A great sermon I heard today

http://marshill.com/media/trial/marriage-and-men

Watch it, I have nothing better to write about today.

Expanding the Kingdom

Tonight was my first night leading the men's discipleship group. I got everything together for our meeting the night before and was looking forward to it all day and just prayed that God would show up tonight and he did. It was a much smaller group, only four of us. We got into great and deep conversation about what it means to follow God in our lives and making decisions for doing our relationships with others the way he made us to. At the end, I asked one of the guys if he had ever made a decision to follow God because it came up that he had never been baptized. Once we found out that he had not, we just came around him and loved on him and told him that today is the day of salvation if he wants it and is ready to make that commitment. We asked him some questions and informed him about some of the costs and benefits of following God. He made a decision and we led him through a prayer for Jesus to cover over his sins and to commit to following God. We gave him the schedule of when we are meeting for college group and church. It was such a great experience. I definitely feel like I was not ready for what God was doing tonight. I felt inadequate to lead this man to Christ, but really it was just a lie. God can do impossible things as long as we obey him. So God thank you for not letting my limited view of the possible to hinder others from going forward in you and finding your salvation. I pray that everything that I said that was false would be forgotten and that your truth would remain. Teach me to speak only what you have given to say. And Father, I love that you rejoice over the one lost sheep that is found because I know that I was once that person and you still sing your song over me. Help me to faithfully administer the grace you have given me to others. All praise, glory and honor is yours forever.
Thank you Jesus!

Principles of Perseverance

Well, if you are following my blog you know it has been awhile since I wrote last. It was all do to a little thought in my head that I could skip a day and do two blogs to cover them both. It started out as an idea that led to a laziness of not getting back to it until now. Since I stopped writing each night, my discipline has dwindled and have retained less of what God has been doing each day in my life. So I hope to get back into a regular writing to keep a record of what God has been doing.
Today I got to go downtown Charleston and serve food to people and pray for them. It was a great experience. One lady saw us praying for someone and started crying in her car, that was unexpected. I also just got to meet with some people from Florida and Columbia, SC. It was awesome to serve with people like that.
I hope that I will not convince myself that taking a day off would be okay.
Lord help me to persevere and to not something that I know is good.

Day 11 Sleep

The reality of my limited time is beginning to set in. I realize that I cannot let my soul sleep while my destiny passes me by. I woke up this morning, but her I did not know if I should get up because of work, but instead of deciding I just let the time past and never made a decision other than being complacent. The time in the morning will be the only time I may have to myself to really seek God later in life when I have a family, job, and ministry and whatever else might be going on.
We were talking about fearing God over fearing men as we studied Saul. We also talked about what it truly means to be a disciple. It calls us to follow Him, to yield fruit, to love our brothers in Christ, and to revere Him above all else.
I am thankful for God showing me new things everyday and working with me and my fallen flesh to make me new.

Day 10 Fellowship

Today was a great day, it was really nice to get up early and spend time with the Lord. I know that everyday I might not have the same energy to do so, but it sure was great. I was able to get a lot of reading, prayer and memorization in. I started to memorize through 1 John. I did not have much time to review stuff later, but hopefully I can make some good headway through it before the end of the week. 1 John gives such clear evidences to tell whether we belong to Christ or not. It really has been challenging me to "walk in the light as he is in the light". Today at work someone told me to tell him something good. It was a perfect opporunity to tell Him about Christ and about some of the things he has been doing in my life recently, but I completely blew it and said I don't know. "I Don't Know?!!!" I mean what is up with that. I have the best news in the history of mankind to share and all I could say is I don't know. I pray that next time I have such an obvious opportunity to share I do not hesitate.

Later that day one of my friends called me up and said he wanted to get together to pray and hang out. At first I really did not feel like it. I just wanted to come home after the long day at work and take a nap or something. But man was I deluded, when he showed up it was so refreshing to hear what God was doing in his life. After some catching up we worshiped together and then ate some dinner. After that we went into this like free worship mode or something and just started praising God. Some of it sounded pretty cool and then his presence came and we knew it was time to pray.

The night just turned out to be such a blessing and I am so glad my friend came over and that I could open up my apartment to another. I pray that I could desire and seek more times like this and not be so indignant, but hungry for his presence. That night we claimed the scripture "Where two or more are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." Matt. 18:20

Day 9 Church, Taco Bell, and Super Bowl

Today was a great day at church, I really had one of the best times of worship I have had in a while, it was also a great opportunity to tell God how much I love Him. The pastor started a new series in Songs of Solomon giving biblical advice and applications concerning courtship, marriage, and our relationship with Jesus as our Groom. I learned about how his kisses are intoxicating, his character is fragrant, and his communion is intimate. It is sometimes uncomfortable to think of God as a lover, like a romantic lover, but he did create it after all. He even relates the coming of Jesus to the picture of a wedding where the church, his bride, will be presented to her groom, Jesus. God wants us to be intimate and close to Him, but we must be willing to receive his love we have to be face to face not having our back turned. I also learned that the Song of Solomon was read every year at Passover in Jewish tradition, which was a day of remembering God's deliverance from enslavement to the Egyptians.

Afterwards I went to Taco Bell and had another awesome discussion with my friend about life and just shared what God was teaching us. I was also able to encourage Him about getting himself prepared not only for employment, but also for marriage. If you think about what kind of person he would want for a daughter of his to marry, that should be the same standard to hold for himself. We also found out that we were both reading in the exact same place in the Bible. Of course this is after we had been reciting verses to each other that God had been speaking into our lives recently and recognizing that God had been showing us the same things because we were reading in the same book. We had a good laugh afterwards and praised God that he orchestrated it that way.

Later that night I went to a Super Bowl party at the church and it was really fun. It was cool that they blacked out the advertisements and played christian music videos during the breaks. For half-time we saw the testimonies of three football players who all had superbowl rings, but considered Christ more precious than any thing else. It was really encouraging and way better than the ridiculous Madonna idol worship that was on the TV. I was working in the sound booth at the time and I saw glimpses of the monitor of what was happening and it looked repulsive to me.
It was nice to have a super bowl party where you did not have to be bombarded with worldly messages every five minutes. For the most part I did not even watch the game, but was able to fellowship with my Summerville church family.

day 8 The Week

So it has been over a week now officially since I started this adventure, and today my Mom visited and we went out to see some things in Charleston. We went to a beautiful plantation and saw the amazing grounds. It was so nice to enjoy the nature trails and to just kneel down and smell a flower or pet a horse or chase some turkeys/be chased by turkeys. I just felt like a little boy enjoying life, I wanted to climb some of the trees, but that was not really allowed. I really am thankful I could go see such a beautiful and historical place. It makes me appreciate the slower pace and peace of those times while still remembering the evils of slavery in those times.
Later we went on a horse drawn carriage tour ride through the downtown area. Our guide was really funny and had some interesting history to tell. The town was pretty, but it is also one of the biggest drinking cities in the country with a history of having a ratio of a tavern to every 17 people. It has a very dark and storied history, but is also filled with stories of destruction and rebuilding, that through the fires and earthquakes the history of the town has been maintained and gives a good snapshot of life in the early 1800s.
Today has truly been a sabbath rest from the Lord, and I am thankful for it especially since yesterday was such a trying day. So thank you Daddy!

Day 7 Humility

Today God taught me at work just how much I depend on Him. If I am not doing things his way and asking for help from Him I am literally blind to what I need to do. Today I did not spend as much time with Him in the morning and was not asking for God's help at work today beyond just getting up and reading. When I arrived at work things were just not going right. It seemed as if everything was just falling apart and they were. My samples on the standard showed up way below specifications, machines I used broke, things that should be easy were difficult, at one point I was even blind to something that was literally right in front of me. My blindness sent me into a panicked rummaging through a garbage can for something I had lost. I think I may have been rummaging through the garbage of my past only to find the anxious, stressed out David I knew in high school. My co-worker saw my insanity and suggested I take a break and against my worst judgement I conceded. I prayed that God would forgive me of my pride and that I needed him to get through my day. He changed my perspective and opened my eyes to see what really was happening. I was shown that my witness at work is not just about how I can do things well, but about how I handle things when they are falling apart. The world does not need a perfectionist, but someone who trusts wholly in Christ.
God change me and mold me to be your light in the workplace and not forget how dependent I am on you.

Day 6 Priorities

As time seems to be getting shorter. The battle of getting enough sleep, spending time with the word, and fellowship outside of my normal work schedule is getting tougher. I was encouraged today at work to really do my work as unto the Lord doing it diligently and serving my other co-workers as best I can even if it means doing work that is normally mundane or not related to my job function. But a title at work never precludes a christian from being a servant in the workplace, as long as you still do what your job requires. Sometimes I feel that I need to have the right arguments to sway people to follow Christ, but all you need is Christ. As Paul wrote, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. The witness of Christ himself and the pure message of the gospel holds all that is necessary to silence any arguments that stand up against us. So in desiring to allow God into the marketplace we use weapons that are not of this world to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor. 10:5

God continues to answer prayer and reveal new things to me everyday. Help me not to fear man, but rather to fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Teach me what it practically means right now to work out my salvation in fear and trembling and to walk in the calling of Christ. "That if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

Day 5 Taking Ground

I will try to be brief today, but concise. At work there were walls falling down. They started to fall the day before, but today I had my first real spiritual conversation with men that had believed and gone to church most of their lives, but seem to have allowed the world to conform them into its mold. I was able to speak some of things I have been learning from God recently into these men's lives. I do not remember ever teaching men three times my age anything before, but I know I cannot take credit for what the Spirit taught me. These men opened up their lives and we shared true fellowship with one another and God made my mission more clear to me in this work place. My conversation with them showed me just how much darkness there is in the American workplace. People you ask will talk about church for many hours, but when it comes to real, life changing relationship and walking with Jesus, people get pretty quiet.

Lord, I pray that as you have called be to be salt, use me to preserve and flavor my workplace and community with the life and joy that only you can bring. As you have called me to be light, use me to go to the darkest places to shine the light of your good news and healing truth that can bring the freedom and fulfillment that you created us all to desire. I do not know all your ways for they are above mine, but help me to only do what I see you doing and to not be afraid to hit the gas pedal when I have handed you the wheel. Thank you Lord for your goodness and faithfulness, they truly are new every morning and never fail.