3rd Place

Last night Matt Mead, head coach of the Lady Eagles basketball team of Robert Morris University, came and shared with us during halftime of the Superbowl.

He had some great things to say. One comment really stood out to me though. He told the students to put themselves third.

In today's culture this isn't something that is easy. More often than not we are thinking of ourselves first. We want to be noticed, be the best, look the best, have lots of friends, fit in, win. Just think of the whole premise of the Superbowl-both teams were there to win! They weren't putting the other team first at any point during that game!

If we live in a culture that enforces being the best then how is anyone supposed to put themselves third?

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells us to love God, and love our neighbors. These are the greatest commandments.

Put God first, others second, and yourself third.

Are you third or first?

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Daddy!

This last week at HS youth group we took a risk and opened up a can of worms. For the past few weeks we've been talking about love. This week we wanted to get the students to really think about the love that God has for them.

They know God loves them. You probably know it too. You've sang the song (Jesus Loves Me), you've read it in the Bible (John 3:16, among others), and you've probably been told a time or two.

But do you really know? Do you really feel God's love? Do you really think God loves you?

In Matthew 7:9-11 we get this great description of a dad. It finishes up, though, by telling us that God is our dad. There is a huge difference though between our dads on earth and God being our dad. You see, God is perfect-in every way.

Thus, the can of worms. Some of the students in our youth group have great dads, others have OK dads, some have crappy dads, and still others don't even have a dad. You also fit into one of those categories. Regardless of which, though, everyone shares this common bond: the dad that they do or don't have is not perfect. He has flaws.

God calls himself our father. A lot of times we refer to him as our father. For some of us though, that's a hard thing to think about because we aren't fond of our earthly dads (or don't have one).

When a child is little they have this ingrained perception that their parents are perfect. Eventually that wears off though, and they realize that their parents have faults (there is a psychological term for this, but I can't remember or find it!).

One of our youth volunteers, Steve, puts it this way:

• "The point is that our Heavenly Father is perfect without flaws and needs to be seen on a different level than our parents. When we are little our parents seem like gods, until we see them make a mistake. But no matter your relationship with your father (or mother) it is very important to keep improving your relationship with God."

That's awesome insight right there!

When a child loves someone (especially a parent) and they see them, their natural reaction is to run to them. I have a good friend who's son will run to him and scream "Daddy!" every day when he gets home from work. He doesn't schedule time for his daddy, he doesn't plan a conversation with him-he runs to him. Why? Because he knows his Daddy loves him and he wants to love him back.

Do you love God like that? Do you know that God loves you like that?

Your daddy is supposed to love you. Whether he does or doesn't or whether you have one or not, your heavenly daddy loves you-seriously loves you.

God's your daddy. Will you run to Him?

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What day will you die?

You don't have any idea. Well, you might think you have an idea, but unless you are on the brink of death as you read this then you're probably wrong.

Really, though-you could die today or maybe tomorrow or maybe not for 80 years. (Check out James 4:13-14. It paints an interesting picture of this!) That being the case, are you living your life like every moment could be your last?

Now I don't ask that to encourage you to go sky diving, buy a new car, or go elope. I ask you so that you'll be encouraged to make God the center of your life right now.

Think about a typical day:

• Is God someone you have to really try to make a part of your day?
• Is God someone who is consistently a part of your day?
• Is God all of your day?
  

In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan portrays God as the main character of the story. Everything that happens in the story is supposed to be geared around this main character (think about a movie). A movie without a main character is a really bad movie. It has no direction.

Whether you like it or not you are in the story-the one God created. Are you recognizing that He's the main character or are you trying to be the main character yourself?

1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us that everything we do is to be for God's glory. Are your actions for God's glory or are they for yours?

If they are for your glory-get over yourself! You are not the main character! You are a supporting role in this story. Your job is to bring glory to the main character-God!

Being a supporting role isn't so bad though. God is a pretty cool main character. He knows His support staff! (Matthew 10:30-31)

Please know this: your story matters. You just aren't the main character in it. God is.

You could be the next person in the world to die. Do you believe that enough to change how you're living?

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Do you love God or believe in Him?

This post is a bit late-sorry!

Two weeks ago at HS youth group we challenged the students with this:

• Do you love God or do you just believe in Him?

I really think those are two totally different things. Anyone can believe in God, just like anyone can believe in Santa Clause. Believing in Santa Clause doesn't take much though. Ask him for some things throughout the year, and then hopefully get those things on Christmas day. Ask God for something things throughout the year, and hopefully get them....right?

That isn't love.
That's believing....hardly.

Loving God means that you stop just asking Him for things and start praying, really praying. That means listening too-not just talking! That means making God your life rather than trying to make God a part of your life. That means seeing God for who He is, not who you want Him to be.

In Ecclesiastes 5 Solomon tells us not to rush into God's presence with words.
In James 1 we're told to be slow to speak and quick to listen.
In Romans 1 we learn how we can see God (through His creation).
In Psalm 19 we're told of how the heaven and earth praise God for who He is.

Do you mimic those 4 passages? I know it is hard for me to. I tend to start my prayers out with words. I like to talk first and listen second (if at all). At times I struggle to awe at God's creation. And I definitely forget to praise Him for who He really is.

You see, when you love God-He comes first.

Good husbands do the dishes.

My wife, Kendahl, and I have always had a rule about dinner: You cook, you clean. There is one problem with this rule though-we tend to only follow it when we're lazy. Meaning, if I don't cook I will generally help out in the kitchen, unless of course I'm too lazy, then I'll pull that rule out of my back pocket. Well, tonight was one of those nights.

First let me say this much-Kendahl made an awesome pork chop and zucchini dinner. So awesome, that I ate too much (thus my laziness). Afterward, we were in the kitchen and Kendahl asked me to do the dishes. That's when I pulled the "You cooked, you clean" card. After some harmless bickering back and forth, she told me to go upstairs and blog about what it means to be a good husband. I saw this as a great opportunity to not do the dishes. So here am I.

What does it mean to be a good husband? I hope you aren't looking for anything awe-inspiring or prolific here. But I do think it is laid out pretty clearly for us in Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5:25-27

• ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In my words: husbands, sacrifice for your wife. Sacrifice your pride, your money, your time, and even your life if necessary. When Christ loved the church, He did that.

Husbands, do the dishes-even when your wife cooked.

Convoy of Hope

A lot of people are wanting to help out with Haiti. However, a lot of people have fears that their time, resources, and money will not be used in the right ways. I can understand this fear. When you cannot see, first hand, where your gift(s) are going, it's hard to trust it.

That being said, you should check this out. It's a blog that gives the stories of missionaries, non-for-profits, etc. that already have roots in Haiti and that you can trust.

Kendahl and I decided to pick one of these organizations this weekend and invite some students along to help out in an area that needs it more than we can even understand. After some research we chose Convoy of Hope. You can check them out here.

You can help out with the needs of the Haitian people through Convoy of Hope in two ways. You can either give money, or you can make a hygiene kit that will be used at many of the shelters Convoy of Hope is setting up in the earthquake area. We decided to make some hygiene kits.

Long story short-this is what it looks like when 5 students come together and give of both their time and of their money (their own money)! That's 18 hygiene kits! What's in each kit? 2 hand towels, 2 bars of soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, 2 combs, shampoo, and $3 for shipping. These are going to go a long, long way.

Want to be a part of this? Click here and make one yourself!

Actions Speak Louder than Advertising

Did you know that WalMart sales increased after Hurricane Katrina? You'd think it was because of an increased need for inexpensive stuff, right? Wrong. It was actually found that the more service work WalMart did after the hurricane, the more its sales went up outside of the hurricane area. You see-Walmart's actions served as advertisement. People wanted to go to Walmart because Walmart was doing something good for the community.

Why is it that so many churches miss this? I feel like a lot of churches focus on phonebooks, websites, promo mailers, door hangers, program inserts, and the like in order to spread the word.

Maybe it is time to take a lesson from Walmart (of all people). Lets begin to realize that advertisements don't make any sense-actions do.

What will you do today in order to spread the word. Do you have something to give? (refer to last blogpost) Is there someone near you that has a need you can fulfill? Will you serve someone today?

Don't tell people about Western Oaks, don't tell people about church-BE church.

Actions speak louder than advertisements.

James 2:15:17