Humility

Did you know that the disciple John (who wrote the book of John) never mentioned himself directly in his book. The name "John" does appear 20 times in the book, but is never used to mention the author. It is also believed that the disciple John was very close to Jesus. This meaning even closer than other disciples. He was probably only 17 -19 years old when he started following Jesus. Maybe Jesus clung to him because of his youth. Maybe because he knew that John would be able to care for his mother after his death and ascension. Maybe he was close to John because he just clicked with him. Regardless of why they were so close, the question remains, why did John never mention himself in his Gospel writing?

Many Christians find that they go through certain stages in there lives with Jesus. One stage I know I went through and sometimes still flirt with, is forgetting why I do and love ministry. You see, John saw the bigger picture. His gospel wouldn't be remembered for who he (John) was. It would be the starting point for many Christians biblical reading because of who Jesus was and is.

As people living in and of this world we live with tremendous pride. But one stage of regeneration through Christ MUST BE HUMILITY! We will not be remembered for who we are as people, but who we influence for eternity through JESUS!

We as Christians MUST remind ourselves to be disciples of John's awesome humility. One thing I pray often before I go into a ministry situation is that it wouldn't bring me glory, but would bring Him glory.

"He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30

Pride to Humility.

AG

The Blood

Have you ever felt like you have been climbing a hill for a long time and can finally see the peak right in front of you? The past six months have been so refreshing for my family. We have gone through a lot, but most has been so good! God has blessed me with so much (My newborn daughter, and buying the new house is probably the coolest). I still feel like I am climbing, but seeing God bless your life right in front of your face is so amazing! Most of the time it is easy to see God looking back at your life past, and hard to see him in the present and future. Not now... this season in my life I can actually say I can clearly see His hand at work in my past, present, and future!



With that said, yesterday I saw how quickly that could be altered. Miranda and I were on our way down to James Island to give blood at our church. We did not have the kids with us. We were at the intersection of I-526 and Highway 17. Turning left onto 17 we had a red light. It turned green and I hit the gas. The car next to us honked his horn (I assume to get my attention) and as I looked to my left, a car barrelled through the red light from my left running the red light at about 50 MPH. I hit my brake just in time to have him zoom right past the front of my car. If it weren't for that guy to my left honking, I would have been T-Boned... and I don't think it would have felt to good. Kind of ironic that I was going to give blood, and had a near death (or at least a near "bad accident") experience.



The bible teaches that it is the blood of Christ that gives us life and redeems us:

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18, 19)



"How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Heb 9:14)



Pastor Joey made the announcement on Sunday asking us to give blood this week. He said something that made me look up and pay attention (that is big for a guy with A.D.D.). He said something like this... 'If we call ourselves Christians, then giving blood is one of the most practical way to show the love of Christ since it was the giving of His blood that saved us!' Me giving blood yesterday may not have led someone directly to Christ, but just maybe it saved someones life and gave them more time on this earth to hear and experience Jesus... and maybe that person will later give their life to Jesus.



Two things I want you to get out of this post: First, it is because of the shedding of Jesus' blood that we can call ourselves Christians. Second, if you are a Christian... I think you should feel obligated to give blood, since it was His blood that saved you.



If you would like to give blood, South Carolina is in great need right now. Please visit the American Red Cross website and sign up today at a local blood drive. Just as Pastor Joey said on Sunday... Most of you will simply say "Yeah, I am going to do that!" and then never do it. If you said while reading this that you are going to do that. Do me and the person your blood might save a favor, STOP what your doing right now and go to the website and find out how to give blood right now. Do not wait. They need your blood. Thanks!



In His Blood,

AG

I Am Prejudice!

Got your attention yet?

OK... it's 10:00 a.m. Sunday June 8th 2008. I have just arrived at Seacoast James Island, SC (My Church). We are starting the ONE Prayer series. Jesus says in John 17:20-24, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world."" Wow! I know a lot of Christians that need to hear this message. You know the ones that criticize other churches for being to edgy with worship. Or the ones that if you wear flip-flops to church your going to hell. The ones that say if you speak to a member of the opposite sex, your sinning! We all have meet the overbearing, self-righteous Christians that think they are the only "true" Christians in the world. How dare they! We all need to be one... they should accept the fact that not all that don't see everything the way they see it are going to hell.

Ok, you might be asking yourself how the title of this message fits the words of this message. Hold on, here it comes. It is 11:45 p.m. Sunday June 8th 2008 and I am leaving the service feeling good. Feeling that the pastor let those holier than though Christians a spiritual beating! That message was for them, not me! Right?

Fast forward to yesterday. We were enrolling our 3 yr old on K-3 Kindergarten at an unnamed Baptist church. In walks what looks like the Pastor and his wife. The man in his late 60's has a neat but obvious comb-over and a suit (it's 100 degrees outside). His wife is wearing a pee green shoulder puffed ankle dress (again, IT'S 100 DEGREES!!!!) I think to myself, "pshhhh.... these people probably think me with my flip flops and torn jeans is a sinner bound for hell. They probably look at my wife's shorts and deem them to short for a Christian. They probably think we are bad parents to our two children."

IN FLIES THE BRICK WALL... **SLAM** God slaps me over the face and says "shoulda had a V8!" I was thinking and acting like those that I was pointing fingers at on Sunday. I was thinking down on them with no evidence just because of the way they dressed! God taught me this week that it isn't just the puffy shouldered ankle dress ladies, and old comb over men that are looking down on other Christians... I do it to! Hey if really weird dresses and comb-overs work for you... see you in heaven!

Next time you leave a church service pointing your hearts finger at someone else... stop and analyze your own life.... maybe you should be pointing your finger at yourself... I know I should have!

AG

Vandalism For Chirst!

Today we went to a rockin' church service that reminded me of how badly I want find and grow people into the body of Christ. The Pastor spoke about Luke chapter 5. The story of the men who lowered the paralyzed man down through the roof where Jesus was speaking. He taught that the men could have easily said that the house was to crowded and that Jesus was inaccessible for them and their paralyzed friend. But, they climbed to the roof and ripped the flippin' tiles off the roof to get him into Jesus' presence! Gotta love vandalism for Christ! So, next time you are in a situation and the door is shut in your face, don't think "Well, God has shut the door... it must not be his will." Rather, climb to the roof and rip a whole in the ceiling before you say it isn't God's will!

AG

Monsters in the Closet

My son loves the movie Monsters Inc. He literally will watch it every evening before he goes to bed. He yells "MONSTERS, MONSTERS!". He isn't yelling in fear, but in anticipation for the movie. For those of you who do not know the movie, please crawl out from the rock you are hiding under and get with times! No, seriously it is about an alternate dimension that exists on the other side of children's bedroom closet doors. At night, the monsters come in through the closet door and scare kids to capture there screams in little bottles that supply power to the Monster world. Cute concept right? Well, they make it surprisingly cute and not scary. But for a two year old I think there are certain parts that scare them. Not enough for Little Andy to NOT want to watch it, because he constantly wants to watch it.

Lately though, Andy has been having night terrors. he will awake from a dead sleep and scream bloody murder. I started thinking of what could be scaring him that much. I asked him one night (Andy is 2, but he is surprisingly articulate and carries on conversations very well with adults), and he said he was scared of the monsters. I never taught him what a monster was, so he had to get this from the movie.

He loves the movie, yet at night he realizes the reality (or childhood reality) of what a monster really is. It is something ugly, scary, evil, and down right wrong! While he watches the movie he couldn't imagine doing anything else because it is soooo fun! But at afterward, at night, he realizes that he wished he never introduced this evil movie into his mind!

**Side Note: If you are thinking I am making a statement about Monsters Inc. being an evil movie, please try again. Stay tuned for my punchline.**

A lot like sin isn't it. During the act of sin we couldn't imagine doing anything else, but after we commit the sin, we wish we never strolled down that evil path of human nature. Regret is almost inevitable after sin. Just like the movie, it seems fun for a while, but is a scary reality afterwards. It is our sinful nature.

Listen to what Paul (One of the most influential writers of the New Testament) had to say about HIMSELF! Pay close attention to the final statement in verse 25!

Romans 7 : 14 -18 / We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Romans 7 : 21 - 25a / So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

It is not a profound spiritual statement that I am making here, but it is the basis of what being a Christian really means. We are totally reliant on Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross, just as Paul was! It is simply nice to remind ourselves of that central truth from time to time. My son happened to remind me. :)

Life Update

So, here is what is up with me lately

- Chris (little Chris) told me that I never blog anymore... atleast I know someone reads this.
- Coastal life is awesome! We go to two services on January 6th.
- God is guiding Miranda and I through a time of trusting in his guidance. Sometimes that is REALLY scary!
- We are at Pastor Jeremiah and Cyndi's apartment.
- I am speaking tomorrow night at youth group. Very excited! It has been since May that I spoke to them.
- I am reading through the prophet books of the old testament. Right now Joel.
- I really want to be in full time ministry. God will provide.
- Halo 3 is awsome!
- I am getting fat... gotta lose weight.
- We ate tostados at Jeremiah's. MMMmmm...
- OH YEAH!!! WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!! WAHOO!!!
- Her name is going to be Ainsley Marie Eden Gill (probably).
- She is going to be soooo spoiled.
- I love my church
- I love God
- I'm tired. Good night.

AG

Worldy Sorry vs. Godly Sorry

Why is it that our culture has retarded the word repentance. We have all been guilty of it. "Jesus, I REPENT of my sins, I'm sorry I (fill in the blank). Please forgive me." WHY ARE YOU BEGGING GOD TO FORGIVE YOU!?!?!?! He already has! Now, before you get all upset, I am not saying we don't need to ask for repentance of our sins, but what exactly is repentance? What does God's Word tell us about the word repentance? What does the language of Jesus say about the word repentance.

The Hebrew word for repent ( התחרט ) is to be sorry, regretful for one's actions, but also to return, turn back, or restore oneself to a place of holiness. It is a verb; an action requiring you to actually change something. The Hebrew for repentance ( חרטה ) is an actual returning, or retirement, or withdrawal from something. The Greek word for repentance (μετανιώνω or metaniono) means changing one's mind of something already done. A change is involved in all of these definitions. "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,..." (Acts 3:19) Did you catch the "and turn to God" part? Hey, I didn't say it... the Holy Spirit said it.

Have you ever known those people that say "I know (blank) is a sin, but God forgives sin, so it is OK to do it.". I want to smack that person in the forehead. The Bible says in 1 John 2: 3 - 6, "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." Maybe they should actually live by his commands. That is true repentance. God is not an enabler of wicked ways, he is a transformer. He doesn't allow us to live the way we want to freely, He convicts us to live the way Jesus did.

Jeremiah 5:3, "O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent." Some of us get hit over the head by God and still refuse to repent (change). Ever had to hit rock bottom before you changed your ways? Are you on your way to rock bottom now?

"For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." (2 Corinthians 7:10) This is Miranda's new favorite verse. God says that there is such a thing as a worldly "sorry". It is the one that keeps leading to death. Instead, the sorrow that is according to the will of God is a sorrow that leads to repentance (which we know means "a change").

So, for the Christian that is stuck in their ways of saying sorry to God, maybe try asking Him for strength to actually CHANGE instead of saying sorry. For the Christian that says on Friday morning ' God will forgive me for what I will do tonight' THINK AGAIN! For the Christian that feels like they are heading for rock bottom, maybe try truly repenting before you feel the full wrath of God. And for the Christian that says sorry but has no passion behind the idea of changing... are they really sorry? Maybe not. Remember that God judges the heart and not the mouth. Listen to this,"If you love me you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15).

AG