This song has been a source of encouragement to me lately. I'm leading the music at Midlands on Sunday January 31 (you should come visit us that day!!), and I'm actually going to introduce this song to the set for that day. This is a song by Sovereign Grace Music (visit their website to buy it and download free charts). I hope this song encourages you like it has me. Here are the lyrics:

VERSE 1
The blessing of the Father
Gift of grace and love
The promise of the Savior
For power from above
Oh, wondrous gift that’s given
For confidence and mission
Holy Spirit, You make all things new

CHORUS
Spirit of God, breathe on me now
Source of life, come, revive my weary heart
Spirit of God, shine on me now
Light of life, come, ignite my longing heart

VERSE 2
Come and lift the dark clouds
Of doubt and unbelief
Shine upon my soul now
For by Your rays I see
Clearer, closer, deeper
The love of my Redeemer
Holy Spirit, You make all things new

BRIDGE
Where You breathe hope thrives
The dead return to life
And the dark must flee the breaking day
By Your light I see the glory of my King
Beholding Him I will be changed

© 2015 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)/Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)

The Testing (and Strengthening) of My Faith through Support Raising

So as I'm sure by now y'all know, back in October we announced that after lots of prayer and counsel and careful consideration we really sensed the Lord directing me into ministry at our church, Midlands. In order for that to happen though, I would need to raise support...$45,000 to be exact. That $45k would serve as my family's primary source of income. Vanessa and I (and more so Vanessa) will also do real estate on the side to bring in additional income for us to be able to meet our normal annual budget we've been living by over the past years, as well as hopefully bring in some extra money as we continue working towards financial goals we have set for our family.

Other than sending financial support to family, friends and acquaintances over the year I don't have any other experience with support raising...especially trying to raise it myself. (Well I've done the whole raise a few thousand dollars for some summer youth mission trips but those certainly pale in comparison to this type of support raising). With that said, by the Lord's might, and power, and grace, and mercy and kindness, since I started raising support back in October, as of today, I've raised around $30,000 (in one time gifts, plus people committing to give money on a monthly basis, or in the near future). From what I'm being told by people who have lots of experience raising support, that's amazing to raise that much in roughly a 3 month period. Again, this is my first time personally raising support of this magnitude, so I don't know any different. But I do know and have seen how hard and long those friends have worked to raise support over the years, so I'm inclined to take their word for it.

I'm of course blown away by God's provision. But I've also been blown away by the generosity of so many. All the support I've received so far has been mind boggling. Some support has so many zeros at the end that it's hard for me to even comprehend, while other support has come from people that I know has meant they are having to tighten down financially in other areas in order to give their financial gifts, and some support has come from people I either barely know or honestly don't know at all. It truly has been humbling and astounding.

Because of the support I've raised so far, I've had enough to allow me to go ahead and begin working at Midlands from November through January. And I've loved it. I love being in this environment. I love the people I work with. I loved working at The Mather Company for the last 6 years, but think that was more so because I loved that I got to work with my best friend pretty much every day, and it was fun experiencing building a real estate company from scratch to eventually having employees and agents in a large building in prime location in downtown Columbia. But working at Midlands Church is different. I feel like I'm in my element here. I truly believe God has wired me for an environment like this.

Over the years when I've talked with people about what I want to do with my life, inevitably the question comes up 'What do you love and how can you make money with it?' When we get to that point of the conversation my standard response (more like a joke) has been "I love Jesus, my family, music and Gamecock athletics, and I don't really know how I can make a living with those things". But honestly, here at Midlands Church I'm getting to satisfy 3 of those loves.

I love that throughout the day at the office we talk about Jesus. We talk theology. And not just in an academic sense, but in a personal sense. We share with each other and encourage each other to pursue Jesus and grow in a deeper love for Him. We also do a lot of planning throughout the week as we discuss church events, programs, etc. And it's not in a numbers sense (how many people can we get there and say that got saved), but how those things will 1) edify our church body and help them grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, and 2) reach our local neighbors with the gospel of Jesus.

As Director of Family Discipleship my job is to be thinking through how our church can help train and equip the parents in our church to disciple their children. We firmly believe that God calls every Christian to be a discipler. We are to sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron. But God also specifically calls on parents to be the primary discipler of their children. In our society it's really easy to lose sight of that one...especially when churches take that responsibility on themselves (and therefore take it away from the parents). So sadly kids Sunday School classes and youth groups often times end up becoming a place that parents view, not just as free childcare, but where the primary discipleship and training of their children takes place, rather than in their own homes. And really that's the churches fault. As church leaders it's our job to 1) show parents, through God's Word, that discipleship of their children is their primary responsibility, and 2) train and equip the parents so that they actually feel ready to take on that responsibility. In doing this 2 things have happened. 1, I've realized how poorly I've been leading my family, and by God's grace it has lit a fire under me to strive to lead them better. And 2, a deep, and honestly viscous, desire is growing within me to see healthy and godly family units.

Family discipleship isn't just doing some devotionals together at night throughout the week. Family discipleship is living and modeling a good, godly and healthy marriage to your children. It's demonstrating, yes on a smaller and broken scale, what it means for a husband to love his wife like Christ loves the church, and for a wife to respectfully submit to her husband. It's demonstrating repentance to your children. When you screw up, own it and confess your sin to your family and pursue repentance. Show your children you must be willing to do whatever it takes to kill sin in your life. It's showing them an unconditional love, even when they screw up, so that they can get a glimpse of the truth that there is nothing we can do to cause God's love for us to diminish. While also lovingly disciplining them so they know there are consequences for their actions.

Since taking on this position a fire is growing inside of me. I passionately want to see the city of Columbia, my city, filled with family units that are brightly displaying the light of the gospel. When trials and hard times present themselves to families, rather than responding like the world does and fleeing from the trials, I long to see families faithfully walk through the fires and storms knowing that God will sustain them. I long to see husbands and wives remain committed and faithful to each other. I want to see children growing up in homes where their parents joyfully embrace the call to disciple them.

As Director of Worship I get to be around music, and I love it. I love each week being able to devote time to reading God's word and selecting the songs we will sing each week. I love trying to find songs each week that lyrically connect with whatever the text is that will be preached each Sunday. I love that with this position I'm able to pull out my guitar and work on music. And of course I love seeing it all come together on Sunday mornings and getting to play music with other really talented musicians, who all have a similar heart and desire to want to see Jesus increase and us decrease.

So as you can see, I love what I'm doing. So what does the title of this blog post have to do with what I've just been talking about? Well, as I mentioned earlier about my support, I have enough raised at this point to ensure that I will be paid my full monthly salary for January. But that's it at this point. And that's honestly a scary feeling.

So the purpose of this blog post is 1, to ask those of you reading to support me financially. I only have roughly $15,000 to go. If 150 people each gave $100 that would get me to $15k. Or if 15 people gave $1000 that would also get me there. I need $15,000 to get me to my goal so that I can continue serving at Midlands Church full time. Of course I covet your prayers. So please keep me and my support raising in your prayers. But if you are financially able to support me, I really need that help as well.

The other reason I am posting this is because I wanted to share this blog post I read last night. Even though I knew my current support was beginning to run dry, yesterday I was reminded of that. And to be completely honest, I was pretty down after that. The doubt started to get in, and I was beginning to question the Lord's plans. Writing this blog post has done good for my soul. It has forced me to remind myself what God has done up to this point, and I'm just reminded again that this is absolutely where He has called me to, and if this is where He wants me to remain then He will allow the remaining support to come in. But back to yesterday. Like I said, I was beginning to feel down and discouraged. I ended up coming across this article and through it the Lord encouraged me.

With the dawn of the new year I decided to do one of those read through the Bible plans. So the other day I read in the book of Exodus, and specifically it was the actual exodus part, where Moses and the Israelites finally left Egypt for good. Interestingly, when they leave it says that God didn't lead them through the land of the Philistines because the Israelites would change their minds if they saw the war (Exodus 13:17). If you didn't know, going through the land of the Philistines would have been the most direct route. But instead God led them around toward the Red Sea (Ex 13:18). God then reveals to Moses His plan saying for the people to encamp in front of the sea. Doing that will lead Pharaoh to say the Israelites are lost and he will decide to pursue them (Ex 14:1-4). And of course we all know what happens next. God performed a miracle by parting the sea, allowing the Israelites to cross on dry ground, and then drown the Egyptians.

So I read that the other day, but at the time didn't really connect the dots. But last night the Lord connected those dots. God led His people on a route that didn't make sense. But He did it in order to test and strengthen the faith of His people. The writer of the article I read said:
"His ways are not our ways, are they? His ways are higher than ours. And they’re wiser than ours. And they’re better than ours (Isa. 55:8–9). Remember this, child of God: our Father often acts unconventionally. He likes to choose the unseen path for his people to walk. But he always has a way to save. Sometimes it’s through the sea. He’ll always provide, but often from sources we would never suspect (1 Kings 17:8–16; Matt. 6:25–34). God is faithful, but he’s rarely predictable."

I was really comforted and encouraged when I read that. The reality of it is, God could allow the remainder of my support to come in in the blink of an eye. But perhaps the reason He doesn't do that is because it might be the equivalent of me going through the land of the Philistines. The Israelites were terrified by the report of the spies they sent into Canaan, and that was after experiencing some pretty amazing things (Red Sea parting and God allowing them to defeat some enemies while wandering in the desert). So if that terrified them, can you imagine how much worse they would have likely responded coming face to face with the armies just after leaving Egypt? They absolutely would have ran back to Egypt. So who knows. Maybe if He let my support come in all at once, I might end up losing sight of Him? Or maybe (and probably likely) He wants to continue stretching and strengthening my faith for what He has in store. I don't know. But I am sure of this. His word tells me that He is good, He knows my needs and promises to always meet my needs (and often times exceeds it), and His ways are not my ways but His ways are so much better for me. Even though I want to doubt, as I look back over my life, and even the last 3 months, I'm reminded that God is not a liar. He has never not once fulfilled what He promises to His children. I'm sure it was scary for the Israelites feeling trapped between a sea and the Egyptians. But I also can't imagine the awe and wonder they felt as they passed through the sea on dry ground, and then the exhilaration and relief they likely felt watching their captors be utterly destroyed and washed away.

I don't know how God is going to provide. But I am certain He will. Maybe it will be some crazy miraculous way, or maybe it won't. But I know He will provide, and through his provision He will display his glory.

You can read the article I referenced here.

Support Raising Update

Happy New Year everyone (and a belated Merry Christmas)! We hope y'all had a joyous, blessed, fun-filled holiday season! It's been a while since I've posted an update on the support raising front via our blog, so I thought I would take some time to do that.

I'm currently writing this blog post Saturday evening, Jan. 2. A bowl game is on in the background, we are watching some kids for a friend this evening and so we have 4 boys running around our house shooting at things and blowing things up! Vanessa is cooking something in the kitchen. Not really sure what it is, but it smells good, and it involves kielbasa sausage, so I'm sold! And at the time of writing this post I am at 68% support raised. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head but I know it's in the $30,000 range. So by God's grace when we began raising $45,000 in financial support back in October, in a roughly 2 to 3 month span God has allowed, through the generosity of many, $30,000 to come in! Only roughly $15,000 to go!

I am still blown away by the Lord's provision and y'all's generosity!

Since I began working at Midlands Church on November 1, a lot has gone on! I highlighted a bunch of it in an e-newsletter I sent out a few weeks ago but to quickly recap, I officially started Nov. 1 and hit the ground running hard my first week because our Men's Retreat was that coming weekend, so we had a lot of final prep work required. I had the privilege of organizing the music for the retreat, as well as speaking at one of the sessions. The rest of November and December was spent preparing for the Christmas season and also looking ahead to the coming months of 2016. For Christmas we put on a Lessons and Carols event. This event was kind of my baby and my first big official thing I oversaw from beginning to end. It was a lot of work putting together the scripture texts, songs, organizing the musicians and getting charts together, finding and coordinating people to read the scripture, organizing people to bring desserts to provide for afterwards, plus a lot more. But by God's grace, and the help from a lot of people, it came together, we had a great turnout (almost more than triple than what we were anticipating!) and it went smoothly overall and based on feedback from people, most importantly it seemed to be a time that helped people get refocused on Christ in the midst of the craziness of the holiday season.

The biggest item from these last few months is it was announced towards the end of November that Luke Syfert, one of our pastors, and his family would be moving to Georgia where he would be filling a pastoral role at a church in his hometown. While this was certainly a sad announcement, there is no doubt God's hand has been on this move. 2015 was marked by many changes for our church body. We transitioned from being a campus of a church, to becoming our own autonomous church, we changed our church name to reflect that transition, we moved buildings and had to change our service time. Not surprisingly, when multiple, big, changes happen within a roughly 8 month period, you can expect a percentage of your current people to leave. So as we enter 2016, things such as our budget, look a lot different than last year when entering 2015. This past summer when our leadership began looking ahead to 2016 and the new budget, it became apparent our church would no longer be in a financial position to maintain 2 salaried pastors. As they explored options, only 2 seemed feasible. Either both of our pastors cut back to part time and find additional work elsewhere, or one of our pastors steps down. In the midst of that, the Lord was beginning to stir within the hearts of Luke and his wife to be closer to family. And just days after they first realized one of our pastors would likely need to step down, Luke was offered a similar pastoral position at a church in his hometown. Simultaneous with that, and all of this budget stuff unbeknownst to me, the Lord was making it clear my time as an employee at The Mather Co was coming to an end, and God was beginning to stir my heart with the idea of raising support to come on staff at church. While it is certainly sad for him to leave (he meant so much to our church, and he and his family were dear friends to us), since the time of that announcement God has continued to affirm and reaffirm this decision. God has been faithful through this all. He has been and is continuing to sustain our church. And in actuality, with Luke's departure, our church is in a healthy situation and budget as we kick off 2016.

With Luke now gone, we remaining staff are pitching in to help carry the extra load. As I continue to get settled in I'm taking on more and more of the administrative and operational items that Luke oversaw.

You can read my e-newsletter here for more details, and it includes a link to Luke's letter he sent to our church body with the announcement.

Since the time of that e-newsletter, we had a baby/child dedication which I took part in. I had the opportunity to present the family taking part in the dedication with a gift on behalf of our Kidlands Ministry. It's also become tradition to incorporate The Blessing into our dedications, and so I had the special privilege of sharing with our church body the history of that song. For those not aware, The Blessing is a prayer my Dad wrote and prayed over my sister and I growing up, and along the way my sister put it to music. So it's extra special for me to see that song included in these dedications.

As we kick off January we have a pretty packed month. On the worship front we have some auditions lined up. We've been so blessed over the years with such gifted and awesome musicians. It's always exciting and amazing to see the many different talented people God brings into our body. On the Family Discipleship side, we have another dedication coming up (we've had a lot of babies born, and we have a lot more that are due!!). And on January 31 we will be having a Family Funday. Throughout the year our Family Discipleship (which includes our Kidlands Ministry and our Student Ministry) put on Family Fundays, which provide our families the opportunity to come do something fun and build special memories with each other. We also use the time to provide parents an opportunity to practice discipling their children by providing them with materials and opportunities to lead a simple family devotional. At Midlands Church we believe God calls Christians to be a people who disciple, and He specifically calls parents to be the primary discipler of their children. It's our job as a church to equip and train parents for that calling. So our heart, even behind something like a Family Funday, is to incorporate ways to train and equip the parents within our body. This coming Funday we will be treating our families to a time of roller skating and indoor mini golf!

The other big item on my calendar is that I've been asked to preach on February 28! I'm certainly humbled and excited for the opportunity, but I'm also quite nervous! So please keep me in your prayers. Pray that God would bless my time of study and preparation, and that I would speak His truth clearly, and in love.

As always, first and foremost I praise the Lord for how He has provided, especially when it comes to the financial support. It's crazy that we are so close to be 3/4s of the way through. But we still have a ways to go! Would you please prayerfully consider financially supporting me? Leading up to Christmas I sent out roughly 150 letters that included our family's Christmas card, a support magnet and a commitment card. If every person that received one of those sent $100, then that would be almost $15,000, which would mean I would be fully funded. Since sending out those cards, I have received just over $2,000 in support. Would you please consider joining my financial team?

And of course I covet your prayers. Please pray for the upcoming events that I outlined above. Pray that God would use those to glorify Himself and to further His Kingdom. Pray for our church body as we enter 2016 and begin this new chapter in our church's life, and that our church body would be marked by a deep love and knowledge of God, and a selfless love for our neighbors. Pray for me and that I would serve my church in love and humility. And most importantly, pray that I would love my boys and always make time for them, that I would be continually pursuing and dating and serving my wife, and that I would not neglect my personal time seeking the Lord through His word and prayer.

Bubble Soccer - Men's Retreat

As I mentioned in my previous posts, part of the time spent on the Men's Retreat was just having fun. People played football, basketball, mountain biked, ping-pong, corn hole and hiked. But the highlight was playing bubble soccer.

As you can see in the above picture, bubble soccer is at is sounds. You are literally in a bubble, and playing soccer (well, attempting to play). I say attempting  because first, it's actually difficult to do much of anything in those bubbles. It's hard to see out of them because they're pretty cloudy/blurry, so you can't really see the ball and it's hard to tell who is who on the field, and it's actually pretty exhausting running around carrying the bubble. Second, let's be real, all you want to do is knock each other down. So even though a game of soccer was taking place, you're pretty much just looking to level someone. All of that added up means eventually you just are looking for someone to deck, and when the opportunity arises you take it, even if it means it's your own team mate.

After we played several games of 'soccer' we got rid of the soccer ball and just played chicken. So without further adieu, here are some videos of us playing chicken...

This first video is of me (on the left) and my buddy Stephen (right):

This collision was probably the best. The guy on the left got so much speed, so quickly, the guy opposite him had no chance:

The 2 camp staff guys that were overseeing the bubble soccer mentioned it was worth having one guy jump up in the air right before impact. Which gave us this awesome video:

The Men's Retreat was an overall success. As you can see we had some fun, which allowed for our men to further build and strengthen, as well as create new relationships and friendships with one another. And most importantly Christ was proclaimed and lifted high. Thanks for y'all's support!

Back from the Mountains - Recovering Manhood - Redemption

As I shared a couple weeks ago, this past weekend was our church's Men's retreat. Myself, along with about 30 other men from our church went up to Ridge Haven and spent the weekend together. It was a great time where we relaxed, had fun, ate awesome food, laughed and most importantly, spent time in the word and prayer together. Our series was on Recovering Manhood and we had 4 sessions, and I had the privilege to lead one of the sessions. Our topics were Creation, the Fall, Redemption and Consummation.  The topic I spoke on was Redemption and so I thought I would share a shortened/edited version of my notes. I hope and pray these will serve as encouragement to you...

So what is redemption in the Christian sense? I think the best way to think of it is salvation plus transformation. Let's look to God’s Word to have redemption illustrated for us.

Ephesians 2:1-10 says. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

So lets recap: We have a Creator - God - who created all things, including us. and he established law and order that He commands us to perfectly follow. But because of Adam’s rebellion and rejection of God’s law, sin entered the world and mankind thus making us dead in in our sins, sons of disobedience and children of wrath. And therefore we rightfully deserve God’s wrath and punishment.

But God being rich in mercy sent His Son Jesus to do what we could never do. He perfectly fulfilled the Father’s law. He died in our place and then God raised Him from the dead and He is now seated at Gods right hand. Jesus served as the spotless and perfect sacrificial lamb to appease the Father’s anger and those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, will be saved.

That's salvation. And that's amazing and mind blowing that God would do that! It truly is amazing grace. That God would pour His wrath and punishment that we deserve into His Son is astounding. And my prayer is that that truth will never lose its awesomeness for us. But here’s the thing. A lot of times when we talk about redemption, we stop there. We only focus on the salvation side of things. But redemption involves both salvation and our transformation into God's likeness. The transformation part is just as important.

Remember what the end of that Eph passage said? We are God's workmanship. We were created for good works. And we are to walk in the Lord's ways. Eph 5:1 says for us to imitate our Father. As we heard last night from Shane we were created to bear the image of God. We are to be holy as God is holy.

Redemption must not end with salvation. If it does, then we will use God’s grace as an excuse to continue sinning. We’ll shrug off our sin because we don’t see the horror of it. We’ll turn a blind eye to it because we like the temporary pleasure it brings and we don’t want to give that up. We’ll be that person in Romans who says well if God’s grace abounds in my sin then I should sin more and more so that His grace may abound more and more. But we can’t serve 2 masters. We can’t serve both sin and righteousness. In the end you will hate one and love the other.

So as we focus on the transformation side of redemption, and how that should impact us as men, I want us to look to 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. It says “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

So we’ll just work through these verses by each command. There’s 5 total commands contained within these 2 verses. The first command is to be watchful. If you really think about it, it makes perfect sense for that to be the first command, but I think as men that goes against our instincts doesn’t it? As we heard last night God designed us men to be leaders. So it's in our makeup to want to take initiative and take charge. So why doesn't God say ‘Take immediate action’ in place of being watchful?

I think you could list multiple reasons as to why, and they'd be correct, but there’s 1 main one reason I'm going to highlight and I’ll illustrate it with 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

I know the lion analogy can be a little hard to grasp cause we don't live in a land where we have the daily threat of a lion attacking us in our backyard. But with that said we all can agree a hungry desperate lion is something to watch out for. But I think often times we don't view Satan in that light. We buy into the picture of Satan as the red guy with horns and a pitchfork and he’s mischievous and simply looking to prank us and cause us to sin so we can can all get a good laugh out of it. But that’s not who he is. His desire is to cause complete and utter ruin and destruction in and of our lives.

So we must be on guard. We must watch for him and his schemes and his tactics. You must watch out for situations and scenarios you know will present temptations to you. And when you see those situations coming, you need to be on guard against them. Do whatever is necessary to avoid, prevent and get away from that scenario.

We need to recognize that the devil, our enemy, the one who wants to destroy us, knows our weaknesses. That's a bad combination. So we must be watchful because sin is always looking to over take you.

The next command is stand firm in the faith, and this command is exactly what we need to hear after being told to be watchful. By standing firm in the faith we are reminding ourselves the strength to withstand the devil’s temptations is not found within us. We can only resist and flee temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our faith cannot be in ourselves or in the things of this world. If it is then we will succumb to his temptations every time. We must put our faith in Jesus our High Priest. As Heb. 4:15-16 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The next 2 commands are act like men, be strong. There’s 2 things I want want to point out with these commands. First, specifically regarding the command act like men, is that men is plural. It’s not saying you act like a man. But rather, y’all act like men. This is a great reminder that it is imperative to lock arms with other godly men in our lives who will encourage us, love us and rebuke us. I think of scenes from movies like 300 where they lock their shields together. Or in Gladiator where Maximus says to the other slaves if we stay together we survive. Every day, whether you like it or not, whether you acknowledge it or not, we go into battle, we go into a spiritual war raging that is unseen. And we can't go into that battle alone. The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone or in solitude. The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, encourage one another and not neglecting to meet together. And James 5:16 says “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” There is transformation when we live in humility and vulnerability with other brothers in Christ. As iron sharpens iron so shall one man sharpen another.

The 2nd point. Act like men can also be translated to ‘be courageous’. So it could read be courageous, be strong. The phrase be strong and courageous shows up a lot in the Old Testament. Often times it’s used in the context of war and as encouragement to God’s people that they do not need to fear, but rather be strong and courageous because God is our warrior King and he will overthrow the enemy. Just as the Israelites were commanded to go to war to eliminate their enemies and false gods, we are called to go to war with sin and put it to death. Romans 8:13 says “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Galatians 5:24 says “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” And Colossians 3:5 says “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.”

The Puritan John Owen famously wrote “be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

Satan lies to us that sin will not lead to death. He told that lie to Adam and Eve and he tells us that sin to this day. But God’s Word reminds us otherwise. James says when sin is fully grown it brings forth death.

Sin in our lives, even if you think it's a small and insignificant sin, must be put to death. We must be willing to take whatever steps, even radical steps, to put sin to death so that we can live.

The last command is let all that you do be done in love. This command certainly feels like a change of pace. We have all these macho commands about standing firm, acting like men and being strong, and then the last command is for us to love.

But Jesus said, he who has been forgiven much loves much, and he who has been forgiven little loves little.

Redemption is all about unworthy and unlovable people being forgiven by the One who rightfully should pour all of His wrath onto us. We are a people who have been forgiven much. Therefore we should be a people who love much.

As we are transformed and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus 2 things will happen. 1) we will grow in our likeness of of our father, who is love. So we will look more and more like love. And 2) we will grow in our grasp of the depth of our sin, which will allow us to see more fully how much we truly have been forgiven.

So as we pursue transformation. As we pursue looking more and more like our redeemer we should and will become a people marked by a great love that flows from us.

: prayer :
Father we are sinful and vile and you are holy and majestic. It blows my mind that you would send your perfect and blameless Son to die on our behalf. May your gift of salvation always be on our mind. And may transformation into your likeness be our daily goal. May we be a group of men that locks arms with one another, speaking truth and love to each other. May we be a people and a church that understands how much we have been forgiven and therefore display a deep love to you and our neighbors. Grant us the power and discipline to daily be killing sin in our lives. Thank you for rescuing us. We pray this in Jesus name amen.

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I hope these notes serve as encouragement to you. Once I get a hold of some pics and videos from the weekend I'll share those as well.

Fall Festival Fun - 2015

We had a great time yesterday at Midlands Church's fall festival! We have had it at Stone River the last few years, which is a beautiful venue on the river and overlooks the city, and even though it was a rainy day, it was a lot of fun! There are lots of pumpkin games for the kids and a chili cook off (which Hart won last year) ... we had to give the others a shot this year, so we left ours out of the running (JK!)

 Cai was Ezra from Disney Star Wars for Halloween. We had already dressed up 3 days prior for a number of Halloween business so this isn't his complete costume, but he wanted to wear it again!

 Waiting to Pumpkin Bowl!

 Pumpkin Tic Tac Toe

 Judah picked out this awesome prize from the prize box....

 Sporting those purple shades like a boss!!! I tell you this kid has two adjectives that describe him best: stubborn and silly! Hahaha! That's a fun combo!

We feel really blessed because yesterday was November 1st and Hart's first full-time day working for Midlands Church! By God's grace, we reached right past 50% of our support raising mark and are so grateful that God always always provides exactly what we need exactly when we need it! While there is still a support raising road ahead of us, we are grateful to have the amount needed to begin working full-time in ministry! If you would like to support our family in prayer and financially, please visit our support page for more details!

Hope yall had a great Halloween weekend!  

Men's Retreat - Where We'll Do Manly Things

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."

- 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

From November 5 through the 8 I, Hart, will have the privilege of going on our church's annual men's retreat. I always look forward to this time. It's a chance to get up to the mountains and enjoy autumn at its prime. Beards will abound! It's a time to do all things manly: shoot guns, watch football, play football, hike, and eat a whole bunch of good food...manly food...like bacon wrapped bacon with a side of bacon. But most importantly this will be a time of a bunch of brothers in Christ getting together to pray, hear the Word taught, sing a bunch of hymns, and motivate each other to pursue godliness.

I'm especially excited about this upcoming retreat because Lord willing the support will have come in and I will be officially full time with our church by that point. As far as my roles for the retreat and what I'll specifically be doing. The retreat is Friday through Sunday (6-8), but I'm going up with a team the day before on that Thursday to help prep and set up for the weekend. I'll also be selecting the music for the retreat, and co-leading with one of our other musicians during the retreat. I'm excited about co-leading because I normally am filling in musically in the background on Sunday's, so this will be a fun opportunity to scratch that occasional itch I get to play my guitar and lead the singing. And what's also exciting, and a little nerve wracking!, is that I will be the speaker for one of the sessions. The topic for the retreat will be biblical manhood. So please keep me in your prayers! Pray for wisdom and discernment as I prepare what I will share/teach will be words that points these men's eyes, as well as my own eyes, towards Jesus. And that it would please the Lord for what I share to convict and encourage us men along this race.

If you're a guy and you're interested in attending our Men's Retreat, let me know. I'd be happy to talk with you about it.

And if you are interested in supporting me, please head over to my support page!

Support Page Update and Online Payment Option Revealed

As we announced on Thursday, our family has major changes on the horizon. After much prayer and counsel we sense the Lord calling me, Hart, into full time ministry with our church, Midlands Church. So the hope and prayer and goal is that by November 1 I will be full time as the Director of Discipleship and Worship. Iin order for that to happen though, we've got to raise $45,000 that will serve as my family's primary form of income for this next year.

Rather than reiterate everything we've already shared, I'll just recommend you to read out post from Thursday, and to also explore 2 pages here on our website.

First, if you would like more information on supporting us, from prayer to financially, then please head over to our Support page.

Second, if you feel compelled to support us financially, and you would like to do that via onlie, then also take a minute to read the Step by Step Tutorial that walks you through doing that via our church's website.

Career Change for Hart! But we need your support!!!

Greetings everyone! As Vanessa mentioned earlier this week, not only is change happening with our blog (new URL and a facelift) but we have a big change on the horizon for our family. We mailed out a whole bunch of letters earlier this week to family and friends officially announcing this big change and I think the best way to make this announcement out here on the internet is to just share a virtual copy of that letter. So here you go...

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for how you have supported my family and I throughout the years in a variety of ways! We are truly thankful for how God has used the body of Christ to encourage, build us up, and come alongside us in the good times and the more difficult trials that my family has gone through over the years. From being newlyweds figuring out marriage, to the births of our sons, in fostering, medical trials, work and many other areas, we are constantly amazed at how God has provided for our family exactly what we have needed over the years and it has been a blessing to know the wide support base that we have been given by knowing you!

I am writing to let you know about an exciting new journey that God is beginning for me and my family. After much prayer and counsel from our mentors, job interviews, and seeking what the Lord has for our family next, it has become apparent to us that God is directing me towards ministry, by serving Him right here in Columbia, SC!

Our family has been actively apart of Columbia Crossroads Downtown for the last 6 years. We’ve loved worshiping with this body of believers, which exists to reach every man, woman and child with the Good News of Jesus Christ! I have had the privilege of serving part time on staff as Director of Worship for the past 5 years, as well as the last 4 months as Director of Family Discipleship, which strives to equip families with the necessary tools to raise godly children up for the Lord.

These roles have allowed my passions and desires for glorifying God through music, and helping families pursue Christ to grow tremendously, and we have seen the Lord affirm my skill sets to lead, counsel, and encourage families. Beginning November 1st, we pray that I will be able to go from just part-time to full-time as Director of Family Discipleship and Worship to fulfill these very real needs within our church body, that we pray will impact our city in huge ways for God’s Kingdom.

While our church desires to be able to provide the full-time financial support needed for this position, at this time they are unable to because Columbia Crossroads Downtown has officially transitioned from church plant status to an independently established church now known as Midlands Church. Therefore my family and I are stepping out in faith trusting that God knows our needs and, as our Provider, will meet those needs.

I need to raise a total of $45,000. This support will be my family’s primary source of income for the next year, and will allow me to devote 40 hours a week towards ministry. I plan to continue selling real estate part time and Vanessa will be joining me after obtaining her real estate license!

By God’s grace, we have already raised nearly $20,000 in support! What is so mind blowing about that to us is that this letter is my official announcement! Until now I have not been actively seeking support from others, and yet God has already provided nearly half of my support! He truly is so good!

I know the Lord will provide. But I believe the way He will provide will be through those who support me. Therefore, I am humbly asking you to join my team by supporting me through prayer, and if possible, financially. Please know that all financial gifts will be tax-deductible through a 501-3c.

For more info on supporting us, including ways to contribute financially online or set up recurring payments, please visit the Support page here on our website (http://support.thetraylorpark.com)

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We love you all and thank God for you!

In Christ alone, Hart, Vanessa, Micaiah and Judah Traylor