tv preachers.

i've never listened to preachers on tv. just don't like it. i think at some point i became numb to them. in college we'd sit in the dorm and laugh when they sorta knock people over on stage. and then we'd see people hurling their medicines to the stage like it was a one-sided snowball fight because the preacher guy told them they were all healed. and then you'd see the people on the news the next week needing their medicine back and i was left to think that these "preachers" had cheated all these sweet people. it made me mad. really mad. and so i turned the channel from there on out. every. single. time.

that changed on saturday. yes, SATURDAY. i was sitting there with bear the wonder dog, watching the playoffs (bc steve nash is the best) and the game went to commercial. it was a game i had been waiting to see. the suns were on the road and needed a win. i usually hate the nba, but it's the playoffs. college basketball is the real deal, but this time of year, the playoffs will do. all that to say, i was really into that game. i'm a sports guy. just dig it. during the commercial, i passed a channel with an older guy talking from behind a desk and i was frozen. i knew it was a preacher on tv, but for some reason, i just froze right there. for those of you that i get the privilege to walk with and speak to each week, you know that God has a way of freezing me. and not just me, but all of us who believe. what i mean by that is that sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks so strongly and is so close that it just has a way of freezing you. it's a moment where it's just you and Him and you just know it. and in that moment, you realize there is nothing better than Him and that you wouldn't want to be anywhere else. matt wertz has a line that says, "this moment is you...it's not that others aren't, but this one i know for sure." it's THAT moment. and when this older guy started speaking i honestly felt the Lord say so strongly to me, "go get your Bible and something to write on because you're gonna be doing a whole lot of writing. you've gotta write this down." i'm not gonna lie, part of my heart wanted to tell Him it was saturday and that the game was on.

i went and got my stuff. and sat. and listened. and filled up a whole page with green ink. HE was speaking to me!

i ran out of space to write. that doesn't happen often. keep in mind my stupid stereotype of these guys. but this time, i wanted to be able to pause the guy, because i needed to think it out. i couldn't. i just kept writing. don't have the tivo thing. the Spirit kept moving. and i could honestly feel my heart getting softer and my joy getting louder. and this was on a saturday. A SATURDAY. during a game i had to see. but in that hour with the Creator, He was all that mattered. He was all i wanted. i was glued. love that. the guy talked for almost 55 minutes. it felt like five. i've told some of you that my favorite talks are where i feel like the pastor is in one big leather chair and i'm in another and he's just helping me through life. kind of like a grandpa or something. he calls me out if he needs to. let's me know where to improve and where to soften. and when needed (a lot), the Lord uses him to pick me up off the floor because i don't have the will and i'm all out of strong. that's just me. i'm weird, i know. but in that hour of listening, God used this man to radically change the way i approach everything. he talked of psalm 25 and 27 and the part where waiting on God means really trusting. psalm 25:14 - the LORD confides in those who fear (are in awe) of Him; He makes His covenant known to them." i would scan my notes into a pic for you, but you probably couldn't read my writing. he moved. completely unexpectedly. and a writer of this book i've got says those are his favorite moments with God. yeah buddy. he's right. it came out of nowhere. on a saturday. and He spoke volumes to me. needed more paper. so, so good. on saturday, the Lord used a man named charles stanley to pick me up and put me close to Jesus. through a tv. good times.

g

ps. tonight a sweet lady who works extensively with a people group in malawi is coming to spend some good time with our students. i'm pretty stoked. we've been trying to help with a little clothes drive and she's gonna fill us in on all the details of where our kiddos clothes go to help their kiddos. little kids from malawi in vandy t-shirts? yeah boy. i'm sure she's got some great stories to share. pumped. and secret song for tonight is you're everything off an old crowder album called can you hear us? old favorite. so true. that whole album is legit. get it and thank me later. and if you want to laugh (i chuckled pretty loud), click here. thanks to jb for showing me. good laughs.

and i know i haven't blogged in while. sorry. been a little busy! this one is a little longer. your welcome, dad. i luh you.

SAY IT BACK.

he's right.

good thoughts today from a buddy. he's right. definitely worth the read. check it out. i'm with ya. love this kind of brutal honesty. it makes way for the Gospel and it has encouraged me. great how the Lord works. our humility unlocks God's power. why? because when we become nothing, He becomes everything in us. yeah, umm, i'm liking philippians 2 today. again. gotta keep preaching it to myself until i really look like this. this could take a bit. yikes.

looking forward to tonight! bring friends kiddos! 6pm. secret song update coming later. and it's not that i'm that skinny. it's that he's fat. and by fat, of course, i mean husky. and let it be known to all two of you (thanks mom and dad) who read this thing that i just blogged two days in a row. you owe me bigtime. and morning music today is the new matt wertz ep. it's different than the usual wertz, but i like it. good cloudy day tunes. there's definitely mandolins in the background somewhere.
g

and the dplatt thought of the day - Ignatius: Few understand what God would do in them if they abandoned themselves unreservedly to Him & allowed His grace to mold them.

that'll keep me thinking the rest of the day. i'm pretty okay with that.

41 days and counting.

looking forward, but excited about today. love belize. love lubbock. Jesus commands it.

g

lahs ah rain.

it's raining cats and dogs. if anyone understands that expression, feel free to help me out. don't get it. never have. but it's really raining this morning and the door of the shop is open. THE BEST. my rainbows are soaked. poodles everywhere. (hahaha get it?! cats and dogs?? poodles/puddles? i'm the punniest). i'm chuckling right now. that's funny right there. reminds me of summer at the pool when someone throws my flip flops in. jerks. this doesn't happen often in lubbock, so i'm gonna enjoy it. i'm going to pretend i live in seattle. okay? okay. so, my sister informed me that she's going to a magical place called new york city this weekend and then denver the week after that. i think i'm supposed to be happy for her. but, today i kinda want to steal her spot. or at least the spot next to her on the plane. that's a bit nicer of me. she's never been to either spot and if i know her (and i dooooooooo) she's going to freak out. "in a good way." she will love it. i'm pretty pro at both cities due to my intricate knowledge of "elf" and "home alone 2-lost in new york" and also because i've been to both places. remember sis, kevin's aunt and uncle live on West 55th St., but they are renovating and are more likely to be in paris. and i might be wrong, but i never saw duncan's toy chest when i was there. hit up FAO swarz and see wicked at the gershwin. and serendipity has a long wait but it's so good. and go see yankee stadium. even if you don't like the team that buys championships. it's history. well, it was until they demolished the good yankee stadium. if you get me a tshirt i'll wear it. and see central park and the empire state. anywhose, my guess is she loves denver more. we'll see. she's NEVER seen the rockies. poor gal. God did good on those. i just had another meeting where God is really moving in the life of a high school kid. i'm so glad they're getting it. it's so fun to watch. and honestly, it's teaching me childlike faith. they just want Him. to be with Him. so challenging. they're learning to love the story of others at their schools. which. is. HUGE. and here's why i think that's pretty great. the reason they're starting to really love the story of others is because they've grown to deeply adore the story of their Maker.

it's that simple. love for Him fuels love for others.

g

a start.

big props to sis on this one. i took the height and the ability to spell words. not to mention the charm and dashing good looks. haha...insert wink here! she took the shortness, cuteness, creativity, the uncanny ability to never get grounded, good grades, blonde hair, scholarships, and a penchant for being a tad rebellious.

i win.

hahahahahahahahaha jk! loooooooove you! SAY IT BACK.

g

chooseday. cloudy. kearney. buh-leeze.

it's 8:18am now. it's overcast and cool out. money. mat kearney and overcast and
cool weather work well together. it's a windows down and loud music morning. the
bass on city of black and white is FUN. gotta love the beat. and the words are right
on. a buddy told me if he could be a mixture of artists, he would be mat kearney,
dave barnes, and ben rector all in one. not bad. that's me too. weird. i think i would
add brad paisley or some really old bluegrass/country guy to the mix, too. just put a
little mandolin in the background maybe. i'm not a huge fan of 7:30am meetings, but
if they're all like this morning's then i will have them the rest of my life. seriously. i
have grown to love these meetings. the guys i get to meet with each week teach me so
much. and they're in high school! i like trying to help them through the tough
questions. the Word does have all the answers. it is the Source. just gotta dig. search
after Him like "buried treasure" ya know?! i had great meetings yesterday, too. i'm pretty
blessed. i need to repeat that to myself. it's good for the soul. i am blessed. so, today
is crazy busy, but that makes it fun. belize is coming together and i honestly can't wait
to see the kiddos. i might stay. (insert wink here). have a really great day y'all.
know that He is WITH YOU. walking with you and forever loving your heart. smile big.

g

ps...if you haven't heard this yet, listen.

and if you haven't seen this yet, do. thanks to julia for passing this story along.
God is doing such great things. check these stories out. wow. so, so cool.
brentwood kids are just the best!

where i'm at. (and with Him, where i'm headed)

saints, (he calls me that. us that. don't deserve that. but isn't that grace? love that.)

if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love,
if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete
by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. do nothing out
of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves. each of you should look not only to your own interest,
but also to the interest of others. your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who,
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but
made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death - even death on a cross! therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him
the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

-paul

as i read this yesterday and again tonight, i realize how far i am from living it. so here's the
brutal honesty...my heart doesn't look like paul says it should. i guess the glass half full
thought is that "i've got lots of room to get better." but the truth is, i hate my pride. and i
have too much of it. it doesn't help me. and it sure doesn't help others who desperately need
less of me and more of Jesus. my eyes have been opened to this. i LOVE that about Truth.
He challenges me.

g

oh, and if you've never heard God speak through david platt, take a listen. trust me. be ready to re-evaluate everything. that's honest.

and here's the talk that has created a further stirring in me. make time for this. he reads, AHEM, speaks romans 1-8. dude's got it memorized. after a minute or two of greeting, he starts. Paul's every word for 8 chapters. not kidding. brandon and i were there. he didn't look down. hid it in his heart. God is GREAT in him (paul's thought in colossians). lots of glory to God the Father in that. i want to know Him like that. "if we don't have urgent missiology, then we don't know the Gospel." his challenge at the end is hard and so very true. take the time to hear and be changed. Christ Jesus deserves all of me.

all. of. me.

"two posts in one day?!"

absorutely. it's the follow up card for the final talk. the hs kiddos take one home.

so do i.

g

the weirdest feeling.

i'm a duke fan. always have been. ever since a box of duke championship gear was given to me by my dad from a duke buddy of his when they beat kansas for the title in '91. i'd really never heard of duke, but i wore all the stuff everywhere and it kinda stuck. i've been to cameron and walked on the floor. it was some sort of pilgrimage i had to go on in college. love the tradition. got to meet jj redick and some of the 2004 team in the locker room. one of my favorite moments ever. i'm a duke fan. i haven't seen them play live yet, but i'm gonna. in the pic above, i'm smiling ear to ear. one of the best days of my life. i worked a camp called crosspoint for a couple summers and my final summer we were at campbell university in north carolina for a couple weeks. there we met a church sponsor whose dad was the head of maintenance for duke's famed basketball stadium, cameron indoor. they heard i was a duke fan. i saw them in duke shirts and we became best friends. i'm cool like that or something. they asked if i'd like to see the campus and tour cameron. ummm...DUH. and by duh, i meant yes, please. well, the drive was only an hour or so, and so all the sports nuts on our college staff drove to durham and had to see it. i drove so fast. come to find, that white, egg-shaped, 12-passenger van had a V10 engine. neato frito. i had to get there. in hindsight, they shouldn't have let me drive. the reason josh isn't that happy in the picture above is because he was a student at Kentucky and well, they don't really love duke. why? watch this. but jward is a champ and he wanted to go anyway. (he is a nashville kid too, whose first love is vandy. and our parents are principal buddies back home...yeah, we're brothers). all this to say, i should have been the happiest camper when the blue devils won the whole thing last night. i should have. but i wasn't. i was excited, but it was the weirdest feeling. for the first time in my whole adult life, i didn't really want either team to lose. so weird. i love what coach k said in his press conference after the game. (yes, i watch that stuff. i'm a nerd). he talked about how even though his team may have won, butler certainly didn't lose. i agree. and if butler had won, i think i'd have the same feeling. weird. and just so the record is straight, i said to a bunch of people a couple months ago that gordon heyward was my favorite player to watch in college basketball. the kid's legit. and he almost made the biggest shot in the history of college basketball. and that fadeaway over zoubek should've dropped. it looked perfect. i really think they'll be back. go bulldogs. btw...they have the best mascot with a sweater in college sports. google it.

g