Random thoughts & inspirations

Here a few random thoughts from today and the previous weekend:

• Just had an older gentleman come into the store and I overheard him in conversation with a younger woman when he said, "Have you ever heard that Joel Osteen fella? He keeps everything plain & simple. (Here's the kicker) All the other preachers on TV are crooks." If that isn't an ironic statement enough for you, how about this statement coming from a African-American gentlemen that's in his 60s? I ain't making this up!  I did want to say, "what about T.D. Jakes or Tony Evans?"  Definitely the most ironic statement of the day:)

• I had lunch with a certain college student this afternoon and in the middle of a conversation about whether God is male or female asked such an cute, elementary question.  She asked, "what does God look like?" I was dumbfounded and thought to myself, "I can't remember if God was wearing gender specific clothing the last time I saw (him?).  Oh yeah, nevermind, I've never seen him."  My actual response was a lot less clever.  I said, "well Jesus is God and a man, so..."

• Really don't know what happened to my Mavs Saturday night.  They were riding a 13-game winning streak into a home matchup against the lowly Knicks.  And the last time they met in NY they were without 2 key players, including their starting, all-star point guard Jason Kidd and still they won BY 50!! Easy game, right?  Nope, they dropped, no, they didn't even show up in a 34-point loss! See, what had happened was...

• We had 45 students in THE EDGE two Sundays ago! Ya hurrr?

• Just found out that Kutless came out with a new worship album, gotta get that thing in the near future!

• Tribal Wars (Northeastern vs. Everyone Else aka P-Tank, Camden, PQ, etc) is April 14th in the auditorium at Forest Park! These kids ain't ready for this...thank God for release forms:)

•  Yesterday in THE EDGE we had part 4 of the Conflict series.  This last installment was about Conflict with God.  One common theme ran about the room that morning: "Why does God allow natural disasters?" And God totally supplied my response (which was unplanned, btw).  I said, "well, the Bible says that the earth groans for the day of the Lord's coming so you gotta think that we aren't the only ones in need of a Savior, the earth longs for Jesus' return, too.  Just as we grow older and our sins and mistakes are magnified, the earth grows older and inhabits more people and therefore has the potential to cause more devastation.  It may have all started in Genesis with thorns and thistles but now we see tsunamis, cat-5 hurricanes and earthquakes.  Sin doesn't just affect humanity."  

• Just thought I would let you know that Forest Park will have 1,000 people as a commonplace on Sundays in the future (and it won't stop there).  You heard it here first because God is moving and speaking! Holla.......lejah!

•  The Unleash conference was fabulous like it always is! It's making me dream all over again! You haven't heard the unfettered truth being preached until you've heard Perry Noble.  Check his podcast out on iTunes!

• I'm hungry...and I tend to ball well @ Corinth when I go hungry, watch out ballerzzzz!

• This year is gonna be the year that our college/young adult ministry takes off! I can't wait to share spring break with 14 of my friends from 29:11 (our college/young adult community group) this Thursday-Saturday in Nags Head.  FPC covered the cost of the cottage! Yes!

• THE BRINK will have its one year anniversary party at our first annual HOUSE PARTY @ my house! Can't wait to take all the furniture out of my living and dining room and party like its 2099!

• It's quitin' time here at the bookstore, I'm out!

Not Just Any 2 Weeks....

I tweeted last night (which I rarely do) about how I found simple pleasure in just sitting back, watching TV and having nothing pressing on my schedule for the next couple of weeks.  Here's what my last 2 weeks have consisted of:

• Doing prep work for the 30-Hour Famine, which includes but is not limited to calling each of the shelters, getting an accurate number of people that we were going to feed, putting together teams of students & volunteers, getting all 50 people to fill out and turn in a release form for the mall, etc.
• Holding a meeting with the Famine participants and making sure all the meals would be prepared by the families of the participants and delivered at the church when we needed them (one parent took it upon herself to feed 95, YES 95 people!)
• Designing an 8-foot banner that would display HOMELESS FOR HAITI and finding money to pay for it (gulp), which after the company printed it they gave us 50% off when they discovered what it was for (PRAISE GOD!)
• Secured my own living quarters (cardboard box) for the Famine, which we stayed out front of the mall
• Answered my phone which either rang or beeped with a text seemingly every 2 minutes
• Plotted directions for every team and made sure each had the schedule and the appropriate amount of meals for each outreach that we went to
• Led a candlelight vigil and a time of worship & prayer with Mark
• Failed to sleep much at all in the high-20s weather we had Friday night
• Drew the 3-5am watch shift for that night
• Succeeded in sleeping from 5:30-8am
• Guided a few teams on the fly on their routes while I was trying to lead my own team
• By the way, I stopped eating at 8pm Friday night and wouldn't eat until 7am Sunday morning
• While we fasted, we served the meals
• At 1pm (this is last Saturday mind you) we started a door-to-door canned food drive for the Food Bank. We raised 1,700 lbs in just 2.5 HOURS! Amazing!
• Took a 20 minute nap in my box
• Had a small interview with the guy at the Daily Advance
• Led Silent Library, if you know you know, if you don't you're missing out.  All the games involved food (which was GREAT). But it involved eating gummy bears off someone's face, eating marshmellow fluff from someone's fingers and lastly eating three bottles of Gerber (flavored Carrots, Fruit Yogurt and Lamb, which was easily the worst smelling thing from that day).  The prizes were half-eaten bags of chips, cookies, etc.
• Led another time of prayer & worship with Mark
• Drew the 12-2am watch shift, which wasn't better as it sounds because I couldn't wake up my partner who was supposed to stay up with me.  I wasn't going to go into his box to get him! No worries because George wasn't asleep.
• Found it really difficult to sleep in the humid low-30s weather (hadn't ate anything in 31 hours)
• Cleaned up all the trash and boxes, took communion (led by Jason)
• Had the best, most classy experience at McDonald's that I've ever had and I only ate a McChicken bisquit (after 36 hours of fasting)
• All 44 of us went to the 8:30 service Sunday morning service and totally blew the place up with our energy, which no one thought we would have:)  Take THAT!!
• Went home, took a 1.5 hour nap, came back and started to set up for the Hunger Banquet
• Emcee'd the Hunger Banquet and raised over $1300 dollars
• Cleaned up the auditorium and left around 10pm
• Got up and did some calls for the Benefit Auction, packed and left for Charlotte the next morning
• Saw the Mavs come from behind to beat the Bobcats that night!
• Called more businesses on Tuesday, sent faxes, emails, etc
• Went to the Unleash Conference at Newspring Church (newspring.cc) Wednesday-Friday
• Picked up all the remaining donations for the Auction on Saturday
• Sunday morning, we had the most kids we've ever had in THE EDGE, 46!!!
• I set up the football field at 1:45pm, finished setting up for the Auction at 5pm and had my first meal of the day immediately afterwards
• I described all the items and let the auctioneer do his thing (we raised nearly $3200 by the way)
• Cleaned up and done by 10pm
• And then, I tweeted what I did when I was watching House and having leftover Mexican food:)

 Yep, not my usual two weeks, but it was a blast nevertheless!

What do you think? Were you a part of the Famine or any of the fundraisers? What was your experience like?

Quite the exciting day!

Two things happened today that have me excited about the future:)

A) I was notified that a package was delivered to Forest Park with my name on it from Fuller and it read on the outside, DO NOT BEND.  Know what it is?  Let me give you a hint...it cost me around $60k to get this thing. Das right it's my Master's degree!  An insert read, you may now update your resume with your new degree and title.  So does that mean I can now call myself Master Long?

B) I think I may have put in motion the biggest spending plan ever to just see a concert.  My fav band of all time, The Juliana Theory, who broke up in 2006 (it seriously darkened the first year of seminary for me) is putting on a 6-show reunion/farewell tour this summer.  I saw they were going to NY and Pittsburgh, so I naturally tried to get lodging arrangements through friends but the tix sold out before I could do so.

I wasn't planning on going to Chicago or Philly so the other options were San Fran and LA.  One of my friends AND die hard TJT fans lives about an hour from there, so I called him up! He was stoked about the tour but he was also going to be in Iran (of all places) in August.  So that left LA, which should've been a natural pick anyway since I have so many friends from Fuller still there.  So I bought the tickets today (yes, I'm gonna treat someone to the show, don't know who yet though) and I'll buy the plane tickets next week.  This'll be about a $500 trip ($75 for the concert, 325 for the airfare and about 100 in spending money) just for a concert.

And, no, I think it's fine! Of course, it mortgages my flexibility for, say, a month and a half but hey, it's an experience I'll never get to do again and I'm single so I'M GONNA DO IT!!!  FO SHO!!!

Bullet Points

I really can't believe its been more than 3 months since my last post.  What have I been doing?  It's been more like, what haven't I been doing?

What has transpired since September for TJ:

• I had a relationship, with a certain magnificent women, in which I thought was going somewhere dissipate
• The Student Ministry at FPC received a gift from God in the form of a young, gifted man named Mark Shortt who has been leading our students in worship
• I had the most amazing Christmas ever...it felt indescribable to able to give my family more gifts than they gave me (they had a troubling financial year, like many others)
• I turned 29 on January 12 (gulp) and Tiffany Gregory (a student at FPC) baked me a cake (wow!)
• ....I got my ears gauged the same evening.
• We've had two consecutive weekends of snow in NC, what is that all about?

What's going on now:

• The Student Ministry at FPC now has the most volunteers we've ever had: 18!! (Thank you Jason, Solomon, Marsha, Myraida, George, Chris, Tim, William, Mark, April, Emil, Kaylin, Katrina, Amanda, Daniel, Christian, Ethan and Brian!)
• Mark will be leaving us for Florida (Coast Guard orders) in mid-April so we're in the process of looking for another Student Worship leader
• We just had a crazy Super Bowl party last night!!  Parties never go exactly to plan.  For instance, 50 RSVP'd for the event and about 75 showed up.  Let's just say that food didn't last that long...
• Within a month our students have raised $500 in offerings, they're really stepping up and taking this giving thing seriously!!
• We have 62 students, young adults and volunteers who will be doing the 30-Hour Famine for World Vision February 26-28th!  We'll be spending Friday and Saturday night in a cardboard community outside Southgate mall.  We'll essentially be homeless for the weekend, without money, cell phones and an extra change of clothes.  We will not eat at all Saturday while we deliver to the poorest in EC. We'll break the fast by having a $1 breakfast at McDonald's (in tribute to the 20% of the world who lives on less than $1/day).
• We added two new staff members at Forest Park: Brian Sabin and Tony Klepper, I love and admire the passion and work ethic of both these men of God!

What's on tap:

• Sunday, February 28th at 7pm we're having what's called a Hunger Banquet at FPC.  I know it sounds like an oxymoron, that's what's cool about it.   Tickets are $10 and all proceeds go to World Vision!  When you come through the door you draw a country and depending how rich that nation is depends on your amount of food and seating arrangement for the evening. For example, if you draw the USA you'll get a full 3-course meal with a table and chair to enjoy the entertainment.  If you draw Ethiopia you'll get just enough food to satiate your hunger (maybe) and you'll have the floor on which to sit.  Its a great example of how the world's food is divided between the rich and poor nations!  Come out and experience this with us!!
• The following Sunday, March 7th at 7pm (yes the 7th at 7) we're having the World Vision Benefit Auction.  We'll have so much great stuff to auction off.  Gift cards to local shops, a home theater system, a canoe, leather jacket, ice skating passes, movie tickets and so so so so much more!!!  It will be a blast!!
• We're going to Newspring AGAIN for the UNLEASH conference!!!
• I'm going with my buddy Andrew to see the Bobcats and Mavericks in Charlotte on March 1st, so psyched about that.  (Interesting side note: in a span of 3 days I will drive to Charlotte, back to EC and then to Anderson for the conference a total of 1,110 miles.  Just in case you're still reading this insanely long note I drove from Asheville, NC to Pasadena, CA in just 2 days or 2,285 miles.)
• This is the year that Converge is gonna blow up! What do I mean? You'll see...let's just say it won't be just 29:11 in the future.
• Speaking of 29:11 (our college group), we're getting together this coming weekend to go to the OBX for dinner and a movie.  Should be a blast!

What could I use prayer about:

• I'm such a perfectionist and borderline OCD that I don't delegate responsibility half as much as I should
• We cannot afford to lose momentum on Wednesday nights (THE BRINK) so we really need the person God has for us to lead our students in worship
• I honestly don't know where all the food for the delivery of meals for 30-Hour Famine will be coming from right yet (gulp)
• I still have a pretty ineffective habit of being a little too impulsive with my words and body language.  Instead of rationalizing with a person and letting them in on what I'm thinking, my usual response is, "Come on! What are you thinking? Be considerate of other people!" While that may be true, the delivery and intensity is anything but edifying.

That's all I got for today! Ya'll have a great one!

Newfound respect for Amare

If you really know me, you'll know that I'm a huge NBA fan. GO MAVS!!

Anyway, I was reading through one of my favorite sites, hoopshype.com and came across a little ditty on Amare Stoudemire.  Amare is definitely one of the best big men in the Western Conference.

Last year, only two games after the trade deadline passed (which Amare was rumored to be on the trading block, but never was traded), he was poked in the eye so hard that he suffered a detached retina that put him out for the remainder of the season.

This is the interesting part.  After having surgery, Amare went through rehab.  He was required to look downward, towards the floor for 12 hours straight!  I seriously think that 22 hours on the site was a typo, but if not, that's even more interesting...or torturous.

During his rehab time he read half the Bible! Impressive! Not only to do it, but to tell a reporter that you did so.  So, even for that little info, I will cheer a little more for the Suns and Amare Stoudemire next year:)

The Lord's Prayer: A Prayer of Selflessness

If you're ever gonna teach anyone how to pray why not use the Lord's Prayer as your basis, right?

I did and I'm not going to go through the whole message over a blog but there was one common theme that ran through the prayer that was a little groundbreaking for me, even though I have literally read or recited that prayer at least a hundred times or more. Here's the NIV's take on Jesus' teaching moment:

"Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,   (ok stop yawning already and focus)
 your kingdom come,
   your will be done
  on earth as it is in heaven."

Here's where it got interesting for me.  Peep the words I make bold. As I read this prayer with what felt like new eyes and a new mind, the parenthesis explain my thoughts.

" Give us today our daily bread."
 This is more than just asking for and then "blessing" our food, as if it would be less good for you if you didn't "bless" it.  It is God that needs to be blessed by our prayer and thanked for His Earth producing the food that it does for us.  And it is us that needs to pray for the whole world to get the food they need.  And if we would pray for that, I'm positively sure that God would convict us actually to something about it.


 "Forgive us our debts..." 
We are so ego-centric about our mistakes.  So much so that many of us stop giving or serving others just because we're sulking in our sins that no one else but God knows about.  How stupid is that? God chooses to forget.  Your sin doesn't linger with Him and if there's not a physical consequence for your action, don't make it a psychological one! How about taking the time to pray for God to reveal to someone else their sin for a change? Most of the time we either do nothing about others behavior or are so vocal that we come off as judgmental, arrogant Bible-bashers.  Humans are such extreme beings, either we're apathetic (or ignorant) or come on way too strong and that's particularly true of Christ-followers.


"...as we also have forgiven our debtors."
How often do we do this, really?  We usually forgive because we forget (someone else has already ticked us off) not because we literally have chosen to forget because we have forgiven. 



"And lead us not into temptation,
 but deliver us from evil."
Here again we usually focus so much on ourselves and our struggles or addictions that we fail, 99% of the time, to pray for the struggles of other people.  This statement can have corporate connotations, as well.  (imagine a local church, as a whole, praying this line) This statement also does not suggest only that people may sin but that Satan may spring on them for no apparent reason.  We shouldn't pray for someone just because they screwed up, or have the propensity to, but also pray for the vulnerable ones out there; the ones with low self-esteem, with no family, with mental deficiencies, etc.


For yours is the Kingdom
and the power and glory. Amen.

Thank you Jesus for reminding me today that my prayer life is not even closely all about only me.  In fact, it's more about all of us!

Think about it...how often (if you pray often) do you say something that goes like this...

"God thank you for this and this...
Sorry about this and that.
Help me to get or do this.
Amen."

You've been enlightened.  Get that prayer hierarchy worked out:)

Outdated Christian Lingo

Since my second job is at a Christian bookstore here in Elizabeth City, I hear a huge amount of outdated Christian lingo and cliches every single day...

I'm pretty sure I'm thinking about all of this because 90s style Michael W. Smith is playing on the house system right now.....uhhhhhhhh....

Its funny how people who have grown up and/or grown old in the church that talk with a deep-seeded Christianese dialect to their English actually think to themselves in amazement, "I just can't relate to kids today." Oh I have those same thoughts, too, don't get me wrong.

This is an example of how I really can't relate to kids these days. Yesterday I was heading back home from Williamsburg when the dj from 100.5 asked her callers to give her euphemisms that they and their lovers used to imply for wanting sex while in the company of others, you know, like a password. The topic didn't shock me, really, until the third caller called and said a version of this:

"Me and my boyfriend once heard our youth pastor, who was giving us a sex-talk at our church, say that he once turned down his wife's advance for sex (never heard a man do that, honestly) because he wanted to play Scrabble. So, from that point, since that teen couple were sexually active used the euphemism, "Let's go play Scrabble..."

Hmmm....that blows my mind. Must have been a great talk that night. Looks like the youth pastor's point got across.

Anyway, here's a few words or phrases that I don't understand why we use outside the church:

1) Praise - The more I hear it in the church, the more I hear the word 'thanks' outside. As soon as someone uses praise, they are immediately tagged Christian, which means they have substituted other common words for Christianese terms, such as steadfast for patience, for example.

• Normal English = "Thanks!"
• Christianese = "Praise be to you!"
  

2) Cool, dude - You might hear someone who's a parent say this and I usually say to myself, "they're trying at least." Other instances you may hear that same parent say, "that's the bomb," "boom shock-a-lock-a" or "awesome!" Not that I would wanna hear my mom say, "TJ, I got love for you," "what's poppin'" or "let's get crunk!" Talk like yourself minus the Old English and outdated pop slang and you'll be fine!

3) Thee, thou, thine - Speaking of Old English, I really hope this is a no-brainer. Of course no one uses it in common conversations as their own words, but I am a firm believer in ABKJ (Anything but King James). I mean, let's be honest, there are plenty of reasons for me to hold this.

• A) No one, including Jesus himself, spoke Old English. And now churches adhere to having only the KJV for two reasons. One of them is to appease the older generation that has always had it. I doubt, with every fiber of my being, that Jesus would've spoken his words only so the Pharisees and religious leaders could understand him. When he spoke, he was not only authoritative and powerful but he was ultra-practical!
• B) The KJV is the most outdated commonly-used translation of the Bible. Did you know that of all translations (NIV, New Living, New American Standard, The Message, even the New King James just to name a few) the King James is the only translation that does not include the Dead Sea Scrolls. You might be saying, "So?" Well the scrolls that were discovered in the 1940s are the oldest copies of biblical books that we've ever found. All the other translations incorporated these texts, but not the King James. So, the KJV is the Bible version of the game 'telephone' that would rather keep all the changes that had occurred through scribes' interpretations rather than to have the words that are closer to what the biblical writers actually said. Or than to have gramma read a different version of Psalm 100.

I'm trying my best to not be that weird talking, Bible bashing Christian. I actually think that using normal language (yes even slang) to speak the truths of Scripture is much harder and MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE!!

Try it sometime or you can notice the disconnect that occurs when you quote the KJV to an unchurched teenager...your choice...