^{2 Timothy 3:1-4:8}

¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

 ⁶They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

 ¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 4

 ¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

 ⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Twitter. This new craze allows everyday people into the lives of people they admire and follow after. It is POWERFUL. Let’s take a quick look at what these “role models” and “celebrities” are saying on twitter.

Shia Labeouf:Actor

Shiantologyhttp://Shiantology.com had record breaking day today! Thanks to all our lovely Shiantologists! We will ALWAYS bring u the latest SHIA news!

Ron Artest:NBA Star

Real_Ron_Artest#notagoodlook – Ginobili’s baldspot. that ish is growing faster than Shaq’s waistline. Guess there ain’t a Mexican word for “rogaine”

Phillip DeFranco:Web phenom/news

PhillyDBarack Obama gets caught checking out some big juicy ass http://bit.ly/Fk5Lc

John McCain:Senator

SenJohnMcCainOver the last 3 days I’ve tried to save the taxpayers $73.46m by cutting wasteful spending – too bad it’s still politics as usual in DC

Ellen DeGeneres: TV Show Host

TheEllenShowSmile if you see yesterday’s winner. Now keep smiling cause you can win a Nikon Coolpix today!

Ashton Kutcher: Actor

apluskI’d like to buy a hotel on baltic

John McCain:Senator

SenJohnMcCainICYMI:the Congressional Budget Office released its monthly budget review yesterday highlighting the federal budget deficit as $1.1 trillion

Lane Kiffin: Football Coach

LaneKiffinUT57 days 17 hours 40 minutes…the countdown continues! Always a great day to be a Vol!

Miley Cyrus:Actress/Singer

mileycyrussomeone just called me the “Oprah of Twitter” HA! I don’t know if I have ever laughed so hard in my entire life! hahahahhahahahhahaa =]

John Mayer: Musical Artist

johncmayerIn the studio, energized, connected. Like 3 more colors just came into existence. Every musician alive should be inspired to up their game

Bo Burnham:Web Phenom/Comedian/Singer

boburnhamGetting ready for toronto next week. Finally working out the tour schedule for the fall. All this is being done from my couch

Dane Cook: Comedian

danecook:My neighbors r having sex. Sounds like he’s having a blast. Inspired & goal oriented. She’s meandering through it with little fanfare.

Common themes? Money, hatred, laziness, prizes for nothing, crudeness, paradise, finding inspiration in earthly things, obsessions, politics,sex, and cultish followings. This is what the world and its “role models” have told us is NORMAL and OKAY. It breaks my heart. And we ( me included) accept this. It doesn’t bother us and we even embrace it. =(

*The earth mocks us. Mocks the idea of a relationship with the father. We live for ourselves. We live for fame. Whatever makes us feel good. We live to lift us up and put others down. We live for money and politics. This video makes me want to vomit but at the same time, I appreciate it. I like its harshness and blunt honesty of the way things are. We HAVE to take a bold stand against what the world is telling us to live for, what the world is telling us about life.

Tomorrow or Saturday, I will look more into what we are called to accept, what we are living for, and useful scripture for it all. Just let these evils sink in. This is what we accept. This is what the world has fed us for so long until we are numb to it.

Numb to our culture. This video shows that in a creative way. So sad. Just wanted to leave you with a scripture before a more positive message tomorrow =)

Matthew 19:30 “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

* I just wanted to start out with one of my favorite songs. It is so powerful if you truly sit back and take in its meaning. I do want to point out a quote that was said by Joel Houston at the 1:11 mark ” I don’t know what will happen if we allow God to truly invade our lives, invade our hearts, invade this place the way I really know he wants to.” Wow. So before you start reading and watching the rest of the content of this message, really soak that in and try to put yourself humbled before the throne realizing the hugeness of what God can and wants to do through his creations and followers. We are FREE!

What do I say? I have been struggling so much on what to say in this message. I actually came up with one that took over 4 hours to do, then my computer shut off and erased it. Maybe that message can wait =) First, let me point out how sorry I am for all the delays. I am going to start putting out scriptural messages 3 times a week and hopefully life updates about 2 times a week. I will also have much more info on the findtheupperroom.com site concerning college ministry findings very soon. Today, I truly truly truly feel led to challenge us on living for eternity while here on earth. Not only for ourselves but separating ourselves as believers and living to see EVERYONE in heaven.

How does it look for us to suffer and to live for eternity?  While we should not look for suffering, we should not avoid it. Now, for most of us, our idea of living for our eternity instead of living for this earth might not involve suffering or sacrifice. Now, I don’t want to spend my entire time on suffering (see findtheupperroom.com for message on suffering). I want to start with a question: what is our definition of home? When we wake up in the morning, do we question whether we belong or is this home? I don’t mean to be to in your face but I am the same way. I wake up and it feels right. I wake up to see my comfort and my life and my home. Yet, this earth is a footstool to God (Acts 7:49) and our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We are SO wrong in the way we live our lives. Why don’t we live to our mission and love with no boundaries. We choose instead to avoid suffering, avoid loving fully, and avoid looking ahead but use all of our minds on preparing and bettering our temporary lives on earth.

Philippians 3:12-21

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  ¹⁵All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. ¹⁶Only let us live up to what we have already attained. ¹⁷Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. ¹⁸For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. ²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Verses 12-17 really challenge me to think about what we are really living for. Paul tells us to forget the past, forget what is, and look towards the prize. Why don’t we focus on our future (in Heaven)? We focus on earthly things. We look back. Like Lot’s wife…she turned out well…haha…but seriously. We focus on earthly things, what does scripture say on that.. let’s look at verse 18-19 .. it says that those who focus on earthly things, their destiny is destruction. Luke 9:62 , Jesus claims ” No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

How does this look for us today?  Pretend that I have a rope, and it continues forever. It is a timeline for our existence (Francis Chan analogy, just for reference sake). Now the tip has been dipped in red paint. That represents our time on earth and the REST of the rope is our eternity. Yet we focus SO much on school. How are we going to do the best we can in academics to better our life on this earth. We focus SO much on money. We HAVE to save money for retirement, save money for our kids to go to college, for that trip next summer. We focus SO much on friends and family. We spend so much thought process and time thinking about what our friends and family think of us. We try to impress them and put them before anything and prove ourselves to them. We focus SO much on work. We have to work hard to get ahead in the world. To climb up the corporate ladder. We focus SO much on culture. We have to fit in. Yet, all these things we focus on are just the tip of the rope, the tip of our life. We are spitting in the face of God. We are called to focus on the prize, for our own lives but we are called to the mission of sharing Christ’s love with others above all else. Because if we don’t, we miss opportunities to share Christ with people bound for hell. THAT IS WHAT WE SHOULD FOCUS ON.

It takes an atheist to tell us the most convicting truth of all. If we honestly believe in the life of Christ and that He saves us, and that He is the only way to heaven. If we believe in a heaven and a hell and those who don’t believe in Jesus will not go to heaven but suffer through eternal suffering then how much must we truly hate someone not to tell them about the love of Jesus that can save them. Wow. An atheist said that. How crazy. And that is what the church and christians are supposed to do to separate ourselves from everyone else. Nonchristians love. Oprah, Brad Pitt, ect, they all give. We are called to love our enemies. And to do it fully with no limits. That is the radical lifestyle we are called to in order to stand out. I honestly can say that I love people. Yet, this video punches me right in the face. I am terrified to share the love of Jesus with EVERYONE I meet. Yet, not only should I be excited to even have that opportunity, I should do it out of love knowing that the person walking by me in starbucks eternity is at stake.

So basically, if the Lord truly is our shephard and we shall not want. Stop wanting. Stop focusing on the things of this earth and focus on the prize of your eternity in heaven as well as the eternity of others. Love with no restrictions. Do not be afraid of sufferings. Share Christ with people because we do not hate them but in fact we love not only our peers but our enemies as well. I know my thoughts sometimes bounce around but I really just want you guys to understand that this earth is but a speck of red paint.  Our friends, family, money, jobs, school, sports, culture, media, everything is just a speck on our timeline, on our existence. Please realize this. Focus on the mission and the great commission. Be fishers of men and studiers of the word. Truly love God and love people. Amen. Take care and God bless.

Long time…and I apologize. Life has been fun but crazy the past while. I officially got accepted to Dallas Baptist University. I am scheduled to go up there soon to complete scholarship applications and housing forms as well as talk to an academic advisor about what classes to take to finish up as soon as possible.

Me and Laura had the opportunity to go to Richland College with my buddy Mark Warrington this past Wednesday to see the campus and talk about all the potential spiritual growth and opportunities there. It was very exciting to hear about what God can do!

This past Wednesday night, I actually went swing dancing. Ummm, I am not a good dancer. Dancing = Socially Awkward.. but in the end it was a good time to hang out with my girlfriend, Laura. Other than that, I have just been working and trying to keep up with sleep. I will put a message up hopefully soon with some scripture and studies. I hope everyone is doing great. God bless.

Ps. Tell me what movies are good that are out or coming this summer. Year One was not so great and I heard Transformers was so-so. I would love to hear from you guys.

1. Pray for safe travel for me and Laura as we travel back to Texas Thursday and to Birmingham tomorrow
2. Continue to pray for vision, wisdom, money, and travel when the later parts of the summer arrive as I am planning on trips to both Michigan and Arizona in search for wisdom and vision for a future college ministry
3. Travel and positive impact are very important needs for my sister as she leaves this summer for a mission trip to Cuba

Today was a great day. I went to lunch with my mom and Laura as well as go sight seeing and driving around town. Laura and I then went shopping and drove around Wynlakes. We had dinner with the family and then we all got to hang out. Tomorrow me and Laura are going to spend the day in Auburn with Torrey! It will be a blast. Then, we are off to Birmingham to go to the BASEMENT! I can’t wait. It will be so much fun. No daily message today or even til I’m back in Texas. Talk to you guys soon.

God is so good. I just want to post some scripture for you to be encouraged by this Sunday morning. Scripture followed by what it promises. Focus on it this week and see how much more you will rejoice in the Lord and all trials and tibulations.

Romans 8:35-39 promises that we cannot be separated from Christ’s love

John 10:28 promises eternal life and that we cannot be snatched from His hand

1 John 1:9 promises forgiveness

Hebrews 13:5 promises that God will not leave,forsake, or abandon us

Hebrews 4:15-16 promises us God’s mercy and grace

Amen! HaVe A wOnDeRfUl WeEk!