Faux sho

So today I did something pretty random and out of the ordinary for me...I decided to give myself a faux hawk. Here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure below. The pictures were taken with Photo Booth so the quality isn't as crisp. I will try it out for a little bit and if it doesn't work for me, then I'll just cut off the rest. Anyway, let me know what you think and be honest [You know where liars go!]

"Come and you will see"

Lately I have been trying to dig deep in the Word and try to figure out the "next step" in my life. My routine consists of worship, reading some, then worship some more and listening. Unfortunately no answers yet but I know God is pleased with where my heart is. I am still praying for clarity and wisdom, but I just want to be with the Lord, where He is, in His pocket so to speak.

I'm reading John right now and something in the first chapter stuck out to me in a way that hadn't before. In verses 35-39 we read of two of John the Baptist's disciples leaving him to follow Jesus. John [the writer] mentions one of the disciples, Andrew. In case you didn't know, the other disciple was John himself [again the writer, not the Baptist]. Anyway, the two ask Jesus, "Where are you staying?" Jesus then answered them, "Come and you will see."

What connected most with my spirit as I read this story was the question the two disciples asked Jesus..."Where are YOU staying?" They wanted to be wherever Jesus was. They wanted to be with Him, stay with Him, commune with Him, dine with Him, learn from Him and soak all of Him in by simply being where He is. The disciples knew that it would be best to be where Jesus was.

Here is where I have failed [and you may be in this boat too]: I approach God with good intentions of giving my life, future, etc to Him, but I want to put Him in a box close to where I am at. "I know you are staying over there God, but it would be so much easier if you just come over here where I'm at. Everything seems to be going good right here, so if You could just come over here to my area, that would be great." We need to be ready and willing to ask Him where He is staying so we can go there to be filled and fulfilled. It's in our best interest to be where Jesus is and partner with Him in what He is doing. We can't force something into being. We just have to be able to sense where God is and where His river is flowing and go there.

So God where are you staying? Because I want to be with You...

Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases."

Psalm 143:8 "Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul"

Grace and peace.

Ok...scary...

If you haven't seen or heard about the tornado that ripped through downtown Atlanta, then I ask you to either wave your hand in front of your face and tell me if you can see your hand or, place a finger up under your jaw and feel for a pulse. Ok? Good...

Anyway, so as a birthday gift I was given tickets to the SEC basketball tournament. My dad and I went down to the Georgia Dome Friday around lunchtime for the first 2 of 4 games. The games were exciting and we were having a good time. Then there was a dinner break and Tate Welling met us for the last 2 games. The first game was Alabama against Mississippi State [To this day I still say that little saying to help me spell Mississippi...anybody else with me?]. The game was back and forth and it eventually went into overtime. With about 2 minutes and 11 seconds left in overtime all of a sudden we saw people across the Dome scattering and frantically running. A minute or so before I had heard some rumbling but didn't think anything of it. What was going through my head initially is that somebody was sick and they were running to find help or there was a fight happening between fans from Alabama and Mississippi State. Then boom, the entire Dome started to shake and it sounded like a freight train was going through the middle of the Dome. The scoreboard, big screens and scaffolding were swaying back and forth. The lights were shaking. It felt as if an earthquake was occurring. I looked up and the entire cloth rooftop of the Dome was rattling and it looked like the "parachute" game we used to play on the playground when younger. You know the one where everyone holds a piece of tarp and starts to shake it up and down. The balls on top start bouncing around like "popcorn." Remember?

Anyway, people were scattering all over the place running for the exits. For a brief moment I was thinking that this could be it. I don't want to be over-dramatic but we had no where to go because all of the aisles were jammed. I thought, "What am I going to do if the roof comes down?" Then all of a sudden 3 panels from the side of the Dome were ripped open. You could see the rain and lightening outside from where we were sitting! Debris was falling all over the court and the people in the stands. After what seemed to be an eternity rapped in about 30 seconds, the freight train-like rumbling quieted down. We could still see the rain and lightening though outside. We found out later on that a big bolt fell from the roof in front of somebody, which set off the mad-scramble at the beginning.

After about an hour delay, they came back out and played the last 2 minutes and 11 seconds of overtime [which Mississippi State won]. The overhead announcer told everybody to stay in the Dome and there is still severe weather outside. Roughly 30 minutes later they announced that the UGA-Kentucky game was postponed until the next day [GO DAWGS!].

Even though it was very frightening, things could have been a lot worse. The roof could have fallen it or blown off. The big screens, scaffolding, lighting and scoreboard could have fallen on people. Also, if the game didn't go into overtime, there would have been a large crowd outside leaving the Dome, which could have resulted in devastating injuries or even deaths. The Lord definitely had His team of angels protecting us that night! I am thankful!!

I didn't have my camera with me but I did manage to take some pictures with my phone. Here are some of those:




These are some views of the Georgia Dome from the outside. Look at all of those panels ripped off...





Here is some of the debris outside. There were benches overturned, glass was everywhere from doors and windows blown out, trash cans blown everywhere. That sign with the C on it usually stands upright. It is a solid concrete sign that was almost toppled over by this storm!



If you look towards the top of the Dome you can see the holes ripped into the side. In case you can't see them, I utilized my pointer finger to "point" out one of the openings...



It was a crazy scary night my friends. Continue to pray for those that lost homes and other possessions.

Grace and peace.

Birthday Laugh

In honor of my birthday, I am going to show a video that I recently came across again. I laugh out loud over and over every time I see it. It's from the Wesley Men's Retreat a year or so ago. Enjoy! You can thank Clay Kirkland for the video...




Grace and peace

White Out Wednesday

Aren't these pictures stinkin' sweet?! And yes, we are wearing headbands!! What is White Out Wednesday, you might be asking? Well my friends, let me explain. Last month the Wesley Foundation in Athens, GA had "Fun February." For the last Wednesday of Fun February, they decided to have "White Out Wednesday" modeled after our fantastic football team's Blackout game against Auburn. The night before we covertly mounted black lights all around the sanctuary and over the stage. So Wednesday night around 500 or so students strolled into the sanctuary wearing their white shirts, jackets, vests, pants, etc. The opening song was as usual (Everything Glorious by David Crowder), then there was the announcements and video. Then the entire sanctuary went pitch black and the lead guitar player started playing the opening lick to Typical by MuteMath. As soon as the full band kicked in, the black lights turned on! It was pretty sweet. As you can see in the pictures, everyone in the band wore white headbands.

So the entire main worship set was under the black lights. You might be thinking that would be a little on the irreverent side, but I will tell you that it had the complete opposite effect. Maybe it was the fact that nobody could really see the people around them, but worship escalated to new heights that night!

The set included:

Dancing Generation (Matt Redman)
My God Reigns (David Ruis I think)
We Make a Way (another old school song)
I Desire (Elliott DeJarnett)
Diamond (Vineyard)

The worship was intense and incredible. All around the room the Holy Spirit was invading students' lives and hearts and ministering to their spirits. After Bob Beckwith's message we had another extended time of worship under the black lights. Worship was interspersed with people coming up to pray or give prophetic words, or simply give a short testimony on how God is moving in their life. The service officially ended around 12:30am! (unfortunately I had to drive back to Marietta that night/morning)

Folks, the Lord is doing new, exciting and powerful things in Athens, GA. He is taking worship to new levels and He is releasing a healing anointing. I had the priviledge of playing drums again at Wesley this past Wednesday. I will say firsthand that last week was not a unique, isolated, one-time event. About 550 students showed up with ready hearts to encounter Jesus, and we did. We did a song called "God of this City" off of the new Passion CD. This song has a special anointing on it! If you don't have the new Passion CD, go buy it now!

The chorus says:
Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city

This is prophetic call to every city across the globe. We are crying out for greater things to be done! Lord will you do greater things in our city?!!

Anyway, I mentioned the word healing and you might be wondering if I was going to share some of the testimonies of how the Great Physician is healing folks over there. Two Wednesdays ago one girl stood up and asked for prayer during worship for her left knee. She had just torn her ACL and the doctor said she has to have surgery in order to have the chance of playing sports again. Well, folks prayed for her and her knee was completely restored! Last night there was a girl there who had been deaf in one of her ears for some years now. During worship people started to pray for her and then she was able to hear the people around her singing. She covered her good ear and she still was able to hear folks singing and praying! You want one more?! There was young man there who got struck in the eye with a bottle rocket last year and as a result, was blind in that eye. The doctors said he would never see again out of that eye. He was getting prayer and then all of a sudden he was able to see his hands. They kept praying and he could see his feet. They prayed more and he could see outlines of people 15-20 feet away! A 4th time they prayed and he was now able to see pictures on the opposite wall! He actually has a black dot on the affected eye and they said that as they prayed for him, the Lord shrunk this black dot down to a very small size. Glory to God!! He is truly revealing Himself in powerful ways.

These are just a few of the many testimonies of the Lord's healing power resting on students, staff and basically anybody that walks through their doors! I encourage any and all of you to make the trip to Athens on a Wednesday night [Not next week, it's their spring break. You would be there by yourself and I wouldn't want you to be mad at me!]

Again my prayer is that God will continue to move in greater ways in Athens and especially here in Marietta! In order for this community to be transformed, we need the Holy Spirit to move...for real!! Please join me as we cry out for more!

Grace and peace.

Life's ups and downs

I will be totally honest here and say that I haven't really felt like blogging in a while because a lot has been going on that I really didn't want to share publicly. I'm probably not going to give you the entire scoop but let's just say that the Lord is shaking things up in my life. On one end of the spectrum there is the possibility of losing one of my closest friends and companions. The Lord is teaching me to trust Him completely and surrender EVERYTHING to Him because He knows what is best for me. It has been real hard and frustrating and sad, but I have to daily tell myself that He is THE Good Father and His plans for me are so much better than I can muster up myself. My heart is crying out for clarity, for wisdom and for me to completely rely on Him. I need to diligently lean in and on Him for my strength, my joy and my affirmation. I've come to realize that in the past (or basically my whole life) I have relied too much on getting my affirmation from the people around me. Sometimes God does use the people around us to affirm us, but what He desires most is for us to come to Him so He can affirm us and download into us His delight and pleasure for us. This is huge beloved! It carries with it confidence, assurance and joy in walking with and serving the Lord.

We've all read this before, but before Jesus began His ministry, He first had to hear that God was pleased with Him. So it is even more crucial for us to know that we know that we know He is pleased with us. Before we set out on the journey that is our Kingdom destiny, we need to hear how near and dear we are to His heart. Song of Songs has to be rooted deep within us. Beloved, please know that His desire is for you! With just one glance of your eyes towards Him overwhelms Him! YOU are the one that "ravishes" His heart. The Lord has a jealous and zealous love for you. In order to captivate you and return you to your first love, He may shake things up in your life. I am learning this first-hand, and I will be the first to say that it is hard. But again I have to remind myself that "I am His beloved and His desire is for me."

So if this is you, I encourage you to read Song of Songs again, maybe even multiple times. He wants to tell you how much He loves you and how much He wants to be your everything. Please find the time for Him to do this; you will never be the same!

Not all things have been rough and tough for me lately. I played drums at the Wesley Foundation last Wednesday and the Kingdom Expansion Conference was this weekend at Riverstone Church. Both of these events were amazing! Out of fear of making this a super long post (and for the sake of your eyes and attention), I will discuss these later. But I will tell you that the Holy Spirit showed up in a MIGHTY way in Athens last week! More to come soon...

Grace and peace.

My Rock

These verses have kept me emotionally sane for the past several days. If you are struggling, or feel helpless or hopeless, and you need a little encouragement, take a gander:

Isaiah 26:4
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock Eternal


Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart...

If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge-then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.""

Grace and peace.

If I had a narrator

This is going to be a completely random, but hopefully fun post. I was watching T.V. this evening and a few of those GEICO commercials came on. You know the ones where Sally Smith isn't a "real actress" but they hired a "real actress/actor" to speak on her behalf. You have the likes of Peter Frampton, Michael Winslow, Joan Rivers, etc speaking about their accidents for them. It kind of reminds me of the Will Ferrell movie, Stranger than Fiction, where he can hear the narrator comment on his daily activities (I really like that movie by the way and I say it is a must see).

So my question to you is, if you could pick one actor or actress (or I guess anyone for that matter) to be the narrator of your life, who would it be?

For me I would pick Johnny Depp. I know that is kind of random and he has had his struggles in his past, but hey, haven't we all. I imagine he could tell one heck of a story and he would definitely provide a comedic unction to my story as he reads it. Laughing is a must. I find myself laughing at myself a lot...even when I'm alone!

Anyway, my selection was made pretty quickly. But I'm sure if I had more than a few minutes to think about it I could think of someone a little more meaningful (?) to my life. Which means, I expect a lot from you guys.

So, post a comment on who you would have as a narrator and say why.

Ok? Ready, go.

Grace and peace.

Tagged (last and probably least)

So Brad kind of tagged me today. I think he actually tagged Matt, but then said if Matt doesn't, then I'm up? I dunno...

1) I was born in Panama City, FL, which is neither full of white trash nor creepy, drunk high school kids

2) I've had a grand total of 10 surgeries in my life. One of those is when I took a ground ball right between my eyes which broke my nose (and knocked me out).

3) We moved around a lot growing up. The longest place I ever lived at was Athens, GA for undergrad and vet school.

4) Building on that, in my 4 years of being a vet I have killed (most of them purposefully) over 100 animals...but have saved at least 10 times that. Holla!! Booyah!

5) In my 3rd year of vet school our flag football team won the UGA championship (I was quarterback, no big deal)

6) I used to be able to make...umm...noises...umm...come out of a certain area on command. Me and two other guys would do this for entertainment but they were so much better than me (Kyle and Candler were the kings of "breathing")

7) I used to hate musical instruments when I was a little kid. Now I want to learn any and all of them.

8) I eat a lot of frozen dinners (insert Debbie Downer noise here). I'm eating one right now. Chicken, rice and broccoli = Yum (but definitely not as good as some fantastic shrimp and grits that I've had recently!)

9) I love the beach! The sound of waves hitting the shore is so peaceful. The ocean reminds me of God everytime I'm there.

10) I believe the worship of God will win the day where healings, miracles and true encounters with God are the norm!

Welp, is there anybody left? How about Duane or Sean Kirkland or even the Mann's?

11) I end every post with "Grace and peace" because that's what I want everyone to fully know and experience!

So as promised...

Grace and peace.

He enjoys me!

Yesterday was a good day. It started off with me leading worship at Stonebridge church, which was really good. I hate to sound like a broken record but I truly believe worship (whether leading, equipping other worship leaders, or both) is my Kingdom calling for my life here on earth. Anyway, worship was sweet yesterday morning. The band consisted of Mike Bedingfield on drums, Mark White on bass and Gary Austin singing background vocals and mixing in some harmonica. I felt as if most of the congregation was engaged with the Lord and I'm praying that they encountered Jesus (I did so I'm believing they did too!). The set list included:

Holy (Vineyard) --> We Will Embrace Your Move (Darrell Evans)
Come (own) --> All Who Are Thirsty chorus (Vineyard)
Holy God (Brian Doerkson)

Came to My Rescue

Then, Sunday evening I took on the storms and tornado warnings and drove over to Lawrenceville to the Sunday evening "Encountering God" service at the International House of Prayer. This was exactly what I needed! Most of the time I am the one either leading worship or playing on the worship team, and not "participating" with the body in worship. Anyway, one of my good friends, Caleb Andrews, was leading worship. Let me tell you, he has an incredible anointing on him to lead worship. His sensitivity to the Spirit is impeccable. Worship, as you can imagine, was awesome! There is a freedom in worship at the House of Prayer that is contagious. It is truly a place where all cares, worries and burdens fall to the side in the presence of the Almighty God! Singing, dancing, prophesying, weeping, etc are all the norm here (as it should be for any church service I might add).

Billy Humphrey, main guy over at IHOP-Atlanta, then came up and shared on the Foundation of Prayer. It was the 3rd part of a 3-part series on prayer (if you have Itunes you can get his sermons on podcast for free). The gist of the message was that the foundation of prayer is that God, Creator of the Universe, enjoys me! He delights in us as we come to Him in prayer. A trap that I continually find myself in is that I view prayer as a task. Checked that box, now it's time to move on to my next task of the day. Oh Believers how mis-guided was I?! You see, God designed prayer as a way to communicate with Him and tap into His heart. If you take any Communications course in school, you will learn that the key to communication is listening. Hello!! How much do I listen? Not very much, as sad as that is for me to confess. But it's true. The Lord is the Master Communicator BECAUSE He is the Master Listener. Think about it, He has the ability to listen to 6-some-odd billion people! Ponder on that one for a while.

But the beautiful thing is that He enjoys listening to us! How sweet would it be to "walk and talk with the Lord" like Adam did? Or like Noah did? Or like Enoch did? I can picture it now, the Lord comes strolling into the Garden (whistling perhaps? I don't know?) and calling for Adam. "Adam, it's time for our walk in the Garden!" The Lord has this incredible joy on His face and He walks and talks with Adam. I can hear Adam ask the question, "Lord, what are those bright things in the sky that shine when it's dark?" The Lord would then reply with a smile, "Adam, those are stars that are millions and billions of miles away and I formed each and every one of them." The Lord would then explained to Adam the mysteries of the Universe. Incredible! Now take Noah. He walked and talked with the Lord and the Lord told him to build an arc. If you remember, the earth had never experienced rain before! I'm sure Noah was like, "Lord, what's an arc?" He would then explain to Him that it is just like the boats they put go out on the lake with, but much much bigger. "But why am I building this arc?" Noah might then ask. The Lord replies, "Because I'm about to send a flood" and then He would explain to Noah what a flood is and what rain is.

So why would He do all of this? Because He enjoys communicating with us and He delights in us! As it says in Colossians 1, God took pleasure in sending His One and Only Son, God in the flesh, to earth. God took pleasure in having Jesus die on the cross, the most humiliating forms of death. Why? Because He takes pleasure in calling us His children (Ephesians 1).

Child of God, I pray that God will reveal to you His delight and enjoyment of you. I pray that He removes any shame or guilt or hidden sin or whatever it is in your life so that you can truly know this enjoyment. Believe me, it is very liberating! If you grab a hold of this truth, your prayer life will become pleasurable to you and it will not be a sense of duty anymore. The Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Beautiful One wants to communicate with you!!

How indescribable!!

Grace and peace.