It's All in How You Look At Things

Last night we went to a Department store to do a little Christmas shopping with the family.  Somehow we ended up taking a detour though.  There was a need for outfits for Christmas.  My son is having his first band concert of the year and he needed black pants, white shirt and a tie.  My daughter is taking a field trip to see a play with her school and is in desperate need of getting a dress.  She has grown significantly and literally has no dresses that fit.

We quickly found something for my son but my daughter and my wife were taking a looong time trying on clothes and trying to put together an outfit.  My job at the end of the night was to try and figure out how to keep a 9 and 11 year old boy occupied without tearing apart the store.  After they played hide and seek they got bored.  I suggested that we sit on the benches by the exit.  They were not excited about this at first.  They sat there and started counting the number of people exiting the store.  I had this bright idea to have them say Merry Christmas to each person that walked by.  Well, they counted every person that came by and told each and every one of them Merry Christmas. The count was 85 when we left and just about that many left the store with a smile on their face last night.  When plans change, don't get upset, (like I did!) look for a God moment.  Last night we found our God moment. 

Thanks Giving Thankfulness

After a wonderful day of eating turkey and my mom's special whipped potatoes I realized that we are so blessed to have the families that love one another. The more people I talk to, I realize our families are an anomaly. We had my folks and Missy's folks over, yes, at the same time! No two meals for us. Our families get along and love hanging out together. I'm so thankful for family that is easy going and can get along with practically anyone. All of us share the common bond of Jesus Christ and while we don't necessarily agree on everything, we all agree that God is the most important things in our lives. Thankful? Yes. Yes I am!!!

it was a good night

Tonight was a great night. We met with our H20 leaders and sat around eating sushi and Brazilian barbecue. We told funny stories and laughed til our sides hurt. We brainstormed some ideas for youth group as well. As I looked around the table I thought to myself that I really love these guys. In years past we've had some great leadership groups but this one by far is one of my favorites. They've come from all over world and God's brought them here to Stafford, VA to minister to this group of kids. It's truly amazing and I'm amazed at how God is truly using each of them to be an example and a friend to our kids. Come out to H20 this Sunday night to experience God through these amazing leaders!

Rethink came out with a great sermon series called GodView. It rocked my world and it really helped my kids think through their view of God and how they approach Him.

This week we talked about how our view of God can become distorted if we aren't careful. When we ask God for something and he says no, do we tend to doubt God is who he says he is? God is God and his purposes will prevail. He's our dad and He wants the best for us! We won't be disappointed if we see our lives in God's hands.

One of my favorite songs of all time is Blessed Be The Name. It talks about how we should call God blessed no matter what. In the good times and the bad. The bridge of the song says, You give and take away...blessed be your name. That line is coming from someone who's been through the ups and downs of life and recognizes their life is in God's hands.

My prayer today is that everyone of our students (and adults) get this and apply it to our life. What is your Godview?

The Butterfly Effect:

In my last post I shared with you how God moves when we worship. Two weekends ago we had 24 hours of worship and that was amazing. All over the planet there were cities and communities worshiping together asking God to move in this generation! As we worshiped and interceded throughout the night God moved on our hearts. God spoke words of encouragement to us and I believe His promises are being fulfilled in this generation.

After a massive event of historic significance, there is a cause and effect that is set in motion. We are seeing the after effects of our offering of Praise and Worship. Each team brought a fragrant offering to Lord. Now, two weeks after the event, we are seeing those effects. God is at work!

Last weekend we had 25 people moved by the Holy Spirit to get baptized. We preached a simple message about baptism and people responded. I believe this response has a direct connection to the 24 hours of worship and intercession that took place the week before. Do you desire to see the Lord work in your church, community and city?

"14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there" (2 Chronicles 7:14-16).

Let's humble ourselves today and ask the Father to show himself strong in the coming days.

This weekend we will be gathering together as a body of believers to worship for 24 hours. All over the planet there will be communities of believers that are gathering together at the same time. If this sounds like a long time to worship, it is. But the payoff is that we are connecting the body of Christ at large to come together to acomplish something no one team or church could accomplish on our own.

When we worship we see breakthrough. By design we are created to worship. Our desire is to see God lifted up in every town, every city and that they will know and see God. Habakuk 2:14 says "That the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the seas." That image is so powerful.

Over the summer I had the chance to spend a week at the outer banks. I spent every morning praying and reading the word as the sun came up over the Atlantic. I thought about how that body of water is a connection point to Europe, Africa, Asia and beyond! My prayer is that each of these points of worship would be a light that shine in that community but would be bright enough to see to the horizon. People would be drawn to the light and know that God is good.

John 4:23 says "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

Horizons Church is a house of worship. My prayer is that it would be filled with true worshipers. God seeks those who worship in spirit and in truth. May God seek you today as you connect with Him!

The Rest Of The Story...

Since last Spring, Missy and I have been going through a rough time waiting on God. She was looking for a job for the '09-'10 school year. The beginning of school started and Missy was still without a job. She started substitute teaching and all the while still believing she was going to get hired. I'll be honest, I had my doubts. I felt like that she'd be subbing the rest of the year and maybe, maybe she'd get a job next year. Well, last week while she was subbing at a school she got not one interview but three interviews for three different schools. Out of the blue, there were three positions and she had the pick of the three! Once again, God was like, "Hey, I told you to trust me!" Are you trusting Him today?

Dash

The older I get the more I realize that yes, God cares about us finishing well but he also cares about the "in between". When you get to the end of your life most likely you'll have a tombstone. There will be a born date (first most significant date in everyone's life. birthdays are pretty sweet!) and the year that you passed, and in the middle is a simple little "dash". Although these two dates are pretty important, God cares about the dash in the middle. He cares about how you lived your life. He cares about the steps it took to get to the finish line of the race. So, today, you may be working for the weekend (I know I do, but I'm a pastor, I'm supposed to!) but what are you doing Monday through Friday to get there? God cares about the destination for sure, but he also cares about the every day stuff before we get there. How are you spending your dash today?

Big Picture: Never Stop Fighting for a Relationship With Your Child

We just completed an XP3 series called the "The Good Fight". I wanted to share with you highlights of what I shared with our parents last Sunday evening. I am committed to building teams of leaders to encourage your kids to have a good relationship with their Heavenly Father as well as have a good relationship with their parents. We are going for God and not leaving anyone behind.

As a parent of two teenagers myself, I am realizing that my kids are moving from dependence on me to independence. I am moving from being the authority to being the influence in my kids lives. I have learned that it's not an easy transition. I am constantly battling from holding onto the reigns and letting go and giving them opportunities under my umbrella of protection to make wise and sometimes unwise choices.

One of the things I shared with my parents on Sunday night was the fact that we need to spend priority time with our kids, but a lot of us are asking ourselves, "what does that look like?" Here's some rules for priority time with your children that will help you get started.
1. Find common ground
2. Make sure there is no agenda
3. Keep it outside of your home
4. Do it without friends
5. Put it on the calendar
6. Stay flexible
7. Remember your goal is not to CHANGE them.
8. Keep working on it (even when it doesn't seem to be going well)
9. Use it as an opportunity to give your teenager one thing...

What is that one thing? "the gift of approval" You as a parent are the only one that can give them this! You know your child better than anyone. You've seen them at their best and at their worst. If you believe in them after all that, they know "your approval" is REAL!

Decide today to: make the first move with your child. It may seem awkward, it may seem messy, but it's a process! Don't stop trying...make the first move over and over!

The final thing to remember is to realize that you are not alone! There are other parents that are dealing with the same issues that you are. Find out whats working and not working with other parents @ H20.

Never Give up! God doesn't give up on us! Don't give up on your kids!

Busyness of the Summer (Why is there a smile on my face? Read on to find out!)

Most people's summers are a little more "chill" and laid back. My summers as a youth pastor are one of the busiest times of the year. We met on Sunday nights and added a mid week "Wacky Wednesday" event night which consisted of Madden tournaments, open gym nights, bonfires, a dodgeball tournament, laser tag, a senior high beach trip, and a pool party just to name a few of the awesome things we did. Small groups, and Bible studies continued to meet. Yes, all this and not to mention our week long Messiah Camp and our NYC Missions Trip! Wow, such a great summer!

So why the smile on my face? Because, I got to witness so many instances of life change. Kids that didn't want anything to do with the church or God at the beginning of the summer are now head over heals in love with Jesus and now are devouring His Word. Yes, kids that are hungry for a life that is fulfilling and are finding it through a relationship with Jesus and other Christ Followers! What a wonderful summer! And I can't wait for the Fall! Horizon's H20 Youth is a great place to call home!

Wanna get plugged in? Come to the Fall H20 KickOff, Wednesday, Sept. 2nd @ my house. Dog's n Burgers and a slip and slide! What more could you ask for!?

-Andy

It's Been A While...

This morning I woke up @ 6:30AM and my heart was heavy. I have a lot of things on my mind and my brain was already on overload even though I just woke up. I woke Missy up and told her to get her dressed, we were going to go do a work out. When I am distraught or worried there's a little three mile circuit that I do to pray through things that are weighing me down. There's something about getting outdoors and away from the computer. (yes, I did carry my Blackberry with me, but that's another story!)

As many of you already know, Missy is looking for a teaching job in Stafford County. And as many of you also know, there aren't that many positions to be filled. Missy filled out the application, been through an interview process, took two classes to get her re certification, and is ready to go. But, at this point it is looking like there just isn't any positions available. With the economy the way it is and there already is a shortage in the education budget there just isn't enough resources to hire new teachers. Needless to say , this is weighing heavily on us.

What do you do when things are in the mix and they are out of your control? If you've done everything that you know what to do and you've done all your homework, you've passed out resume's to everyone you can think of you have to just say, enough. You have to know that you've done it all and now the rest is up to God. God is faithful.

Our hope is in Him, not the circumstances around us. Jer. 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God gave His people (that's us!) a “gracious promise” (v. 10, NIV) to deliver them, and He would keep His promise. God makes His plans for His people, and they are good plans that ultimately bring hope and peace. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid or discouraged.
In every situation, however, God’s people have the responsibility to seek the Lord, pray, and ask Him to fulfill His promises, for the Word and prayer go together. Are you seeking out God today? Have you asked him to fulfill His promises in you! He is waiting, patiently for you today.

wrestling, and dad stuff

This is my son Zach and I, in the middle of a full out wrestling match. These impromptu matches break out at any moment when I'm home. Zach is awesome. So full of life and so ready to tackle anything in his way. Last night we stayed up late and played some Xbox 360. He was already figuring out after the first game how many more points he had scored, and of course he spent the next ten minutes telling everyone how bad he beat me. When I spend time with my kids, I realize I was made to be a dad. I love my kids. This morning I woke up and looked into each of my kids rooms just to get a glimpse of them before I left for work. Along with my wife Missy, my kids are the apple of my eye.

Our heavenly Father feels the same way about you. You are the apple of His eye! That means that well, you are very special to Him! Get to know your Heavenly Father today!

Summer Time Fun!

Wow, we just got back Monday from our NYC Missions Outreach. Our team consisted of mostly H20 Leaders which was awesome! I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like with these guys and it was fun doing something amazing as serving people in New York City! God is awesome and amazing. When you go into a trip like this with an open mind God can do amazing things through you. We spoke with hundreds of people about Jesus and what he did for us. We came back from this trip on a spiritual high.

It's very contagious, being used by God, that is. (I sounded like Yoda there!) It was so evident when we engaged in an exercise known as survey evangelism. Missy and I went up to the first person and I was like, "man I just don't wanna do this!" God gave me the strength and they were very open with us. The next one was even easier than the first and by the time we got to our final person before watching the fireworks on the Hudson River, I could tell God was giving me specific words to speak life into people's lives! I've never been so resistant to something and then have my world turned upside down by God in the next moment like that! Crazy!

I'm excited because Sunday night I get to share the love of Jesus with 65 wonderful kids who are ready to continue their crazy ride with Jesus. We are bringing it on Sunday night! Come and check it out!

there is a place that God has for those that are healing from deep wounds. Its not a retreat away from others. Its reaching out to others in your time of need.

It's always darkest before the dawn

I've heard this phrase many times but never really understood it until I rode out a hurricane a few years back. Missy and I along with 15 of our closest friends at a church in VA Beach went on a Cruise. We decided to "road trip" it down to Miami and then go to the Caribbean. We had a blast. We were 1/2 way there when we got the call saying that because of a hurricane that the boat was unable to get back into port. We decided to wait it out. The hurricane came up the Eastern Seaboard and then took a left right where we were staying. (The picture doesn't lie!) We had a fun hurricane party! The storm got pretty intense and it ended up being a long dark night! We didn't sleep much because of the howling winds, so we consequently were up at dawn. The winds died down and the sun peeked up over the horizon and it was the most beautiful peaceful and comforting thing that I have ever experienced. In the dark fear was gripping me but when that sun popped up, I was so relieved that the storm had past. We enjoyed a great vacation on the cruise ship at reduced rates and were blessed to see God's hand in keeping us safe!

If you are going through a dark time, remember that God's in control and dawn is coming!!!

Today is the Day You Have Made...

I have had a busy couple of weeks where I felt out of control. I had many many unscheduled meetings that caused my days to be "lost" when it came to being productive in the office. What do you do when you start feeling this way? I tend to get with someone that I trust and hang with them, and unload. This is what I did yesterday.

A close friend of mine got together with me for lunch and instantly my world felt better even before we said a word about what was going on in our lives. Why? Because I knew that this friend understood me. He is a pastor and has been in my shoes. We ministered together at a small church. He lead the youth group and I did worship for him. We got in his truck and we went to a place that had the potential for being their next building. We prayed for that, he prayed for us at Horizons and we both took a deep breath and were ready to face the "giants" in our lives!

How do you deal with pressure? A friend of mine once told me that our lives are like a three legged stool. One leg represents "Prayer", one leg represents the "Word", and the other represents "Fellowship". If any one of the legs is missing the stool falls over. We need to find that balance. If you are need of fellowship, find a friend at Horizons. Get in a small group. Get balanced!

Hope to see all of you at the 24 hours of prayer this weekend @ Horizons Church. www.horizons church.com

It's all in how you respond to STUFF

I get an email newsletter called Mikey's Funnies. 95% of the time its filled with cheesy jokes but this story was too good to not pass along.

"One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, "Why did you just do that? That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage -- frustration, anger, disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.

Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.

Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!"

Good advice. I'm still learning this life lesson myself. Let's put this practical advice to practice today.

-andy

Thankful

Ever looked back one year to see how God has worked in your life? Have you made progress in the 365 days that you are reflecting on? What are you using to measure your successes and failures? One thing I don't do often enough is to look at things through the eyes of thankfulness.

I looked back one year ago and realize that we were going through a really crazy time financially last year. Things were failing left and right in our house and we were literally trying to keep our head above water. We prayed that God would provide. Now, I will be honest with you, I wish that God would have rained down money from heaven but he didn't. What he did do was provide payment plan for our septic system. He provided a way to pay to fix our basement after it flooded and the insurance company decided not to cover it. He allowed an appliance insurance policy to cover replacing a hot water heater and fix a fridge.

Sometimes God doesn't give us the thousands to go out and purchase the biggest and the best, but he does provide just what we need to get through another day, another month or another year. He is faithful. Period.

Continuing to read through the Bible in a year

Five months into anything it's easy to just give up and go on to something else especially when it's something as tedious as reading the Bible in a year! I have been pretty good. There are days however that I've been "catching up" because I've missed a day here and there. But, today I'm caught up and rocking it!

Today I read some really cool stuff in Kings about Elisha and I read the first chapter in Acts. What a privilege it must have been to actually be one of his chosen and actually see Jesus to appear after his death. He spent forty days which seems to be a significant number in a lot of ways in the Bible to show himself and to encourage them. Then he said, adios but told them to wait! Which is what I'm going to do now because I'll continue this conversation later! Seriously read Acts 1 and mull it over and meditate upon it! There is a lot of stuff in this first chapter that will rock your socks off!

If you've stopped "eating an elephant in 2009" I want to encourage you to start again! To me its a great motivator to keep my mind bathed in the Word of God. If you've gotten out of the habit join with me and start here in May and work your way through in a year!

Just lettin everyone know that I'm back on trrack with my blog. I've got so much to share with you. God's been doing some amazing things @ Horizons!

After a few days of rest camping with the family we are heading back to Stafford. It's amazing what a few days away can do to refresh! Now back to prep for Sun!

BABY STEPS

As I look back on my life I see God's imprint on it. Sometimes there were pivotal moments like coming to Faith and the decision to marry Missy and those were incredible moments of asking God for wisdom and having Him open my eyes to see where He wanted me to go next. But there have been times when I have taken steps and I'll be honest, I didn't see the light, and I didn't hear the angels rejoicing! They were tough steps and sometimes I felt like I was walking all alone. There have been those times when I felt nothing. I got up, got showered and dressed went through my day and at the end of the day I felt like saying, "Where was God today?"

It's in those times that I realize that God IS near. He's requiring me to trust in him and not waver in my faith. I need to be obedient to Him even in the mundane. Last month we went through a series dealing with these "baby" steps in our spiritual lives. We all have taken these steps, steps to overcome adversity, sin, all to get closer to God! We can't do it alone. We need each other. We need other believers that help us along the way. They help us stay the course. And when we accomplish a "victory" step even if it's a small step, a mundane step that isn't of epic proportions we need to celebrate the win! It's all for you, God!

Finish Line

There haven't been any blogs in the past two weeks because we have been putting in some serious long hours getting the new Horizons Church Campus in Stafford up and running. While we were working on Saturday someone noticed that the name of the seeding company that was spreading grass seed on the property was named Finish Line (see picture). Those of you who've been here for a while know that our capital campaign was named Finish Line. What a funny coincidence! Last Sunday was our first service and it was rather surreal. Watching so many people respond (we had a record crowd) to the message of Jesus, was unforgettable. It was a powerful fantastic service and God showed up!

I even had some time to chat with some of the workers while we were up here working. We were very blessed to be able to share Christ with many of them and see them take steps toward committing their lives to Christ. I believe that scores of people will come to this place to meet Christ for the very first time and begin a relationship with Him! Workers who had been on the job site for months came to the service on Sunday and worshiped alongside of us! All in all it was an amazing weekend. The fruit of many years of labor!!!

God is Good!

"I Can't Believe My Eye" (this has nothing to do with anything except for a commercial I saw during the superbowl and me playing around with my webcam!)

Today as I was reading Joshua and trying my best to eat an elephant in 2009 (check this group out on Face Book that is a help to read through the Bible in a year) There are so many times that the Israelites were asked to do way crazy stuff back then!

The latest is when they are ready to go into Jericho in Josh 6. The first six days they went around the city walls once a day. They had the band playing, worshipping (trumpets actually) in the front but armed men were protecting from the front and the rear while the whole group walked around the perimeter! Wow. I can imagine that this didn't go unnoticed by the people in Jericho. They already were a little afraid of the Israelites because their reputation has preceded them. The people inside the city were fearful, not because the Israelites were the baddest horde on the block but because of all the cool stuff God had done on their behalf. The surrounding neighbors were getting nervous!

As I read through this I realized that in order for all this to happen God didn't build a highway from Egypt to Jericho and build a bridge that led into the Land of Milk and Honey. He sent them through a process of steps to teach them to trust in the Lord with all of their heart! One step at a time. Not huge leaps but steps. Let's walk today recognizing that God is leading us forward!

I usually blog at the beginning of the week, but here we are and it's Thursday and I'm just now getting to it. Spring in VA! One week we have a wind chill of 8 degrees, snow on the ground and we are sledding then the next week it's 70 degrees and we are out playing ultimate frisbee in shorts!

My heart is full! I'm amazed at what God is doing at Horizons! We are starting to do a new series on Sunday morning called "My Story". Wow, this is going to be powerful! Simultaneously, we are going to be starting a new series called
"Forward Motion" that will totally knock the socks off of everyone and will transform our lives if we apply this stuff! It's gonna be awesome and you need to be there!

Last weekend was an amazing weekend. DTR (you can see them playing(shameless plug) @ Bella Cafe'), a local band who has a heart for worship came and played at H20 Sunday night. God showed up. Period. 45 kids were dialed into God that night! After that we had a friend of mine who grew up in the church I went to in Vienna, VA come and speak. She is a smart girl, William and Mary graduate and loves God with her heart soul and mind. Now she's married, to a wonderful man, Gabriel and they have a mission. A mission to plant churches in South Africa! They spoke life to our group Sunday night! It was amazing. We had a question/answer time at the end of the service and I had to stop the kids from asking questions because we had to break down and get out of the building on time! When is the last time you've seen kids that dialed in!? God's opening the hearts of our kids. There were several that really took a look at what missions is all about and have decided that this is what they want to do with their lives.

Jesus is at work @ H20. Come and see what God is doing. Sunday Nights, 6-8PM @ Colonial Forge HS. Soon to be at our new building! Yeah baby!

A friend from VA Beach gave me a call this afternoon. He's a really cool dude, and loves to worship. He doesn't have a musical bone in his body but I've never seen someone worship with as much enthusiasm and passion as he does. He called me this morning and wanted to share that after a lot of prayer over the course of the last few days that God spoke to him that he's supposed to reach out and be a voice to this generation as an evangelist.

It took me by surprise. He told me God spoke to Him in a vision and revealed this to him. Some of us might say, "Does God still speak like this in the 21st century!?" And I would have to say a resounding yes!

I thought back to when I was sixteen years old I was working as a counselor at a Christian camp for 4-6th graders. It was held at a farm and we totally had a blast swinging on tire swings and swimming and playing star wars with our flashlights in our tents at night. In the middle of the week we were having a meeting and there was a time of prayer. I was in the back of the room and I heard a voice behind me. I thought it was my youth pastor at first but I looked behind me and no one was there. I sat down quietly and I heard the voice again. Basically the message was, "You will be working with young people and many lives will be impacted by you!" I opened my Bible took out a piece of paper and wrote that down and stuck that piece of paper back in my Bible. I think I still have that paper somewhere in a box! It wasn't until I turned 19 a couple of years after high school that I realized this message from God came to pass. I became the Jr. High Youth Leader and worked with our 7-8th grade kids. I am still friends with a lot of those kids in that group. Working with them was so fulfilling and I've never looked back since.

As I read the passage in the Old Testament about Samuel hearing God in the middle of the night I never doubt that he heard God's voice. I've heard it too, and so can you.

Are You Connected?

Looking outside our window at the office last week, it looked like the trees were going to rip from their roots and start rolling down the street. Our electricity started flickering and our server went down twice. Not too long after that I went to a meeting with my student leaders at the Daily Grind and the electricity was completely out there and they were turning people away. The wind evidently had caused trees to come down on power lines and that caused thousands of houses and businesses to lose power.

In Life we can become disconnected. For various reasons friendships and circumstances can come our way that cause us to disconnect from each other and sometimes from God. The thing that we need to realize is that there is always hope for a reconnect. I am finding this out more and more through an amazing resource called Face Book. I have reconnected with literally hundreds of people that I have known over the years. It's pretty cool because I feel like I have a second chance to get to know them again and reconnect with them.

I feel like we all need a vehicle like FB to help us stay connected with each other. But how to do we reconnect with God? Sometimes we may feel like it's too late. Or that We've done something that is unforgivable that our relationship with Him could never be rekindled. God's always there. His arms are open wide and guess what? You don't need a Face Book to reconnect with Him today. All you need to do is dust off that love letter called the Bible and ask Him to speak to you today.

Recently, a friend of mine, Adam Herod www.adamherod.blogspot.com wrote a blog regarding the power of prayer in his life when he was a kid. He encouraged others to chime in with incredible experiences of healing. I want to share this story with you.

I believe that God heals today and I am a product of God's amazing healing touch. When I was three I contracted a blood disease that caused my white blood cells to go all out of wack. The doctors tried many things, and I almost died because of a botched blood transfusion. You can imagine the toll that this had on my mom and dad. It is a disease that has no cure. I was destined to live with it the rest of my life until one day my mom and dad's friend Claire Matthias came into my hospital room and felt compelled by God to lay hands on me and pray for my healing. Out of my mom and dad's desperation they said yes, and this lady prayed over me and in a short time my disease disappeared. The doctors where amazed and told my mom and dad that this was miraculous!

For some reason this disease came back when I was six. I had to stay home from school that year and went to the doctor every day to get my blood checked and was bed ridden for many months. This time my mom and dad's prayer group prayed over me and again, I was healed!

From a very early age I realized that God had a reason for me to live because twice he saved me from certain death. As my friend Adam stated in his blog, I also believe that when we are in the presence of God, amazing things happen. When two or three are gathered in His name He is there! God's will be done.

Anticipation

Perry Noble of New Spring Church just sent a twitter that I thought was worth noting. He says, "The reason there is seldom revelation is because there is often no anticipation...so...what are you anticipating the Lord to do today?"

A lot of our kids at H20 get that. They aren't waiting until H20 services Sunday night. I see them come into service on a Sunday morning and they are ready to receive from God. They are anticipating that God is going to do something that morning! And they aren't afraid to act upon that!

This weekend is one full of anticipation! We are taking forty some kids to Acquire the Fire. Many have brought friends with them in (yes, there's that word again!) anticipation that God is going to meet their friends and experience life change! It's going to be a great weekend! We've been praying and seeking God all week long and we believe that God will reveal himself to many this weekend. Pray for us as we go to Richmond Friday and Saturday. I believe that God has great things in store for us! We are ready for God to do something great! Check this out! http://www.youtube.com/ATFacquirethefire

Sunday morning is coming and Horizons services are going to be amazing. We just had our planning for the order of service yesterday and I am so excited to see how God is going to use each element of the service rock our socks off! So come this Sunday anticipating that God is going to do some great things!

But you don't have to wait until Sunday! "What are you anticipating the Lord to do today?"

a trip down memory lane...

This morning I'm looking outside at the freezing rain. I'm doing my devos and sitting in front our fireplace drinking a cup of coffee. We had an awesome day yesterday sledding and playing games, and watching movies with the kids. It reminds me of how things were when I was a kid on a snow day. We would get our snowsuits on and grab our sleds and walk to our elementary school which had a huge hill. We would trudge up that hill and then throw our sleds down and jump on it and slide down and scream and just have a blast. We'd do this sometimes until late at night. A neighbor would bring a big barrel and started a fire in it so we could warm ourselves before the next run down the hill. Finally we'd make our way back to our house and mom of course, would have steaming hot chocolate ready for us. I don't know how she knew when we were coming back to have that hot chocolate prepared for us but she did. There were no cell phones to call and let her know we were coming home!

Today it's back to reality. We've got a busy weekend ahead of us and thankfully it looks like the weather will clear up for this weekends activities. God's got some great things in store for you this weekend @ Horizons! But you and I need to prepare for those things and get our gear on and hat and gloves and move forward. Some of us may find ourselves trudging up the hill or maybe we've just made it to the top and are ready for the run down the hill. No matter where you are spiritually God is walking beside you leading you to the place that he wants you to be.

"Father, I pray that you would speak to our hearts today through your word and through the circumstances that surround us. Let us be a light for you today! Help us to lead others into a relationship with you today!"

-andy

Last Week:

Last week was a crazy week. My kids loved it because they got off school for two days in observance for Martin Luther King Jr. and the inauguration.

Some of us needed to be in the office and it was cool to catch Obama's swearing in Live on streaming video with CNN/Facebook on my computer. We got to witness history in the making. It was really cool. There was a window that had live coverage and on the right side of the window people were sending messages via Facebook commenting about the event. The awesome thing that I liked about this was the fact that people were connecting with hundreds of people across the nation sharing an event.

I thought Rick Warren did a great job with the prayer and the name of Jesus was proclaimed. Way to go Pastor Rick!

It's next week and we are on our way with a new administration in this land. Please pray for our local and national leaders that God will grant them wisdom to lead this country.

-andy

Kids...

I can remember the days back before I had kids and parents would come up to me as a youth pastor with questions and problems and I remember thinking how silly some of the questions were and how easily they could arrive at a solution to that problem. I thought I knew so much until I brought Maggie home as an infant from the hospital! All of a sudden my life changed dramatically and it gave me a brand new perspective on how my youth group parents handled things! There are so many variables that go into seeing situations clearly. I have memories of how my dad raised me, I have certain fears, moods and that's just me. My wife has a whole other set of variables that she's dealing with. Missy and I work together to be on the same "page" when it comes to family decisions and discipline but we don't always get it right.

I realize as a grow older that I can't do any of this alone. I want my kids to get a well rounded upbringing and get support from trusted people speaking in their lives and I know that my kids are getting that from our Children's Pastor and his small group leaders. Likewise I know that we have a volunteer staff at H20 that genuinely care about the spiritual development of our kids. Praise God for a church family that can help us in shaping our children to be Jesus followers!

-andy

2009...Gonna Be Awesome!

Yesterday was New Year's Day. I had my laptop on the coffee table kicking out Happy New Year greetings to all those on Facebook and getting emails answered. I spent a lot of the day dreaming about being in the new building and how that's going to dramatically change how we do ministry @ Horizons & H20. I'm so excited about the possiblities!

Jesus Said, "Follow Me"

Have you ever done a ginormous thing before? I'm about to once again. I did it a long time ago but I was convicted to do it again. I have joined a Facebook group called "Eat an Elephant in 2009" A dude named Byron Vinson basically started this group to get hundreds of people to read through the Bible in a year. I joined because I have to say I have not read all the way through the Bible since I've moved to Stafford. I know I know that's hard to believe. It really challenged me when I read what this group was up to. I wanna encourage all of my friends @ H20 and Horizons and all over the world to sign up for this and read with me! The Bible is our handbook and love letter from the Father to us, His sons and daughters. Want to know God? Read your Bible. It's that simple. It's a great place to find out exactly who God is and why He sent His son on this earth. Will you join me in this quest?

Happy New Year!