I’ve been putting a lot of thought recently into the purpose behind why I blog and why I enjoy reading the blogs of others. My life is about relationships, connecting to others and connecting them to God. Blogging is about the ability to share life and what I’m learning with the world around me. It’s an avenue to share my heart and passion in a very intentional way. It also gives me an avenue to share in “real-time” something that might have happened that God used to speak to my heart.

Blogging allows me to converse with the world around me. Everyone has a story to tell. From Perry Noble to this lady, Ali, I found today who works for Mercy Ships to my buddy Walt who got to meet Huey Lewis this last week. I enjoy hearing the stories of other people’s lives. Blogging allows me that window into others and gives them similar access to what God is doing and saying my world. I was so inspired today by reading Ali’s blog for a few minutes. Here’s a young lady giving herself totally to see the compassion of Jesus shown to kids in Liberia. I would’ve never know her story if I had not seen this today.

I know some people view this virtual world and the connectedness of blogging as a waste of time, but for me it’s missing the point. I walk away from most blogs challenged and encouraged or praying for someone who has a special need. The point (for me) is that blogs, twitter, Facebook etc. reminds me that life is bigger than me, connects me to the greater body of Christ, expands my view of the world and challenges me to be a better Christian, Dad and leader.

I had a chance last week to spend a little over an hour with Pete Wilson. For those of you who may not know Pete, he is the Pastor of a great church in Nashville. Cross Point Church is a happening place to be and God is doing some great stuff there. I was very thankful for Pete’s time and thought I would share some of our conversation here. This is my first time sharing one of these conversations online so we’ll see how it goes. Here’s some of the quotables from our conversation:

I really enjoyed getting to know Pete and learning from him. Pete is marked by humility and graciousness. I walked away more inspired to be a difference in my world. I asked Pete one final question and it was, “If you had 5 minutes left with your boys, what would you tell them about life and Godliness?” Here’s Pete’s response:

“Let’s assume they’re a little older so that they can better understand some things about life. I would tell them Jesus is worth dying for. That you can’t choose when or how you die, but you can choose how you live. Choose to live this life for Jesus.”

Well-said Pete! Make sure to check out Pete’s blog over @ http://withoutwax.tv. You’ll have a blast and learn something to boot. You can also check out Cross Point @ http://crosspoint.tv

What are your thoughts on what Pete had to share?

We have a saying in the south that sometimes you can jump “out of the frying pan and into the fire.” I’ve had some friends recently who have demonstrated incredible faith in the middle of “frying pan” situations. That’s why this post is called “frying pan faith”. I’d like to share some of their stories here.

I had a friend who had a miscarriage this week. We’ve been praying with and for them for the last few weeks and asking God to work out this pregnancy according to His plan and ultimately believing Him for life for this child. My wife received an email update after we had heard what was going on. This mother, who had just lost a child, sent out an email extolling the virtues of God’s sovereignty. Saying things like, “we trusted in God to do what’s best” and “we have peace”.

My Mom has been a stalwart of faith through this process of fighting cancer. She has seemed to find an even stronger grip on her faith than I’ve seen before. There is such a trust in God to not only do what’s best, but a sense of peace to wait on Him to see it play out.

Another friend of mine who unexpectedly lost his job two weeks ago volunteered his butt off this week for our VBS. To know what they were going through as a family with kids heading off to college and uncertainty certainly looming in the background, and that he was here EVERY day of the VBS and made it his goal to make an impact in the lives of others and trust in God for providing for him was just incredible! It reminds me of the verse “seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.”

I’ve been completely moved and motivated by what I’ve seen out of these people and they way they deal with devastating news with a sense of trust and faith that is supernatural. It seems like we are always hearing of someone turning to drugs, alcohol, adultery or some other form of self-destructive activity to help ease their pain. I’m thankful that I’m surrounded by people that know where to look when difficult times come. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and they are saved“-Proverbs 18:10

It is amazing to me how these stressful moments in life can be so clarifying for us. When life seems to be falling apart, God seems to bring such focus to our lives about what matters. My prayer is that I will live my life with frying pan faith; knowing that there is no situation too difficult to trust God in and through.

Musicians always seem to struggle with pride. It’s a constant thorn in the side of most musical and creative people. We’ve all read the scriptures that God “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” and “pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” I read a new one the other day that really caught me off guard. It was Proverbs 17:19. It says this:

The Hebrew there for “exalts his gate” loosely translates to “glorifies his/her position”. The Bible says that people who do this “seek destruction”. I thought about the numerous times I felt it important to tell other people where “God had taken me”(telling about people I’ve met, worked with, written with). Sometimes this can be shared in very positive ways with close friends or new relationships, but I think most creative people could say that they’ve been in conversations where the person was clearly using those conversations to “exalt their gate”. I’ve been guilty of it. I’m sure you haven’t. Our heart tells us when we cross that line.

It was eye opening for me to see that when I do this, I’m actually getting the opposite of what I was hoping for. I have done that in the past to try and solidify my standing to the person/people I was talking to, but according to Scripture I was actually seeking out my own destruction. The Bible is full of warnings pointing to the destructive nature of pride, but this was the first one that clearly told me that a prideful person is not only due for destruction (Proverbs 15:25), but actively seeking it. That’s a scary thought.

Those closest to me would hopefully tell you that I’m not the most prideful guy on the planet. I try hard to keep that in check. I pray that God would help me retain humility and be able to spot and stop pride in all its various forms in my life. David actually prayed that God would “cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things” (Psalm 12:3) and instructed that “blessed is the man who does not respect the proud”. (Psalm 40:4)

I see humility as a crucial component in my personal journey to be used by God for His fame and to see people exalt Him. As you pray today for God to use you, let a request for humility be close by. Don’t let the destructive nature of pride convince you that if you are just forceful enough, charismatic enough, gifted enough you will have influence and favor. Peter said it this way after quoting Proverbs 3:4: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Our position as worshipers and believers should be to have lives that exalt Him. We should let God be the one to exalt us, where He wants us, when He wants us.

Last night I had the opportunity to share with 20+ Jr. High students about worship. I had planned to talk about the “why, how and where” of worship, but instead felt impressed to share that there is purpose and significance to worship. It was a great time of sharing filled with some fun moments. Here’s a little of what we shared:

• Worship is about more than singing good songs-There is an invisible world beyond the one that we know. We acknowledge it in our talk of the life after this one and need to acknowledge it in the now and know that invisible things are happening when we worship.
• Worship stops the enemy (2 Chronicles 20:22)
• It invites His presence (Psalms 22:3)-To this point we talked particularly about how, according to this scripture, God brings His Kingdom rule when we praise. I talked about the “rules” my parents had when I was a kid. The way things are done in the Herod house and that when we worship we invite God to set up His “rules”. To come into where we are and dictate His pattern of doing things.
• Worship is the activity of eternity (Revelation 4)-When we worship we tap into the eternal stream of worship happening in heaven.

I tried encouraging the kids that if they could grasp that worship was about more than the song, more than a moment, but carried purpose and significance for their life they could receive a passion for the worship of God. I always love the opportunity to share worship with the next generation. Psalm 145:4 says; “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.” Living out that Scripture is one of my life’s passions. I would encourage you to find someone from another generation and recount God’s goodness to them.

On a side note, I’d like to ask everyone to pray for my Mom. She has lymphoma and is going to have to go through some more treatment for it. I’m a little low on the faith-o-meter this morning and would love to know that others are joining with me in believing for God’s healing to overtake her body. We serve a God whose Name is above EVERY other name. Thanks…adam