Screaming...and an update.

So, I was sitting in the chair tonight holding Campbell, admiring all her features. I wonder if God ever looks at us and is totally amazed by his creation…I know that when I look at Campbell I am totally amazed at God and I have to give him the glory for His creation. Morgan once told me that when a mother walks out of the sight of her baby, that the baby cries because she thinks that her mother is gone…forever. I also wonder who asked the baby if that’s why she screams to the top of her lungs when her mother leaves the room….anyway. The point is that a baby desperately desires to keep her mother in her sight, where she knows that she is there for her. I wonder what would happen if we tried to keep God in our sight that desperately. What if we kept our eyes so focused on Him that we knew His every move before He made it. Campbell seems to know when Morgan picks her up if she is going to feed her, or change her diaper, or put her down for a nap, or just play with her. What if we knew God so well that we knew exactly what He was going to do as soon as He started moving? Are you watching God with great anticipation of what He is going to do? Do you have any idea of what He is doing so that you can move with Him? Do you scream for Him when you feel like you’ve lost sight of Him? Do you even care to be in His presence?.....

UPDATE:

-The Family and I had company all week with some teenagers from Greenwood visiting us this week. They helped with service projects, baby sat and entertained us. It was great to get to spend some time with them. They are leaving tomorrow. I hope that they come back before the end of the summer.
-The Bluffton area newspaper featured and Crosspoint in an article today. Click here to see it.
-I miss being in Greenwood.

Reckless Faith

So, I was going to write about my devotion that I read the other day, but I can't communicate it to you as well as the original author, so just read this excerpt and know that it really spoke to me and I hope that it speaks to you too.

This comes from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers


"...Peter...walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid.." (Matthew 14:29-30)

The wind really was boisterous and the waves really were high, but Peter didn't see them at first. He didn't consider them at all; he simply recognized his Lord, stepped out in recognition of Him, and "walked on the water." Then he began to take those things around him into account, and instantly, down he went. Why couldn't our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves, as well as on top of them? He could have, yet neither could be done without Peter's continuing recognition of the Lord Jesus.
We step right out with recognition of God in some things, then self-consideration enters our lives and down we go. If you are truly recognizing your Lord, you have no business being concerned about how and where He engineers your circumstances....
...If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you. Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?" Be reckless immediately-totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything-by casting your all upon Him.

Any of you who know me know that this devotional had to speak to me, but just so that you know, it didn't speak to me because I feel like I have done as well or better than Peter when he stepped out of the boat to go to Jesus. To be honest, I feel like I've got a long way to go before my feet are even over the edge of the boat. Right now I think that I may be standing up in the boat at the most and saying to myself, "Hey, there is Jesus and I want to go to Him!" So if you want to pray for me, please pray that I'll step out of the boat every chance that I get and walk to Jesus, keeping my eyes focused on Him. I'll leave you with the last little part of the devotional from Oswald Chambers for June 18th, and I encourage you to be reckless...Immediately when you hear His voice. Even though you will almost certainly sink at some point, He'll be there to catch your hand.

You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him. You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness-being willing to risk your all.

Excitement

Well, after several days with no legitimate furniture, one of the families that we have met here in Bluffton finally felt sorry enough for us to let us borrow their extra dinning room table that they had in storage. Morgan was so excited to have a chair to sit in that she has refused to move for the past 6 hours 36 minutes and 22 seconds and counting. She is currently still sitting in the same spot as the picture that you see... So I assume that you know I am joking, but we are excited to have chairs to sit in. A big thank you to Russell Whitfield and family.
Since we are on the topic of being excited about simple things. I have to wonder how often we don't get excited about things that we used to get excited about. um...
-Dates with our spouses...for some, I know I still do, but we don't have nearly enough dates.
-Our Children...hm...do you still get excited about your children...they are a gift from God.
-Our Job...Is it a calling or just something that pays the bills?...(these dots are meant to encourage you to take some time to think...)
-How about our spouses in general?...
-Excercise?...I know I have my spells when I get excited about exercising...they don't last long, but I'm not saying that is okay. Physical health should be a priority.
-How about life in general?...Do you ever think "Who sucked all my life out and what do I do to get it back?"...Maybe you could talk to Jesus about that?
-Speaking of Jesus, and I know you knew that I was going to get to him...When was the last time that you really...legitimately...truly got excited about Jesus?..."Man, you cut me deep Shrek, real deep."

Blog Students

I've had a really hard time with blogging lately, I have found that it is more of a burden than anything. My goal is to figure out how to blog in such a way that it is a release for me, and informative or inspirational to those who read it. So I guess I would call myself a student of blogging. I recently read two blogs about how to blog and I want to post the links here because I have a lot of friends who have also started their own blogs. These two blogs were helpful for me, maybe they'll help you too. Blog #1 and Blog #2 I hope that this helps some other folks too. Please be patient with me, I'm still trying to get this blogging thing down.

Curt...what exactly are you doing?

Even after all this time in Bluffton I still get questions about what I am doing exactly in Bluffton. I don't mind the questions, I actually appreciate them, but here is a little info that may help. I am currently interning at a new church plant in Bluffton, SC. The name of the church is Crosspoint Bluffton and my official title is Interim Youth Minister. Crosspoint has not officially launched yet, so they don't have any regular worship services on Sunday mornings. My main goal by the end of the summer is to try to build a base of students for the actual Youth Minister when he/she arrives later this year. There is only one student in the current student ministry of Crosspoint Bluffton, so my goal is to simply go out into the community and form relationships with teens that I have never met and eventually grow that into some form of bible study. As simple as this may sound, it is just about the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life. I am learning so many lessons and I am excited about the potential of this summer. It is true that I get to spend some time at the beach having fun, but I also spend a lot of time building relationships on many other fronts beyond teenagers. I'm currently building relationships with people in my neighborhood, the local business owners and managers, the church staff of Crosspoint, the staff of other churches in the area, and I am also leading Oasis back home and am in constant communication with several mentors and with the state convention. Not to mention that I have a wife and three kids, and I'm so glad that God has provided the opportunity for them to be down here with me. I'm taking notes on everything that I see, and preparing for more formal training in August. I am also trying to find time to communicate with people about the possibility of partnering with Oasis Church to help pay my salary. These are just a few of the things that I have going on right now and I hope that it sheds a little light on what exactly I am doing in Bluffton and with Oasis too. For the Core team. Continue to strive to walk closer to God in your personal walk. For all those who read this, please be praying for My family and myself and for Oasis church. Thank you all so much for all that you do. For the next few blogs I would love to just answer some questions. So if you all could just post comments with questions that you would like to ask me pertaining to anything really, but specifically my internship this summer and Oasis Church, I would love an opportunity to answer them. I'm sure that if you are wondering, then others are too.

Just an update

I don’t really have anything to say tonight. So I’ll just give you a quick update about what is going on.

-Me and the Family returned to Bluffton yesterday at about 3:30am.

-Intern Matt and I went to a local FCA rally and made a good contact with the local FCA Director.

-We spent some time today on Tybee Island with Thomas, Sally and Lila Moore, some of our good friends from Greenwood.

-We are all currently sleeping in the floor of our house because we don’t have any furniture yet…it’s kind of like camping…without the fire…

-I enjoyed getting to be with the core group this past Wed. night. It was good seeing you all.

-We had a reality check this past Wed. in the core meeting when we came to the realization that we have 27 youth and children in our core group…That scared me…it isn’t something that we were expecting or that we were prepared for. It is one of those surprise praises though. God is blessing what we are doing and I have to give Him all the glory for it.

-Continue to pray that God will continue to meet all of our needs and that we will follow Him faithfully wherever He leads.

-Thank you to all those who are involved with Oasis Church in any form or fashion.

Pain...

The last couple of days have been very painful and testing. My Papa was taken off life support yesterday. As of now, all church planting plans are at a stand still, and will be until we get through this. My Papa is a precious man. One of the most familiar things that I remember about him is his hands. I can remember when he would hug me or just touch me, his hands were always so rough and calloused. My Papa always had a garden and he worked very hard to grow vegetables in the red South Carolina clay. He was always a hard worker. I remember shucking corn and shelling peas on their porch and under the oak trees. At that time in my life, I did whatever I could to avoid work. Now I understand the importance of working hard. There are two men in my life who have taught me what it means to have a good work ethic. The first is my father. He would always tell me and still says to me, "If you're going to do something, don't do it half way." The second is my Papa. His calloused hands were always a reminder of who he was and what it meant to work hard. As I held his hands in the hospital I noticed a definite difference in the way his hands felt, they were no longer calloused. I've known for a while that it has been tough on him having to sit in a chair at his home, but when I felt his hands in a less aged and softer condition, a tough reality sunk in, for some time my Papa hasn't been able to be the Papa I've always known him to be...A hard worker. Who is Alvin Jones to me?...He is a hard working faithful man. He has always loved his family and his wife, my Nana. I have had some jobs that created callouses on my hands, but right now I have a calling that causes callouses in my spirit and on my heart at times. As my dad says "Son, if your going to do something, don't do it half way." And to the man who taught me the importance of a callous or two. Thank you for the lessons, thank you for the love, thank you for being you. I love you Papa!