Are you sure?

I remember my first real experience with Dr. Gibbs. I was sitting in the front row to left side of the room at Spartanburg Methodist. I was in a chair that hardly had an armrest and creaked every time I moved. Obviously these desks had been there since the college was established in 1911. I have to say, they complemented the radiators very well. At any rate, the conversation began:

Gibbs: "Is the Bible inerrant?"

No one answered. I mean it was an awfully deep first question for a morning 9:25 class. For the first time in my college career I raised my home schooled hand in a classroom that contained more than just me.

"Yes," I replied, "I believe it is."

Gibbs: "Do you mind if I press you on that?"

I had no idea what he meant. "Sure," I replied.

For the rest of the class I remember arguing over this issue until Gibbs eventually asked me:

"Are you sure that is what you believe?"

I paused. I realized that I had no answer. I was stumbling over my words. I had never thought of why I believed the things that I believed. Here I was an all-knowing freshmen, and Gibbs is working on defending his doctoral dissertation on Clement of Rome at the University of Wales! I have to admit my first impression of Dr. Gibbs was that he was the kind of professor drank diesel fuel as he ate freshmen like me for breakfast. Luckily, Dr. Gibbs was playing devil's advocate and helped me immensely to go deeper in my journey of faith. Thanks Dr. Gibbs.

I was reminded of this time in my life as I read the opening of the Gospel of Luke.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,

(this is the part that hit me)

I too decided to write an orderly account for, most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Luke 1:3-4

Theophilus (which means "friend of God"), has a special place in Luke's heart. Luke wanted to make sure that among all of the other people writing about the things that took place while Christ was present on Earth that he put out "an orderly account for, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught."

Each Theophilus needs a Luke to help him or her to go deeper in the faith. I pray that each of us will take the time to thank the Lukes that are in our lives, so that we may grow as a close friend of God.

I know that I'm blessed to have so many people like Luke in my life. So many people have helped me, and more importantly people are continuing to help me. I'm also blessed to have so many people in my life that are like Theophilus, friends of God. I'm changing my listing on the right to read "friends of God" instead of just "friends". Make sure that check out the links.

On a side note, I talked to Whit today and I have to admit I'm pretty jealous. She's traveling overseas and has seen some pretty awesome stuff like Corinth, the Pyramids in Egypt, the Parthenon and Pella. Of course I had to ask her what her favorite part about Greece was and here was her answer:

Being where Paul was. I have to say though, as many monuments and statues as there are to see here... parthenon, mars hill, temples... nothing to me beats the views I see. God's work to me is more interesting than man's.

Good answer Whit! G'nite everyone.

International Wesleyan Youth Convention

Impressive, extensive, incredible, moving, LOUD, fun, warm, focused, blessed... in the words of my good friend Chad Young, it was by far the most bestest Int'l Youth Convention you'll ever go to in your life... until next year.

So my fiance Kristie, Amanda, and I traveled down to Orlando to work at the youth convention between the Christmas and New Year holidays. I have to say, it was the best in between holidays week that I have experienced. First of all, it took us 11 hours to get to Orlando. This is because I decided to pick up I-20E in Columbia rather than following I-26 all the way to I-95. Why did I decide to tack on another hour of travel you ask? Because I did not follow my directions? Guilty as charged. At least I had good company. I was wondering why it took 6 hours to get out of South Carolina. For a moment I thought the state had annexed part of Georgia or something!

When we finally arrived that night this is what we pulled up to:



Here is a daytime picture:


Pretty awesome eh? And to those of you at BUMC reading this... Kristie and I stayed in separate rooms, and more importantly the Wesleyan Church picked up our tab... not you... so don't fret over the $475/night or the 9 Escalades parked out front.

The best part is that the convention was the worse part. Honestly, the convention itself was great! Over 7,000 youth gathered together from as far as New Zealand to join together under the common bond of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful to hear the voices of those youth singing praises in worship and to see their hands lifted up as lights ricocheted off of the crowd.

There were numerous bands and speakers. Kutless, Fireflight, Everyday Sunday, and Family Force 5 just to name a few. The worship leader was Steve Fee.

The final day was amazing! Kevin Myers spoke about "getting over it". How sometimes in life we just have to get over things. That sometimes there are things we have to do that we would not care to do. In the book of 1 Samuel, David isn't taken seriously at first. First when Samuel comes to anoint a new king, Jesse doesn't even recognize David as a candidate to become king. Then after the anointing, Jesse sends David to the front lines of the battle against the Philistines. However, Jesse sends David out with bread and cheese to take to his brothers and their commander. Jesse is a lowly pizza delivery boy. But because David got over his pride it showed that he was worthy to one day become king, and to face Goliath.

The music was incredible the last day. Both the worship music by Fee and the concert by Family Force 5 went great. It's a good thing too, because I blew a fuse in the Mazda that took out my radio. the road trip home seemed longer than usual with no radio. A special thanks to Fee and FF5 for getting a few songs stuck in my head... they helped on the trip home.

Two good increases in friendships took place. With Kristie sleeping like a rock in the passenger's seat it was just me and Amanda awake for the ride back to South Kakalaki. Luckily, Amanda did a wonderful job of keeping me awake by engaging me in conversation clear from St. Augustine to Charleston. Another surprise was with my roommate for the week, Kevin. I have to say that I knew Kevin and I would either do great together or we would both kill each other. I am pleased to say that all went well. To be honest, I couldn't have picked a better roommate.

All in all, the convention was not the only place that God reached out to me. He reached out to me in the hotel, in the car, at worship, at the convert, in break out sessions, and in the quiet times of that ride home.

I think that one of the best things about the conference was that among 7,000+ Wesleyans I was treated as a brother. No one looked at me as if I was from another denomination. I was treated as a fellow brother in Christ. This convention was about Christ, not denominational lines. I'm glad to see that the youth understand the big picture. I pray that adults, of all denominations, will see the same picture. 7,000+ Christians gathered in Orlando last week seeking after Christ. That is amazing. I have no doubt that 2008 will be as impressive as those 7,000 teens.