Twitter Account

About a year ago I joined Twitter and used it about 5 times. So I decided just the other day to go ahead and be more active on that account. My plan is to use that and Facebook a little more and hopefully get some more people to read this blog. And I don't do that because I want to be "popular." I do write this simply for me and if anyone else wants to read then that's great. But I really love the idea of putting my thoughts in the open to start discussion. I guess we can call it iron sharpening iron. I really do seek discussion on a lot of topics.

But one problem I'm having is that I can't get my tweets to come up on Facebook and that's important to me. For some reason whenever I try to get the app for Twitter it doesn't work. Any suggestions or fixes to the problem?

The Key to Christianity

First of all I'm not a huge fan of the term "Christianity." Not because it isn't relevant or because it doesn't have good meaning. I just think it's become so broad and so general that it has come to fit too many things. I think I'm a little more of a fan of Christ-follower, Jesus lover, Jesus stalker, Christo-imitator, etc.

All that nonsense said I think the key to Christianity is brokenness.

I've talked about this before on here and I probably am not going to say anything incredibly new or insightful but I think that without brokenness we miss an incredibly huge point of following Christ. The main reason for my thought is this: Without brokenness, Christ cannot be Lord.

Think about it. One of my fav verses in the Bible is in Matthew 16. It is about taking up our cross and following. Those who save their life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will find it. The core of Christianity is following Christ and letting Him be in control. This cannot be done without brokenness, the act of saying God you and in control and I am not. Honestly, I hope everyone following Christ is daily praying for brokenness and humility because without it we are lost.

What are you thoughts?

First Impressions

I have recently realized that I am not very good at making good first impressions. I think my second impressions are good, but not my first ones. And I've decided that those first impressions are incredibly important for someone in sales and for any pastor. So, I am trying to do all I can to figure out how to make my first impressions better.

Any thoughts? Please share any advice you have one how you personally try to make a good first impression, or if there's any tips of anyone you know. Also, if you know me, anything you can think of for me that I do wrong or something else I should try?

T-Minus 7 Days

I have a new look now which means a few different things. 1) I'm going to start blogging again. 2) I have entered a new emotional stage of my life which we will talk about later. 3) It just looks cool.

Just wanted to let anyone that's checking that a week from today I will begin blogging again. New topics, new theme. No more whining and talking about how hard my life has been. The truth is, a corner as been turned and I am extremely excited about my life right now. For a long time, it has been hard for me to live in the NOW, in the present. Today, I am happy to say that TODAY will be a great day!

State of Broken

I am a firm believer that we are to be humble before God. I believe that God wants us to be in a constant state of submission to Him. I like to use the word broken. I think that God wants us broken so we have to rely on Him and so that He can fix us.

So my question is: "What does broken look like?"

Whenever I have been in a state of broken and I have been at my lowest. I have been beat up, destroyed, trampled on, maybe even abused (all spiritually - not actually physically). In those times, I have felt very close to God because I had no one else to turn. Then, it seems, I get back on my own two feet and I stop relying on God.

I actually like being in the state of broken. I cherish it, I long for it simply because it draws me closer to God. But what about when I'm not spiritually hurting? How do I remain in a state of broken or humility or submission? And the truth is that I may have already answered my own question but I feel the need to continue anyway. I like to be vulnerable even with "stupid" questions.

So, what does broken look like? Or am I maybe using the wrong word?

I Wanna Hang Out With Jesus

I wonder what's its like to hang out with Jesus. I continue to keep going through the Gospels to see what Jesus is really like, but there are some gaps that I am having a hard time filling.

Truth is, there are several people I look up to that have attributes I would like to have. But there is only one person that I admire so much that I want to look as much like him as I can - and that is Jesus.

What I'm curious about now is - what was it like to hang out with Jesus? And I mean that times that aren't recorded in the Bible. You know, just the two of us. Or just a small group of people. I mean, everyone loved to be around Christ, which made him a fun person, right? He had to have told jokes - so what jokes did he tell. I think he knew how to be the life of the party so at times, so what did that look like?

This is some of the stuff I wanna know so I can incorporate as much into my life as I can. I know that he always had the right thing to say. He always knew what to do and performed miracles at the drop of a hat. He was able to change people's lives and confront members in a crowd and leave them speechless and provoked thought. I want that in my life. But what I also want to know is what Jesus was like behind-the-scenes. Surely, he was all about his Father's business, but I also don't think he talked about his Father 100% of the time. I'm sure there was a side to Jesus that just hung out with friends. I wonder what that looked like.

No Preaching

Some times I really miss preaching, teaching, or coming up with any kind of new idea, lesson, etc. This is one of those weeks that I don't miss it at all. One of the tough things of pastoring is always coming up with stuff. Often times, that happens 2-5 times a week! Really? I'm supposed to be that creative all the time?

Well, this week if I had to do something I would absolutely be making it up or else we'd be watching a video or playing a game, because I got NOTHING. I can't even write a blog this week. Good thing I have them sorta stored up from other weeks (with that huge time without a computer I didn't write anything so I'm a little backed up.) I got nothing.

So what do you do when you have one of these kinds of weeks? Whether it's teaching Sunday School, preaching a sermon, counseling, writing a book/blog/anything, mentoring, etc. What do you do? Honestly, what do you do?