The Low Down

C3 Conference Quotes - Ed Young Sessions

What an incredible day this has been. Today kicked off an amazing line of speakers and encouraging words from the Creative Communication's Conference (or C3) in Grapevine, Texas. This is my second year attending and today's communicators rocked the Word. Here are a few of the most incredible comments of the day and a brief description of the context they were used in from Pastor Ed Young.

Ed Young kicked off the day with an amazing message series entitled, "Crazy Pills". He mentioned that in ministry we come into contact with a lot of crazy people. Yes, there is a good crazy, but he was talking about the crazy crazy people. He said in his first session when talking about Daniel that, "Living a life of integrity allows you to eventually have opportunities to speak into people's lives." How true! We all remember the story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall in the book of Daniel. When it came time for an interpretation of the writing on the wall, Daniel was called upon - why? Because of his reputation as a man of God. Belshazzar had 12 hours to repent, his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had 12 months to repent. Neither one did. The truth is that we really don't often learn from history. Powerful words.

Ed also went on to talk about another crazy king, Darius the Mede. In Daniel chapter 6, Daniel is accused of not listening to Darius by some envious satraps. Scripture says that the accusers tell Darius that "they are saying that Daniel is not listening to the King". Darius' first mistake was not calling on Daniel to get the real scoop. Ed says that a good rule of thumb is to always ask who "they" are. Chances are that "they" is not a group, but is in fact only a small few. Another issue was that Darius was dealing with pride. The advisors encouraged Darius to make a decree that no one would pray to anyone for thirty days except to him. Cool? No. Guess who he didn't seek counsel from? Yep, Dan the man. Ed Young says, "A pride ride is a wicked ride." I was also encouraged when Ed said that we need to, "Feel free to release people over the issue of pride." You and I can't afford to allow prideful people to minister in our churches. We have to be willing to confront in love, that's what pastors do. He said that, "ministry is brut-iful". It's a job that occassionally requires us to get in people's grill in order to help them become who God wants them to be. He said that when, "Pride walks on the stage, God walks off." So we have to do our best to discern the hearts of our people and call them to live and walk hunbly before their God.

Another great thing Ed said when talking about tithing, money and faith in reference to the lead pastor, he said, "Pastors, if a businessman can explain the way that you financially run your church, then you probably aren't running it right." Think about that for a minute and let it sink in.

Session two with Ed this morning was amazing because he was completely transparent with us. He talked about tough moments in ministry for him. The Monday morning blues, dealing with a spirit of competitiveness. He used the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel. He said that, "After the showdown, there is always a let down." So we have to rest, refuel, and rely on God. He said to make sure we H.A.L.T. (Never make decisions when we are Hungry, Angery, Lonely, or Tired). Good stuff!

The two sessions with Ed were amazing. We also sat under the ministry of Bill Cornelius, Jentzen Franklin and Ben Young today. I'll be sure to share some of those quotes with you. So stay tuned for some more good stuff. God is just rocking my world and I am literally having the time of my life. Check back!

Dreams: The Opposition

Another important thing to remember about your God given dream is that, Not Everyone Will Understand it. So don't expect everyone that you share it with to buy into it heart and soul like you have. In fact, understand that your dream from God is precious. As the gospels say, be careful, "casting your pearls before swine." In other words, keep those things that are precious to you close. There will be scoffers and nay sayers (count on that). In fact, I think that's one area of wisdom that a young Mary had when she was given word by the angel of the Lord that she would be carrying the Christ child. Scripture says that she, "kept the word dear to her heart." I don't think she went about blabbing her dream. Who would have believed her anyway? The Son of God, born to a virgin? No way.

Now for Joseph, I think that we can learn some lessons from his story by the reaction and the opposition that he faced with his God dream. In Genesis 37, Joseph begins to spill out his two dreams and their interpretation in front of his ten big brothers. He begins to talk about sheaves of grain and I can just envision Levi shooting a blank stare at Simeon. Over on the opposite side of the family circle, Gad nudges Ruben with his elbow as Joseph begins to talk about the sun, moon, and the stars bowing down to him. The young, exhuberent and naive Joseph was pouring out his most precious ambitions with people whom he thought he could trust. Which points out to us that sometimes even the people closest to us, people who we would deem as "safe," will often disappoint us when it comes to the affirmation of our God dream for our lives.

I can remember as a young boy how difficult it was to learn to play the guitar. With only Alfred's guitar chord chart to learn from, I can remember grabbing a small acoustic guitar that I had received as a Christmas gift and I can remember plucking and strumming that little guitar until my families' ears were soar. Needless to say, if my hopes of playing the guitar were defined by the feedback that I received, I would have never learned how to play. But today I have the honor each Sunday of leading worship and playing with an incredible worship team. Every Wednesday night, I have the opportunity to lead students in some pretty incredible praise and worship.

The bottom line: You have to have a passion for God's dream that will drive you past the opposition. And you will face opposition. Scripture says that, "In this life you wil have trials, but take heart for I have overcome the world." Friend, God has given you a dream for a reason - it's simply because that dream fulfilled in you is the best possible you! So whatever the larger than life size dream that God has given you, learn to guard it with all of your heart!

Dreams: The Origin

As promised, I wanted to bring you a five part set of posts that God has spoken to me recently about "Dreams".

One of the most important parts of a dream is how it is concieved. Whether a dream is worth dying for or not depends upon the origin of that dream. What is the dream, and where did it come from? And probably even more importantly, who gave you the dream?

What we have to understand is that all dreams are birthed somewhere. The dream of a young boy to grow up and carry on the family business was one that was nurtured and passed on by family. The dream of a woman to find that fairy tale romance, marry, and have children was a dream that, though it is a good one, was probably developed in her as a little girl by the constant whispering of her culture.

The dream of a teenage boy Joseph, in Genesis 37, that his entire family would one day bow down before him, sounds like a wacked out dream. It sounds like a crazy, self-centered dream, but when we understand the origin of the dream and who the creator of the dream is...then it all begins to make a little more sense.

Sure, sometimes the dreams we have are just that - dreams WE have. And those dreams usually always fizzle out over time or they crash and burn. But when it comes to a God originated dream - though it may be larger than life, it will consume us.

As a young boy I wanted to play in the NBA. I grew up in Indiana and I loved to play basketball. Then I found out that a 5'2'' Sophomore doesn't typically make the team at a large high school. My dream was crushed when I was asked not to play, but instead fill the water bottles. On the flip side though - two years ago, I began a journey down an amazing road chasing a dream that God gave me as I began to write. Tonight, I received an email from the publisher that my book is going to be published (and I'm totally stoked!). The difference in the two dreams, one was mine - the other was God's dream for me.

Back to the story, why was Joseph's dream such a stretch? Because most of the time, God's dream for us can only be accomplished with Him by our side. In fact, I'm convinced that most of the dreams we have we can accomplish on our own - but God doesn't want us to be safe when it comes to our dreams for Him!

So think about it today - how big are your dreams? Are they God sized? Because if they aren't, then don't waste your time. Just ask Joseph!

Se7en is Back

I'm taking a little time to hang with my family tonight as we watch some TV and veg out. This week kicks off our annual Se7en series. I'm so excited about the messages that have been stirring in my heart. Se7en, as always, will be a blast - and I know this week will begin an incredible life changing series for us! More updates will be posted over the next eight weeks.

50 Down

50 miles down for the day. We are facing 10-15 mph head winds. It's quite a challenge! But we are having a blast and making an impact for the kingdom of God!

Courthouse Devotions

Is there any better way to kickoff a week then by spending it at the county courthouse? I actually had a great morning today. I was privileged to be able to lead about 15-20 district attorney's, judges, clerks, administrative assistants, and janitors in a 8 minute devotional and prayer time. It was really great, and the people were very attentive to what I had to say. I just briefly spoke about how sometimes in our lives we feel insignificant and as if the tasks that we do are menial, but I shared how it only takes the small things in life to really change a world. I talked about Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego and their simple, yet incredible stand for their God in refusing to bow before an image of gold. Daniel 3:27 says in the Message that all of the important people of their day saw their devotion and their lives were changed. So it only takes the small things in life to make a big impact. Keep that in mind as you move about your day today.

*More blogs on family to come this week, as promised!

Ministry, Mayo, and More Real Estate

Tonight I just watched one of the biggest shockers in Survivor history. It was awesome. I won't spill the beans for those of you who still need to go home and watch it on your Tivo's. But all I can say is, "Wow". Anyhow, I wanted to take a minute to bring you up to snuff on what all is going on in my world. After surviving tax week (and I do emphasis the word survive) we are back at it again in full speed. We had an awesome service last night at Ignition. Many students responded to the voice of God to pray and take on a burden for the lost. We believe for some awesome things as we plan for our big outreach coming up at the end of the month. We're calling it, "Rock the Night". More to come on the outreach later. Kate and I head to the all-church ministries conference early tomorrow morning. We have some meetings throughout the day with our awesome new DYD and then we are going to camp out in Owasso (north of Tulsa). Saturday will bring us the ministries conference and an opportunity to sit in and hangout a bit with Josh Mayo. Sunday morning I will have the opportunity to speak at Central. Pastor has asked me to speak and I am so excited about the opportunity. We're praying for an awesome move of God. God is doing some awesome things for us as we try to sell our home. We have moved realtors and we believe that we have placed the sale of our house in the hands of a good realtor. We're excited about all of the ideas that she is going implement as she attempts to sell our home. We'll definitely keep you posted on what all is happening there. So as you can see, it's going to be an awesome weekend. I hope yours is incredible also.

Teens in Ministry

I'm excited because as I type I am hanging out in a room full of teenage guys.  We are on a trip to Oklahoma City and we are participating in this year's Fine Arts Festival.  We are at Crossroads Assembly of God near Moore, Oklahoma.  The church is awesome and their hospitality has been incredible.  We are still up right now at 12 in the morning here in our room because we are waiting for some of the student's results to be posted online. 

I'm really proud of all of my students for their efforts.  The cool thing about ministry is that you can never lose.  Even if our students don't advance to the next level of competition they have (1) gained some incredible experience and (2) preached the Word of God which "never returns void".