Wednesday, Me and Mandi are flying out to Ft Worth, Texas. And then Thursday, June 30th..we will be driving up to the camp in Spicewood, Texas to join the rest of the staff.  My main role for this weekend is to be the worship leader where I will be leading worship music Thursday, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday evening.

The website for the camp is located at: http://www.lifedeafyouthcamp.com/Home/

Looks like an awesome opportunity to plant some seeds in the hearts of young deaf people. Please pray for us as we travel there and back!

The last month has been crazzy! Things have been so hectic lately that God just slapped me on the head and told me to slow down and pay attention. I cannot begin to start where and what has gone on in the last month or so. Those of you who follow me regularly will be pleased to know that I will be posting more often than before.

In the last month, some major changes happened that affected me, my family, my extended family, and my church family. Without going into so much details, lets just say…God has re-directed my path into another direction: evangelism. The last 15 years of ministry has taught me so much and has prepared me well for the next chapter of my ministry. God has opened new opportunities along the way and has shown me that He provides in due time. I have limited myself to minimum traveling for revivals, conferences, concerts, etc. But God removed those limitations and now it seems God is bringing more and more attention my way.

One of my passions has been music. Performing signed music for a congregation of hearing / deaf alike. At the beginning of the year, I had none planned for the 2011 year….here I am today with three scheduled (so far) i have learned more new music in the last month than I have in awhile. I have focused myself on studying songs in ASL more than I ever have in the past. It seems God has brought forward that gift beyond my preaching/teaching. It is my prayer that God continues to lift me up so that I can become the music man that God wants me to be.

On top of that, I have started a new part time job which is suitable for my schedule. Flexible and stable. I also have been pondering the idea of starting a new LIVESTREAM Bible study online, but not yet decided. There is another church that has given the thought of a possibility of a videophone preaching or making videos of myself preaching to add them to Youtube and it would be projected on screen within the church for the deaf congregation.

All in all, God has been with us every step of the way.

Much of today, I have been in a silent mode. And that is not normal for me at the office. I have read through my notes for my sermon, reviewed them, prayed on them, read them again, and so forth. One scripture was a good note…

Proverbs 3:3-4 says “3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; wrap them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” (NIV)

I love how another translation puts a different perspective to it from The Message:

“3 Don’t lose grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. 4 Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people.”

the two things that gives us a great reputation before God’s eyes and the eyes of people are Love and Loyalty.

Love people, no matter what they say or do to you.. no matter if they talk bad about you or try to destroy your reputation…still must have Love for that person.

Loyalty as in being faithful to God in all ways, which includes going to your home church and supporting and loving people there. Church-hopping is not being a loyal person. Becoming loyal to God through your church brings you a good reputation in the eyes of God and the people.

…..Makes me wonder how many people would be in church in today’s world if they practiced those two things more seriously….

those are my Tuesdays Thoughts….

This year, me and 11 other guys took the road to Glen Rose, Texas for the 9th annual Deaf Men’s Conference. I was the worship leader for the weekend and the speakers were John Lovas from Louisana & Keith Catron from California.

The theme was “Fired Up”

Here are some lessons that I learned:

A Christian who is not fired up, why?

1. Christians break their promises to God and His work
2. Christians do not fully submit to God
3. Christians do not have spiritual joy
4. they have conflict in their hearts
5. they have an uncontrollable temper
6. has no interest in talking about God
7. their outward appearance is in conflict with their heart’s desires
8. they often seek worldly pleasures
9. has a lack of interest in serving God or the church
10. has a lack of concern for new people (newly saved people)
11. has a spirit of being negative or critical

The church has three main jobs according to 2 Timothy 3:16 (1) Encourage people (2) correct people (3) rebuke people

People who say they only need a Bible and no church are lying to themselves (Hebrews 10:25)

We cannot allow excuses to cause us to quit

When you stand for the truth, there will always be people who will not like you

Five Marks of a Fired Up Christian (how do we identify when Christians are fired up?)

1. always positive under pressure (James 1:2-4)
2. is sensitive to the needs of others (1 John 3:17)
3. is a peacemaker, not a troublemaker (James 4:1)
4. is a patient person (James 5:7-8)
5. is a praying person (1 Thessalonians 5:17 & James 5:16)

Being a fired-up Christian has nothing to do with age, appearance, achievement, or character!

How do we help our people to be “fired-up”?

1. let others help you with WORDS
2. let others help you with ACTIONS
3. let go & let others DO THE WORK for you

A Church body should be humble, gentle, patient, and accepting of others (Ephesians 4:2)

There is a vlogger on Youtube that I found while looking for sermon illustrations. His youtube name is “KenX50″. You may want to check him out but be warned, he is very challenging and can be very intimidating for some people. I was challenged in a positive way. I looked into three of his videos and watched the entirety of all videos.

And then after that….I prayed for him.

I prayed that God would reveal to him the real truth. Many of us are caught off guard by actions or words from people that claim to be “Christians” or claim to be “knowing truth” from God’s Word. I prayed for God to show “KenX50″ the truth that he was seeking. In one of his videos, he claims that most or all Deaf Christians are dumb and very gullible to whatever is preached or taught in today’s society.

It was sad to see the many impressions that he claims to have seen through people that he had encountered. It was also sad to see that while he was an advocate of respect, community, freedom of speech…he was also acting as an advocate of “anti-christianity”

In another video, he questioned stories that, to his perspective, conflicted each other. Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 speaks of God’s creation and how it was done, day by day. “KenX50″ went on to discuss that what was said in Genesis 1 is whats mostly taught in today’s churches. But Genesis 2 conflicts it. I got my Bible out to read what exactly he was talking about and later realized….from a skeptic’s perspective, there is some conflict between the two but from a beleiver’s perspective, there is no conflict.

“KenX50′s” challenge is high and mighty to motivate us as Christians to READ OUR BIBLES… because maybe errors will be preached, unbibilical preaching is very common in today’s world and its up to us Christians to make sure we are IN the WORD and of the WORD everyday!

So…may your faith grow stronger today knowing that there are people out there like “KenX50″ of Youtube who defends the freedom of speech to contradict God’s Word. May your voice grow more stronger so that YOU can defend your freedom of speech to DEFEND God’s Word.