Apple, Taylor Guitars, Spotify and Twitter

Typically when I write a blog post, it is to inspire not only others, but myself. I write it, then read it and hopefully I myself will change.

If you were to ask my friends what I’m passionate about, they would immediately shout “Apple Products”, some would say music, and those that follow me on twitter would say “recently, spotify”. I’ve noticed that when I’m passionate about something, I tend to talk about it..... a lot. Going a step further, I tend to try and get others to be passionate about the same things. When I first came to Carterville Christian Church there was one apple user in the building..... me. Within the first year, the youth minister was buying his first mac. Soon after the administrative assistant purchased one. I’m now in my sixth year of ministry and every staff member uses a apple computer, several volunteers are flaunting the fruit sticker on their car and it all started with passion.

Unfortunately when it comes to talking about Christ, I’m not as expressive. It comes so naturally to talk about apple, but when it comes to Christ, (as my friend Matt says) “I lock up like a cheap computer”.

Maybe you’ve felt the same way.

The reasoning for this comes in many forms.

1. I don’t know how

So you don’t talk about your faith because you have trouble memorizing the “Sinner’s Prayer”? Well there’s good news! You can memorize the “Sinner’s Prayer” by looking it up in the book of..... oh wait, it is found NO WHERE in the bible. There isn’t a special incantation or poem you need to learn in order to lead someone to Christ. It is quite simple, we are to call people to “believe” in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:31), “repent... and be immersed... for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16)

In addition to what God’s word says, if you are a Christian then you have the experience of YOUR experience. You know how you came to a relationship with Christ. Even if it was through a “Sinner’s Prayer,” at some point you came to believe in the Lord Jesus, repented and hopefully was baptized (if not we need to talk).

1. I don’t know enough

When it comes to taylor guitars and music equipment in general, I tend to be less evangelistic. Mostly it comes from my lack of knowledge. I LOVE music gear but when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of it, I fall short. You may feel this way about the Bible. You don’t feel like you can tell people about Christ because you don’t know enough. However, there is a simple remedy for this.... start reading. Instead of going to ESPN.com on your lunch break to read about the latest NFL news, go to http://eatyourbible.com and read through the book of Matthew. The only way to remedy this problem is to study. However, it is possible you will never feel like you know enough. This is a lie the enemy will continue to tell you. I once heard “you can’t lead someone where you’ve never been”. Luckily, if you are a follower of Christ, then you already know enough to get someone where you are.

1. Lack of opportunities

Some might say they don’t have opportunities to share their faith, but that has never stopped me from talking about apple like crazy. The truth is, when you are passionate about something, the opportunities will find you. When someone asks me “I need a new computer, what should I get?” I take a deep breath, smile and say.... “glad you asked”. If you are passionate about Christ, then it will be on your lips naturally. People will know your passion because it is contagious.

So there you have it!! The next time someone asks you why you are the way your are, you can take a deep breath, smile and say.... “glad you asked”.

Facebook: 5 Negatives & 5 Positives

Facebook is a interesting service. It has positives and negatives, but either are mostly up to how you choose to use it. Let me first apologize that I only blog once every four months and each post is quite lengthy.

Negatives:

1. False sense of community

example:

Joe: Hey lets go bowling and catch up on things.

Dan: Okay, but I already know that you changed jobs last week, you have two kids who's birthdays are next month, and you ate at taco bell yesterday and it gave you indigestion.

Okay so maybe not the best example, but Facebook seems to allow people to interact without actually interacting. You can feel like you are involved in peoples lives without any true relationship. I read once in a book that Air Conditioning and Garage Doors are at fault for not knowing the names of your neighbors. Let me explain. Before Air Conditioning, you would sit on the porch to catch the cool breeze and end up talking to your neighbors who were doing the same. Facebook has allowed you to know someone without ever talking to them face to face. One word…. sad.

2. Gossip

example:

Joe: Did you hear that Sandy and Chuck broke up?

Dan: Yea, I saw it a few days ago.

Joe: Yea, last week Sandy's Facebook said she's no longer in a relationship with Chuck and then she soon after changed it to "in a relationship with Philip" that is some crazy stuff.

Dan: Juicy!

Facebook has once again made it so so easy to gossip about people. Now I suppose if they wanted it kept a secret than they shouldn't put it out on Facebook for the world to see, but…. that brings me to negative number 3 ;-)

3. Public Image

No example, just an explanation. It is already happening, and soon will be the norm that employers will require you to show them your Facebook page as part of the interview process. Those pictures of "Spring Break" that you posted because you thought they were funny could possibly keep you from getting a job. Now since this is the blog of a worship minister I would assume most of you would never do such a thing…. at least I hope not. But it doesn't even have to be crazy pictures, it could simply be how you come across as a person online. Do your Facebook status updates make you look good or just that you want the world to know you have gone to the bathroom and you're proud of it?

4. Secret Relationships

This one is particularly sad. Facebook is the ultimate way to connect with old friends. It can also be the ultimate way for you to have intimate connections with someone other than your spouse. If you are communicating regularly with someone of the opposite sex that isn't your spouse then STOP! You may think it is innocent, but you are investing in a relationship that could go somewhere it shouldn't. Why don't you post a message to your husband or wife instead. Tell them how stressed you are, what is going on in your life that you can't handle. THEY are the ones you should share your life with, not your old boyfriend or girlfriend from High School.

5. Noise

This typically occurs when people use Facebook in a way it was not intended. People begin to accept friend requests from EVERYONE who asks, even if they have no clue who the person is. What this does is cause your "news" feed to be worthless. You are now seeing status updates from random strangers who think they may have met you one time at a concert. Facebook then simply becomes noise. You may try to create groups of your real friends to provide some clarity, but you have already ruined the opportunity to get the full value out of the service.

Okay, enough negatives…. now the positives.

1. Crowd Sourcing

If by chance number five on the negative list is totally you, then there is one way you can use it to your advantage. Crowd sourcing, it is the art of using the "power of the crowd" to answer questions, get help with something, or even start a poll. If this is you, then try it…. ask a multiple choice question like "Should I buy a Xbox, PS3 or Wii" and watch the commenting begin!

2. Community

If used properly Facebook can be used to assist in real community. Plan get togethers, connect with old friends and plan lunch. Facebook doesn't have to be the beginning and end of the conversation, let it be the beginning and finish it in person.

3. Reuniting Old Friends

Haven't talked to your High School choir teach since High School? Now you can. If not abused, this is a great way to link up with those you have lost communication with.

4. Communication

You can use Facebook to communicate important information about your business or family. If your family lives far away, Facebook is a great way to share pictures, videos and funny things you heard your kids say. If you are a business you can communicate sales and other important information to your customers. Individual websites are becoming less and less relevant because Facebook communication meets people where they already are without having to type in YOUR specific web address.

(Shameless Plug)

If you would like to keep up to date with things going on at Carterville Christian Church then follow us on Facebook. Simply search for Carterville Christian

5. Circle of influence

Some of you have over 800 Facebook friends. Do you realize that you have a larger circle of influence then most churches? If you have more than 800 friends, a single status update will be seen by more people than most pastors talk to on a Sunday morning. You have a "Mega Church" of influence. What are you using your status updates for?

I hope this was insightful and interesting. There are may more I could write about but five positive and five negative are plenty. I would love to know your thoughts in the comments section.

Thanks for reading

Brad

Can You Hear Me?

First off... this post takes approx 2 minutes and 26 seconds to read, thanks for taking the time.

Can You Hear Me by bradmoss

Have you ever come to a point in your relationship with God where you look up and ask "How in the world did I get here? How in the world did I get so far away from you Lord?" You feel so alone and somewhat complacent. The sinful things you are doing, at first made you feel guilty, but soon the guilt becomes callused. Now you just feel numb, unsure what to do next.

I wrote a song recently that deals with this. The idea that you feel far from God and cry out for him but don't feel heard.

If you want to escape from the trap of sin and temptation, you must make your relationship with God more than a Sunday to Sunday experience. Your interaction with the creator of the universe must be moment by moment.

I HATE DEVOTIONALS... there I said it. I can't stand reading one verse of scripture followed by two pages of fluff and expecting to feel "filled" spiritually. This works for some, which is great, but I struggle with it. I started doing something different lately that I have found truly refreshing. I began reading through Proverbs, one chapter per day. When I hit something that speaks to me specifically, I highlight it or write it down. After this, I begin journaling. As you know, I am a nerd, so I do it on my iPad but paper works as well. I first write down a basic summary of what I read. This helps to make sure I got the big picture of what is being said. Next, I write about the specific verses that spoke to my circumstance. Then I finish with praying and asking God to use his word to help me fight off temptation and to Love like he loves. Throughout the day, I continue to think and pray on what I journaled.

This may not work for you. You may need a devotional, or write poetry, but it all starts with his word. It then lives through your thoughts and prayers throughout the day, and comes to rest in your actions.

The bottom line is, you have to start doing SOMETHING to begin repairing your relationship with God.

The song ends with the cry that God does hear you and sees you, he was wondering why you left him in the first place. YOU LEFT HIM! He is waiting for you to take any step toward restoring a right relationship with him. It all begins with what you choose to do today. I heard it once said if you aren't moving forward then you are moving backward. That is true, if you aren't reaching after God daily then you are moving backward in your relationship with him.

Ask God to captivate your heart once more and draw you to desire him again.

I guess this is somewhat "devotional" so I can't hate them too bad. ;-)

LYRICS

I don't know how I ever got this far from you
I can't say I have felt you for a while
thought you said, you would never leave my side
but this pain, makes me feel I'm not alive


Can you hear me
Can you see me
I am searching for where you are
I've been wandering, in a land of hurt and scars
oh please comfort me, come and captivate my heart



so defying, been dying in my chest
oh this burning, I've tried to hide my best
my soul is yearning, for you to cleanse the rest
relent my turning, to you I have confessed



Can you hear me
Can you see me
I am searching for where you are
I've been wandering, in a land of hurt and scars
oh please comfort me, come and captivate my heart




My eyes light with the son
the pouring rain, washes the stains
life's like the seasons that run
awakened we say
there's hope among the pain
tomorrow brings a brand new day



You can hear me
You can see me
Lord you fill me, and steal my heart
You've been wondering, why I left you from the start
you are comforting, you have healed my pain and scars

Weight loss is Spiritual gain

Growing up I was very skinny, never having any trouble with weight. When I got married though I put on some pounds. I went from 145 to 195 in about 3 years. Now 145 was way too skinny for me but 195 made me feel very large. I lost it (which I will tell you how in a bit) all down to 155 which felt like a good weight for me. However, in the last year I have put on 26 lbs bringing me to a chubby 176.

I honestly didn't notice it much until one day I stepped on the scale and thought "how in the world did I get here?" How may times have we thought that spiritually? How in the world did I get so far away from God? Why don't I feel like I did when I first came to Christ or even how I did three years ago when I was so passionate for him. It has sadly happened to mostly all of us one time or another. Perhaps it's how you feel right now.

The truth is, it doesn't happen overnight, it took a lot of little things to get you to this point. Just like weight gain, maybe you started eating more fast food or larger portions, maybe lots of snacking. Spiritually, perhaps you stopped praying as much, you quit reading the bible or you quit listening to the sermons at church. The point is, those small things are the very reason why I gained weight and why we become spiritually unhealthy.

So now that we know the reason for our weight gain, we need to choose to make some changes. For me, I began exercising and quit eating fast food. I'm eating smaller portions and choosing fruit over potato chips. I can proudly tell you that with doing this for a month I have lost five pounds and am down to 171.

So your first thought is... wait a minute, that's all?!? Only 5 pounds?

Yep, only five pounds in four weeks. The weight is NOT going to come off immediately. You are not going to feel spiritually amazing immediately, you have got to work at it. You have to get rid of the sin through prayer and reading of God's word. You need to get involved in serving in your church and get plugged into a study or small group. Your relationship with God may be five pounds better in four weeks, which may be frustrating, but you are five pounds healthier then you were four weeks earlier. It will take time but it's worth it.

Temptation will come, fast food is around every corner, so is sin. Maybe McDonalds is your fast-food vice, maybe pornography on your computer. Both are pretty easy to have access to and both are detrimental to your health. You have got to take one day at a time to conquer temptation.

So now that you know the relationship between weight loss and spiritual gain, I can tell you how I lost weight the first time. I went from 195 to 155 in about three months. That's pretty amazing isn't it. The truth is, I lost it by skipping meals. This is obviously not the healthy way to do it. Everyone said I looked skinny but I also looked sick. In fact I was sick one time a month for about a year, but I was skinny. Spiritually so many of us have done this. We have felt far from God so we start going to church but don't get involved. We start reading the bible, but only as a good story, reading without acting on what it says. We start praying but only as a ritual to feel like we are doing what we are supposed to. We start wearing Christian T-Shirts and listening to Christian radio but our relationship with God is weak and lacking. To outsiders, you will look 155 spiritually healthy, but deep down you are sick and unhealthy. You seem healthy on the surface while your insides are screaming for some real spiritual food.

If you were reading at the beginning you will notice that I went from 155 to 176 pretty quickly after I got bored of skipping meals. I never was truly healthy, just skinny. Spiritually if you try the surface solutions you will quickly fall back into the sin you were in before and back to where you started.

You have got to do this the right way, it isn't easy but God never said it would be. Sin and unhealthy foods are appealing but they will kill you if you don't make a change. So take this opportunity to decide that you are going to get your spiritual life back on track to being healthy. Know you won't see huge results quickly but after a while you will look in the mirror and think "How in the world was I ever where I was a year ago!"


Love you all
Brad

Change: Fear or Fun?

One thing i notice often about my son is his never ending love for new things. Maybe it's the feeling of exploration or just the excitement of a new experience but he is always up for learning or experiencing something new. What is it about us that changes as we age? More often then not we begin to fear change. It isn't so much change that bothers us, it is often having to learn something new. What is it about growing older that makes learning new things change from fun to fear? It always makes the chuckle when I walk into Walmart and hear someone fussing about a change in the layout of the store. Walmart of course does this so you have to walk every isle gazing at all their product before you can find what your looking for, all in the hope that you will put something in your cart you didn't intend to. I've also seen people pick up a mouse and keyboard or smartphone for the first time and quickly put it down in frustration. So what does all this come down to? Pride, because we don't like to look like a fool. At Walmart if you shop there enough you soon feel like the master of the store, knowing where every item is by memory but then one day you come in and they changed it all and you no longer feel like the master shopper but like a novice somewhat foolish. The same happens with technology, we are scared to look foolish learning something so new when it feels like everyone else around you already knows it like it's second nature. The truth is, they were once where you are but they choose taking the risk of looking foolish over not learning it at all and giving up. So many opportunities in life are missed because of pride and our fear of foolishness. When we drop the pride, we become life long learners, we become like my son who is always looking for the next thing to explore and discover. So what will you choose, a life driven by pride and fear or a life filled with learning and excitement? Keep in mind that what you have learned thus far in life has likely come from your pre-pride days. Let's let a little foolishness in and re-gain our child like curiosity!!!

Brad

I have a confession...

I have a confession to make. Something I have been holding on to for more than 16 years. This is something that is honestly hard for me to tell everyone. It's embarrassing and I've been hiding it very well for so long. Are you ready?

I have foot fungus...

That's right... I said it! I have foot fungus. I've had it for more than 16 years. I've kept it hidden from most everyone since it started. When I go to the beach, I hide my foot in the sand. When company comes over, I put socks on. Once our pastor suggested washing the staffs feet on Sunday morning and I freaked!

So why am I telling everyone? Because I made a decision a little over two weeks ago. I decided I was not going to let my problem rule my life any longer. I have tried to get rid of it before, many times in fact. The medicine that I'm supposed to use says it should only take two weeks to clear up, but I never was disciplined enough to actually follow through with the recommended instructions. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? I let this issue go on for that long all because I was unwilling to follow through with the instructions on the medicine tube. That is simply ridiculous.

The truth of the matter is, spiritually some of you have something in your life that has been plaguing you for years. Maybe there is a sin in your life that you have yet to give to God. Possibly you are embarrassed by your faith to the point that you have never told anyone about the saving power of Jesus. Maybe you are feeling like your relationship with Jesus stinks and you are too unmotivated to do anything to fix it. Perhaps you have even tried to fix these issues but you failed to keep it up long enough for the situation to heal. This is why I wanted to confess about my problem.

The Spiritual issues in your life are fixable if you would simply follow the insurrections on the medication. For those of you that struggle with a specific sin, memorize scripture that deals with that sin and use it as your weapon against temptation. Get someone who doesn't struggle with the same sin and is strong in the faith to hold you accountable. Often we get someone who is also struggling with the same sin and instead of becoming our foothold against temptation, they become the person who simply says "I agree, that happens to me to!" which holds no benefit. 1 Corinthians 10:13 is the perfect verse of encouragement for those being tempted.

13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Cor. 10:13)

God will give you a way out if you truly want to overcome the situation you are in.

For those of you who are scared to share your faith, begin to pray and spend time in the word. Ask God to give you opportunities to tell people about him. Ask God to give you the eyes to see those opportunities and the boldness to use the opportunity for God's glory.

For those that feel their relationship with God is lacking, simply breaking out of the routine of busyness and spending some time in the word and prayer will clear this up very quickly. Think about it... don't spend any time with your wife or girlfriend for several months or years, will you feel close to that person? ABSOLUTELY NOT! This happens sometimes to my wife and I. We will go several weeks in the routine of having so many activities that we don't see each other but in passing. Neither of us feel close to each other and we soon realize we need to reboot our schedules so we can fix the issue. The good thing is, that for us, it takes a couple of hours of quality time to fix the issue. I have to also think that if you were to spend some time each day in prayer and reading the word or even just sitting seeking God's presence, that your outlook on that relationship would improve in as little as a week.

The bottom line of this massive post is that I'm now in remission from my foot fungus. I have been faithfully putting my medicine on twice a day for more then two weeks now. The fungus is 98% gone and I can't believe I let it plague me for so long.

My encouragement for you would be to start today on whatever it is in your life that needs a little spiritual medicine. If you are faithful and consistently do what you are instructed to do, then in no time your issue will become a thing of the past! Don't let the struggles and fungus in your life have a hold on you any longer. Start putting on some medicine today!

Reasons for Ramblings

Worship...

Worship ministry is always something that gets a lot of attention in most churches. This attention may be due to rivaling opinions on how it should be done or simply because the worship is good. This blog is about both and more. God desires us to respond to who he is and what he has done for us, worship is that response. We all worship, it is only a matter of what and how. Why is worship controversial? Why do people feel some aspects of worship are right and others not? I hope to give my take on all of this in the near future. I wanted to drop a quick note for everyone to know why this journal exists. This is a place I plan to write about the struggles, triumphs and general life of being a lead worshiper. I have found that there are few places that deal or talk about what worship leaders go through, hopefully we can tackle this here.