Confessions from a God Shrinker

I am amazed at how I can't explain how God created me, this earth, it's beauty, it majesty but it seems like everyday I shrink God. I might not ever say it like that. Sometimes I'll say, "I'm stressed out", like the God of the universe can't grant me peace. Or I might think along the lines of there is no way we can do this, or no way they will ever change. And right there I shrunk God again. What I have noticed is that the more I shrink God the smaller He gets and the less I need Him. It is kind of the same feeling Adam and Eve may have felt, they had it all but they shrunk God and glorified a piece a fruit. Too often I shrink God and glorify a relationship, a toy, a lifestyle, whatever the case I shrink God for the lure of worthless fruit. I write this to remind myself that God is HUGE, we must remind each other of this very fact. That we are tempted to shrink Him but what despair we are in if we shrink the biggest, most beautiful, amazing, being in all of History. We must tell & retell our stories to remind us how awesome and big our God is. The truth of the matter is we don't have just a story of God's grace but most of us have a new story every day, as every day we are able to relive in His glory. To you Lord God, may we be more in the growing you business than we are the shrinking you business.

Free Shackles

Over the past year God has radically brought some disturbing news to my attention. It was simply put, "You are not living the way I want you to when it comes to your finances." When God spoke this to me He didn't speak it in anger, disappointment, or impatience. I heard Him speak it to me in pure love. Because God loves me so much He longs for me to live a great life as John 10:10 says, "the thief's (Satan) purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy. My (Jesus speaking) purpose is to give life in all its fullness." He is not trying to keep me from having nice things, or to "miss out on what everyone else is doing". I realized more than ever God so deeply desires for both you and me to be 100% financially free. Free from stress of not making enough to pay the bills. Free to give generously as He prompts us to. Free from headache and heartache. Free from relational stress due to money related issues. Free to live however He calls us to live. I saw that without ever realizing it I had caged myself inside a jail cell of debt. And because I only know fellow inmates I never realized I was in "jail". I never realized there was an outside world. A world where people were not shackled down by financial burden and stress. For the first time the light bulb went off after reading the verse in Proverbs 22:7, "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender." Servant I am okay with, after all that is what I signed up to be, a servant of Christ. But look closer, it is not saying a servant of Christ but someone else servant, servant to the lender. Meaning I'm not free, I'm not even Christ servant completely. My debt has caused me to have two masters and scripture later on tells us that no one can have two masters and serve them both completely. So this just rocked my world. I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up to be anyone else servant other than my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This revelation is what keeps me up at night. It's what is driving me to get rid of my current lifestyle and adopt one that doesn't come with shackles. In our American culture this is extremely difficult. Even in my Christians circles this is masked which is probably why I am just now getting help at 27 years old. After many conversations within my community I realized that my circumstances are nothing compared to those my brothers and sisters are facing. If I am in "jail" then I have far to many friends on death row. Yes death row. No light at the end of the tunnel. No hope, no future glimpse of freedom, just a downward spiral into the abyss. I know it sounds extreme, but I think because we haven't called a spade a spade we as a society are now dealing with an overloaded crowd of inmates on death row. The beauty of Jesus is that He is a God of redemption. No matter how far gone we may be He is always there, always, to welcome us back home. To offer redemption no matter what our circumstances may be. I love that. So there is hope. God longs for us to turn our financial choices over to Him. Philippians 4:13 Paul reminds us that we can do anything through Christ. My hope and prayer for us as a Christian community is that we lead the way of hope for ourselves and others that are currently living on death row. From: an inmate planning an escape. For help pursuing a financially free lifestyle go to www.crown.org

Tribes @ FSM

Tribes have launched and it is a long time dream coming true before my eyes. Tribes are our attempt to make our large group small. Although large group times are great and bring a lot of momentum we realized many students and leaders just were not connecting. Through Tribes we now have 14 leaders equipped and ready to love, serve, and pray for a small group of 10-20 students. A proven leader in our ministry is heading up tribes, Lori McCormick. Lori is doing a tremendous job of pairing up leaders and students with the goal of every student in our reach feeling the love of God that changes lives. We currently have 6 teams, 14 leaders and about 100 students involved in Tribes and we are already seeing leaders and students connecting in ways they haven't in the past. It seems to be an instant hit. Pray for the leaders as they are learning themselves what it takes to disciple teenagers. Pray for the teenagers, that they'd make themselves available to be discipled.

Update

Well I've put off blogging a bit longer than I'd like. Here is what has been going on in my life to catch you up to speed.
August 10-17: Vacation in the Smokey Mountains with the fam. It was a great renewal in every area. Blessed to be able to go.
August 20: First day of school. It feels good to back in school were we are able to reach out and serve the community.
August 22: First Night of Tribes! Tribes are our attempt of forming small groups within the student ministry. See future blog for more info.
September 2: Speak @ Pine Ridge Fellowship (PRF) due to Pastor Dave being ill, now he is better, yeah! I spoke on God's desire for us to live in peace with our finances as our economy is proving most of us are living upside down lives financially. See future blog soon.
September 2-3: Headed to St. Augustine with the family to speak to a great group of college leaders during a college retreat for Good News church led by a long time friend Andy Hirko. Andy is has such an amazing heart for God and for people. His team of leaders are gearing up to really impact St. Augustine. Be in prayer for them as they are praying for God to radically transform their community.

Crazy few weeks

Well I haven't been bored lately. Life seems to been in overdrive the past several weeks. It started when on the first day of doing a local mission week. After a bunch of students came to serve some got in a pretty intense car wreck on the way home. Two students walked away, one with minor injuries, one with the need to get knee surgery, leaving the driver with a broken pelvis. The only good part that process was at the same time I found out that Pops, the one we've been praying for, has found out that his cancer didn't spread. Praise God! So he went into surgery this past Monday, July 30th. The surgery went great and was a success but his recovery hasn't gone as planned. It's been longer, harder, and more intense than maybe we were thinking. He is getting better everyday though and hopefully will go home over the weekend. Thanks for all your prayers and support. I believe it is what has carried my father through all this. Well I'm out to head to our youth leadership retreat for the weekend, looking forward to get with the team and see what God is store for us. Blessings!

Our Leaders Rock!

The picture is of 2 of our leaders cutting someones' hair in the salon, this was part of the scavenger hunt. (Richie on the left and Chris on the right).

Yesterday a bunch of us from the student ministry went on a scavenger hunt throughout the city. It was darn good fun. The event wasn't something students signed up for so we weren't sure how many students would come. So as student after student showed up almost every leader that showed up kept asking me, "Dustin, what are going to do if we have too many students?" Although a very logical and possible problem the thought really never entered my mind for one really awesome reason, we have amazing leaders. We had I believe 55 students come, which if you do the math is a lot of vehicles. However I was able rest in the fact that our leaders absolutely love our students, they really do. Although I hadn't asked one leader to come we had about 12 show up ready to love and serve teenagers. So when so many students were beginning to show up I was able to rest in the fact that our leadership team rocks. Huge student ministries don't have half as many good leaders as we have. I feel very blessed to be apart of this team and look forward to many more days of serving with each other in the future. Leaders thank you for your heart to love and serve teenagers, may God bless you as you are blessing others.

Ever since my daughter, Callie Joy, was born I called her my little princess. Little did I know this would come back to haunt me. Since I've always called her that she has associated that phrase with me, her daddy. Last week is when it all went haywire. Last week she was playing with some friends when she thought of me as I was at work. This prompted her to tell her friends where I was and I quote callie joy, "my little princess is at work." That's right she now calls me her little princess and won't stop calling me it. Goodnight my little princess. Bye my little princess. Those phrases are phrases I've had to hear from my daughter. As hilarious and cute as this is I hope it doesn't cause counseling for me later in life.