Chicken Rock

I will never forget the day I encountered Chicken Rock. 

My brother was a youth pastor in Mount Vernon, MO.  When I went to visit, I was quickly told by everyone that I have to go to Chicken Rock.  OK, no big deal. 

Boy was I wrong. 

Chicken Rock was BIG.  It was one big rock sitting on top of a cliff overlooking a beautiful lake.  This rock was perfect for watching a great sunset, but it was not used for that purpose.  Nope, people used this rock as natures own special diving board. 

As I looked down, I realized that there was no way I was going to jump.  Besides, how deep is that water anyway?  What if I slip and hit some of the other rocks on the way down?  What if I hit another big rock under that water?  OK, I’ll admit it, fear took over. 

I began to watch other people jump and dive off this rock.  To my amazement, nobody died or even got hurt.  In fact, it seemed like everyone that jumped loved the exhilaration. 

But, I never did jump.  I let fear control my life that day.

When it comes to sharing our faith with others, I believe many of us share the emotions I felt on chicken rock.  Fear takes over.  What if I offend that person?  What if they laugh at me?  What if they never want to be my friend again? 

I can speak from experience that a little fear comes over me anytime I even think about sharing my faith with a friend or stranger.  However, I find that when I just jump and begin to share my faith, the experience is exhilarating.  There may be no greater high.  Especially when you watch someone turn their life over to Christ. 

I was fifteen (17 years ago) when I went to Chicken Rock.  I still regret that I did not jump.  I let fear and “What If” control my life.  I’m positive I missed out on a great experience. 

Stop Clowning Around:

Place your fear aside and just jump.  Share your faith.  It will be the greatest feeling ever.  I Promise.  

Cardboard Testimonies

My church - South  County Christian Center - moved into our new building this past Sunday.  

Pastor Sean Craig spoke on being born again.

His message was great and he did a fantastic job explaining that born again means that God turns your life upside down and changes it.  He helps us deal with circumstances and desires that we cannot deal with ourselves.  

As great as the message was, it did not come close to the power of the Cardboard Testimonies.  To see how God has changed the lives of the people within our church brought too many tears to my eyes.  

The attached video is not from my church.  If I get my hands on our churches video, I will post it.  

This made me think, wow, I didn't know God did that for Jen, Tim, Angela, Madison, etc.  If I were going through this circumstance, I would want to talk to that person.  

I believe a personal testimony is the most powerful tool one can use when sharing his or her faith.

So, I'm asking for your testimony.  With your permission, I will post your testimony on this blog and catagorize them appropriately.  I would love for this site to serve as a way to lead others to the saveing grace of God by reading how He has changed the lives of those in similar circumstances.  

Stop Clowning Around:

Please email me your story.  stopclowningaround@sbcglobal.net 

Please ask your friends to post their stories and come back often to see how God is still changing lives.  

Distracting Options

I will never forget my morning walks with Bill Ore in Saskatchewan, Canada. 

First, Bill Ore is one of the most influential people in my life and I only spent a grand total of 10 days with him in my whole life. 

 While at this camp, we took a morning walk every day, just Bill and I.  For the most part, it was a quiet walk, looking for deer, listening to birds sing, and saying some quiet prayers.  But, it never failed, during the walk we would discuss something very important to Bill.  Some days, he would give me advice; some days he would share his heart, his weaknesses, and his desire for me to pray for him; and some days he just shared some good stories.  He had this way of making me feel so special and important. 

 I will never forget on one particular walk, we were discussing the church and the Christian life.  Bill looked at me and said, “Scott, keep your eyes upon Jesus and not upon man.  Man will surely fail you, but Christ will never fail you.”  Those words have saved me from bitterness as I have watched too many pastors and leaders fail Christ and the ministry they represent by making mistakes that any person can potentially make.

 However, beyond that, his words have helped me understand that I must keep my eye on the goal, one single objective.  I must keep my eye on Jesus and keep walking to him.  If I don’t, I’m likely to begin looking at the options around me.  I might be tempted to let the options distract me from my goal of living a life for Jesus Christ.  By taking my eye off the goal and focusing on other options, I open the door for me to make disappointing mistakes as well. 

 I believe Satan does everything he can to show us all the other options in this world in order to entice us to take our eyes off Jesus.  He knows if we start looking at the other options, we will not be as effective in our walk with Christ. 

 In my new favorite book, “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely, he proves that we humans have a hard time staying focused on one option.  We like to keep our options open and thus we usually miss out on what is best because we keep flipping back and forth to other options just to make sure they are not better. 

Options that keep me from staying focused on Jesus:

-         Money

-         Love/Sex

-         Career

-         Power

-         Education

 What I have learned is that all these options are a part of my journey.  However, they cannot be my ultimate goal.  The above options will ultimately disappoint, but Jesus Christ will never disappoint. 

Stop Clowning Around: 

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:12-16)

Foundation - It's Critical

Recently, Michelle and I looked at an investment house under foreclosure. We both believe that real-estate is a good long-term investment and we both believe that we will have some investment properties in our portfolio.
Knowing that the key to making money in any market is to “buy low, sell high” we decided that it may be a good time to try and find our first property. As Michelle was driving through the neighborhood the other day, she spotted a cute little home on a great lot. It looked like it had all the potential to be a perfect rental home.
When the agent let us inside, we realized that this was one dirty home. It smelled horrible, the carpets were grossly stained, the walls were splattered with some unknown substance, and there was fuzzy green mold growing on the cabinets.
Yep, a perfect home.
Really, it was exactly what I was looking for. See, most people cannot see past the stains and smells. What I know is that some intense cleaning, new flooring, and paint can make an extreme difference.
As I paced through the house imagining the potential, I noticed something that really concerned me. The floor of the house was an arch. From wall to wall, I walked down hill to the middle of the home and back up to the other wall. Uh Oh, foundation problem.
I can look past all the smells, fuzzy objects, dirt, grime, etc, but I cannot look past a bad foundation. All the cleaning, rebuilding, and painting will not fix the bad foundation.
The risk with this home is that over time this foundation would have eventually crumbled leaving the home crumbled and splintered.

Now let me state, “I know that a foundation can be fixed, but I am not interested in that much work.”
With that said, you can make a house as beautiful as you want on the outside and inside, but if the foundation is flawed, that house is pretty much worthless in my opinion.

This made me think of the parable of the wise and foolish man. The wise man built his house on a very strong foundation. The foolish man built his house on a weak foundation. I believe the foolish man had the most beautiful home we can imagine. It was ocean front property, 3500 square foot and it was immaculate. Every person that walked by this house lusted for it and wished they had one just like it.
On the other hand, I believe the wise man had a well maintained, smaller home a few miles inland. Although it was very nice it did not even compare to the foolish man’s home. People walked by the wise man’s home everyday and did not offer it much of their attention.
One day, a category 5 hurricane decided to come through that area. As you already know, the foolish man’s home did not survive the storm. In fact, many homes in the area were completely wiped out. However, a few miles inland was a perfectly maintained, small home standing just as firm as before the storm.
After the storm, the wise man’s home became the talk of the town. It even made the national news. Such a normal home, but everyone was impressed with how it withstood the storm. It was able to do so because it was built on a very strong foundation.

As you already know, Jesus was not referring to proper home construction with this parable. Rather, he was referring to our lives. In fact, He was stating that building our lives on anything other than the only Sovereign God is futile.

It is very easy to get caught up in building a life that is admired by others. A life with the highest level of education, a six figure income, the perfect car and house, a beautiful spouse, perfect children, a fantastic figure, and the list can keep going on and on.
I do not believe that any of these things are bad, but I strongly believe that these things alone will not lead to a happy, fulfilled life. And even further, when life’s storms come at you, and they will, these qualities alone will crumble.
It happens all the time. People lose their job and six figure incomes everyday. A simple fire and storm can wipe out a house in an instant. (Trust me; a fire took mine out in about 10 minutes) A car accident can instantly change the perfect figure. Statistics alone show the extremely high rate of divorce. Finally, if you figure out how to raise perfect children, please let me know.

The only sure way to ensure that your life does not fully crumble is to build it on a strong foundation. I believe the strongest foundation is God. I have found that lives built on the strong foundation are often overlooked on a daily basis, but people are amazed when these individuals are un-phased during life’s extreme storms. When life’s storms come, and they will, seemingly bad things may happen, but somehow it’s all ok, because you are still attached to the foundation. Life’s problems may add blemishes along the way, but they can be fixed and repaired as long as the foundation is still in place.

Stop Clowning Around:
Is your life built on the firm foundation?

Just Believing - More Than

Yesterday, I had a friend find me on my facebook account. He was one of my best friends in college. I'm sad to say, but we have not done a good job of staying in touch over all the years.
Dave, if you read this, accept my apologies.

I'll never forget the day that Dave came back to school after a weekend retreat and stated "Guess what, I got saved over the weekend." What??? You are already a believer in Christ. You go to church, you lead the BSU bible study, you are a great guy. What do you mean?

Dave's answer made me reflect upon my beliefs and faith. He said, Scott, I have always believed in Jesus, but I never fully turned my life over to him.
It's like believing that the chair you see can support your weight, but you never sit in it.
It's like seeing a parachute and believing it can save your life, but you never put it on.

That weekend, Dave stopped "just believing in Jesus" and he started living with Him and for Him.

You know, I think there are a lot of people that believe in Jesus, but they have never put their trust in him. They are not willing to obey and follow him. What's ironic, is that obedience to Christ is what leads to a completely fulfilled life.
If you are going to profess to be a follower of Christ, your life should reflect the way he wants you to live.

Stop Clowning Around: Stop "Just Believing" and actually trust and obey Christ.

God's Voice

I think one of the greatest things about becoming a parent is getting to know your baby's cry. It's amazing, you can be in a public situation with children everywhere and pick out the cry/voice of your child.
As a child, I always thought it was amazing to see my mom turn in a crowd when I cried out MOM. Now I get it, she knew my voice.

Maybe I should be ashamed to admit this, but I've also learned, as a father, how to tune out the voice of my child. If you know my son, you may not believe this because he seems so quiet, but, when he is home or especially in the car, he will not stop talking. Since I'm a mere man, I can only take it so long before I completely tune him out.
(By the way, this is dangerous. You can find yourself saying yes to things you should not agree with)

In any close relationship, we learn the voice of the other person. When they speak, we know it.
We can also train ourselves to tune out the voice of this close person. (Trust me - Not Good)

Recently, I felt like God was trying to speak to me. However, I just couldn't get my arms around it. Was it God or was it just me. I found myself very discontent in the professional aspect of my life. After speaking with my wife, she stated, "Maybe God is trying to speak to you and you are not confident that you know his voice."
That's it, I'm not confident in the voice of God. See, I've learned to tune him out. I liked what I was doing. I did not wish to hear his plan. It might include something difficult. So, I did what many of us do. I tuned Him out.
However, I forgot what his voice sounded like. Oh, how I wanted to hear him and figure out what he was trying to say.

Ironically, I spent some time reading I Samuel 3 where God called Samuel.
God was trying to speak to Samuel, but he did not know God's voice. He did not know if he was hearing things, if Eli was calling, or who the voice could be.
Finally, Eli gave him guidance and told him to say "Speak Lord for your servant hears."

That's it. "Speak Lord for your servant hears."
I found myself back in God's word and in prayer. Boy it's so easy to get out of the habit.
Just know, when you stop reading the wonderful word of God and stop praying - you begin to tune out the voice of God.

Stop Clowning Around: Speak Lord for your servant hears. Prayer and Bible Study is important in knowing the voice of God. Do not tune Him out. You might miss his voice and a great big blessing.