Pick up your Nets!

You ever have one of those days where everything you read or see reminds you of something that you're thinking a lot about. Well I'm in the middle of one of those times. No matter where I am or what I'm doing I'm constantly being reminded of what i feel like God is going to do on 9/9/9. And I'm not trying to be all super spiritual but I know that God is going to open up a whole new way of thinking and a whole new season not only for Elevate, but in me as well. And it was interesting because this morning during my devotion time I was reminded once again of what I believe God has been setting us up for. I was reading in Luke 5 and I began to see what God has been up to for the last 2 or so months. When you read you'll see in verse 2 that as Jesus approached the disciples that Peter, James and John were all cleaning their nets. Now that's something that normally you probably just look right over, but in it you'll see that it's everything. The reason that fishermen have to clean their nets is because if they don't they'll get rotted out and will break if fish are in them. This is true spiritually as well. If you don't clean yourself up, meaning that if you don't work on purifying your life, then when you go out to try and witness or tell others about Christ you won't be able to hold up for very long. Practically it looks like this. When you were saved God pulled you right out of the pit, and now you see others that are still in the pit. Well if you aren't willing to clean your nets first, you're either never going to be able to pull anyone out because your too weak or they'll pull you right back in. And secondly you have to stretch your nets back out meaning that you have to let God stretch you and allow God to lead into situations that you might feel uncomfortable in, but know that if God's going to ask you to do it then there must be a reason. If you want to go fishing you got to be willing to clean your nets before and after every time. And here's the thing that got me. I read a statement about this scripture that said even after you've cleaned your nets you can't forget to go fishing. So many of us work on getting ourselves pure and then hide. We don't wont anything to make us dirty again. We can't do this, we've got to be willing to get out there and gets our nets dirty.
Elevate this is for you. We spent about a month talking about purity. Since Weeklong we've been letting God stretch us. Now it's time to get ready to go fishing. If you're willing to answer Jesus' call, then I ask you, pick up your nets.

Do you know what you have?

For the past couple of days a very simple but powerful question has been circulating and dominating my thoughts. It's a question that I asked some Jr. High aged boys Sunday and the guys in my tribe last night, and was quite surprised by the answers. It's the question how is your life different because you follow Jesus? I even put it how is your life different following Jesus compared to how your life would be if you didn't even know about him? When I asked the Jr. High students this I was quickly answered with some very standard super spiritualized terms like "well he's made my life pure and holy" or "God makes my life more righteous". Which I quickly came back with "well what does that practically look like and mean"? I was surprised that they were then speechless. I wasn't trying to stump them or trick them I just wanted to know if they knew the simple truths of what God has truly done for them, but I found out that they really don't know what God has done for them. They more knew what God had done in their parents lives, and knew the terminology that their parents used to describe it. This took me back because we're constantly trying to encourage our students to tell their friends about Jesus, but I'm seeing that that might be a difficult task if you don't even know what Jesus has done in your life. After all how can you encourage someone to have what you have if you don't even know what you have. Then got the very non surprising answer from my college guys last night of how God had saved them from difficult lives surrounded by worldly influences and emptiness. But what was surprising from them was the fact that so many of them are afraid to share that with people outside of the church. They feel like they don't know enough about God to share with others that don't know God. But the fact is that they know what God has done in them and that makes them completely qualified to share with others that need what they have. So I encourage you if you're reading this to first find out and pinpoint what God has done in your life, I promise He's done something. And then get the boldness to allow yourself to share what God has done for you with others. It could be the very thing that need to hear. And if they ask you a question about God or the Bible that you don't know, don't lie to them just say "you don't know but you can find out." Just remember, you got to know what you have before you can share it.

This thing called Twitter!!

I was watching espn the other day as I do quite often, it is the only decent and inspiring reporting that is done anymore, and heard a statement that a football player made about how he plans on sending out Twitter messages during games this year. When I heard this I knew instantly that Twitter really is going to take world media and communication to a whole new place. I have come to realize that Twitter is here to stay. Now that's big for me because I've been fighting the urge to sign up and partake in this new tweeting revolution. I have refused thus far because I've seen first hand the dangers that Twiitter can cause. I've seen some of my coleagues becoming Twitter addicts and I'm truly fearful for them. I've even debated the need for Twitter Twelve Step Programs that can really offer help to this addiction. You see I've watched people progress in their Tweeting dependicy. Most people start off as casual Tweeters, only indulging once a week or so. And many times they are the ones that progress into social Tweeters. who like to send out tweet photos and messages when they are in the company of friends and large groups. They don't even think about it except when others are around. This is a very harmless form of Tweeting. It's when people progress into hardcore Tweeters that problems begin to arise. These are the people that begin to take in even into the workplace. They begin to send out messages any and everywhere. Many times we're seeing that is this the beginning of full on Twitter addiction, or as some would call it, a Twit Addict. They wake up every morning and the first thought they have is to Tweet. They think spend all day searching for new people to follow and try to get as many people to follow them. They can't go more than an hour without tweeting. And the more and more they Tweet they see loved ones and close friends stop following them. People that used to enjoy they're tweets begin to just get iritated by the fact that a tweet is more important than a casual text message. This is a serious problem and it's taking over our world, and we need to begin to learn to use procaution in our Twitter usuage. I say all of this to announce that I have joined the Twitter world to be an example. To show people the importance of using descretion when Tweeting. So if you would like to follow my Twitter I'm "billy_woods", and Yes you can follow me. Until next time, be safe Twitters, and don't tweet and drive.

It's more than just your Goliath

Well I'm back from Weeklong, and it was be far the best trip I've ever been a part of. I saw things happen to students spiritually that I had never seen before. It was an amazing week. One of the things that has been sticking with me from weeklong is the story of David and Goliath. It's a story that I've read I don't know how many times, and at weeklong saw Pastor Jurgen preach it in the funniest way I had ever seen before. Pastor Jurgen you have inspired me to learn to moon walk so I can do it one day when I'm preaching. He's the only guy I've seen preach and do the moon walk, it's taking multi tasking to a whole another level. But even after hearing it preached there has been a part of this story that God has revealed to me. I've never seen it this way. In the story we've all read that Goliath would come out and basically taught and challenge the Israelite army. But all of the Israelites became incredibly fearful, which I've now discovered was actually a sin. God made a covenant with the Israelites and part of it was that they should fear no enemy that rises against them, that God would deliver all of their enemies to them. So they actually where sinning by being afraid. So when David walked onto the battled field it wasn't that he was stupid or just didn't know that Goliath was a beast of a man and could easily destroy him, he walked out there knowing that the covenant of God was on his side and that God wouldn't let him down. But here's the thing that really got me. When Goliath looked at David and said "the birds of the air and the beasts of the field are going to eat you", David responded with "the birds of the air and the beasts of the field will eat you and the entire army behind you today." Goliath was challenging David, not the entire army. David challenge the entire army. And you know the story David killed Goliath and then the Israelites where encouraged and killed the philistines. So David challenge the entire army but only killed Goliath. The reason is because by him standing up to the challenge in front of him, the testimony of him overcoming that challenge inspired and motivated the rest of the Israelite army to know that they could overcome their challenges too. By standing up to your Goliaths, you will gain a testimony that will help others overcome theirs as well. All it takes is one willing to stand up and let God show up, and it can cause an entire army to rise up. So let's rise up Elevate and see some Goliath's fall.