I'm a big man.  I've always been a big man, infact I could lose a lot of weight and still be a big man.  I was taller than everyone growing up, the fact of the matter is that I am, and will always be big.  Growing up I would often get picked on because of my size.  (Pause, as I try to stop the supressed feelings that are rising up...ah...oh...whew, I can make it another day!)  All joking aside, growing up was tough.

I can remember being in kindergarten and getting picked on at the playground.  Ok, ok, I got beat up on the playground and went home with some bruises.  When my "Pops" picked me up from school he could tell something was very wrong.  After much prying, my grandfather got me to spill the beans of the event filled day at school.  When I told him I had gotten beaten up, he stopped the truck in look into my little brown eyes and told me the next time I better hit back or else.  Motivated by the inspirational speech my "Pops" had given me I went to school the next day looking for a fight.  When the teacher said it was time to go outside and play, I knew it was really the time to unleash my revenge on the poor soul that thought it good to bruise my body! HAHAHAHAHAHA!  So I went to recess and beat the snot out of the guy who had hit me the day before.  This got me sent to the office, a 3 point sermon from my mom, and a hearty laugh from one proud grandfather.

Fast foward some 25 years.  While eatting supper a couple of months back I was picking on my kids at supper, then we began to play their favorite game.  "Let's fight Daddy!!!"  So I make the statement to my then 4 year old son, Jared, "One day daddy will teach you how to really fight."  To which my wife retorts, "Doesn't the Bible teach us to turn the other cheek?"  I sat there in my seat dumb founded.  How do I answer that?  How do I justify my stance on fighting?  What do I do?  I came back with, "That's not the way I was taught."  While this was true, it still didn't make sense in light of scripture.  What was I suppose to do?  I mean, I don't want Jared beating the mess out of some kid then coming to me one day and saying "Dad, you didn't teach us this way."  So I did the only thing in knew to do, "I don't know what to say!"

Fast foward to last week.  Jared turns his head at supper to show us a blood blister on top of his right ear.  When asked about what happened he doesn't want to respond.  When asked further he tells us a kid at school pulled him down by his ear.  For all you holy people out their you might not want to read about my reaction.  I was, for all accounts and purposes, pissed.  All the emotions of me getting picked on ran back up and I thought to myself, I want to kill this kid.  Taking a breath, we told Jared that next time this happened he had to tell his teacher.

I love my kids with everything that is inside of me.  I firmly believe love for a child is the closes thing that shows us God's unconditonal love for us.  It was hard not telling my son to go sock that kid in the eye ball.  There are times in life where you read scripture and look at your life and realize that the two don't match up.  Thank God for His Grace that covers all of our sins, but there are times when we pratically need to apply scripture to our lives.  I John 4:20-21,   ²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.  There are many times in scripture where you see Jesus saying something and the verse that follows it says, "this is a hard saying". You bet it is.

While I know I John 4:20-21 is true, it's really hard putting it into action.  God knows this.  He also know that many times we are unable to apply these things into our lives, which is why He calls us to rely on Him more than me.  But man...THIS IS HARDER THAN I THOUGHT

 (How could you  hurt this kid)

I know what you’re thinking…why in the world should I read this blog…I feel that way every time I write a blog (which is why I haven’t written in so long).  But as I awoke this morning and logged on to Facebook I noticed that the world was ending.  I mean not really, but you would think it from the amount of people belly aching over the fact that a free site changed the way they do things.  I’m sure in a couple of hours I will be asked to join the “we want to tell facebook we want our old home page” groups and that if we get 1 million people to join then they will change it back.  They aren’t going to change back, and we will grow accustomed to this in the next 2 weeks and find more political junk to whine about. 

George Barna once wrote in his book “Boiling Points”,

            You can avoid the flu, you can outrun your past, you can ignore your in-laws, you can outsmart your adversaries, and you can deny your imperfections.  One thing you cannot get around, however is change.  Change will happen whether you are ready or not.  Change will happen whether you like it or not.  Change is inevitable.  America’s national motto may as well be “No change? No chance!”

As an avid golfer I can respect change.  The fact is that change happens so fast in technology that if you are playing equipment that is over 3 years old you are losing out in distance and control because the technology around golf is changing so fast.  Somebody stop Steve Jobs and see if his bank account profits from change.  Hot rumor (the IPhone 5 is coming out in November, and the IPad 3 in January) Apple rules the technological world and they change constantly, so somebody tell Mr. Job he’s an idiot while he counts his millions because of change.

In fact, the only thing we can’t change is church. (you had to know I was going there)  Church people complain of change the way a baby cries after he/she has gone boom-boom. In fact while most of the world around us has changed, we still do things the same way.  Now, the word of God WILL NEVER CHANGE!!  Praise Him.  But the way we deliver, approach, and conduct church should.  Most of our church services are still ran the same way they were in the 50’s, we reject anything that maybe different than what we know, and we tend to have a “my way or the highway” approach to our thoughts on how church should be done.  

Did I miss something or did you have to change when you came to Christ?  Yup, you did.  Are you still changing now in Christ?  Yup, you should be.  Will I be changed after I die?  Yup, you will be.  In fact the only thing that we are assured that doesn’t change is God Himself.  So I say embrace change.  Embrace change on Facebook, embrace change in church, embrace change in your life, and embrace change that you don’t like.  Because without change we don’t move forward, someone go ask Moses how it was to be around people who wouldn’t change!

Getting ready this morning my song of choice was Clocks by Coldplay.  Now, while pondering the words of the song this line stuck out; “Am I part of the cure or am I part of the disease?”  This got my mind racing down a rabbit trail that you get to read about this morning.  Am I part of the cure or disease?  Am I helping to bring grace, mercy, and love into a world that so needs the love of Christ, or am I being the individual who is tearing down, judging, and condemning the very ones who need grace, mercy and love to hell?  Which one am I, which one are you?

The Disease

Church can be the most brutal place to be at in the entire world at times.  You can actually walk through the doors of a building expecting to have a life changing experience and leave feeling as though you are more broken and beaten down than you were some 2 hours earlier.  How does this happen?   

To me the answer is simple; we placed our own desires of what Church should be over the truth of what God says Church is.  I find it remarkable as I read the Gospels that Jesus spent a majority of His time with people who had been rejected, hurt, or broken by the Church and the other part of it changing the mindset of those in the Church.  Case in point, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus Himself begins to attack the way the Pharisees approach the Law.  He deals with not just what the Law, but the motive behind their ability to keep the Law.  Don’t murder or commit adultery; instead if you lust or hate you have already committed both of these sins in your heart. 

The Pharisees didn’t want to hear this because they knew they would have to change the way they approached life and church.  We become part of the disease when we won’t allow ourselves to be changed.  The Pharisees where so entrenched with a legalistic attitude that they couldn’t move forward.  Skip ahead some 2,000 years and many in the Church are still dealing with the same thing.  Our mindset is tangled in “man made traditions, rather than pleasing God.” 

The Church is saturated with individuals who want to serve their own agenda, and what does it produce?  It produces a culture of skeptics who claim that the Church is full of hypocrites who don’t care about the things of God.  Take a minute and think about what we have in American culture today.  The disease has produced Bill Maher’s, TBN, and the prosperity Gospel.  You see the disease affects those not in the Church and those in the Church. 

There are times when we could almost feel hopeless at the condition of the Church.  What can I do?  Can it be changed?  The short answer is yes.

The Cure

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 -“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.  For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  I love the Church.  Saint Augustine said, “The church is a whore, but she is also my mother.”  Although there may things wrong with the Church, you can’t just toss Her away. 

Pastor Jud Wilhite pastor’s Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, NV.  This man loves the Church, in fact, he credits the Church for saving his life.  Not only does he claim the church saved his life, 98% of the people who attend his church claim that the Church saved their life.  What they mean by this is the Jesus Christ through the work of His body, the Church, led them to a personal encounter with the one who changed them for all of eternity.  How can this man and his congregation not be part of the Cure?

I had the amazing opportunity of receiving Christ in my 3^rd period gym class my sophomore year of high school.  It happened because a Christian teenager took the time to open up and share his story with me.  I had never seen Christianity like this before in all my life.  In fact, the Christianity that I knew was part of the disease.  What happened is eventually my heart warmed to the point that I accepted Christ as my Lord and savior in October of 1997.  The Cure for my life was Jesus. 

The Bible tells us that we are the reflected image of Christ, more importantly that the Church is that same image.  In knowing Jesus I become part of the Cure.  If my church knows Jesus it is part of the Cure.  The Spirit has brought forth life and now I can walk in that newness. 

Church was meant to be the Cure for the Disease of sin.  When I allow my will and my wants to interfere with what God desires, I become part of the Disease all over again.  When I allow grace, mercy, and the power of the Holy Spirit to guide my life so that I am the image of God’s Son, then I aid in bringing into the word the Cure for all brokenness. 

Which one are you?  “Are you part of the cure or are you part of the disease?”

Blessings,

Pastor Jason       

The top 10 books that have shaped me as a leader are…

1.     The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell- For most of the 90’s and the early part of turn of the century Maxwell dominated the leadership market.  This book is a must for those of us in any leadership position.

2.     Linchpin by Seth Godin- This book was an eye opening book that teaches the leader to be more.  More than just what a position dictates, to be an artist.  If Maxwell helped frame my principles as a leader, Godin has helped to redefine what I believe as a leader.

3.     It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It by Craig Groeschel- To me this is hands down the best book on church leadership on the market.  Groeschel keeps the reader entertained while expressing some vital truths in leading the church.  If you are on staff at a church this book is a must.

4.     Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell- This book is a great starting book for anyone just getting into a leadership role.

5.     Tribes by Seth Godin- First Godin book I ever read.  I love the idea of “movement” that Godin places in this book.  To many times we make leadership so systematic, Godin challenges the leader to “create” a “movement” rather than more systems.

6.     Breakout Churches: Discover How to Make the Leap by Thom Rainer- This is a great book on what the keys are in creating an amazing church.  Rainer, the founder of LifeWay, always gives the reader amazing insight on how to be the leader God has created them to be.

7.     Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership by Gary McIntosh & Samuel Rima, Sr.- This books points out to you very clearly what your glaring weakness are.  You can’t lead unless you know very clearly what stands in your way, from pride to the true reason you lead.  Great book.

8.     The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley-  Stanley is by far one of the best pastor’s in America, and in this book he provides leadership principles that are applicable to church leaders and business world leaders.

9.     Failing Forward by John Maxwell- Every leader needs to know it is ok to fail, but in this book Maxwell teaches us how to fail.

10.  Blink by Malcolm Gladwell- One of my favorite things to do on a date night with the wife is go by Barnes and Noble or Borders and flip through some books.  I picked up this book and literally couldn’t put it down the whole time we were in the store.  Gladwell challenges the thinking process, great read.

Blessings,

Pastor Jason

1. God’s grace is bigger than my view of His grace.  I don’t know if this is something that God has had to hit you with, but it is incredibly overwhelming.
2. To not obey is to not believe.  Obedience is better than sacrifice, so when I don’t listen to what God is telling me to do I am actually saying I don’t believe Him to accomplish the task.
3. Faith is harder than it is preached.  The story in Mark 9 where the demon possessed boy is so vexed that the disciples can’t cast out the demon always gets me.  Not because of the disciples but of the boys father.  When Jesus shows up to cast out the demon the father’s response is, “IF you can do anything…”  Jesus says, “IF, all things are possible to him who believes.”  Then the father’s personal confession is amazing, “I believe, but help me in my unbelief.”  Faith is hard.
4. I don’t do real well when I can’t see what’s in front of me.  Our call as Christians is to walk by faith and not by sight.  I don’t do too well when I can’t see what is in front of me.  I actually stumble all over the place, but I must be vulnerable to God’s presence and trust that He has it under control.
5. Prayer is powerful and I need to do more of it.  The scripture in James where he talks about Elijah being a man just like me, and he prayed and God didn’t let it rain.  Then he prayed again and God let the heavens open.  WOW!!  What James is saying is there is nothing special about Elijah aside from the fact he knew God.
6. Discipleship is the key to church growth.  Not in numbers alone, but in the spiritual growth of the people.  Discipleship starts at home and works its way out, if you don’t disciple your family then what is the point?
7. God’s plan for my life is BIG.  I have been challenged lately by what the Holy Spirit is saying to me about my life, and know steps that need to be taken to growth towards where God wants me.

What has God been saying to you lately, and how has it shaped your journey?

Blessings,

Pastor Jason

While getting ready to come to the office this morning I could hear the sound of my children playing with each other.  As I listened to see what was going on I could hear them reading one of their favorite books to each other, Pete the Cat.  Pete the Cat is a book about a cat named Pete who finds many different ways to get his new “white” shoes dirty.  He turns them red by stepping on some strawberries and turns them blue by stepping into some blueberries, and so on and so on.  Every time Pete’s shoes turn different colors the author ask if Pete gets mad or sad about his brand new predicament.  The answer is always “Goodness No”, yet Pete’s mishap makes him break out into songs like this; “I like my red shoes, I like my red shoes, I like my red shoes.”  How could you not think that Pete is one cool cat? (Laughing uncontrollably as I type this)

Thinking about the story, and singing the amazing songs in my head on the way to the office this morning caused me to reflect on scripture.  The apostle Paul states his stance on being content in Philippians 4:11-13, “¹¹Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹²I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”   Paul is letting us know that he has learned how to be a “cool cat!”  I wonder just how long it took Paul to develop this attitude, how long he had to endure before he realized that he could do ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST.

Many times we use Philippians 4:13 to justify something that we are doing and claim that we can do everything in Him.  In looking at this in the proper context what we find is that through Christ I can endure all things because Christ Himself has endured all things.  So no matter if I’m the richest man on the planet or living pay check to pay check, I can be content in all things that I do because I know that Christ is enduring these moments with me.  If I’m having fun with my kids or standing at the side of a grave of a love one, I CAN DO ALL THINGS.   I can laugh, I can love, I can suffer, and I can mourn, I CAN DO ALL THIINGS.  And in doing all these things I find myself to be content, knowing that my God is with me.  

So I say sing on Pete.  If silly cat can sing and be content with everything that happened to him, what in the world is my problem?  Try doing this to day as you find yourself enduring a situation you don’t want to.  Breakout into a silly song and smile knowing that you CAN DO ALL THINGS THOURGH CHRIST!  “I like my blue shoes, I like my blue shoes, I like my blue shoes.”  Even though you know good and well those shoes are suppose to be white!!!!!!

Blessing,

Pastor Jason

Each week we will take a look at certain leadership principles that I believe are necessary in order to become a great leader.  This week I want to focus on something that I believe most people try to avoid, but instead should seek to do a little more of.  Fail.  That’s right, most of us spend our entire lives trying to avoid failure because we believe that in doing so we in turn can define our lives as successful.  What we probably don’t fully understand is that while we may become some what successful, we won’t reach our full potential because we chose not to fail.  So here are 3 things I have personally learned about failure that have molded me into who I am.

1. Failure increases Success – One rarely fails unless they try and complete a task that is outside their limitations.  In other words, if you never take a chance you never have the opportunity to fail.  The problem with most leaders is they play it too safe.  It doesn’t matter what causes them to do this the point is many people lead from a vantage point of always having to be right.  When we lead from this place it means we can put trust in no one but ourselves for fear of failure.  We can’t be wrong because to be wrong means we fail.  From a Christian stand point, God calls us to walk by faith and not sight.  This means that when we play it too safe, we don’t have enough faith.  And if we don’t have faith, then we can’t be pleasing God.  If you aren’t failing you aren’t trying. 

1.  Failure causes growth -  Using the old phrase here, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”   Failure aids in my learning curve.  It helps me to understand not only what shouldn’t be done, but what needs to be done different in order to achieve the optimal result I as a leader want.  After failing I now what “to do” and what “not to do”.

1. Failure propels the Leader -  John Maxwell wrote a book that deals with this exact topic called Failing Forward. What we all understand is failure has the capability of sinking us.  What we might not fully understand is the only way a failure keeps down is if we allow it to.  When we fail, we fail in the direction we want to go in.  In other words, my failure should lead me closer to my goal and not leave me further from it.  I must fail, accept my failure, get up and continue to move forward.  This is how we allow failure to propel us, we never make the assumption that this failure is now the end of us. 

We must fail.  Not failing is not an option.  If we are not taking chances as leaders, then we have made the mistake of trying not to “rock the boat” enough.  Keeping the peace can not be the reason we don’t try.  If we are worried about what people will think if we take chances, then we have already doomed ourselves and the people we lead to the ultimate failure of not trying at all. Bill Cosby has a phrase that I must say to myself sometimes, “I don’t know what success looks like, but failure is trying to make everyone happy.” The only way to truly fail is to not try.  Keeping the peace can’t be a reason we don’t fail. 

For us Christian leaders out there let me leave you with this…Galatians 1:10, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?  Or am I trying to please man?  If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  Listen to me leader, take the chances necessary in order to move by faith in God.  Don’t let fear of failure or fear of people keep you from this.

Blessings,

Pastor Jason

A couple of years ago a friend of mine told me a story, and to this day I don’t know if it’s true or not.  It best illustrates the point I’m going with in this blog so here it is…

A man and woman where suppose to be experiencing the “happiest day of their lives” together, it was a wedding like none other.  On that fateful day in Clemson, SC everything was over the top from the reception hall all the way down to the thousands of dollars spent on the flowers.  For the bride it was a day of excitement and fulfillment as she got to see her childhood fairy tale come true.  For the groom the “happiest day” was about something totally different, this day would be about revenge. 

The groom had found something out, something no groom should ever find out.  Through the grape vine he heard a rumor that his best man and his “bride to be” where…let’s just say they were a little closer than a groom likes his best man and girl to be!!!!!!!!!  Finding out weeks before the wedding that his soon to be wife and his best friend where having an affair shook this groom to the core, so he decided to go through with what could only be described as the ultimate revenge and go through with the wedding but get back at the both of them.

As the best man stands before the wedding party and tells gushy stories about how “awesome” these two are together and how it is a “match made in heaven”, the groom lets all these lies sink in.  After the best man is done talking the groom get the attention of the crowded room and states, “With all that said now I have a surprise for all of you.  Underneath each one of your chairs is an envelope, would you please take the envelopes out… Everyone open your envelope.”

The room was filled with gasps as to the horror of everyone at the wedding there where pictures of the bride and the best man in some unbecoming situations.  The groom turns to the best man and punches him in the face, then to the bride as declares the words no bride should hear on her wedding day, “It’s over!  I hate you!!!  I did all of this so you would feel the pain I feel”  While the groom exits the room, the entire party is in an up roar.  Hurt.  Pain.  Anger.  Game over!

WOW!!  How does reading this story make you feel?  It cause me to feel pain in my own heart.  Not just because of the story, I mean I don’t even know if the story is true.  But it causes me to reflect on my own unfaithfulness.  Not to my wife, but to my Savior.  You know the one that died for my sins, the one who gave His own life so that I wouldn’t have to give mine.  Yeah, that guy! 

In Jeremiah 3, God is ticked at Israel.  In God’s own words in v.1, “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her?  Would not that land be greatly polluted?  You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return unto me.”  Ouch!  Played the whore!  Double Ouch!  Don’t know about you but I haven’t always been the most faithful person in all of creation.

But in v. 11 He states this, “Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord.  I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord.  I will not be angry forever!”  How about that, God remains faithful to me even when I’m not faithful at all to Him.  So much so that the New Testament says this about Jesus in Romans 5:8, “but God shows His love for us in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Even at the peek of my sinfulness, when I was the most unfaithful, God loved me and was faithful to me!!! 

While the story toys with the emotional side of the human nature, it actually revels to us how different we are than God.  We are prone to be unfaithful, with everything from how often we go to the gym to how often we change churches.  Yet God Himself remains faithful to us and loves us through all that we go through.  The whole “never leave us or forsake us thing.” Man, am I glad that God is so amazingly faithful!

Blessings,                                                                                                                      

Pastor Jason

While in college I had to read the book The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which is an amazing book on what the nature of Discipleship is.  By the way, if you ever want to get your rear end handed to you just pick up this book and give it a read.  I now am reading a book by Jon Walker called Costly Grace, which is a contemporary view on Bonhoeffer’s Christian Classic.  Costly Grace vs. Cheap Grace is a concept that Bonhoeffer coined in The Cost of Discipleship.  This has me thinking on what type of Grace I have in my life.  What type of Grace do you have in yours?

Before we go any further we need to properly define what different types of Grace are.  Cheap Grace is defined as an arrogant presumption that we can receive forgiveness for our sins, yet never abandon our lives to Jesus.  We assume we can go on living the way we have been because our sins are no forgiven.  Costly Grace justifies the sinner: Go and sin no more.  Cheap Grace justifies the sin:  Everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are.

Even after writing these definitions, it causes me to step back and re-evaluate my life.  Truthfully we have all, and I mean all, lived in Cheap Grace at some point or in some area of our lives.  What Bonhoeffer and Walker state over and over again is Cheap Grace is grace without relationship or discipleship.  While Costly Grace is this, it is grace in the vein of relationship and brought out through the means of discipleship.  In other words, it is personal. 

Webb states this; “The Incarnation is totally personal.  When Jesus calls you it is absolutely personal; and the cost of grace is personal.  Jesus paid personally to provide us with free grace and we must pay personally to live within that grace.  Why do you think Jesus died for you, if not for the personal?  What do you think he expects from you, if not something personal?”

The price that we pay is not for salvation, period.  In fact, that is the free gift that God gives us.  But what we do pay is our life in service to the one who gave this free gift to us.  I love and serve God not because I have to, but because I wouldn’t know life unless He first gave.  Therefore Grace is Costly because it cost Jesus His life, and it cost me mine in service to Him.  How bout you?  Is your life sold out to the one who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light? 

On Wednesday Night we will be talking about how we can do nothing to get Grace in our life, because it is and always will be free.  But, Grace should produce things in our lives like fruit, works, and service to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Which is why James tells us that he can prove his faith by his works, not that works produce Grace but that Grace produce works.  I know this, I love God.  I know grace cost Him something, and I know that grace has changed my life.

Blessings,

Pastor Jason    

Over the holidays I got into a conversation with some of Lauren’s family.  The conversation was about one of my least favorite things to do in all of creation; running.  To better understand the extent of the conversation, one must understand that almost all of Laurens family runs.  They love it!!!  In fact, they love it so much that they run 5k’s, 10k’s, half-marathons, and full length marathons…had to take a minute and rest there, the sheer thought of having to write all that out leaves me without breath.

I made a statement during the conversation that was some what funny, but mostly true.  I will not nor will I ever run just for the fun of running.  I run to lose fat off my body, to get in better basketball playing shape, to keep my endurance up, and so on and so forth.  That is it, plan and simple; those are the only reasons for me running.  Ok, maybe if I ran into a guy with a hockey mask and a bloody machete that would cause me to sprint.   While I can appreciate that people enjoy running and have a blast putting their bodies through both physical and mental torment, I don’t enjoy anything about it.

Running serves a purpose for me in my life.  Running is not the goal; it is a means to achieve the goal.  Everyday I must mentally prepare myself for the run, knowing that if I don’t do it then I will not meet my goal.  No wonder the apostle Paul compares our walk with God as a long run, or a runner in a race.  Running is not the purpose.  Running gets us to the purpose.

Many times in our endeavor to “draw” closer to God we find ourselves in the middle of the run wanting to rest, to give up, maybe even wonder why we even started to begin with.  This is affectionately called the “wall”, and every runner hits it at some point.  It is at this time that we must remember what the purpose of the run is, and it’s not just to run!!  Maybe you have forgotten your purpose, maybe you have hit your “wall”, or maybe you are wondering to yourself why you even started this run of faith.  Let me encourage you to press on, to go beyond what your mind is telling you and remember that there is a purpose in what you are doing.  Finish the race, there is a crown awaiting you at the end of your journey…as for me…I guess it’s time to hit the ole elliptical machine one more time, because I haven’t reached my goal yet!  Anyone want to get a hockey mask and a bloody machete and meet me at the Y for some extra motivation?

Blessing,

Pastor Jason