CRAP!

Good morning or evening wherever you are! Today was a difficult day for me. I seemed to be in a funk all day! However I still did what God told me to do, to go spread the good news about Jesus Christ! You see its days like today when Jesus moves like never before! It had to be all him because I felt like crap!! Hey I’m just being real with you! They are days when I wake up and I don’t even want to get out of bed! You have probably had days like that yourself. I remember one morning in particular I was getting ready to do Outreach and I felt like crap! So I told myself I’m not going to go and the Holy Spirit convicted me almost as soon as that thought entered my mind. It spoke and said “What if I (JESUS) had of said, you know I don’t feel like going to the cross today I will just wait!” WOW I felt like 2 inches tall after that one! So I went and WOW, we reached over 300 people that day! It wasn’t me, because like I said I didn’t feel like doing it! It was all Jesus! He has gotten me through so many tough times and days of my life! Right now I just want to tell him THANK YOU! THANK YOU JESUS FOR CHOOSING ME. I DIDN”T DESERVE IT! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Headed to G-VEGAS!!! IM PUMPED!

Headed to Greenville to do street ministry! Please pray for me this morning! We will be going inside of harms way to one of the most dangerous locations in the upstate of South Carolina! God will protect us and im believing lives will be forever changed today! Your prayers will definetly help! I would like to say good job to Tommy and Brandon who started up the Iva, SC ministry it’s going great and exploding at the seams! Anderson is next and we are getting close to expanding to other cities as well! Jesus is Awseome I will give an update tonight of how today went!! With Love Jason!!

Moving=Hard WORK!

Hi everyone today has been fantastic! We sold our house so now the packing and planning has began! Wow is all i can say, its work! There is always something to do when it comes to moving. I wish i could say its not stressful but that just not realistic! Its very stressful and time consuming! We are a family of four so there is alot of stuff! Me and my wife are not pack rats we give stuff away all the time and we still have lots to pack! As I pack I can’t help but notice how blessed I am! Here in this nation we have so much to be thankful for. That’s one thing helping me with my stress level is being thankful for what I do have! Well getting ready for Datenight with my wife so have a great rest of your day! One LOVE, One GOD, One WAY! JESUS CHRIST!!! I love you guys and gals Jason!!!

Financial Freedom!

It’s been so amazing to see God move in my life as well as my families lives lately! I will not be blogging as much over the next month. I will be moving, we have sold our house and we are making a lot of huge financial decisions! Me and my beautiful wife have been working on and sacrificing to get completely out of debt over the past 18 months! As God moves we are getting closer to financial freedom! I’m so excited and pumped up I can hardly be still! Debt freedom is something you rarely see in America. You know what I mean! Everybody gets credit cards, house payments, car payments and most families can’t afford what they buy! With a very unstable economy these things can take a toll on everyone’s lives! I speak from experience, when I met my wife 8 years ago I had $26,000 dollars in loans and credit cards and that’s without a car or house loan! I was young and stupid! Now it’s almost gone and I owe it all to God, he worked through my finances in a mighty way! When you put God first in your finances it works!!!! Now that we are on the subject of debt, there is one thing I want you to know! When it came to paying for our sins, Jesus Christ paid it all on the cross. He covered the past, present and future sins of the world! All we have to do is accept his payment and believe in him! That’s what I call true debt freedom! I love all of you out there and remember GOD IS LOVE!!! I’m out to pack up some stuff! Jason. oh! Go to Joe Sangal .com for financial advice! He is on it!!!!!

Church spliting hurts! 9-18-08

I talked to a great friend of mine this week and he was so frustrated and confused! His home church split right down the middle this past Sunday! He had been telling me about all the problems they had been having. I have to say I was not at all surprised! Now for the part that ticks me off, he said several weeks ago the directors of the church sat the Pastor down and told him the church was growing to fast. They also told him he needed to slow things down a little! I have to admit this makes my ears turn red! I think growth is great don’t you! He went on to tell me that when they hired this pastor things were bad. No one was there because this church had split 2 times prior. They told this pastor what ever his vision for God they would follow it and could not wait to see it grow! Really, we see that definitely is not the case now. I told him it sounds like to me it was time for new directors, the ones they have sound like to me their full of self-righteousness! You see these types of things have and are happening in churches all across our nation. Leaders get the big head and suddenly forget that Jesus Christ chose them not vice versa! This is destroying lives and hurting people! Some people turn away from God because of these very things! I’ve seen this happen before, a pastor starts a church then the very staff he hires oversteps him! They get so involved in what they want instead of the vision God has set before them! Some churches across our nation are in a state of ruin! I was in a neighborhood the other day and passed 5 churches that were run down and falling in. The thought came to my mind where did the vision go; a vision for Jesus Christ, reaching the lost, building homes, feeding the needy! These are just a few things I personally believe Jesus Christ has called the body of Christ to do! You see people inside churches all across this nation try to tell people how to dress, how to act, what to say, when to say it! I don’t know about you but if I were an unbeliever I wouldn’t want to be in that environment! It happens it’s all true you know it is! I’m tired of this kind of behavior coming from my family The Body of Christ! You see Pastors have began teaching racism from the pulpit and “oh my gosh” have mercy on them lord! If you are racist you need to stop it now Jesus was clearly not racist! I’m on a roll so prepare yourselves I hold nothing back and I don’t care if you like it or not!!!!! The church was started by Jesus Christ; it is designed for the lost, that’s why it exists! To except everyone no matter how they act, what color they are, what their social status is, what they drive, where they live, and even how they smell! Jesus Christ reached out to all and IT IS TIME THE CHURCH IN AMERICA WAKE UP! You see our righteousness is like that of a filthy rag in the eyes of God! Translation a filthy rag when this was recorded in scripture meant a women’s menstrual cloth! Yeah I said it! It’s true, look it up yourself! On our best day we are not even worthy of being saved but still Jesus Christ saves us! Thank You Jesus I pray right now that the Church in this nation will wake up and reach out! Help us Father! I Love You Jason

He is all powerful and sufficient!

First let me say ministry went great yesterday and people excepted Jesus as there Savior. Thats what it's all about! Now for my post!I am going to be getting very personal with you this morning. I fail sometimes to do the very thing I’m going to be writing about this morning! If we were all honest many of us fail to do so. You see we limit God sometimes! Jesus is bigger than anything, any problem we face, any unexpected bill we get in the mail, any sickness we may encounter or doctor report we may receive that didn’t go exactly like we wanted it to! So why do we “myself included” limit God in our lives! In all the gospels we see a very familiar story about a little boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish! You see this boy had little to offer but when put in Jesus hands he made it a lot! We could look at this story in a lot of ways but one that sticks out to me is how little faith the disciples had! They had been with Jesus and seen him heal the blind, lame and sick but when they seen all these people following behind sit on the mountainside in Galilee, they questioned themselves how will we feed all of them. They looked at a problem instead of a solution! Jesus Christ was sitting right beside them probably resting because he had been teaching all day! Scripture says in John 6:9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” The disciples questioned themselves! This is such a problem in our everyday journey through life. We serve a humongous God and he is all powerful and supreme! So why do we limit him! You see we as believers do the same thing the disciples done. We look at how big our problems are instead of how big God is! We all have done this at one time or another! If you say you have not you probably have a problem with lying! I’m convinced if the disciples had been concerned with feeding there spiritual hunger this problem would not have seemed so big! You see Jesus wanted his followers to seek him for himself, and not for what he could do for them. You see we serve an in control God in an out of control world! We all need to believe that through the lowest of lows we serve the highest of highs! In John 16:33 Jesus said in this life we will have trouble, notice he said we will, not we might! So when a problem comes your way look up and smile for Jesus is with you do not fear! Joshua 1:9 Have a Jesus Christ filled day! With Love Jason

Digging for dirt or gold?

I would like to start out today’s post with a question I think we all need to answer. Are you going for dirt or gold? Please! Let me explain. Encouragement is a great thing; we all like it and want more of it. In a very negative world encouragement is hard to locate. It seems like everyone’s out to get dirt on somebody. We see it in Hollywood everyday, it also happens in the workplace and yes even churches all across this country. The fact of the matter is some people would like to see you screw up more than see you succeed! I know it’s sad but these types of people are not happy and they screw up so much they like to see you screw up just to make them feel better! Thank God not all people are like this! There are still people out their willing to look past the dirt to what’s behind it GOLD! You see gold miners often have to drill through tons of dirt to get to 1 ounce of gold. They are determined to find something great! Lets face it we are all not good people, but we all have positive attributes about us! So realize this, we all have gold behind our dirt but often people would rather see your screw ups than your success! Jesus Christ makes no mistakes and when he created you he created something beautiful and he has an incredible plan for your life. YOU HAVE A PURPOSE! So try today to look at the positives in each other; people you work with, family, friends. Look past the dirt “We All Have It” and look for the gold. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up….” We must encourage not discourage! Let me hit you with a rhyme for one second “You see Jesus is the up not the down. Not the bottom, he’s the top. He’s the left, he’s the right. He’s the go, he’s the stop. He’s the light of the world that never burns out; he’s the author of the book so he knows how it turns out!!!” This rhyme or rap as some would call it is so true. Jesus is the up so look up today. Encourage one another and smile with love in your heart at someone today! Your smile may be the only one they see all day! Well I’m off to G-ville or as my pastor would say G-vegas. I’m pumped lives will be forever changed today through Jesus Christ! With love to ALL! Jason

Alcohol/Stumbling Block?

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone’s morning is going great! I am going to be talking about being a stumbling block today. If you’re a Christian reality is this we all have bulls eyes on our backs, people are just waiting on us to mess up. Here is the kicker it’s not always worldly people either sometimes its people inside the church! So what does Jesus Christ say about being a stumbling block? Are we held accountable for causing a young Christian to fall by our actions? These next verses should answer both questions! Luke 17 verses 1-3 Jesus said “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves.” See we need to be aware of the FACT that non-believers, seekers and even new Christians are watching our lifestyle. Should they be watching us? Absolutely not! But it is a reality! You see people watch Christians to see if they are living as they say they are! In reality some don’t live as they claim to live, notice I said some! We need to be on guard at all times that we don’t cause anyone to fall! I remember when I was a young Christian I had a Godly friend invite me to a Clemson game and the night before we went out to supper! Our conversation was based on Alcohol and what was my opinion on Christians that drink? I was wondering why he asked me this so outright! But I told him alcohol had been a problem for me in my past and that I had actually had some addiction to it and I did not like to be around it! He smiled and said ok that’s cool. Then he asked me what I believe as far as drinking goes? I told him that if a believer wants to have a drink in my opinion its up to them as long as they are not a stumbling block for someone else! Jesus did turn water into wine! YES IT WAS FURMINTED WINE! That was his first miracle! So is it wrong to drink? No! It becomes a sin when you cause someone to fall or indulge yourself in drunkenness! Back to my story that Saturday we went to the game we did not even go near alcohol! Come to find out later, my friend usually had a beer or two while he tailgated before the game, but because he knew alcohol had been a problem for me he chose not to even take me around it! Praise God for him! He was obedient to Gods word and watched himself! He stayed guarded! So I ask you this morning are you being a stumbling block. If you are you may not even know it! Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ and follow him wholeheartedly! Please listen to what Jesus said! I Love you Guys and Gals! I’m off to Fusion Warehouse to get ready for tonight lots of teens coming! Jason

September 11th prayer!

Good morning everyone! Today marks the 7th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. As I woke up this morning I was thinking about what to write today. Today there will be lots of people that remember this day 7 years ago was one of the worst days of there lives! Many lost Fathers, Moms, Children, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, and Uncles as well as close friends. So I want to say thanks to all who helped that dark September morning! Thanks to all of the Fireman, Policeman, and Citizens that risked there lives to help rescue people and Thank you to the ones who lost there lives you are forever remembered! One verse in scripture that fits what happened on September 11th is this one John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” You notice Jesus did not say you might have trouble he said you will have trouble! I remember the week of September 11th like no other week; you could not find a seat in church. People turned to God when that happened and many said why would God let that happen why? God why? I can’t answer this question but I can tell you this, our country has turned our back on God. This country was founded on values and respect and frankly we have lost both! We live in a country that says killing Gods creation is ok. Abortion is murder it’s not ok! We live in a country that has the highest divorce rate than any other country! We live in a country that allows homosexual marriage and that’s not how God intended it! God did not create Adam and Steve, he created Adam and Eve! I am proud of our country on some things but these I am not! We have people starving on our streets and homeless everywhere. Yet we will not help them! We have the best medical facilities and doctors in the world yet no one can afford it! Our county is no longer built on values and God it’s built on GREED! With that being said I pray that our country turns back to God and not away from him! “Father in Heaven I pray for mercy to fall over this country. We don’t deserve it. We have turned our back to you and give you the middle finger! But God we need you now more than ever. I pray for the sins we as a country have committed and Jesus I ask for forgiveness! Help this Nation! I pray that the Church in America wake up and reach out like never before! I pray for our troops that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the others serving our country. Father protect them and guide them! Jesus we need the grace and mercy only you can provide! Please forgive us in Jesus name I pray amen!” Have a great day and do not be PASSIVE today! With LOVE Jason

No RUSH!

Good morning everyone. I encourage you to slow down today and just tell God Thank You. We have so much to be thankful for and sometimes or should i say all the time we rush through our day without a smile on our face and peace in our souls! Stop and listen, Listen to your spouse and your children today. But most of all listen to God, he is everywhere. He is in the wind, the rain, you see his beauty through the flowers and the sunsets. You will be amazed at what you will learn and what impact you will have on others as you go through your day not rushing! So smile and have a Blessed day! Love Jason

Shining bright!!!

Hello! To everyone yesterday was one of the best days of street evangelism we have had since we started doing outreach! People accepted Jesus and we had one man want help he cried out. He had a cocaine addiction and was homeless because of it! Praise Jesus I have a great group of Guys that are willing to put people like this in their program and help them get a fresh start. Thank you Curtis, Brian and all the staff at this blessed facility! We could not do anything without Jesus Christ and people like you who help so much! Now to my Blog entry for the day! In Matthew 5:14,16 Jesus said “You are the light of the world….Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise your FATHER in Heaven.” I have some things to ask you about today. These are questions I have asked myself and they have helped me tremendously! Where does light shine the brightest? The closer you get to the source of light the brighter it gets right! Like the sun lights up our world the closer you get to it, it gets brighter and you see the source in which the light comes from. In our case people see us and then see the source in which we do things JESUS! Your light shining starts at home! Leading your family and building strong relationships with your spouse and your children. I myself have made many mistakes in doing just this that’s why I am sharing it with you! A lot of pastors and evangelist put ministry before their family and most men put their work before their family as well. This will split up a family so fast! One thing I have done to help myself with what I call BALANCE. Balance of ministry, family and relationships is I have learned to say no to people when it takes away time from my family. We as MEN are called to lead our families, see 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The next question I have gets a little more personal! Are you letting your light shine in your community? If not get involved today, whether it be just a simple invite to church or something as great as helping someone cut their grass or plant flowers. Their may be people in your own neighborhood who are struggling so bad they may not be able to buy groceries or even keep all the utilities on. Help them I personally think it’s hypocritical to send money half way across the world but we want help our own neighbor who may need help! That bothers me, I see this happen all the time! This is how you see communities cleaned up and rebuilt! I wasn’t raised in a family who put Jesus first or got involved in the community. My parents did not even get things fixed at home first thus it ended their marriage and it wasn’t a pretty sight! Frankly it sucked for me and my sister. You see parents your decisions effect your children more than anyone else! I have had to learn how to build a strong marriage and relationships with my children and my community and it’s not easy but it takes putting God first to do it! Balance is what it’s all about. Folks it’s my PASSION to see my very own family be strong in the Lord and my community cleaned up, right now my community is in a state of ruin! However if people with Passion get together with Jesus leading, we can flip our communities upside down! So are you willing to get involved? Remember it starts with a relationship with Jesus Christ and leading your family! Let your light shine today! Love you people! Jason

What is a Pharisee!

What is a Pharisee? That’s the question I’m going to answer today. During Jesus Christ ministry on earth (which is still at work today by the way) he seen a person or groups of people that kept God in a box of rituals, laws and explanations. These people believed there was no more to be unearthed, revealed or discovered. It was there way or no way. Spiritual fulfillment that led to no questions, no new mystery, and no new promises. Jesus was very clear he doesn’t like this type of thinking. Thinking brings about action. This type of thinking was and still is hypocritical and lacks Love. Pharisees tried to lock people out of the Kingdom of Heaven basically! Jesus despises this type of attitude. He said in Matthew 23:13 “For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them” You see Pharisees think its all about them and the Hell with the rest of the world! You see the Kingdom of God is open to all who will accept the free gift of salvation. When I say free I’m saying Jesus Christ paid yours and my penalty through his crucifixion. A Pharisee is not Kingdom minded they are selfish, bitter, and if they can’t get the glory it’s considered wrong!! WOW! Did anyone pop in your mind when I said that? You see the Church was created for the lost and it takes change and staying in tune with culture to reach them. You have to meet the lost where they are! As long as it’s biblical and the truth of Jesus is being proclaimed it’s not up to us to say what goes on or who comes in! Last time I checked Jesus Christ draws man to him, so he is in charge of who comes and who don’t, not a committee or a Pastor or a Deacon. There are Pharisees all around us, inside the Church and some Preach behind the pulpit! I have seen racism taught which is non biblical. I’ve seen Pastors speak against interracial marriage that’s not biblical. Moses had an interracial marriage by the way! You get my point, things get taught inside the church that are not of God and those speakers will answer to God for leading people astray. So don’t put God in a box today! Love you Guys and Gals!

I Love You!

What’s up! I know I talk about love all the time but love means a lot to me. We take the most currently used phrase and just say it. Do you mean it? You have heard it thousands of times “I Love You” lets examine something. Jesus said in the book of Luke 6:27 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” The first thing we need to notice is the fact that he said “you who hear me!” So we have a choice to listen? Which is the obedient thing to do or do most of us if were honest ignore it. The second principle is “do good to those who hate you.” Wow now that is a hard one! My point is both of the things I have talked about so far are so hard to do. However if they were not important Jesus would have never said this! As hard as it is we as believers must do the very thing he talks about in this verse. Its amazing the results you get when you do this. We can reach out and love on people who hate us and sometimes they wake up and see you’re a real genuine person and they see Jesus all in you. You see when we do street ministry we gat a whole bunch of critics and people that hate us. So we serve those people more than anyone else and I tell you it’s not easy! Jesus said “do good to your enemies” and doing good to them goes beyond words; it takes action and reaching out to our enemies! Jesus commands us to do this very thing! Love is what put Jesus on the cross. He loved us enough to suffer extreme pain for us, physical and emotional. You see he died for his enemies and he said “Father forgive them for they no not what they are doing” wow that’s mercy! We were separated from God and he seen THE WAY to bring about reconnection and peace to our relationship with God. All you have to do is except Jesus and he will give you a love like no other. Maybe you have accepted Jesus and you’re a Christian, but if you’re honest you struggle with loving your enemies and doing good to them. I know I do! Maybe today is the day you write the very people down you don’t like and begin to pray over that list. You will be amazed how this will bring about action in the relationship you could care less about. Pour out love on these people, IT WORKS! “I Love You” is a phrase we really need to understand! It’s more than just something you say all the time it has meaning! Use it with meaning today! That is LOVE! If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ I would LOVE to talk to you about making him your everything! Email me or leave a comment. I will get back to you today! Tomorrow is part 2 “The Pursuit of Love.” Have a Great Day!

You think you can do better?

Man something hit me while I was working on Sunday after church. Yes I work on Saturday and Sunday. I have a schedule were I work 11am to 11pm on both weekend days; I’m off all week Monday through Friday. Well not off I have fun raising my 5 month old princess aka my baby girl. She is so fun to learn from and so different from my 5 yr old boy who reminds me of myself. Ok enough about my work schedule back to what hit me. Clemson’s football team took one of the worst beat downs ever. In all the years I've been a fan I have never seen them physically and emotionally be defeated that bad. I predicted a 24-10 score with Clemson winning, man was I off or what. Bama dropped the hammer on them. They were not a #9 team more like a #20 team. Clemson’s not as bad as Alabama made them look. The thing that hit me like a ton of bricks was hearing people say “get rid of Tommy he stinks he can’t beat good teams.” Frankly I’m tired of hearing Clemson fans that say they support the program not supporting the coach. At the first sign of a struggle they immediately say stuff like fire him. Coaching was definitely a factor, the game plan went wrong. In my opinion it was more the players not wanting to win and they didn’t want it as bad as Bama did. Clemson was not physical and laid down from the start. Here is my other point I support Clemson’s coaches and players no matter what the outcome. I support them on the field and off. There are some great coaches and players involved in Clemson’s program. You see as Christians we to screw up daily, if you say you don’t you’re a liar and you need a piece of humble pie! What if Jesus said “You know enough is enough, I get the same results and I’m going to give up? He or she has the resources and the talent to do great things but don’t do what I say to do so the heck with them.” You see Jesus don’t say this; he says nothing can pluck you from my hand and I Love you unconditionally. When in reality we as humans have the mindset to give up on people before we even truly believe in them and support them. So if you think you can do better at coaching Clemson than Tommy Bowden go for it. However remember if you give up on him as a coach you don’t support the team. This is the same thing we do to Jesus sometimes we give up on him. He never gives up on us no matter how bad we screw up! So don’t give up on Jesus, his team is the winning team regardless of our circumstances in life as Christians we win. So have mercy on people who don’t show you mercy. That is one of the many things Jesus did.