Sanctified by the Cross

As many of you know, I spent last weekend down in Indiana speaking at a youth retreat for my best friend Aaron. He is the youth pastor and associate pastor at the church and planned a retreat for his high-schoolers. All total we had about 15 people that made the trek even further south in Indiana. The youth were great, they were awesome kids. I taught a total of four messages from Friday night through Sunday morning as well as did music for the weekend. I realized that it had been a long time since I had played my guitar at camp and my uncalloused fingers reminded me of it. I am still trying to recoup from the preaching and late nights with lots of caffeine and conversation, as well as zip lines, paint-ball, Frisbee, music, driving, etc. I don't think I'm as young as I used to be. Though I keep acting like I am. And will probably continue to do so for quite some time. I wanted to take the next few posts to share what I was hoping to get across to the kid...

Hey y’all! I hope this note finds you well, just an update, The last month has been full of some rather interesting things. Some bizarre, some downright frustrating, others incredible and evidently blessed by God. I want to share one particular story with you that I thought was particularly strange. It all kinda started about three weeks ago. I was trying to get to sleep so I could orient my sleep schedule again for work. I went to bed around 10:30 and tossed and turned until midnight, finally fell asleep, and was woken up at 1:00 to the LOUDEST crash I had ever heard in my apartment. I was up and out of my bed in about a second and a half, gripping my baseball bat and ready to go. I was ready to take on whoever I thought was in my apartment. I finally calmed down enough and turned on the light. There wasn’t anyone in my apartment, but my entire kitchen cabinet had fallen off the wall. Completely fell off the wall , shattering most of my Correlleware all over my ...

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while, and I hope now to get back in the swing of writing on a consistent basis, For now, here is a general update letter that I sent out. Greetings, I write this letter sitting in my studio apartment in one of the greatest cities in America. How this small town kid ever ended up living in this city and what’s more, now choosing to live in this city, is beyond even him. Let me share a little bit about how I got here. For some of you this will be old news. For others of you a welcome recap of all that God ha s done over the last couple of months. I finished up my final semester at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I recently received word that my graduation is officially official. The Diploma was signed! I did it! I graduated from The Moody Bible Institute with a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and Pastoral Ministry. As I look back on my three and a half years at Moody, I am in awe and wonder as to all that God accomplished in and thro...