Walking with Jesus

. God is the reason for everything that happens in life. His is the end to which all things aim and the beginning from which they all flow. He is the Genesis and the Revelation. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Beginning and the End; the Past, the Present, and the Future. His breath is the tide of life. His gaze supports the pillars of Time and Eternity. His glory gives purpose to the atom and the universe. His Name is Life’s Goal. God. God. He is complete, final, sustainable, enough. He is Holy. He is the only true Other; the only Uncreated Creator of everything. God is the I AM. God is the basis for every story, the beginning of every hope, the foundation for every societal organism, the truth behind every belief. It all starts with God and (no matter how much we corrupt it, manipulate it, fight it, or ignore it) it will all end with God as well. His is the Great Story. God is the Grand Protagonist. God is the reason for everything that happens in life. Believe ...

"Then were crucified with him two robbers, one on the right and one on the left...Likewise, the robbers who were crucified with him reproached him." Matthew 27:38,44 "One of the crucified criminals blasphemed him, 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself, and us!' But the other rebuked him, saying, 'Don't you fear God? You are under the same judgment. Indeed, we are judged justly, but this man has done nothing wrong.' And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.' And he said to him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise.'" Luke 23:39-43 Then what? What was it like for these two men as they watched Jesus die? Have you ever dared to consider it? Did the one hope and fight off doubt as he struggled for each breath? Did he wonder how many more times he would have to press up on the nails in his ankles before he found relief? Did he laugh at the ridiculousness of fighting to live whe...

I haven't written much about my marathon experience, so I wanted to share a few moments with you. I changed corals (start groups) twice trying to get in with a pace group, so I wouldn't run too quickly or too sowly, but when I got to the race there was no pace group in the coral I was in. So, I had to guess at my pace. It ended up being a little fast, which hurt me in the end. The first half of the race felt really good. There were portions here in particular where crowds lined the streets with signs and anxious searching looks and they watched for their family member, friend or loved one to run by. It would have been easy to miss someone, but person after person was found along the way. At mile two I saw Olivia, standing in front of the Alamo. Periodically, there were tables lining both sides of the road filled with cups of water and cytomax (a frankly nasty sports drink) with volunteers handing out cups, talking to each other, and cheering us on like they actually knew wh...

Thank you, Jesus, for giving me strength to finish and for running with me. Thank you, Olivia, for believing in me and keeping me motivated. Thank you, Gracey, for waiting for me at the finish line (with Mommy). Thank you, Friends and Family, for your notes and your prayers. 4 hours, 43 minutes 2473rd of only 5813 runners who finished the full marathon. 20021 runners finished the half-marathon. About 5000 were not able to finish the race!

This morning, we're on our way to San Anotonio to run in the San Antonio Rock-N-Roll Marathon. This is my first marathon, and I'm excited about it. We've been training for over 6 months and I feel really good about it. So, this Sunday morning, pray for me as I run. Pray also for God to be glorified, because that is my hope for this. I don't know how that will happen, but I believe it is possible. Pray for Jesus to give me the right thoughts and prayers as I run. I'm running for Olivia. I'm running for myself. I'm running for the Lord. Maybe it should be the San Antonio GOD ROCKS Marathon!

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."  * Ephesians 6:12 "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war , testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war . We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detr...

I think the most important thing a Senior Pastor does is equip the believers in his congregation to serve God. God has a purpose for his people. There’s a reason we are called to grow in Christ, discover our individual ministries, and even face opposition. God is on a mission to reconcile the world to himself, and he is inviting us to participate in that mission. In fact, he’s decided that our participation is critical to accomplishing his mission in the way that brings him the most glory and honor. A Senior Pastor leads others to join God in this mission by equipping them to serve God. Serving God involves acknowledging God as Holy, worshiping God for who he is, praising him for what he has done, revering him as Lord, trusting him as Savior, knowing him as Father, and obeying him as King. Ephesians 4:11-13 says, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service,...

There are several people who have influenced my theology and my philosophy of ministry. Dr. James Shields, my preaching professor at Hardin-Simmons, challenged me to test my calling to the ministry, to always give my best, and to communicate truth to God’s people with integrity, clarity, and God-fearing authority. Dr. H.K. Neely, my first Dean, taught me to see the Christian story as a whole, rather than just my own narrow experience of God’s work across the centuries. Another professor, Dr. Larry McGraw, introduced me to the rationality of the Old Testament and taught me the difference between a biblical translation and a paraphrase. Others have also influenced me over the years. C.S. Lewis’ depiction of Jesus as Aslan was a foundational image in my understanding of the power and grace of the Son of God. He later inspired my even more while I was doing my Thesis on the Christology in The Chronicles of Narnia and reading the bulk of his writings. Likewise, J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation ...

In college, I was blessed to be a leader in ministry, though I wasn’t always a good one. I participated in mission trips, led a fellowship ministry, and was chosen to lead a drama ministry. I was passionate about it, but I had a lot to learn. I learned that motivating volunteers is very different than instructing employees. I learned to humble myself before those I was tryng to lead instead of being heavy-handed. I learned to plan, organize, and execute worship services. And, I learned to always keep learning. In seminary, I learned how to prepare a sermon, exegete a passage of Scripture, and wrestle with theologically difficult ideas. I learned how to reach out to culture and recognizethe changing world of faith as the chruch loses its place at the center of the town square. I also learned how to stand for truth, love the Scriptures, and find common ground for worshiping the living God. In church ministry, I learned how to function as part of a team. I learned from experience how...

I was ten when I first accepted Jesus as Lord. It was early March 1984, about a month after my birthday. Until then I’d been a normal church-attending kid. I went to class, sang songs, and colored or pretended as I sat through the sermon. It seems I always liked church, but when I turned ten I was suddenly struck with the need in my life for a savior and the reality of who Jesus really wanted to be in my own life. We attended Abilene Bible Church at the time. It was still located on Butternut Street and I remember with particular clarity those few intervening Sunday mornings walking past the open stone Bible by the front door. I knew God was asking me to respond, and each time our family entered the church I was struck with uncertainty as I walked by that Bible. Likewise, I was filled with the shame and confussion of my rejection each time I left that building without responding to his call. The matter demanded urgency, but was too important and life-altering to be rushed into wit...

I want to thank Olivia for my new blog header. She worked really hard on it and I'm so thankful. She's so sneaky! " Thank you, sweet girl! "

" But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be he shepherd of my people Israel ." ~ Micah 5:2 In Jesus's day, some Jews believed that the Scriptures proclaimed that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. And, in those days when people did not move frequently (even for generations), it is no wonder that there was some confussion caused by Jesus' having grown up in Nazareth. Even Nathanael, " a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false " proclaims " Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" (John 1:47) I've been reading John's Gospel, and I've been struck by how vital this issue of the Messiah's origin was to them. Apparently there were two camps: those who believe the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, and those who believed that no one would know where the Messiah had come from. Apparently, God is big enough for both of them to m...

Last night I had several dreams. The first began in a room and in it I looked out into the hallway. I didn’t know the room, but I knew the hallway. It was the hallway from the house I grew up in. I dream about that house, or a semblance of it frequently, and it occurred to me when I woke up this morning that it was a foundational reality, a template, for my understanding of the world. We all have these proto-realities, these templates for understanding the world. They can be good (like a great elementary school experience) or bad (like an abusive, adulterous, or alcoholic father). But, since they are our first understanding of a given reality, they become of standard for ‘truth’ in that situation. All ‘homes’ should remind us of our childhood home in order to feel like a ‘home’. All ‘loves’ should recall our first ‘love’. All ‘fathers’ are either loving or untrustworthy based on our experience of ‘father.’ The problem arises in that our first experiences, our templates, are so ofte...

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." ~Thomas Jefferson I saw this quote on The Glenn Beck Program as I was running tonight at the gym at H-SU, and I've decided I like it. So (before the internet is taken over by the government, and my voice is erased), I want to choose not to remain silent. I'm worried about where our country is headed. I'm concerned about the statements I hear from people close to Obama; people who influence his views and reinforce his agendas. I'm bothered by the blindness of the general public to the changes that have already taken place in our government. I'm disgucted by the worldview of the Democrats. I'm disappointed by the foundational compromise of the Republican party. And, I particularly blown away by the absence of God from the whole conversation. I hear a lot of people who want to give Obama a chance. It's even on the front page of today's newspaper, de...

Sometimes our dreams tell us more than we can hear. Last night I had a dream that I'm sure had more in it than I can now recall. I had a wheeled crate full of discarded vines and I was working my way down a residential alley, a concrete drive between small houses. In front of most of the houses people were putting up fences, small yards which they were decorating for Halloween. People I knew and strangers alike were hauling in lumber, settting out friendly Jack-O-Lanterns, stacking stalks of corn against a wall, or preparing food for guests. I was like a school assignment all the parents were helping their kids with. The yards filled most of the alley, with paths leading to the homes and gates at regular intervals between opposing yards, as if to section off the alley into venues. I pushed my cart uphill through each gate, barely squeezing through, until I got to a large gate end of the alley. There, between two carts of watermelon against one of the gate doors, I found a place...

The Bible does not mention the lottery. There are no references to it at all, because it did not exist when the Scriptures were written. In fact, the only possible references to ‘gambling’ in the Bible regard the casting of lots for the cloak of Jesus at Calvary. Truthfully, I believe even this event was more about decision making than gambling and says nothing about whether what they did was right or wrong. Therefore, we who oppose the lottery need to choose carefully how we include the Bible in our conversation about it. I will attempt to do so with several general and one particular biblical realities. A case could be made for opposing the lottery on several bases. God instructs us to work for our money (2 Thessalonians 3:10) and that a man who wants to get rich quick is not faithful but evil (Proverb 28:20,22). He says looking to Fortune and Destiny for our security is the same as ‘forsaking the Lord’ (Isaiah 65:11-12). And, God says hasty wealth does not last. (Proverb 13:...

This is my wonderful bride Olivia, who loves our dog Gracey with a devotion I've hardly ever seen. That's Gracey with her (of course).      Currently, Olivia is in Massachusetts visiting our family there. She left (sad day) the day after our 3rd Anniversary (great day!). For better or for worse, her absence put me in charge of Gracey's 5th birthday celebration. Gracey's really important to us, and has walked with us through a lot. Olivia in particular has been able to lean on Gracey through some rough stuff . Understandably, I was nervous about the occassion. I'd written Gracey's birthday in my calendar and had an idea of what we would do together. Last year we got ice cream, so that was a given. But, what else could I do?      The difficulty began shortly before Olivia left Texas. We were staying at our favorite Bed and Breakfast in Fort Worth and it occured to me to check Olivia's calendar to be sure I knew exactly when Gracey's birthday w...

My wife is my hero. She isn't perfect. She isn't above reproach. She doesn't have all the answers, anticipate all my needs, or always say the right thing in the right way. Once in a while, we don't even like each other very much. Yet, Olivia is my hero just the same. Olivia is a never-give-up follower of Jesus Christ. No matter what happens, she always ends up is a place of faith. Honestly, if it wasn't for her faith, I doubt she'd still be alive today. The suffering and pain that marks her journey are frankly unbelievable. Those who read her blog have glimpsed the pain she has seen, but believe me when I tell you that even you don't know the half of it! Olivia has suffered as few people ever have (but I'll let her decide which stories to tell). What I want to point out is her survival, and the survival of her faith in Jesus. She lives Peter's confession, "Where else would we go. You have the words of life." No matter what has come her way...

We're 15 weeks from race day... Today was my longest run so far: 10 miles! Have you ever considered how far that really is? Here in Abilene, Texas we don't think much about driving to San Antonio for a special event, to Austin for the weekend, or to Dallas and back in a single day. I know a man who drives to San Angelo and back four days a week to work! We don't think of mileage as an obstacle; it's just time in the car. 10 miles = 40 times around a running track = 16,000 meters = 17,600 yards = 52,800 feet = 633,600 inches = roughly 16,246 of Bryan's strides. 10 miles may not seem like far when you're behind the wheel of your Saturn Ion (ours is named Stormy, the first car I've ever owned with a name). However, when you're covering that distance on your Nike Reax Run 3's, it is substantial. God is faithful, and I'm loving the time with Him. Have a wonderful week.

I work at United Supermarkets , and family owned grocer of 50 stores here in Texas. I'm an Assistant Customer Service Manager. I interact with customers and make sure the store runs smoothly. Most of the time I like my job. There's nothing really unusual about that. I also schedule and lead Orientations for new Team Members: I talk with them and lead them through some videos. One of the main speakers in these videos is Matt Bumstead, great-grandson of the company's founder and current co-president. During my last Orientation class, a comment he says struck me, and I intended to write about it, but forgot until I had another class today. Matt talked about doing work, serving others, and living life as 'a faithful response to God.' Isn't that a great idea? I certainly want my life to be a faithful response to God: day by day, choice by choice, minute by minute... I want to trust in the Lord, wait upon His leading, follow in the shadow of his cross, and live my li...

Marathon, Greece, 490 B.C. Pheidippides, a Greek warrior brings news to Athens, "Victory" and collapses in exhausted death. The Persian army was defeated, and Greece was safe for the Greeks. Poor Pheidippides was only dead...dead and remembered. Ok, so I had to look up his name. I kind of knew the story. I remembered the idea behind the marathon. The battle, the Greekness of it, the ancient Olympic event... but nobody really expected me to remember the name Pheidippides , did they? He certainly wasn't on my mind when Olivia casually asked me a few weeks ago if I would run a marathon for her. He wasn't on my mind when I bought my pedometer. And, he wasn't on my mind when I ran the first two miles on my 6 month training schedule. But, Pheidippides was my kindred spirit when I had my first day of fartlek training. I thought for sure my chest was going to explode. (Hint to those inspired by the journey I'm now taking: don't eat anything with syrup when you...

I've been reading about prayer in a collection of writings by Edward M. Bounds . Though he lived a century ago, he struggled with the same things we struggle with today: casual regard for God, spending so much time for God that we don't spend time with God, pastors who don't carve out time to pray for their people... He's really nailed me on a lot of my ideas about how hard it is to pray. The main thing is just doing it. Then, focus on frequency, intensity, motivation, purpose, direction, humility, etc. Pray is an amazing priviledge and a sacred responsibility. It isn't just about meals, rituals, or disasters; it's about spending time with God and getting to know Him. That's the main thing I want, by any means. How wonderful that God has made Himself so readily available to us! "How vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide is its reach! What great things are accomplished by this divinely appointed means of grace! It lays its hand on Almighty God...

I had a long weekend this weekend, and I put it to use. We have a secondary building behind our house, and we're trying to improve it. This was a big weekend, because it was the weekend for plumbing and electricity. I really like this sort of work, especially since I don't have to do it all the time. We are building an extra living space, and as I worked I listened to sermons by Don Finto , Asher Intrater , and Brian Wade . And, I was challenged as I worked to focus on God. Normally, I think about the future a lot. I wonder where we'll live in a year. I think about my calling. I plan for tomorrow. I pray for Christ's return. But, this weekend I didn't think much about the years ahead. Rather, I enjoyed each day, knowing I was accomplishing my goals for the day, knowing my Olivia was loving and missing me as she visited with my mom at Possum Kingdom, and knowing that my Heavenly Father is at work even when I'm not worried about it. Now, after the weekend, its tim...

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. 5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. 6 And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on t...

The company's trademarked logo is "Life is short. Have an affair." Its commercial was banned from the Superbowl, a venue not normally given to conservative values. In fact, its commercials used to be on TV only after 9 o'clock, just like its dial-a-porn and fortune-telling friends. It has 3.3 million registered users. 200,000 of those members live in Texas and have joined in the last two years! The company is called the Ashley Madison Agency, and it provides dating services for married people, especially women who are in unhappy marriages but can't afford a divorce in today's trouble economy. Are you kidding me!? I don't watch a lot of TV, and I guess I'm behind the times. But, with the Swine Flu scare growing I wanted to watch some news last night and see what I could discover to help protect my family. So, it may be that I'm naive, but I was absolutely floored when I saw a commercial advertising adultery. Now, it wasn't just a dirty commercia...

Definitions of White Noise: "Any random, collective occurrence of unrelated things. Typically used to refer to a simultaneous collection of sound patterns , which when all occurring at once, sounds similar to static , or a 'hiss'. When considering visual white noise , it is often referred to as 'snow', such as one might see on a television station that isn't playing any current programming." ( Business Dictionary ) "White noise, or white sound as it is sometimes called, is a very therapeutic device for relieving stress, masking annoying sounds, and helping you fall asleep. But, it really isn’t noise at all. It’s actually a ton of different sound frequencies all hitting you at once....White noise has the effect of masking out annoying sounds that might otherwise disturb your sleep. " ( White Noise for Baby ) "A heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range,... a constant background noise ; especially : one tha...