1.12.2012

A Blogger's Tribute

Off.Topic.Thursday.


Welcome to Off Topic Thursday... what is that you ask? Well it's only the greatest thing to hit this blog since... well... guest post Monday. Okay, that was lame. Anyway, the purpose of this O.T.T. is to deviate from the norm, i.e. me writing about some recent revelation or thing that God has taught me in the last few days, and talk about the way I see Christ working in others. I've never had a younger sibling, I have one younger cousin who is like a sister to me, but we are close enough in age that it's not the same. However, about 5 1/2 years ago I started hanging out with this girl. To this day, that girl is one of my best friends and one of the most amazing women I have ever been blessed to know. That girl has a younger sister, who in turn, has become like a younger sister to me as well. When I met my little sister she was getting ready to turn 13 years old. I could go on and on with stories about young Hammie (a nickname bestowed upon her by me) but instead I'll get to the point. I treasure every moment I spend with her family, because in a lot of ways they are like a second family to me. Her sister is my best friend, she herself is one of my closest friends, her mom is... well, a mom to me (a very cool one, just like the O.M.-original mom), and her dad is someone I admire, I can go to for advice, and that I play golf with. Of all the experiences I've had with this family though, I think I have been incredibly blessed to watch her grow into the person she is today.

Time.Changes.Everything.

This younger sister of mine was awesome even when she was 13, there were honestly days where I wished she was my younger sister. I guess I spent enough time at her house that it began to truly feel like she was. I got to watch her story unfold, I watched her grow from a somewhat shy, quirky, funny, 13 year old girl, into an 18 year old adult. I can remember as she got older I had some opportunities to give advice to her, to encourage her, and to laugh at her when she made silly mistakes (all in good fun, of course). The cool thing, is as she has grown, I have found the roles have reversed a little. Her faith far exceeds what mine was when I was 18. I find myself wrestling with decisions I made then, or questions I still ponder from then, and sometimes I go to my little sister for advice, encouragement, and ALWAYS for support. It blows my mind, I guess mainly because I had never really gotten to experience such a thing. To be honest, I don't put a lot of stock into Facebook in the first place, only because many times people post useless updates about their lives i.e. Brad Robertson ate a bowl of cereal this morning, yum!... honestly? I don't care that much, BUT one thing I do like doing is keeping track of friends at college and seeing how I can pray for them. In my little sister's case, I end up having prayers for myself answered in reading things she shares. Her faith is just awesome.

Blogger.Alert.

You might be wondering why I am yammering about my pseudo-little sister. Well, because she's new to the blog scene. She's a journalism major who absolutely rocks at life. We have talked many times about the idea of blogging, the other night she told me she was going to start one. I started my day off today by reading her blog before I crawled out of bed. For that I am thankful. She has great insight, it's raw, and she's not afraid to be transparent (all the things I love about blogging). I am proud of her for taking the initiative to use her talent to glorify the Kingdom.. in fact, she even talks about how that's her goal in her first post. Her cheesy imagery and examples play well to her goofy sense of humor, and then she throws a little theology, some spirituality, some Jesus Juke your way and you can't help but say to yourself "Boom.Roasted". So do me a favor readers, go check out her blog, the link is posted below. It's insanely legit. Hayli Goode, this friend, fellow blogger, and self-proclaimed older brother is proud of you. Keep spreading the light of Christ in this dark world.

Grace and Peace



To find Hayli's blog, copy and paste this link into your URL http://hayligoode.blogspot.com/

1.08.2012

An arm around my shoulders...

A.Sunday.Like.No.Other.


I woke up extremely tired today. I was tired because I had an awesome night with a great group of friends at Perfect North. Now, very rarely do I wake up and think "Meh, I think I'll just go to the second service to teach Sunday school and sleep right now" but that thought went through my head. God said No, you're going. So I got up, took a quick shower, threw on some jeans and a hoody and left for church. I had no idea what God had in store for me this morning. I knew I was excited once I got in my car because I knew we were starting the all church study today. CCC is studying the book Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church by Ed Stetzer. I really like a lot of Ed's writings, and I am a HUGE advocate of the church being missional (I've gotten the opportunity to bring the message on a few occasions and a lot of the time it involves getting the church to move). However, I didn't realize the intro would go the way it did.

I.was.convicted.

Not of a crime, so don't worry. I was convicted by Scott's message this morning. It was his desire to define, or redefine for some of us, what it is the Church. His message focused on a few points, some of them were things like the Church is not an organization but an organism, it's the body of Christ, and it's not a building nor is it bound to a location. All thoughts that I completely agree with. I was sitting there smiling excited about what Scott was saying, I could feel that something big was going to be sparked in the hearts of our church. However, it was at the end that truly convicted me. Scott asked a few questions that he wanted us to pray over, those questions were the following:
1. Am I truly committed to the body of Christ and do I love the Church?
2. Am I more focused on the ways of man than the ways of Jesus?
3. Are non-believers attracted to Jesus through my life (i.e. my actions)?
4. Am I at peace with the members in this body?
5. Am I willing to submit to others in the body?
6. Do i place what's best for the body above my own wants and desires?

Now, I'm not going to answer those questions individually because part of that is fairly personal. I do want to discuss question #4 though. You see, I had an issue with someone in the body of Christ at CCC and I had never even met him. I had an issue because I was allowing jealousy to fester inside of my heart and soul. God told me it was imperative that I say something. I'm not good at things like this but I did it anyway. I went up to this person, I put my hand on his shoulder and I said "Hey man, I know you don't know me- but my name is Brad Robertson. What Scott said really convicted me to come talk to you, you see I have been dealing with some jealousy and resentment towards you for the role you are taking on in this body. It was something I wanted to take on. Funny thing is, you didn't beat me out, or take it away from me. God put you, the right person for the position in place". He said thank you, we hugged, and I felt peace on my soul, at least when it came to that aspect of what I was dealing with. Now it was time to face God...

I.Began.To.Pray.


I sat down while others around me stood and sang, so I could be real with God. I started by saying that I hate the sin in my life, but I knew I was avoiding the elephant in the room between Christ and I. He chipped away at my stone facade slowly but surely and I began to break. I asked for forgiveness for not trusting Him, for harboring jealousy, for wanting my plans to outrun His plans. I began to weep, which is not unusual when I pray, and I asked God for comfort. I asked Him to put His arm around me and tell me He was there, and things were okay. He did just that. I was sitting there and all of a sudden I felt an arm around my shoulders. I'll be honest, I had a very good idea of who it was, but I didn't dare look to confirm, I just waited. Then, my suspicion was confirmed, and Chris began to pray for me. The things Chris prayed for and over me just absolutely blew my mind. It was as though he had tapped into my thoughts and listened to my conversation with Christ. I ever never felt the presence of God more than I did in that moment. It made me feel like less of a number and more of a disciple. For that I am so thankful. I am thankful for Chris, and I am thankful for all of the people in the body of that is known of the world as CCC. I am excited to see how Christ transforms the body in Columbus, in Indiana, in the United States, and in the World... all because someone in our body was willing to stand up and say, this needs to be addressed. We need to be missional.

Grace and Peace

1.05.2012

2012. Grace. Faith. Life.

Thoughts. For. A. New. Year.

Happy New Year! Yes, I realize I'm approximately 5 days behind, but that's what happens when life moves at 110 mph and you don't take the time to sit and think. I apologize to my readers for not posting more lately. That will change with the New Year. I don't usually believe in the "new years resolution" business because a lot of times it's just another way to fail... and quite frankly I fail enough as it is. The difference though, is most of my failures come with joy.. stick with me here.

James.1.2-4.

Imagine that, first post of the 2012 and I'm talking about James 1:2-4. *shock*. I have been thinking about this idea of sin, grace, righteousness, life, being a child of God, failure, the Enemy attacking, etc. I know, that's a lot to think about, hence why this needed to finally be written. The first thing I want to touch on though is a new outlook on that verse. I was thinking about James the other day, and read it a little differently. In the past, I have always looked at the verse as meaning that we go through bad times to prepare us, and God will do something joyous in the future to counteract that trial. Which, in all reality, I still think is very true. Peep this though, what if we looked at it from the perspective of having JOY in our TRIALS because our trials show us we are probably doing some RIGHT. Here's what I mean... When I feel the Enemy attacking me, whether it be through a painful memory, a bad relationship/friendship, physical pain, confusion, disdain... whatever, it means I must be doing something right. If I am living my life for Christ that is. If I wake up every morning, and try to stay focused on being an Ephesians 5:1 kind of man, Satan is going to attack me. The Enemy doesn't want God's army to grow bigger and stronger. So Satan uses my weaknesses, my moments of doubts, my fears to tear me down and become distant from Christ. So when I feel him attacking, I find it's much easier to look at Christ and say "I know you are there, so let Satan attack me. He can't hurt me with you by my side. He can't hurt me if I trust in YOU. and He is attacking me because I am living my life for YOU". I find joy in doing things to piss off Satan, because when I am making him insanely mad, I know I am making CHRIST insanely happy. There is no greater joy than that right there.

If. Grace. Was. An. Ocean.

I love Crowder's song "How He Loves Us", it has always moved me (I'm listening to it now). My favorite line "If Grace is an ocean, then we're all sinking". Wow. You know what's awesome about that line? It is so, absolutely, 100% TRUE. I look at it this way. We can't earn grace, we've heard that a thousand times. Grace is FREE. Which is what makes it grace. We are completely unworthy of it, yet it's always there. We can try to run and hide from Christ, but grace still surrounds us. You know what's funny? Even if we tried to earn grace... we couldn't. We don't deserve it, we constantly fall short of the glory of God, we constantly fall and fail to pursue Christ, to live like Christ, to move like Christ. YET, grace is given to us, free of charge. I have spent a very long time trying to wrap my head around that. It wasn't until recently that I started to fully comprehend it. The idea of Grace still throws me for a loop sometimes. I realized though, if I wake up every morning and recognize the beauty of that grace, my day will be so much better. If I wake up and say "okay Christ, I am ready to live today for you.. I am going to strive to be more like you" but also realize that I'm going to fall short, I will have a wonderful day because I will be so much more thankful for grace if I am realistic about my human abilities. I can't be perfect, I never have been and I never will be. And if I stop expecting perfection from myself, I can truly start to love myself the way God wants me too...

One.Last.Thing.

I want to talk about that idea of love for a second. I don't mean romantic love, I mean relational love. There is a difference. My heart has been bursting these last few weeks with love for so many different people from all walks of life. I am so thankful for those people, and my goal for 2012 is to make sure that they know on a regular basis that I love them. There is one life in particular that my love has just been overflowing for. He's a 2 1/2 month old little boy from Ethiopia. His name is going to be Elijah Gideon Eatherly, and he is the most precious nephew anyone could ask for up to this point. I love Elijah more than he will ever understand, more than even I fully understand. Each time he crosses my mind all the heaviness that has filled my heart for that day is lifted, if only for a second, and I know that when he comes home, my days will be brighter. I am so thankful for his parents, and for the role they are allowing me to play in his life...

Happy New Year to all. I love you.

GRACE and Peace,

B