I See Red Glowing Numbers... UGH!

I began writing this entry in the wee hours of the morning last night. I think I started when I saw the little red glowing numbers were reading 3:43 AM and remember still going around 4:17 AM... the only problem was I was writing this entry in my head and not sitting at the computer. Maybe I should have just gone ahead to the computer and got going! I think I saw every hour of the night last night. It was oddly reminiscent of pulling an all-nighter in seminary trying to bang out a Church History paper in one night (sorry Dr. Bray if you are reading this) watching the hours of the night turn into the wee hours of the morning and tick closer till class time. Although, no paper last night and no class in the morning - just 2 boys. Jake didn't have a good night last night trying to sleep. I know he was somewhat congested, and I'm sure that didn't help, but he kept waking up just about every hour. Then, sometime in the 4 AM hour, Brock came in to tell me about his bad dream where an alligator ate him. So after reassuring him he had all his limbs and he was still alive, I walked him back to his room to get him back to sleep.

I can remember in college, seminary and being young in the ministry and really loving nights like last night. Not being awakened all night by my kids, but having fun, grabbing some late night Krispy Kremes, writing papers or running around the church gym until I just couldn't go anymore. But not so much anymore. I've found I don't really enjoy seeing the little red glowing numbers posting times where only people on the other side of the globe should be awake. Somehow in the middle of all of the craziness and lack of sleep last night a spiritual thought popped into my head - go figure. Who thinks spiritually at 3 AM? Well I was reminded that the God I serve was awake right there with me. "He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber" (Psalm 121:3). How amazing is that? While I wasn't really enjoying being awake much less having to tend to my children's needs, God was on His throne watching over me. So, I was comforted to know that while I was watching red, glowing numbers... God was watching over me!

Beyond the Message: Best Sex Ever - Pt. 3

What a girl wants... is the topic that Ashley and I covered last night in the third part of this series. Remember students - that I want you to be able to hear truth from the heart of someone who cares greatly about you and your future! Girls, I brought Ashley in to help me speak directly to some of the lies that the world is telling you that how you look and how your perform will give you the acceptance you want. It's a big lie! Remember our culture is constantly changing so you have to believe something that is constant and doesn't change - and that would be God's truth. To see how culture changes, check this out...

As I was preparing to teach, I did some research on the Internet and I found that in 1951 Miss Sweden was 5’7” and weighed 151 pounds. What would we call a 5’7”, 151 pound girl, today? Probably FAT! Three decades later, in 1983, Miss Sweden, was 5’9” and weighed 109 pounds. Most of you girls have grown up with the Barbie image of beauty and Barbie is not reality. Someone wrote that if Barbie were a real life figure her boobs would be so big she’d fall flat on her face. It’s true! Yet this is what you've grown up with - and even now, the images of "beauty" and of how you need to dress, act and think is getting worse all the time.

Girls, you've got to find your acceptance in being loved, known and respected by God. He is the only one that can meet the need that deep down inside, your soul desires. You won't find it in how you look, how you perform and you won't find it in guys! So I challenge you to find who you are in Christ! You were created in God's image (likeness) and He created you exactly the way He wanted you to be. Take great joy in that promise and find your acceptance in Him alone!

Purity from the Inside Out

I just finished a great weekend with our middle and high school students looking at purity. Even as I prepared for the weekend, I was challenged by trying to really get a biblical understanding of purity. So much of what I heard in church about purity was all about the "don'ts" and saying "no." I don't want to minimize the importance of having convictions and making commitments before God, but purity is about saying, "YES!" It's about saying "yes" to allowing God to invade every area of your life and giving him total access to your 'heart-life'. You see, it's not about just managing outside actions. It's about bringing our heart before God and telling Him that we have no hope in and of ourselves of living a pure life! We need Him to bring purity to our hearts, which will then impact our actions. I was challenged by reading Paul's words to us in Philippians 4:8-9, "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you." It starts on the inside, which impacts our thought life and then we put it into practice. So we have to reverse our natural tendencies, which is to just manage (or sometimes hide) our external behaviors so that we "look" pure. Purity starts and must come from the inside out!

Beyond the Message: Best Sex Ever - Pt. 2

OK students. Time to go beyond last night's message. So guys... it was your night. We talked about "who a guy is"... notice I didn't call it "what a guy wants" because we all know that would be a short message. What I tried to do was show you some important differences between guys and girls and why God wired us differently. One of the main differences that I wanted you to understand was that girls are wired more relationally, but guys are wired more physically.

Some of you look at that and you say, what’s the big deal? Watch this. Some of you girls, you start in a relationship, and you go “Oh, he wants a relationship, he calls me, we talk, we IM”, you know you’re all into this stuff. And then, here’s what happens. The door opens up, and on the other side of the door is a physical relationship. And it’s such a nice relationship, we spend time together and we talk late at night, and we have such a good time. And then we walk through that door of the physical relationship, and we begin to be physical with each other, and you know what happens? All of a sudden, the talking stops. I’ve heard this a million times. The talking stops. We had a good relationship until we got physical, and then you know why? Because it’s easier to make out, it’s easier to have sex; it’s easier to be physical than it is to be relational. And that’s where a lot of pain comes in as you walk through the 'physical' door. I can’t tell you how many girls have said; “I thought I would be with him forever”. And I can’t also tell you how many times relationships have ended within a short period of time after they’ve had sex.

Guys, God did wire us to be more 'physical' and that is a good thing. Remember - He created us the way He wanted us to be - He didn't mess up. Relationships were His idea, sex was his idea. But His ideas also came with a perfect plan. You cannot take HIS ideas and put them into YOUR own plans. His plan was that someday, you can be that one plus one equals one for the rest of your life.

1 Corinthians 6:15, "Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don't you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one." But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Or don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."

God paid a high price for you and for me when He died on the cross. And I believe that when you stay sexually pure, you know what you do? You say thank you to God. Thank you God, I’m going to honor you with my body. The Bible says that if Christ lives within you, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and you honor God with your body and honor him with your sexuality. And let him reward that in incredible ways, when you find that person that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with!

Mighty is the Power of the Cross

I had the awesome opportunity to sing in corporate worship here at Wildwood a few weeks ago the Chris Tomlin song, "The Power of the Cross" and God has gripped my heart with the power and truth of the words I sang:

What can take a dying man
And raise him up to life again?
What can heal the wounded soul?
What can make us white as snow?
What can fill the emptiness?
What can mend our brokenness? Brokenness?

What restores our faith in God?
What reveals the Father's love?
What can lead the wayward home?
What can melt a heart of stone?
What can free the guilty ones?
What can save and overcome? Overcome?

It's a miracle to me
It's still a mystery
It's a miracle to me
The power of God
Those who believe

Mighty, awesome, wonderful
Is the Holy cross.
Where the Lamb lay down His life
To lift us from the fall.
Mighty is the power of the cross.

Such powerful questions, but an even more incredible response from God! The answers to any questions that you and I can ask are in found in the message of the cross! It's the place where sin, death and hell were defeated and the place where I found new life. I have been praying that the cross will always remain a mystery and a miracle to me... that I would never take the cross for granted or forget it's power to save. Have you found new life in the power of the cross?

The Secret to Sonny's™ Success

Those of you from around Tallahassee will no doubt understand that the Sonny's on Timberlane Road has a secret to success. Two words: Wildwood Church. Rarely do I enter Sonny's without seeing someone from our church, but I'm sure they appreciate our love for their establishment even more, as demonstrated by the fact that we have a corporate account with them. But I'm not writing about Sonny's financial success, but it's success to my parenting.

I guess having a newborn entitles me to post quite a bit of blogs about him and I'm sure one day when he becomes a teenager he'll be even more excited to know that baby stories about him abound on the internet. I have dad duty again tonight - and a long duty - since Brooke has the late shift. I don't know why I tend to write about my accomplishments as a dad, other than, with a newborn I tend to be proud when I actually do something right... or I can just keep him from crying for no reason. Tonight's line-up was a barnburner: navigate through 2 naps, 3 feedings, bath time and then bedtime. For my students out there who can't relate, trust me, one day you will.

I was up to bat and already striking out on the naptime. I tried everything - rocking, music, taking a walk in the stroller, large amounts of Nyquil (just kidding Brooke, I really didn't do that... but I did think about it). All with tremendous unsuccess. Of course, Jake was tired and wanted to nap, but couldn't get to sleep which made matters worse - or louder, I guess. So I resorted to the car ride. Take a nice drive - run a quick errand and hopefully that would work. It didn't. But at least he wasn't crying. So with Brock and Jake in tow I figure - hey, why not Sonny's for dinner (it's always a good time for Sonny's) and we were hungry.

So we arrive and get seated. It was only then that I realized I left without something important. I didn't forget my wallet or to wear clean underwear... but I forgot the diaper bag. So, of course, if anything should go wrong with Jake - I'm stranded with nothing but a pacifier and blanket. So in my mind I was already going MacGyver and trying to think of how I could wrap his blanket around him in the newest cloth diaper fashion should I need that; or if he got hungry how I could load sweet tea into his pacifier and use it as a small bottle. Surely babies like sweet tea from Sonny's.

Thankfully, I didn't have to go MacGyver, but I do have to claim Sonny's as the secret to my success at dad duty tonight. Why? They got Jake to go to sleep. Of course, no traditional techniques would work, so why wouldn't a loud restaurant with smoky BBQ smells of sweet sauce and corn nuggets be the secret to success? It was.

The rest of the night went OK and now he's sleeping for the night. Who said you couldn't swing away with full count in the bottom of the ninth? Thank you Sonny's... I'll be there even more often now than usual... but with an overtired kid in a car seat... so save my booth for me!

Beyond the Message: Best Sex Ever - Pt. 1

To my middle and high school students... I am going to try to go beyond the message for you guys each week, because I realize that (1) I can't cover this subject well in only about 20 minutes and have more things to say and (2) many of you may have feedback you want to give or questions that you would like to ask and may not be comfortable doing so in person. So feel free to post a reply or you can always email me at todd@wildwoodstudents.com.

OK - so last night we did a big overview and talked about how to distinguish truth from lies. Remember - there is a lot of knowledge about sex out there, but not alot of wisdom. One of my challenges to you last night was to seek truth (John 8:31-32) and to pursue wisdom in this area (James 1:5). So, you’ve got to weigh it out in your heart. You’re saturated every week, being surrounded every day with sexual messages and you must weigh it out in your heart what’s right. Only you can make decisions for your sexuality. But that is why I am challenging you to pursue wisdom and seek truth so you can make good decisions.

You know when it comes to sexual purity the goal isn't just to remain a virgin. I've been really concerned by this term I've heard called "technical virginity" - meaning I can do EVERYTHING but have sexual intercourse and remain a virgin. That's just not true. This is a little bit of an aside, do you know that venereal disease two years ago, was typically in the genital area? Now a higher majority of venereal disease is in the mouth area. Everybody has kind of moved to oral sex to protect their virginity. Venereal disease is sweeping high schools and colleges, orally.

I've heard some of you saying, "Well, how can I stay pure? It seems impossible to stay pure." You don’t need sex to live. I mean, nobody has ever died of not having sex. You don’t see people crawling on the sidewalk moaning, “I need sex, I need sex.” Even though this week, Lindsay Lohan has been sending text messages from rehab that she needs "McDonalds and sex." You don't need sex... you need oxygen, air, water, and food. Let's keep things in perspective!

The world is going to tell you that everyone is doing it and that you can't stay pure... we debunked that as a lie last night. It's just not the truth - everyone is not doing it and you can stay pure! Remember if you have a story you want to share or a question you want to ask, please do! I'm here for you.

An ambulance, ER & Living for Eternity

Well, needless to say, last night was a little scary. It was a typical Wednesday, but a good one with our middle and high school students as I wrapped up a 4-week series challenging them not to settle for an ordinary life, but to allow God to invade their lives - giving them a life beyond their dreams - based out of John 10:10. Jesus says, "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I came so that they can have real and eternal life, a better life than you've ever dreamed of."

I also shared about Paul, who after God radically invaded his life, wrote these words: "I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I will always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honor Christ, whether I live or I die. For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better" (Philippians 1:20-21). How can death be better than life? Because finally our heart's longing is resolved when we are face to face with our Creator. To life for Christ is great - to be with Christ is even greater!

The concept of living for eternity was challenged last night as I found myself riding in an ambulance heading to the ER. I came home after eating with our HS students and got my allergy shot - a normal routine... especially considering I've been getting shots since I was eleven years old. But after the shot, something felt wrong. Moments later the ambulance was on the way because I was broken out in hives, red from head to toe, shivering uncontrollably, vomiting and having trouble breathing... I was on my way toward anaphylactic shock. That's never happened before and Brooke did a great job taking care of me until the EMT's arrived.

Somehow, in the middle of it all, while riding in the ambulance, I found myself wondering if I really believed that to be with Christ in Heaven would be better than living for Him here on earth. After all, I had just challenged my students to develop that mindset. My heart and values were challenged as I thought about my wife and children and the life on earth I would leave behind.

I wish I could say that my heart leapt at the thought of leaving this earth and being united with Christ in Heaven. I do believe my soul would echo that sentiment and I know I believe it is true, but wow does that get hard to put your arms around when it is put to the test in your life!

I had some more time in the wee hours of the morning to think while sitting in the ER waiting to be allowed to go home. I prayed that my heart would long for eternity than the trappings of this world. I prayed that I would be able to not just believe Paul's challenge to live for eternity, but that I would do it!

I was able to come home around 2:30 in the morning and everything is back to normal... or is it? That was my first ambulance ride and I'm not looking forward to do that again. But I am looking forward... or maybe you could say striving to look more eternal!