Hiatus

I know I haven't posted in awhile but school is getting crazy. You'll hafta wait a little longer because I don't have time to post between now and the end of school. I guess there is a chance but I wouldn't count on it. There are just too many papers, tests, presentations, and not enough time. Sorry guys

Sorry about the bad camera work

Wisdom from....Obadiah??

Do You Like the New Style??

My Friend

My friend, I stand in judgement now,
And feel that you're to blame somehow.
On earth I walked with you day by day,
And never did you point the way.

You knew the Lord in truth and glory,
But never did you tell the story.
My knowledge then was very dim;
You could have led me safe to Him.

Though we lived together here on earth
You never told me of the second birth,
And now I stand this day condemned
Because you failed to mention Him.

You taught me many things, that's true;
I called you friend and trusted you;
But I learn, now that it's too late,
And you could have kept me from this fate.

We walked by day and talked by night,
And yet you shoed me not the light;
You let me live and love and die,
You knew I'd never live on high.

Yes, I called you "friend" in life
And trusted you through fun and strife.
And yet, on coming to this dreadful end
I cannot, now, call you "my friend".

- Author Unknown

Ignite that Passion

This past weekend I went to the Passion conference in a suburb of Washington D.C. It was a great trip with some challenging and encouraging messages. The music was great and we had some really good worship through song. I heard the like of Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, Louie Giglio, and my boy Francis Chan. There are so many ways that I could go with this post that I'm gonna try to avoid chaos by giving 3 thoughts:

1. Got to see Francis Chan in person. I have heard this guy preach on podcasts but haven't heard him in person. I didn't think it was a high likelihood that I would get to see him preach in person since he is a pastor at a church in california which is several minutes from here. When we came in for the morning session I was hyped cause I knew it was his morning to preach. We got pretty good seats that were fairly close to the stage. Down a few rows and to the left there were some reserved seats that were empty. During worship I looked down there and I saw Francis' bald head glowing. I was hyped cause he was right there. If it had not been a serious time of worship I probably would have gone down and given the guy a hug. He was just standing there taking it all in, watching as thousands of college students were lifting there hands and lives in praise. He would stand for a few minutes and then pray. He stood back up and then a few minutes later prayed again. As he walked up to the stage I was anticipating this great feast that I knew he was about to serve up from God's Word. He spoke on a few verses in Galatians and talked about how we have the Holy Spirit in us if we are believers. He spoke about how we are not slaves but are considered sons of God. He was asking if we truly believe that that if we were standing before the throne of God and asked Him if He knew us that He would say, "Oh yea, I know Stephen Braswell. I love that guy. He is so great." What amazing thoughts to meditate on that are promises from scripture. Francis always stays true to the word. Get this dude's podcasts.

2. Women have an evident passion for Christ are extremely beautiful. Hear me out on this. I have seen some women on campus who are physically attractive. When these same girls open their mouths, garbage usually spews out and they instantly lose any attractiveness they once had. There were a couple of women who made an impact on me this weekend. First was Christy Nockels. She was singing with Christ Tomlin and sounded great. There was one song, Hosanna, where it was just her singing. Her voice was amazing and the lyrics were packed with truth such as: "break my heart for what breaks yours" and "show me how to love like you have loved me". Nockels was so passionate as she sang this song. You could tell that she was saying these words directly to God and these words were the cry of her heart. She was an attractive woman but when you saw the passion that was in her heart that clearly was for the Lord she became beautifully gorgeous. Sam was a woman from China that had her life dramatically turned around by the message of Jesus Christ. She was so passionate about Jesus. She knew that He loved her and she loved Him so much. Sam was full of joy and had the biggest smile on her face that no one was going to take it away because her Savior had put it there. Again, she was pretty but when she was given a mic and her passion poured out, her beauty was as great as her smile. Men look at outward appearances but God looks at the heart. These women's hearts were gorgeous and this made them more attractive than any make- up possibly could.

3. I love the spirit of Passion and what is stands for. Growing up in church I have been to many a conference and retreats. There are many good ones out there but they all seem to promoting themselves. They sell stuff with their name all over it likes things anywhere from t-shirts to pencils. Before every session someone usually gets up and promotes whatever camp or conference it is and might even promote a sponsor. That's cool and all but Passion had a unique and refreshing attitude. Louie made a point to get up and say they it isn't about Passion. It's about the glory of God and he said that Passion is just a small part of what God is doing. He said that Passion's purpose was not to come into a city and try to start something new. Passion wants to come into a city and find out what God is already doing and be apart of the work that is being done. Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Charlie Hall could all be making promoting themselves and their own music at this event but rather you see a love and unitedness among them. You never hear a word about individuals but rather they are there to bring glory to God and it is truly all about Christ.

It was a great weekend and I highly recommend this conference to anyone. I would love to go back and am considering going to atlanta in a few weeks where Passion will be holding another weekend. I would really love to go to one of their worldwide events in Uganda or Hong Kong. Anyway, the weekend was nourishing and it definitely ignited my passion.

V-day ...mayday?!?!

Gosh today brings back a bunch of awesome memories. I don't mean in recent Valentine experiences. I'm talking bout goin way back to elementary school. Everyone got along, there were no cares in the world, and everything smelled like pee. You their with me yet? Valentines day was one of the best days ever in those times. You would go to the store in excitement a few days before the big day. As you searched the aisle's for the coolest cards you could find thoughts of Vday filled your mind. You are relieved when you find the last box of power rangers cards they have (how romantic). Then things really get serious when you head over to the candy aisle and find the kit kats and mandm's with the hearts on the outside wrapper. Finally content with the perfect assortment of candy and power ranger cards that scream I love you, you rush home to start personalizing every card to suzie, billy, jane, bob, etc. There would be jokes in these cards, and meaningful statements like "You're Super!!". In class the next day, everyone got cards and candy from everyone. As your desk filled up with this priceless loot, we would separate the cards from the candy (kinda like the wheat from the chaff). Shoving aside the cards, it almost seemed like a contest to see who could consume their candy fastest. As I remember these days I'm sure the teachers feared this a day more than others. That much candy distributed to that many kids with only one teacher to control them all just doesn't seem quite fair. Once the consumption of chocolaty goodness began, the school might as well have declared marshal law for the remainder of the day. There was no stopping us. As we got older, the cards and candy were only distributed to a select few and eventually became a day for that "special" someone. Fast forwarding to this Valentines day and the realities of this day seem way out of whack. This year I am thankfully not it any sort of relationship. It has been awhile since this has been the case. So, I realized how nice it was to not be fretting about trying to do something spectacular and buying the perfect gift. As I walked on campus today it was just another day with the occasional heart seen on the newspaper, t-shirt, etc. I was delighted when I was offered a piece of candy by some people that were passing some out. It was a nice gesture. This may have been my only positive Valentine's day experience though (except for the chocolate from my parents. woohoo!!!) There were different things that were being passed out by people throughout the day. Ultimately I was offered condoms by more people than candy. Yea, you read me right... Condoms. I was really disheartened to find how cheap our society has made love. We have decided that we are going to put value on one of the products of love instead of love itself. We have made it so cheap that I can be sitting at a lunch table with some friends and before I am done the table has three or four more times the number of condoms than people. What happened from my pee-wee days till now? In a lot of ways, kids on this day have a much better idea of what love is than adults. Kids are blissfully ignorant to some of the things that adults categorize as love. With kids its all about relationship. Love is not about sex. It's about relationship. The problem is not that people have a desire to have sex. God created sex as something for a man and a women post-marriage. The problem is that so many have taken a beautiful institution from God and perverted it. Sex was not made for cheap valentine "love". I became really sad as I thought about the emptiness that comes from this view of love. Looking in the scriptures we see that in Romans 1:28 when people are not following Christ they are given "over to a depraved mind". When someone has never seen the true love of Christ how can they be expected to practice true love. Away from Him our minds are depraved, meaning corrupt, wicked, and perverted. This view of love is not what God had in mind when He created us. His good and perfect love is shown to us in the famous passage of ICorinthians 13. He talks of love being patient, kind, and not self seeking. This love that He has shown to us and that He wants us to have is not something that talks a big game only to leave you feeling empty and worthless. When we get a glimpse of this unconditional love that Jesus has shown us we will never love the same again, whether that be romantically or towards people in general. If you have a Valentine today, serve them and show them true love. If you don't have a valentine today, show other people unconditional love in the same way as Christ did. He loved us while we were yet sinners. Pray that people will not settle for the cheap definition of love that they are offered by the world.

18-1

Yesterday was a big day in sports. Not only was the super bowl historic, but a few other things went on yesterday that were overlooked because of the football game. First, lets start with the Patriots. They wanted to go down in history for perfection but now they will be remembered for their imperfection and arrogance. This was not supposed to be a game. This was supposed to be a coronation for the team that many were saying was the best team ever. I guess this is the appropriate time to use the quote, "That's why they play the game." Amid more and more allegations coming out about the now infamous 'Spygate', the Patriots arrogance seethed from their locker room. Leading up the the big game Plaxico Buress, who caught the game winning td for the giants, predicted that the giants defense would be ready for the patriots and the the final score would be 24-17 with the gmen on top. When tom brady heard the prediction, he laughed as he said that the patriots would not be held to 17 points. Turns out Plax was wrong and Brady was right. With the final score coming it at 17-14, most of the nation along with the 'experts' were wrong. We saw Eli turn into a Manning and a giants defense that showed us that maybe brady isn't what we thought he was. He is a good qb, but I think any quarterback in the nfl can throw well when they stand in the pocket for 5 minutes before they have to think about throwing. When the giants turned up the heat and knocked him on the ground a few times he appeared very frustrated and couldn't seem to unfurl that red cape that so many said was hidden under that #12 jersey. As the clock ticked down last night and the unbeatable patriots fell short of history there was a slight confusion on the field. People thought time had expired but there was still a second left on the clock. The coaches made their way to center field to shake hands and people started flooding the field. The referees started to announce that there was still time on the clock. They went to the coaches before they could meet and tried to tell them what was going on. Bellichick wasn't gonna have it. He and his patriots had been above the game all year and this was no exception. He was done with the game so it was over. He shoved the official out of his way, shook tom coughlin's hand, and went to the locker room. The next play was a formality as the giants took a knee and let time expire leaving them champions of Super Bowl 42. Needless to say I'm not a huge Patriots fan. Congrats to the Giants for winning the Super Bowl. Oh yea, and a special shout out to the Gmen backup quarterback, Jared Lorenzen. If thats not ringing any bells, he played qb at UK a few years ago and now has a superbowl ring.

A few other story lines caught my eye in the sports world yesterday. J.B. Holmes won the FBR open yesterday on the PGA tour. He birdied the 18th hole to force a playoff with Phil Mickelson. Holmes went head to head with one of the best players in the world and won on the first playoff whole. This is pretty cool because, for those who don't know, J.B. graduated from the University of Kentucky and played on UK's golf team. Thata way to represent J.B.

Tiger Woods wasn't playin on th PGA this weekend, or else J.B. wouldn't have won. He was playing in Dubai on the european tour. He shot off to an early lead on the first day. He held the lead on the second day but fell back on saturday. He went into Sunday four shots back, but shot a 65 with birdies on 5 of the last 7 holes for the win. He is 2-0 this year and looking like he is playing some of the best golf of his career, which is saying something. Some are saying he's gonna win all 4 majors this year. I'm saying.....

Last sport note from yesterday. Eddie Sutton joined the 800 win club in college basketball. Though he did it while coaching San Francisco, he did get some of those wins while coaching UK. He is one of only 5 coaches to win 800 or more games. Two of those 5 coached at UK, Eddie Sutton and Adolph Rupp.

What a day for sports!!

Not religious or christian

I have been in church my whole life. I have been around the most religious and best christians this world has to offer. Here's the thing... I'm ready to leave all that. Doing things just because it seems like what I'm supposed to do is not what I have been called to do. All I want to do is follow Jesus. I want to forget every assumption I have about how life is supposed to be and the way that this whole Christian thing is supposed to work. The more and more I look at scripture the more and more it seems as is if this whole American Christianity thing is not at all what Jesus had in mind. There have been a lot of things that have been done in the name of christianity, and are being done, that I'm not sure Jesus would have any part of. I've have decided that I am going to go back through some of the gospels. To those of us who have spent are lives in church this may sound boring, routine, typical, etc. We have been told so many things about what Jesus did and what He stood for and the message He was trying to bring. I think we sometimes get fed things from different biases. If you go back and look at the things that Jesus said we see that there are some things that people are focusing more than other truths that Jesus gave us. It's like we pick and choose which things we want to apply to our lives. So, I'm wanting to just go back to the red letters and take it straight up. I believe what Jesus said and believe He still has things to say today. I want to do what He said to do no matter if other people do or not. If the church and christians aren't measuring up then I'm not gonna follow them. Jesus is the ultimate standard (g-burg '08)
Last weekend I went with my church's high and middle school group to a retreat in Gatlinburg. It was a really great trip and hopefully the students listened to what the speakers had to say. I had already had this conviction about goin back to the red letters but one of the speakers made it even more simple and apparent what I needed to do. He was saying that we have become obsessed with the "thriller testimonies". The ones were drug dealers and pimps turn their lives over to Christ because God stopped them on their way to burn down a church. Those are cool and are a testament to the changing love that He offers. We miss the beauty of the testimonies of those who say that they gave their life to Christ at an early age and have been trying to live for Him ever since. Thats it pure and simple. I have given my life to Christ and want to live for Him.
In Matthew 8:38 Jesus says, "and anyone who does no take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." This is what we are called to do if we say that we want to follow Christ. He says that if we do not give up our whole lives and follow Him that we aren't worthy of Him. This doesn't mean praying a prayer or walking an aisle and suddenly you are a follower of Jesus. It means daily giving your life up to Him. Are you living a life that is worthy of the calling that Jesus has on your life? To take up your whole life and let Him transform it means knowing what He says in His word and following it daily. I have given my life to Christ and I desire to follow Him everyday.

Things that get me hype

Some of my posts have been pretty heavy. So, ima try and search for a good balance and try to lighten things up sometimes. I'm gonna put down a few things here that get me hyped and would love to know what hypes you up. Maybe we got some similarities. These are definitely not in any order and by no means an exhaustive list

1. I get hyped about Jesus Christ. I know I said I was gonna try and keep this on the lighter side but I gotta put this on the list. Having the opportunity to get to know an infinite God who loves and cares for you is an awesome thing to live for. You should check out His book sometime. It's a page turner.

2. A good movie is always a plus. I love when a movie has a lot of hype and lives up to it. A few that I would recommend are Dan in Real Life, Gladiator, The Bourne Movies, School of Rock, Hoosiers, Stomp the Yard, I Am Legend, and I could go on

3. College football and basketball. Sheesh have I spent some time, money, blood, sweat, and tears on this. I am a huge UK fan and always love the SEC whoopin up on the big- ten, which is becoming a given every year but never gets old.

4. A fresh new pair of basketball shoes. Look, when you open up that box and have them kicks on ya feet, you feel like MJ no matter how you play. Some of my favorite times were pickin out a new pair every year in high school.

5. Playin a round of golf with my boys. Ain't nothing like goin out with some buddies on a warm day and chasing that little white ball around. You start out with the best of intentions, but by the time you've hit the turn you are throwin the score card away. It makes me want to curse more than anything else in the world but its one of my favorite things to do. That don't make much sense but neither does paying hundreds of dollars for the whole experience either

6. The future. I love it when there is something coming up in my life and I have been waiting for it. When that day or events gets there it is awesome. The next thing I got coming is a trip to Washington D.C. for the Passion conference. I have heard a lot about this conference over the years but have never been. I hear there are gonna be some solid speakers. I'm hyped about being encouraged and challenged to grow in my faith.

7. A good book. This may not be the most popular one but let me explain. I have never been a huge reader. When I start reading a book and can't put it down, I'm pumped about it. It takes a lot for me to get excited about reading.

8. LOST. This is one of the greatest tv shows of all time. I have seen every episode and can't wait to see the 2 hour season premier that comes on next thursday january, 31. It's gonna be awesome. If you have not seen this show I highly recommend renting the first 3 seasons and skipping class for the next week and watch it straight through. This way you can catch up and understand the season premier. Yea, it's that good.

9. Music that reps Christ like the 116 clique. I love how they rhyme for Christ and every word they say is glorifying to Him. I just got Trip Lee's cd and it' s great. He doesn't waste words on jokes or something that would make him popular; he just straight rips it and packs gospel into all his tracks. And yes, ima stop this list on 9

Like a box of chocolates

I have been having some difficult things happening in my life. Nothing too serious, so please don't start jumping to conclusions, but there are questions in my life that I want answers too. To be broad, I have been lacking direction in my life and things haven't necessarily been working out like I had hoped. This is nothing new I know, but at this time in my life, when I am supposed to be preparing for my future, I was expecting to have a few more answers. I am a man who desires a passion so I can go at it with everything that I have. I have been trying to figure some things out on my own. Considerations have been made about my major, social life, directions, etc. Nothing seems to be working. I have admittedly been frustrated and often discouraged. The feeling is that every day that goes by is a waste if it lacks direction. I was hit by a verse in scripture the other day that reminded my of why scripture is often referred too as a sword. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." There are so many things that I have been wanting. I am not talking about physical things that you can buy on a shelf, but rather what can be summed up as peace of mind about a plethora of obstacles. This verse talks about us getting our hearts desires when we are following Christ. I'm not talking about getting bling, money, and fame. When we are delighting in Christ we become more and more like Him. He molds us into what He wants us to be and gives us the desire to follow Him passionately. When I focus on Christ and putting Him first in everything I am doing, He will show me the direction I need to go. When I am trying to fix things and understand why certain things have happened on my own, it always ends in frustration and more questions than answers. I should be committing my ways to the Lord and He will give me the desires of my heart because He will have shaped my heart into what He wants it to be.
On a broader spectrum, I have been keeping up with politics and more specifically the presidential race. I don't understand why we think that politics are going to fix things. People are so focused on choosing the right candidate on the democrat and republican side in hopes that they will be elected and save the country from going down the drain. We try to "delight" ourselves in many things other than Christ and we still think that it is going to work. Politics are not going to fix this country world. The thing that is going to change this world is a bunch of people who are delighting in the Lord and seeking to live as Christ intended us to live. He will give us what we want when we allow Him to change our wants into something that will glorify Him. Does He do this just because He is God and can force us to do things. NO!! He knows that this is the only way that we are going to be happy. We can try anything in the world but He knows that the only way we are going to find what we are looking for is to delight ourselves in Him. So, He tells us these things in His word to show us how we can find what we are looking for. The answer is Jesus.

Struggles

I know that it has been too long since I last posted. I took a break partly because of the holidays. I thought that people would be out of their normal routine, so they would probably not have time for the blogosphere. I confess however that I have also been lacking in inspiration. I have signed in to my account several times and even started writing different post, but hit various brick walls along the way. However, there have been some things that have been troubling me that I want you to chew on.

James 2:1-4 says, "My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say,'Here's a good seat for you,' but say to the poor man,'You stand there' or 'Sit on the floor by my feet,' have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts?" I would like to say that I hope that you question the church. Before you that off as heresy out of ignorance, read on. There are some things you should question in order to say that it is blatanlty wrong and in order to refute it. When your science teacher, collegue, or as sad as it might be, a fellow christian tells you that evolution is real, you should question that in order to refute and destroy it. However, there are some things, like the church that you should question in order to improve it, make it better, and ultimately bring in closer to what Christ envisioned the church to be. Some great christians in the past have questioned the church and made it better. One easy example is that of Martin Luther. I will not get into everything here but the church at his time was definitely doing things that weren't scripturally founded. He questioned those things and helped to change those things in order to better align with scripture.
Think about the church that you attend. If you do not attend church I want you to think about what your perception of the church is. How does your church measure up in applying this passage in James? If you asked one in church about whether they show favoritism, whether it be racially or economically, everyone would probably answer no. This answer given compared to the actual diversity of people may not match up. My fear is that we do not apply this passage in James very well. How would people react if someone that was in worn out clothes and had an interesting aroma came in? I'm not sure. I think people would be receptive on the outside but I wonder how uncomfortable it would be on the inside. Jesus spent His time with these type people. He loved them and didn't reject them because of what they had done or the state that they were in but rather showed them a new way; the way. I look at American Christianity and am worried about its correlation with scripture. It seems to safe, to clean, and too exclusive. These are just a few questions and thoughts I have been having. I want Christ to be the center of all. I want his bride to be exactly how He envisioned it to be. I want to truly understand what it means to live like Christ.