
Monday, October 10, 2011
Dear God,

Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Always a way back.

Despite my failures I have a way back. Despite my doubts and questions He will take me back. Despite the drug and alcohol problem He is there with open arms. Despite the fact that I am the biggest hypocrite He welcomes me back. Despite all my past, present, and future shortcomings He will always love me!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Slaves in America!

Saturday, April 23, 2011
Socially acceptable to Reminisce.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011
One or the Other.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
X marks the spot.
If I gave you a map marked with the location of 1 million dollars how many of you would take it and run? What about half a million? 100,000$? What about 100$? Chances are most of you would take it and be out of sight before I even knew what happened.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Do you believe that He would come through?

Sunday, April 10, 2011
Barefoot Business.

Why barefoot? Why for a year? Hasn't Tom's day without shoes passed already? These are some of the many questions I have received over the past week about why I do not wear shoes anymore. I have tried to come up with a simple answer that sums up all the reasons why I am barefoot to give people when they ask and what I have come up with is I Love Jesus Christ!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Have you had a check up lately?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Mini David becomes Many Davids! Part 2

How often do you run from your problems? They seem to big, to impossible to defeat, to overwhelming so you run and hide. David faced his biggest problem, In Goliath; by running towards him not from him.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thoughts on our First Be Different Trip!

This past weekend was such a huge blessing for us all as we were able to take a trip to Skid Row in Los Angeles to spend time with the less fortunate in the area. In our time there we were able to pass out nearly 200 meals that were so generously donated from Pizza Hut and Scoreboard Pizza.We were able to meet many amazing people that day but one in particular stood out to me.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
What is Mainstream Mormonism?

I was reading an article in the New York Times this morning about a Broadway play that portrays two Mormon missionaries that travel to Uganda to share their faith. One quote really jumped off the page and stuck out to me as I read the article titled "Mormons Try to Relish the Big Time". Dustin Jones, a lawyer and a Mormon from Phoenix was quoted saying, "Mormonism is mainstream and when you want to be a mainstream religion you open yourself up to mainstream criticism".
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Mini David becomes Many Davids! Part 1
The Boston Red Sox vs the 3-0 lead New York Yankees in the 2004 AL Championship series, 2 Duke vs the 45 game win streak 1 UNLV in the 1990 NCCA Tournament, and the New York Giants vs Undefeated New England Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl are all real world examples that we categorize as David's vs Goliath's. If you are anything like me you always wish you were in these epic sports battles so you can say you were part of the big upset. But do we really need to go very far to face a Goliath of our own?
Monday, March 21, 2011
Be There For Me Please!

Friendship. What a blessing it is when you find true friends. Friends who wont leave just because your life gets rough or because you make a few bad decisions. One of my favorite definitions of a friend is someone who is on the same side in a struggle, a supporter or sympathizer, someone thought to be helpful and reliable! But my all time favorite definition comes from the gospel of John.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Keep on movin on
Philippians 3:13-14 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.
- Are you scared of taking the next step?
- Scared that you'll be let down or hurt?
- Is something holding you back from going forward?
All of us have a certain amount of baggage that we carry from our past. Some of us carry lighter loads than others. Some have learned how to let their past go because they have found out that it will seriously damage their walk with the Lord and what He wants to do with their lives. They have found that carrying around some of the baggage from their past and constantly dwelling on it will take their joy and happiness in the Lord. They have found that it will distort their thinking and take away possibilities of good things that they have.
So why do we let the past effect our future? Isn't it the past for a reason? Do you think that God puts us through certain events so that we can get stuck in it and never fully be able to move on or is it that he puts us through events in our life so we have a challenge to go through that results in a life lesson learned? We go through hardships whether its family issues, health issues, abuse or relationship problems for a reason. With every issue we face we get the chance to overcome it and become stronger. God doesn't put things in our life to break us down to where we can't get up or move past it. If He did we would never grow as a person, much less ever fully walk to our real calls and destinies for the Lord. I see so many people who are scared or broken from things that have happened in the past and they miss out on so many opportunities or just can't full enjoy the here and the now.
We only get one chance in the eternal scheme of things to leave our mark in this world to some degree for the Lord. We should be able to stay strong with the Lord and know that he made a plan for us and we should just let everything go to Him and trust Him enough to let things go and keep pushing forward through life making the absolute best of it that we can.Don’t wait until the time is just right to take the first step toward achieving your goals. The time will never be just right.The choice is yours. You can either choose to let the hurts, wounds and pains from your past continue to stop you from going on – or you can choose to say enough is enough and give God a chance and a green light to free you from some of the bad things that may have occurred in your past. His power and His help is right there for you if you are willing to take His hand and allow Him to bring you up out of it!
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence.
- Jeremiah 17:7
- Lauren Bartlett
Friday, March 11, 2011
I'm so done with this!

Matthew 24:7-8 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of the birth pains."
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
What is Be Different?

Thursday, March 3, 2011
Do you know how to reject?
I can honestly claim that I knew how to reject long before the famous dance move came crashing onto the scene. I have been doing the reject for as long as I can remember. This move was nothing knew when it came out we all knew how to do it someone just decided to put a dance move behind it.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
From the Outside Looking In.
First and foremost let me begin with the point that Jesus Christ does not ruin your life He restores it!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Hooked on Jesus!

Monday, February 21, 2011
This might hurt a bit!
Our lives are consumed by safety and as a result we are put on the sidelines, yet we still expect to be used for Gods purpose. When we live safe our lives immediately become about us and not Him. We pray as a church that God would make our lives more about Him but we get real uncomfortable when He makes our lives unlivable without Him. How literal do you take what Jesus said?What if Jesus meant every word that He said?(which I'm about 100% sure He did).Would it mean you have to change the way you live your life, the people you hang out with, the way you interact with others?
I have been stuck in this mindset of safety but safety is not something Jesus Christ called us too. Throughout the gospels Jesus proclaims self sacrifice He says, "Ok you want this life to be about me, you want to see miracles, you want people to recognize that I am apart of your life? It might cost you a little bit". Matthew 10:38-39 expresses this very statement, "And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it".
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Why me?

How many times in a day, a week, a month does the phrase, "why me" come up in your life? If your anything like me I 'm sure the answer can be summed up quite easily. Alot. One thing after another was my mentality for quite sometime and if it wasn't one thing going wrong it was another. I want you to know that if you are in that stage right now I have been there!
Rock Bottom is a real place, down and out is a true feeling, and brokenness is nothing a doctor will ever be able to fix. But more real than the destinations,emotions, and heartache is the love that God has for you!
Hearing that God loved me was something I simply didn't want to hear. For the skeptics who don't believe there is a God, I was there. For the one who believes God is not all loving, I was there. For the one who walked away from God because you couldn't trust him. I was there. And For the one who believed there was no way out. I was there!
Jesus Christ is the one and only source of Love.He is the defintion of what love is. The fact that we even face trials proves there is something very precious to our Lord in us, or else He would not spend so much time and energy on us. 2 Corinthians 4:8, says "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed". From one skeptic to another: He is Real! His love does prove true, his promises won't be taken back, and he really does want to have a relationship.
Trust Him! He who sends the clouds can just as easily clear the skies. Lets us be encouraged-things are better down the road!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Be Different.

Monday, February 7, 2011
Super Storage

The whole moving process is such a pain! You have to go through all your belongings and decide what to keep, what to sell, what to throw away, it can be a bit of overwhelming chaos. When you take the time to actually sift through all your belongings you begin to realize that you have accumulated alot of unnecessary junk over the years. However, we keep this junk with the mindset of, "You never know when your going to need this" (Or maybe that's just me ha).
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
He wont Leave!

For someone like me, who suffers from the issue of abandonment; hearing that God loves me and wants to have a relationship with me was just something that I could never take serious or believe. My issue rooted from individuals who always said the words, "I love you", "I'll always be here for you", "We'll get through this together", etc yet whether intentional or not they walked out of my life leaving me with the empty feeling of abandonment. This issue has impaired my relationship with the one true person who would never leave me and truly does mean the words I Love You but through my interactions with others trusting God just seemed like a big risk.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Where are you headed?

Would a soldier go to battle without his weapon? Is it smart for a baseball player to go to the plate without his bat? Than why would Christians today drive with their lights off?