“The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake…”

The title for today’s post is in honor of Seabastian the crab because I ate a crabcake at lunch today.  I have come to the conclusion that Gumbeaux’s in Douglasville is the best restaurant this side of the Mississippi.  They have the best food and you get so very much of it.  The cajun sampler and the Mardi Gras platter are great to be shared by two people.  Don’t even think about trying to eat all of that food yourself though.  I just want to take this opportunity to give the restaurant a round of applause.  Well done, Gumbeaux’s, well done. 

Also it was raining wicked hard when I left from OfficeMax today.  My pants got soaked, and that is never fun for anyone.  It was raining something something fearce though.  It has been a very good and productive day at the office.  Much better than yesterday.  I am getting more and more excited about our trip to Illinois this coming week.  I am raedy for a respite indeed.  i need a little time to just do nothing.  It has been a busy summer you know.  I also ask for those of you who read this to pray that I can learn all of the ropes of being a youth/music minister quickly.  I don’t want to let anyone down, but there are things that I have not learned that need to be done yet, and people seem to not understand that I am still in the learning process as far as ministry is concerned.  I do know, however, that God is in control and he will give me the faith to be strong and the strength to be faithful.  Jesus is awesome!!

Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone…

For some reason today I am feeling very blah.  I just cannot get motivated to get going.  I have gotten all of my work finished for the day, but it was with much pain and suffering.  I guess that I am experiencing a hangover from all of the meat I ate yesterday at Fogo De Chao.  🙂  Overall though this has been a great day.  I got daddy/daughter time this morning, which I always love, and I have been very productive at the office.  I cannot really think of anything great to talk about though.  I love Jesus! That is great, and i have a wonderful family.  Nothing really that you guys did not know, however.  Well I hope that you all are having a more enthusiatic day than I seem to be.  Oh one thing i can say is that I am so excited about the trip up to Illinois.  I look forward to Cheese Fest ’08.  (teehee)

Sorry it’s been so long…

I would like to sincerely apologize to those of you who check the blog regularly.  I have been really busy lately, but that is no excuse for not writing more regularly.  Anywho…things have been going well as of late.  Since my last post, we have had VBS at church, I got to spend time with my best friend next to Kim, and Kim and I have began celebrating our anniversary.  VBS went great last week.  We had an average attendance of 95.2 kids for the week.  That .2 kid was kinda weird looking, but we tried to make him feel welcome.  I have not heard a final report, but I think that there were several salvation decisions made during the week.  I got to play the part of Peter Igor, the singing lab assistant.  I led the kids in the motions to all of the songs all week.  It was great fun.  Getting to work with Christian was so much fun.  That man is hilarious.  Overall though, it was a fabulous time.  Yesterday I got to spend the day with one of my greatest friends.  David Younker is one of the most solid Christian men that i have ever known.  He is one of the few people that I still talk to that I went to high school with.  We went to see The Dark Knight.  Great movie, but it left me somewhat speechless.  It was just different from what I was expecting.  It delved deep into the relationship between Batman and the Joker.  It was a  great movie though, I highly recommend it.  It was great to see David though.  He is one of those guys who you just love to be around.  He is a great encouragment to me and I love him like a brother.  So tomorrow will mark three years of marriage for Kim and me.  It is incredible that Kim has put up with me for this long, and it does not even seem like three years.  They say that time flies when you are having fun though.  I love her more than anything in this world.  She is a great wife and a terrific mother, and she doea so much for the family.  I love her with all of my heart.  So we went out to eat lunch today to begin the anniversary festivities.  I took her to Fogo de Chao…aka Meat Fest 2008.  If you have never been to Fogo then the only way that I can describe it is a meal consisting of the most sinful amounts of meat ever contrived.  IT IS COMPLETELY AWESOME!!  Kim enjoyed it though.  We then went to walk arounf Lenox Square Mall in order to be comfortable enough to sit in the car for the ride home.  I think that the festivites will continue for a few days though, as we are heading out of town this weekend.  We are going to visit Kim’s mom and stepdad in Illinois.  I love going up there.  They are just cool people, and not to mention they live close to chees country, and I love cheese.  The only thing that stinks is that the drive up there is like 13 hours long.  Stink!  But I am really stoked about going up there.  So I hope that you feel up to date with the life of Jason now.  I will promise not to be so long before the next post, so check in soon.

The whole earth trembled and the veil was torn…

I LOVE JESUS SO MUCH!!  sorry I just get really excited about my savior and how much He loves me back.  I am incredibly blessed to be in the position that I am currently.  I am the youth/music minister at a church where the fame of Jesus is stressed above everything, and I get to interact with some of the coolest kids in the youth group, and the music ministry is getting off the ground in a great way as well.  God is so good to us, and I think that we often lose sight of that fact.  I used lyrics from Chris Tomlin’s new song Jesus Messiah for the title for this post.  When Jesus was crucified and He died the actual earth shook, and the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two.  Jesus’ death made a way for us to be in constant contact with God the Father.  (Ok, so right at this point should be where you are doing cartwheels and backflips because you are so excited, but wait it gets better.)  Jesus did not stay dead.  He rose from the dead and He had defeated sin’s hold on us as humans.  Then He ascened into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father until it was time for Him to come and bring God’s children home to heaven with Him. (This is the part where you should be standing on the roof of your house screaming at the top of your lungs how much you love Jesus, and how you want everyone to know about Him.)  We can have no other response to these facts than to serve God with every bit of energy that we have.  We must live lives that show the glory of God and His vast greatness to everyone we come into contact with.  God loves us, and we should love Him back by giving up our lives for His glory and His purpose.

BTW, I am super excited about going to play whirly ball this Friday with the youth.  It is going to be so much fun.  None of them have ever played before, so I should be able to show them all how it is done. 🙂  Well, I guess I will check in with everyone later.

Back to the real world

Camp was amazing!  It was great to get to sit under the teaching of Louie Giglio, and Chris Tomlin is my biggest inspiration when it comes to leading musical worship.  It is so cool to just get away for a few days and focus solely on God and what he has in store for my life.  It was such a blessing to see the transformation of the kids in the youth group this past week.  They changed from seemingly overwhelmed individuals to pure worshipers before the Lord.  Louie challenged us all to live a life that makes Christ famous.  However, he did caution that when we make the decision to let God use our lives He may bring Himself glory through life or He may do it through death.  I have come to the conclusion that whatever it takes to bring God glory is what I want to happen.  God is so good to me, and I should have no other response than to let Him use my life as He sees fit.  I pray that Kim and I are able to keep the kids accountable for the commitments that they made this past week to live lives that glorify God with everything that they do.  This seems like an easy commitment to make in the setting of being surrounded by 7000 other young people who are making the same commitment, but when life hits you in the face the following Monday morning, it is much more difficult.  I just want for the youth group at Westside Baptist Church to be a launching point for the youth of the church to go out into culture and change it for the sake of Christ.  I know that some of the kids are not ready to be thrown into every situation that may come their way, but I want to help to prepare them so that they can be ready for every situation that the world throws at them.  Also this past week, Kim and I have finally decided to answer the call that God has been placing on our lives to sponsor a child through Compassion International.  I have felt led to sponsor a child ever since the birth of Anna Grace, and it seems like Kim has felt the same pull on her heart as well.  It simply seems that we have the ability to supply a child who literally has nothing with every thing that he or she needs, while Anna Grace also gets everything that she wants.  After all, Jesus did not only meet the spiritual needs of people, but he met their physical needs as well.  Kim and I want to be able to stand before the throne of God one day and be found guilty of doing for even the least of those who need help.  We are in the process of praying for discernment in what part of the world the child we sponsor will be from.  We would love for it to be in a place that we could go visit one day.  We think that it would be awesome to be able to meet the child in person one day.  Anywho…I am rambling.  God is so good, and He is so terrifyingly big that our minds cannot even comprehend it.  I love God so much!

Student Life Camp 2008

Well, we finally made it!  It took us nearly nine hours to get to Daytona, but everyone is doing fine.  We got checked in and settled alright, and went to our first worship experience of the week.  It was amazing.  I think that I got a double blessing this evening.  Firstly, it is amazing to hear the sound of about 10,000 students just pouring their hearts out in worship.  The innocence and purity that accompany worship like that is so refreshing.  The second blessing that I received was the fact that I got to worship in that environment with my whole family.  It is such a blessing to be standing next to my wife who is pouring her heart out to our great God, and she is holding my one year old daughter who is just loving the fact that she is in the middle of such an exciting situation.  Although I know that Anna Grace has no idea what is really going on, it was great to see her so happy in that place of worship.  It was also great to see that she was comfortable enough to fall asleep during the message from Louie Giglio.  There should be a sense of comfort to be found in a place of worship.  God is there, and He wants us to feel comfortable in His presence.  So the first day has been great, and I look forward to the rest of the week her in Daytona.  Talk to y’all soon.