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!!