SERVING SIX ONE

Matthew 8:1-3
Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.

When I read these verses this morning, I was moved. Moved by the power and love that Jesus shared to those in need and willing to receive. In this case it is a leper who needed cleansing.  However, there is more to this story than Jesus cleansing a leper. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the healing of a fatal disease is incredible enough. But there’s a lot more to it than that…something deeper than a physical healing…something that goes beyond what the eyes can see or mind can comprehend.

At the beginning of the verse we see that Jesus was being followed by large crowds of people. He wasn’t alone. Vast numbers, including His disciples, followed Him. Then “suddenly a man with leprosy approached Him.” Out of the blue, a man rushes up to Jesus. He wasn’t part of the crowd. He couldn’t be. He wasn’t allowed to be around other people. He was an outcast – deemed unclean. Not wanted. Socially unacceptable.  That’s why he suddenly appeared. He was probably lying low, waiting for just the right moment to make his move. Otherwise, someone would have caught him and sent him away.

And so he appears out of nowhere. Can you imagine what happened? The scriptures don’t come right out and say it, but can’t you visualize the crowd. Shocked. Disgusted. Horrified that this man, this leper would dare to show himself and dare to come into their territory. I’m sure they were scared too. Scared that they would catch what he had. Leprosy was incurable. An outright death sentence. It was an ugly, painful, contagious disease that literally caused your flesh to rot away leaving you maimed, disfigured, and separated from those you loved.  That is until Jesus came along. And this leper  knew that and that is why he showed up “suddenly”.

When the leper gets to Jesus, he kneels. He bows down in humble respect before the man he knows can help him and then he speaks. “Lord” he says, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” He acknowledged the Lordship – the power of Jesus. He had faith – faith that he put into action and into words.

Now what happened next is the most amazing part of this whole story. Verse 3 : “Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.” Did you catch that?  No – not the healing part – the touching part? Jesus touched him. Think about the significance here. Jesus touched the leper. He could have just spoken the word. He could have just said, “Be healed,” without the touch and the leper would have been just as healed. But he first touched him. Jesus touched a man that society had deemed untouchable. He reached out to someone the world had shunned. He touched him.

This wasn’t about Jesus showing power – this was about Jesus showing compassion. He knew that this man had not felt the warmth, the love, the tenderness of a human touch for years. And Jesus knew that this leper needed to know and feel loved. He understood his needs. Jesus went beyond the physical need here. He went deeper. Straight to the heart. He touched the man, healing his wounds, his hurts, his insecurities, his inner pain. Jesus’ touch cleansed the leper from the inside out.

Do you need a touch from Jesus? Do you need to feel  warmth,  tenderness,  love,  and compassion from someone who truly understands what you are going through? Who truly cares about your feelings, and your needs? Then it’s time you meet the healer.  Go to Him. Call out to Him. Tell Him what you need.

Jesus can touch you. He is willing to reach out and make you whole; no matter how much the leprosy of sin has scarred you, mangled you, and messed up your life. He can cleanse you and heal you and give you a life brand new. He did it for the leper and he’ll do it for you. Just do what the leper did – Acknowledge Him. Trust Him. Ask Him. Trust me; you’ll never be the same!

Check out ALL THREE (3) of our new videos: “This Place,”  “You Carried Me” ,  and a video montage (from a recent concert) below!

ALSO…Check out our new video blog “Meet the Band”. Scroll below for the link or click the “Meet the Band Videos” pic on the left , where you will have a chance to individually meet each member of Serving6 ” via video.

Special thanks to all of our fans for helping us make the TOP TEN in Toby Mac’s Rock the Camp contest! Scroll below to see a video of how a crazy, fanatical fan makes good on  his promise to “GET HIT BY A CAR IF SERVING6 MADE THE TOP 10.” We are sorry that we had to see him do this, but hey…a promise is a promise!

Thanks to all who became a fan as a result of the “Rock the Camp” contest. If you are not yet a “fan” please go to http://facebook.com/Serving6 and become a fan. From time to time we will be offering special downloads to those that do. Thanks again for all of your support.

Remember, it is NOT about us…it is ALL about Him. We are so honored to be able to share the hope of Christ through our music.  God bless you.

So what is a phishing scam anyway? Trust me, you NEED to know – and if you use the internet to access e-mail or ANY type of online account, this may be one of the most important blog posts you’ll read today…

Bear with me while I give the definition of phishing and then read the story about how we almost became a victim of a phishing scam.

First, here is how Wikipedia defines phishing:

“In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

In other words, you are ready to sign into your e-mail account, but you mistakenly type in the wrong web address (maybe inputting two “n’s” where there was supposed to be only one “n”). Now you are ready to log in. All appears normal except you are not really at your e-mail provider’s website at all.

You are at a FAKE website that only LOOKS like your e-mail site. You put in your user ID and password, but nothing happens, or perhaps you are (unbeknownst to you) re-directed to the REAL site and a screen that says you entered the wrong password. You try again, and you are successfully and happily logged in.

But what you don’t realize is that you have now become the victim of a phishing scam! While you are merrily checking your e-mail, the phishing website owner is preparing to hi-jack your account. After all, everyone knows that if someone has access to your e-mail account, all they have to do is go to the websites you hang out at (They can find that out by looking through your saved e-mails), and even if those other sites use different passwords, all they have to do is click the “Lost Password” button and in most cases the password will be instantaneously sent to…you guessed it…the e-mail account that has been compromised.

Things could get pretty ugly in a hurry. Here is my story…

Yesterday my son was going to his Google Adwords account. He normally does that when he is logged into Gmail and from the Gmail interface, but since he already had Google open, he simply typed in “adwords” in the search box and (as usual) the top listing was adwords.google.com.

In fact, it was both the top “organic” and top paid ad. Well, he clicked on the top paid ad and went on to what he thought was Google’s Adword page and since he wasn’t already logged into his Gmail account, he entered his user ID and password. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then he was immediately re-directed to a REAL Google page that informed him that he had entered the wrong password.

Since it was a re-direct he was suspicious and hit the Back button on his computer. Here is the URL where he really was:
http://adwords.googlen.com (The site is already down.)

It was a phishing scam site and now they had not only his Google Adwords account info, but also his Google Adsense and  Gmail profiles…since they all rely on the same log-in profile. Thankfully, he was able to get to his account first and change his password, but the results could have been disastrous!

We did some further research by going to Google and searching on Adwords again and now TWO ads came up at the top of the page:

• the URL mentioned above and this one…

• ebaypartnernetwvork.com (Notice the misspelled “netwvork”.)

Here is a link to a screenshot we took of the search results:
http://www.imageuploads.net/ims/pic.php?u=32201LsGqu&i=167811

The top two are fraudulent (EVEN THOUGH the top one looks JUST like it is
Google’s).

We notified Google immediately about the phishing scam, but I wonder how many hundreds of people compromised their security during the period of time that these ads were running?

So, if you are feeling lazy and want to type in your URL or do a search for
it (ESPECIALLY when your destination is going to require a log-in profile),
think again…One mis-type or “bad search” result and you are a step away from someone getting your password.

Instead, use a program like RoboForm (www.roboform.com) that automatically goes to the website that YOU have pre-defined and enters your log-in profile without you having to enter a single keystoke online.

ALSO…if you are one to use a public computer, such as one at a hotel business center, library, school, or public kiosk, you had better use RoboForm’s portable USB solution (RoboForm2Go) because who knows if someone hasn’t installed a spying software on that public computer and now your every keystroke is being logged so that a phishing scammer can steal your identity and wreak havoc on your life.

But don’t solely rely on software to protect you. Sometimes phishers employ cleverly worded e-mails, disguised as notifications from companies you already do business with, enticing you to click a (fraudulent) link so that they can capture your log-in profile. Slowing down and using a little common sense can also go a long way towards helping you avoid becoming the next victim of a phishing scam.

After winter comes the summer.  After night comes the dawn.  And after every storm, there comes clear, open skies.

-Samuel Rutherford

I love this.   As “out there” as this quote may sound, it’s not too good to be true.  

As long as there’s a tomorrow, there’s hope.  Just remember that storms- no matter how rough or how long, don’t last forever…just wait for the sun

I’m waiting God, haha I’m waiting.

I wrote this as a devotion for a friend awhile back.  I’m a big fan of positive thinking and when I read this verse, I was amazed at how it can be applied to our everyday life.  God’s good, isn’t he?

Love, 

Calie

Luke 5:37
And no one pours new wine into old wine skins.  If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out, and the wine skins will be ruined.

Centuries ago, people used goatskin to store wine instead of bottles.  They’d take a whole goatskin dry it and cure it, and then shape it into little bottle-like containers to hold wine.  When the wine was poured into the goatskin, they’d tie the top of the goatskin to seal the wine inside.
During Jesus’ time, these goatskins were known as wine skins.

An interesting thing about these wine skins is that when they were new, they were soft and pliable.  However, as time passed, they would age and lose their elasticity.  When this happened, the wine skins would harden and set until eventually, they could no longer expand.

Now, this wasn’t a bad thing, after all, everything ages- right?  And aged wine skins had no effect on the wine that was already inside…however, what about new wine?  In other words, what happened if someone were to pour brand new wine into an old, used wineskin?  Let’s ask Jesus

If we look in Luke 5:37, Jesus gives us our answer.

He says,
“And no one pours new wine into old wine skins.  If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out, and the wine skins will be ruined”.

Basically, new wine and old wine skins was a big “no-no”.

So, what is the point of this whole wineskin talk and what is the meaning behind it?

It’s HUGE.  Are you ready? Drum Roll….

Jesus used the wineskin story as a parable to make a point.  He wanted to encourage us not to settle by telling us to enlarge our visions.

The wine in the parable is actually symbolic of our lives.  And the wine skins, symbolic of our attitudes.

When He said, “You can’t put new wine into old wine skins”, Jesus was saying that we cannot have a larger life with restricted attitudes.

In other words, we can’t expect to live a life full of purpose and essence if we have a crappy attitude or continue to be set in our ways and bound by our thinking.

God has incredible plans for each and every one of us.  That’s why he gives us talents, gifts, and dreams.

He places certain dreams, certain desires in our heart, but we’ll never accomplish them unless we’re willing to wholeheartedly trust HIM, change our old way of thinking, and expand our vision.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says,
that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

God doesn’t want us to be old wine skins!   He wants us to get rid of the old, and put on the new.

Until we begin to dream big and see the future through eyes of faith instead of eyes of doubt, then our wrong thinking will prevent God’s best for our lives.  Just as you can’t pour new wine into new wine skins, God can’t pour new ideas, visions, and blessings into our old attitudes.

When we get rid of our old way of thinking and truly begin to trust and follow God, we will begin to experience His immeasurable favor and receive His blessings.

Lately, I’ve found myself getting frustrated.  Not just with  writing, but with life, in general.  There have been so many times, especially lately, with the economy, my friends, and my family’s music ministry, that I’m so tempted to just give up on everything.  Today was one of those days…that is, until I read this verse and it got me thinking…Before long, I found myself writing my interpretation of the verse.  The result?  The several long paragraphs you see below and a new found sense of hope and encouragement.  Enjoy 

The verse was :

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
—2 Timothy 4:6-8.

Paul actually wrote this verse right before he was carried out to be executed.  In fact, it was one of the very last things he ever wrote.  To me, this verse demonstrates “selflessness”.  Paul didn’t live for Jesus at the beginning of his life,; however, he made up for it at the end.  Growing up, Paul (then known as Saul), lived a very selfish life.  He only looked after himself and everything he did was in the sole interest of him and him alone.  As a adult, Paul helped to seek out and kill many innocent people.  Paul was a selfish, bitter man- that is, until he met Jesus.

When Jesus came into Paul’s life, Paul was completely transformed.  He was a new man.  And immediatley people began to see a change in him.  When Jesus became Paul’s main focus, Paul became self-less.  No longer was he concerned about the well-being of himself.  Instead, he was concerned about the welfare of others.

Paul knew that in doing so, he could lose everything, including his life, but it didn’t matter.  Paul had discovered the true meaning of love and had embraced the true meaning of life itself which is ”selflessness”.

Paul poured his whole life into serving Jesus and serving others.  He fought the good fight.

Now, if we judged Paul’s fight in the eyes of men, it would seem as if Paul lost everything.  He lost his status among high officials, he had no money, he was a wanted man, and eventually caught and put in prison.  All of these things are enough to make any man break down and give up, but not Paul.  Even while in prison, Paul wrote letters of encouragement to many people offering hope and encouraging them to stay the course and follow Jesus no matter what the cost.

Eventually, Paul was tried and sentenced to death.

Paul continued to write and encourage even though he knew his days were numbered.

As the day came for him to be executed, crowds of people begin to gather outside.  They hated what this man stood for and couldn’t wait to watch him die.

Inside his cell, Paul could hear the crowds getting louder and louder…

Paul knew it was almost time, so he wrote.

He wrote to his friends telling them not to worry and to continue where he had left off.

As he wrote, Paul could hear footsteps, distant at first, and then getting louder and louder.  They stopped at his cell door.

Suddenly, the door to his cell opened and Paul looked up to see the guards.  The end had come.

As the guards led Paul out of his cell and through the prison, Paul prayed for them.

They approached the door to the outside. The door was opened and Paul was led into the jeering crowd.

No one really knows what went on in Paul’s mind the minute he was led to the chopping block or the brief seconds in which the executor raised his axe.  But we do know this: Paul fought the good fight.  He gave his ALL for Jesus.

I’m pretty sure that the jeering crowd, the guards, and the executioner thought that Paul was a miserable failure that day.  Paul had fought hard to share the gospel with the world and he ended up losing his life.  However, Paul was a victor and he knew it.  During his final moments, Paul knew that he was about to come face to face with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and receive his eternal award – the crown of righteousness.

Paul fought the good fight and today, his writings(which were inspired by God) and his legacy lives on and reaches millions of people all around the world.

This verse, though short and simple, is so profound.  It means that we should never give up, never tire of being a light for HIM.  And even when we don’t feel like being kind to others or letting “the peace of God rule” we should. We should strive to become, self-less individuals who think more of others than we do of ourseleves.  Life is a constant battle.  So let’s fight the good fight

I’ve been thinking a lot about my Dad lately. This May will be two (2) years since he has been with us. It seems like yesterday when he was still lingering in that hospital bed and I was able to lean down and kiss his forehead and whisper that I loved him, something that I had been too embarrassed to do or say for most of my adult life.

In a way, his 5-year struggle with cancer was a blessing, as it was a wake-up call that we all recognized as a message from God saying, ‘Life is short. Live it while you can. Family matters. God matters.”

I don’t know if I ever would have kissed my Dad again, had he met his demise in some other way, such as a heart attack or sudden accident. Sure, he displayed affection to me when I was a little boy. I remember him taking me in his arms and swinging me around and hugging me when he was proud of something I had done. But sadly, somehow, when boys start to grow into men, many lose the ability to show affections that were once perfectly natural in our younger days.

So, with him lying there, I bent down and kissed him. It was so hard because men are not supposed to do that, right? But I am glad that I was able to overcome my inhibitions and do it.

Dad taught me a lot about emotions. His favorite emotion (if you can call it an emotion) was laughter. He loved jokes – clean ones. And there are some of my dad’s jokes that I probably heard over 100 times. Most were pretty corny. In fact, many of the times when his jokes elicited laughter…his audience was not laughing with him, but at him and how stupid his joke was.

Yes, Dad taught me how to laugh; but he also taught me how to cry. He wasn’t afraid to cry in front of his children. He would always cry when a movie ended happily. Dad would weep for joy when he heard about our accomplishments and accolades.

I remember when our dog got hit by a car when I was in the 7th grade. Dad cried louder and harder than me or younger sister.

In the final months of Dad’s life as he battled valiantly with cancer, Dad kept telling us how he wanted to go home. “I want to go HOME,” he would say over and over again. “Dad, you ARE home, ” my sisters and I would answer. “No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I want to go HOME.”

They say there’s no tears in heaven, but my family knows that this is not true…because on May 15th at 5:16 p.m., 2007, my dad was probably so excited that he cried as he embraced Jesus and heard the words, “Welcome HOME.”

“No matter how bad things seem, always look on the bright side.” That’s something my Dad said to me many years ago, and he lived it out countless ways in front of me. If the glass was 80% empty, then my Dad would call it 20% full. That’s the Dad that I remember.

Growing up, I received few spankings from Dad. That was mainly Mom’s territory; but the ones I DID receive are quite memorable, each one dealing directly with a specific form of behavior Dad disliked. Dad did not tolerate disrespect. I remember the one time that I failed to call him “Sir”, yelling “Huh” down to him from upstairs. I never knew Dad could climb stairs so quickly. That was the last time I ever used that word around him.

Another memorable spanking was when I kept saying the line, “I can’t.” Dad HATED those words. He “taught” me never to say them. I wish I could say that I have always adhered to those instructions. Many times, even when I don’t mouth that hated phrase, my mind says it for me, which is just as bad – or even worse, I think.

When I was 9 years old, I signed up for the Dixie Youth Baseball League. I did it mainly because all of my friends were joining, too. Now, I would like to say that I was an immediate star, but that would be lying. I would love to say that I was just so-so, but that would disingenuous as well.

The truth of the matter is…Dad was pretty lucky. All other kids’ parents had to be at the game by 6:30 pm if they had intentions of seeing their kid play baseball that night. Dad didn’t have to show up until an hour or so later…just in time for the 7th inning (which was the last inning in little league baseball) because that was the only time the coach would put me in the game.

Still, Dad was always so excited when I got up to bat and would talk to me from the stands, as I stood in the batter’s box, waiting for a called strike three. As far as I remember, he never showed embarrassment that his kid was the worst person on the team with the exception of the 8-year old daughter of our coach, who was the team mascot.

That first year, I had a grand total of “0″ hits. But at Dad’s urging, I signed up for the next season anyway. But this year, my fortunes changed drastically: I had “1″ hit. Dad was thrilled. ‘You’re getting the hang of it, son,” I can still hear him say as he drove me home the night I had my career-changing single. (In this league, they scored it a hit – even if you hit it between the first baseman’s legs.)

After turning 11, I graduated to the 11-12 year-old little league – now known as “Pony League.” Dad attended every game and watched me do something quite spectacular: two hits, not including a line drive that almost made it through the hole, but was speared by the shortstop to end an important game.

It was then that I decided to end my career on a high note and retire at the age of 12. Dad was livid. He never talked me out of it, but this is what he said, “Son, just look at it…you are only 7 years away from a 100-hit season. You could be an all-star some day and maybe even go pro…” The sad part about his statement was that he really believed it!

The way he explained it to me was that all I had to do was keep doubling my total like I did from before.

-1st year – 0 hits
-2nd year – 1 hit
-3rd year – 2 hits
-4th year – 4 hits
-5th  year – 8 hits
-6th year – 16 hits
-7th year – 32 hits
-9th year – 64 hits
-10th year – 128 hits

Growing up I heard many sermons, both in person and on television. And if you would have sat me down at about age 18 and asked me to come up with a list of the 6 things I thought that God hated the most, I would have probably given you something like the following:

• drinking
• cussing
• smoking
• chewing tobacco
• doing drugs
• speeding in my car

You see, I , like many of my friends, had been “indoctrinated” through exposure to religious services, books, tapes (Yes, we had tapes back then) and other forms of media. But that’s not all; a majority of the influence I received that helped me mold my beliefs originated from Hollywood – in the form of sitcoms, cartoons, and movies that represented “Christian” stereotypes.

And sometimes people only believe what they WANT to believe anyway; it is far too easy to call out a list of sins of the “flesh” than to ponder what God REALLY says.

But guess what? We don’t HAVE to wonder what God does not like. He tells us plainly in Proverbs exactly which sins he hates most: