Meet the Davisons

Marriage Matters!

2012-01-24T15:34:00.002-05:00

I recently had the honor of speaking at my church, The Church at The Ridge, as part of our Family Matters series. My pastor, Steve Whipple, asked me to teach on the marriage relationship as the foundational relationship of the family. You can listen to the message here. Let me know what you think!

Passion 2012 gets favorable media attention...

2012-01-06T17:54:00.001-05:00

A Tale of Two Kingdoms: Now online!

2011-08-01T15:15:00.003-04:00

I had the distinct honor of speaking to our church again yesterday morning. I am deeply grateful to my lead pastor, Steve Whipple, for making the investment in me and allowing me to develop as a teacher. The message is online here.

It's called a Tale of Two Kingdoms. It's a different take on the Tower of Babel as it sets within the context of the Big Picture. The Bible is One Story - the story of The Kingdom of God. But there is a counterfeit kingdom that opposes God's Kingdom and seeks to overthrow God's authority and forge a name for itself apart form God. Everyone of us, every day, is actively building one of these kingdoms or the other -- the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Self.

Check it out and give me your feedback!

Post Preaching Blues

2011-07-03T15:18:00.003-04:00

Recriminations. Second guessing. Self doubt.
"Did I say that right? Maybe I shouldn't have said that one thing. I forgot to say that other thing! Did I go too long?"
And so they come... the questions, the regrets, the feeling that you somehow failed to live up to the expectations. Everyone who has ever accepted the responsibility to preach knows what I mean. The second you step off the platform the voices start. It is, of course, the Enemy. He is a liar and the Father of Lies. The biggest lie the preacher believes is that it all depends on him. How well he communicated. How much research he did. How effective he was. How close to the allotted time he went.
The truth is that the Word is alive. It preaches itself if you let it. And here is the thing I miss so often: It continues to preach long after I stopped talking.
Today, I preached on Proverbs 3:5-6 -- trusting in God with your whole heart and not leaning o your own understanding. I was long. At least 45 minutes. Maybe longer. Immediately after I finished, the doubts and recriminations began. But this time I felt strangely at peace. It's a peace that had at its root the calm assurance that I had waited on God to tell me what to say. And I had been faithful to say it. Was it perfect? Hardly. But I was obedient. And when we obey, we trust God for the outcome.
So today, driving home from church, and all the voices started in questioning and second-guessing I felt the Spirit of God wash over me in a wave of peace and I heard this in my mind: "What happened, happened. It is what it is. Now let's see what God makes of it." Yes! That's it! "See what God makes of it." Because the Word doesn't stop working when the preacher stops talking. In fact, I believe that's when it just gets going.
Now... let's see what God makes of it.

"When You Pray, Pray This Way..." Jerry's message from this past Sunday

2011-03-14T12:59:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone!
This past Sunday I had the unbelievable privilege of sharing a message from Matthew 6:5-15 on Jesus' teaching on prayer. If you know Cheryl and me at all, you know this is a subject we are passionate about! The feedback was tremendous and it is so exciting to think that God is moving and working among our people to touch off a revival of prayer at The Ridge. The podcast is available here if you were unable to attend, or if you are one of our many out-of-state or out-of-country allies.
I also made a CD/MP3 guiding our people through how to have a daily prayer time based on the model that Jesus gave His disciples. You can download that here if you want to begin the discipline of daily prayer and need a jump start.
Please join us in praying for revival among God's people. It begins by us spending time with the Father and allowing our hearts to be "synced" with His.

American Idol, Girls

2011-03-03T17:16:00.002-05:00

Ok so they are doing things a little different this year but here is how I think it will shake out for the girls.

Kendra Chantelle - Where the junk did she come from? Zowie! What a voice.
Naima Adedapo - Very cool, old-school jazz singer vibe. My favorite right now.
Lauren Turner - The best of the Laurens. Didn't care for her song but she sang the heck out of it.
Lauren Alaina - Had her pegged for a finalist since her first audition. She's a powerhouse who makes it seem effortless. She has that Steel Magnolias beauty parlor flavor when she talks but her voice is amazing.
Pia Toscano - Props for covering the Pretenders when everyone else was doing their best diva impressions. She wasn't perfect but it was cool.
Rachel Zevita - This year's Siobhan Magnus. Weird. Quirky. Cool raspy edge to her voice but has that little hint of "I-could-go-pyscho-and-kill-you-all-at-any-moment" glimmer in her eyes. Scary but I think she'll be entertaining to watch.

What Comes into Your Mind When You Think About God? | New Demonstration

2011-03-03T11:38:00.001-05:00

Studying today in preparation for preaching March 13th on prayer. I was exploring the reasons most Christians do not pray, even though Jesus told His disciples that "at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart." (Luke 1:18, NASB)
I believe when it comes down to it we don't pray because we don't trust the heart of God. I came across this in my research. Great word from Tozer on how important our view of God is:

What Comes into Your Mind When You Think About God? | New Demonstration

Ouch.

2011-02-28T20:26:00.002-05:00

I am really feeling David today from Psalm 55. Ministry is tough!

12 If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.

13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,

14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.

---

16 As for me, I call to God,
and the Lord saves me.

17 Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.

18 He rescues me unharmed
from the battle waged against me,
even though many oppose me.

19 God, who is enthroned from of old,
who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.

20 My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.

21 His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.

22 Cast your cares on the Lord
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.

Psalm 55 excerpts from the NIV Bible.

Saluting our fantastic volunteers @ The Ridge!

2011-02-27T15:03:00.002-05:00

We showed this video at church this morning but there was a technical problem with the projector and it was so dark you could barely see the picture. So I uploaded it to YouTube so everyone could see it. We love our volunteers! You guys are awesome! Thanks to Matt Walker and my gorgeous wife, Cheryl, for helping me capture this stuff on video!

Tis the Season... to pick my American Idol Finalists! Part 1, The Guys

2011-02-25T16:49:00.005-05:00

OK, OK, I know you've all been waiting on the edge of your seat for this so here goes... My annual predictions for this year's American Idol Finalists. Last yea r I did pretty good (8 out of 12), but this year may be a little tougher. Even though there were some crazy good talented kids on the show, they eliminated most of them before they picked the 24 that America starts voting on next Tuesday. (In my opinion, they should have ditched Jovany and Stephano and let Jaycee and that other mohawk kid through.) However, there are a few that stand out so without further ado....

First, the guys:

1. Casey Abrams - This guy could be the single most talented contestant EVER on American Idol. If he made a CD today of just him singing and playing upright bass, I would buy it. I would buy multiple copies and give it to everyone I loved. He is amazing. Sure, he looks like a band nerd and acts like a middle-school class clown. But he sings and plays multiple instruments like a seasoned pro. I look for this guy to be a strong contender, but not a winner. He will suffer the Daughtry effect and be voted off far too early but will go on to have a career that will eclipse whatever cookie-cutter schmuck actually wins this year. You heard it here first, people.

2. Brett Loewenstern - This fuzzy hand-holding poster child for victims of school bullying has a sweet, cool, understated voice and really good sensibilities. Brett is one of the only surviving unique voices that usually tend to get weeded out in the early stages of the competition. I think I will get tired of his girly-man act before its all over but I look forward to may weeks of his quasi-jazz vocal stylings.

3. Robbie Rosen - Am I the only one who thinks this kid looks just like Aladdin in the Disney animated movie? No kiddin' it's like someone pulled Aladdin right out of the animated world into ours and made him try out for Idol. He and Julie Zorilla should dress like Aladdin and Jasmine and sing "A Whole New World" this year. Maybe they'll do Disney week... Anyways, this kid is not my musical favorite but he has the looks and the likeability to take him much farther than his actual talent deserves. I predict that after several weeks of bland, boring pop he will make it into the Top 5 before being eliminated... finally.

4. Paul McDonald - Someone must have invented a time machine and went back to 1979 and kidnapped Rupert Holmes right out of the studio after he recorded "The Pina Colada Song." Seriously, this guy looks and sounds like a clone of Kenny Loggins circa the late seventies. My family likes his voice but I think he's boring. Who will be right? Maybe if I'm wrong I can borrow his time machine and go back and change this blog.

5. Clint Gum Jamboa - It still chaps my hide that this weasel made it through but they cut my li'l buddy Jaycee! But there is no denying this guy can sing. He is actually one of the better singers in the whole competition. Unlike Jakob Lusk, he has some control and good instincts about jus where to do the runs and power notes, and where to hold off. It's called dynamics, Jakob. Watch and learn.

6. Jakob Lusk - I don't see what everyone sees in this guy but I fear America will vote him through. In his heart of hearts, Jakob wants to be Mahalia Jackson. But Randy Jackson and all the other contestants have so filled this guy's ego with "How Great Thou Art, Jakob" that there will be no stopping his annoying over-the-top gospel stylings. I predict he will stay way too long and become very, very tiresome in a very short time.

"But, Jerry," you say, "what about cowboy Scotty McCreery, dark horse Tim Halperin, and that rocker guy with Turrets?" Please keep in mind that this is what I think will happen, not what I necessarily want to happen. But I think while Scotty the Kid is definitely great at what he does, what he does will not be enough to make it to the Final 12. Tim is great and I hope he does make it, but I am seriously doubting it. Too forgettable. And James Durbin has a great backstory but be honest, aren't you already sick of his high-pitched caterwauling every single stinkin' song?! I know I am.

OK that's all I have time for right now. Later, the Top 12 girls. Stay tuned...

Confessions of a Former Scoff-aholic

2011-02-09T14:52:00.013-05:00

I fight authority, Authority always wins
Well, I fight authority, Authority always wins
Well, I've been doing it since I was a young kid
I come out grinnin'
Well, I fight authority, Authority always wins
-- John Mellencamp, The Authority Song

There's just something in us that likes to buck authority, isn't there? Maybe it's the American way. We are a country born out of rebellion to authority. Don't believe it? Ask the British. Maybe it's our fallen human nature. King David wrote that he was "was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:5) One pastor I heard said that whenever we are called to submit to authority, we all have a little attorney inside us named Adam who rises up and says, "I object!" Little Adam, attorney-at-law, always has a legal loophole why the rules don't apply to us.

Whatever it is, we don't like to be told what to do. We don't want to be held accountable to anyone. We don't like to be corrected when we're wrong. We want to go our own way, do our own thing, because we know better than anyone else. It's pride, is what it is. Nothing more.

Proverbs has a lot to say about pride, none of it good:

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (Prov. 11:2)
The LORD destroys the house of the proud, but he protects the property of widows. (Prov. 15:25)
The LORD despises pride; be assured that the proud will be punished. (Prov. 16:5

Of all the fools in Proverbs there is one that is singled out as the bucker of authority, the prideful know-it-all who cannot be taught or corrected because he is the center of the known universe and there is no room in it for dissenting opinions:

“Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride. (Prov. 21:24)

What is a "scoffer" exactly (your translation may say "scorner" or "mocker")? To scoff at or scorn something is to hold something in disdain or contempt. It's a sarcastic arrogance that looks down it's nose in superiority. It's an attitude of open disrespect and derision. The Hebrew word from the original manuscript literally means "to make mouths at," from the effort to pronounce a foreign language. (Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, H3887) It's like wisdom is a foreign language to the scoffer, and he can't handle it so he makes fun of it and looks down on it.

Probably the best way to get a picture of The Scoffer is to look at what the scriptures say about him:

He is unteachable. You can't tell him anything. He won't listen. There is always some reason it doesn't apply to him. He neatly sidesteps all attempts at wise counsel with a smug look and a snide remark.

"A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke." (Prov. 13:1)
"A scoffer seeks Wisdom in vain [for his very attitude blinds and deafens him to it], but knowledge is easy to him who [being teachable] understands." (Prov. 14:6, Amplified Bible)
"Strike a scoffer and the naive may become shrewd, but reprove one who has understanding and he will gain knowledge." (Prov. 19:25, see also 21:11)

Notice that if you discipline the Scoffer, he doesn't learn from it himself but only those who observe it. The wise man himself learns from his discipline.

Has a reputation for being an insufferable know-it-all.

"The proud and haughty man--Scoffer is his name--deals and acts with overbearing pride." (Prov. 21:24, Amplified Bible)

This is a shame because a bad reputation is as hard to get rid of as a good one is to earn. Prov. 22:1 says, "A good name is to be more desired than great wealth." "Scoffer" is not a good name!

He cannot stand to be corrected.

"Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise." (Prov. 15:12, NLT)

Notice how he will eventually withdraw and isolate himself from anyone who might speak some wisdom into his life. This is a major red flag that a Scoffer is on the rise.

He is rude and abusive to those in authority.

"He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you..." (Prov. 9:7-8a)

The scary thing about this verse is that it implies that since the Scoffer has placed himself out of reach of discipline from a wiser person, God Himself will handle his correction. That is a frightening thought!

He loves to stir up trouble. We all know this guy. He's the one who gets on Facebook and says something outrageously offensive and then wants to argue with everyone about it. This is the blogger so in love with his own opinion he cannot see the harmful effects of spewing his cynical, critical bile all over the internet.

"People who make fun of wisdom cause trouble in a city, but wise people calm anger down." (Prov. 29:8)
"Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out, even strife and dishonor will cease." (Prov. 22:10)

Nobody likes him or wants to be around him.

"... the scoffer is an abomination to men." (Prov. 24:9)

Sounds harsh, I know, but scripture don't lie. The word "abomination" in the original text means "detestable, an object of loathing." This verse is saying that an arrogant cynic who thinks he knows everything doesn't get invited to many parties. But he gets talked about at all of them.

So there it is straight from the pages of scripture. The portrait of The Scoffer. Do you know one? Did somebody's name just leap to your mind as you read this and you immediately thought, "Oh yeah, I know that guy! That's ________!" (You fill in the blank with whoever)

But here is the million dollar question that I believe God would have us ask: Did anyone think of you when they read this description? Was it your name and your face that popped into their minds? Gulp. Yeah, hard to swallow. I know, because I am a recovering scoffer myself.

I plowed my way through most of mu college and young adult years as a raging scoffer. So full of myself. So in love with my own opinion on everything from music to movies to religion to politics. I was God's gift to everyone around me. A legend in my own mind. If I could time travel I would go back in time and slap myself silly. But as we read in Proverbs, smiting a scoffer won't work. We're unteachable. God has to smack us down. And smack me down He has. Time and again. What happened?

Well for one thing, marriage. God brought an amazing, beautiful, intelligent and endlessly patient woman into my life who has loved me in spite of my scoffish ways for nearly 24 years now. She has opened my eyes to how smug and prideful and arrogant I was and has drawn me deeper into a humble, loving relationship.

Kids were another thing that reformed me. Nothing like being responsible for the life of other human beings to pull your head out of your fanny and snap you into mature adulthood. Through raising three awesome and brilliant kids, God has purged much of the scoffer from me and replaced it with a kinder, gentler, imminently more teachable soul.

But lastly it has been the relentless love of Jesus that has transformed me. He simply will not leave me alone. And I love Him for that! It really is true that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."(Prov. 9:10) Not fear as in terror or dread, but as in awe and respect for who He is and what He has done for me. And what He continues to do in me with every passing day.

There is such a thing as a healthy fear, a good fear. I am not afraid of electricity but I have a healthy respect for what it could do if I approach it too carelessly or regard it too lightly. In a similar way, I think we have lost a fear of God that is healthy and good. We approach Him lightly and glibly, altogether too familiar in the worst way. Yes, He is our Friend, and Savior, and He loves us tenderly and desires intimacy with us. But He is also holy. And awesome. And He is the Lord of Hosts, the God of Angel Armies that would make Chuck Norris pee his pants.

It's that fear, that perspective of who God really is that gives me the right perspective on who I really am in light of Him. And that just blows the Scoffer in me away like so much dust. I pray that God continues to transform me from a Scoffer to a humble, wise husband, father, and pastor. But in order for that to happen, I have to submit to His authority. And that includes the wise and mature spiritual leaders he has placed in my life.

Are you a Scoffer? Let me encourage you to do this: Ask those who know you best. And listen, really listen, to what they have to say. Then ask God to take away the prideful heart and replace it with a heart that is open and teachable. Humble yourself, the scriptures say. Because if you refuse, then God will do it for you. And that is nothing to ... well... scoff at.

Sanctity of Marriage: Why aren't we picketing divorce lawyers, too?

2011-02-08T09:34:00.006-05:00

“I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” (Malachi 2:16, The Message)

Why don't Christians picket divorce lawyers the way we picket abortion doctors? Why aren't we outraged over the "violent dismembering of the one flesh"? Is it because we don't see marriage the way God sees it?
From God's perspective, divorce is to the sanctity of holy matrimony as abortion is to the sanctity of life. It's the horrific, violent destruction of something holy and full of divine purpose. It is the murder of something intended to bear the image of God and is therefore sacred.

Of course, I am speaking of those who would divorce their spouse because they "fell out of love," or "married the wrong person." I want to make the careful distinction between those who are victims of divorce -- who have had it thrust upon them by their spouse unwanted, unwarranted, and unwillingly -- as opposed to those who seek an escape because they are too lazy or selfish to work at their marriage, to push through the tough times and honor their vows of "for better or for worse, richer or poorer, sickness and health." Just as the overwhelming majority of abortions are performed for shallow, self-serving reasons that completely ignore the sanctity and sacredness of the life that is being destroyed, so the overwhelming majority of divorces are for the sake of selfishness and convenience.

The sad truth of the scripture is that every time it teaches about divorce it is addressing those who supposedly know God and have a relationship with Him. The Church is just as guilty as the rest of the fallen, unregenerate world when it comes to taking marriage lightly. Consider Jesus' words to the Pharisees in Matthew 18:

One day the Pharisees were badgering him: “Is it legal for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
He answered, “Haven’t you read in your Bible that the Creator originally made man and woman for each other, male and female? And because of this, a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded to his wife, becoming one flesh—no longer two bodies but one. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart.”
They shot back in rebuttal, “If that’s so, why did Moses give instructions for divorce papers and divorce procedures?”
Jesus said, “Moses provided for divorce as a concession to your hardheartedness, but it is not part of God’s original plan. I’m holding you to the original plan, and holding you liable for adultery if you divorce your faithful wife and then marry someone else. I make an exception in cases where the spouse has committed adultery.”
Jesus’ disciples objected, “If those are the terms of marriage, we’re stuck. Why get married?”
But Jesus said, “Not everyone is mature enough to live a married life. It requires a certain aptitude and grace. Marriage isn’t for everyone. Some, from birth seemingly, never give marriage a thought. Others never get asked—or accepted. And some decide not to get married for kingdom reasons. But if you’re capable of growing into the largeness of marriage, do it.”(The Message)

God hates divorce, not those those who are victims of divorce, precisely because He loves marriage so much. When will we learn to see marriage the way He sees it, and regard it as sacred and worth protecting. When will we become as outraged over attacks on marriage as we are over the destruction of the unborn? Am I overstating my case, or have we undervalued the divine design for one flesh?

Great quote...

2011-01-25T10:59:00.001-05:00

Heard this in staff meeting today:

Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their life-styles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot."

Gordon Dahl
Work, Play, and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented Society

Ouch. Truth hurts, don't it?

Salt Ain't No Use in the Shaker!

2011-01-18T15:24:00.006-05:00

This past weekend our lead pastor Steve Whipple was preaching on Matthew 5:13:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." (NASB)

He talking about all the properties of salt and why Jesus would use it to describe what His people should be like. He talked about salt having a distinct flavor, that it created a thirst in people, it prevented the spread of corruption, and that it was also used as a fertilizer to promote growth. As I listened, a thought occurred to me about salt: It doesn't do a thing if it stays in the shaker!

For salt to do any of these things it has to leave the shelter of the shaker and go down into the thing it's effecting. It must come into contact with food to flavor it. It must come into contact with the meat if it is to preserve it and prevent it from rotting. It must be worked down into the soil for it to help promote growth. It cannot stay in the shaker if it is to be of any use at all.

Imagine someone asking you to pass the salt at the dinner table. You reach over and pass it to them. They take it and set the shaker down next to their plate. "No, no," you tell them. "You have to put it on your food." They pick up the shaker and set it on the food. "No, you have to actually turn it upside down and shake it until the salt comes out!"

Sounds silly but we do it all the time. Jesus called His followers "the salt of the earth," the flavor-enhancing, thirst-creating, corruption-preventing, growth-promoting agents of this world. How often do we mistake the presence of the shaker for the participation of the salt? If the shaker is the church building where we gather and become salty, then we will never be what God intends us to be unless we allow Him to turn our churches upside down and shake them until we are willing to go out into the world and actually be the salt of the earth.

Can you imagine salt refusing to come out of the shaker, no matter how you shake it? What would you do with that salt? Jesus said, "It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." (Matt. 5:13b, NASB) What is God doing to turn us upside down? What has He dome to shake us out? Is there some area of your life that He is challenging you to let go of? Is there some program or tradition or way of doing things that we are reluctant to change because that's how it's always been dome? Is there a need in your community that God has revealed to you, but it's outside of your comfort zone?

One word of warning about coming out of the shaker: You will not always be welcomed warmly. Another property of salt is that it stings and irritates when it comes into contact with a wound. Like the old song says:

"We sting like salt in the wounds of a wounded world." (Wounded World, Jacob's Trouble)

Sometimes our saltiness will irritate and anger the wounded areas of a fallen world. We will inevitable be called upon to stop the spread of corruption in areas where sin and wickedness have become so accepted and even embraced that our presence will not be welcomed. We will be opposed. That's where one last important thought about salt comes into play.

Salt always works in group. When you apply salt do you ever use a single grain alone? Now, make no mistake, a single grain of salt possesses all the flavor and properties customary to salt. But it was not intended to work alone. Similarly, the New Testament knows nothing of a Christianity lived out in a vacuum. Jesus followers were created to live, work, play, and worship in communities. Jesus said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, NASB) It's hard to love one another if you are all by yourself.

father, shake me. Turn my world upside down. Show me where I am needed. Use my life, my marriage, my family, my church to create in others a thirst for Jesus. use us to take a stand against the spread of corruption, even if it stings and irritates. Leverage us to help people come to know you more and grow more deeply in their relationship with You! In the precious and powerful name of Jesus, Amen!

Can't Entertainment Just.... Entertain?

2011-01-12T16:53:00.001-05:00

This is a great question! It has a lot of bearing on our lives as we try to navigate and engage the culture we find ourselves in as Jesus followers. This came up in a conversation elsewhere on Facebook but the original post was deleted so I wanted to repost it here.

Someone asked the question, "Can't entertainment just be entertainment? can't Harry Potter just be a wizard and fly around on a broomstick? Does everything have to have a message?" He then went on to say that C.S. Lewis would call that nonsense or something like that (the original post was deleted so I can't quote it exactly).

CS Lewis most definitely would not say that about stories communicating messages whether we want them to or not. Not only Lewis, but such great Christian authors and thinkers as George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkein, Dorothy Sayer, and Madeleine L'Engle all believed there was a powerful connection between Story and the communication of Truth.

Understand that I am not not only talking about artists, authors, composers, and filmmakers who intentionally try to communicate theology. EVERY work of art communicates some worldview, even if the creator of that piece doesn't realize it. The best filmmakers know that, it's one of the reasons they get into filmmaking. They know they have a shot at shaping what people believe, at shaping our culture, our values, our THEOLOGY. But it doesn't require the creator's conscious participation. It happens because it is impossible for it NOT to happen.

Hollywood screenwriting teacher Robert McKee says, "Stories are equipment for living. We go to the movies because we hope to find in someone else's story something that will help us understand our own. We go to live in a fictional reality that illuminates our daily reality." (Quoted in Epic by John Eldredge).

That is the work that art does. That's why it's awesome. If you want to know what any given culture belives about God, about life, about itself, look at the art that culture produces.

A few examples, if you will indulge me, of some popular films and the message they communicate...

* Slumdog Millionaire: Everything happens for a reason. Love is stronger than anything.
* Avatar: All is God and God is all. (Pantheism, by the way, not fiction but an actual religion) Jack into the life force with your magic ponytail and get connected to the universe. To be fair, it also has some good things to say about engaging other cultures and accepting people's differences.
* Twilight: Romantic love is to be exalted above all else, even at the cost of your own soul. (Sorry, I calls 'em like I sees 'em.)

NOW... Having said that let me point out that I do not believe that just because you watch a movie you are buying into what it is selling. I don't think you are all zombies blindly accepting and acting out whatever a movie or story tells you. I confess, I like to listen to the occasional KISS tune but I don't really want to "rock and roll all night and party every day." But I would be foolish not to be aware that they are encouraging other people to do exactly that, to abandon their moral compass, to indulge in hedonistic behavior, and lose a lot of sleep. We cannot afford to be naive about this. We must practice discernment actively and diligently. As Proverbs says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."

Listen, I'm not trying to be a party pooper here. I love entertainment as much as the next guy. But it is naive and foolish to simply open your mind to whatever a film or book or story in whatever medium is dishing out. That's what makes story-telling so significant and powerful. That is why film has risen to be arguably the single most powerful way to communicate truth -- as well as deception. Why do you think Jesus told parables that were fictional? Because He knew it would connect on a deeper level and have more of an impact than mere doctrinal statements. Our Enemy knows this too and we would do well to remember that.

Advent Expectations

2010-12-23T10:48:00.003-05:00

I grew up in a suburban Southern Baptist home where we celebrated Christmas like most other evangelicals; you indulged in all the craziness of shopping and tinsel and Santa, but you went to church on Christmas Eve and reminded yourself that this was really all about Jesus. We never observed Advent. I didn't even know what it was until I was grown up. This is the first year that my family and I took the time to observe Advent. At the prompting of our lead pastor, Steve Whipple, We bought an amazing book by a Messianic Jewish writer Arnold Ytreeide called Jotham's Journey. It is an exciting and well-written adventure of a small boy who becomes separated from his family and winds up in Bethlehem the night of Jesus' birth. It has been a wonderful experience and I highly recommend Ytreeide's books.

Advent is all about expectation. It's the preparing oneself for the arrival of Jesus. When Jesus shows up, everything changes! It's not only about the arrival of Jesus' birth, but for Christians, it's also the looking forward to His second coming. But there is another aspect of advent I discovered.

While looking for music for our Christmas Eve services at Church at the Ridge, I discovered an Advent hymn by Charles Wesley, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus." The version I heard was by the musicians at Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, AL. I was captivated by the beautiful melody and the hopeful, longing spirit of the song. Needless to say you will be hearing it this Friday night!

My thought was this: We expect too little of Christmas, because if we're being honest we expect too little of Christ. Deliverer? Redeemer? Shepherd? Savior? Healer? We sing these things but we don't really expect Him to come through for us. Christmas Eve we will see our largest crowd of the year at Church at the Ridge. I can't help but think there will be people, some of them our regular folks, who will sit and sing and go through the motions but not really expect "God with us." They long for Him, without even realizing that it's Him they long for. Their heart cries, "Come, Thous long-expected Jesus! I've been waiting for you all my life!" My prayer is that they will experience the presence of God made flesh this Christmas Eve.

Read the words to this hymn and make them your prayer this Advent season. I ask our people to pray these words over our service on Christmas Eve.:

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear Desire of ev'ry nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Joy to those who long to see Thee
Day spring from on high appear
Come, Thou promised rod of Jesse,
Of Thy birth we long to hear
O’er the hills the angels singing news,
Glad tidings of a birth,
“Go to Him, your praises bringing;
Christ the Lord has come to earth.”

Come to earth to taste our sadness
He whose glories knew no end;
By His life He brings us gladness,
Our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.
Leaving riches without number,
Born within a cattle stall;
This the everlasting wonder,
Christ was born the Lord of all.

Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child, and yet a King,
Born to reign in us for ever,
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all-sufficient merit
Raise us to thy glorious throne.

Words by Charles Wesley, additional verses by Mark Hunt
Music by Rowland Pritchard

Staying Married on Purpose Alumni writes

2010-12-20T22:37:00.002-05:00

Got this encouraging letter from a couple who took our marriage class in Vegas and wanted to share it. Not because we think we are all that, but because it shows that when you obey God and just speak His truth into peoples' lives, He does great things... and you get to be in on it! Also, we want to challenge those who have taken the class to pass on what you learn there. It may be the very reason God had you there!

Hey guys. Hope all is well with you and your family. Wanted to drop you a note to tell a short story & to let you know I thank the Lord for you two everyday. This is how great our God is...I'd been talking with an old dear friend of mine since junior high who now lives in Philadelphia. Well...she'd been having problems in her marriage. It isn't her first time marrying but I could tell by the sound of her voice that things were going south with the relationship. Just like the 1st time. I felt so terrible. Apparently she caught her husband cheating and as in her previous marriage she was ready to call it quits right away. She was devasted. She said her husband & her had been separated for almost a year but they both knew they really wanted to make things work but didn't even know how or where to start. She finds it hard to trust her partner when it's comes to adultery. I reached out to her. Sent her one of our copies of "the Love Dare" that we won at your cool Fireproof movie viewing @ HOPE. I told her about how we went through the Fireproof Your Marriage series and took your SMOP class at HOPE. I went into a little bit of what Josh & I learned (yep, we kept all our notes) and told her that if they start looking at marriage in a biblical perspective, things will surely change for the better. I just planted the seed and we left it at that. This was all sometime this last summer. She e-mailed me with the greatest news yesterday morning. She & her husband are back together & working things out. They did the Fireproof Your Marriage series & are going to classes at there local church in Philadelphia. I cried tears of joy because way back when..I would've did the normal(worldly) thing and told her to dump him & move on. Instead I shared the tools that were given to me, with her & with God's grace...Wah-lah!! I am so so so happy for them. I'm not too familiar with her husband but says he deeply appreciates the suggestion made to them. They thanked me & so now I'm thanking you. WOW...what a great feeling it is & we are so greatful for you two. God had put ya'll in our lives when we needed the guidance the most and since then there has been an overflow of blessings in our marriage & in relationships around us. 10 years ago I woulda never thought our marriage could be such a great example to others. This is all because of the HIS light that you pointed us to. Jerry & Cheryl, God is definitely working through ya'll. He picked the perfect couple for the marriage ministry. You're work has helped & is in the process of helping people you dont even know. Isn't that awesome?? Thank you Thank you Thank you....God Bless guys! YOU ROCK!! Merry Christmas & Happy New year to you and yours! We send our love..............- Lore

Thanks Josh and Lori for sharing your story!

Undercover Ross

2010-12-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

We had a blast doing this spoof on the CBS show Undercover Boss. This is Undercover Ross, where we sent one of our workers in our children's ministry at church to see where we could improve our environments. Check it out!

A Social Network Christmas

2010-12-16T16:14:00.002-05:00

Found this very clever mini movie from Igniter Media. What if the greatest story ever told took place in the age of Facebook?

In Sync with God

2010-12-08T10:27:00.004-05:00

The other morning, I had the rare opportunity to drive my 15-year-old daughter, Whitney, to school. It was great to be able to spend a little time with her one on one without distractions or interruptions, just to find out what was going on in her life.

I knew she had been doing the student version of Experiencing God in her youth Bible study at church. So i asked her what she thought God was saying to her. I expected her to kind of think for a bit but to my surprise she answered right away: "I think God wants me to trust Him and not get stressed out so much in my life." Wow, I thought, my little girl is all growed up and hearing from God!

We talked for a while about what causes stress and I gave her my theory about why we stress out. I think I covered it here in an earlier post but the Cliff Notes version is basically this: We wake up every day with a set of expectations for the day -- things we expect to accomplish, the way we expect our day to go, how we expect things to work, etc. Stress happens when our day doesn't happen the way we expected. There is a tension between what we expect and what God actually gives us and that tension is called stress.

The way to avoid it, I told Whitney, would be to wake up and the very first thing you do would be to take all your expectations for the day and hand them over to God in prayer. Phillipians 4:6-7 says, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." NLT

We began to talk about prayer, about what it is and what it is not. So many people treat prayer like it's a way to get what they want from God. They see it as a way to get God on their agenda, to meet their expectations. Rather, I told her, prayer is how we get on God's agenda, how we catch His heart and make it ours. It's how we sync our lives to God, I said. And that's when it hit me.

Suddenly in my mind's eye, I saw an iPod attached to a computer by that little cable. "Whitney," I said, "think about syncing your iPod to the computer. Let's say the computer represents God and the iPod is you. You want everything on the computer's library to be on your iPod, until it mirrors exactly what is stored on the computer. Now that little cable that connects the iPod to the computer is prayer. It is through that connection that you will be synced to God, He will download Himself into you, until you mirror Him exactly. Then as you go through your day, you are taking everything God is around inside you."

I don't know which one of us got more out of that illustration but she seemed to like it. Since that morning, though, that image of syncing my life to God's heart through prayer has been stuck in my head. Have you "synced" yourself to God today?

Mary Margaret: Story teller for a new generation

2010-12-07T20:08:00.000-05:00

This kid is an amazing story teller. Check her out...

What's in your hand?

2010-12-07T09:21:00.003-05:00

"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it ." - Prov. 3:27, KJV

This past week our lead pastor, Steve Whipple, was preaching on Giving Like God from John 3:16. Near the end he asked this question: What is in your hand? In light of this scripture from Proverbs, that is a very good question.

What do I hold in my hand that someone around me needs? Has God brought someone across my radar with a need that it is in my power to meet? Am I withholding some good from someone to whom it is due?

As I thought and prayed on this over the weekend one word kept coming to my mind: encouragement. Think about it. What is one thing everyone needs and everyone can give? Encouragement! It's something all of us can afford to be generous with and none of us can afford to live without. But how often do we withhold it from each other!

The word encourage literally means "to put courage into another person." We all face challenges every day. Even Jesus said that each day held enough trouble of its own (Matt. 6:34). His answer was that we should continuously set our eyes on God and the kingdom He was establishing, and the righteous life that would be the defining characteristic of that kingdom. But that takes courage.

Encouragement is so vital because it is much rarer than dis-couragement. Interesting thing about the prefix dis-: it is from the same Latin root that means twice or to divide. It literally indicates a separating or parting from something. So when we say we are discouraged, we are saying that we have been separated from our courage. It has been taken from us. So when the challenges come, when the trouble of the day rears its ugly head and threatens to overwhelm us, we have no courage left to deal with it. So we retreat, withdraw, hide, or, more often than not, simply do nothing and let life just happen to us. We take no part in it. We become disenchanted, disheartened, and disengaged. In short, we are a dis-couraged people.

Why? Because we refuse to see the significance of en-couraging each other, of putting courage back into someone who has been separated from theirs. Hebrews 10:23-24 says, "... let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (emphasis mine)." It's not optional. You can't say, "I'm just not that kind of person." Are you a human? Are you a Jesus Follower? Then you are that kind of person!

It's true that for some it comes easily. Some have a gift of encouragement. But everyone everywhere who names the name of Jesus is required to encourage. Especially, the writer of Hebrews says, as the Day of His return draws nearer and nearer. Paul writes to the Thessalonian church about the return of Christ and then commands them to "encourage one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:18, ESV)

Hope gives us courage. Paul told the Corinthian believers, "Since we have such a hope, we are very bold." (2 Corinthinas 3:12, ESV) Paul was encouraged to speak plainly and openly and fearlessly about Jesus because he constantly reminded himself that Jesus was returning. And with His return would come a new heaven and a new earth. Death, Hell, Sin, and Satan would be no more. Now that's encouraging, isn't it?

So my wife and I have decided that as often as we can, we will be lavishly generous with our encouragement. We want to leverage whatever influence God has given us to put the courage to follow Jesus into everyone God brings into our path. What does that look like? Here are just a few practical ways we have thought of:

Use your Facebook to encourage. Put up a scripture that comforts or encourages. Send someone an encouraging message. Write on their wall what their friendship means to you. Brag on them on your wall.

Spend time with someone who needs encouragement. Take them to lunch. Invite them for coffee. Have them over for dinner. Invest your self into someone else personally.

Write them an encouraging note or card. end them an email just to tell them how much you appreciate them, especially if they sacrifice their time and energy serving in kingdom work. This is not just pastors or church staff (but God knows they desperately need encouragement!), but for volunteers and lay leaders as well.

Meet a real need for them. Lavishly and generously. One woman in our church is spending the holidays alone with three children while her husband serves our country in Iraq. It has been awesome to watch members of our church deliver firewood, offer to babysit, invite her family over for lunch, and just serve her in the name of Jesus. Nobody told them to. The love of God compelled them to. It is not only an encouragement to her, but to the rest of the church as we witness the love of Jesus in action, right in our midst!

So... what's in your hand? Who needs it desperately? Will you withhold it? Or will you allow God to love them through you, so that everyone around you can see Who He is and how He loves?

New message from Jerry

2010-11-22T14:37:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone!
This past Sunday I had the honor of teaching our people on thankfulness from Psalm 100. You can check it out here. The message is called "Thank You!" from Nov. 21, 2010. I went long... AGAIN, but overall the feedback has been very positive. Give it a listen and feel free to comment. Have a Happy Thanksgiving from the Davison Family!

Ouch. Modern church planting made simple...

2010-10-30T12:44:00.003-04:00

A buddy of mine posted this on his blog. If you are a church planter it will either be hilarious to you or it will make you want to crawl under a rock. More than a little sarcastic about the formulaic approach to many hip, "relevant" church plants. Enjoy (or cringe)!

Way to go, Ridgers! Pumpkin Patch 2010 update video

2010-10-22T17:32:00.008-04:00

I am so proud of our Ridgers! The Pumpkin Patch has been an overwhelming success on so many levels. First, our people are pulling together to raise money to build clean water wells for the impoverished people of Burkina Faso, Africa. Secondly, they are reaching out into the community to meet and invite people to come check out what God is up to at Church at the Ridge. But also, I have personally seen the nods of love and fellowship grow as our people work, laugh, play, and pray together at the Patch.

One other really cool aspect of the Patch is the uniqueness of the opportunity we have. It's no accident that God led us to sell pumpkins this year. October 2010 is the first time in 823 years that there have been five full weekends (Friday, Saturday, & Sunday) thus maximizing the potential sales! How cool is that?!

This video is just a brief update on how the Pumpkin Patch is impacting lives both here in Paulding County and around the world.

We gots ourselves a Punkin Patch!

2010-10-08T13:08:00.002-04:00

Our church, Church at The Ridge in HIram, GA is doing a Pumpkin Patch to raise money for missions efforts in Burkina Faso, Africa. The money will all go toward digging fresh water wells and purchasing mosquito netting to help prevent malaria. We are at the corner of Ridge Rd. and Dallas Nebo/Baker's Bridge Rd, at the Kroger parking lot. Check out the video below , then come see us! Buy a pumpkin and build a well!

A Couple that is in sync!

2010-09-21T12:03:00.002-04:00

I found this video clip on a friend's Facebook page. Not only is it fun to watch, it's a great visual illustration for unity in a marriage. Scripture says that in marriage "they are no longer two, but are one flesh." (Matt. 19:6) The couple in this video are perfectly in sync in every movement and in every moment. Imagine if married couples who claim to follow Jesus would demonstrate this kind of unity in every movement and moment of our lives! Enjoy the video!

Jacob's Trouble iMix on iTUnes

2010-09-12T00:24:00.002-04:00

I created this little beginner's guide to Jacob's Trouble. Call it a primer for the uninitiated, if you will. A sort of JT 101. Enjoy!

a Radical thought....

2010-08-17T10:33:00.003-04:00

Read this last night in David Platt's book, Radical:

"I am frightened by the reality that the church I lead can carry on most of our activities smoothly, efficiently, even successfully, never realizing that the Holy Spirit of God is virtually absent from the picture."

Have we programmed God right out of our churches? Have we effectively silenced His voice by our efficiency? He goes on to say:

"The church I lead could have the least gifted people, the least talented people, the fewest leaders, and the least money, and this church under the power of the Holy Spirit could still shake the nations for His Glory."

I haven't heard that in many of the church growth conferences I've attended! It's all about strategies and methods and buy my book. I fear we are so busy imitating each other that we have forgotten to imitate Christ.

Just a thought...

The Legend of Jimmy the Cat

2010-07-13T10:46:00.001-04:00

     A few weeks ago I bought a riding lawn mower from a guy off of Craigslist. We had recently moved into a house on 1.5 acres and a push mower just wasn't going to cut it... literally. My oldest son, Erik, and I went to meet the guy and look at the mower. It turned out that he and his wife were fellow Jesus followers and knew Johnny Hunt, our former pastor and mentor from First Baptist Woodstock. We hit it off immediately.
     He was former military and had just taken a job in Huntsville, AL. They would be moving at the end of the next week and they were getting ready for a big yard sale. His wife was a sweet, little Romanian lady with a heavy accent. She was scurrying all over the house getting ready to move. She was trying to sell us everything in the house!
     At one point she asks Erik if we would want a free cat. He tells her that he has always wanted a cat but that both he and his little brother are both allergic to cats so we have never been able to have one. She explains that these are outdoor cats; they have never been inside the house and that all we would have to do is put some food out and they would be fine. They are good mousers, she says, and that catches Erik's ear. We had been having a little trouble with mice getting in from the field behind our house.
     So Erik asks me what I thought. I tell him maybe but I would have to talk it over with mom. I have brought animals home without consulting my wife once before. Only once. And it will never happen again.
     So I buy the lawn mower and the man is nice enough to put it on his trailer and bring it back to our house. We shake hands and say goodbye. I ask Cheryl about the cat and she says let her think about it. We already have a dog, a bird, and a guinea pig. But the idea of an outdoor cat who will catch mice is appealing. The kids are all excited. We might get a cat! Especially my animal loving daughter, Whitney. They ask us everyday, Are we going to get the cat from those people?
     A few days later the phone rings. It's the little Romanian lady. "Won't you please take one of our cats? You know the Bible says in Proverbs that a righteous man cares even for the animals." Oh no she didn't! Did she just play the Bible card? Anyway, she's crying and telling us that the cats belonged to her neighbor who was a good friend and that she died and so she adopted them and it would break her heart if she couldn't find a good home for them.
     Needless to say, we took the cat. We arranged to come pick him up on my lunch break one day. So Cheryl and I drive out to her house with the little kennel that we use to crate our dog. That's what we planned to use to transport the cat to hi new location. When we arrive, she introduces us to Jimmy, a pretty orange and white striped cat. He is obviously agitated. He knows something is up. He's pacing around the kitchen, wide-eyed.
     Meg, the little Romanian lady, explains that Jimmy has never been in the house so he's a little freaked out. Oh, great, I thought, just wait until we try to cram him in the crate! Suddenly Jimmy walks over to the sliding glass door, leaps about eight feet in the air and claws the door all the way down! Yikes. Meg is talking sweetly to Jimmy, trying to calm him down. She walks over and picks him up and brings him to the crate. I open the door. It takes a few tries to get Jimmy and all his splaying limbs inside the crate. Once we do, Jimmy is not happy.
     In fact, Jimmy goes insane! He's howling and yowling and clawing and scratching and rolling over and over. It's all I can do to hold on to the thing. Meg is crying, "It's okay, Jimmy. Mommy loves you. It's all right..." Jimmy ain't havin' it. Jimmy is in full freak mode.
     Finally we get him in the car and Meg says a tearful goodbye along with some last minute instructions. She gives us some of Jimmy's favorite food, his dish. Some things to help make the transition go smoother. "I'll call in a couple of days to see how he is doing,"she says. We assure her Jimmy will be well taken care of. We'll take pictures and email them to you, we tell her.
     On the ride home, Jimmy calms down. He goes still and quiet. He even lets us scratch behind his ears. He's very friendly, just scared. We talk about how we are going to bring Jimmy onto our back screened in porch to assimilate him. The plan is to feed him and pet him and talk to him to give him the idea that this is home. We talk about how much Jimmy will love it at our house. It will cat heaven! Our kids will love him, he will have the run of the place. We laugh about how our dog will probably be afraid of him. Meanwhile, Jimmy is in the crate in the back, completely calm. Was that a purr?
     When we arrive with Jimmy, it's like a scene from a Disney movie. The kids all pour out of the house and run to greet Jimmy. They are so excited. We finally get to have a cat! But when we go to get Jimmy out of the car, he starts in with the freak-out again. He's howling and yowling and kicking with his back legs as hard as he can. I struggle to hold on as we slowly walk Jimmy around the back of the house to the porch, where he will be fed and loved and assured...
     I am almost to the steps of the porch when suddenly Jimmy, in a last ditch, super-feline feat of strength, kicks the entire cage door completely off it's hinges. In the half a second it took me to realize what was happening, an orange and white blur shot out of the cage door, paused at the corner of the house to give us a look of contempt -- as if to say, "So long, suckers!"-- and disappeared. Forever. And we've never seen him since.
     My head was spinning. What just happened? The kids were upset; our youngest was in tears. Disappointment hung like a fog over our backyard in that moment. Shock and disbelief gave way to anger. First at Jimmy -- How dare you! Do you know what I had planned for you? Do you realize how good you were going to have it? And you dare reject it? Reject ME?! But then I found myself angry with God. We had even prayed before our final decision to adopt the cat and felt like we had been given a green light. God, why would you do let that happen? We were just trying to do something nice for someone! Did we hear wrong? What was that all about?
     I wish I could say that I handled it well in front of our kids. I was standing there still holding that stupid cage, the door laying in the grass at my feet. "Well, that's just great!" I spat. I dropped the cage, disgusted. "He's dead! You know that, don't you? He's dead! He'll be hit by a car, eaten by wild animals. He'll starve!" My wife is looking at me in horror trying to cover our youngest sons ears from hearing all this. It was not my finest moment. And my lunch break was over. I had just spent it all on that ungrateful cat. My family piled in the van to try to find Jimmy, while I went back to the office -- angry, dejected, humiliated -- and tried to be a pastor.
     All day I felt horrible. I began to feel sad and defeated. I felt responsible for Jimmy. I kept hearing that sweet little Romanian lady's voice in my head, "I'll call in a few days to see how Jimmy is doing." For two weeks we wouldn't answer the phone for fear it was her! The phone would ring and the kids would yell, "Don't answer it! It's the cat lady!" I didn't know why it effected me so badly. I came home from work that evening. No Jimmy. Over the next few days, whenever we went outside, we would call out, "Jimmy! JIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!" Nothing. Jimmy was not coming back.
     That evening I was out in the back yard with my oldest son, Erik. We were just kind of standing there, on the spot where it all happened. I was no longer angry, just kinda sad. While we were talking it over, it seemed like God answered my question, Why did You let this happen? It just came spilling out over my lips as we talked. "It's like when God has something great planned for us, somewhere He wants to take us that is better than anything we ever imagined," I said, "but because the transition from the place we are now to the place He wants us to be can be scary, we panic and bolt, like Jimmy. And we miss out on all the good things He has." The lights were coming on for me, even as I was speaking. "What is worse, we take ourselves out from under His provision and protection and refuse to come under it. Then we are on our own in a dangerous and hostile world."
     Romans 8:28-29 sprang to the forefront of my mind:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son...

My mind immediately went back to something Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, TX, had said at a pastors' conference I recently attended. He was speaking to a room full of church planters and pastors, and he made this statement:

"Suffering is coming for your people. It just is. You can't protect them from it but you can prepare them for it."

That statement had really burned into my heart. I thought of all the families in our church and the things they were going through -- broken marriages, strained relationships with kids, lost jobs, addictions, diseases, financial struggles. The dots were beginning to connect. I remembered a prayer I had prayed a week or so earlier. I was due to preach in a month or so for our lead pastor who was going to be in Africa with a missions team. I had asked God, "What do You want to say to our people?"
The incident with Jimmy, the quote from Matt Chandler, and the passage from Romans 8 all came into line perfectly.

God wants to take us somewhere we could never get on our own. He wants to produce in us the very image of Christ. It's what we were created for, to bear His image and so bring Him glory.

The primary way He produces that in us is through suffering. James says that "the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (Jas. 1:3-4, NASB)

How we respond to suffering says everything about who we believe God is. That's why James said it was the testing of your faith. It proves whether or not you believe that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. (see Hebrews 11:6)

Trusting God requires a change in our perspective about what is truly "good."

Consider things from Jimmy's perspective: He was happy, comfortable, safe. Then one day he is snatched up without warning, crammed into a box, taken from his family, and driven miles away with total strangers. His only thought: Get out of this situation as fast as possible and get back to what I know and where I'm comfortable. But that was not the truth of the situation, was it? The Truth was that Jimmy was being rescued and brought into a place where he would be loved, protected, provided for, and where he would enjoy a freedom he had never known before. But Jimmy panicked and in fear he ran away, out from under our provision and protection.

To this day, we don't know what happened to Jimmy. He's a legend, like Bigfoot. Maybe he's out there somewhere. Our oldest swears he saw him the other day at the fringe of the property. But he blinked and he was gone. But whether or not he ever comes back I am deeply grateful for what he taught me, and for how God used him to encourage our people to hang on to God even when things seem scary.

Click here to here the sermon I preached from this experience.

When Faith Takes Center Stage: Making the Most of Major Moments in our Culture

2010-05-24T16:08:00.000-04:00

(This is a reprint of an article I wrote a few years ago for our church magazine at Hope Baptist in Las Vegas. I think it serves as an excellent refresher in leveraging the opportunity to speak truth into the culture that the final episode of the TV series Lost has afforded us. Enjoy!)

“If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like Heaven and Jesus…”

(from “One of Us” by Eric Bazilian)

I’ll never forget the first time I heard those words come wafting over my car stereo speakers. The woman’s voice that sang them sounded so sincere and the questions she was asking were so poignant that it stopped me in my tracks. In the weeks that followed, that song rocketed up the music charts and you could hardly turn on a radio or TV without hearing it. Whether or not you agreed with the sentiments expressed in the song, there was no denying that the subject of faith in God had suddenly been thrust into the spotlight. It was as if the songwriter had tapped into something deep within our cultural consciousness; the longing for God to be real and, more importantly, to be accessible.

Suddenly, everywhere I went, people were discussing spiritual things. Friends outside the faith were anxious to hear my take on it. “You’re a Christian, Jerry, what do you think about it?” People who had been totally closed to the gospel only a short time before were now asking me to explain it to them.!

That was a rare moment in our secularized culture, a divinely orchestrated open window of opportunity to engage our culture on its home turf. Dan Brown’s runaway bestseller The DaVinci Code was another such moment. Suddenly the question “Who is Jesus?” made headlines in every newspaper and magazine in the world.

Dick Staub, in his book Too Christian, Too Pagan says, “Jesus didn’t invite the world to come to church, He commanded the church to go into the world.” The question for us is, “Can we put down the picket signs long enough to honestly answer the deep questions of faith our culture is asking in popular music, books, TV and movies?”

So how can we be ready for that next big moment when it comes? How can we engage our culture without succumbing to its influence? Here are a few ideas to help us be “in the world but not of it”:

Pray! There is no substitute for spending time alone with God. Like Pastor Vance always says, “We don’t pray before we work, prayer is the work, then God works.” Changing your world starts by letting God change you into the image of His Son, then letting people see that image in your life.

Stay connected. Don’t retreat into a stained-glass bubble. Get out there and mingle! Watch a little TV, listen to the radio, go to a movie. Don’t retreat into the Christian subculture or you may miss what God is doing all around you.

Affirm Truth wherever you find it. There is an old saying; “Truth is Truth even in the mouth of Baal.” Sometimes pop culture can stumble onto truth, even if it doesn’t understand why it’s true. Look for themes in pop culture that line up with Biblical truth. Point them out at every opportunity. Use them to start discussions at work or school. Some helpful resources for doing this can be found at websites like movieguide.org, movieministry.com, and Focus on the Family’s pluggedinonline.com.

Be ready with a gentle answer. People will have a lot of tough questions about faith in a fallen world. Don’t get defensive or intimidated. It’s not about being right; it’s about speaking the truth with love (Eph. 4:15) and trusting God with the result.

What LOST taught us....

2010-05-24T12:15:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok so I am probably just one of a million self-styled pundits blogging on the final episode of what was arguably the greatest show in the history of television, ABC's Lost. As expected, the final episode was polarizing and controversial among it's fans. The first few minutes after the final show finished, Facebook lit up with Christians who were fans of the show decrying the ecumenism and universalism of the show's theology. But really, what did we expect? Lost has toyed with spiritual and religious matters its entire run. In my opinion that is one of the things that made it so compelling. But ultimately you have writers and creators who do not know the truth or the Author of Truth so can we really expect it to line up perfectly with Biblical doctrine?

So... While it's fresh on my mind I wanted to share a few thoughts on where I believe Lost got it right.

The spiritual is as real and as significant as the material. Even more so.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, "... we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
What many of us miss in the busyness of our lives is that we are built for glory, made to last. We were created for the eternal, not the temporal. There are spiritual realities in us and all around us that are even more real than what we experience physically and will last far beyond this present world. We would do well to have an eternal perspective.

There is life after death, and the decisions we make here have an impact on where and how we experience it.
I want to be very careful that I am not misunderstood here. The Bible says clearly that Jesus Christ is the only provision for salvation. "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”(Acts 4:12) But even for the believer, how we live in this life bears heavily on the life we will experience in eternity with Christ. Otherwise why would the Bible say that "each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." (1 Cor. 3:13-15) We have hope beyond this life, and a blessed assurance that we will see our loved ones in Christ again. I found this aspect of the final episode very comforting and very moving, even if it was theologically flawed.

Faith is a vital part of our lives, so be careful where you place it.
Every person has faith in something. They can't help themselves. It is written into our DNA by our maker. We long to know that we matter, that our lives have purpose and direction and significance. So whether it is in God or in something else or even ourselves, we doggedly cling to that belief. Where we get "lost" (pun intended) is in the object of our faith. For Locke it was the island. For Ben it was Jacob. For Jack it was his ability to fix things. Every character had placed their faith in something. The truth is that everything other than God will fail us. Matt Chandler once said, "When you make gods of things that are not God, they cannot bear the weight of it and they will eventually collapse. And when they do, you will get hurt." Nevertheless, I loved the way that Lost fearlessly tackles the deeper issues of faith and doubt, redemption and salvation, purpose and destiny. The show handled deep issues of faith with more courage, honesty, and intelligence than all of Christian television programming combined.

Ultimately, life is about relationships.
It's not about blowing up hatches, pushing buttons and entering numbers. It's not even about smoke monsters and mysterious pools of light. This is the strongest theme of Lost. Our lives both here and in eternity are shaped by the relationships we have cultivated and invested in. How we treat people, how we love them, forgive them, comfort them, encourage them, these are the things that Bono calls "all that you can't leave behind." Your relationship with God through Christ is the fundamental, foundational relationship of your life, out of which will flow every other relationship. I appreciate that the writers of Lost never let the show stray too far from its heart: the relationships of the characters.

One final word of encouragement I would like to offer my fellow believers that may have been disappointed or upset at the universalistic approach of the final episode. Please do not get so bogged down in the details that you miss the big picture. Every now and then, God opens a rare and fleeting window for the Church to break out of its stained-glass ghetto and speak the Truth into the mainstream culture. Lost's final episode was such a moment. All over the world today -- in break rooms, cafeterias, around water coolers, in cubicles, in chat rooms and message boards -- people are talking about spiritual matters of life after death because of Lost. People are asking questions like what happens when you die, where do I go, how can I know for sure? The Church has some very good answers to these questions. Hopefully we can stop the flaming and the hating long enough to see this opportunity and leverage it for the Gospel's sake.

Thanks to J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, and everyone else who worked so hard to make Lost one of the most compelling, intelligent, creative, and even spiritual hours of television I have ever had the pleasure to experience. Now please pray for me as I enter my period of post-Lost depression. I almost wore a black arm band to work this morning! Oh, well, there's always Wipeout! :-)

Exponental 2010

2010-04-21T07:52:00.000-04:00

I am in Orlando, FL right now with out staff team at the Exponential Conference. It's an annual conference for church planters and pastors. I have to admit that my attitude going into it was not great.

We have just come off a whirlwind of back-to-back events at our church that began in February and ended with our big 4th anniversary celebration last weekend. In between has been a lot of stress, overtime, and being apart from my family, even when I was physically with them. At that same time we were buying and moving in to a new house, doing our taxes, teaching a class on marriage, and dealing with a series of stomach viruses that swept through the house, not once but twice! Now, don't get me wrong, there was also a lot of cool things happening: God was moving and growing me and my marriage, He was doing amazing things in our church body. There were plenty of good times along with the pressure, but the last thing on earth I wanted to do after all that is be away from my family for four days at a conference for pastors. I mean, seriously.

But in her Spirit-filled, graceful way, my wife reminded me to stop and ask God what He wanted to show me at the conference. She is so wise! I love that God put her with a doofus like me; I benefit from her wisdom and she gets to learn patience and long-suffering and mercy. It's a win-win! :-) So I asked God to show me what He has for me.

Okay, so it's only one day in and already it's been really great! Yesterday, I got to sit at the feet of one of the biggest influencers in my life, Matt Chandler, the lead pastor of the Village Church in Texas. Don't know if you know what all is going on in his life, but you can read about it just about anywhere. This dude is AMAZING. His wisdom, his knowledge of scripture, and how to practically apply it in personal discipleship is second to none. He is very funny but very serious at the same time. He will lay a truth on you that will just lay you out but you will be laughing at the same time. And he doesn't water anything down or pull any punches. I highly recommend his podcast as part of your regular intake of truth and wisdom from the Word.

Biggest takeaway from his workshops yesterday was this nugget: He was speaking on Matthew 13 about the parable of the sower and the seed. He was breaking down Jesus' explanation of it to the disciples in verses 18-23, as to what the different soils and scenarios meant. And he was framing it for church planters and pastors, who are sowers of the Gospel. We can become very frustrated and disappointed when people don't respond to the teaching or when our people fall away or don't seem to get it.

So he gets to verses 20 - 21:

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Chandler breaks it down this way: This is the guy who hears it, gets it, gets saved, gets baptized, plugs in, then a year later falls off the wagon and disappears. Why? Because he doesn't make the connection between the Gospel and his suffering, He doesn't connect the dots between the Gospel and persecution. Chandler says pastors have to make that connection for their people so they will be ready when suffering comes:

"Suffering is coming for your people. It just is. You can't protect them from it, but you can prepare them for it."

Isn't that huge? Isn't how we see and interpret and handle our suffering just ginormous in our relationship with God. Otherwise we think He is out to get us or doesn't care or maybe isn't really there. My thought is this: if we fail our people in this, we are handing them over to the Enemy. We are setting them up to fall away and disappear.

Also, I got to meet Matt and shake his hand and personally thank him for being faithful. I got to look him in the eye and tell him what a difference his faithfulness has made to me and my wife. Matt has terminal brain cancer and will die, when is anyone's guess. I just didn't want to miss an opportunity to tell him what he means to me while I had the chance. It was great. He is speaking this morning and I can't wait to hear what he has to say.

There is a ton more but I gotta run and grab breakfast real fast before we leave. Later!

American Idol Finalist Predictions, Pt. 2: The Guys

2010-02-25T15:42:00.000-05:00

Ok so everyone is talking about how much better the girls are this year but I thought the guys were much stronger this opening week. It's tougher for me to narrow it down to six, anyways. Keep in mind that my predictions are not based on who I personally would like to see in the Top 12, but rather who I think probably will end up there. So here we go...

1. Andrew Garcia - Our personal fave, as well as most other peoples, too. This guy is awesome! He has an amazing voice as well as a savvy for picking cool songs and giving them his own little jazz-indie spin. Plus he's all kinds of humble and likable. Look for this guy to go Top 3 for sure.

2. Casey James - I know, I know, I wanted to hate him, too, especially with the gooey Kara love affair thing happening. But it turns out he's not just a pretty boy, he can actually sing and his guitar chops are not bad, either. He's definitely the total package in terms of garnering votes and potentially selling records. And he kept his shirt on last night, so that's a big plus.

3. Todrick Hall - I thought he was much better than the judges gave him credit for. He is a natural performer and has tons of experience being a dancer for so long.

4. Aaron Kelly - The new David Archuleta. Nice kid. Nice voice. Kinda boring but will probably make it to the Top 12.

5. Alex Lambert - I think he's going to surprise a lot of people in the next few weeks. His voice has very cool raspy, tone and his dorky, shy, awkward stage presence is actually refreshing and fun to watch. I like this kid a lot and I hope he makes it. It would be cool to see him develop if given a chance.

6. Lee Dewyze - As much as I like Big Mike and Taylor the hippie Jim Morrison wannabe, I think Lee is more cut out for the Idol Experience. Or he could fall prey to the Shadow of David Cook and suffer by unfortunate comparison.

I hope that Jermaine Sellers goes home immediately. His voice is annoying and he is so full of himself it's nauseating. Those high notes he brags about hitting are so painfully bad I don't think I can take another week of him.

Also, Tim Urban has to go. Let Disney Channel have him. I mean, seriously, dude, you get a second chance like that and you do that lame song? You deserve to go home.

Who goes home first? I think John Parks already has his bags packed. "God Bless the Child"? Seriously? Joining him on a long bus ride home will most likely be Joe Munoz, the incredibly boring and forgettable Latino crooner. But I hope it's Jermaine Sellers. Please, oh, please let it be Jermaine Sellers!

For the ladies, I fear Lacey Brown's Idol dreams are about to get a wake up call. And joining Lacy will probably be Janelle Wheeler. So boring and forgettable I couldn't even remember her until I looked at the list of contestants.

We'll see tonight!

American Idol Finalist Predictions, Pt. 1: The Girls

2010-02-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

OK so here are our predictions for the 6 girls that will be finalists this year...

Crystal Bowersox - very cool indie chick. Needs to belt out some Dylan or Springsteen next time...

Didi Benami - Simon had his "crack" moment last night. She was by far the best.

Michelle Delamour - I'm so sure that's her real name. Puh-LEEZE. Still has the most commercial and professional potential of the girls.

Katie Stevens - A little too High School Musical for me personally but I think she will go far.

Lily Scott - Our personal favorite. Wasn't crazy about her Beatles cover but it was an inspired choice and I think she will be the Daughtry of this year's show.

Siobhan Magnus - As quirky and weird as her name but she has killer pipes and seems pretty savvy.

Stay tuned for the guys...

It's official! We have a house!!!

2010-02-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a pretty amazing 8 months since we moved from our home in Las Vegas, NV back to our old stomping grounds of Atlanta. In those months we have packed up our house in a POD, lived with my mom for a month, and then moved to a temporary house in Woodstock and only partially unpacked. Our poor dog is going to be traumatized forever!

For those who aren't familiar with the area, Woodstock is an hour away from Hiram where the church we serve is located (it can be 2 hours in afternoon traffic). I think we added it up once that we spend as much as 18 hours a week in a car driving back and forth and spend around $400-500 per month in gas for the vehicles. Add to that the extra early wake up times required to get out there on time for work and church and it can be a pretty exhausting lifestyle. So believe me when I say this will radically change our lives!

The house is a great old single story ranch ult in the early seventies but recently renovated by a professional renovation company. It's only 1600 sq. ft. but has a huge garage that we will close in and use for living space. Best of all it is on 1.5 acres of grass and beautiful hardwood trees. It's not in a subdivision so there is home owners' association. That means we can grow our own vegetables and have a few chickens like we have wanted to do for a while. After 7 years of claustrophobic Las Vegas suburban life, this will be a wonderful breath of fresh air. I know, I know, we will have to know all 1.5 acres but, hey, that's what kids are for, right?

It's kind of a cool story of God's goodness how we ended up here. It was really important to Cheryl and me that we have a place with at least an acre where we do the garden and the chickens, where the kids could be outside, and where people could come and hang out and feel welcomed and loved. We knew it couldn't be a subdivision. An older house was okay, in fact we preferred it as long as it was in good shape. And we wanted it for around $100,000 or less. How's that for parameters!

When our realtor, Michelle Bullock, first told me about the place I (Jerry) went and looked at it. The lot was great but no work had yet been done so it still looked a little rough. And too small. I came back and said, "Yeah, the land is great but it's just not what we are looking for", and we forgot about it. A few weeks later, we were out looking at houses and not really finding exactly what we were looking for. We were beginning to get discouraged, thinking we were going to have to compromise on what we wanted, even though Cheryl especially felt strongly that God had lead us to look for that kind of property. There were houses and land like what we wanted but not in our price range. And there just weren't any houses with land like we wanted that were not in a subdivision that would restrict what we did. So at the very end of the day, after we had looked at the last house, Michelle said, "There is that one house on Clonts Rd. I told you about." I just sort of blew it off. "Yeah, I looked at it and I can tell you right now it's not what we are looking for." But Cheryl said she wanted to see it anyway. "Okay," I shrugged, "but you are not going t like it."

As soon as we drove onto the property it was clear this was the place. It had been beautifully renovated in the time since I first saw it. Cheryl looked at me and raised her eyebrows with that "So I'm not going to like this?" I was shocked. "I swear to you, this is not the way it looked when I saw it!" It has new paint inside and out, new flooring (even new floors in some places), new roof, new AC, the garage had been redone. It had a big screened in porch in the back. The backyard backed up to beautiful pasture land. And the best part was it was only $109,000!

We began to get really excited about it. We decided we wanted to put an offer on it. So we gathered in the front yard, held hands in a circle and prayed that if this was the place God had for us He would make it happen, but if not, we knew He had something better. When we called, the selling agent said there was already an offer on the house, but it was lower than their asking price, and that it had not been put under contract yet. So we said, we will give you what you you are asking for it. She was very happy to hear that. Unfortunately, a few minutes later we found out that another agent who was also working with the seller had just signed papers with a prospective buyer. They were very sad to hear that because they wanted to sell us the house. They said, "We would love to sell you the house but we can't back out of it now. There's no way to get out of it unless they're financing falls through."

It was disappointing but we had given it over to God and knew He had something for us. So in the weeks that followed we continued to look, but couldn't find anything quite like that. I found myself driving by on my lunch hour and looking wistfully at it. I would drive slowly by and just say to God, "Lord, if it pleases you for us to have this place, would you make it happen?" Michelle, our realtor, said she would do the same thing every time she drove by.

One day the next week, Michele called and said, "Are you guys ready for some good news?" The financing had fallen through and they wanted to know if we were still interested. So the rest, as they say, is history. There are some other smaller but no less awesome God-moments in the story but suffice it to say He has made it clear that this is where He wants us to be.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us through this time. Stay tuned to this blog and to Facebook for details on moving. We will need lots of help on both the Woodstock and Douglasville ends, but we are blessed with many wonderful friends and encouragers on both sides.

Click here to see the new Davison homestead!

The Outsiders, Episode 1

2010-02-14T20:37:00.000-05:00

Here is the latest of my video projects for Church at the Ridge. We shot it Thursday, in the freezing cold, on the corner of Hwy. 61 and Mustang Drive, and in White Oak Park, and at the home of John & Lora Bower. My son, Erik, did the camera work. I edited Friday and Saturday, and we showed it to the church this morning. It went over well, I think. We are already planning the next one.

This is part f our current series at The Ridge called "The Outsiders." Come join us and check it out! For more info on Church at the Ridge, you can click here!

Quote of the Day

2010-01-27T11:19:00.000-05:00

I was watching an old John Wayne movie called The Cowboys. In the movie, John Wayne is leading a group of young boys across 400 miles of rugged country on a cattle drive. In one scene they come across the skeleton of a man with an Indian spear sticking in him. One boy asks, "What happened here?" John Wayne answers, "Little Big Horn." The boy looks at the skeleton in disgust and says, "They didn't even dig him a decent grave!." John Wayne says:

"Well, it's not how you're buried, it's how they remember you."

Good word, Duke!

You can tell a lot about a person by their iPod...

2010-01-25T11:56:00.007-05:00

Just out of curiosity I looked to see what my Top Ten most played songs on my iPod were. Interesting. I never would have guessed it. Here they are...

10. "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole

09. "Reminiscing" by Little River Band

08. "Carlisle Wheeling" by The Monkees (My most played Monkees song!)

07. "Something" by The Beatles (There was no way there was NOT going to be at least one Beatles song in my Top 10!)

06. "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)" by Nat King Cole (I was not expecting there to be TWO NKC songs, however...)

05. "What's New" by Charlie Watts (This is the drummer of the Rolling Stones. He has a jazz combo on the side that records the smoothest versions of old standards. Great stuff!)

04. "In My Life" by The Beatles (My most played Beatles song... This song is songwriting genius.)

03. "Photograph" by Ringo Starr (Now this surprised me, I must confess. I mean, this is a great song but of all the solo Beatles to show up in my Top Ten, I would have expected McCartney. Ringo would be the last one I expected to see. Strangely fitting, though...)

02. "I've Got a Crush On You" by Charlie Watts

and the number one most played song on Jerry's iPod is... (drum roll, please)

01. "Chances Are" by Johnny Mathis

I'm not kidding. It really is. I am totally in love with this song. I grab my wife and we slow dance every time it comes on. Freaks our kids out. They run screaming from the room, "AAAAGH! Old people in love!" This has become one of our "special" songs. You know what I mean. ;-)

So I have to admit that this surprised me somewhat. I mean I love all these songs and they come up in the rotation regularly but I would have guessed I would see more power pop and modern rock stuff. I mean one Monkees song only? And not even one of my top favorites. No McCartney? No Cheap Trick? No U2 for cryin' out loud!!! How is that possible?

Nevertheless, I learned a little something about myself by looking at this list. I'm even more of a hopeless romantic than I thought. Actually, "hopeless" is not the right term; I am a hope-full romantic. Some would call it schmaltzy. But I am so crazy in love with my wife that I find I gravitate toward those songs that celebrate that. If you take a close look at all these songs there are common themes: faithfulness, loyalty, marriage, family, treasuring those relationships that make life worth living. These songs may not reflect my musical loves but they completely reflect my heart.

I also noticed there weren't any "Christian" songs in the list. But the songs that are there celebrate the kind of love that can only come from knowing the Author of Love. So when I sing them, they are coming from my heart, which is a new creation in Christ. So in that since, they are all "Christian" songs.

Looking at the next ten songs it doesn't change much. Cheap Trick and Macca and John Lennon show up finally but singing romantic love songs: "Carrying," "My Love," "Woman," "If You Want My Love"... There is even an Elvis song, "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." And another Beatles tune, "And I Love Her." And more Charlie Watts.

I may be a rocker on the surface. But I carry the heart of a lover. At least, that's what my iPod tells me.

Had an intersting day...

2010-01-05T16:27:00.000-05:00

I woke up feeling nauseous and exhausted. Stomach's been a little queasy for a few days now. Between feeling sick and the dog barking half the night, I hardly slept. I "texted" in sick to the office but worked from home anyways.

Here's the interesting part... The message that I preached this past weekend at church had failed to record due to a technical glitch. I was disappointed because I wanted my mom and my Vegas friends to hear it. Steve suggested I just set up a mic and preach it again. Hmmm...

So today I set up a home "studio" in my bedroom using my laptop and the mic from our Beatles Rock Band game. I moved our bird out of the room, silenced the phone's ringer, and banned everyone from the back of the house. Then I put my notes on a music stand and hit record and preached to the walls. It was weird at first but once I got going it was actually kind of fun. No time constraints so I could use all the material I wanted (though some would say I didn't seem to be bothered by time constraints Sunday!)

You can listen to it here. Just picture me all by myself, preaching into a Wii microphone plugged into my laptop and you'll get the picture.

Best Moments of 2009

2010-01-03T19:14:00.001-05:00

I know I'm a little late on this but I wanted to weigh in on what I think are some of the best moments our family experienced in 2009. So here they are, in no particular order...

Our "Fireproof" small group at Hope Baptist in Las Vegas, NV.

Being ordained to the gospel ministry by Hope Baptist.

Staying at the bed & breakfast in historic Hiram, GA while we were visiting Church at the Ridge

Being called to be the new Creative Arts Pastor at Church at the Ridge in Hiram, GA

Getting to stay at a really cool old house in Woodstock for free.

Getting a new MacBook Pro for FREE!!! (And a free iPod touch came with it!)

Going to the U2 360 tour at the Georgia Dome with my son, Erik, and his friends.

Making some great new friends at our new church. Our new small group ROCKS!

Getting to preach on marriage at C@TR.

Getting a surprise visit from the Milligan family from Vegas!

Finally getting Beatles Rock Band this Christmas.

Celebrating 22 years of marriage to the most amazing, godly woman in the known universe. I love you, sweet-pea!

For what it's worth, here is my Top Ten of the best music from 2009 (again in no particular order):

U2 - "No Line on the Horizon"
Switchfoot - "Hello Hurricane"
Cheap Trick - "The Latest" & "Sgt. Pepper Live"
David Crowder Band - "Church Music"
Coldplay - "LeftRightLeftRight"
Fee - "Hope Rising"
Muse - "The Resistance"
needtobreathe - "The Outsiders"

Honorable Mention: Black Eyed Peas - "I Gotta Feeling" (single)
Ok, so I HATE this band but I cannot deny this is a catchy song!

New Christmas series starts this week!

2009-12-02T12:41:00.000-05:00

'Your Christmas Carol' Video Promo from Matt Walker on Vimeo.

I love Christmas! What an awesome time of the year when the whole world is open to hearing the gospel. Sure, it may get buried in sales ads, tinsel, lights, and cheesy inflatable lawn Santas, but it's there all the same. How we leverage that as Jesus Followers is crucial.

Perfect segue way into our new Christmas series at Church at the Ridge. Pastor Steve will be unpacking the spirit of Christmas past, present and future in Your Christmas Carol. Pinging off the hit Disney movie, we will explore the fulfilled promise of a foretold Savior, who is God with us even now, and is returning again soon! Don't miss it! Invite your friends and family, neighbors and coworkers and classmates, everyone!

Big thanks to Matt Walker for putting this promo video together. Matt, you rock!

My latest video project...

2009-11-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

We shot this video as part of our marriage series, Love Handles: Getting a GRIP on God's Design for Marriage. It was a lot of fun to shoot! These are our good friends of ours from our small group. They were good sports to let us dump actual garbage in their bed!

I actually had this idea back in Vegas but never got around to filming it. It is based on the scripture in Hebrews 13:4 about not letting the marriage bed be "defiled."It's a funny but all-too-true picture of the garbage couples bring into the marriage but never deal with. They just try to ignore it, hoping it will go away or at least not cause too much trouble. But sooner or later, it begins to stink up the relationship until it has to be dealt with. If both will realize they both need God's grace and stop expecting each other to fulfill them, they can "take out the trash" so to speak and lay it at the foot of the cross.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did at Church at the Ridge!

Love Handles

2009-10-26T15:40:00.000-04:00

So we are starting a major series on marriage at Church at the Ridge this week. It's going to be awesome and there is such a dire need for it. But I created this video to promo the series and we showed it in church this past weekend. I have to tell you, I was laughing so hard when I was working on this, I almost couldn't hold the camera steady. Bill is my hero!

Zoom Out

2009-09-22T13:31:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I found myself in a unique situation: I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on Highway 278 in Hiram -- and I was grateful to God to be there! I know, it sounds crazy to me, too. Normally, I would be frustrated or disappointed or even angry at the inconvenience. But there I was, sitting in horrible traffic, smiling like a fool, relieved to be there. How did this come to be? you ask.

For the past few days, our area had been pounded with relentless rain and the ground had become saturated. Creeks and rivers began to overflow their banks and spill into neighborhoods. Roads were washed out and many collapsed. Lots of folks lost houses and possessions, a few lost their lives. It was a nightmare.

I had tried to drive in to the office that morning but kept running into closed roads and washed out bridges, doubling back and detouring. Finally, it became clear that it was futile so I decided to head back home. Only I couldn't seem to get back home. Road conditions were worsening by the minute. Every route back was either blocked or submerged. Except one. Highway 278 was still open and passable and would get me back to where I needed to be. And it was clogged with traffic for miles.

I looked down and noticed that my gas gauge showed nearly empty. The fuel range indicator said I could go maybe 10 miles before I ran out of gas. I tried to fill up several times but every gas station was out of service due to the flooding. Traffic lights were out here and there and things were getting ugly. My only hope for gas and escape became Highway 278. Now if only I could make it there before I ran out of gas.

I finally found a way back on to 278 and found a gas station still open and working. I filled up and with a sigh of relief and a quick phone call home, settled in, relieved to be sitting in stop and go traffic, because at least I was going home.

You know what changed my attitude toward sitting in traffic? Perspective. As long as I believed there was another way, I wasn't willing to endure it. But when the truth of my situation became clear, not only was I willing, I was thankful! Was it fun? No, but it was necessary. How's that for some perspective.

Isn't that what we all need sometimes? A change in perspective. We think we have it bad until we see someone who has it worse. We think we know everything and our parents are stupid until we turn 40 and have kids who think they know everything and we are stupid. We need the curtains to roll back and give us a glimpse of the entire scene, not just our little corner of the stage. In video production, one way to do this is to zoom out. You start a shot focused on something close up but as you pull back and the rest of the surroundings come into view, the object that once seemed so big and significant begins to take it's proper place.

I think that may be what Paul was talking about when he told the Philippian church,

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." (Phil. 2:3-4)

He said, "Hey, look around you! There are other people here, too. There are other stories, other lives. It's not about you!"

He then points to Jesus as One who had every right to focus on Himself. It really was all bout Him! But look at what Paul says,

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:5-11)

Scripture zooms the camera out further in Romans 8:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God... And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." (Rom. 8:18-19, 28-30)

We are destined for glory. We are to be conformed to His image. Justified. Glorified. even if it means suffering through the longer, harder, more frustrating route for now. If that is what it takes than we should be not only willing, but grateful.

God, zoom out on our lives until we see the big picture and our place in it. Give us the humility to endure whatever it takes with a thankful heart because it is producing in us "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." (2 Cor. 4:16) Grant to us the grace to see each other through the lens of Your Spirit, and give each other the benefit of the doubt when it seems like we don't deserve it. Make us more like You, Jesus!

I got to try out Beatles Rock Band!

2009-09-02T14:19:00.000-04:00

Erik and I stopped by Blockbuster today and had a go at the much anticipated Beatles Rock Band game. Unfortunately, the guitar controllers weren't working, but we both played a song or two on the drums in Expert mode. It was really fun and the graphics looked great! Erik did really well on "I Feel Fine" and "Here Comes the Sun," but I stunk it up on "Can't Buy Me Love." Apparently you have to hit the pads pretty hard and dead center or it doesn't register.

Anyways, it looks to be an awesome game. Maybe Santa will notice that I've been extra good this year! :-)

Worth + ship = worship

2009-08-24T15:20:00.000-04:00

Worship.

It's one of those church words we religious types like to throw around. We use it to describe our music. We use it to describe how the music effects us. We use it to describe the programming at our churches. In fact, we evangelicals use it so widely and so liberally that I fear the meaning is going to be lost to the church. If it is not already.

Our English word worship actually is a combination of two other words: worth, meaning the value of something and the suffix -ship, meaning to show or possess a quality, state, or condition. In other words, to declare or reveal the value of something. In essence, the word worship asks a question: What is God worth to me? And we answer that question, whether we mean to or not, by the way we live -- all day, every day, in everything we do or say or think.

Worship is not merely what we do in church, though that can be a part of it. Or not. We come in and sing love songs to Jesus, we lift our hands or close our eyes or sway, and those can be good things when we are loving Jesus from our hearts. But that's not necessarily worship. It's PRAISE, but that's not the same thing. Many of us praise without worshipping. In fact, we are not worshipping if our worship is lacking one thing: sacrifice.

Worship and sacrifice are inextricably linked in scripture. Because only by sacrificing something that costs you dearly can you ever answer the question, "What is God worth to me?" The greater the sacrifice, the deeper and more authentic the worship.

Genesis 22 tells the story of Abraham and Isaac. God promises Abraham a son in his old age and tells him that through this particular son He will make Abraham the father of a great nation, and that from this particular son all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Abraham waits for a long time for this promise to come true. And when it does, it means everything to him. And then God says the last thing any of us would expect Him to say, "“Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." (Gen. 22:2) And according to scripture, Abraham didn't argue, didn't object, didn't complain or get angry or demand an explanation. The Bible says he obeyed.

He packed up Isaac, loaded the donkeys with fire wood, gathered a handful of servants, and took off for Mt. Moriah. Now when he gets there listen carefully to what he tells his servants:

“Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” (emphasis mine, Gen. 22:5)

Abraham was declaring what God was worth to him:

Everything.

Because he believed God's heart was good and He was faithful, and no matter what it looked like on the surface to him or anyone else, God would keep His promise even if it meant bringing his son back from the dead. (See Heb. 12:2)

It was worth it.

And look at what God says in response:

"Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Gen. 22:12)

In other words, "You are telling me how much I am worth to you, since you held back nothing from Me."

Thousands of years later, Paul would write to the church in Rome, "Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Paul was saying, "Answer the question: 'What is God worth to you?' by offering your whole self to Him, freely, holding nothing back."

Worth-ship. What God is worth to me.

And then...

When we've answered that questions with our lives all week...

How we treat people He loves.
How we spend the resources He so generously gives us.
How we regard His precious word.
How we approach Him. Or not.
How we respond when others treat us unfairly.

Then, we can come into church,
and lift our hands,
and close our eyes,
and sing our love songs to Jesus
and really, truly, authentically PRAISE Him,
from the overflow of our worth-ship.

Special thanks to Jeff Riley who taught me this principle while serving alongside him at Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, NV.

Take the long way home...

2009-07-04T22:05:00.000-04:00

It seems like we have been driving for weeks! We are actually about a day behind schedule of what we planned due to a few unforeseen incidents. We left really late Tuesday so we only got as far as Kingman, AZ. Wednesday morning we got up and started driving toward Flagstaff when the AC went out in the Kia (our minivan). There was no way I was dragging 3 kids, a dog, and a bird through hundreds of miles of desert in July with no AC!

We're not cool enough (or rich enough!) to have an iPhone or a GPS so we did the next best thing and called back to Vegas and had our good buddy Eric Hoenigmann find us a mechanic in Flagstaff. He did and off we went.

Well, after about 3 hours of sitting around, the mechanic determined that it was a switch in our compressor and he couldn't do it. So we called the Kia dealership. They were booked through Friday so we called ahead to Albuquerque. One of the two Kia dealerships there said, "Sure, we can fit you in tomorrow. Come on in as early as you can." Great! So by this time we just rolled down the windows and toughed it to Gallup. It was actually pretty cool outside because of the higher elevation.

It was getting late and we were zonked by the time we pulled in to Gallup. Unfortunately for us, there was a junior rodeo in Gallup that weekend and EVERY room in EVERY hotel was booked. So we drove another hour and a half to Grants, New Mexico. We almost didn't get a room there because the spillover from the rodeo in Gallup had spread. But we did manage to find a pet friendly hotel with a vacancy, even though it was a dive. Unfortunately, for the second night in a row, our dog, Piper, had trouble settling down for the night. He was a little freaked at this whole different room every night thing. Finally, he settled down about 2 AM. Then at about 6 AM a dog in the next room started barking his head off! This dog was losing his mind, I'm tellin' you! I guess his owners went off to breakfast without him or something. Anyways, we only got about four hours of sleep that night.

So we get up and hoof it to Albuquereqe to meet up with the Kia guy and get the air working. We drive for about 2 and a half hours and when we find the place the uys says, "I can't see you today! We are booked into next week." Of course I didn't get the name of the idiot that told me to "come on in." So he called the other Kia dealer and they said the same thing. I pleaded my case to the guy but he wasn't budging.

By this time I was about done with Kia. I called their 1-800 customer relations number and told them how badly their customer service stunk. There response was that since my vehicle was no longer under warranty, they could not help me. I was hot!!!

Pastor Steve Whipple to the rescue. Steve, our pastor at Church at the Ridge, has been great to call and check on us every day. When I told him what was up, he immediately jumped on the computer and Googled a Kia dealer at our next stop in Amarillo, TX. I called ahead and made an appointment so they would be sure to see us.

We drove on to Amarillo and stopped for the night. It was cool most of that day but toward the end of the day it began to get warm, The next morning I took the Kia in to Nelson Bridges at Pete's Car Smart Kia. He was awesome!!! At last, some customer service! When I told him my story and how the other Kia dealers weren't willing to help us out, he just smiled and said in his Texas drawl, "That ain't how we do things in Texas." Well, yeehaw!

Nelson got us in and out before check out time at the hotel. Sure it cost us $600 but we had a LOT of miles still to cover and it wasn't going to get any cooler as we went. Only more humid! So thankfully, the trip turned around from that point and has been great since then.

As I write we are at our last stop for the trip, Tupelo, MS. We will get up tomorrow and drive into Georgia. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouragement. I gotta go eat pizza now so I will write mmore later. Later!

The Davisons have left the building...

2009-07-01T03:18:00.000-04:00

Well, this is it! We crammed the last piece of luggage into our overstuffed minivan late this afternoon and got the heck outta Dodge. Sure, it was about 7 hours later than we planned but we fin ally got on the road.

Our first stop was to gas up. We pulled into Sam's and who should we meet but Brad & Dominique Carlson! It was just like God to send us a last reminder that our time here was blessed with great friends and faithful allies. What an encouragement they were to a tired family!

As soon as we hit the road, my son Erik plugged in his iPod and Steven Curtis Chapman's "The Great Adventure" came on. This was a significant song for our family when we left Georgia 7 years ago to come to Vegas. He said he wanted it to be the first thing we heard pulling out to go back. Cheryl was in the other car and she called me on the cell phone. Some close friends had made us a CD of songs that they said reminded them of us. She was listening to it in the other car. "You'll never guess what the first song was!" she said. Yup. "The Great Adventure." When I told her that was the first song we heard too she said, "I think I'm going to cry! Isn't God good to give us that confirmation that we are following Him?" Yes indeed it is!

We also got a very encouraging phone call from Vance Pitman, our pastor from Hope Baptist in vegas. He called to say how much he loved and missed us and that he was praying for us. Then we talked for a while about how much Transformers 2 STINKS (did I mention that?) It was a great call and we are thankful for the encouragement.

So here we are in Best Western in Kingman, AZ. I know it's only a few hours from Vegas but it was important for us that we get on the road today. Even if it's just across the border, we are on the way! Can't wait to see all our Georgia friends again. And we are so excited for the new relationships God has for us at Church at the Ridge!

Top Ten Things We'll Miss About Living in Las Vegas

2009-06-28T19:51:00.000-04:00

Outside in my driveway is a 16' x 8' storage unit with everything we have stuffed into it. It's a sobering inventory that I highly recommend every few years or so. Suddenly priorities are redefined. No longer is the value of a thing determined by how rare it is, how beautiful it would look on your wall, or how badly you have always wanted it. Now the determining factor of whether we keep a thing or throw it away is if we can fit it in the container. Like I said, sobering.

As we sat in church today, Travis Ogle was preaching (he was awesome, btw!) from Philippians 3 and came across verses 7 and 8:

I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ (NLT)

All this stuff is just that: stuff. The whole reason we are packing it up, deciding what to keep and what to throw away, is so that we can follow Jesus. We count everything we are leaving behind as loss compared to knowing Jesus, experiencing life with Him as our Guide. It's precisely because we'd "rather have Jesus than anything" that we have quit our jobs, put our house up for rent, and said goodbye to some of our dearest friends and allies.

It's hard and there were tears today at our final service at Hope Baptist. But we are pressing on and reaching forward in response to the call of God. Having said all that, we'd like to recap a few of the things we will miss the most about living in Las Vegas these last seven years...

1. Our dear friends and allies. The relationships that we have made here and the way they have poured the love of God into our lives. We won't name them all for lack of space and fear of forgetting someone, but the friendships we have made are the greatest treasures of the time we spent here. Someday we will all be together again in Heaven. What a day that will be!

2. Hope Baptist Church. Most of the relationships we have are a direct result of serving Jesus alongside them at this wonderful body of believers. The preaching, the music, the heart for the city and the nations. Thank you Hope for the way you have loved our family and allowed us to lock arms with you in taking the gospel to Las Vegas, the west, and the world. It was such an honor to be on staff here.

3. Sushi Bay. Our place. The majority of our Friday lunch dates were spent here, discovering the miracle of Japanese cuisine. We will especially miss Sunshine, Paradise, Yum Yum Salmon and Crazy Horse. Just incredible. I think I feel a tear coming...

4. Winter in Vegas. I remember calling back east on Christmas Day where everyone was freezing and I was standing in my driveway in a T-shirt and shorts and no shoes. The weather here is great all year round except for summer, when Hell just sort of spills out onto the earth and sucks your soul out. Other than that, it's very pleasant.

5. Easy to get around. There is virtually no traffic in Vegas. Even at rush hour in the worst parts of town, at least it's moving. And it's impossible to get lost. Everything is flat and laid out in a grid. You can see from one end of the valley to the other from practically anywhere.

6. Being close to so many great vacation spots. Grand Canyon. Lake Tahoe. San Diego. Yosemite. Zion National Park. Monterey. San Francisco. Disneyland. Knott's Berry Farm. These are places we got to vacation while we lived on this end of the country. Places we will likely never visit after we move back east.

7. Mojo from Havana Grill at Eastern & Pebble. Pronounced Mo-ho. I could drink this stuff from a gallon jug. It's a tangy dip for bread and such at this amazing Cuban restaurant across the street from our neighborhood. It's so good I could just by pass the bread altogether! If you live in Vegas, you must go to Havana Grill and try the mojo. The sandwiches are to die for.

8. Sunsets over the mountains. We never saw real mountains until we moved out West. You begin to understand what the scripture means when it says His creation declares His majesty. Breathtaking. We will miss seeing that every evening.

9. Pizzookies from BJ's. It's a huge, warm gooey cookie covered with a big glob of melting ice cream. The come in a variety of flavors -- chocolate chunk, white chocolate with macadamia nuts, Oreo, etc. Until they open a BJ's in Atlanta, this will have to be a thing we'll miss about Vegas.

10. "It's a Grind" coffee shop at Pebble & Eastern. Every Wednesday night while the kids were in AWANA, Cheryl and I would have a coffee date here. It became quite a special place for us. This is where we wrote our marriage curriculum, "Staying Married on Purpose." This is where we held deep discussions about the weighty issues of life, love, parenting, following Jesus, etc. We will miss the Triple Chocolate blended and the Caramel Macchiato especially.

Stay tuned for the next post... The Top Ten Things We Will NOT Miss About Living in Vegas. I'll give you a hint of number one.... Today it was 110 degrees. I think I felt my life oozing out of my pores.

Transformers 2 Stinks!!!

2009-06-24T21:14:00.000-04:00

I don't have a lot of time as we are in the middle of packing our lives into cardboard boxes. But I did want to take a few minutes to warn all my friends and family (and anyone else who might stumble across this) to AVOID TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN AT ALL COSTS!!!

I absolutely love the first Transformers movie; it was smart, hip, clever, action-packed and probably has the best special effects I have ever seen. But Michael Bay doesn't seem to understand what made the first movie such a success because the sequel seems completely devoid of any of these elements. The story is weak and difficult to follow. The dialogue sounds like it was written by a couple of 8th graders with a pinache for potty humor. The profanity is gratuitous as is the sexual content. Why is Megan Fox always so sweaty looking? She always looks like she hasn't showered in a week. And I haven't the time to go into the racist stereotypes! Where'a Al Sharpton when you really need him?

If I could sum it up in a word, it would be: LAME. Remember the last of the old-school Batman movies, that stink-fest with George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzeneggar? It's THAT bad. Seriously.

Not only should you not waste your money, but you should definitely NOT take the kiddies to see this one.

There. You've been warned. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to packing. Later!

My last day

2009-06-19T22:04:00.000-04:00

This has been a week of "lasts":
My last staff meeting
My last staff lunch
My last morning staff prayer time

And now today was my last day at work. I spent it tying up loose ends, copying over files to my hard drive, packing up my things. It was a little sad but to be honest the excitement over what God has for us overwhelmed the sadness of leaving.

My friend and co-laborer David Quiroz, who made the great family photo you see on our blog, made a large print of it and framed it for us. It was great! It will serve as an incredible reminder that wherever we go, as long as we are together, we are home.

Pastor Jerry?!

2009-06-12T18:36:00.000-04:00

We have had a LOT of surprises in the past few days, some of them not very pleasant. But we got a very nice one today when the staff here at Hope Baptist gave me a surprise lunch of Dickie's BBQ complete with homemade banana pudding (yum!) They brought Cheryl and the kids in and honored us for the last seven years of serving at Hope. But then they really surprised me by presenting me with a framed certificate of ordination into the gospel ministry. My pastor, Vance Pitman told everyone that during the past seven years they have observed my life, my character, and the evidence that the call to full time Christian ministry is on my life. Then the whole staff gathered around and laid hands on our family and prayed over us to send us out.

It was a truly sweet time and we were moved to tears. It has been such a joy serving God at Hope Baptist and we absolutely love the people there. And the honor of being ordained and sent out by that leadership team is something I do not take lightly!

As for the less pleasant surprises, Cheryl found out that she may have to have surgery before we move. This will not only take her out of commission of packing and moving but will prevent her from working extra days and earning some much-needed funds for the transition. Most importantly, my li'l sweet-pea will be hurting and that's not okay with me! Please pray for God to heal her, whether by doctors or by His direct touch, and that her recovery would be quick and painless. God has already been good to us by providing great pastors on both sides of the move, who are working together to make sure we are covered with insurance. What a blessing!

More than meets the...ear!!

2009-06-03T16:16:00.000-04:00

This is just too cool! One of my favorite bands of all time, Cheap Trick, is doing the Transformers theme for the new Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen movie. Check it out:

Transformers The Fallen Remix (Radio Edit)_123966.mp3 - Cheap Trick

Moving Update

2009-06-01T16:37:00.000-04:00

25About three o’clock in the morning ◙ Jesus came to them, walking on the water. 26When the disciples saw him, they screamed in terror, thinking he was a ghost. 27But Jesus spoke to them at once. “It’s all right,” he said. “I am here! Don’t be afraid.”
28Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on water.”
29“All right, come,” Jesus said.
So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. 30But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
31Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him. “You don’t have much faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
(Matt. 14:25-31, NLT)

We felt God stirring in us something new, something that would call us out of the comfort of the boat. We prayed Peter's prayer, "Lord if this is You, command us to come." He did. And then we had to grip the rail of the boat, swing our legs over and drop down into the stormy sea. Now we are walking slowly toward Him on churning, swelling waves. They are screaming for us to look at them and take our eyes off Jesus. "What if no one rents your house?! You haven't booked the movers yet? What about that tile in the kitchen? That has to be fixed! You have no insurance!! What about that?!"

It's freakin' scary. No shame in admitting that. But we believe that God is bigger than all that. "The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!" (1 Thess. 5:22, The Message paraphrase)

How can you pray for us? So glad you asked! :-)

1. We need to rent our house. Until the market turns around, selling is not an option. Of course, God could do it if He wanted. But it looks like He wants us to rent it for now.
2. We need a place to land on the other side. We can't afford a down payment and I don't think we could get a loan without selling our house in Vegas anyway. We need an affordable place to live (that will allow us to keep our dog!) until we can buy our own place. There are a few things in the works but nothing is settled yet.
3. We need affordable health insurance. This is huge. The church we are going to serve with doesn't have a group plan but pays for the pastors to buy their own insurance. But as we all know that stuff ain't cheap. We need wisdom and guidance in finding something affordable with enough coverage for our whole family.
4. I need to raise some support money. While I will have a set salary, the church is still young and asks all its pastors to help offset payroll by raising a fourth of their salaries in support. I will be drafting a letter in the next few weeks and sending it off, along with a short DVD. Please pray about helping support us in this new work God has called us to.

Right now we are targeting June 30th as a departure date. That's coming up fast so start praying NOW! :-) When we have a packing date for the movers, we will let everyone know who has expressed an interest in helping. Thanks so much to all of you who have been so encouraging to us these past few weeks. Stay tuned...

There's something about Norman...

2009-05-20T12:56:00.000-04:00

There is a volunteer here at our church, we'll call him Norman. Everybody has a Norman. He's the guy that knows a little something about everything and wants to tell you everything he knows in every conversation. He's nice enough, but he talks, and talks, and talks... and talks. Norman is that guy in your office that you try not to make eye contact with when you walk by because to do so means you are committed to at least 20 minutes of mind-numbing conversation on how a building is wired, or how a computer works, or what kind of carpet cleaner works best. He's the guy you have to plan your route back to your desk around, so you will be sure not to run into him. And even there you're not safe because he walks into your office unannounced at the most inopportune times imaginable just to shoot the breeze about whatever happens to be on his mind that day.

It's easy to get smug about Norman. You know what I mean. To write him off. To caricature him and label him and set him aside in your brain as an annoyance that must be tolerated. We can do that to people without even thinking about it sometimes. If we never take the time to pay attention to what's going on in their lives they can easily become a cartoon character or sitcom stereotype that drifts in and out of our lives like Kramer in a Seinfeld episode. Norman pops in, interrupts our deeper thoughts, makes some bizarre pronouncement about a random subject, and fades off behind the scenes while we look into the camera, shaking our heads and rolling our eyes in comic disparagement.

So when Norman showed up at our staff prayer time this morning with a prayer request, no one took him very seriously. He began to describe, in that annoyingly painstakingly detailed way he has, of an encounter he and his wife had on the bus the other night. You see, he made some bad decisions and ended up without a job, without a car, and so now he and his wife have to take public transportation everywhere. He'll be the first to admit that he is lying in a bed of his own making. But sometimes we have a tendency to think that lets us off the hook somehow. "Well, he wouldn't be in that situation if he hadn't done this or that, so I don't feel sorry for him one bit."

Anyway, his story rambles on, filled with all the unnecessary details and sidebars we've come to expect from Norman. You can sense the room growing impatient. The gist of his story is that they struck up a conversation with a woman on the bus, and she began to share her story with them. She was part of a church where the pastor wasn't a very godly man and they only seemed interested in money. She was very interested in our church as Norman and his wife began to describe it to her. He told her all about how they really feed you with the word of God, and care about people, and love their city. The lady told Norman, "I want what you have!" So he pulled out a card and invited her to attend worship service this weekend. Norman's simple prayer was that she would come and find a church that would love her and encourage her. It took a long time to tell it, but that was it in a nutshell.

The prayer requests came more quickly after that, much to our relief; a sick relative, a new baby, a friend who lost her job. I watched Norman carefully after that and noticed some things. When an elder staff member came in late and there were no seats left, Norman immediately jumped up and offered his chair. No one else moved a muscle to offer him a seat. Norman stood off to the side while others shared their prayer requests. When it came time to pray, Norman had no chair so he got down on his knees on the floor. It was as though the Holy Spirit was saying to me, "Do you see what I see? Are you looking at Norman the way I do?"

Here we were, staff members. Paid, professional Christians. Church leaders with important things to do. Yet Norman was the only one who shared a story of engaging a total stranger and listening to them, inviting them to church. I thought about what it takes to get a stranger to open up to you like that. You have to be friendly, warm, compassionate, a good listener. Norman was the only one to stand and offer his seat to an older staff member, showing honor and respect and kindness in exactly the way God tells us to in scripture. And when it came time to come into the presence of a holy God in prayer, Norman was the only one on his knees.

I felt ashamed at how I had thought of him before, as the comic relief in my own self-centered story. I voiced a prayer for the lady on the bus and thanked God for Norman and his willingness to listen to her and invite her to church. For being the kind of Jesus follower that this woman, who had every reason to be discouraged and disgusted with Christianity, would look at him and say, "I want what you have!"

So later that morning, when Norman walked into my office, plopped down in a chair and began talking at length about whatever he was thinking about that day, I listened. I offered my insight. I asked questions about what God was doing in his life. And I encouraged him. I told him, "Norman, I was watching you at prayer this morning and I noticed something about you." I told him all the things I noticed and said, "I just wanted you to know that I can see God working in your life. You have really grown."

The writer of Hebrews says this: "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works..." (Heb. 10:24) To consider something implies that we slow down and carefully think it through. We watch, we observe, we process. We can't label and categorize and file each other away, all in a moment based on some perceived character flaw or annoying habit. If we do we might miss what God is doing in unlikely places. That's where the richest treasures are most often found.

Leaving Las Vegas...

2009-05-15T21:48:00.000-04:00

This has been a long time coming, but we can finally be a bit more open about the decisions we have been praying through for the past several months. Some of you know that we have been praying about a position that Jerry has been offered at a church in the Atlanta area. We spent many months praying and listening intently and feel that we have a clear word from God. Jerry has accepted the position of Pastor of Creative Arts at The Church @ The Ridge in Hiram, GA. It is a wonderful church with a terrific leadership team and people who love God. We will be moving there in July.

For our Vegas friends we want to assure you this is not a decision that we made lightly or quickly. We truly believe that this is the next step God has for our whole family and we are excited to follow Him in this faith adventure. Believe us when we say, it is a hard thing to leave behind the incredible friendships we have made here. You are all amazing!!! The love you have shown to our family and the investment you have made in us and our children will never be forgotten. We can truly say that following God to Las Vegas was one of the most enriching and wonderful experiences of our lives. And now we look forward expectantly as He leads us to our next stop on the Journey.

Please pray for us as we try to get our house ready to sell. We are asking Him for wisdom in this... and a good real estate agent! :-) Seriously, we are trusting that the same God who supplied our every need 7 years ago when we first moved here will provide for us again. We believe that we are being obedient to His call and that He will honor that to His glory!
We feel so blessed to have so many dear friends on both ends of the country who have stood by us and prayed for us. We love you and look forward to the Day when we can all be together forever in Heaven!

"For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Phil. 1:8-11)

Stay tuned for more news as we get closer to our final days in Las Vegas...

Jerry, Cheryl, Erik, Whitney & Wil Davison

All In?

2009-03-25T13:38:00.000-04:00

I want to share with you, whoever you are reading this, something that God has been showing me that is revolutionizing my relationship with Him.

For many months now, Cheryl and I have been praying hard about whether or not we should move from Las Vegas. We came here in 2002 to be a part of new church and ended up on staff. It has been incredible and we absolutely love the church and the people. But we began to sense that maybe God was getting ready to move us. We have been praying about this for over a year, asking God, "What are you trying to tell us? Should we move? Or should we stay? What should we do? Where should we go?" We couldn't deny that there was a restlessness and it seemed God was stirring us to something new. Then when the economy took a downward turn it added the weight of being absolutely sure that we heard from God before we did anything that would put our family in jeopardy. Our prayer times had become consumed with getting answers to these questions.

During this time, my wife and I have been reading through a Harmony of the Gospels for the past several months. If you're not familiar, it takes the events in the four gospels and puts them into chronological order. It's a great way to read the gospels, all at once instead of one at a time. It really gives a great perspective on things, hearing the different viewpoints on the same events from Matthew, mark, Luke and John.

A few weeks ago in my morning quiet time, I came across the story of the Widow's Mite in Mark 12:41-44:

And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

I have been in the practice of praying through whatever scripture I am reading, in response to whatever it seems God is saying to me. When I read this story and the corresponding version in Luke 21, I felt God was saying to me, "Jerry, I want you to picture this widow in your mind. What do you see?" I pictured the story as I had always seen it depicted in Sunday school flannel boards and Bible story books. "Well, " I said, "she's very, very old and bent over..."

"Where does it say she was old?"

I looked. Nowhere in the scripture did it say she was an old woman. It simply said she was "a poor widow." I felt God was saying, "Forget what she looks like. Think about what it meant to be a widow in that place and time." In that culture, a woman without a husband was alone, helpless, without a provider or protector. The scripture said she was poor and that her two copper coins were "all she had to live on," so it is doubtful she had any family to care for her. I thought about her loss, her husband, her lover, her best friend and partner in life.

Then I thought about what it meant for her to be down to her last two pennies. Did she wrestle with God about what to do with it? Did she consider all the ways she could use it to maybe buy one last meal before she was completely destitute? Did she at one point say to herself, "I'll just give one and keep one back for myself, just in case..." That's still 50% of all he owned! Who could fault her for that?

Then I thought about the kind of faith it took to walk into that temple knowing that when she walked out of that place, if God didn't come through, she was finished. Did she hesitate, her hand hovering over the treasury box? Did she pray as she let the coins fall from her hand? Whatever else she might have done, she had placed herself in a position where she had no choice but to be completely dependent on the goodness God. No safety net. No Plan B. She was all in.

I asked the question that had been building all the while I was thinking about this widow. "God, what am I holding back? Am I all in? Or am I keeping something back as a safety net, in case You're not enough? Show me where I am not all in."

Later that morning I was driving to work and I was listening to a podcast by John Eldredge. The subject that morning was "Answers vs. Intimacy." He and his co-host were talking about how we so often come to God with a laundry list of needs, concerns, and questions, but don't take the time to just be with Him. It's like a son rushing into his father's presence. He's in panic mode, anxiously asking question after question in rapid fire, desperate for answers. The dad stops the son, "Whoa, slow down. Have a seat. Let's talk." Then John said, "Many people come to God with a question. 'Lord, I need a job. Where do I go? Do we move? Do we sell the house?' They are trying to hear from God in a vacuum. There is no context of intimacy out of which a conversation with God would flow. Of course God wants to speak, he wants to guide us. But not at the expense of a relationship with Him."

That hit me like two tons of bricks. That was exactly where I was living at that moment. We were asking those very same questions! Do we move or do we stay? If we move, what about a job? Do we put our house on the market and see what happens? "Okay, Lord," I said, "I'm listening." I became convicted as I listened to the rest of the podcast that I had let my intimacy with God take a backseat to getting the answers to these questions. I felt He was telling me, "You just seek Me for Me and let me worry about all that stuff." OK, Lord. I repent. Help me to just seek intimacy with You and trust that You will make everything clear in due time.

Fast forward to that night. I go to sleep. I suddenly wake up at 4:00 AM. I'm barely awake. I stagger to the bathroom. Then it happens. Have you ever had those times when you just know that you know that you know God is talking to you? There I was in the bathroom, more asleep than awake, when I felt God was saying, "Jerry, if you will stay up and spend time with me right now, I will tell you the answers to your questions." I'm thinking, I know God didn't just say that to me. I could barely function, I was so tired. All I wanted was to crawl back into bed. I remember thinking, I can't stay up! I'll only get four hours of sleep! I have to be at work tomorrow. I can't function on four hours of sleep! So I said, "Lord if this is really You, keep me awake." Then I staggered back to my bed and fell asleep.

The next morning, in the shower, I was feeling very convicted about what happened. I asked God to forgive me. And once again, it was very clear inside me. He was saying, "I knew you weren't going to do it. I was just answering your prayer from yesterday. You wanted to know where you were holding back. You wanted me to show you where you were not all in. That's it. Right there. I'm not enough for you." Ouch. Of course, he was right (I mean, come on, He's God!). I wanted my sleep because I believed I couldn't function without it. It was like I was holding my two pennies and saying, "I'll give You one, Lord, but I'm holding on to this other one in case You're not enough." If I had stayed up in obedience, I believe He would have supplied me with everything I needed and then some to get through the day. But I was holding back. I was not all in.

Since that time, I have been concentrating on focusing on my intimacy with God in prayer. Not demanding answers. Not petitioning needs. But just spending time with Him, letting Him speak. It hasn't been easy. Several times since then I have caught myself trying to figure things out for myself. "Ok, if we move here, then we can do this and this. But we could stay here and do this thing and that would be great." Then I feel a gentle nudge like the Holy Spirit clearing His throat. "Ahem. Did you forget something? Am I not enough?"

I am reading two great books on this subject right now that are hugely helpful. I highly recommend these to anyone who is experiencing this same thing. They are "Hearing God" by Dallas Willard, and "The PAPA Prayer" by Larry Crabb.

I want to finish by sharing these verses from Psalm 16, the same Psalm God used 8 years ago to confirm our call to Las Vegas. Note the connection between spending time with God and His direction in our lives:

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me. ◙
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being ◙ rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption. ◙
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Are you suffering from Separate Lives Syndrome?

2009-03-05T18:34:00.000-05:00

by Jerry & Cheryl Davison

Back in our college days in Atlanta, Cheryl and I would get together with some friends and spend the afternoon floating down the Chattahoochee River. We used to call it “shooting the ‘Hooch.” We would all rent inner tubes and put in together at the entry point. It was great fun, relaxing in your tube, soaking up the sun, and letting the current carry you lazily down the river. It was so peaceful and the gentle motion of the river so soothing that you could easily find yourself in your own little world, daydreaming about anything and everything, even drifting off to sleep in the warm Georgia sun. The problem was that after a while you would look up and your friends were nowhere in sight. The currents and eddies had one-by-one carried them off in different directions or held one up while the others moved on past. By the time you reached the take out point, the close friends you couldn’t wait to spend the day with were so scattered that you might as well have gone by yourself.
On one occasion I remember “shooting the ‘Hooch” with some friends and seeing a couple glide by in a canoe. They were sweating and their faces were tense from the exertion of paddling. The man sat in the front of the canoe setting the pace and calling encouragement to the woman behind him. They sailed swiftly past us, their paddles plunging in perfect rhythm. I remember thinking, “That is way too much work! They need to learn to relax like us.”
Looking back on this, it dawned on me that when you went down the river in an inner tube you almost never finish together. But if you took the canoe, even though it was more work, you finished together every time. The tube requires no intentionality, no effort. The canoe, however, is much harder work and requires a high level of cooperation. Sometimes it can get a little tense when one is paddling against the other, but they always finish together. They know from the second they sit in that canoe and grab the paddles they are in it together until the end.
Many marriages these days have become more like inner tubes than canoes. They start together with the best intentions but over time the demands of life – career, kids, and the fast-paced culture we live in – pull them in different directions like the currents of a river. They share a house and a mortgage and a bank account but at the end of the day they are more like roommates than marriage partners. We call this phenomenon Separate Lives Syndrome and it is one of the most lethal threats to marriages today. Unless a couple is intentional about staying connected every day and in every area of your lives, the natural tendency is to drift apart like that old inner tube on the river. Here are some practical strategies for finishing together:

Carve out time together. It has often been said that if you want to know what is important to a person, look at his checkbook. We would go a step further and say, “Take a look at the calendar!” We make time for what is truly important to us. Yet very few couples are making room in their schedules to build their marriage. A 2004 study in England revealed that, after subtracting sleeping, work and passive activities such as watching television, the average married couple only spends about 15 minutes a day actually interacting with each other.
In most marriages, at least one spouse works a full time job, forcing them to spend 8 – 10 hours apart almost every day. Cheryl and I decided a few years ago that we would not let an entire day go by without staying connected in some way. We began texting quick messages just to say, “I’m thinking of you.” I set up instant messaging on my computer at work and leave it open in case she needs me. We take a minute each day to drop what we are doing and call. All of these things are free to do and only take a few minutes, yet they keep us connected all day.
In addition to daily time, we carve out time for a weekly date. A few years ago, we began setting aside every Friday at lunch as a special time just for us. We found a great little sushi restaurant that has become “our place.” It is blocked out on our calendar and everyone knows it. Nothing is allowed to preempt this scheduled time. By making it a priority we are saying, not only to each other but also to everyone around us, that we value our marriage.
If a weekly date night doesn’t fit your budget find some other way to spend time together. Don’t let money be an excuse. Cook a meal together. Ride bikes together. Take a drive out of the city and just talk. The main thing is that you don’t allow distractions or interruptions to make space between you. Turn off the cell phone, put down the remote, and deliberately focus on each other. Making time regularly to focus your undivided attention on your spouse will keep you connected and help close the gaps.

Make sure your circles overlap. The inevitable byproduct of busy schedules is that so much of our time and energy is spent cultivating relationships with people other than our spouses. If we are not careful, husbands and wives can become completely immersed in their own circle of influence. This circle usually revolves around the workplace and includes its own set of goals, dreams, life-shaping experiences, and personal relationships. If a couple isn’t intentional about making sure these circles overlap at some point, they will inevitably begin to pull that couple apart and create space between them.
It is essential that couples make a strategy for overlapping these circles. According to statistics from the private investigation industry the co-ed workplace has become the number one place for extramarital affairs to begin. If you are suddenly realizing that your circles have drifted too far apart, here are some practical ways you can bring them back together again:
• Make time every day to sit down with your spouse and tell them what’s going on in your world. Ask him/her about their day. Make an intentional effort to stay in touch with what you both are experiencing.
• If possible, drop by your spouse’s workplace. Bring him/her a gift, meet for lunch, or just drop in to say hi. Introduce your spouse to co-workers. Make your presence known and felt.
• If you can’t go to your spouse’s workplace, invite his co-workers to dinner. You want to know whom he’s spending time with… but more importantly you want them to know you!
• Take an inventory together of all the things you are involved in apart from each other: career, ministry, sports, clubs, or organizations. Are there any of these things you could do together? Are there any relationship bonds that are competing with your marriage for attention, energy, or influence? Be prepared to let some things go for the sake of protecting your marriage.

Take an interest in what interests your spouse. Remember when the two of your were dating? You did things and went places you didn’t particularly care for the sole reason of just being together. Now ask yourself this: Why did you stop? What if you had to make your spouse fall in love with you all over again? What would you do? What are her passions? What are his dreams? Do you know enough about your partner to pull it off?
If you don’t know what pushes your mate’s buttons, ask! Take some time and study each other. Take notes because you will be tested on it later! Here are a few things to consider when getting to know your spouse better:

• Simple pleasures. What is his favorite food? What kind of music does she like? If he could spend the day doing anything he wanted, what would it be?
• Gifts and talents. What is your spouse great at? What unique gift does he or she possess that would bless others? What do they feel the most fulfilled doing?
• Heart’s desires. What did your husband want to be when he was a boy? What dreams and desires does your wife have that have gone unfulfilled? What calls to her in the deep places of her heart? What does he have a burden for?

Now ask yourself, “Have I been an encouragement or a discouragement to my spouse?” Pick one of these passions and make it your personal mission to help them achieve it. Now what are you waiting for? Get out of your inner tubes and get in the canoe together. Make a plan to finish together no matter what!

Is Facebook Safe for My Marriage?

2009-01-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

By Jerry & Cheryl Davison
Since the social networking craze began, there have been concerns expressed over the safety of our kids but very few have considered the threat they can pose to the unguarded marriage.

“Have you looked at Facebook today?” Something in the tone of Cheryl’s voice warned me that this was not a casual question for the sake of conversation. My wife and I had opened an account on the popular social networking site a few months prior at the urging of some out of town friends as a way to stay in touch.
“No, I haven’t,” I replied tentatively. “What’s up?”
“You got a message from an old friend.” As soon as I logged in to our account I saw what she meant. We had a message in our inbox from a former female classmate. Apparently she was going to be in town for a few days and wondered if I would meet her for lunch. Even though Cheryl and I clearly share an account, the message was addressed only to me. We decided it would be best to reply as a couple to send a clear message.
We began the reply with the words “My wife and I would be happy to meet you for lunch!” and even invited her to attend church with us that weekend. If her intention was an innocent albeit naïve reunion, then no harm done. If, however, there was anything more behind the request, it communicated firmly but politely that I was not interested. In the end, it all came to nothing because her schedule prevented her from meeting us.
We can look back now and laugh about this story because it has a happy ending. For many couples, however, a reunion of old friends on Facebook has not ended so happily. A newspaper in England recently ran the story of a woman whose husband left her and their two children after rekindling a relationship with an old flame on Facebook. One need only to Google “Facebook” and “divorce” to discover that this tale is an increasingly common one. In fact, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers recently reported that the number of divorce cases involving internet-based infidelity is on the rise. When it comes to Facebook and it’s social networking peers, ignorance is a bliss that marriages can no longer afford.
For those who may not be familiar with it, Facebook.com is a worldwide online community of more than 100 million people. Members can send each other pictures and videos, write on each other’s “wall,” and share what they are doing with their friends and family at any given moment. It has grown so popular that it recently outpaced its only real competition, MySpace.com, and became the 5th most visited website in the world in terms of traffic. It’s easy to see why it has become so popular: it’s free to join, fascinating to explore, and – let’s face it – it’s just plain fun!
But for all it’s fun, Facebook can have a dark side for the husband and wife who have not set boundaries to protect their marriage. Here are a few simple strategies that you and your spouse can easily implement to reduce the risk while enjoying the fun of Facebook:

• Have a joint account . When Jesus said that married men and women “are no longer two but one flesh” He wasn’t just speaking figuratively. You are truly one – a whole new entity with a new identity. A terrific way to reflect that reality to your Facebook friends is to have one account for both of you. It also serves as a safeguard against potential temptations to build relationships with the opposite sex apart from your spouse.
Remember the story of the old friend who wanted to meet me for lunch? Imagine that same scenario between a couple with separate Facebook accounts. Suppose they had also been going through a rough spot in their marriage. It would have been very easy to hide the message from their spouse and arrange a meeting. At the very least, the couple would have been exposing their marriage to a temptation they may or may not be able to withstand.
Some Facebook junkies may object that having a joint account limits some of the fun of the website. For instance, there is only room to list one birthday or one graduating class, making it more difficult for old friends and classmates to find you. These are minor objections, however, and easy to work around if you are resourceful. Cheryl and I alternate birthdays and graduation years every so often. Whatever small sacrifices you may have to make, your marriage is worth it.
If you do choose to have separate accounts, be sure to allow each other easy access at all times for accountability purposes. Don’t hesitate to check up on each other. It doesn’t communicate mistrust, but rather says to your spouse, “I value our marriage enough to protect it.”

• Do it together. Another great way to make the most of your Facebook experience as a couple is to wait until you can check it together. This may be a tough adjustment for those who are used to logging in whenever they want but it brings a lot of extra benefits to the table.
Checking Facebook as a couple provides a fun and unique way for the two of you to come together and spend time doing something you both enjoy. Cheryl and I get a kick out of reading our friends’ status lines, quick one-sentence updates on what they are doing that day. It gives us another thing in common that we can laugh and talk about throughout the day.
It also serves as a deterrent to “Separate Lives Syndrome,” one of the deadliest threats a marriage can face today. Jesus warned that “what God has joined together let no man separate.” (Matt. 19:6) Separate in the original Greek language means “to make space between.” Anything that creates space between a couple rather than bringing them closer together should be taken seriously.

• Absolutely no old flames allowed. This is a no-brainer yet we are constantly amazed at the lack of caution couples exhibit in this area. It is impossible to underestimate the power of emotional bonds created in past relationships. These can be very alluring especially if you are experiencing conflict in your marriage. It is wiser to simply close and lock that door altogether.
“But won’t I offend someone by ignoring their friend request?” This is a question we had to answer when we first opened our Facebook account and set these boundaries in place. To be completely frank, the answer we landed on was, “We can live with that!” We don’t mean to sound harsh but the fact is that the danger to our marriage far outweighs any benefit.
Ignoring or removing friends on Facebook is easy and the person is not even notified so the chances of offending someone are relatively small. The bottom line is this: Your marriage is now your relationship of priority. While you never want to offend unnecessarily, sometimes you may have to in order to protect your marriage – and theirs.

• Send the right signals. All of us at all times are sending signals, broadcasting through our words, our dress, our eyes and a hundred other ways that we are either open to a relationship or satisfied with the one we are in. On Facebook it is no different. Your profile is your public face to your friends so be careful what you are communicating on it. Here are a few suggestions that we have found helpful:
1. Use your status line to brag on your marriage. Pete Hixson, a pastor friend of ours in Atlanta has a separate Facebook account from his wife, Hollie, yet they clearly send the signal that they are happy together and not open to an affair. For example Pete recently wrote, “Pete is looking forward to a little time out tonight with my best friend – my wife!” Hollie wrote, “Hollie is all dressed up and going to a nice dinner with my good lookin’ man!” We noticed that many of their church members frequently comments on how happy they look together. They are mindful to model a Christ-centered marriage to their watching flock.
2. Upload lots of smiling photos of the two of you! A picture is worth a thousand words so make yours say what you want it to say. Your profile pictures should radiate the message that you are happy together. Even if you don’t share an account, you should include your spouse in your profile pictures.

• Pray for discernment. Strategies and safeguards are great and can be very helpful but they alone are not enough. The reality is that we are in a battle and our Enemy has targeted our marriages. Do not underestimate him! Cheryl and I have begun praying together before logging on to Facebook. We ask God to reveal any dangerous relationships or situations and to protect our marriage from any attacks of the Enemy.
We also ask Him to show us opportunities to encourage other couples. We leave notes on their “wall” whenever we see friends modeling a healthy, happy, and holy marriage. We have learned to see our friends’ status lines as potential prayer requests. In this way, Facebook is not only a fun activity but also a fulfilling ministry that we can do together.

Conversational Prayer

2008-08-22T13:53:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a book by Buddy Owens, one of the pastors at Saddleback Church in California.It's called The Way of a Worshipper. In it, he talks about conversational prayer, the idea that prayer should be a two way exchange between us and God rather than us bringing Him a laundry list of needs and then signing off "in Jesus' name." To do this he suggests something counter intuitive to the traditional approach to "quiet times." Instead of thinking of our devotions in terms of a prayer part and a scripture part, combine the two and pray as you read scripture. Since it is God's Word, it is God's voice, and He will speak what He wants to say and then we respond to that. Then we read some more, He speaks, we respond. It has been a revolutionary change for me.

This morning, for instance, I turned to Matthew 9:2-8. My wife and I have been reading through a Harmony of the Gospels, and this is where we were so far. It is the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Before I began reading I asked God to quiet my heart. "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." Then I began...

(v.2) And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith...

Oh, God, let my faith be clearly seen. Help me live today in such a way as to make it plainly evident to all that I love and follow Jesus.

Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Father, help me live courageously today knowing that the blood of Jesus covers all my sins. I pray that guilt and shame and fear would not paralyze me...

A sudden thought: Am I paralyzed? Like the man Jesus healed, am I unable to move or to feel because I cling to guilt and shame and fear of judgment? Have I let the lies of the Enemy convince me that I am worthless, that You could never really love Me, that You are angry and disappointed with me? Do I carry that weight? Has it paralyzed me and prevented me from following after You?
Oh, God, grant me the courage to live free from the new life You have given me!

(v. 3) And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.”
(v. 4) And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?

God, show me if I am thinking evil of something You are doing. Is there anything that I have judged in my heart to be wrong simply because it doesn't look like what I expected to see, or because it doesn't measure up to my preconceived ideas?
Father, help me to be careful not to judge by my standards but to discern by Your Spirit. Give me wisdom to recognize Your hand, Your voice, Your work, Your will. Help me to distinguish Your voice from the Enemy's. Let me never think evil in my heart of something that You are doing. Reveal it to me now if I have done this.

(v. 5)“Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’?
(v. 6) “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”--then He *said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”

Father, you gave Jesus all authority on earth. I surrender myself anew to that authority right now. If You say,"Get up," I will get up. If You say, "Go here," I will go. I praise You, Sovereign Lord! Let me never rebel against Your authority or seek my own way above Yours. Show me now if I am doing this in any area of my life.

(v. 7) And he got up and went home.

Obedience is healing. To hear the voice of Jesus saying "Your sins are forgiven" produces courage; courage to submit to His authority and simply trust that God can do in You what He said He would do. Obedience follows and that's where the healing takes place. Father, let my obedience heal the wounds in the deep places of my heart. I don't have the power to obey on my own, Lord, but if You speak it to me, I can walk in it.
If the man had decided in his own heart to try to get up and walk in his own strength he would have failed. If anyone else had told him to get up and walk, he would not have been able to.

Your Word alone carries with it the power to obey it.

Teach me to walk in obedience to Your Word, oh, God!

(v. 8) But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Father, may my obedience cause others to glorify You. I pray that my family's obedience to Your Word will produce awe of God and praise to You.

I ask all these things and praise you in the Holy and Precious Name of Jesus Christ!

That was the way my quiet time went today and it was amazing. I actually had a conversation with the God of the universe! He spoke, I listened. I spoke back, he listened. Could there be anything more amazing than that? I have made it point to keep that line open, to stay connected to Him. I haven't even said "Amen" yet! Because the conversation isn't finished...

"Speak, Lord, Your servant is still listening."

How much more your Heavenly Father...

2008-08-14T17:39:00.000-04:00

You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. (Matt. 7: 9-11, NLT)

I was having breakfast with my friend Daniel yesterday morning. He was telling me how excited he was that his 23 month old little girl asked for something by name for the first time. His face lit up as he described how she toddled up and clearly asked for an apple. He was plainly delighted to be able to give her exactly what she asked for. As he described the scene I pictured it in my head; her sweet little voice asking innocently, "Apple?" and her father smiling handing it to her. I thought about the closeness that deepened between them during that simple exchange.

It was such a clear principle of prayer that it rocked me back on my heels. The Father delights in giving us good things! The asking is part of the delight. The bond of closeness that deepens between us and our Heavenly Father when we with childlike faith ask for the good things we know He wants for us. There is something about the exchange that draws us deeper into Him, strengthens our relationship, knits our hearts to His.

Now contrast that to the spoiled, demanding child who constantly asks for things he knows he cannot have. It's no fun for me as a dad to have to constantly tell my kids "No." It's certainly no fun for them to constantly hear it. But the problem is that often they don't want the good things we have for them. Many times children want what is not good for them. They know the answer is no but they ask repeatedly. They plead, they whine, they get angry and have a tantrum, all the time knowing the answer is no.

Now think about what that does to the relationship. The Father is grieved because they want these things and refuse to take no for a answer. His heart is heavy because he must say no again and again, and he knows the grief that follows. The child is angry and resentful and says hurtful things to the father.

In those few moments listening to Daniel share the joy of giving his daughter good things when she asks for them, I was confronted with my own asking. Did it bring joy to my Father? Or grief? Do I want the good things He has for me? Or do I stubbornly insist on getting my own way, and then being angry when He must say , "No"? Am I missing out on the closeness with God of simply receiving the good things He wants me to have? After all, it's really the Father's heart the child is asking for. When you have the Father's heart, what's in His hand comes with it.

And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. 15And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for. (1 John 5:14-15, NLT)

The Marriage class was a big success!

2008-07-25T17:19:00.000-04:00

Wow! What an incredible six weeks!

We just wrapped up our "Staying Married on Purpose" class with about 20 couples and it was awesome! We met some great people and deepened some relationships. Best of all was the feedback we got back on our evaluation. One woman told us that after 20 years of marriage her husband started praying with her in the mornings -- because of the class! Isn't that amazing? Others told us they have begun pursuing God together as a couple, doing their devotions together, praying together and reading the Bible together. It just shows you how faithful God is when you just obey Him.

For our friends back in Georgia, we were planning to come back and visit this summer but ticket prices have been too expensive. Hopefully, we can make it this fall. Meanwhile we've been playing around on Google Earth looking at places like the Big Chicken, Turner Field, and the Caldwells' house. We really miss you guys! :-(

Third day gives my old band a shout out...

2008-07-03T12:02:00.000-04:00

My good buddy Mark Lee, guitarist extraordinaire from Third Day, gave JT a nice plug on his blog yesterday:

I had so much fun last week with Hair Metal Day that we've got to keep the party going. This week we're going to talk about our favorite old school CCM artists. I'm going to get it started with a list of 10 CCM bands. No particular order...

...3. Jacob's Trouble - Great live band - I saw them at least 20 times in concert.

Thanks, Mark! You guys are definitely in our Top Ten CCM bands that have covered a JT song! Wait, you guys are the only band to cover a JT song. Oh well...

Anyhoo, it's a cool blog post and if you want to read the whole thing you can find it here.

Our marriage class is going great!

2008-06-26T09:40:00.000-04:00

Cheryl and I recently started a marriage class here at Hope Baptist in Las Vegas. After seeing some good friends wreck their marriages we really got angry about what we allow the Enemy to get away with in Christian homes. God took that anger and made it a burden for Christian marriages, then from that burden birthed a ministry.

The class is called "Staying Married on Purpose." It's all about how great marriages are built intentionally, not incidentally. God gave us 5 big areas where we saw Christian couples lose it and fall apart. From those five things we developed a curriculum and taught a couple of small group pilot classes this past spring.

We launched our first full scale class at the church a few weeks ago and -- WOW! We have over 35 couples sign up. The class is huge and we were a little nervous. But God is plenty big enough and He showed up s it's been awesome!

Please pray for us as we seek to encourage marriages here in the divorce capital of the world. The Enemy has already come against us and will most certainly attack us in this area. We hope to start a blog soon and expand our efforts to encourage Christian couples beyond just our church. Stay tuned for more details!

Meet the Davisons!

2008-06-26T09:10:00.001-04:00

My good friend David Quiroz took this picture of us recently. We have long talked about doing a family portrait mimicing the classic Meet the Beatles album cover. He was kind enough to set up the shoot and make the photo. He is going to print out a large copy of it so we can have it framed and hang it in the house. Hey, why don't you guys come out to Vegas and see it in person! Yeah, that's a great idea! :-)

Blast from the Past!

2007-12-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

This is an old video of Erik we did in 2004 for a series our church was doing. Well, we're doing the series again so it's time to blow the dust off and re-run it!

Happy Birthday, Wil!!

2007-10-17T18:04:00.000-04:00

Wil turns 6 today! He is having the party this Sunday. We will post some pictures later next week. In the meantime, it's not to late to send a card or make a quick phone call or email.

Wil Dancing

2007-09-19T00:16:00.000-04:00

Heres a cute video of Wil dancing. Erik took this on his camera.

Whitney is a video star!

2007-08-21T20:51:00.000-04:00

Whitney acted and did the voice-over for one of our videos at our church. It is to promote a series we are doing on the book of Proverbs. She did an awesome job! Check it out!

Chicago Update

2007-08-04T18:46:00.000-04:00

It's about 16 hours till I (Erik) get on a plane to Chicago with my youth group for a mission trip. Everyone please pray for me while I'm gone. Thank you all so much for your support!

Chicago Update

2007-07-17T00:22:00.000-04:00

Well, I (Erik) now have $535 toward my Chicago mission trip in Aug. That's 35 dollars more than i need! Any money i get toward this trip now will be used to pay for Bibles in Chicago. Thank You guys so much for your support!

Me 'n' My MINI

2007-07-11T18:19:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting some pics of my Mini Cooper that Cheryl gave me for Christmas. What a wife! I went to Africa on a mission trip last December and she surprised me at the airport when I got back into town. It's sweet! I love it. But the thing I love best is that it reminds me of what an awesome wife I have every time I drive it.

Chicago Mission Trip

2007-06-17T17:55:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, For those of you who are supporting me (Erik) for my mission trip to Chicago, I have posted a video recapping our youth group's trip to Chicago from last year. I apologise for the poor quality of the video. It was thrown together by one of our youth leaders in about 5 hours which is a very short time to edit a video. The Video only really shows a fourth of our activity from last years trip because the rest was so awesome no one wanted to pick up the camera. lol! But it should give you an idea of what we will be doing this year and where your money and prayer support is going.

Thank You guys for your support, I currently have $440 toward my trip, only $60 more to go! Anything raised above that will be invested into the lives of the people and ministries in Chicago. Also if you would like to know more about our church partner in Chicago, here is the link to thier website: http://www.cornerstoneofchicago.com/ Thanks to all of you again.

Catching Up...

2007-02-17T02:02:00.000-05:00

I realize for many of our friends and family, it's been a while since you have seen us or had a chance to talk. So I thought it would be a good idea to catch everybody up all at once via the modern miracle of the internet. Here's what's been going on with us the past year or so...

I am still working at Hope Baptist Church as the Creative Arts Director. That's a fancy title but mostly I do video production and the occasional drama. If you want check out some of the videos and skits I've written,directed and produced you can click here. I also play drums in the praise band along with my son, Erik, who also plays in the student praise band. He is an excellent drummer, much better at his age (15) than I was. Erik is working on guitar and will be quite the musical tour de force by the time he's an adult.

Cheryl is still a nurse,working at Southern Hills Hospital here in Las Vegas in the mother/baby unit. She is much loved by all her peers and has had a lot of opportunities to share the gospel with her co-workers there. She also leads a ladies' prayer group every Monday morning. She home schools all three of the kids; Erik is in 10th grade, Whitney is in 5th and Wil is in preschool. Somehow in all this she finds the time to look amazing!! She has lost over 30 pounds this past year and she is even more beautiful than when we first met.

We are involved in a small group fellowship every Friday night with 5 other families and having a great time. We also make time for a lunch date together every Friday. We have discovered the joys of sushi and can't get enough! Our favorite is a thing called Touchdown at a little place called Sushi Bay in Henderson. We had it just today, in fact. As Wil would say,"It's dang it good!"

Erik, as I said, is an accomplished musician already at 15. He is very involved in our student ministry here at Hope Baptist and volunteers in the preschool area. He feels strongly that God has called him to work with that age group. He is also a paid child care worker here and a sought-after babysitter. We are very proud of Erik. He is a godly young man with hunger to know God and a strong moral compass. Plus the dude is funny!! Man, he cracks me up.

Whitney is so incredibly beautiful, it's scary. Of course with a mom like Cheryl what would you expect? She is a talented artist and the wall of my office is covered with her artwork. I call it the Wall of Whitney. She is my encourager. If the whole world turned against me, Whit would be there with a hug, telling me she loves me. I absolutely adore her. And she has an amazing sense of humor. She can do a wide variety of funny voices and faces that keep us all in stitches. But Whit's biggest passion is for animals. Her heart's desire is to work with wildlife. We are trying to encourage her in that and to help her find a way to use it to point people to Jesus.

Wil is amazing! What a hilarious little guy! He has a remarkable vocabulary for his age (5) and a solid grasp of abstract concepts. His little heart beats for superheroes, Star Wars and video games. He dresses up in his Batman and Fantastic Four costumes and plays superhero around the house. Every night I read him a comic book, strictly the classics: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, old Batman, Justice League, and Superman. What can I say? I'm raising him right.

We are very happy here in Vegas. I know that sounds strange -- heck, it seems weird to me and I've lived here for four and a half years now! -- but God is up to something here. There is a real sense at the church that He is moving and doing a unique work in this area. And it's cool to be in the middle of it. My kids are getting to see Him do amazing things and change peoples lives all around them. As much as I love the South and miss Georgia, I'm very glad to be where I am.

Well, that's it for now. I'll tell you more when I get the chance. I want to show you what my wife got me for Christmas. It's SWEET!! Next time...

Welcome to our blog!

2007-02-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

Hello to all our family and friends across the country!

Thank you for coming to check out this blog. The whole idea behind it was to stay in touch with all of you who love us so much and have invested so greatly in our family. We want to be able to share all the triumphs and tragedies, hopes and hurts, birthday parties and pet funerals with you even though thousands of miles may separate us. please feel free to add your comments. And check in frequently because life moves fast out here in Vegas! We are in the middle of an amazing God-thing and He is calling us up into a Great Adventure where each chapter is more awesome than the one before.

Thank you all for your prayers and your encouragement. And please, please, please don't forget to come visit us. We miss you guys!