SERVE it up!!!!

Just as i thought, God showed up this weekend! If you read my last post you know about our D-Now weekend and how satan was trying everything to stop what God had planned. But, as usual, satan failed!!! It was an incredible weekend of Bible study, fellowship, service and changed lives. On Saturday, the small groups went into Greenville, Anderson, and Easley and served various organizations such as Calhoun Elementary, Miracle Hill, Goodwill, and others as well. In my 10 years of ministry I can honestly say that I have never seen students "get it" like our students at Marathon do! They really understand what being a believer is all about. Our students where challenged to have the attitude of Christ as laid out in Philippians 2:5-11. The attitude of a SERVANT! I think we forget that Jesus was a servant first and foremost. He tells us that He came to SERVE, not be SERVED!! What an example for all of us. I was challenged to take a servants attitude and not seek to be served. Serving should be at the forefront of our thinking and then go beyond thinking into ACTION!! We serve an INCREDIBLE GOD!!!
So here is a shout-out to all the students and college leaders that participated in D-Now this past weekend. I am so proud of you and your love for Christ and people!!! YA"LL ROCK!!!!!!

Keepin' it Real,
Bryan

God's gonna do something big this weekend!!!

You may ask yourself how i know that. So let me explain. We are having a discipleship now(d-now) weekend with our students here at Marathon. If you don't know what that it is it is basically a weekend where kids get together in small groups in host homes of people in our church and have Bible study sessions with college-age leaders. It is a really awesome time of digging into God's word, as well as a time for the students to build relationships with each, their leader, and the host home family. We did our first one last year and the number of students participating this year has doubled! But bigger numbers isn't why God is going to do something big. He is going to do something big because satan has been trying HARD to mess things up. We have had 2 host homes have people get sick so they can't host a group in their houses, our curriculum for the weekend was shipped to us over a week ago and just now arrived(it was supposed to be here in 2 days once shipped, not 7 days later!), some of our service projects we were gonna do have fallen through, it's just been crazy!!
But here is the good news, GOD IS IN CONTROL!!!! and He has a plan. If He wasn't going to do something big, then satan would not be working so hard to stop this from happening. The awesome thing is we have had other people step up and help out, the curriculum is here, and there are other projects for us to do!! No matter how hard satan tries he is never going to beat God! he has already been defeated and that makes him really mad, so he tries to do everything he can to stop the progress of the Kingdom. BUT he CAN'T DO IT, WE WIN!!!!!

****yes i know the word satan is always lowercase, and that is intentional because i don't want to show him any respect!!!******

I'm sure i will post again and let you know just how much our God showed out this weekend!!

Keepin it real,
Bryan

Adventures in a Christian bookstore

I was out running errands with Kip, our associate pastor today and i asked him if he would run me by a Christian bookstore so i could pick up the new tobyMac cd because it came out today and was on sale for $5.97!!! I must say it rocks, but is only on sale for that ridiculous price today. Anyway, i had a parent call me while i was in the store telling me about their daughter who is sick. So as any good, caring, concerned youth pastor would do i was LISTENING. I proceeded to the counter to finish the sweet deal on the cd. Well, i swear i only heard the lady ask for my phone number 1 time, but apparently according to Kip, she had ask 3 times. Because i was on the cell phone at the counter she gave me this go to.............well, you know the look! I wasn't just chattin with an old school buddy, i was on the phone with a parent for cryin out loud. Anyway, i learned that just because you work in a "Christian" bookstore doesn't mean you always act like a Christian, so i tried to act right and just get out of there with my awesome deal on the CD!!!

Keepin' it real,
Bryan

I almost tossed my Wendy's!!

Not because i was sick, but because i was laughing so hard!! Last night me and Crystal and 2 other couples went over to the Clary's for a little fellowship. It was great, we talked about old times, looked at pictures of Sammy when he was REALLY skinny and of course ate some food.
Now, the remainder of this blog may be offensive to some, so be warned! I don't remember how we got on the subject, but someone brought up "fart lighting" That's right, you put a lighter up to your rump, light it and watch the sparks fly.....literally! I know this is probably gross and inappropriate, but hey, i'm a youth pastor and this is my blog so i would like to write about it. By the way, we did have jeans on, so we weren't parading around in our underwear or anything like that!! Well, after several "duds" and "false alarms", Jamie and Sammy finally got their motor running and we were actually smart enough to video all this on Jamie's phone. So, with that being said, I hope to have this phenomenon on my blog sometime in the near future. I'm sure you are looking forward to that!!! Chase and I had nothing to offer unfortunately in the way of "ammo", so we just cheered the other guys on. I was rather disappointed in my digestive system to be honest, but oh well, there is always the next time.
And by the way, i didn't purposely put this on here to offend anyone, but sometimes we just need to stop and LAUGH, not just a little courtesy laugh, but a deep deep into your soul belly LAUGH!! Which, if i remember right, is exactly what happened last night! IT WAS GREAT!! So, grab your lighter and let the laughs begin!!!!

Keepin' it really real,
Bryan

My Simple Prayer

Psalm 25:4-5"Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long."
I ran across these verses the other day and they hit me like a ton of bricks (except not quite as painful, and I didn't have to go to the hospital) But you know what I mean. I read verses all the time and usually just go right over something. But with these verses it was different. It's like my eyes were opened to something I had never seen before. God is so awesome in how He works and allows us to be a part of what He has going on! I shared this passage with a group of students at our prayer breakfast this morning and encouraged them to wake up each morning and make this their prayer and shared with them that I too, was going to do this. Here is what I have learned from this passage:

• I need God to show me HIS ways
• I need to be taught by HIM
• I need HIM to guide me
• HE is the only source of salvation
  
• I have hope in HIM

I know what you may be thinking, "Dang Bryan, all you did was just summarize the verse basically word for word!" And you would be right. I think that sometimes we just need to go back and stop trying to over spiritualize things and just take God at His Word. If you will take a minute and read through those verses again, I think you will see that it is pretty cut and dry. I challenge you to make this your prayer each morning and see what God will do in your life!!



Keepin' it real,
Bryan

It's been....

Five days since my last post. I want to extend a heartfelt apology to the 43 people who visited my blog since my last post on the 5th, and I had nothing to give you. I'm sorry, really, really sorry. I beg of you to please not give up on me and my slack posting habits. I am trying to improve, but apparently I am experiencing the dreaded "bloggers slump or cramp"(not sure which it is). I plan on asking my blogging guru buddy, Sammy Clary (www.sammyclary.blogspot.com) what steps I need to take to snap out of this funk, as it appears he has been able to avoid such a tragedy up to this point.
On a lighter note, for those of you who have been keeping up with my church basketball career, I am excited to say that we have now won 2 games in a row!! That's right, 2! one more win and we will be on a streak. The win last night improved our record to a whooping 2wins, 6losses. Hey, we're trying!! I scored 7 points, with the breakdown being a layup, a 3 pointer, and 2 free throws in the clutch to secure our 10 point VICTORY!!!! Well, I think the slump or cramp is creeping up on me once again, as I am out of things to say. Oh wait...............never mind, it's just gas!!!!! I gotta GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Keepin' it real,
Bryan

The past few days.....

Have been good ones. We had an awesome service on Wednesday night with our students. We talked about how much of an impact our words can have on people. I used an illustration where I got to wave my deer hunting rifle around and of course all the kids freaked out and thought I was gonna shoot the place the up!! I assure you there were no casualty's, and so far, no calls from parents, which to me is better than no casualty's!!! (Just kidding!!) Then on Thursday we had a "snow day", so and I didn't go into the office. The wife and I just hung out together at the house, which was really nice I must say. Later that afternoon my buddy Isaac got to come home from Cincinnati after being up there for the past 15 months. I was a little late seeing him actually ride down his road with the fire truck and blue light escort, but if you check out www.sammyclary.blogspot.com(or you can just click on the link on the right side of my blog that talks about the lavender jeep) there are pictures posted there. The Clary's have really been a blessing to me and Crystal for sure. God has blessed us with a friendship that really came out of nowhere. It's cool how God always brings the right people into your life at the exact right time. So, after helping the Clary's unload their vehicles from the trip down, we got to hang out a little while and check out their new house, and Isaac's awesome train room. It was good times. On Friday night I played basketball with our men's team from Marathon, and we finally won!!! That's right, we are on a winning streak.....it just happens to be a 1 game winning streak!! We now carry a 1 win, 6 losses record, but hey it's a win. Saturday was packed with more basketball, but I didn't play, I "coached". I say "coached" because I have played b-ball most of my life, but have never really coached. I have learned that just because you have played a sport a long time, doesn't mean you can coach that same game. I basically just sub kids in and out and call the occasional time-out. But anyway, we lost both games, which is never much fun. And finally, we arrive at yesterday. We played our 3rd annual Chili bowl at 2:00 which is a co-ed 6 on 6 flag football tournament. It was a success, other than I am still trying to thaw out from blistering 25 mph winds we had to deal with. No students were injured and there were no midfield brawls, which for sure was a blessing.
Sorry if this post was random and scattered, but I haven't posted in a few days so I wanted to do something to get back into the swing of things!!

Keepin' it real,
Bryan