There is power when someone confesses the name of Jesus. A number of years ago a good friend of mine took a detour from his walk with Christ. He became very distant from youth group and I sought him out and he became very defensive and said that there was nothing I could do or say that would convince him to change.
As he was walking out of my office I told him that he was right. Nothing I could tell him would change his mind but I reminded him about the power of prayer and said that I would be carving out time every day just to pray for him. It worked. Six weeks later he came back to my office and said he was ready to make a change. He was heavily involved in drugs and he had a tough road ahead of him. We prayed and fasted together and asked God for a miracle.

As we were praying one day I felt compelled to tell him to confess Jesus. I told him to start confessing Christ to those friends that were dragging back into that world. Two things happened. Many were unable to handle that name when he confessed Christ before them and they ceased being his friends. Others wanted to know more. With that confession of Christ this young man was set free of the addiction to drugs. But that's not the end of the story. Many of his friends that he confessed the name of Jesus to wanted to know more. They desired to be free too.

Today this young man just graduated from seminary and is now a pastor. God is so faithful. He's in the business of redeeming those who need redeeming. Confession of Christ, yeah, it's good for the soul!

11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can't thank you enough. Psalm 30:11-12 (message)

God wants us to be missional. He wants us to reach out beyond our borders to share what we know to be true in our own lives.

I have a saying at the bottom of my emails that says, "the light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home." tonight after youth group I was thinking about how much I desperately want us to fulfill the call that God has for each of our lives. We have committed ourselves at H2O to be life long disciples of Jesus and we've committed to bringing others along with us. It's that simple. But it means we have to choose everyday to be obedient to that commitment.

This past week @ H2O we talked about the "Water Girl" or the "Woman at the Well". Jesus had a divine encounter with her and she ended up getting "clipped" by Jesus and she was changed forever. He read her "mail" and she knew this was not your average Jewish guy asking a Samaritan woman for a drink. The interesting thing that I continue to marvel at is the fact that she couldn't contain this experience she had with Jesus. She was so amazed and then she took the news that the Messiah is here among us and became the first missionary by telling that good news to everyone she could! Have you been touched by God in this way? Has He totally disarmed you by exposing truth about your life? Have you aloud him to dispense grace that abounds for all of us today? Open your heart and let God change you forever.

Are you feeling depressed? I am. In the past three weeks I've been on a Spiritual high. It started with our amazing sermon series that Pastor Rich was doing on Secrets. God really used this to touch many people's lives in our church. The following weekend H2O Youth went to Acquire the Fire and we were ushered into the presence of the Holy Spirit and God worked in so many miraculous ways. We had an incredible worship night the following Sunday and then it all culminated last weekend with the nailing of our sins to the cross. Sunday night and the kids gave testimonies of how God moved in their lives in the past three weeks and were challenged or "dared" to be truthful with God and with each other.

It was like riding one long continuous wave. And now the wave has come and gone and I'm coming up for breath and am feeling a little depressed. The weight of the world is felt once again now that the rush of adrenaline is over. I live for those moments that I'm with God and He feels like He's right next to me but I also know I have a responsibility to live for Him even when I am not "feeling" His presence as intensely.

A former first lady was dealing with depression while her husband was in office. This became public knowledge and a reporter was asking how she was dealing with it. She told the reporter that the way she got out of that depression was to focus on others. She started volunteering in the DC public schools helping kids with reading. Gradually, as she got her mind off of her problems and concentrating on helping others she was healed of her depression.

Someone once told me that we have one life to live. There's our born date and then eventually there'll be a date that we'll leave this world. In the middle of that is a dash. It's what we do in the "dash" that God cares about. Whether that means we are on a Spiritual high and feeling like God is right next to you or you are just being faithful and "being Jesus" for someone. God wants you to know that He's with you and He's given us the Holy Spirit to guide us and comfort us when we need comforting.

I'm recovering from a crazy busy weekend. I used to lead a youth group a few years ago in Northern Virginia. A friend of mine that was in the youth group has since gone on an graduated from Belmont University in Nashville. He and his fiance' came to Stafford this weekend for a pre-marital counseling retreat. In the midst of all my other busy weekend activities we got together and they shared how they are preparing to take that leap of faith and get into a covenant relationship with one another. I felt that my own marriage was strengthened by going through this process with them.

All this to say it really made me think how important it is to come into a marriage with open eyes. When I dated Missy there was a day when I realized that I would give my life for her. From that moment on we have never looked back. In our fifteen years of marriage we have had great times and rough times. The reason why I believe that we've made it this far is Christ and Christ alone. I left to my own devices would inevitably self destruct. But Christ's example to me is serving others. I know that but don't live it out every day. Thank God that I can clear my conscience and ask for forgiveness and know that Missy indeed forgives me for my shortcomings. That's why our marriage works. Because Missy is committed to forgive me and I'm committed to forgiving her. If we didn't live like that we'd be miserable! I came across a quote this morning that is a great quote to live by. Be blessed!

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if he or she were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
Og Mandino

This morning I had my Saturday all planned out and had a to do list a mile long. I started to get to work on my list and I noticed my neighbor across the street was setting up his big grill in the driveway. I walked over to see what was up and he said that the neighborhood was having a get together because a neighbor down the street was leaving for a special assignment for an extended period leaving his wife and two daughters. He asked if our family could come and hang out. So we pulled some steaks out of the freezer and got a pot of Missy's leftover world famous white chili and popped over. Yes, I was happy to forget my to do list but more importantly I felt this is a great connection with my neighbors and I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to do this. We swapped stories about our kids and shared experiences that we all have had over the years. We chatted about favorite vacation spots. We had so much fun getting to know one another better.

God spoke to me this week in my Experiencing God study that we listen to the Holy Spirit and simply do what He tells us. We need to act upon what God is speaking to our heart. I felt like this neighborhood barbecue was one of those moments. I did nothing more than say "grace" over the food and prayed for protection for my friend that is shipping off. We are planning on doing more of these barbecues over the summer and they invited me to bring my guitar and sing a few songs next time, so who knows what God has in mind. Today there weren't any salvation messages and no salvation prayers prayed. We simply shared our lives with others.

Living it out. That's what God has called us to do. And, when you feel a nudge by the Holy Spirit act upon it.

14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matthew 5:14)

It's another snowy/icy week this week and the kids were home four out of the five days of school. Did I hear something on the weather channel about more snow on Saturday? Only 30% chance. We'll see...

Worship practice Thursday was fun and we are slowly transforming my basement into a studio. It used to be our kids playroom, but we've moved toys back up into bedrooms so we can get all the amps and music equipment for our practices. Matt Williams and Julia Inabinet are our newest members of the team and they both play keys. They will be rotating in over the next few weeks. God is really drawing together a team that is high energy and musically gifted, but most importantly they have hearts that desire to worship God. Matt's also an acoustic guitar player. Watch for him this Sunday!

We canceled bible study which gave all of us a chance to catch up on any unfinished homework that we have. One thing that has been great about "Experiencing God" is that the study encourages and even forces us to spend time with Him every day. It's been so refreshing for me to hear the testimonies that are coming from the guys.

Lord willing and the snow stays away we'll be resuming bible study next week. Stay tuned for another update...

"I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints." -Psalm 52:9

Today was an awesome day. I woke up this morning to the pitter patter of little feet followed by the cheers that went up when they opened the curtains and saw the snow that had blanketed our yard and street and bought them a day of freedom from school.

I decided that since I have a high speed internet connection and a nice warm fire by my desk that I'd work from home today. I actually got a lot done even though there were five thousand times that my youngest asked me, "what are you doing?" and then after I explained what I was doing he'd ask, "why?" No matter how many times he did it, somehow it didn't annoy me. I enjoyed him wanting to be a part of my world. How many moments do we take to just spend some time answering our kids silly questions. It made me think of some of the times I spend with God and it seems all I do is ask the question, why? And my conclusion is this. Just like me, I think God enjoys us asking the tough questions. He wants us to get into His world. He wants to let us know how He operates.

My prayer for you today is that you will desire to spend time with God and get into His world and start asking Him questions and then quiet yourself and wait for the answers. They will come.

-andy

Well I know that this is officially my second entry but I wanted to officially welcome you to my blog. With this blog I want to take you on a journey with me in my quest to Experience God and be near Him. To some this may sound strange. Why would anyone desire to be near God? Because God desires to be near us. He created us to have fellowship with him.

At "The Well" (H2O's small group for guys) we are going to go through a book called Experiencing God. This is an intensive study that requires at least 1/2 hour a day reading through the lesson, spending time with God and meeting once a week to discuss what God showed us. It's intense! By doing this we will get in the habit of spending time with God every day and then sharing with others how God is working in our lives. It is my passion that not only I get to know God intimately but I want others to come alongside and join with me in this path that I am taking.

Each week I'll highlight things that we are learning in this study. Will you join me in my quest to be a living sacrifice?

Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship"

Not too long ago I was working for a friend pulling out bushes that were very overgrown. I had a trailer hitched to the back of my van and I piled it up with the bushes and went to the dump to dispose of them. I came up to the entrance with my first load and she let me by with a wave. I came back with a second load and there was another woman there and very rudely told me that my trailer was longer than eight feet and that I had to pay $25.00 a load. I tried explaining that the previous person let me through and she just yelled back at me saying that they didn't know what they were doing and I better pay up now or leave. Needless to say I was really ticked off at first but then I decided to respond by saying, "You're right, I'll go ahead and pay." You should have seen the look on her face! She was astounded that I didn't yell back at her and to her surprise, and mine, she replied, "Hold on, let me talk to the supervisor." She said, "Hey, you can go through, no charge." In the end I was able to dump all eight loads for free.

If you think you are wronged, you have a choice. You can used words that will melt animosity or you can use words that add fuel to the fire of hostility and anger. How do you choose a conversation that will bring hope and peace rather than frustration and resentment?

Paul tells us in Philippians Chapter 2 "Has there ever been encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from His love, any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? Then make me happy by working wholeheartedly one with the other, loving one another by working together with one heart and one purpose. Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression, Be humble and always think of others better than yourself.

My prayer for you today is that you will choose to build up and encourage one another for the sake of Christ.

Peace!