D-Now 2010 in the CLV

This past week, Wednesday night thru Sunday morning, was “disciple now”, or D-Now as some know it, for many of the churches here around Clarksville, Tennessee. The set up was new; pulling together all of the churches for two worship services, the first and last night. The theme was ID3NTITY, and knowing your identity in Christ, not the world. I enjoyed seeing Sam and Jonathan, as well as forming some new relationships with the rest of the band. For me, even though I was running sound and helping out all weekend, God was present and speaking to my heart.

Our speaker, for the city-wide sessions as well as ours here at First Baptist, was Jamey Crosson. We got to know him and his wife over the time this weekend. The message that God had to bring through him was impactful and deep. He talked about diagnosing the root problem of sin, that being, believing in lies that Satan puts in our heads. When we work so hard to combat a sin in our lives, we believe the lie that the sin has some type of power over us. Christ has paid the price, he has broken the power of sin, and if we are in Christ, sin has no hold over us. We must strive to glorify God as we are called, and created, to do, rather than continually trying not to sin. Don’t combat the sin because we can do nothing, but seek to glorify God, and Christ through you will overcome the sin. We must not only read, but believe what is stated in Galatians 5:1. Do not submit to the bondage of sin for in Christ it has no power over us.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

I could go on and on about the message that God brought through Jamey, but I fear I would run out of room, so I digress.

I enjoyed seeing some friends from back home, making some new ones, helping out with the fantastic students here, but most of all worshiping the Savior and being shown the truth in His word.

New Surroundings

So I'm working on my third full week of classes now here at Austin Peay. I'm loving it here, but it still taking some getting used to. There's so many differences here in Tennessee from living back home in Texas. For one, it's not as open, there is a massive abundance of trees, much like East Texas, but I have grown up in Central Texas, where from my house you can see downtown Ft. Worth and Dallas. Another thing, people from Clarksville think there is nothing here, but they have a lot compared to what I'm used to. Midlothian was always a small town, and business wise still is, so here it's a completely different atmosphere. I still don't understand the barbecue argument between Texans and "Southerners". Barbecue is barbecue! If you smoke some meat and throw some homemade barbecue sauce on it I'll eat it, whatever kind of meat it is. On second thought, I might have a couple of reservations on the meat choice, like no domesticated animals, that's just weird. Everything here in Tennessee is great and beautiful, but in a different way than Texas. A few things that are great about being here. Like the fact that my favorite style of music, bluegrass, is in abundance here. I love helping out at First Baptist and being a part of what is going on there. The students are a great group, and the college ministry is a blast.

If there's something I have learned here, it's that you can't forget who you are. Not in the sense of me being from Texas, but in the sense that even in an emotionally stressful time, in the midst of changes in life, you can't forget who you are in Christ. When something is thrown in your way you can't revert back to how you used to be, but accept it and move on. Things happen, and since being here things have been tossed in my way that started to make me doubt myself, and have that "poor me" attitude, but through some constructive words from back home, I had to remember who I am. Christ has made us new, and there's no reason to go back to the way you were before that, because the slate has been wiped clean and you are alive in Christ.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." - 2 Corinthians 5:17


Just for fun, I mentioned bluegrass at the first of the post, here's some bluegrass!