Here are some pictures from Leadership Rocks in Tampa… Once you click on an image, click on it again to enlarge it. Thanks Brent for all you do.

You will be proud…the K-Life house will be a much cleaner place when you get back. 25 garbage bags of leaves later and some new flowers in front of the house…we are beginning to make a dent…

Watch this video…go ahead…do it…

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/WCC-Students/30904520808

Just a few hours ago was the last K-Life of the 2007-2008 school year. I cannot believe that I have been in Windermere for over four months already. All the leaders with K-Life have been such an awesome community of people to do life with.

Tonight I had the opportunity to lead worship with a full band. I was so excited as I was planning for the evening. One of the girls who helps out with K-Life sang Lead Me To The Cross and I was pumped to doing for the first time since I have been here. We were in a new room, so I had no idea what to expect. The sound system was over an hour late, but practice went pretty good with all things considered. It was impossible to hear anything in that room though. I was singing while praying that the right notes were coming out.

We just about to walk up to play and I was sharing something that I remember Francis Chan sharing. He was taking about worrying about ministry and he said something like…when you blame yourself when things go bad then you will give yourself the glory when things going well.

We started of the night with a song…it went way better then I expected. We were going to end the night with worship. When I walked on stage the power to the tuner pedal my acoustic guitar was plugged into was gone. I fiddled with some cables as one of the K-Life board members was sharing and I thought I got. Well it turns out that something one of the direct boxes shorted out and for the last four song all that could really be herd was the drums and our vocals. It was definitely one of the most unexpended messed up worship sets I think I have ever lead. But the crazy thing is that the Holy Spirit showed up in a way that it didn’t matter what we sounded like. We got to commune with the Creator of the Universe tonight. I wouldn’t trade the frustration of the evening for anything.

I font it amazing how relational Jesus was with the people that here around Him. I think this is a quality of our Saviour that is often over looked. I hear countless sermons on the the things Jesus said to do or not to do. (Now on the other side, as we look throughout history we see the pendulum of theological thought swing from super holy high Christiology to people treating Jesus like they would a human friend).

Jesus cared about people. He spent more time with people, building relationships, then he did demanding a level of righteousness. I am reading a book called Jesus Driven Ministry for the second time in the last two months. It is amazing. Here is an excerpt from the book on this thought..

“Jesus was born in a stable because there was no room in the inn. As a child he had to flee to Egypt as a refugee because it was not safe for him to live in his homeland. After his return he grew up in a somewhat obscure town from which many people did not expect “anything good” to emerge (John 1:46). Though he was Lord of creation, we are told that he was obedient to his parents (Luke 2:51). As a youth he peobable had to take on his father’s business and thus be deprived of higher education. This was considered a disqualification for him when he launched into his ministry (John 7:15). Yet all of these deprivations are very commen to a large segment of the world’s population.

He took on emotional pain the way all of us do. His parents did not understand him when as a boy he spent time in the Jerusalem temple talking to the leaders there (Luke 2:50). His family initially thought he was insane and did not believe him (Mark 3:21). Thought he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, he allowed himself to be so moved by the tears of Lazarus’s sister he himself wept (John 11:35). His closest friends did not understand the heart of his mission. One of these friends stole from their common purse (John 12:6) and later betrayed him. Another friend vehemently denied knowing him. On the night before his death, shortly after he had demonstrated servanthood by washing their feet of those friends, they argued among themselves who was the greatest (Luke 22:24). Then they forsook him and fed when he was arrested (Matthew 26:56). His opponents constantly accused him falsely, even attribution his acts of kindness to Beelzebul, the prince of demons (Matthew 12:24). Through their false accusations, the finally succeeded in getting him crucified” (Jesus Driven Ministry pg. 18-19)

Christianity is not about sinning less, but being utterly transformed. Even thought people constantly mocked Jesus he still was about showing love to those people.

I have an incredible opportunity today be a part of baptizing one of the students that I have been spending a good amount of time with lately. It is awesome to see God do something incredible something in someones life. Here are some pictures…

Check out Cameron Free’s blog at CameronFree.WordPress.com

For those of you who are not from Christ Fellowship or have not herd Love Is Hear on Z88.3…Tenth Avenue North is a band that you have to check out. These guys have been friends of mine for a number of years and they have a new album being released on May 20th 2008. I have listened to it and it is awesome.

Their album can be pre-ordered at Family Christian Stores or MusicChristian.com. When you pre-order the album you receive the MP3 for the songs “Love is Here” and an exclusive download for “Lovesick”. Help support an awesome group of guys who are traveling the country sharing the gospel. You can check them out at MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube.

Also they will be playing a CD Release show here in Orlando at Northland Church on May 19th. The show is FREE. So come on out!

Because of popular demand here is the Paul Brogan rap spoof that I made for Richard Gretsky’s Birthday.

Yesterday was one of the two major fund raisers that K-Life Orlando does each year. The golf tournament took place at the Ritz Carlton here in Orlando. It went incredible. Here are some pictures from the event.

Yesterday we had a lake party so a ton of high school students can meet their new youth pastor Matt Ainsley. Here are some pictures from the day. Click on the images to make them larger.

Sometimes as I am leading worship I tend to judge how a set went by the outward respond of the crowd. Sometimes a time of worship can be extremely awkward. Before last week the student ministries at WCC had never had worship though music in their Sunday morning services. As Matt and I were discussing adding worship to the program we realized that there was going to be a bit of a learning curve. Last week I walked up in front of the group of 40 or so students and began to play I looked into the crowd and it seemed like there was eighty eyeballs staring right back at me. This morning I broke a string on the first time and my guitar went all out of tune…and when it is just me and an acoustic guitar there is no hiding it.

I guess my thought is that how often do we judge a program based on the outward expressions of those in the crowd. It is in those time that I honestly, get discouraged sometimes when a service, in my opinion, is not the most successful. I was standing in line of Spiderman at Islands of Adventure with Frances Chan and he said something that blew my mind. He said something to the effect of If we worry when things do not go the way we planned, then when things go really well we will take the glory. It is my prayer that God breaks me and humbles me to a point that no matter how a program goes all the glory and honor will go to Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Yesterday I went over to Tampa to Idlewild Baptist Church (or my friends Daniel calls it…”Six Flags Over Jesus”) to go to the first night of Leadership Rocks. It was awesome to hang out with friends. I got to see Aaron and Bush as well as the rest of the guys from Spur58. Dr Jay brought the Word and there was a number of students who gave their lives to Christ. Here are some pictures I took from the evening. Oh…I want to mention the awesome ornament that Chad has on his pedalboard…

David has been going through Romans at Klub on Tuesdays. Tonight was the second part on a talk of righteousness. There are so many students with head knowledge of the Gospel. So many of them have grown up in the church and can give any Sunday school answer in the book. It has been incredible over the past few weeks to really see some of the apathy being broken down. To see students who are willing to live for Jesus Christ not because their parents or pastors have told them to but, because they have met their Creator. It is always a incredible pleasure to lead a time of worship. It is so awesome to join a group of people crying out to their Saviour.

Over 100 pounds of oatmeal, 2 kiddie pools, 2 water balloon slingshots, a couple hundred water balloons, and over 30 students makes for one awesome event

Cooking 75 pounds of dry oatmeal is one daunting task. I did get adventurous a bit and built two water balloon slingshots…

I don’t think that there is much arguing with the statement that John chapter 3 is probably the most quoted chapter of scripture…John 3:16…

I think it is incredible when it comes to the divine design of scripture how perfectly John 3:16 fits in the context of the a dialog between Jesus and Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee. I haven’t met a Christian that has not been able to quote John 3:16 but I think that there are many Christians that have no Idea about the context.

Jesus was not the most popular figure to the Pharisees, but there was something about Him that got the attention of Nicodemus. Nicodemus went in the night to see Jesus…he probably didn’t want any of the other Pharisees to see him with Jesus, yet there was something so compelling about Jesus, something that he could not stay away from. He had to meet Him face to face. Nicodemus was searching after truth. He asks Jesus questions about salvation and how he can be born again.

When someone encounters Jesus they do not leave the same…

I find it interesting that the first miracle that John records is the Jesus turning water into wine. There is no dead people raising from the dead, no heading, no preventing natural disasters. Jesus is at a wedding and there is no wine so His mother asks Him to do something about it.

I remember driving home with my friend Mike after we lead worship together at this First Priority event. He was just finishing a Shaklee detox diet that he had been on for a week and a half or two weeks. I remember him saying to me that after he had been eating very healthy and on a strict diet for that period of time he no longer craved the food that he been eating before the diet, but was craving apples and the things that he was eating on the diet… Sorry for my rhetoric…I know the English teachers out there would probably butcher the previous sentences…

I think that there is something about that wine that applies to us today. The more time that I spend with Jesus the more I want to spend more time with Him. Just as wine can be intoxicating, so should Jesus be intoxicating in our lives. The more wine one drinks the more intoxicated they become…the same is true with Jesus.

Please forgive me if I don’t have all the details of the following story correct. I hope all you C-Span addicts can forgive me…

In 2004 President Bush has holding a press conference. There was an AP reporter who asked the president a questions. After he asked the question the president paused and said something to the effect of “excuse me…” The AP reporter asked his question again and again the president responded the same. The president then said “do you know who you are talking to…?” the AP reporter asked his question again, but starting off by saying “Mr. President…” The office of the president, no matter who the president may be, is something to be respected and honored.

I think so often we forget who are are talking to when we approach God. I started reading through the Gospel of John…it has been a while since I have gone though John’s gospel. The gospel starts off with a genealogy of  Jesus that is different from those in the gospels of Matthew and Luke…it is a genealogy showing that Jesus Christ is the preexisting one. Throughout John’s gospel, he emphasizes that Jesus is the Son of God. God is the Creator of the universe and I am the so guilty of approaching His Throne without the reverence that he deserves…