“One Word”

Wow.

Thank you Lord for the molding and reshaping of the heart. I feel it happening as I continue to pray. Action from the heart is what I long for, especially for the things I know and believe in.

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” – Matthew 7:13-24

So many times have I heard this, but now understand it’s meaning. It’s all about the heart. From it, and with it a human can do anything. God doesn’t want a person to know of him in their head and lead a good life. He asks for a revival of the heart, a transfiguration, a remolding, a heart driven to choose him daily because it wants to and not because it is demanded to.

Good life? What does that truly mean? Too long have I lived my life wanting to be good for the selfish reasons. I am good, because it is demanded of me everywhere I look. Why am I not good because I want to be. I am afraid sometimes of the thoughts and feelings that flow from my heart. Recently I’ve asked God, why is it that I think the things I do. I heard him respond through others. And what I contrasted between them and I is that there’s no action from my heart, but that only of my knowledge.

My friends and family, are what make up my life, not a bad thing, but it could be when there are in the wrong priority listing. You see, to Love God, is to have Him at the forefront of our mind, number one, and not everything else. So many times have I mistakenly placed friends and family before God and I have seen the weakening of my relationship with Yahweh. But no more. Last week, I can’t even describe the magnitude of how upset I was at myself and my heart. The passivity of my life was letting every wrongness pass by with out check. Comments, thoughts, and actions. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an evil person, or by the world’s standards I’m not. However, by God’s standards I’m no where even close to being a good person. That’s why I am so thankful for His son, J-Dawg, JC, Dude, Father, Abba, Holy Spirit, God, Jesus Christ. And it hurt to know that the Man that saved my life was second, and I was ticked!

Too many times I’ve prayed, “God, I am sorry for what I have done. I promise the next time I’m in this situation or that situation… I’ll look to you and respond differently” and have failed. Because of this meaningless mental, physical, spiritual game I played has made my heart uncertain of the foundation of my beliefs. I find myself asking, “God why can’t I overcome this. Why aren’t you helping me overcome this. I know it’s not about me overcoming this, but you doing it for me, why?!” and then it hits me. I’m trying to receive God’s help with out my heart.

My heart. Where is it? Can you help me, I must have lost it between the transition of boyhood to older boyhood.

I find myself seeking to find a relationship with a woman, to pursue her, to win her heart, to have a relationship with the intended that I can put my heart into, but have realized I haven’t even went seeking to find my own heart. I’ve over the years collected knowledge and schematics of what one should look like and mimic the image portrayed by movies and tv… but Man was I wrong. No, boy was I wrong. To be a Man, I must search for my heart. Not in this culture, city, or world because that would certainly lead me back to where I am now. No, I must search for my heart where God intended a Man to find his heart, and that is in the Bible.

The stories of sacrifice for true justice, bravery above all odds, faith to the end in certain of death, a gladiator strength mentally-spiritually-(and even)physically, given to all, by God, to those Men who choose to seek it and live for it because they are in Love with their Creator.

My heart is being fought for, re configured, and is downloading from the true source this time, so that, I can find what it truly means to be a Man with a heart after God.

God, I feel my heart changing as I write this, and I pray that you continue to help me find my heart and rescue it from the grasp of the devil. It’s not his and I want it back. Give me Ephesians 6:11-13 so that I can fight for it and win it back.

^“11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” -Ephesians 6:11-13

Wow.

Encouragement to everyone that may read this, and understand, your not alone, male or female, in this struggle to fight for your heart. But do know seeking God is the only armor and weapon you’ll truly need. And then beside him, standing to the right after Christ and the Holy Spirit, for a little extra encouragement, your God driven friends and family.

Wow. Praise be to God.

(Backstory: What spawned this whole deal with searching for my heart, came after listening to the first chapter of, “Wild at Heart.” Can’t wait to see what the other chapters have in store.)

The day after starting to listen to, "Wild at Heart", I traveled out to Natural Bridge outside Slade, Ky., and I conquered that mountain like nothing else. The intent was to seek God, but once out there, I saw that He just wanted me to explore his creation.

School Project = Success

It’s about time a school project feels good when you accomplish it!

So this past week I had the pleasure of editing and putting the last touches on to a music video, directed by one of my friends, Daniel Bowman, called, “Keep Your Head”, by Ingenious Dreams. There was so much work put into this project from all types of Asbury Students and your work has paid off. I hope you guys love how it turned out because I certainly do!

Praise goes out to God, for giving me strength, and talent to be able to do what I do. Thanks Yahweh!

Desires of this Life

So for the past couple days my body has been on the fritz, again, not going to lie it kind of stinks staying up till 4-5am in the morning not being able to sleep because your job forces you to stay up late, messing up your sleeping patterns. I feel antsy, not tired, hungry (of course, what do you expect guys are always hungry), thirsty, a desiring to put my body to sleep enabling it to recharge for the day ahead. The other day I stayed up so late, my eyes burned because they too were exhausted from the continuous glaring at my ceiling wall, It’s quite plain if you ask me but I have noticed it reminds me of mountains I once saw while traveling across the US and I miss them something awful. I think next summer I will go traveling again to explore more of the great land called the US.

Anyways the reason I’m typing this now is because of this morning, at church, a friend of mine was speaking and through out the entire time he was on stage, all I was thinking about was how tired I was, and how I wanted to retreat back into bed and cover my eyes drifting into more hours of uninterrupted rest. But somewhere else in my body, my soul, I heard God saying again don’t worry you got out of bed on a good day, be patient and listen for what he is about to say. Of course though even though I was drifting in and out of sleep during the first 30min of his sermon, I could’ve past a pop quiz after, if they would have given one, on what he was talking about and the passage he was describing. He was talking about the passage in Mark 2.

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, My son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he said to the paralytic— I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this! -Mark 2:1-12

Now during this walk through in Mark 2, I heard these three things:

1) Christ again was out and about living life with the sinners, teaching to them the word of God.

2) Christ healed a paralytic man, whom was lowered into the house in which Jesus was in, by four friends.

3) Christ proclaiming that he was the Son of God.

Now those three things are very important, but not the main point of what I learned this morning. What I learned came after the discussion of what happened in Mark 2. Rob, my friend, goes on to say that we sometime miss a key part to this story. The part missing, is the desire of the paralytic’s heart. This is what got me. When lowered into the house the desire for the paralytic man, and the four friends were to heal the broken body. It’s funny though, from creation in Genesis, God created man and woman in likeness of him with a desire to be with him. So in this parable, it’s funny that the desire the paralytic man has in his heart is to be healed from his illness, and that he goes to the Son of God, the true place of our desire yearns for, and asks him if he could heal him (Christ can read the mans heart already without him speaking a word). And then this is the part where Rob says, how many times do we run to God asking him for worldly desires, when everything we really yearn and desire is the one we go to and ask for such things. It shouldn’t be an action that we go to God and ask for desires through him, but that we just simply ask for and to be with Christ, our true desire in life.

Then this is when I thought about myself. How many times have I asked for things I’ve desired, from the one I should be desiring. How many times?

Before this week, I’ve felt God pushing me this way in thinking, and it sunk in today. That is why I’m going to continue what I’m doing but with a different mind set of what desire. From now on I’m not going to go to God asking God for worldly desires for, when what he really wants is for us to desire him. God will provide and place things in my life that will make me happy, I know this, but I also know that this life will not be easy by any means. That is why I keep praying that when I walk with you God that you twist and turn the Earth and place me where you need me to be.

Desiring Christ, because he first Loved me, so I’m going to Love him back through others.

I write this not to boast and say, see this is what God is doing for me, but I write it so that others can find encouragement in it and understand and learn as well, through what God has taught me this week. Desire God, Desire God for Others.

Happy 4th of July!

– Max

Land of the Christ Following Music

Ichthus 2011, by far was one of my  best weekends of this year! From Hillsong United to Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Transform DJs, listening to Family Force 5 ridiculously close enough to touch them, and Twenty One Pilots I’m going to say that I just got my face rocked off with so much awesome talent, that the artists and I would say came only from God. I’m marking my calendar already for next year and counting down!

Amazing night of worship with the "Aftermath" from Hillsong.

Thursday night by far was my favorite night of them all! Christian rap artists from all over America where on stage in the Deep End going insanely nuts in a unique way of worship! I caught myself during the three hours of rapping, closing my eyes and worshipping God as the energy at the stage was pulsing through my lungs and body! I mean this place was a earthquake pleasing to God!

The 116 Clique is comprised of Christian Rappers by the names of Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Flame, and Pro. The 116 comes from Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

During the day though before I got to enjoy the controlled chaos exploding from the town of Wilmore, Ky., I was working for Asbury University in the Admissions tent. We conducted contests, gave away scholarships, free bags, and t-shirts! My job specifically was to record high school students that had ideas to give money to a specific charity to help impact their community! The winner received  $1,000 dollars to donate to their charity of their choice. The girl that won is giving the money to a camp in Ohio called Kamp Dovetail that helps out with handicap children and children alike. Honestly I wish we could have given more gifts because all of the high schoolers that applied for the, “Make an Impact”, gift were all very good, and it was sad to have to turn down so many great ideas!

Two Asbury students have fun while waiting for applicants to arrive.

Besides working and eating tons of Chick-fil-A, I was able to do something that I’ve never done before but always wanted to do! I had the privilege to go out on stage numerous times through out the weekend and take pictures, but on friday night the main night I was able to go without the camera and throw t-shirts and bags into the crowd! Oh my gosh, were there a million people out there! I think I did a good job of hiding my nervousness behind my uncontrollable energy jumping around. Nevertheless it was a experience of a life time and I was definitely gifted by God to be able to do such a thing!

My friend, James Banter, throws t-shirts out into the freebie hungry crowd. Before we went out our boss said don't worry about the crowd because no matter what you do you'll make as many friends, as you have t-shirts, and everyone else will hate your guts! Just thought that was funny.

But the best part of this past weekend though was I was able to spend time with a lot of good people that I’ve come to know over the past year and it has been a blessing. This past year a friend said this to me and I adopted it as my own and love it. The person said, “Meeting a new person you’ve never met before is like receiving a gift from God. Everyone is different, they have their own talents, and getting to know that person and unwrapping who they are is just a pure blessing.” To the people I’ve met in this life either for a day or for 10yrs or more, Thank you, along with God’s help, for making me who I am today. God places people in our lives to encourage us, not to tear us down. The friends walking by the will of God speak truth to you daily, and that is a gift in itself.

This is Peter, he represents 1 Peter 2:11. "Friends this world is not your home, so do not make yourself cozy in it! Do not indulge your ego at the expense of your soul."

Uniquely created to reach out to others.

Ichthus 2011

So these past days have been crazy off the hook retarded! If that doesn’t make since then that will kind of give you a taste of the mass awesomeness of chaos that is going down in Wilmore, KY!

Oh how that was ridiculously crazy!

Tonight was Family Force 5 and it was ridiculous! I was on the fence in the very front and that is where the party was! My friend Gloria pulling crowd control in front of me, Emmaleigh right beside her, and the lead guitarist for Family Force 5 jamming with his guitar literally inches from my face! I freaked, so what did I do?!, I jammed yelling the lyrics as loud as I could! It was beyond Epic, if that’s even possible?

But towards the end of the craziness FF5 left and came back for an encore and they came strapped to these balloons, and it was a treat of all treats that you could have seen! The lead singer came out in a blow up mouse ball and he, “crowd rolled?”, I might say! All I remember is that it was intense! Ha.

The dude came out in a huge ball! Sick!

But after the FF5 portion was over I jetted out to get their autograph on my, “Dance or Die” vinyl that is legit! But wait theres more, on the way out (I hopped the fence, because I have a main stage pass) and I walk around to backstage and Asbury’s Admission Team was going up on stage… So what did I do? I jumped on board and went NUTS!!! on stage throwing t-shirts and going crazy!!! By far a very amazing night!

He even went crowd surfing in that stinking ball! Awesome!

This is just a small blurb of the entire weekend but I thought I would just write this to capture some of the uber excitement coursing through my vains at this moment!

PS. Here is some new stuff from Family Force 5 that is a sure ear candy!

Tyler Bryant Band (Caleb Crosby)

So today was the Beer Cheese Festival in my hometown of Winchester, Ky and the Tyler Bryant Band was in town! Caleb Crosby ripped a nice drum solo and it was awesome!

Caleb Crosby going mad on the drums!

A World Turned Upside Down

On April 27th, 2011 an EF4-EF5 tornado ripped through the South East region of the United States through major cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama turning their world upside down.

In 20 secs on April 27th, 2011 this town of Pleasant Grove, AL was ripped to pieces.

Communities such as Smithville, MS; Tuscaloosa, Hackleburg, and Pleasant Grove, AL sustained extensive damage and loss of life from EF4 and EF5 tornadoes, with thousands of residents displaced from their homes with their lives turned completely upside down.  The recovery effort began almost immediately in most areas, but likely will require years of support for these communities to rebuild.  If you are interested in donating to the April 27 tornado outbreak recovery, I’ve listed below some charity websites I was able to find.

Red Cross (search for southern tornadoes):  http://redcross.org 

We Are Alabama:  http://www.wearealabama.org/ 

Alabama kids affected by tornadoes:  http://kids4al.com/

Hackleburg, AL schools:  http://www.mcbe.net/

EF4-EF5 Tornado destroyed Pratt City and Pleasant Grove, AL.

On arriving in Birmingham, AL a month after the tornados had ripped through, I was left with sight of complete hopelessness. To see so many people without homes, friends, and family it made me take a look back onto my own life and realize what life really means. To me that is living in every moment that we can because we never know what is waiting for us even 5min into the future. We will never know why God allows situations like these to pass through our lives, but what I have come to understand is that through times like these he brings people together that would have never been together if it weren’t for something like this event. In this God’s word is spread and shared, love is passed along from one to another, compassion is shared, people are serving one another as Christ said is should be. In times like this we see Christians standing up, picking up their crosses, and serving people in need and through that God is given glory. Praise be to God for everything, even in the worst of times.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.”

Philippians 4:4-14

Another Story Different Place

-Truly Blessed

Get Psyched! Icthus TIME IS COMING!

Icthus is coming up and on June 16, 2011

Trip Lee

Lecrae

Tedashii

Flame

Pro

are going to be at Icthus tearing it up, and I am so excited because I’m going to be in the middle of the action!

Icthus Re:New, Re:Awaken, Re:Think, Re:Create 2011 will be June 15-18. For more details click here.

theNew Perspective

So today I went out to run the streets of Winchester, Ky and these are a few things I found.

To visit the rest of the album click here

Summer 2011

So already this summer I’ve traveled over a 1,000 miles with work and leisurely spontaneous fun. I’ve been to Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and to the far east back country of Appalachia, Kentucky (what at trip that was). Next week I plan on going where God opens a door, because it’s summer and I’ve got nothing but time.

“That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.”

[ Acts 2:41-47 ]

Mother’s Day 2011

The family and I traveled up to see my grandmother on May 8, 2011 in Ohio.