let God arise

yipeeeeee! summer semester is done, dude!!! i took my finals today. hopefully, i aced them. glad to be done, so i can enjoy the summer. i think tiff and cason and i are going to try and get away for a weekend soon. we need it. 

yesterday was an awesome day at the Journey. the bransfords were there, to update us on what's going on out in the mission field. man, i want to go on a mission trip so bad i can taste it. maybe that's where tiff and cason and i can go! Thailand! 

i taught a new song to everyone yesterday, aslo. it's actually not new, just new to the Journey. it's called, "Let God Arise", by Chris Tomlin. if you don't know this song, go to itunes and get it! while you're there, get "Sing, Sing, Sing" as well, also by Chris Tomlin. this is a song that we'll be teaching this upcoming sunday. 

so yesterday, before we started, i was taking a moment (like i always do before service) and just talking to God. it's been awhile since God just literally gave me a "word", meaning: something specific that He wanted me to say to everyone. i mean, i get the sense of things that He wants me to do, or things to talk about, but to literally give me the actual words, in sentence form, that's something all together different. yesterday, He did just that. that word was this: "today, we are going to take back some ground for the Kingdom!" 

now here's the funny thing. earlier in the week, i had a conversation with cindy, our piano player. we were talking about spiritual warfare and the new teaching series that erik is about to start. she made the comment about how we are to engage in this warfare and take back ground. i thought that it was a really cool statement. apparently, God did too! because when He gave me the word, it was in that context that He showed it to me. 

now, here's the even funnier thing! i asked my wife, if she heard me say that. she said no. that in and of itself isn't a big deal. she never hears anything that i say!!!! :) just kidding, honey! but i asked a few other people if they heard it too, and they said no, also. i wasn't asking them because i thought i did something so cool or said something soooo brilliant that i wanted everyone to recognize it. i asked them because i wanted to know if it had the same impact on them that it did on me. 

here's what i believe: i don't know if ANYONE heard it. but i know i said it! and i believe that it wasn't for anyone at the Journey to hear. i believe that it was for someone else, and he knows who he is! no need to give him any more screen time than that! 

here's what i know: a lot of churches talk about spiritual warfare, and what it is, how to combat it, etc. not a lot of churches talk about how to engage it! there are a lot of people at the Journey who are excited about this teaching series. there are a lot of families at the Journey who are ready to engage it! i know that erik's teaching series is going to open  a lot of eyes! 

here's my challenge: WAKE UP! whether you want to admit it or not, there is a war going on for our souls, one not of flesh and blood. scripture tells us this. Ephesians 6:12. don't just sit there and let the battle go on around you. get engaged. read the book of Ephesians. there's a lot of great stuff in there. you'll also learn how to equip yourself! 

i thought about what my "one prayer" would be for the church, as we went through the whole "One Prayer" series these past four weeks. after hearing this Chris Tomlin song, "Let God Arise" again, i know what it is. my one prayer for the church is that we would get out of the way, and let God be God. stop trying to do the things that only God can do. that we would learn how to be servants, who lead, not leaders who ask to be served. that we would LET GOD ARISE! 

family

so, this week has been interesting for me! my mom and sister, and her three girls came to visit. have any of you ever seen Everybody Loves Raymond? that's my family! no kiddin. and if you've met them, you know i'm not lying!

seriously, i love my mom and sister, and my nieces, but i do have to say, it's been hectic. my mom and i got into a deep discussion today. about seven years ago, my parents got divorced. it was really hard on my mom. she went through a lot and still deals with it today. she's battled some clinical depression, and still has her bad days. i recently had to take a psychology class. i never thought that i would like it, but i was kind of surprised. i actually did. and i learned a lot in there. one of the things we talked a lot about was depression. it's a very serious, and dangerous thing. if you have someone you know, love, or even just acquainted with that exhibits the symptoms, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. encourage them to get help. it's not just a mood thing. it's a serious, medical condition where the brain doesn't function normally. there's a lack of serotonin which causes feelings of low self worth. this can lead to thoughts of suicide or worse, actually going through with it.

i don't usually like talking about something this serious, but the reality of it is, that's life. life is serious. and short. the good news is, my mom is a Christ follower (thank God....literally!) it helps her get through some tough days. but she's also smart enough to know that taking the right medication is key.

the question she asked me today was this: how do you find joy when there seems to be none to find? DEEP!

even people who are Christ followers are susceptible to this. the Bible says that our enemy is like a thief who walks around seeking to steal, kill, and destroy. i heard a great pastor one day talk about this. he said that satan seeks to steal our joy, kill our character, and destroy our relationships. i believe that's what Jesus meant when he said this. here's the scripture, if you'd like to see it. what i tried to talk to my mom about is this:

every day that we wake up, we need to give our lives to Christ. we need to remind ourselves that we no longer live for ourselves. when we do this, we admit that we can't do it on our own. and this enables us to find the joy that God has set aside for us, through Him who was raised.

if you find yourself having nothing to be joyous about, look to the One who is the Author of joy and happiness. walking with Him can restore your soul. He can fix the brokenness. but only if you give it up to Him and allow Him to do it.

i wish you all joy and happiness

-robbie

sunday thoughts

we had a great day at the Journey today! we got to preview what is possibly going to be a format that we will use for our multi-campus strategy. Video Teaching! the cool thing is, just as a campus pastor will act, Erik acted as in the role of a campus pastor today, as if it were "the norm" for us to have video teaching. what encouraged me the most was, we had people come forward when Erik invited people to come. it just proved to me that it doesn't matter the teaching method. if God's people are willing to open their hearts and recieve His message, then it doesn't matter who teaches, or how it's presented. the Holy Spirit will do His work regardless!! And to me, that's just awesome!



i wanna give a shout out to all the guys that joined us this weekend for the men's "advance" (real men don't retreat!). we had an amazing time and God was good, as always! i truly believe that men's lives were changed. and as a result, our families, our marriages, and our church are going to benefit! I'm soooo hungry for what God wants to do right now! my "one prayer" for the church, is that we would have the ability to humble ourselves and allow God to do what it is He wants to do. but more than anything, i pray that we would actually, physically, see it.



blessings to you all,



Robbie



p.s. if you're on my praise team, make sure you're reading Psalms! we are going to spend some time talking about it between services next week. if you need a reading "track" or "schedule", email or talk to Cindy. she has a great one

Where have Y'all been? :)

HELLOOOOOOOOOO! 

Well, I'm back among the living, again. Wow! Most of you have probably tuned out on me by now. If you are reading this, please tell all your friends that I'm back. And I promise that I will try to post daily again. 

So, what's been going on? Well, I've filmed 14 baptism videos, edited them, filmed a "God of This City" video, edited it, written two speeches and given them (for my com 100 class), gone to the beach (for work, though i did get to play a little!), dropped my algebra class (i'm so lost, even Todd Bates couldn't help me!), helped my wife pull off a conference in Franklin for her work, filmed it, edited the video and burned a DVD for her to have to use, finished the Annie Jr. project for West Elementary, put together Erik's power point for the end of his teaching series, had meetings with Miranda to prepare her to lead worship (while I was gone), rehearsed the band with Miranda (so she could lead worship while I was gone), watched way to much "Dora the Explorer" with my son, told my wife I loved her (every time I passed her in the hall on my way to do something!), and spent four days vacuuming my pool (which was horribly green) so we could get in there and cool off! Other than that, not much going on around here!

I hope all of you have had more free time than I have had these last couple weeks. I actually thought about blogging every day! LOL. Just never got around to it. But I know all of you have been keeping up with what's going on at the Journey, and reading Erik's blog, so there's not much you don't know about. I just want to say that God shows up in mighty ways! Over the past two weeks, I've watched a couple people step out and take huge leaps of faith. I've seen a former Atheist's life turned on fire for God, so much that, I believe if he keeps it up, he's going to rival Paul! It's amazing what God will show you, if you ask. I've been praying for awhile now that God would spark the movement that Erik and others of us at the Journey have been talking about: the Jesus movement. If you guys are Journey-ites, hang on to your hats! I think it's coming! We've seen several glimpses of it these past weeks. I think that if we continue to pray, and stay obedient, we're going to see it! 

Well, gotta go for now! I'll holler at you all tomorrow. Gotta go get ready for the men's retreat. We're leaving this afternoon. Gonna be great, too! Erik has got some really good stuff he wants to talk to all the men of the Journey about. I know he's gonna put some really big challenges out there for the men of our church. Keep us in your prayers!

Adios mi amigos