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I hope to see you guys over there!

¹After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). ²A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. ³Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples.

⁴Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.

⁵Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” ⁶This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.

⁷Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.”

⁸One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ⁹“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. ¹¹Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.

¹²When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” ¹³So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

-John 6: 1-13

I like to think about the  mini stories within the bigger stories.

Like, for instance, this little boy who had the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Think about what was going through his head…He was more than likely aware that he would eventually be hungry. He was probably thinking, “I don’t really want to give up my lunch!” He was probably wondering who these people thought they were that they would even ASK for his lunch, much less feed the other THOUSANDS of people that were there.

But I also think he probably had heard of Jesus prior to this miracle. He probably heard some crazy stories and probably wanted to see if this guy (Jesus) was who he said he was.

So, this little boy, hesitantly, I’m sure, gives his lunch to Jesus…hoping there will still be some for him to eat when he gets hungry.

Aren’t we a lot like this little boy? Don’t we hesitate before giving something away to Jesus? Don’t we question that He can REALLY do something with whatever it is He asks from us.

We KNOW who Jesus is and we KNOW that He died for us, but we still HESITATE when He wants to use “our” stuff to change the world.

But what happens in this story? 12,000 PEOPLE WERE FED WITH ONE LITTLE BOY’S LUNCH. And there were leftovers!

What’s beautiful about this thought is that all Jesus is asking for from us is our lunch. He just wants what little we have to offer anyway. He wants to take our little idea, our simple mistake, our worry and every little thing we hold on to and make miracles happen.

Once we are willing to give it up, He will bless us more than what we ever thought possible.

Give your lunch to Jesus today and watch what comes next!

“Well, Jake lived his life with good intentions. His heart was always in the right place but he never quite got the ball rolling.”

What a horrible legacy to leave on this world.

Think about this…

WHAT IF JESUS ONLY HAD THE INTENTION TO DIE FOR OUR SINS?

Seriously…think about it. What if His INTENTION to die on a cross for us never equated into ACTION?

Scary, huh?

We wouldn’t have the opportunity to spend eternity with our creator if Jesus had never acted on God’s intention for His life.

In the same way, God doesn’t want us down here talking about all the great things we are going to do and telling people all these stories and then never making any of it happen.

Jesus didn’t die on the cross for us to sit and be lazy. We have a responsibility.

Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

-Matthew 28:19

The Lord’s desire for our lives is to give Him glory. You can’t do that by sitting around waiting for an opportunity to present itself. Go and make it happen.

God honors your ACTION not your INTENTION.

Ask me anything…

Here’s how it works: You think of something you want to ask me, you leave a comment with your (appropriate) question, and then I give you an answer.

Now, if the answer to your question requires further explanation outside of this blog, we will arrange an avenue to speak about your question. Also, if your question is innapropriate, it will not be approved.

I will also preface by saying that if I feel like the question being asked is degrading to myself or someone else or innapropriate for me to answer due to any circumstance, I will use discretion when approving such comments.

Now….ASK ME ANYTHING.

I am beginning to see who I am as a person.

Like, who I REALLY am when no one is watching. The other side of Jake.

If I can be honest, the other side of Jake is not a very appealing guy. It’s a side of me that is sometimes insecure, it’s sometimes crude and it usually tends to doubt that God is REALLY choosing me to do something powerful for the Kingdom of God. The other side of Jake struggles with pride, fights irresponsibility daily and sometimes gives in to lustful thoughts. It’s a side of me that I don’t like to talk about. That side of Jake doesn’t always tell the truth and he often times finds himself spending more time checking the stats on his blog and twitter rather than reading the Word of God. He justifies his actions and wears his heart on his sleeve rather than guarding it.

In short, the other side of me tends to win many battles in my heart and mind.

Because of what my other half does, I often times find myself wishing I could just run away. Run away from all that I try to do, all the expectations I try to meet and away from the people who doubt I’ll ever make a difference. I often times resort to not reading my Bible or praying because I feel I’m not worthy of time with my Savior.

Then I am reminded of a few verses from Philipians 4:

¹¹I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

If you read a little further in the passage, in verse 20, Paul says:

²⁰To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

In case you didn’t know, Paul was in prison when writing this letter to the Church of Philipi…He had nothing.

Most of the time, the circumstances that I find myself in are ones where the other side of Jake have won some sort of battle within my heart. Furthermore, as I evaluate why the other side of me wins, I soon discover it’s because Satan tells me I am in need of something in that particular scenario.

You see, Satan lies to tell me I NEED the approval of everyone I know. He lies and tells me that I am not good enough to ever find someone who will love me. He lies and says that  I have to keep up with how everyone else looks. Satan lies and tells me that I need better stats on my blog and twitter so people like me. He lies and says that I don’t have enough will power to fight sexual temptation. Satan lies to me and says that I need lots of stuff from lots of different people.

Satan is wrong.

I am to be content with where the Lord has me. I don’t have much, but what I do have is ETERNAL.

I have a choice every day to listen to the CREATOR or the CREATED.

Today, I’m going to choose to listen to my Creator…

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

He was walking w/ a back-pack and carrying a sign that said “Ingles” on it. Meaning, he needed a ride to Ingles. You want to know how far Ingles is from my house? 4 miles.

4 MILES that was on my way to where I was going.

You want to know why I didn’t pull over and give the guy a ride?

I was running late.

How selfish can I be? Who do I think that I am that I can blatantly hear God pressing it upon my heart to pull over and give this guy a ride and not do it because “I’m too busy.”

I continually pray that I would receive opportunities to be Jesus and I get a very easy one and don’t take it. Wow.

I heard a guy say once that I had no business telling people about Jesus in other countries if I wasn’t willing to be Jesus where I live my life.

That pretty much smacked me across the face when I drove right past this guy.

I have no business going back to Haiti or traveling to Africa or preaching in Trinidad if I don’t have the guts to invite someone to church in Wal-Mart, pay for someone’s meal in the drive-thru or drive a guy to Ingles right here where I live my life.

Your mission field is the people and places that are right in front of you. Wal-Mart parking lot. The line at your super-market. Your office. The kid that mows your lawn. Your subdivision. The convenience store down the street from your house. The “bad part of town.”

Be faithful with the mission field that is in your back yard FIRST.

Once you are faithful being Jesus where you are, watch where He takes you.

Summer of 2010 will prove to include lots of Jesus, community with people that I love and maybe a roadtrip or two.

I never thought I would enjoy being where I am right now, but I absolutely do.

Now, here I am. I get the pleasure of doing life with some pretty incredible people. We share life together. We laugh, we cry, we make fun of each other, we pray for each other and we keep each other accountable.

I’ve begun to realize that I don’t have enough time to focus on popularity contests.

In high school, and even early college, I got so caught up with trying to impress the “right people.” I wanted so bad to be thought of as “one of the guys” or make sure that I was invited to all the cool parties.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still want to be liked and told that I’m funny. I still want to have somewhat of a social life and be invited to the cool spots with the people that I love. But what’s happening in my heart and people’s hearts around me is far more important than the clothes we wear, the parties we get invited to or the number of “friends” we have on Facebook.

You see, my friends aren’t just people I text, go to movies with, make a Waffle House run at 1 a.m. or just hang out with. We are a community of believers that challenge each other to make a difference in our world for the Kingdom of God. I’m blessed to say that I do life with people who hold me accountable. When I make a stupid decision (which is pretty often) they call me out on it. When I complain too much or say something that’s innapropriate, they are there to, out of their love for me, put me in my place.

I don’t want you to think that my “crew” and I have arrived at some magical place of fairty tale friendship. We simply keep each other accountable, pray for each other, encourage one another and make sure we are all staying on the right track.

The most important thing about my friendships with these people is that they challenge me to be a better person.

That’s so important.

I used to hang out with people that didn’t want to talk about what the Lord was doing in their life, they flew off the seat of their pants and they talked about changing the world, but never hopped on the bus to make it happen.

This crew is different. We are committed to making a difference. We are committed to challenging each other. And most importantly, we are committed to following Jesus together.

If those you do life with aren’t making you a better person then you are doing life with the wrong people.

Now, Zack and Slater didn’t always make the best decisions but none of us are perfect right?

Find some people around you who love you for you, challenge you , encourage you, pray for you and keep you accountable. Surround yourself with those people and love them back. Do life with them. Make a difference with them.

Does that even make sense?

Anyway, after I began to realize that it is not the Lord’s intention AT ALL to ignore my heart (even as a young male) I began to discover so much more about who I am and more importantly, who God is.

You see, Scripture tell us that our hearts are very, very important…

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” -Proverbs 23:4

Above all else? That means before we heal the sick, feed the hungry or give to the poor we are to guard our hearts. BEFORE we preach the gospel, make disciples or lend a helping hand to our neighbor we are to GUARD OUR HEARTS.

The Bible tells us to do lots of crazy cool stuff…but BEFORE we do any of that The Lord wants us to guard our hearts.

Here’s what I think that means and why…

I think The Lord wants us to be in tune with who He is and why He is doing something before we go out and do His work. The Lord wants us to be at a place of INTIMACY with Him before He wants us to be at a place of ACTION with Him.

The Lord is calling us to BE before calling us to DO.

Besides, we are called human BEINGS for a reason.

You see, when we learn to truly guard our hearts, we begin to see the fullness of God. How? Well, guarding your heart involves trusting what God is doing, praying to hear His voice, reading His word, generously giving of your time/money and more importantly just living a life of worship.

It’s when your heart is focused on The Lord that He can truly begin to use you to do giant things for His Kingdom.

Your heart is an instrument for The Lord’s use. Allow Him to tune yours for His glory.

-Psalm 40 (The Message)

Today, I challenge you to pray this. Admit that you can’t be anything or anyone apart from Jesus.

I’m a mess! Make something of me Jesus!