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Thank You God

Youth Ministry is just like any other job in our world, it has good days, great days, bad days, and awful days. Then you get a day like yesterday, where God shows up and blows you off your feet. I need to rewind back to August right quick to explain what happened yesterday. In August or September, I can’t remember which really we had a Student Leadership Retreat. At these retreats we gather together and put everything on the table for the students to know about, in this case, I showed the team what 2015 – 2016 looked like for the Student Ministries, at First United Methodist Church. Conversations that day were great, we were thinking and re-thinking, but there has always been an event that was hit or miss. Our Student Ministries Christmas Party. Last year at our party we had a whopping 55 students show up and the plan for the right was a progressive dinner and a white elephant gift exchange.

  1. Have you ever done a Progressive Dinner with 14 vehicles? Well, I wouldn’t recommend it.
  2. Have you ever done a white elephant gift exchange with 55 students!? Again, definitely, wouldn’t recommend it.

So, we had a quandary and a good one at that. We had more students than we expected to show up, so it was time to rethink how we celebrate Christmas as a Student Ministry. There are moments in student where I am immensely proud of my students. In response to this Christmas party experience, they decided this year in lieu of receiving gifts to give back to the volunteers of the student ministry. Last night was our Volunteer Ministry Awards Night, our very own VMA’s, and it was filled with great fellowship, a fun game show and incredible worship.

During worship our speaker, Will Whitworth, who is a junior of Cleburne High School said very eloquently this:

“If youth are the hands and feet of Christ and they are as we all are, but volunteers you are the arms and the legs. The hands and feet can’t function without the help of the arms and legs. We are connected in one body.”

What a powerful image of God and the ministry we have been called to do. We are all connected, and while we don’t do all the same things in the community we all connect all these things to the Kingdom. I am beyond blessed to walk the walk of faith with such as these. Thank you, God for all that you have given us and that you, in fact, are Immanuel. You are with us!

Can’t wait for 2016 VMA’s!

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Advent: A Practice of Learning How to Wait

Advent is here and the waiting and sense of expectation are upon us. Tonight I begin a two week Advent series entitled, “Waiting” for our Wednesday Night gathering at First Cleburne Student Ministry. As I have been preparing the messages for this series, I have spent a lot of time thinking about waiting in our current culture. Surprisingly we don’t have wait in our culture, in fact, we are encouraged almost every moment of every day NOT to wait.

I am exposed to this more times than most by working with young people. Marketing loves our youth; they are big consumers, and they have the marketing all but perfected in how they encourage them to consume. It seems in the 21st century however we consume a lot of things, but not things that sustain us, build us, and help us live an abundant life.

We consume, yes, but the question is what do we consume?

I had an interesting experience with Verizon Wireless as of late. Verizon gave me a call and informed me in this call that I was due for an early upgrade, here is how the convo went down:

Verizon Salesperson: (VERY EXCITED VOICE) Mr. Alexander I am calling to inform you that you qualify for an early upgrade on your phone! 
Me: Really? That’s interesting. I was under the impression that I was due for an upgrade on November 29th. Is that not the case? 
Verizon Salesperson: Mr. Alexander, yes that is when your upgrade is due, but you can early upgrade right now! 
Me: Well, why would I do that? What is the benefit to getting a new phone right now? 
Verizon Salesperson: The price would be the same so the only benefit is getting a new phone, but if you do it right now I will throw in a new case and external battery! 
Me: No thanks I will wait until I am set for the upgrade. I am a man of my word and when I say I will sign a two year contract I will do that full two years. Thank you for the offer, but I will wait.
Verizon Salesperon: Ok…just so you know there is no charge to upgrade now. It will be a free upgrade.
Me: I understand that, but I will wait. 

The salesperson didn’t know what to do with that. The conversation ended very awkwardly, but it ended nonetheless. Additionally Verizon called me two more times in the month of November, and I had the same conversation, and I also received many text messages as well. They simply didn’t know what to do with the idea of waiting or delayed satisfaction.

As Disciples of Christ a majority of the time we are waiting. It is all in God’s perfect time.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a well-known German theologian from the 1930 and 40’s, once said about advent that: “celebrating Advent means learning how to wait. Waiting is an art which our impatient age has forgotten. We want to pluck the fruit before it has had time to ripen. Greedy eyes are soon disappointed when what they saw as luscious fruit is sour to the taste. In disappointment and disgust they throw it away. The fruit, full of promise rots on the ground. It is rejected without thanks by disappointed hands.

I love the imagery that Bonhoeffer uses by saying we want to pluck the fruit before it has had time to ripen. We don’t need what we think we need. Our inability to wait always leads us to a place of emptiness and bitterness, and God wants for us a fulfilling life! A life that is joyful, loving, and full of grace. An abundant life in Christ!

When we wait on God and follow His timing, we are always led to a place of fulfillment and joy! In John 10:10 Jesus as an full fledged adult talks about that He came to give life and give it abundantly. Let us consider further in closing what Bonhoeffer says about Advent:

“The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes. The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice!”

Advent and Waiting go hand in hand, and with them we are compelled to REJOICE as we wait! REJOICE!

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Much More

Today is Thanksgiving. A day of feasting, football, and loads of fun….which leads to some epic napping. Anytime we greet a day we should do so with scripture and today I feel that we need to hear from the Apostle Paul.

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I have so many great memories of thanksgiving days growing up. Playing football in my grandparents front yard with my family, there is nothing like trash talking with your family on the day we give thanks. The food that we shared together: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, broccoli cheese casserole, and many more. Of course we can’t forget football, that would be very unlike us.

The most treasured memories that I have of this day are of family, friends, and the love that we share in our Lord Jesus Christ. Today is not about food, its not about football, its about gratitude. In this passage we find the Apostle Paul encouraging us to do three things all the time. To rejoice, to pray, and yes to give thanks. What is especially obvious to us is the way he instructs us to give thanks. Give thanks in every situation, that is where it gets interesting and hard.

We have innumerable situations that we find ourselves in, and these situations may cause us to be joyful, frustrated, and even others that bring us pain. Today may be a tender day for you because there are empty seats where someone we loved once sat, and that is sad because they are not with us physically. I won’t get to give my grandmother a hug on thanksgiving again until I meet her in eternal rest and that wears on me, but thanksgiving is about recognizing that we have more than we did yesterday and that those people made us better. Put simply: Our lives our better for simply knowing them.

As I write this I am listening to Kari Jobe’s song, “I know you are for me” and may be that is the best way for us to express what thanksgiving and thanksliving is all about. It’s about recognizing that no matter the situation we find ourselves in God is for us. He is working for good in your life and in my life, always. So, in response to the goodness and love that God is literally breathing into your life.

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

May you experience the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ today and may you not just hold that in, but share it, because this love and this grace is meant and created to be shared with all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Grandma

I wanted to share something that I wrote for my Grandmother’s memorial service. I think it clearly expresses even more what a great woman of God she is.

Hi my name is Bradley Alexander and I am one of Mary K’s grandsons. As I stand here this morning I find it difficult to honor someone that did so much for so many people. Where do you even start? Mary K or Grandma was like a connection magnet. She loved connecting. From early on in her life she was deeply connected with God and his son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and even was known to say that doing ministry to and with the least of these was a deep connection she had as well and we all have.

She was deeply passionate about her faith and living out that faith. She was actually very passionate about connecting with her family and it was always too soon when we had to depart. Definitely feeling that today. She revitalized our family reunion years ago and it has been going to decades under her leadership. Grandma always loved connecting with people, she just did. She loved being around people at church, teaching Sunday school, being with family on holidays like thanksgiving and christmas.

The deepest that Grandma gave us though was something else entirely. She connected all of us to who she saw us to be. She would always tell me when I lived with Grandma and Granddad while I attended Texas Wesleyan University that I was so capable of doing many great things, it was just about showing up and seeing yourself for who you really are. Before the Texas Rangers ever used the phrase Never Ever Quit Grandma used it frequently by the way she lived her life and loved the people in her life.

Grandma, I love you and thank you for all that you did for me and I promise that I will always seek to do what you taught me. To Love God, To Love People, Speak from the Heart always, and to speak the truth at all times even when it hurts. Even further I promise to follow the recipes as written in our family cookbook.

I love you Grandma!

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Day 10: Spirit

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Rejoice Always.

Pray continually.

Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you.

I really like that last part, because it implies that God has this vibrant, enveloping, and massive love and grace for us. God’s design and his desires are always for the best for all of us. His will is never for bad, but always for the good.

Yesterday I got a call from my mom. She told me that the Hospice Nurse had called dad and said that my Paw-Paw was and has been recently declining and it would be very close until he would be passing away. So my wife and I drove up from Georgetown to Fort Worth to be with family.

It was a holy night.

We all shared stories from our families history and we laughed and we cried, but most of all we were there together with PawPaw. There were moments during the night where everyone would just get quiet and remember why we were here, but they didn’t last long because there was always another story to share and of course to laugh along with.

I wanted to be sad, but I couldn’t. I was and am so very thankful for those stories and for laughter and for family. When we were leaving last night I went over to my PawPaw and just laid my forehead on his and said, “PawPaw I love you very much.”

I trust my heavenly father with my PawPaw and I know that we have much to be rejoicing about and to be thankful for. He is one of the best men I know and he has taught me so much about what it means to be a man of God and I am thankful for that.

So, today I am feeling the Spirit is alive and well and in all of us.

I praise God for that.

Amen.