Thankful for what???

Yup…it’s November! Where did October go? We’ll wake up tomorrow and it will be Christmas. I have asked a few kids about thanksgiving and for what reason they had to be thankful and their reply was not what I expected. One teenager…let’s call him…oh, I don’t know, Johnny…told me online that his mother didn’t really care about him or life anymore, he doesn’t see his dad a whole lot, and is currently flunking school. Another teen told me that his friend wants him to help him sell some crack on the side, he has been kicked out of school and is on the verge of being expelled at the alternative school, but really has no hope for the future…and still another tells me that his mother is constantly yelling at him for nearly everything from the point he gets up and leaves for school until the point he closes the door and hides under the covers to escape…and they all asked me for what reason they should be thankful. This is a seemingly difficult question to answer to kids who reside in a depressed and angry living environment where God is unfortunately not welcome as a savior, but rather another being on whom their parents or they themselves place the blame for their current demise.
I am in prayer for them often as God constantly brings their faces and stories to my mind and I ask you to join me in prayer for these kids and many more like them whom I counsel online as they are seeking the truth and have the option to allow God to turn their story into a powerful testimony which can indeed change the lives of many.

R – E – S – P – E – C – T

Far too many people roam the earth with little to know respect for themselves and thus little to no respect for others.  Can that be changed?

click here and decide for yourself: Respect

The Spiritual Side

There is a spiritual side to life which people tend to disregard.  Learn from a few poor, humble, youth workers how to keep it in check.

Spiritual Balance

If you Wanna Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life

We just finished a show on choices…let me tell ya’ somethin’…The one whom you marry is the most important decision you will make, second only to the reservations you schedule for the afterlife (smoking or non-smoking)  My brother played this song for me while I was visiting in New Orleans…and I couldn’t stop laughing.  I’m sure you’ve probably heard it all before…but to those who are seeking a mate for life…take some notes, my fellow brethren…cuz life can be a long, long, time.  Fortunately for me, I found the love of my life while I was in college.  There were 45 beautiful ladies, and the only other guy in class was 40 years old, and married.  I was set.  And, God brought my bride-to-be to me whose beauty both inside and out, is unmatched.

Wedding gone wrong

This is baaaaaaad.  One of the worst things that happened at our wedding was the preacher forgot my wife’s name….but this…..ooh!

Wedding gone wrong

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The “Everything” Project

The above is half of the video we shot, if you would like the full version including behind the scenes commentary and interviews with the cast of the impact this drama had on them, the part they played, an more click here

Swimming with the fishes

Danger awaits us around every corner.  there are many who choose to cross the road and avoid the corner all together…andthere are others who go directly into the belly of the beast, pull up a chair, and face their fear.  Where do you stand?  Do you control your fear of getting outside yoru comfort circle?  or do you allow your fears to control you.

I found this video and thought to myself, “Self…this is one of them kinda’ people”

Membership Has Its Privileges

Teenagers can be so finicky.  Take music for instance…Popularity and like-a-bility can change, not overnight…but you can be here today and gone…today!  And with the speed of communication in today’s society, it can be even quicker.  You can go from a stardom to nothing in no time at all.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly we forget who got “Academy for Movie of the Year” two years ago?  One year ago?  Who was nominated?  Kids have an even shorter memory.  I asked my son to take out the trash a few days ago.  10 minutes later I went into the kitchen to fetch a drink and saw him leaning against the kitchen counter with a “deer-in-the-headlights” blank stare in his face.  (He is in 6th grade, which in youth ministry is normally referred to as “pre-human”)  “Michael”, I said, drawing him back to earth…”the trash…”  “Oh.”  I’m sure you’ve been there.

Although teens have a tendancy to forget things like that, through the grace of God our listenership seems to hold steady at about 2400 teens per month.  We conduct our podcasts on a weekly basis which is becoming more and more difficult to keep up with as there is much to do in a single week, but we are very excited about our growth with the audience and our current and potential impact with the teens.  Please pray that we will continue to grow as we have a large goal to meet by this time next year which is to have 20,000 teens per month tune in to hear The World Gone Mad.

Interview with a Former Gangsta

 

 

 

 

Life in the ghetto, and how it changed his life forever.

Interview with a Former Gangsta.mp3

Over-Plicomplicationism

 We had been invited by some of our friends to join them on the lake this past weekend.  It was a blast just being out there on the boat, wind in the hair (what’s left of it) sun on the face, the kids being beat-up on a tube behind the boat, and seeing the world go by.  We had switched positions just a few minutes ago.  You see, I was the one on the water and my boys were inside the boat watching Daddy try to stay above water on two boards, which under a man this fat…I imagine looked a little more like an apple hobbling around on a couple of toothpicks, but I digress.  Now, it was there turn.

I had asked the driver about the best way to position my body while skiing.  It seems no matter what I do, within 15 minutes of skiing, my back is killing me and my legs just want to call it a day.  ”What am I doing wrong?”

He said that most of the time, we over complicate the whole thing.  If we just stand up, lean back a little, and allow the boat to take us for a ride…we’d be a lot better off.  I thought to myself…”self, why didn’t we think of that?”

At the same time, God decided to whack me over the head with a big…”Duh!”  I believe we do the same thing with faith and our way of living.  We as people, let alone as Christians, accidentally over-complicate things to the extent we need someone to whack us upside the head and say…”All you gotta’ do is stand up, lean back a little, hold onto Jesus, and let HIM take you for a ride.  HE said, “Love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and your strength.  And then love others as yourself.  Upon these rely the laws of the prophets.”  Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?