This is my first attempt at mobile blogging. Wish me luck!

Sufficient....

I'm one of the worship leaders at my North Parkersburg Baptist Church. I mainly lead on Wednesday night. Over the past year and a half, I've had the opportunity to learn about worship and what that looks like on a personal and a corporate level (I'll save that for another day). The Wednesday evening service at North is called "The Pulse". There is a great team that makes it happen; from planning to set up to execution to tear down. If everyone wasn't working together it wouldn't happen....so thanks to all of you that help out. While preparing for the Pulse, the planning team brain storms creative ways to help folks "encounter and respond to God".
As part of the planning, we take different aspect of God and use that to explore different ways to design the service. We have explored everything from God's faithfulness to His onmiscience. We dig through the scriptures, journal, pray about, and discuss these characteristics and then we plan the service. We also choose the songs that we'll play based on the worship theme. Ok, you needed some background to understand what's next.

Sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9)
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

So often I put an "and" after Jesus alsmost as if He's not enough. For example, Jesus and good works or Jesus and reading the Bible and praying. I don't come right out and say it, but it's evident by my thoughts and guilt that I place on myself. I often feel like God loves me less if I don't read my Bible and pray every day. If I screw up, I feel the same. The fact is that Jesus' blood, His sacrifice, is all that was needed. From the moment of conversion, God sees Jesus' blood instead of my sin. I am forever a Saint. Even w hile I'm writing this "head knowledge", my heart doesn't completely buy it. It's as if I feel like I have to feel guilty in order to "pay the price" of my sin. By that, I'm not believing that Jesus' sacrifice is enough; Jesus and... The verse above we read that His grace is sufficient and his power is made perfect in our weakness. I have to embrace my weakness and point to Jesus. He is enough. he is sufficient. No more Jesus and... Only Jesus.

Brand New

Well, I decided to start a blog. I have no clue how to do this, but we can learn together as we go.

I'm not quite sure what this blog will be about yet, but I felt like I needed to start one so I could share what's on my heart and mind to an audience of more than my circle of influence. My hope is that those reading may be encouraged. Also, I think someone may be inspired to pursue a relationship with Jesus through the stories and experiences that I share.

I've often felt that I couldn't make a difference and that my calling wasn't as important as others. A wise man once told me that I would never experience the life that God wants me to until I accept my calling and step into it. I feel like I have done just that over the past few years and that wise man was right. I think the best is yet to come as I pursue Jesus with my life.

I'm excited to share some of this journey with you and I pray that you will be closer to Jesus after reading each post.