His Will is done

Well folks, one more week until Hoops for Christ! I am anxious to get it going as this year promises to be a better run show than last year even! As usual God has come through with great support from our sponsors. It was kind of late getting here, but God does things in His time not mine. Now that our deficit has been minimized, (thank you Jesus!) I have started to become concerned about something else with Hoops. I really felt when God told me to kick it into gear that we would have an onslaught of teams this year. I have received numerous calls about playing in it from various teams, but to date we have room for several more. As I momentarily gave this concern some unnecessary worry God reminded me that He takes care of things and will again on this. Then I thought of the scripture passage found in Matthew, chapter 8 when Jesus set sail with His disciples to go across the lake. Jesus was tired after teaching and healing others all day and went below deck to sleep. A storm arose and the disciples that were with him became scared, they even pleaded with Jesus in their fear of drowning, to do something. Jesus went on deck and said to his disciples, "why are you afraid, you have so little faith," (vs. 26) and then he calmed the storm. See the minute Jesus said take me to the other side, it was clear that they were going to make it to the other side. WHY! Jesus said so, He said take me to the other side. It wasn't in His will for them all to drown, otherwise how would He get to the other side! Jesus had already committed to getting them to the other side when He asked them to take Him to the other side. He didn't say it would be smooth sailing, He just said, take me to the other side. So in Hoops for Christ perspective, I have to believe that Jesus will is done, since He saw to it that the financing and support of sponsors was met. I need to be strong in my faith that God will deliver, just as He did in the storm, He will deliver as His will is all I strive for.
Believe God and trust him. He will calm the storm in you and get you to the other side too!

Love to everyone,

Wayne

Prayer Time

Let's cut to the chase...how is your prayer life? A daily prayer life is needed for one to combat evil and satan's evil attempts. See even when Jesus was with Peter, James and John in the garden of Gethsemne, He asks them to pray. Even though He was going off to pray by himself, He asked, in his own way, for them to remain at the base and pray. When Jesus returns from His time of prayer, these guys were sleeping. Thats when Jesus gives us this friendly word of advice. Matthew 26:41 says "Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For thought the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak." How many times has your body said I'm too tired tonite? You had all intentions of praying but time got past you and by the time you thought of praying you were too tired. Aren't you glad that God doesn't tell us that He is too tired. Remember Jesus says we need to stay alert and pray...otherwise temptation will overpower us. We need a regular prayer life to keep satan at a distance. We need to stay in communication with God so satan has not even a foothold on our life. You see in a war, we don't go into battle without communicating with our commanding officer. It's the same with our spiritual life. We battle evil and satan everyday, so we need to keep the communication with our God (commanding officer) open. He will help us battle and only with Him will we be victorious!

Pray hard,
Wayne

Rapture or Second Coming

Have you noticed lately what is going on in the world around us? I mean, we have all these little and some bigger wars going on. Weather patterns that are bizzare and sometimes killer. I mean has it been ultra hot here lately or what. And what about the tidal wave thing, man that killed some people now! People are dying from all kinds of diseases, kids are revolting against their parents and even some homes have parents abusing their own children!! See all these things are scripural, the Bible talks of these things when Jesus us teaching about His return. You can find the stories in Matthew and Luke. See the truth is Jesus will come again for each of us. Many of us default to the rapture as Christ's second coming and this is true, however when Jesus instructs on His return He doesn't limit it to the rapture. In fact it isn't until the book of Revelation, that we even get a more definative description of the rapture. See when Jesus instructs of His return He tells of the two women grinding wheat together and one will be taken the other left. He tells of two men working in a field, one will be taken and the other one left. A man and his wife will be sleeping when one will be taken and the other left. See unlike the movie of the rapture called "Left Behind", the scriptures leave out the word "behind". It simply states that one will be left. You see we equate left behind to the rapture, while Jesus is merely stating that when He returns, one will be left. Think of it like this, a married couple are involved in a car accident where one of them dies and the other survives. Isn't the survivor left? Jesus has come for one of them but left the other. For whatever reason, God will use the situation to try and get through to someone. My mother and father-in-law were sleeping one night, the next day my mother-in-law had been taken to be with Jesus, while my father-in-law was left. My point is this, THE RETURN OF CHRIST IS NOT LIMITED TO THE RAPTURE!! Christ will return for each of us when He sees fit. It might be at the rapture, but it might not. I will tell you this, he gaurantees his return in YOUR lifetime. In Matthew 24:34, Jesus says this, "I assure you, this generation will not pass from the scene before all these things take place." These things are the messed up events of the world that are predicted as well in God's Word, of which Jesus tells us about. Since these things are taking place as we speak that would tell me that Jesus could come for me at anytime in any fashion. Therefore!!! It is critical that we are READY for His return by keeping our lives as committed to Christ as we can. Then we can be sure when He comes for us we will spend our eternity with Him.

God Bless, and if you need Christ in your life and would like me to pray for you or with you, send me an email. God choses YOU!

Peace

Wayne

Another Fantastic Week!!

Hey peeps,
Man what a week. I just got back from family camp and while it wasn't quite like Jr. High and Sr. High camps, it was still a blessing. The youth portions of the camp were awesome. Big Nick set the tone each nite with his awesome acoustic guitar and singing abilities! Several shared testimonies and just when it seemed that we were going to be done, we were blessed with another awesome service. We weren't supposed to have anymore youth services but several wanted to at least have one more since it was still camp time. I was asked to speak and of course I said yes and God laid a message on me. That night in camp meeting services the speaker for family camp talked on a topic that perfectly pre-empted what God had asked me to talk about...We then spent some time talking about your second coming. See we often think of the second coming as just the rapture but that's not necessarily true! I will go into more detail about that in an upcoming blog. God moved in our service again and several young people recommitted their lives to Christ with some being saved for the first time! It was awesome!!! All you guys at camp I will miss you but know this.....I will pray for you daily .............especially my buddy and his sister from Quincy. God is going to use them in a special way! For now though, God touched several lives and we had the opportunity to have a little Sr. High camp at family camp as we witnessed the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us again. God will be with you all and is there EVERY time you need Him if you just call.

If you read this blog, email me or comment on it...I like to know if you are seeing any of this...but at anyrate...someone will and hopefully God will be able to speak to them as well.

God bless all of you!!

Wayne

Afraid of Change

So one of the girls in my youth group gets braces right. She tells us that she is getting them beforehand and then the day comes when she actually gets them. My wife and I pick her up for youth group and we notice that she really isn't smiling like she usually does. Of course it has slipped our mind that she was to get her braces that day...Well after awhile we ask her, what's up and she gives us a "new braces type smile." We were like, oh it's all good they look fine! I mean she actually had them fancy colored ones, and had them in red and blue, you know patriotic like. Well she finally got comfortable and gained a little self confidence in herself and eventually began to smile at will again. Sometimes we get that way with our beliefs in God. We spend a week at camp and get all emotionally charged and get fired up for Jesus, but then when we get back out into society..........and well we kinda do like a person with new braces, we tend to keep it under wraps for fear of what others will say. 1 Peter 4:4 says "Of course, your former friends are very surprised when you no longer join them in the wicked things they do, and they say evil things about you. (5)But just remember, that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead." As new Christians living a new life we just have to expect that some people will notice and out of there own sinful nature and inborn fear of the light, will say things against your new life. But in 2 Peter 1:10 Peter reminds us this, "So dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away." It's like this, the more we talk about and show that we are real with our new relationship with Christ, the easier it gets. Just like my friend that became more comfortable with her new braces. Not only does sharing our faith help us to become stronger in it, it helps keep us from stumbling, just as Peter tells us in the scriptures. So be strong, don't be afraid to take a stand. In reality it's fear showing through your old friends when they make comments about you and your new faith. They have the fear that you might have something that they don't, and that you are stronger than they are in making such a move of faith. Trust God and he will take those fears away from you and potentially could change the fears of your friends into beliefs. That's the real blessing!

Peace
Wayne

Love is....

So today I got to play Paramedic for awhile on the ambulance. It was a good day the person I worked with is familiar with Nazarene Acres and knows where I stand with God. She hasn't committed herself to God yet, but keep praying because she knows. So we take this patient to the ER and I see a nurse there that was dating a friend of mine as well. I asked her if she was still dating him and she said no. She wasn't ready for a relationship at the level he was. So I am thinking back when I worked with him last and his conversation he was having with her in front of me. He talked to her several times that day and each time he said "I love you" to her before he hung up. She was letting this guy stay with her at her apartment! Then not that that wasn't bad enough but then she says she isn't ready for a relationship like he wanted. COME ON MAN! Not only that but she claims to be a church going Christian!! I didn't say anything because I would have started preaching for sure! Think about this! The phrase I love you, has become so cheapened by societal standards alone, and now I am witness to a professing "Christian", who uses the term so loosely as well. So, how do we define love now? Society says it's any time someone is seeking physical pleasures from another. The Bible says it differently, THANK YOU JESUS! 1John4:16 says "God is love". Where is God in a relationship that involves premarital sex?!?! Where is God in a societal decree of "I love you"? Maybe these people have misconstrued the scripture in 1 John 4:8 where it says "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." I can just hear it now "oh I know about God so I must love my boyfriend,,,,,,at least at the moment." AGAIN I SAY ....COME ON MAN!!! First of all God's love has nothing to do with sex out of wedlock, and secondly the love John is talking about in this verse is the love or caring for each other. Actually having genuine concern for others of the human race. See we can get a real description of affectionate love in 1 Corinthians 13, and verse 4 where it says "love is patient and kind," and verse 6 says "It is never glad about injustice but rejoices when truth wins out." I would say that it is a HUGE injustice when someone tells another an empty "I love you", when in a supposed "serious" relationship. How is it love when people in a relationship can't WAIT to have sex and sleep together? Where is the patience in that?! If God is love and these societal traits are against the teachings of God's word, then how is premarital sex really love? IT'S NOT, IT'S AN INJUSTICE!! which the word says love is no part of. Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to preach, but if you use the phrase "I love you", PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SAYING! Love is not cheap like society has made it. It is real and God given, so only use it when you can really mean it. You will find it makes life much easier.

Peace
Wayne

PS...maybe someday you can catch my sermon on this very topic....I think you would like it.

Pay's not much, but the retirement is out of this world

WOW! What to write. Tonite we had an awesome youth service. Great time of worship and a great time of fellowship to follow. Lately I have been blessed with speaking opportunities at various youth events around. I found out I may be asked to speak at another youth event, and when Butchie was asked if he thought I would mind he responded appropriately....OF COURSE NOT!! I love to speak about Jesus and the Salvation he has brought to us as a FREE gift. I hope if it is God's will that I will be asked to speak at this youth event. I have met some of these young people and they are an awesome group. My oldest son asked me one time, why I did this church stuff because it doesn't pay as good as being a flight paramedic. I said that it was God's will that I do it and that the pay comes in my spiritual life and where I will spend eternity. He just couldn't grasp it, but Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 9:23, "I do all this to spread the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy it's blessings." It's kinda like the visa/mastercard commercial......soft drinks for the youth group.....$5.....pizza for the youth group $30......seeing a young person accept Christ as their personal savior.....PRICELESS!!! Money can't buy the blessings God GIVES! So like the heading says, the pay ain't much but the retirement is out of this world!

LOVE HIM STRONG!

Wayne

More than a Conqueror!

Hey folks,
Seems satan is running crazy on the district. I have learned that another youth pastor friend of mine has been told he is no longer needed at his church. This is the second one in a week! Each one has done great things for their youth groups. Each one has built relationships with the members of their youth group as well. So, as is the case in these instances, there is sure to be some fall out. What we have to remember is that God is in control! Despite what we may deem as just plain aweful, God sees in a different light. It is apparent that God has a different plan for these guys somewhere else. Each one has family too, so this situation stems out even amongst the families involved. One of them has kids from middles school to approaching high school. I know for a fact that moving as a child is difficult. (I moved every two years until I was in Jr.High) God sees something that He can use the children for as well. Paul tells us in the book of Romans that even in times of trouble God raises us up to be more than a conqueror. That means we will land on our feet and then some! Romans 8:37 states in the NLT that "No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours, through Christ who loves us." The KJV says it like this, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loves us." Isn't that awesome! So know this, God is in control and great things are going to happen for these families, as well as the youth groups they leave behind. In these times it is easy to have feelings that are not Christlike but Paul again reminds us in Ephesians 4:31-32,"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you." So turn the other cheek, and believe because God has promised us great things even in these times of trial.

God Bless,
Wayne

Stand Up For Jesus

Man what a great day in the presence of the Lord. Today my little study group met early today to pray for some fellow youth pastors having some difficult moments. It was awesome to meet and pray as a group. God is in control!!

So have you ever noticed that during the singing in church, whether it is at camp or at your own church, there is always some people that seem to not have the energy to stand up for the singing along with everyone else. I mean I see Jr. High and Sr. High age kids sitting through the worship in music time and all these senior citizens standing for the duration. COME ON FOLKS! If you had some physicality that made it difficult that is one thing but for healthy young people to just sit out of nothing more than disrespect, it is a sad sight. I mean what this is saying is Jesus isn't worth your efforts to stand during the praise and worship part of the service with everyone else. Even if one isn't a Christian, just out of respect for God's house and other believers one should at least stand when others stand! Think about it Jesus did lots of teaching from a standing position. Jesus stood before His accusers the entire time they were persecuting Him. Jesus stood during His floggings until He was too weak to stand anymore. (Now if you would like to be flogged so you have an excuse to sit I am sure someone would see if they could arrange that for you.) Jesus even was in a standing position as He walked to His death. Jesus was even nailed to the cross in a STANDING position. To me if Jesus went through all of that for me, I can find the strength to stand during the song service. I love my Lord and Savior and He is worthy of my praise and my respect. See back in the day I went to a Van Halen concert. When the band finally came out the entire stadium stood and applauded. Then they proceeded to STAND for the entire concert. See the people finally got what they wanted so they were showing their appreciation back to the band. See peer pressure kept EVERYONE on their feet for the entire concert. We as Christians that are truly thankful for the Salvation that God has given them show their appreciation back to God in worship and praise. Van Halen was good and it was pretty cool, but JESUS is the GREATEST, and gives us more than any rock band ever could. Therefore I think out of respect for God we owe it to Him to stand and be reverant when ever we are asked to. See in Jeremiah 5:22 God is sending a message to those that show Him no respect. It reads, "Do you have no respect for Me? Why do you not tremble in my presence? I the Lord, am the one who defines the oceans sandy shoreline, an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross." We should have enough fear of the Lord to show Him the utmost in respect at all times, especially in His house. 1 Peter 2:17 tells us to "Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God, show respect for the King."

If the music of a non-Christian rock band can raise an entire stadium crowd of mostly non-believers, can't we who have been saved from an eternity in hell give the same if not more to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Think about it and give God the glory!

Peace
Wayne

What a WEEK!!!

Hey folks,
Just got back from the most awesome week of camp at the Illinois district Sr. High camp!! Have you ever seen or been a part of a teams success like when the Bulls or the Lakers won the NBA championship? If you have you would notice that all the people there were so excited for the success of their team that the electricity in the air made it so they didn't ever want to leave. That feeling of joy and happiness for their new champions was something they never wanted to end. Well.......that's how camp was only the victories were those of souls being sold out to Christ and the dying out of the old way of life and accepting the new way of life........being that of a life with Christ. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!! The Holy Spirit was so evident you could almost see Him! I asked my buddy Jim to pinch me as I pinched him to make sure we weren't already in Heaven! Those couple of services were as close to heaven as I have ever been. I have never experienced a camp like this one was. To see so many young people receive closure on old naggin pains of life and rededicate themselves to doing the work that God has planned for them was an awesome event. To see newly saved lives being changed right there by the Holy Spirit was just something I will never forget. See like the fans of an NBA team we were all basking in the Glory. But this was the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and His presence in our camp!! None of us wanted the service to end. But it has and now we must take this awesome moving of the Spirit back to our homes, churches and communities and let others see the difference God has made in our lives. In John 21 Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him. Jesus asks Peter this three times and Peter replies more than anything. Jesus then gives Peter and the rest of us this commandment. In John 21:16, Jesus tells Peter to go and feed His sheep. Those sheep are the lost that need to receive the gift of Salvation. Our families, our friends, our community and all those that need to be fed the message of the Good News. But it doesn't stop there. We MUST take this infilling of the Holy Spirit and this refueling we have received from camp back to our churches as well. It is our duty to spill out these blessings God has so richly given us this week and reignite the flame in our own churches. WE ARE THE REVIVAL!!!! It's our job as Jesus put it, that if we love Him, then we MUST feed His sheep. Take your experience of camp back and be strong in the faith and infect all those around you with this awesome loving spirit of God. Use the support of others that may have been in camp from your church as well to keep the fire burning. If you were the only one from your church hopefully you wrote down some emails. If not I will be your support group. Email me or call me with prayer requests or just to talk and I will do my best to be there for you. I was blessed with a lot of relationship building this week! I really love and care for all of you and I know that it is God's will for me to be a servant.

God Bless and Keep the fire burning! Feed those sheep!!
Wayne

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Man what a weekend! How's this for busy, July 1 is my brother in laws birthday, July 2 is my oldest son's birthday, July 3 is my wedding anniversary, and July 4 is..............well July 4, complete with parades, cookouts, and fireworks. I love it though, it's one big celebration! But in the celebration we MUST remember the soldiers over in Iraq and around the world that are making these celebrations possible by protecting our freedoms. Oh and speaking of freedoms, lets think about something. As Christians we have the freedom to worship and pray and witness and stand up for our faith. We are protected by the constitution to worship FREELY. Have you ever thought of the freedoms we have and how great it is?! Someday these freedoms will be taken from us. Someday, maybe not in my lifetime and maybe not in yours, but someday we will lose all of these freedoms. The Bible says in the book of Revelation chapter 13:16-18, that we will be made to worship the beast, and unless we receive the mark, we will not be able to buy or sell ANYTHING! If you are not sure of the mark read this passage. You see the only way to be sure you don't have to lose these freedoms is to be sure you are ready to meet Jesus. How??? By making Him your personal Savior, by asking Him to enter your life, by asking Him to forgive you of your sins. See Jesus has a plan for you and God being a patient God keeps putting off this time of turmoil in hopes more people will come to Him. With Christ as your personal Savior, you will be taken the day of the rapture and not left behind to experience these difficult times. You see if you get left behind, your only chance then is to avoid the mark and REALLY stand up for Jesus. I don't know about you but I think it is easier today to stand up for Him. Today I can do it FREELY with no gun pointed to my head. Think about it, and if you would like me to pray for you or with you leave your comments on this post or email me.

Peace,
Wayne

Meaningless repetition?

So today as I was watching my two toddlers play in the pool, and I began to pray. I had just checked the mail and all we received was junk mail. Another day with no paycheck and no Hoops sponsor checks. I have been praying ernestly for God to have his way with this event and my own financial situation, and when the mail was a big bust again, I began to pray. As I was praying God kinda brought to mind that story of Jesus confronting the Pharisees about their prayer habits. In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus warns us not to pray in an effort to bring attention to ourselves like certain other religious leaders were doing. In verse 7 the NLT version of the Bible says Jesus said "When you pray, don't babble on and on like people of other religions do." I kinda felt like I was babbling. In Mark 11:24 Jesus says' "Listen to me, you can pray for anything and if you believe, you will have it." See when we continually pray for something over and over sometimes it can tend to show a lack of faith. That doesn't mean you need not pray for someone or something on a daily basis, it just means when you pray, pray with heartfelt compassion for what you are praying for. Then you will see the full power of God! It was I nice gentle reminder to me from God, that he's got my back! COOL

Peace,
Wayne

Good things come to those that wait......

Sup people,
Hoops for Christ is coming along, but tonight my baseball team looked adversity in the face and came through with flying colors. As you know baseball takes 9 guys to make a team. You can play a game with 8, but it is difficult. We only had 8. We made some serious defensive moves and observations, moved people around a lot and actually hit the ball and we won. These guys have waited so long to win that winning with 8 makes it that much better. Then they won the second one too, after being down six to nothing. Lots of kids waited a long time to get playing time and when they got it they did good. Sure they got discouraged at times but they stayed with it keeping the faith that they would get some good playing time soon. Sometimes in our spiritual life we may seem to run across a similar situation. Have you ever prayed for something for a long time and it just seemed like God wasn't hearing you. Then one day when you least expect it your prayer is answered. Or did you lose faith and give up praying for whatever it was you were praying for. Sometimes people do give up but God answers prayer. Sometimes not in the time frame we think we need, but if it is a reasonable prayer request God will come through in His time. Isaiah 40:31 says "..those who wait on the Lord find new strength. They will f ly high on wings like eagles......" Just as Jesus tells the parable of the corrupt judge in Luke 18, He tells His disciples through this story the need to continue to pray even if it seems God isn't hearing. God hears us all the time, and if it's his will he will answer prayer in His time. Read Luke 18 and be assured..............He's listening.

Wayne