Every believer will go through times of doubt, discouragement, despair, and disbelief at some point in your life. At our youth life group last night, we talked about growing through these times. It may feel like you’re in a spiritual wilderness and it may even seem like God is silent, but be encouraged that God can use these times to purify you and move you on to greater heights in your walk with Christ.

I shared the story of two men who are battling cancer right now. We have a choice in how we respond to suffering and pain. We can allow it to draw us closer to God and rely on Him for our strength, or we can become disillusioned and frustrating, looking for someone or something to blame. Both these men have decided that no matter what happens in their life, that God is still God, and God is still good. Can we say the same thing when we go through wilderness experiences?

Here is Zac’s story. He is on staff at NewSpring and his story should be an inspiration to all of us.

Matt Chandler has also been in my prayers. He is a pastor that is battling cancer right now. I have been amazed at his strength and wisdom as he has struggled with a malignant brain tumor. He is posting weekly video updates on The Village Church blog. Here is a recent video where he shares both good and bad news.

Will you please join me in prayers for both these men.

American Christianity has a perception problem. My eyes were really opened to this when I read the book UnChristian. It tells how the younger generation really views the church. In the eyes of the world, Christians have become known more for what we are against, instead of the Christ we are supposed to follow. I’ll be honest, I was discouraged and frustrated by the recent healthcare vote. I know the current system needs an overhaul. I’ve experienced the frustration of trying to get insurance when you have a pre-existing condition. But this legislation was pushed through against the will of the people without being fully explained and without the input of both parties.  But as a follower of Christ, I am not going to resort to name calling and over-exaggeration to get my point across.

I don’t talk much about politics here on the blog, but I am concerned with the reaction from Christians to our current President and Congress. Proverbs 16:33 tells us that God is still in control. He is still on the throne and ultimately we will all answer to Him. The world is not going to end because of a vote in Congress. What this country needs is not a political revival, but a Spiritual revival. We are not going to see a change in Washington by complaining and telling everyone how upset we are. Instead, let’s change this world by sharing the message of the Gospel of Christ. Christians should definitely be involved in the political process. I’m not saying that we ignore the problems. But when people reject the Gospel, not because of the message of the cross, but because of our anger and activism, we have lost our way. I have shared in church that we are called to do more than vote our values, we are called to live them out.  Criticize by creating and getting involved in the process.

Let me challenge you to be known by your love, by your truthfulness, and by your passion. May we be known for Jesus Christ instead of the things we are against.

Here is a video introduction to the book UnChristian. It’s a research book that shows how Christians are perceived by non-Christians.  ”Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental,” young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of . . . unChristian.”

I never like waking up to a phone call. I always wake up with my heart racing, wondering if something is wrong. This morning I received a call that a fire had started downtown just a few buildings away from our church. All the buildings are connected, so we didn’t know what to expect. By the time I arrived at the church, smoke was rolling out of a building just three doors down from the church and flames were coming through the roof.

It didn’t look good for a while, we loaded up several of the instruments and valuables from the church, expecting the worst, but our local volunteer fire department did an awesome job of keeping the fire contained. I’ve grown up around the fire department with my dad and brother both long time members. We also have several firefighters in our church. It was great to see the teamwork and effort from a group of people who continually put their lives on the line to serve others.

You can see the back entrance of the church in the picture above. Cornerstone is the building on the left. I am thankful and blessed to let you know that the church sustained no damage at all and there were no injuries. Misty, our children’s director at Cornerstone, runs a cosmetic business that was next door to the fire. Her business sustained some smoke damage, but no fire or water damage. Below is a video from channel 10 news that shows the fire from the front of the church. I just keep thinking, it could have been much worse …

Please pray for the families who were living in the burned apartments. Thankfully they are safe, but it looks like they lost everything.

I felt a little like Jacob from the Old Testament (Genesis 32:24-32) this past week. In preparing my message for Sunday, I had to do some wrestling with God. Have you ever argued with God? As a pastor I should know better, but sometimes I don’t like giving up control.

John Waller was in town for a Sunday night concert, so we had him lead worship for our Sunday morning service. I knew we would have a lot of guests and that I wouldn’t have a long time to share, so I wanted to do an “uplifting and encouraging” message. One that  challenged everybody, but nothing too controversial. God had other plans. We are in a series titled “Love Is …” and we have been going through a Biblical definition of unconditional love. We have gone through 1 Corinthians 13 and shared about unselfish living and forgiveness, but there was one message that I knew must be part of the series. God wanted me to share it this weekend. It was a message on purity and intimacy.

So with all our guests, I ended up preaching a message from 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 about sexual purity and how that purity will pave the way to intimacy. It was a little uncomfortable at times, but I know I was obedient. Even if no one comes back next week, I’m fine. I went to sleep happy and relieved. Because my preaching is not to please the people who are in attendance, but to share truth from the Bible and please God. We need to be challenged to confess and repent when sin creeps into the church. I hope next time I will just trust God completely and skip the wrestling part. It’s definitely not a fun process.

I’m excited about John Waller joining us this Sunday at Cornerstone Community Church. If you saw the movie Fireproof or listen to SpiritFM, you have heard John Waller’s music. His song, While I’m Waiting is a powerful song about waiting on God’s timing. He will be joining us and leading worship for our 10am service, and then going over to First Baptist to lead them in worship at their 11am service. At 6pm on Sunday night, we are moving our evening service over to the historic Rex Theater in downtown Galax for a special concert with John.

The great thing about this concert is that it was organized by a young man in our church. Isaac Larrowe has organized and promoted the concert and has raised the funds to allow John to come minister to us. Please help us get the word out about the concert. If you haven’t heard the song, check out the video below or check out John’s website.

Last month at Cornerstone, we shared the touching story of Rogers Kirven and his wife Christy.  Rogers was a former business partner with Sam who now lives in Florida.  Rogers and Christy have five children and have been married for 35 years. Three years ago Christy was diagnosed with three specific types of cancer. In addition to fervent prayer, Rogers has spent a fortune seeking the best treatment available from places like M.D. Anderson Cancer Center out of Houston, TX and Shands, the University of Florida Cancer Hospital. During Christmas, the medical community sent Christy home to die.

Today was the day when the Lord gave her ultimate healing. Christy passed away and I want to ask that you keep Rogers and his family in your prayers. If you missed the church service where we called and interviewed Rogers, then please watch the video below and listen to the audio of the phone call.

It was powerful, it was challenging, and it reminded all of us that love never dies …

Audio of the phone call with Rogers (Click here to play)

I’m getting excited about our trip down to Anderson, South Carolina this week for the Unleash Conference. We’re leaving tomorrow and hopefully heading into some warmer weather. Jennifer and I have been every year and I love the encouragement that we receive from the NewSpring staff. We try to take a different group from Cornerstone each year to expose them to the hospitality and vision of NewSpring. You can’t help but leave “fired up” about what God has called you to do. All the details about the conference can be found on the website, along with a listing of all the breakout session topics.

If you can’t make it to the conference, then you can join in and watch the main sessions online at http://unleash.cc/

Here is just a sample of what you can expect. I look forward to meeting up with some online friends. Leave me a comment or send me a message on twitter if you will be there.

Promo: “Unleash 2010″ from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

A One Day Event focused on the church and it’s potential at NewSpring Church on March 4, 2010. Visit newspring.cc/unleash for more information.

As some of you may know, since the first of this year we have been working with First Baptist Church in Galax.  They are currently in between pastors, so Sam, my co-pastor at Cornerstone has been preaching and serving as their interim pastor. He’s still working for Cornerstone, but he is also helping them through their time of transition. We have stated that we want to be the best church for the community, not just the best church in the community. By being Kingdom minded, we are showing the local community what happens when we cooperate instead of compete. We have been preaching through the same sermon series and working together on the messages each week. At Cornerstone, we have wanted to do a baptism service during the winter months, so Sam came up with the idea of a joint worship service between the two churches.

This Sunday, we are moving our Sunday evening service to First Baptist and joining them for a combined worship service. We are coming together to celebrate. Our worship band will be joining with their choir as they lead the service in worship. They practiced together last night and everything really came together and sounded great. Even though the styles may be a little different between the two churches, we come together with the same purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus Christ. Join us this Sunday evening at 6:30 for a time of celebration through worship and baptism.