Whether You Eat or Drink, Do All To The Glory of God...

People close to me know that for the last 23 days I've been doing the Advocare 24-day challenge. According to their own website "AdvoCare is a premier health and wellness company offering world-class energy, weight-loss, nutrition, and sports performance products along with a rewarding business opportunity." In a nutshell, the 24-day challenge is a guide to eating right the kind of foods, along with taking some of the Advocare products (mainly supplements, vitamins, and shakes).

There are a few main reasons that I decided to take on the 24-day challenge. 1. My amazing wife recently just finished the same challenge, lost around 12 lbs, looks even more incredible, and she feels great. 2. Much to people's surprise (although I don't really see how), I was overweight. At my meager stature of 5'5", 150-155 lbs was not cool, and neither was that double chin I was getting either. 3. My family health history is horrible, it's full of high-blood pressure, high-cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. This guy (meaning myself) already has enough health problems to deal with, I really don't need to add things to my plate if I can do something to avoid them.

So, after some serious mental debating, I finally decided to take on the challenge. As a result of this challenge I've actually learned and witnessed a lot of truths about the human body. Also, as a result of learning these truths, my amazement of God our Father and Creator has flourished as well.

Here are a few truths that I've learned as a result of taking this challenge.

1. When you stop eating refined sugar, processed foods, and things not found natural in nature, your body will let go of unwanted fat even with minimal to no exercise. I sit a lot! I especially sit a lot everyday. =) Unlike my amazing wife, I'm not a runner, in fact I avoid walking when possible too (i.e. I try to find the closest parking spot everywhere). While being on the challenge, my physical activity has not changed (my wife can testify). One day I did walk our dog around the neighborhood, but that was literally only one time. Needless to say however, I still have lost "fat" in the places that it was showing the most (waist, tummy, and of course face).

2. When you stop eating refined sugar, processed foods, and things not found natural in nature, your pallet/taste buds are cleansed and change. I'm not sure how scientifically true this is (none of my truths are based on science, merely my own experience), but after eating mainly natural foods like raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts I find myself actually tasting food a lot better. My enjoyment with food has actually increased over the 23 days because my ability to distinguish flavors has vastly improved. Fruits have become sweeter than ever, and lean cuts of chicken and beef, and fish have become tastier than ever. On day 11, I had a steak from the leanest cut of beef I could find, and it was undoubtedly the best tasting steak I've ever had (and I cooked it myself, which means they usually don't turn out perfect).

3. When you stop eating refined sugar, processed foods, and things not found natural in nature, you just plain feel better and are more alert throughout the day. As mentioned earlier, part of this 24-day challenge includes using some of the Advocare products. One of these such products is called "Spark" which is a sugar-free energy drink that is composed of vitamins, minerals, amino-acids, and some caffeine. Although I take one of these drinks every morning, as suggested, I do not credit my full day alertness and energy to just the "Spark" drink. I'm confident that it does help, especially early in the morning, but I wholeheartedly believe that most of my energy comes from me eating healthy foods. I literally have energy all day long, literally, and I feel great too! Before the challenge, I would have the mid-afternoon drag about 2 or 3 o-clock, if not then, it would hit when I got home around 5. I would come home and feel like I needed to pass out, even when all I had been doing was sitting all day. No matter if I get 5-10 hrs of sleep I feel alert all day long, and that was just the opposite before. Another interesting example is that for the past two years around the months of March and April I usually find myself experiencing several migraines. These migraines would occur several times a week during these months, which the doctor believed was generally due to pollen/allergies. However, this year, with March over and April in full swing, I still have not had the slightest migraine this season. I truly believe that this is very well linked to my healthy eating habits.

4. Water, just water, is good enough for me, and it can do amazing things. I learned growing up in Georgia, the heart of the South, sweet tea (I'm talkin syrupy sweet) and Coke (in GA we just call all soda "Coke") is pretty much the only liquids I should go for, unless it's morning, then it's coffee full of sugar and creamer. I've literally stuck to this principle until the 24-day challenge came along. Since starting the challenge, not including Advocare's own "Spark" drink and "Meal-replacement Shake," I have had nothing to drink but water. I will admit that in the last week I have had 2 glasses of UNsweet tea, no sugar, splenda, equal, sweet n low, nada. That was only after discovering that the 24-day challenge didn't say to avoid tea. However, I've come to realize that I'm actually ok with water. I've come to enjoy drinking water (usually with a splash of lemon or lime, which is actually a healthy choice). On the challenge, you are encouraged to consume 1 gallon of water each day. Although I thought this was a bit overkill, drinking a lot of water is part of the reason the body is able to let go of the bad stuff in my body. I've come to realize, now that I can stand to drink water, and lots of water, not only is it better for me physically, it's a whole lot cheaper than "Coke", coffee, and other stuff.

5. When you stop eating refined sugar, processed foods, and things not found natural in nature, it's easier to eat and drink to the glory of God. You might think this seems a bit ridiculous, but hear me out for a second. When I'm eating foods that are found naturally in nature just the way God created them to be and I see the way my body reacts when I consume these foods, it actually makes me want to praise God even more. As I witnessed all these things happening to my body while on this challenge, I've found myself thinking how awesome is my God, my Creator. Our body is an amazing machine, and when we eat the foods that God created naturally for us here on the Earth our bodies work so well and efficiently. I've also thought about how Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 6:19, that as a Christ-follower, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. My former poor eating habits and gluttonous ways were not helping my body nor were they honoring to God. In fact, gluttony is a sin, it's the one sin that nobody really ever talks about because American culture has convinced us gluttony is the norm. Repentantly, it was something I found the norm. This might sound repetitive, but the 24-day challenge has really challenged me to think about what I should put in my body, on both a physical and spiritual level. Not only do I want to be healthy, but I want to glorify God when I'm eating, or drinking, or whatever I'm doing. I want my temple to be an example to others.


May we fight sin, and fight to glorify God in everything that we eat or drink.

Youth Ministry Update May 2011

Destiny Hall

Student Spotlight: Destiny Hall   

As Louie Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, once said, “We give glory to God, and we honor people.”  There are times when it’s right and appropriate to honor individuals for what God is doing in and through their lives, and that’s exactly my intention with this article.  As a youth minister, it’s always a joy to get a chance to brag on my students as I see God moving and working in their lives.  Destiny Hall, a sophomore at Rockport-Fulton High School and member of FBC Rockport, needs to be bragged on.  In the short two years that I have been around as youth minister, I have seen a tremendous change in the heart and life of Destiny.  She is what many youth ministers would refer to as a “core student” in the youth ministry because she is faithful to attend all the youth ministry services and activities.  She attends these activities not out of duty or because her parents force her, but because Destiny has a passion for her Lord and a passion to see her fellow peers and classmates come to know Christ.  Towards the beginning of the current school year, I began meeting with a small group of students every Wednesday morning before school to pray for their teachers and classmates that they may come to know Christ.  Destiny is one of those students that is always there to pray.  Trusting that God would answer her prayers and use her life to reach her fellow classmates, God has done just that.  While attending a Christian conference earlier this month with some college students and high school seniors from our church, one particular high school senior, Reyna, stated that she contributes her coming to know Christ to Destiny.  She went on to tell about how Destiny constantly encouraged her for weeks and months to come to church. But, like many, Reyna resisted and even began to dislike Destiny’s consistent pestering.  However, Destiny never gave up.  As a result, one Sunday this past November, Reyna finally gave in to Destiny’s request and came to church, and it was at that service that Reyna gave her life to Christ. Through the awesomeness of our God, Reyna now meets with our group on Wednesday to pray for students just like herself to come to know Christ.

            I share all this not to just brag on Destiny, but to give a testimony to the rest of the church that God is using and working through the lives of our students here at First Baptist.  Although many of you may not come in direct contact with all of our students, please know that God is doing some great and amazing things through students like Destiny.  This is why I do what I do! I love to see students stand in the gap spiritually for one another, and see God move mightily in their lives!

-Jordan

 

Journey Youth Camp 

Our summer youth camp is coming up right around the corner.  Our students are returning to Highland Lakes Camp and Conference Center, right outside Austin, to attend Journey Youth Camp for the week of June 13-17.  Youth camp is always a highlight of the year for our youth ministry as we get to take part in and witness God do some amazing things in the hearts and lives of the students.  Last year, we were able to take around 45 students and leaders to Journey.  Out of those 45, we had 7 students make professions of faith, many rededicated their lives to Christ, and 3 students felt God calling them out into ministry.  What an awesome report to give of God’s work!  It would thrill my heart to take twice as many students to youth camp this summer and come back with an even greater report.  Please pray with me that God would open the doors for these students to attend Journey.  The cost for students to attend Journey is $175, and if history repeats itself, almost half of the students will only be able to pay 1/4, if any, of the cost.  The only way many of these students are able to go is through loving gifts by members within the church.  To those of you who have already given, I say Thank You, and to others, I would like to ask if you would be willing to help our students get to camp this summer.  Youth camp always holds a special place in my heart because I know that many students’ lives are eternally changed after experiencing an encounter with Christ while at camp. 

Honduras Mission Trip 

            For those of you who may be unaware, the services, activities, and trips that the youth ministry of FBC Rockport hold or attend all operate under one strategy.  The strategy of the youth ministry at First Baptist is a three-part strategy based on the word KNOWN.  As youth minister, I want the students that come into the youth ministry to first and foremost, come to Know who God is and have faith in Him.  Secondly, I want them to make the faith their Own through discipleship and spiritual growth.  Then, I want them to go out and make Christ Known to others.  This last part of the strategy is better known as (no pun intended) Missions.

            This summer, many of our students are taking part in the third aspect of our youth ministry strategy by going on our mission trip to the country of Honduras.  The dates of our trip are July 2-9^th.  There are 16 going on this trip, and 7 are youth and college age students.  Our team is composed of: Jordan and Hollie Mims, Robert Edwards, Ronda, Nicole, and Brittany Barnes, Eric, Angela, Drew and Nate Scott, Erin Albin, Erica and Erin Andrews, Blaire Barnard, Dani Parker, Tyler, and Carol Crawford.  Nearly half of the team is youth and college students!

Rhonda Jackson

            For this trip we will be traveling to the city of Siguatepegue, and working alongside full-time missionary Rhonda Jackson.  Rhonda, originally from Georgia, has been a missionary in Honduras for over 12 years.  While in Honduras she has worked to create a children’s home and school that is called Destino Del Reino (translated Destiny in the Kingdom).  Our team will be completing jobs around Destino, as well as put on VBS for the week at one of the surrounding villages in Siguatepeque.

             

Our team truly covets your prayers, not only while we are in Honduras, but even now as we prepare to go.  Here is list of prayer needs: 

• Planning and preparation of the VBS and all it entails
• Spiritual preparation of our hearts and minds 
• That God would soften the hearts of the unbelievers we will come in contact with
• Physical preparation of our bodies
• Financial funds to go with enough left to give a financial gift to Rhonda and Destino
• Smooth and safe travel as we go
• Protection while in Honduras
• That we would be Christ to the people we minister to
• In everything, that God will receive the glory and His will fulfilled  

            Part of our prayer is that, as a group representing FBC Rockport, we could bless Rhonda and Destino with a financial gift before we leave.  Rhonda is a self-supporting missionary, meaning that all the monies she receives to live and run Destino are from mere donations.  She is not on any denominational or church budget.  This is a big reason we would like to leave something for her and Destino.  The only way that we can do that is if we raise money above and beyond what it costs for our team to go on the trip.  With 16 members, it will cost approximately $16,000-17,000 for all of us to go on this trip.  I would love to be able to leave $5,000 behind, but that means that our team would need to raise around $22,000 before we leave for our trip on July 2^nd.  After February’s Mission Fair that was held at the church, our team received $500, leaving us with around $21,500 left to go.  In my own personal eyes, the amount of $21,500 seems insurmountable, but Psalm 24:1 tells us that “the Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Understanding this, our mission team and I believe that since our God owns everything that He will faithfully supply the needs of those seeking to do His will.  My question is this; will you allow God to use you to be a part of faithfully supplying the needs of this mission team?  Just as Paul and Barnabas were prayed over and sent out by the church of Antioch to do the work of the Lord in Acts 13, our team is asking that you pray for us and send us out too. 

Giving Up...

Do you ever feel like your ready to give up?  You've tried and tried and tried again for the hundredth, thousandth, millionth time, and you're still feeling like you want to give up?  Yeah, that's about how I feel right now.  I feel like I'm finally fed up, ready to give up, and go all in. 

Give up on what you ask? 

I'm ready to give up on trying to live the Christian life my way.  It's kind of like that same feeling David felt when he confesses to God after sleeping with Bathsheba and allowing Uriah, her husband, to be killed.  After David realized he sinned against God, he wrote Psalm 51.  Psalm 51 states, "create in me a clean heart, O God...restore to me the joy of your salvation."  I think David got the fire in his belly again after calling out to God.  He remembered and received the joy that comes from understanding the depth of salvation.  He became glad in God again.

Right now, all that is within me desires to step out of the way, put away my agenda, and let God lead.  That's when I feel the joy and experience the gladness in God.  This world does well to clutter our minds with agendas and to-do lists, but when do we stop and let the God of this world, the Creator and Sustainer of our very own life, make our to-do list?  It's when we are able to do that, the joy and gladness of our salvation return.

How's your joy-o-meter? I'm not talking about being happy and peachy.  Jesus never promises temporal happiness; he only promises everlasting joy!  Are you ready to give up on yourself and let the joy of salvation return?

May we all learn to daily give up on ourselves, and let the joy and gladness of our salvation return.

Overcoming Easy Christianity

And NOW it's time for....

As a youth minister, I do spend some of my time reading (*gasps*) and not just "playing with teenagers."  One of the books that I have recently read is titled Franchising McChurch by Thomas White and John M. Yeats.  This book is a great eye opener to the fact that the church of today has become great at growing churches, but are they really faithful to grow believers?  Our culture is saturated with an entertainment, consumer mentality that unfortunately is spilling over into churches all over America, no matter the size.  The result is that we experience churches all over that are full of people that are satisfied with easy Christianity. Franchising McChurch is a must read for all pastors and ministers, but it should also be read by the average lay person in the church as well.  The authors Thomas White and John M. Yeats do a great job of tackling the different issues in the church and coming up with ways to do "health check-ups" on your own congregation.  I've read it, so go read it too!

Best 4 Point Sermon of All Time

All of this must be read or said in a great Southern drawl...


#1. HELL IS HOT!


#2. HEAVEN IS SWEET!


#3. MAN IS SINFUL!


#4. JESUS SAVES!


--Can I get an AMEN!

Jehovah who?

I will begin by stating that yes, I'm a Christian, and no, I'm not trying to start a fight. So, I've already ruined the traditional Christmas story for people, and now you're thinking I'm going to ruin something else too! Well, maybe. The topic for this post occurred to me while I was sitting backstage during our Christmas musical practice. (For those that attend my church, I'm Joseph, and that's why I'm "trying" to grow a beard!) In our Christmas musical many of the actors on stage use the name Jehovah when referring to God during their character's lines. Well, this is really interesting because Jehovah is not the name of God. (I hear your remarks....is this guy a heretic?...the name Jehovah occurs four times in my King James Bible!?) In order for me to explain this properly, the rest of this post is going to be a bit technical. That's my warning. If you don't like or don't think you can handle the technical parts, my advice is to stop reading and forget everything else that you've read so far. That being stated, I will continue.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the Hebrew people had great reverence for the actual name of God. They revered it so much that they would not even speak the name because they were afraid that they would blaspheme the name. The name that we speak of is the name that was given to Moses when he asked God the question, when the children of Israel ask who has sent me what will I tell them. God replies by stating "I AM WHO I AM." God's name...I AM.

For those that don't know, there are no true vowels in the Hebrew language, only consonants. The language does have vowel points that look like dots and slashes; however, when the original Hebrew portion of the Bible was written, it was written without the vowel points. Thus in the original Hebrew portion the name of God would have been spelled with just the four Hebrew consonants.

This is the name of God written as it would have looked like in the original Hebrew portion of the Bible. Notice the four characters, they are the four consonants that compose the word. You may have seen the consonants transliterated by the symbols YHWH.

As generations passed, the Hebrew people added vowel points to the words in the Bible so that they wouldn't mispronounce them. Again, this partly goes back to their reverence for not only the name of God but the entire Word of God that was given. They had so much respect and reverence for the Word of God they didn't even want themselves or other generation to mispronounce the words.

What I did not mention earlier was that when the Jewish people were reading the Scriptures, and they came to the name of God, they typically replaced it by saying the word adonai. This word means "lord" in a common sense such as, "he is lord over this castle." As they began to put the vowel points in the words, in order to remind themselves not to say the actual name of God, they replaced the true vowel points of the name of God with the vowel points of the word adonai.

<---This is what the name of God looks like with the vowel points added. Remember these vowel points are the vowel points that actually go with the word adonai. The Jews did this because the word as it is in Hebrew, doesn't make grammatical sense. It was basically a safeguard, so they would see the nonsense word and remember....oh yeah I'm supposed to say "Adonai." The word with those vowel points is nonsensical. For instance, if I'm spelling the word "done" and I write it "deno" it's completely nonsense. There is no such word in the English dictionary as "deno." The consonants are in the right place, but the wrong placement of the vowels makes this word completely off and illogical. That's what has happened with the Hebrew name of God. The consonants are still in the same place, but the new vowel points make this word basically gibberish.

OK, so now you're wondering, what does this all have to do with Jehovah. Well, as translators began to translate the Hebrew scriptures, this "hybrid" Hebrew word for the name of God was translated "yehowah" because that's what it looks like pronounced out. Then as the word became anglo-sized it was changed to "Jehovah." Soooo.....when we use the word Jehovah, it actually comes from a gibberish nonsense word, and that is why it's not the name of God. Most modern translations (which I think this true for all translations outside of the KJV) do not use the word Jehovah at all in the Bible. For most all translations, when the name of God appears in the text it is written LORD with all capital letters. This signifies that the word translated was the actual name of God. If the text renders the word "Lord", then the word translated was the actual word adonai.

So your probably asking, well, what is the correct translation or pronunciation for the actual name of God. There has been great debate over it, but most of the scholar consensus is that the correct vocalization of the name is Yahweh.

The question then arises, how do you think God feels when so many people are not calling His name right? I don't know!? I can say with most certainty that God is probably not up in heaven upset that we are calling Him by the wrong name...."I can't believe those idiots, don't they know that's not my name!" I also highly doubt that if we say Jehovah, He doesn't know we're talking to Him. Take my name for example. My name is Jordan, and there have been many times that I have been conversing with people and they refer to me as Jason or Jonathan, and I don't question that they're talking to me. I also don't think they're idiots either. Needless to say, I doubt God is offended by calling Him, Jehovah, but now that you know it's gibberish, why not just refer to Him as Yahweh! (I do know this would change a lot of songs, in fact one of my favorite songs is "There's No God Like Jehovah." However, I have found that usually Yahweh makes a fine substitute.)

May we never think that God is offended or perturbed by the use of Jehovah, but may we get in the habit of using the name Yahweh.

Happy Birthday to Jesus?!

Okay, okay, I've gotten a little flack from my last post about ruining (or rocking as I like to think) everyone's Christmas story, mostly in jest, but I'm glad it got people actually thinking about their view of the Christmas story. So, on to the next post!

As it is still the Christmas season, I can't help but write about another Christmas post. Thinking back on my Christmas memories as a kid, I always remember how my family would get up on Christmas morning and before opening gifts, my dad would read the Christmas story. After reading the story, my mom would bring out a cake that had a lit candle on it, and we would all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. After all, it was his birthday, right?!

For those that don't know, on Sunday nights I am teaching through the letter of Colossians with the high school students. One of the reasons that Paul writes this letter to the Christians in Colossae is due to the fact that Gnosticism was causing confusion with Christians. From what we understand, Gnostics believed that there was secret knowledge that God passed down through certain beings or individuals. They probably taught that Jesus was one of these special beings that had a piece of the secret knowledge. Paul was writing to the Colossians to totally refute the Gnostics and their teaching. One of the ways Paul accomplishes this is through lifting up Jesus Christ and who he is.....GOD! Not only is He the image of the invisible God (1:15), the whole fullness of deity dwells within Him (2:9).

You might be asking, well what does this necessarily have to do with singing Happy Birthday to Jesus? Well, on one of our Sunday evenings during our study in Colossians, I asked the students, did Jesus ever exist before that first Christmas morn? Surprisingly, several students said no! (And some of you reading this might have answered no as well.) I was surprised, because YES, Jesus existed before leaving Mary's womb on Christmas morning. Scriptures clearly speak of his existence. Colossians 1:16 states "for by Him (Jesus) all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him (Jesus) and for Him (Jesus)." Jesus was there for creation, so yes, Jesus existed before Joseph and Mary. Not only does Paul speak of Jesus' existence in the beginning, but John does as well in his gospel. He writes "in the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. (1:1-3)." As Christians, our whole theology of the Trinity, rests in the fact that all three persons of the trinity, God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit have always been. God never had a beginning; He never had a birthday.

Does this mean that I'm trying to say that Jesus never had a normal birth when he put on flesh and entered onto the earth? No! I believe that when Mary gave birth to Jesus, whatever day it was, I'm sure it looked, felt, and probably even smelled like a normal human birth! The point that I'm trying to make is that when Jesus came on the scene in Bethlehem, that was not the first day that Jesus existed. He has always been, and He will always be. The thing that we must remember is that Jesus Christ knowingly and willingly stepped out of heaven, humbled himself by putting on human flesh, and allowed himself to be born as an infant. He is the only person that was born by choice.

I told my students that Jesus is the only person that has been born, by human standards, but has always existed. So, do I think my family and your family should stop singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas morning?.....Naa, as long as we realize and as long as our children realize that Jesus may have been born onto the earth that Christmas morning, but it was only by His choice did He allow Himself to do it. Jesus loved us in spite of our sin so much that He gave up His throne in heaven and humbly put on our flesh so that he could die as our sacrifice!

May we never forget that we when we celebrate Jesus on Christmas morning, we celebrate a God that was, and is, and is to come!