Monday, September 6, 2010
Encourage One Another at ALL times!
Today was an interesting day. First thing this morning, I watched the Lifechurch.tv message by Craig Groeschel about Toxic Words (here's the link: http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch/toxic/4). This was in preparation for small group tomorrow night and was recommended by my friend Tim Lemons (read his blog...awesome guy...www.timlemons.com). Then later on in the day, I went by Redbox to redeem my free monthly rental code and saw the movie TO SAVE A LIFE. Just finished watching it and it was an awesome movie for both youth and adults. After watching Craig's message and then watching TO SAVE A LIFE, I was convicted about sometimes using toxic words. I feel like at times that I am really good at building people up and encouraging them as it says to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 but other times I either fail to say anything when I should say something encouraging or even worse...I use toxic words. Craig suggested in his message that if you feel or see something good about someone else...tell them! I am going to try to make a more concentrated effort to do this and I want to encourage everyone else to do the same. If everyone made an effort to encourage each other and build each other up, just imagine how so many hurts and anxieties would be eliminated. One person CAN make a difference in someone's life. What if someone had taken the time to encourage and build up the Virginian Tech shooter? What if someone had taken a few minutes out of their busy day to listen to someone that committed suicide? What if you saw an old friend that may be down and out and avoided them because you didn't have time to listen? Our words do have an effect on people and we need to all be ever careful of what comes out of our mouths. Proverbs 11:9 says: "With their words, the godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous." As my friend Erinn says...Just sayin!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Serving God
While at church this morning working in tech crew, I was checking twitter periodically and it dawned on me that virtually my entire small group was serving God this morning in different ways and in different locations (except for those on vacation). Folks from my group were serving at 3 different campuses of Highlands Fellowship this morning...Johnson City, Bristol and Abingdon and we were all tweeting about it. I can't even begin to tell you what it feels like to be a part of a group that totally "gets it" and can serve God together (in one place - e.g. Amplify) or can go their separate ways and each serve with the different gifts that God has allowed them to have. We are a REALLY diverse group as far as our gifts are concerned but we all complement each other extremely well! If you're not in a Life Group then you are missing out on one of the biggest blessings that God gives us!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The power of Small Groups
Check out this blog from Daniel Thomas...it's pretty awesome:
http://danielthomaslive.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/breaking-free/
http://danielthomaslive.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/breaking-free/
Amplify 2010
A few thoughts on Amplify 2010:
1. I was really amazed at how God showed up at Amplify and turned chaos into order. He does this EVERY time we have a major event at Highlands...EVERY time!!! I have almost gotten to the point where I don't even doubt at all that an event is going to be successful. In my beginning days at Highlands I would work an event and I would just KNOW that there was absolutely no way that an event was was going to work or be successful. There was so much craziness and last minute chaos that you were just sure it was going to fail...BUT THEN GOD ALWAYS SHOWED UP and the events have always been a success. I think he likes to remind us that He is still in control...LOVE THAT!
2. I am so proud of EVERYBODY in my small group...every single member of my small group served the youth at Amplify. Several of the guys and one girl from group stayed the whole week with the kids (now that's commitment) and one of our guys broke his wrist the first night and went straight back to camp as soon as he left the ER....that's some major commitment too. Another one of the guys got a broken nose during camp and stayed the whole time.
3. I have to say that I think I am in one of the greatest small groups ever...I don't know what life would be like without my small group. I am very thankful that God has allowed me to be a part of something this awesome. We have an awesome time together whether we're goofing off, worshiping God together, serving together or sharing our joys or hurts together. I can't wait till Amplify 2011 so we can all serve together again.
4. I must admit that in the beginning and almost up until the end, I wasn't sure if camp had made a major impact on the kids involved. They were having fun and goofing off and there were some signs here and there that they were "getting" it but I felt like overall that maybe it was just a vacation time for them....little did I know that God WAS there in a MAJOR way. I love when He does that...(see my next point).
5. The last night at camp was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I had no idea that so many kids were living with such pain and hurt in their lives. We had a testimony time out in a field with a bonfire and although is started out slow and I didn't think anyone was going to give their testimony at first...it picked up and there were eventually kids standing in line (along with some of the volunteers) waiting to tell their story and how God had changed their lives either this week or in the past. They just kept coming and coming and coming and I think we could have stayed there all night with them. There were so many kids and volunteers crying together and loving on and hugging each other...it was truly an amazing experience! I feel so blessed to have been a part of this event and thank God for allowing me to experience it with my small group!
1. I was really amazed at how God showed up at Amplify and turned chaos into order. He does this EVERY time we have a major event at Highlands...EVERY time!!! I have almost gotten to the point where I don't even doubt at all that an event is going to be successful. In my beginning days at Highlands I would work an event and I would just KNOW that there was absolutely no way that an event was was going to work or be successful. There was so much craziness and last minute chaos that you were just sure it was going to fail...BUT THEN GOD ALWAYS SHOWED UP and the events have always been a success. I think he likes to remind us that He is still in control...LOVE THAT!
2. I am so proud of EVERYBODY in my small group...every single member of my small group served the youth at Amplify. Several of the guys and one girl from group stayed the whole week with the kids (now that's commitment) and one of our guys broke his wrist the first night and went straight back to camp as soon as he left the ER....that's some major commitment too. Another one of the guys got a broken nose during camp and stayed the whole time.
3. I have to say that I think I am in one of the greatest small groups ever...I don't know what life would be like without my small group. I am very thankful that God has allowed me to be a part of something this awesome. We have an awesome time together whether we're goofing off, worshiping God together, serving together or sharing our joys or hurts together. I can't wait till Amplify 2011 so we can all serve together again.
4. I must admit that in the beginning and almost up until the end, I wasn't sure if camp had made a major impact on the kids involved. They were having fun and goofing off and there were some signs here and there that they were "getting" it but I felt like overall that maybe it was just a vacation time for them....little did I know that God WAS there in a MAJOR way. I love when He does that...(see my next point).
5. The last night at camp was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I had no idea that so many kids were living with such pain and hurt in their lives. We had a testimony time out in a field with a bonfire and although is started out slow and I didn't think anyone was going to give their testimony at first...it picked up and there were eventually kids standing in line (along with some of the volunteers) waiting to tell their story and how God had changed their lives either this week or in the past. They just kept coming and coming and coming and I think we could have stayed there all night with them. There were so many kids and volunteers crying together and loving on and hugging each other...it was truly an amazing experience! I feel so blessed to have been a part of this event and thank God for allowing me to experience it with my small group!
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