls never make sense, haha
RC haha, yea, I got that one
SM dont ever tell them that, thats not good either, haha j/k
RC yea, that would be bad
wow... dang dude... how'd you get so smart? like, I'm still shocked. for lack of a better term.
SM ran to a wall a lot and too many drugs, lol, no idea
i dont see my self as smart as much as i would say i am an observer
learn to watch your world and learn from it
RC ahhhh
SM be experiential and allow everything to be a moment of Ahaa!
RC I like that.

SM i want to blog this conversation, is that cool with you?
RC I am down for that... whats your blog site?
SM www.shaunmayfield.com
RC haha...you have a blogger account with your own domain name! Awesome!
SM haha, i figured i better get it before someone else does
RC haha, yea. I don't know what I would do without friends like you.
SM awe, thanks man, that is very cool, im glad we got to know each other in ATL
RC haha...yea. I'm very glad for that. I'm gonna blog this convo too, just so ya know
SM sweet man.
RC You honestly don't know how much this meant to me... I honestly feel a whole lot better..cuz I was worried about so much...
SM that is so cool
RC yay for friends who are there for each other!!
SM haha, woot!

I shared this for a few reasons.

1. Take a good look at how you see people and understand the ability to change our perspective on someone else's 'lack of' and realize that we can either focus on the 90% negative of who they are to us or we can look at the 10% positive and focus on that and begin to change the only one we control... ourselves!

2. Marriage is about love and submission. Wives submit to the control authority, ultimate say so goes to the husband... HOWEVER, and a big however, before any one presumes I am chauvinistic. (Just ask my wife, I am not allowed to be chauvinistic ( that's a joke, get it?!?)) When husbands truly love our wives we then submit to there needs, emotionally, physically and mentally, there creating a balance.

3. I am not smart, as matter of fact, I consider myself to not learn as well as others and I am self-admitted learning disabled (no doctor proof as of yet). However I have learned to observe the world around me. This point deserves a blog on it's own and will quite likely lead to a blog/book/short story of some kind to show how my outlook on life is all from observing; it is what I have coined reasonable deduction (common sense+mathematical calculations+not allowing ignorance to blind me). Be a watcher, soak up your environment, breathe slowly and observe the motion, hear the dialect, watch the mannerisms, be a learner, be a CREATIVE!

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Encounters With God - Altars//Week2

Here is the TwitterNotes of Week 2 of Encounters With God where we discuss altars.

The Altar is: A Place of Stability.
When the Israelites settled into their towns they began to build an altar for stability.
So the altar was a place of stability in an environment of uncertainty.

The Altar is: A Place of Submission.
Genesis 22:1-14 - As a Submission to God Abraham placed his son on the altar for a sacrifice to God.

The Altar is: A Place of Leadership.
Leviticus 6:8-13 - God had Aaron keep the flames going on the altar to establish leadership.

An altar is a place someone can come and find a sense of stability of meaning to life, but the altar doesn’t give us stability... it’s only a table.
An altar is a place where someone can submit to God, but the altar doesn’t create submission… it’s only a table.
An altar is a place to become a leader, but the altar doesn't create leadership... its only a table.

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Encounters With God - Altars//Week1

Here is the TwitterNotes of Week 1 of Encounters With God where we discuss altars.

Genesis 12:7 So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Altars were built to God for two reason:
1. For prayer and worship.
2. As reminders of God's promise to bless him.

Altars symbolized communion with God and represented powerful encounters with him.

The power of the altar is unspeakable.

Matthew 11:28 Are you Tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.

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What We Are Buiding Is What We Are Becoming

Altars were created by many religions for sacrifices. For Jews they built them when God showed up as a rememberance and as a place to signify God's promise. What we are building is what we are becoming. We need to build altars to God for the promises He has given us and to remind us of those moments that He has showed up in our lives.

We are doing a 3-week series on Altars. Week one, understanding their importance and significance. Week two, understanding what we become at altars. And next week, self sacrifice. I will follow up with blogs with our TwitterNotes for each week. See the older post title TechKrunch. TwitterNotes is just the 'tweets' that we send out in our eikonLIVE service.

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TechKrunch

Two big moves have began to revolutionize my tech blood. Those of you who haven't realized it, we all have tech blood, the blood that pumps for technology and finding new ways to network and build relationships and see the computer age as a tool. Of course a lot of this centered around the social networking aspect. The two areas that has my blood pumping are Twitter, now this is not new, I have been using Twitter faithfully for well over a year. The newest one is Utterz, not like the utters on a cow that I had assumed it meant, more like the sayings we utter. I seem to explain to many people regularly what Twitter is and try to get them to understand the micro-blog craze. To be honest this type of blog, true blogging, is the most difficult for me, I seem to underestimate the commitment it takes to keep up with my desires for blogging. Welcome Twitter, the world of micro-blogging. Now that I have unlimited texting it makes this service great. One can send micro-blogs such as, "Hanging with the family" or "Going to see The Incredible Hulk" and anyone who is following you can get your updates as well as you can receive anybodys updates via texts for whoever you are following.

Ministry related, our youth ministry, eikon student ministries has it's own Twitter and at the beginning of our services I have students follow us and we send out 'tweets' to all the students who are following us. My philosophy is instead of fighting the war of phones and texting in services we have decided to fight fire with fire. Unbelievably, unexpected satisfaction is all I can say as a result. Currently as of this post we have 136 followers following us. This is just students who have shuffled through our services or some parents as well. We know students are forwarding texts as well so hopefully our tweets are getting forwarded too. Another big use for this is the ability to send updates for events and reminders to students. I believe this is one of those tools if you do not get in now you will be regretting it later.

Now on to Utterz, a social aggregate. The Utterz website allows you to send in pictures, text messages and audio or video recordings via your cell phone then it has it's own mico-blog on it's website. Now what some of you are thinking, just another site to keep up and manage... not true. It's all how you use it, because it's and aggregater it shoots it to a host of other blog/micro-blogs. So if I send in a photo on my phone it sends it to utter.com then Utterz posts it to my Twitter and this blog as well, all on it's own. Another powerful well thought out tool of utterz is the ability to send in a photo then it gives you ten minutes to send in voice recording, text messages, or video and it automatically attaches it to that post.

P.S. Ok I decided to throw in another HOT tool on the net. Pinger, amongst the best tools available. Pinger allows you the ability to upload all your contacts then build groups if you need to then you call a specific number that Pinger provides and you speak the name of the person or group then at the tone leave a voice mail. That voice mail is then delivered to that person/group as a text message that they click on to listen to. There is even an option to get text replies once the recpient/group listened to the VM. The receiver also can hit reply and send you a message back. This is amazing if you want to send 15 people a message and don't have the 15-20 minutes to talk. This is a lifesaver and yet still personal. Voice is always more personal then a text, heres a mixture of both.

All around us are tools that are coming onto the scene. We must always be looking at ways for networking and finding new ways to be a part of our world. The truth is we are moving into a highly social networking enviroment that we can try to be on the front line of and ride the waves. I don't feel it will let up as soon as some speculate. This wave will have lasting affects just like the iPod changed how we listened to music the social network will change how we interlink in our world. If you have any tools that would be useful comment on this blog and share. I would love to hear your thoughts on the direction for the future of social networking. I have a lot of input and some really great ideas. If you are a programmer leaver feedback, maybe we can get in touch and share some ideas that I ahve that could change a lot of our culture.

www.twitter.com/shaunmayfield
www.twitter.com/eikonlive
www.utterz.com/pastorshaun
www.twittervision.com for fun.

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Cultural Clarity de Peru: (Times) of the Culture

A really interesting observation that I made that I already talked about in my previous post I will expand a little more on is the time. Another funny thing with Peruvians is time is really just a philosophy or great idea but a poor invention. As the week started we would set times to be ready and be waiting for 20 minutes to an hour for them. Our leader, Doug, expressed his concern that we always be ready on time no matter what. Well by the end we were being pushed by them. So as we are getting more tired and slower and run down the local Pastors seemed to sense our eagerness to follow the clock so as we were beginning to slow they were there to push us.

By the end of the trip I heard “rapido” more times than I wanted. However I feel they were respecting us and our time consciousness. I began to think about the differences of culture. Are they wrong for being late all the time and not caring? Are we wrong for always holding the clock as a higher priority then relationships? I feel the root of this is true, there are differences of culture and that carries much of the weight however I feel a sense of blame and ownership. As two cultures collide, I believe our eyes are opened up to our shortcomings.

First off I will point the finger because there is less there to deal with, actually I truly want to focus on the American rush. If you are like my Peruvian friends, look at your watch, focus a little more, care a little more, be a little more courteous of others. If a car is about to run you over instead of forcing him to slow down pick up your pace, simply move.

So before I point the finger I am first to say, SLOW down America. Don’t shortsale relationships because of your over-exhausted time schedule. Don’t neglect your nature of relationship, we are relational by nature. Stop to say hello, slow down to have time to bless someone, don’t run so fast so that you can have a meaningful conversation of hope and purpose, don’t miss opportunities that are God appointed. Allow yourself to be in the moment and present for what God has intended instead of putting on the game face all the time and running. I realize that many times I speed when I drive and am not even in a hurry. I have accustomed myself to always be on ‘rush mode’. I seem to always be late for things even late for events that are not even scheduled, figure that one out. I want to sloooow down, I want to catch my breathe and breath a deep sigh of relief that the earth will still spin even if I’m not pedaling it. Did you hear that, our little planet will still keep spinning without you pedaling it and running on it.

Here’s the bottom line, you will always have more to do, more to finish, more work to do… set it down and relax, kick your legs up and enjoy the simple life all around you that is waiting to be explored. We make so much complication of God’s simplicity and make ourselves tired and God is saying rest in me my child.

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Cultural Clarity de Peru: The Kiss of Innocence

After the first conference a young lady approached me with Oscar, my translator, and she had a question for me as well as a prayer request. Her prayer request was that her father was a pastor for eight years and he quit and walked away from God. I could tell in your heart she was hurt and broken. Her question was that she felt very shy but had a heart to share her faith and she didn’t what to do. I encouraged her that it is okay that she is shy but I shared with her that when we receive that baptism of the Holy Spirit we receive power to be witnesses and I encouraged her to seek God for everything that He has for her. I spoke life into her and told her that she is perfect in every way, that her life has purpose and that God has a destiny for her. I told her that she was wonderful and amazing. I told her that when she shares her faith with people and they reject her they are not really rejecting her; they are rejecting God. She seemed to be very encouraged and lifted up by those words.

Let me step you back to the moment of her approach, as she neared me with Oscar they seemed to be pretty close and as I stood it was very awkward so the only way to make it not awkward was to turn the stand into a standing hug. When I went to hug her she hugged me face to face and then I heard her kiss me. At first I was very nervous and couldn’t understand why she did that. Then I realized that I had been seeing that from different people throughout the previous day. As the rest of the week every woman or girl hugged me as well as any person with a kiss.

Now the funny thing is I hate touching people’s hands, sure call me weird. To me it is gross and I wish we in America did not do the hand shake. Many times I will hit fists instead of shake hands. You know what also bugs me is holding hands to pray, call me unholy or what but I do not like it. Think about it for a second, the longer the prayer the hotter and more sweaty it gets, gross. To me the kiss is a little weird but in a strange sense beautiful. I remember our last night our bus on the way to the airport had to drive through the drive-thru and we sat there looking inside as three girls were finishing there meals and one had to leave and then she kissed her friends on the cheeks then left. Over and over I saw this happening and it brings the idea of trust and love as well as a personal relationship. I think it is a personal way of greeting inspiring love that a hand shake can’t do…. wait, wait, I guess we do have that, we have the clasp of the hands, snap the fingers, hit three times, hit the fists up then down, spin around, high five, then hug. We also have the gangster hands clasp, fist to fist, hug the side shoulder.

I must say that the love of the innocent kiss is beautiful and makes our hand shake quite pathetic. Here is my solution, I don’t think that we can ever change the culture of America to the kiss, at least not easily. However how can you show love more? How can you express the love that God has given you to the people in your world? God has given each of us our own circle of influence and our own world if you will. Are you able to affect your world in a positive way? I hear many times from people that would say, “I can’t change my world”. The truth is maybe you can’t, maybe that is too big of a task, but I believe in you. I believe that you can change your circle, your own ‘world’, your area of influence. So how will tomorrow be different than today? Will you begin to affect the destiny of others by loving more? Let’s see it.

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Reports From Peru

Peru is a beautiful country and I have cherished every moment here. After the dozen or so mission trips to Mexico I felt very comfortable in Peru. One of the funnest and scariest parts is the driving, much like Mexico. There are really no rules, well at least rules that are followed. Stop signs are optional, red lights are recommended and the horn works as a tool for communication. Yet in the midst of seeming chaos and almost complete traffic jams, Peruvians seem to still stay positive and there are also no accidents, at least not in the week we were there and believe me, after watching the driving for 5 minutes I expected to see at least a few accidents daily. Another funny thing with Peruvians is time is really just a philosophy or great idea but a poor invention. They do not seem to be too worried of the time. Many times we would wait a while for the different local pastors and leaders.

There was a couple interesting things that happened. The first night we were still in a state of euphoria with the idea of being in a new country and the excitation of the days ahead. We were given our room keys and go to our rooms. My room was on the side of a VERY busy road not to mention all the honking. I could not sleep at all and it was a very good thing I brought some Sleep MD. Chicken is the main staple food, more prevalent than good clean water, no joke. So we literally ate chicken for every meal, now my first point is the chicken is the best chicken I have eaten in my life. It is all rotisserie and amazing. However after the first nine times in a row it became out of control. Now I must mention that there was a Starbucks only a parking lot away that I frequented every morning to do my "vanille latte con hellado" as well as the most amazing cinnamon roll that cost about $0.80 US. So finally ten meals in, that is lunches and dinners we end up at a high end outdoor mall that was pretty cool. Finally a food court, anything you would want including American fast food, yessss! No, because all the meals were included in our trip and they paid for them all at once, so guess where we found ourselves? Pardo's chicken, 10th time in a row. It will be a good month of Chicken Sabbatical for me.

The leadership conferences were amazing. God always does the unexpected. We were expecting about 200 at the fist conference and about 300 or so at the second, totaling 500-600. I personally was expecting about 70-80 youth pastors and leaders total. The first conference totaled just about 500 and the second was 500+. So with a total of over a thousand combined, I had about 100 pastors/leaders at each conference. They were hungry for learning and philosophies on ministry. I really felt that God had given me some great leadership ideas and strategies to give to these amazing people. One of the neat things is a couple days later when we were doing a children’s program at a little village a lady came up and told me that she was at one of the conferences with me and that it was 'excellente'. It was amazing to see one of the people in their own area of influence and that they were blessed by the conference.

At the second conference there was a homosexual couple that came in to see what was going on and got convicted so they returned that night for the service and wept knowing they were living in sin. Pastor Larry who was on our team who had been a missionary to Ecuador for many years ministered to these two guys and through tears of shame found God and left new 'men' of God.

I have never been so stretched in my life. The two conferences were in two days in different city/states, the first one in Lima and the second in Ica. These were about 5 hours away. The first conference was Tuesday, it began at 8:30am and ended at about 7:30pm then we all went for dinner, chicken. Rode the cab to the bus terminal (like our Greyhounds) and left about 10pm. We arrived in Ica at about 2:30am and then found our hotel and got only a few hours of sleep to make it to the next conference that started at 8:30am. This same schedule repeated that day ending with the drive back to Lima. Then the next morning up at the same time around 7ish to head to do some street ministry with the team that was here doing ministry while we were at the conferences. That day lasted until 11pm with a couple chicken meals in there for our pleasure. So three days of about 4-5 hours and then standing and walking for about 13 hours and ministering is one of the most exhausting things I have done. I ran my body to fully empty relying on fumes then ran out of fumes by Saturday.

Then Saturday was a day to shop and eat and see the country, it was great and beautiful. Then Sunday I preached at a church in Lima with a couple hundred in attendance. On my way the Book of Hope leader in Peru told me that the mayor goes to this church and will be there, nothing like pressure, eh. God really moved on me and even though I felt too sick to minister I always depend on God in those times and as I approached the pulpit the sickness was not able to follow. I poured my heart out with a message that God gave me for this church talking about how the gift of God, His son, is effective in our life. Myself, the church and the pastor all seemed blessed. Prior to the service the pastor led us through the church introducing us to all the teachers and pastors and as we were entering the Sunday School class for the teenagers the Sr. Pastor told my translator that I would be teaching the class, again nothing like pressure. I had nothing prepared but God led and I followed. When we are sick and at the end or feel great and have high energy God always comes through.

This trip was amazing and everyone that supported us in prayer, thank you. I was invited back again next year and really hope to return. The burden of leadership burns in me to return again. So be praying about considering helping me get there next year monetarily and in prayer. Oh and an interesting bit of knowledge, where we stayed the last rumored time that it rained was about 10 years ago, other than that it hasn't rained for hundreds of years even though it is on the coast, it just mists a lot.

...read more on "Reports From Peru"!

Viva Peru

Well I am sitting here at IAH, the International Airport of Houston for a 3 hour layover and am getting excited to finish my next flight, 6.5 hours to Lima, Peru. I was invited by Doug Reed to join him and a team of about 10 pastors to go to Peru for a Pastors Leadership Conference. It will be a great trip, I will get to lead three sessions with about 70-80 youth pastors and leaders. I have entitled the three sessions I will be leading:

• Seven Keys to Growth: What causes your ministry to be a magnet for teenagers that need Christ.
• Why Inspirational Leadership? 10 Roles For An Inspirational Leader.
• Ten Great Ways to Lose A Volunteer: Ten missteps that can cost you new and old volunteers.
  

Please keep our team in your prayers and that God uses us in powerful ways in Peru. We need them and depend on God to make this week memorable for everyone.

...read more on "Viva Peru"!

mean daiv

there was 1ce a man named daiv, daiv one day was not nice. daiv later apologized and now i forghiv him and let hiim be mi frend agin.

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HVNCNW8

On my way to my ordination exam I may have been slightly speeding, possibly, maybe, and while I was on my way I passed a beautiful black car with the license plate that read HVNCNW8. I saw the license plate before I noticed the car, after looking at the car I noticed it being a S600 Mercedes-Benz, just so you know it is priced at $108,000. Now first off I have no desire to judge this individual or any person who has the ability to afford what I believe a very wonderful workmanship for a car. However I do want to look at the mindset of not only this person, but so many others who has the attitude of 'heaven can wait' (get it).

America is in the now, and many individuals lack the ability to make appropriate priorities. Unfortunately life after death seems to be as minuscule and minor as McDonalds on the arteries. What isn't seen seems to always be insignificant. This is probably why many Christians seem to be struggling with their relationship with God as much as they struggle running through a forest at night with no light.

Matthew 6:19-21 - 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". If you are familiar with this verse at all then you should understand the simplicity of the gospel. It's simple, crap/junk on this earth won't last, modestly put!

The part that I think shares union with my observation is verse 21, “where your treasure is, there you heart is also”. I am afraid many people have traded their heart, in essence their life, for their eternity. I say 'life' because the bible is filled with statements that eternity is through Jesus' blood that we are saved. We either have a blood flow of this world or have a blood transfusion of Jesus who's blood takes away our infirmities both physical and spiritual. We need to be aware and be focused on what we are focusing on with our heart.

Be rich, be blessed, buy a Mercedes… but don't sell out your heart for the crap in this world and look to those items as an end all, they merely are temporal and can easily be a distraction. Keep your focus, keep your heart on things above and store up your investments in heaven. Bless someone today, tell someone you LOVE them, possibly a stranger, serve someone… then give the credit to God and in that moment you made a heavenly transaction with amazing an interest rate.

...read more on "HVNCNW8"!

Dorothy and Earl

I wish I had a picture to show you there beautiful faces. Dorothy, 75, and Earl, 82, are precious and proud.

As we sat to eat at Arby's for lunch with a couple pastors and interns we were being the typical annoying loud people in the corner that most would be upset at us. As Ryan jumps up to do a little dance this quiet elderly couple look over and instead of a frown or look of disgust Dorothy made the comment, "we once were able to move like that, praise God for you young folks". She began to ask us if we were believers in which we responded yes. She was happy and began to get emotional and filled with joy that young people were laughing and having fun and that we loved God. I spent a few moments talking with them as they introduced themselves to me and asked for prayer because they were not doing good. See Dorothy had just had a double by-pass and a stint put in and didn't know how long she would be around. She swore Satan was trying to shut her up because she said she is bold and will never stop telling people about Jesus. She said that Earl is in worse health and that they need each other. I said I would pray for them. Earl said that as soon as they saw us they knew we loved God and that they could feel the presence over us.

As they were about to leave they came over and began sharing the love of God with us loudly and boldly in the middle of Arby's. As she talks Ole' Earl is trying to chime in and give his perspective of seeing a bunch of Christian 'kids' and how happy and moved he was. She then said how much she felt the spirit and shared some scriptures with us. Then with her boldness in that small 75 year old frail frame she said we need to pray. I notice Earl's old weathered hands reaching for his hat and I figured cool, I guess we will pray right now. Dorothy began to pray, not one of these little prayers, "Lord bless these youngens". No, it was a prayer of passion, she truly was praying over us and asking God to use us and care for us. Then we blessed them and they left.

We hurried back to the church because we had staff prayer at one and I told them I would pray for them so I did and began to think and meditate on what happened. I'm not sure everyone that I was with truly got what was happening. Here is some complete strangers yet not caring about anything or anyone around and some were probably missing what was really happening.

Here area a couple saints that are probably close to finishing their race in life and are so filled with God's spirit that they care nothing about public opinion. For many of us we are so worried about what others might think and it changes our actions. I would hate to think that I would become bold when I realize my life is almost over and I have nothing to lose. The bible says that we shouldn't worry about tomorrow because there is no guarantee that tomorrow will even come. If that is the case how come most Jesus-followers don't have the boldness to approach people, don't have the boldness to pray for people in public, to raise our voice for indecency, to not stand up for the impoverished, the hurt, the broken, the neglected, the needy, homeless, drunk, abused and invisible people that are all around us living in the shadows? May God put a burden on us that causes us to hurt like He does, to be broken for the lost like he is! Prior to Dorothy and Earl leaving they talked to another elderly couple and asked them how they were doing and she asked the gentleman who's watching over him and she said, "Is God?" He responded I hope so, and she said, hope so, you better know, do you know Jesus? I realize that todays approach is far different than yesterdays direct, "do you know Jesus?", and that most salvations come through relationship but are we willing to be up front with people, to talk to total strangers?

Pray for Dorothy and Earl, I know they would appreciate it, but also most importantly pray that you get their zeal and energy to do Kingdom Work in your day to day life journey.

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An Overwhelming Urgency

This is going to be one pretty hectic week for me. I am at that moment where everything is beginning to feel overwhelming yet the urgency to get things done is getting more and more real. I am trying to rap up the lessons and messages for Winter Retreat for this year. Our JRHi Retreat is January 19-21 and the SRHi Retreat is February 16-18. One exciting thing is the cooperation of the interns. They will be running the JRHi Retreat for all the events and games. They are pretty excited. However all the programming and messages etc. fall on me. Furthermore I am heading off to Peru in just 7 weeks which doesn't seem to big of a deal but Doug Reed has asked that all of my breakout session material be to him for review by January 10th, eek!

Well in case you didn't know what this Peru trip is, let me explain... Doug Reed with Partnership International asked if I would go with them on a Pastoral Leadership Conference to do the Youth Pastor training. There will be roughly 70-80 Youth Pastors their in attendance. I am excited to be going and being a part of the team of pastors. There will be a team of about 10 pastors, one children's pastor and one youth pastor, me. I look forward to this opportunity and to be able to go to a beautiful part of the world in South America and train some amazing leaders the principles and lessons that I have gotten to learn.

So here goes a couple of days of pushing through and getting everything done. Oh and on top of all of this we are in the final stages of the giant remodel project of The Underground, which I will blog on shortly all about it and put some pictures up of what it is.

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Secular & Sacred

As I met Kevin and Mark, the pastors at One Place in Phoenix I got to see a duo of very creative co-pastors. I knock on the door and wait for Mark to greet me and let me in and we all introduce ourselves and begin dialoging. Mark returns to his office, a makeshift table and a beautiful old 'goodwill' sort of arm chair from the 60's in the front of the stage floor level where the chairs filled on a Sunday night look to be a giant waiting room. He pulls up his desk, a quaint little plastic table with marker graffiti and writing all over it, and begins to tell me that this desk of his is also the cash table for all the concerts that come through their church; the church doubles as a music venue to the community and art gallery on Friday nights. They host in the winter about 1-2 shows a week and in the summer months 20-25 shows a month. Mark speaks up that approximately 70% of the shows are probably not Christian. Oh and then he mentions the table that people write on which probably has profanity on it his covered with a cloth and the elements are laid on it for their communion service the previous Sunday.

Their is something magnificent about how we treat what is secular and what is sacred. It seems to me that growing up, those were not able to coexist, much like a radical Muslim and conservative Christian strolling through the park sipping ice tea together laughing at the most recent 'Fox Trot' Sunday comics. See, I was brought up to believe that once something or someone becomes sacred that any signs of the old, any signs of the secular must be doused with gasoline and torched.

Many times we [Christians], do so good at portraying to non-believers that they are wretched and are unclean as was the individual that had leprosy and was removed form the camp until he was better then still had to wait many days before the priest would allow him back into the camp. And because of their condition we can not coexist!

Can what is sacred and what is secular coexist? I see Jesus who was perfectly content being with the non-believer and I would even further the statement and say that he found joy when he was amongst the secular. Jesus was, at least in my Bible a little more radical, a little more dirt under the fingernails, a little more willing to risk the view of what was suppose to be ideal sacredness for any church leader, let alone a follower. Today's Jesus I believe would mess up the theology of many of today's pastors. I believe Jesus of today would cause a lot of repentance, but not the typical repentance of, "I'm sorry, please forgive me", but a repentance from the church pastor that has the attitude of "how could I have missed it all these years". There have been too many moments of conviction from the 'priest' to the 'leper' of what must change and what can not coexist, and I believe God is saying today, "I want to mess up your theology a little and let you see that I am not so easily defined as you once thought".

Take a walk through the gospels and see how many times Jesus was with the seculars. The interesting thing is both places he went... He was either at the sacred Holy temple chastising the "self-puffed, self-righteous sacred leaders" explaining to them that they have missed it and simply don't get it. They were great on theology but lousy on application. They knew how to live the bible intellectually but not missiologically. Or the other place Jesus was at was with the seculars, the lepers, the drunks, partyers, etc. hanging out, feeding, teaching, loving, and number one of all SERVING. I do believe secular and sacred can coexist, the main difference is that the secular does not try to convict but loves and serves!

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Foggy Days

Here in Arizona, rain, fog, snow, hail, etc are not the norm, however sun, sunny, and hot are. The last few days, five days to be exact, we have experienced rain and it is a great thing for a parched desert. You can recognize the life spring forth from the plants and you begin to have a greater sense of freshness. This morning as I loaded up my 4 month old daughter to take her to her sitter, everything seemed pleasant and norm. As I left my house and go a mile away I started to notice that my visibility was daunting and that there was not clear views ahead. It got so bad that as I sat at a red light I could see the fog blowing across the street as if the house to the right was set to fire. The visibility was reduced to less than a quarter mile and road signs were not readable more than a 100' away as you can see in this picture.

Many times I will have students approach me about their own life and their effectiveness. Almost having a sense of failing because they can't see the outcome of their influence. It is important to know that we don't have to know the plans, we don't have to see the big picture to know that God will lead us to his table. Jeremiah 29:11 says how God knows the plans for our life and His plans are not to hurt us or harm us but to give us hope of a bright future.

I realized in the fog that I was able to see far enough to be safe, that brought comfort however sometimes in life we may not have the visibility in life to know that we are safe. We have to put our faith in God and trust Him in His word that He will never leave us or ditch us or abandon us.

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