The Bible... Online

I thought you would all want to know about this. When you think about it, it's surprising it hasn't been done before. The Bible has not copyright; it's all open source.

If anyone wants to start a guild, or something, I could be amenable to talking about it. Good cheer, gentlemen!

Update: be prepared for slightly off English. Just, like, a little.
Now I'm dying to know where this thing originated from.

God's Calling

So I spent 6 months with a missions organization called Youth With a Mission and these are photos from that time. Youth With a Mission or YWAM runs a school called a Discipleship Training School or DTS and in this school you spend 3 months training and then 3 months in a foreign country doing missions.

People who are anywhere from 18 to 30 usually do a DTS. However the reason I love YWAM is that it gives kids who just graduate High School direction and shows them Gods call on their life. In a society where most of our kids that graduate our youth groups will lose their faith in College, I think that our kids need direction and vision most of all.

People that come out of a DTS are fired up for God and want to follow his call on their life. This is the reason I like YWAM and this is why I am going back to be on staff with YWAM.

My flight for England leaves on Sept. 4. If you want to know more about what Im doing let me know. I am sending out letters letting people know what I need and what Im doing.
My e-mail address is ab.surfer@gmail.com

Dads Dove Spot

Men...Thoughts???

For you dads out there

Video about dad life...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40TNwOIn3ZY

Turtle on the grill...

It's Coming Back

I am in a class with a lady who attends Elevation in Charlotte and she directed me to her pastor's blog (http://www.stevenfurtick.com/) and this was an entry I read entitled "It's Coming Back." I found the analogy very insightful as my church in Columbia is in the midst of chaos resulting from the pastor falling into adultery, and I have also seen this evidenced in businesses when business takes off so fast you don't have the leadership in place to handle it. I hope it challenges you like it did me.

I was watching a football game this past fall and the team I was cheering for pulled off an incredible play for a huge gain. It seemed like momentum had finally swung our way and there was nothing that could keep us from moving forward and scoring.

And then I heard the announcer say, “It’s coming back. It’s coming back. There’s a flag on the play.”

Everything that had just been achieved was gone. The momentum disappeared. And we were now moving backwards.

What’s so frustrating about a play being called back is not that it means that gains weren’t made. Significant gains were made. Momentum was created. What makes it frustrating is that it is all canceled out because of an indiscretion. So much achievement is erased in an instant.

I’ve come to see this as a challenging analogy for us to make sure we’re not canceling out the big gains we have been and are experiencing by having something in our life called back because of a lapse in character.

How many ministries have made significant gains that had to come back because the pastor was caught in a moral failure? If you get the ball down the field and grow a big church but it comes back, what does it matter? Yes, lives will have been transformed. But you won’t be around to enjoy it.

How many successful business people have climbed the ranks of their organizations through the use of their God-given abilities, only to be fired because they tried to cut a corner to maintain the success they had achieved?

The same idea goes for students, spouses, politicians. Everybody.

Pay attention, because I think of a lot of us need to hear this. This is your chance to make sure that the momentum you have in your life continues and the gains you’re making remain intact.

Listen: None of your achievements are so big that they can’t be torn down in an instant by a lapse in judgment. Your talents and abilities can take you where your character can’t keep you. If there is anything in your life that has the potential to cancel out all of the successes you’ve had up to this point, get rid of it now before it undoes everything you’ve worked for.

Discipleship

I heard an interesting quote the other day that "Discipleship is the opperating system of the church."

Here's a question men...

If that is true then how do you disciple someone? How does discipleship happen?

Rules for my unborn son...

Hey men not sure if you've seen this yet it's worth spending some time looking through... http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/

For you Joel...

TOP 10 WRONG WAYS TO INITIATE YOUR SON INTO MANHOOD

10. Teach him the secret male ritual of leaving the toilet seat up and the toilet paper roll empty.

9. Have a ceremony where you give him his own remote control.

8. Lead him through an afternoon of rigorous physical training in the back yard while you sit in a lawn chair with a half-gallon of ice cream.

7. Eat until you're about to burst and then ride the Screamin' Hurler roller coaster.

6. Put cream on his face and let the cat shave him with its tongue.

5. Walk behind him through his school halls yelling, "You da man!"

4. Send him to the local discount store to buy mom's "personal things."

3. Give him Grandma's lime green Ford Pinto with personalized license plates that say, "TUFFGUY."

2. Send the womenfolk shopping, then get out your secret Old Yeller video and have a good cry together.

1. Shot put catching.

the newest member of the council

Introducing my son Abrahm Alexander Sewell