Raw Honesty

Do you ever struggle on the inside when you read about the life of Christ and then evaluate your own? I woke up this morning with such a discontent at the soul level. I wrestle between the person that I am, and the one I long to be...and I wonder if that gap will ever shrink! If the goal of our Christianity is to become like Jesus, I sure am looking a lot like myself. It's easy to admire and even worship Jesus, and still not do the things He did. I'm challenged by His enormous love and disturbed by the smallness of my own. If Jesus really said that the last will be first, why do I work so hard at being first? The more I read Scripture, the more I feel God shaking up my nice and neat, wrinkle-free life.

D-town

I've been in Dallas, TX, all week doing a combination of different things. My mom lives here, and even though it has been difficult, I'm doing my very best to let her to spoil me--it's so tough sleeping until noon, watching ESPN all day, and having a plate of food in front of me everytime I look up! No seriously, it has been great to visit, but I have been extremely busy. Monday and Tuesday night I spoke to a group of college athletes at SAGU (Southwest Assembly of God Univ) who are in the middle of three-a-day workouts as they prepare for their season. I love interacting with athletes--being in the mix of training, hard work, and competition. It brings me back to my early years when sports played such a huge role in my personal development. I think I still carry that drive to excel and achieve, only in a different capacity now. For me, it's no longer about winning games and championships--it's about winning people.

Tomorrow I'll travel north of Dallas to meet up with a friend of mine, Chris Boniol. Chris has a Super Bowl ring from his time with the Dallas Cowboys, and he continues to do camps for kids who are serious about football. I'll be speaking to about 120 men from his church at a retreat until Saturday--nothing like a room full of testosterone and the Holy Ghost! It's so cool to see the different expressions of Christ all over the country. I'm seeing an unprecedented hunger for God and people who are passionately pursuing Him everywhere I go. Awesome!!

New Look at an Old Thought

I'm currently reading a book by Shane Claiborne called "The Irresistible Revolution," and it's messing me up inside and out--don't you just love books that comfort the disturbed, disturb the comfortable, and invite you to change the world with the irresistible love of Christ!?!

Quick excerpt:
"Two guys are talking to each other, and one of them says he has a question for God. He wants to ask why God allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. And his friend says, "Well, why don't you ask?" The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters, "I'm scared God will ask me the same question." Over and over, when I ask God why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, "You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet."

Let's stop complaining about the church we see, and start setting our hearts on becoming the church we dream of!!!

A New Set of Eyes

After months of encouragement from my wife and the continual affirmation of my already experienced friends, I took the optical plunge...I had lasek surgery performed on both eyes! It was a big step for me because I have worn eye glasses and contact lenses for 22 years of my life, but I finally decided it was time. With all the travel I do, and the money I spend on eye exams, contact lenses, glasses, solution, and other eye stuff...I needed to do something different. I had to be out of my contacts for nearly 5 consecutive weeks, so you can imagine how difficult that was for me! I trusted myself not only to God, but to the experienced care of HPC's own Dr. Fay Woo...who is the absolute best! When they wheeled my back to the surgery room, Dr. Woo introduced me to her qualified team that would be assisting her (another group of HPC'ers--I love the family!!). She then prayed the scriptures over me, gave me an LSU Tiger teddy bear to hold onto (for the big baby inside of me), and gently talked me through the entire procedure. In no time at all, I was being escorted through the parking lot by my wife, sneaking peaks from behind my Stars Wars storm trooper goggles, amazed at the signs I could read and the leaves on all the trees!! I felt a little like blind Bartamaus must have felt when the power of Christ gave him the ability to see the wonderful world around him. Isn't the creativity of God and the ingenuity of modern medicine amazing!!! I'm seeing the world around me with a whole new set of eyes...and I'm praying the Spirit of God would let me see the beautiful moments in Scripture with a new pair as well!!!

No Place Like Home

Rachel left for Chattanooga, Tennessee, last Friday to be with her brother and his wife for the birth of their first baby. As excited as I am about their new darling addition, I've been "doggy-paddlin" trying to keep my head above water with 2 kids of my own...being Mom and Dad is more than a full-time job! We crossed a couple of major milestones this week: Alexa starting the 3rd grade and riding the bus home from school--I know how bus culture can be...lots of fun and dangerous memories that can increase your visits to the principal's office--and little Mikaela making her debut in beginners gym class. Between playing taxi, packing lunches, cleaning house, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and taking tons of pictures, I've gained a whole new appreciation for the lady in my life!!! I miss my wife and cannot wait until she gets home. It's true--you never know what you have until it goes out of town. Isn't there some sort of scripture outlining the limits as to how long your wife can be away?!! If you're reading this and thinking, "Man, this guy needs to grow up," please pray for me. But if you're reading this and thinking, "Poor guy. He could really use some help," then don't pray...just send money!!!!

Ramping Up for the Next Generation

I am totally pumped about all that God is going to do in the hearts and lives of the young people of this generation! On Friday night, we brought 70 HPC student ministry staff and volunteers down to New Orleans for a time of focused prayer and training, as we made preparations for a brand new school year. You could sense the passion and excitement of our teams as we stretched our faith to dream God-sized dreams, and committed ourselves to greater levels of sacrifice for the harvest of this next generation. We also enjoyed a unique move of God at church in each one of our weekend services. The spirit of God was poured out in such a tangible way--dozens received Christ, many experienced healing in their lives, some were freed from addictions and bondages, and over a thousand children were blessed and commissioned to walk in the purposes of God this school year. I believe we are living in some exciting times, and God is sending us out as an army of healers into this community.

Showers of Blessings

I apologize for the silence...once again. When Pastor Dino is out of pocket, my life gets incredibly busy--I have a new respect and appreciation for his schedule--and blogging is one of the last things on my mind. We taught on being relevant this weekend at HPC, and I have to confess, I had a blast!! It's such an honor to be able to stand before the incredible people of our church and learn God's Word together. Rachel and I have been on staff for over a decade (I started fresh out of college when I was only 22 years old), and many of the families at HPC have watched us grow up. From the youth ministry days of Crosswalk--with only a handful of teenagers meeting in an unfinished studio--until now, there is no other place I would rather be!

Yesterday was full of surprises. I was scheduled to speak 3 times, 3 different messages (Pastor Dino's Bible study, Life U., and Late Nite), and my day was spent hibernating in a cave I call my office. Sermon preparation can be an interesting thing: sometimes it's so effortless and easy that I can't write in my notepad fast enough...other times it's a grueling task of scratching and clawing just to hammer out a few coherent thoughts. Take a wild guess which experience was mine! After the all-day wrestling match in my office (Bibles and commentaries scattered everywhere), my preparations were complete, and I was finally ready to say something.

Out of nowhere, the electrical thunderstorm of the century hit Baton Rouge around 4:30pm. I felt like Chicken Little trying to tell everyone that the sky was falling. Traffic was backed up, streets were flooded, and the power at the church was completely knocked out, so we had no choice but to cancel services. With all the effort and study I had put into those messages, I couldn't let it be in vain. So that night at the house, I gathered Rachel and the girls in our living room and preached my heart out for 3 hours...1 person almost got saved, 1 person fell asleep, and the other 1 threatened to leave and start her own church! We did, however, collect a record-breaking offering of several crayons and leggos!

Home on the Range

What do you get when you squeeze 3500 rowdy Cajuns into a 2100 seat auditorium, and you throw in some Australians from Hillsong Church?...a Holy Ghost explosion! We had an amazing time of worship, teaching, and experiencing God at Bethany's south campus Tuesday night--we even got to meet JP's twin brother from "down under." JP is a much better dancer than he is!

You know you've had some full-contact praise and worship when you leave church dripping wet with sweat, smelling like a locker room!

I thank God for what He is doing in our city, and how He's bringing churches together in these final days for kingdom purposes (Pastor Dino is preaching at Bethany this weekend...how cool is that!). It's not about the labels on our churches, the style of our worship, or the things that make us different--it's about Christ!!!

In helping to host the United praise team this week, I had a unique opportunity to step out of my normal routine and do something radically different. We brought our Australian friends to a gun club in Port Allen and played a little "shoot-em up cowboy." Keep in mind, the only thing I've ever shot is a basketball, and even then I am not real accurate! We fired some serious weaponry (is that a word?) and celebrated our God-given right as men to blow things up. For hours, we fired .9 mm pistols, .45 semi-automatics, assault rifles, MP5's, a .480 big gamer, and even an Israeli made desert eagle .50 caliber handgun (I have no idea if I named all those guns right. All I know is that when the noise finally stopped, my face was dusted with gun powder and my arms hurt more than after a workout at the gym!)

If my nickname is "The Hamanator," I was doing my best to live up to it! At the end of the day, I talked with Murray Landry, one of the great guys at our church who worked with the FBI for years. I asked him how I did, and his words summed it up best. He said, "Preacher...you might want to just stick to the Bible." Aren't you glad for friends who love you enough to be completely honest with you? I guess if I ever had to fire a gun in a time of crisis, I would just spray and pray!!!