Goin' Mercer…ramblings and rants!

The entire week of camp was awesome. I am so thankful that our students learned so much and shared their hearts with others. Now Monday will soon be approaching.

Will they remember their teachings and their commitments? I hope so!

It is not important to keep the spiritual high they left on, it is only important to continue the journey of salvation with others and striving each day to be free.

I am really tired, but the week was great and I have today to rest.

The summer is quickly approaching its end. Leah will be gearing up for the new school year and my work will become more consistent.

Today, I do some chores, paint a bathroom, and rest. Its a great day!

-Michael

One of the things I appreciate most about Kadesh camp is that on the last day every group talks about how to use what they have learned at home in every day life. Kadesh was the place where the spies came back with the awful decision that they could not take the promised land. They turned back. However, it is the camps aim as is also every youth minister’s that we turn toward God and choose the right path. Today these students are in their groups studying this story and discussing what it means to live out freedom come Monday.

In my life growing up I have hit many turning points. Some of I have turned away and some I have turned to God. Either way is a learning process. However, obviously turning to God helps in our relationship with Him and others.

Every day we make choices. Today I choose to turn to God and go His way. Tomorrow I must wake up and choose again.

Will we have the courage to be like the two spies who want to take the land or will we cower in earthly fear with the ten who said let’s wait?

May we be bold to go where only God can lead us through His Spirit and where the Son has promised Freedom!

-Michael

It is amazing to me! I have been involved with ACU leadership camps for 8 years. I have been to Kadesh 7 of those. I have seen the curriculum and the camp sessions for Grace, Hope, Identity, and Freedom. Grace and Hope have always been the more reflective of the weeks whereas Identity was more reactionary. This is Freedom’s first year. I have seen more response from the campers than any other session. I have wondered and pondered why this is so.

Kids want to be free. First they think of that as independence, but then when they truly see that Freedom is more they desire it greatly. I think our churches are teaching grace better than they once did. Hope is sometimes all they think they have. Identity is a youth minister’s favorite subject, so they have become inundated with it. Freedom, though hasn’t been discussed enough.

They are clinging to the idea of freedom. Their lives are full of disappointment, abandonment, stress, sex, alcohol and drugs, academic pressure, and an unstated requirement by their churches and parents to be perfect and “super-Christians.” They are looking for freedom to be who God created them to be. To be able to bring their brokenness to Him and be freed from the slavery of sin.

When they cry out for Freedom we are all encouraged to do the same and there is great hope on the horizon!

-Michael

In our ongoing of discussion of Freedom this week at camp I keep discussing with some of my friends who are here working camp about this idea of Freedom. Can you be content and free? That was my question last night. I believe some people see the eyes of the gospel only or mostly through Paul. When the gospel is viewed this way it becomes the norm to look at his paranesis material that deals with the ethics and values of the churches he was writing and mostly is about the challenges he places for them in the spiritual walk. When we live in the gospel Paul preached daily we can wear ourselves out by always trying to better ourselves and be more, rather than just be. We can’t find contentment even in the midst of God’s glory, because we aren’t perfect yet. This says little of grace and places undue emphasis on earning the salvation we desire. There is no Freedom in that life. We have then become slaves to the Jesus Ideal rather than free to walk after Him.

The other extreme is to become complacent and not strive to re-engage with the life of Christ. To sit and assume we know this game and we can coast to the end. In this life we find extreme boredom and a dead gospel. Bible becomes more about history rather than a life to live. We build walls and zones of comfort that we stay in so as not to deter from the status quo. Living in this way makes for an abrupt departure from God when our world comes crashing in and the life of Christ is out of our control. We like where we’ve been and want that to also be where we go. We become complacent and disillusioned that God doesn’t desire change nor does he inspire change within us. We are then a slave to our bubble and the knowledge and expectations we have of the future.

So where do we go, what do we do, how do we live? We live in the middle. We find the things of life that need our contentment. We become content with the fact that God keeps his promises and you can be sure of your salvation. We continue to rise to the challenges of listening to truth rather than lies and continuing our quest for Father, Son, Spirit. I believe this is where Jesus lived. He showed the need for challenge when he approached religious leaders. He lived contentment with the things given to Him by God, His knowledge of God’s Kingdom, and his giving in to the Will of the Father.

There are days when I need to be challenged and spurred on to think differently so that I may grow. There are days when I need affirmation in being with God and having contentment. Every day I require freedom and every day I can wake up and expect that there is freedom in living with Christ.

Where the spirit of the Lord is there is Freedom!

-Michael

We are in the midst of Kadesh life camp under the topic of Freedom. This is new curriculum for the camp. They rotate through the curriculum every four years. I like the curriculum for Freedom and the subject. We get so entwined thinking about all the bad that is within us and making sure everyone knows how disgusting we are and how we can never match up to Jesus. I really think that this breaks Jesus’ heart! He doesn’t want us to drive ourselves into the ground. He didn’t die on the cross so that we can feel so much less and unworthy. He wants us to be free! He wants us to know the truth of his love, dedication, and sacrifice! We have freedom through His blood! We are free to love ourselves! We are free to love His creation! We are free to love Him! If I am good at something, it is because he has set me free to do it. If I have good qualities it is because he has freed me to see them. If I choose not to dwell on my sin, it is because he has given me my freedom!

I am Free. Free to live, Free to Love, Free to Dream, Free to Be, Free to Question, Free to Succeed, Free to Live Freedom!

-Michael

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I was asked by Mike to preach in his absence this coming Sunday. I have never preached at Highland before and can say that tomorrow will be a nervous day for me. I have been writing and pouring over my sermon and the text this past week and have tried to totally have it consume me. It seems that when I can do this I become passionate about it and when I become passionate about it I preach better. When I was in Houston I preached on average about six times a year, however, one year I preached 12 times; some in the evenings (we had evening services) and some in the mornings. I enjoy speaking because I learn so much about the word of God and my relationship with Him and His people. You can’t hide from God when you plan to preach about Him. I won’t put this sermon down until after I preach it and still then it will swirl in my head a couple of days. Its just how I allow it to live in me so its real and I preach it as such. I have been praying that the gift of preaching will pour through me tomorrow and that no one will hear my voice, but the voice of the one who has sent me. May God do a mighty work tomorrow and may our church be Blessed by His Word!

-Michael

Well,
My wife has been quite amused with my look alike blogs and chose to share a website with me. The website http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php takes a picture that you upload and goes through its database to see who you look like most. And for me….Yeah, you guessed it….

Charles Barkley?

So, there you have it. I won’t make any extra dough looking like Jack Black and I won’t reach my dream of playing like Berkman. Instead, I will be a loud mouth with attitude who overcomes many odds…I guess it could be worse.

Comment if you try the website and find out who you look like.

-Michael

Okay, because I am a loyal Astros fan it would be perfectly fine to be confused for Berkman. I just wish I could catch, throw, and bat like him. I promise I am not obsessed with who I look like, I just find it interesting. What do you think?

-Michael

Please tell me I don’t look like this guy! I am sure he is a wonderful person and not a bad actor. He is extremely funny and obviously (due to his movie performances) not too choosy. However, my youth group insists that I look like him. Maybe there are some similarities. You know dark hair, brown eyes, 5 O’clock shadow, somewhat robust, and incredibily humorous, but come on we look nothing alike, do we?

Throw out a comment! Just know, though, if it comes to a consensus that I look like Jack Black, I am rooting on his career so that one day I could be a “Jack Black Impersonator” and pad the pockets a little.

-Michael

Well…here’s the deal

I was in Mexico from June 17-24
On June 25 I started Mpulse camp for Middle School Students
Mpulse ended on June 30 around noon. Leah and I left for Houston to pick up our dog that same afternoon and returned the very next day. Today we had church and class and I am finally having a little down time. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks but I am looking forward to some slower time. We are now in the process of unpacking at the house we are renting. No, we haven’t sold our house, but we certainly need to sell it quickly. Every time you see a house, “For Sale” sign, or Realty company send a prayer in our direction.

-Michael