Missed Shots

I LOVE BASKETBALL SEASON!!!! This past tuesday and wed. were 2 of the best days of the year because of basketball season starting. Granted, the NBA isnt the same without michael jordan playing. However, i do believe that the NBA has more than enough talent to keep me interested in watching the games. Sometimes i watch NBA games and i am blown away at how professional basketball players (getting paid millions and millions of dollars) miss easy shots. Over the years ive seen missed lay ups, missed dunks, missed free throws, etc... It seems to me that someone that is considered to be one of the best ball players in the world can miss shots. Someone that has practiced countless numbers of hours shooting 1000's of shots a day, can miss those same easy shots in a game.

Much like ME. I have been a Christian for almost 10 years, i have led small groups, prayer groups, youth ministries, i read my bible and pray, ive challenged and encouraged teens and adults to not miss chances to share God with other people. But sitting here today i feel like a NBA player that has practice for a life time and still miss shots in a game.

Callie and i were at walmart last weekend. when we got out of the car and started walking towards the doors a teenage boy stopped us and asked us if we would like to buy some cady to raise money for his youth group. the candy was a $1 so we bought 2 pieces (i got a kit kat and callie got reeces cups i think). I asked him what church this was for and he said a Baptist church in kernersville (this was the walmart in kannap). I found it strange that a church in kernersville would be doing a fundraiser in kannap. I then told him that i used to live in High Point which isnt far from kernersville. I asked him what high school he went to and after a long hesitation he said Lexington High School. That too struck me as odd that someone would live in lexington go to church in kernersville and come to kannap to do a fundraiser.
So i gave him 2 dollars for the candy and callie and i went on into walmart. it wasnt long after leaving that boy callie said she thought there was something more going on with that boy (homeless, hungry, lonely, etc...) we spent maybe 30-45 min. in walmart and the whole time we were both thinking and talking about that boy and maybe there was something else we could do for him. So when we were walking out of walmart we looked for him and he was no where to be found.

MISSED SHOTS

stay FOCUSED
stay HUMBLED
love JESUS
love PEOPLE

CNN and Latino's

CNN is doing a huge profile of Latino's in America. I usually dont watch a ton of CNN however when i flipped by the channel i noticed that they were showing a church. Usually anytime i see a church on tv ill always stop and see what is being said about it. i love seeing how different people view the church and see how the church is portrayed to the world on tv. CNN was documenting a catholic ( i cant remember what city it was in) that was running a low attendance and they were close to having to close the doors. So the leadership of the catholic church decided to reach out to the Latino community. I am all for reaching out to people that arent like you, loving the people that are hard to love (people unlike yourself). The whole CNN story was about the division in this church between the white people and the latino people. They interviewed about 10 white memebers and 10 latino members and asked them the same questions. There was 1 lady in the "white group" that stood out to me. she seemed really passionate about having the 2 congregations united for 1 service and 1 God. however when asked if she had attempted to learn spanish, been to the latino neighborhoods, ministered to latino people, shared a meal with, or been to a latino church event, she strongly said no i dont think i should do any of that. Then she said these words, "how long do we have to go out of our way to meet their needs?" About 2 min. later this same lady started crying on camera b/c she wanted so bad for their church to be united.

If im being honest here, i believe that lady is whats wrong with the american church. there's no love, there's no acceptance, and no patience for people that are unlike you. If we all are really serious about being united for the cause of Christ it starts with loving Jesus and loving people JUST THE WAY THEY ARE, THE SAME JESUS LOVES US.

stay FOCUSED
stay HUMBLED
love JESUS
love PEOPLE

And 1 Street Balla's

Are you a witness? Lebron James has used that tag line for years now. I must say that everytime i watch Lebron play basketball (minus last years playoffs) I have been a witness to something pretty good. I was just at an event where some And 1 Street Balla's were playing. I was assuming that I would go there and be a witness to some extremely athletic basketball players. However i must say that the team that we had to play against the "balla's" more than held our own against the other team. I came away a little dissapointed by the game. The And 1 team did come away with a victory in the end, i guess i was just expecting something a little more.

On another note I am really excited about going to church in the morning. I dont know why this sunday seems any different than any other, but I cant wait until tomorrow morning.

Stay humbled
Stay focused
Love Jesus
Love people

guess whos back?

Its been awhile since I wrote one of these, however I decided tonight would be a good night to get started again. Someone told me years ago that you never stop learning. My hope is that since starting a new part of my life with Callie that I will learn and grow even more than the past 27 years of my life. In the next couple weeks and monthes I hope to communicate and grow with everyone as the Lord works through Callie and I.
And trust me when I tell you we are open for His work.

Greatness

I dont think there's even a question about Michael Jordan being the greatest basketball player of all time. With the NBA Finals ending last week, I once again was reminded of this truth. Everytime Kobe Bryant made a tough shot all I heard was "that reminds me of MJ". And if I hear one more person say that Lebron James is better than Michael Jordan, I might be tempted to enforce some physical harm on that person. With that said, greatness is a strange thing. In my opinion it's easy to define greatness in the world. Michael Jordan (Championships, MVP's, and Scoring Titles), Tom Hanks (Oscar Winner and his movies have made MILLIONS), Lynard Skynard (Millions of records sold, Millions of ticket sales for their tours all over the world, and of course FREE BIRD), Ric Flair (16 Time World Champion WOOOOOOO).

Jeremy Kingsly in "Be Last" points out that in the Christian world greatness is defined a little different. If Jesus is supposed to be the GREATEST Christian ever, then there must be something we can see in His life that is great.

There is absolutely nothing great about Jesus' birth. He couldnt even make it into the hotel b/c there wasnt enough room. So He was born outside in a dirty manger. There were no fireworks, no big announcement, and no big celebration. I would think that God would want to make a big announcement that His son had came to the earth. Maybe a little earthquake, darkness for a couple of days, or even a big trumpet sound. But there was none of that.

One day Jesus had a great teaching oppertunity that He took advantage of. His boys were arguing about who would be the greatest then Jesus dropped a bombshell, "The first will be last and the last will be first."

WOW, Jesus was showing us greatness His entire life. Everything that Jesus did while He was on earth was for us. He was putting us first and all the time BECOMING GREAT.