magnificentpersoninternet

[magnificentpersoninternet]

My hurt back.

Today I went to the gym and, like I usually don’t, I didn’t warm up. I started right into a leg work out without waking up any of my tired muscles. Well, as you would assume, I hurt my back (this article helped).

I actually hurt my back as soon as I lifted the first dumbbell. I didn’t even get to start my workout this morning in peace. Because I don’t have a strong core and I don’t have a lot of hip mobility, this wasn’t my first rodeo. I knew what I had to do. I had to keep my back warmed up and do my best not to allow my muscles to stay cool. 

I went right into some no-weight squats and no-weight dead lifts to keep my back from straining but also to keep it moving. I am not going to lie, I didn’t want to work out any more. My entire workout for the day was lost all because I didn’t warm up first. I could have stretched, walked, did some lunges or anything, but because I was in a hurry to get straight to the lifting, I ended up doing almost nothing.

As I am writing this my back feels much better than when I started, but it is still uncomfortable. It is still going to be a distraction for the rest of the day. But this feeling isn’t anything new. I have had this feeling in my life anytime I don’t warm up for my work day. 

What I mean by that is, every time I don’t pray, read the Bible and worship God before I go into my day, I find my self distracted, uncomfortable, and I usually don’t accomplish what I had determined to get done. Just like at the gym, when I don’t warm up, I risk ruining the very thing I was there to do and it impacts the whole rest of my day, week or, if I am in really bad shape, month. 

I want to encourage you to warm up today. Before you go out and start doing the heavy lifting in your work and home life, spend some time with Jesus. Before you go into taking care of your kids, sit with your Father. Before you start cleaning, open your Bible. Before you head into traffic worship our God. It will keep you from being angry, bitter and distracted from the thing that you are suppose to be doing, glorifying God with all that you have.

So take some time and warm up. You don’t want a hurt back. Trust me.

-Pastor Tommy

[magnificentpersoninternet]

Sharpening.

At the Atlanta Dream Center, we are pretty serious about the Bible. Each week as a staff we take time together to go over tough topics that we either grew up being taught or we have read during our studies and together we wrestle with the things we are reading. 

The idea is to make sure we are on the same page when it comes to the Bible, but it also allows us to speak in the same language.

I hope you understand that I don’t mean that some of us speak other languages other than English, but rather, we speak the same language differently within English. An easy way to explain this would be to us the sentence, “Carl is sick”. That can mean a few different things. It can mean that Carl is a pervert like a John or someone who is pro-human trafficking. It can mean Carl is ill and is in need of medicine or healing. It can also mean Carl is awesome, or rad and we all want to be like him. Our language is complex and ever-growing and changing.

As a staff we have found an incredible amount of language in our faith. This makes conversations very long and repetitive when we talk about the subjects in the Bible. A great example is using the sentence “I have a right to healing as a Christian”.  Everyone on our staff believes that divine healing is real. We all believe that healing is something God can and does do. But that sentence above was a doozy. We spent one hour talking over each other, interrupting, saying, “I completely disagree” and “where in the Bible does it say that?” to one another. I can assume some of us left feeling a little frustrated from the meeting. Not at each other as much as being frustrated with the feeling of not being able to fully communicate clearly to one another because of language.

As the pastor, I left the meeting a little worn out. It was a lot of talking and listening and trying our best to stay on the subject without derailing. 

I went home that night and took time with my wife and kids to just enjoy the day and weather. As I laid down on my bed I was filled with joy thinking about how tough that conversation was and how much we all benefitted from our talk. I felt  wiser and my mind was filled with scriptures. I was better off after the conversation than before.  Our discussion did something amazing to each of us individually. Each of us were sharpened.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”.

I love what I have read by Mel Walker, “The concept of ‘iron sharpening iron’ obviously implies at least two pieces of iron.” Mel is right. It is implied that two people of the same make sharpen each other. If a piece of iron is left to itself it will become dull. Isn't the same for us? As we find ourselves becoming people more and more isolated by society, money, new means of communication or for the pleasure of doing whatever we want, we find ourselves less challenged by other people’s thoughts and inputs. We build our live’s perspective around our experiences and what “makes sense” at the moment. You can see in our world everyday. The lack of sharpening has made opposing ideas into “lies from the opposing team” or worse, people who oppose our “side” are considered “idiots”. There is no longer a place for sharpening in the world, only competing in thought.

It should not be that way in the Church. In fact, that division is an abomination it says in Scripture. We should be eager to discuss our thoughts, ideas and problems we find. 

But! The problem with sharpening each other is that it can hurt. It can make people angry. It can make YOU angry. Sharpening each other is full of friction. 

As we were discussing in our meeting about our “rights” there was a lot of friction. moments were heated and tough. But that was what made it so good. That friction is what made me excited as I laid in my bed that night. My ideas were challenged. Some of my thinking was strengthen, and other parts of my thinking were changed. Mostly though, I learned to communicate important concepts clearly. 

I found that we were humble enough and loved each other enough to have a disagreement and hear what the other thought, and in doing so it encouraged us to dig into the Bible, pray and to really stick out the conversation. I think everyone in the room was exhausted from the constant chipping away at each others thoughts, but I believe each of us left the meeting for the better. We were able to look at the scriptures really see what God said and shows us through His works. We didn’t just agree to disagree, but rather we came to the same conclusion and also came to a place of great friendship. 

So! In conclusion I want to encourage you, get with a brother and sister in the Lord and sharpen each other. Tackle ideas and thoughts on the Bible you don’t tell other people. Let people question those ideas! Get into the scripture together. Let us not be satisfied with dullness in the word and work of Jesus, but rather let’s get together and cause friction and grow sharper daily!!

- Pastor Tommy

[magnificentpersoninternet]

The weekend Photos

[magnificentpersoninternet]

This Weekend

Sometimes you wake up and think, “what did I even accomplish?”.

Today, I am thinking, “How did all of that get accomplished?”

I have had the honor to pastor at the Atlanta Dream Center Church for the last year. I know I am not really great at sharing all the wonderful things that happen on a weekly basis at the Dream Center, but today I want to give you a little glimpse of this last weekend.

The last Friday of each month, the team and I decided to take the entire day to come into the office and prayer and fast (You should join us next time!). As soon as we started, two wonderful people, who we really call friends and mean it, came into our church. In the pictures you’ll see a man in a mask and a hat next to a woman in a purple shirt sitting on a bus. That man and I have met before and talked about our history in the Old Fourth Ward area more than once, but more importantly, we have a mutual friend, Nick McLean. 

Nick had helped this man get into a program a while back. The man remembered this and he came to the church hoping to get back into that program. He said, “I knew, if I can get to the Atlanta Dream Center, I can get help”. While the man and I were swapping stories about all the local drug dealers we know and how we know them, Josh Ellig reached out to Nick to see if he remembered this man in need. And sure enough, Nick, who is quite possibly the best in the biz, knew him by name (Oh, by the way, it was 7am in Texas when Josh reached out to Nick. He really is a saint). With the wisdom of Nick and a couple of phone calls, our friend had a bus ticket in hand and was ready to head into a Christ centered program to get off the streets.

But it was the next moment that took us all by surprise. In the photos, you’ll see a woman sitting between Josh and I. Her name is Elaine. I met Elaine in the second row of a church service. She had come to church because of a mutual friend living on the street. He thought she could use some help. And he was right. She came into church and was coming down from smoking crack cocaine. 

That was in February of this year.

Since then Elaine has become a part of our church. She would come in and drink coffee, call her mother on the church phone, help clean, and, usually the case, use the church property as a safe place to sleep off her high.

As our time with her progressed we saw her life get more and more disastrous and dangerous. We had found her in neighborhoods we serve every Saturday on Adopt-A-Block asking us to help her escape random men’s homes and even found her half dressed unable to wake her up. To be completely honest, we didn’t have a lot of confidence she would ever change her life.

Well, that all changed on Friday. Only an hour after we got the other man a bus ticket, Elaine walked into the church. We told her she could get off the street that day if she wanted too, and guess what? She did. She handed Josh her weapon (A sign that she was serious. If a woman gives up her weapon on the street, it means she doesn’t plan on having to protect herself any more), and we got her a ticket. Today, I write this with a heart that can sing and dance with joy. Elaine is in a Christ centered program changing the course of her life forever.

But that was just Friday. Saturday Josh led the team for Adopt-A-Block but this time we partnered with a company that took our block party to a new level. Thanks to our friends at LightSpeed Automation we were able to rent an ice cream truck that provided free ice cream to everyone, two inflatable bounce houses for the kids and grilled out hotdogs and sides to everyone who came by! We also were blessed by Mount Paran Church with hundreds of articles of clothing to give out to the neighborhood alongside prayer and an invitation to church. But that is not all! Thanks to Serv International, we gave away just under 100 boxes of non-perishable items too! It was one of the best block parties to date!

Then, that evening, a church member (my awesome sister Haley) led a Movie-In-The-Park event to minister to the neighbors surrounding our church. We watched Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, gave out free popcorn with an invite card attached, hot chocolate and a million play things given to us from some volunteers from Passion City Church. It was the only movie night Old Fourth Ward Park has ever seen, and it won’t be the last.

Following that packed out Saturday, we had an amazing Sunday service. Our worship team is the best (did I mention I am bias?), but this Sunday they were even better than the best. My son Jacob told me that we don’t need to get a choir, the church sings loud enough on their own! It was a blessing. But the best part about Sunday was the fact that someone received Jesus to be their Lord and their Savior. Charles was his name, and this Wednesday we are going to try to get him placed into a program to get him off the street! I will keep you posted on that story as it unfolds!

You’re probably thinking last weekend made Monday feel like it lacked luster. Well, it didn’t. It happened to be my daughters 8th birthday. And in that evening, two wonderful people in our church held a worship night in the building to celebrate their new engagement! 

I am blown away by all the wonderful things that have happened this weekend yours was amazing, too!

[magnificentpersoninternet]

The Why

What if God wasn't after "what" you are doing in life, but rather He was after your "why"? I grew up believing that my actions were an end in themselves. Through that isn't completely wrong, there are a lot of grey areas I had struggled with in the Bible. For instance, why was it okay for King David to kill many men while it wasn't exactly the same for King Saul who got in trouble for sparing the life of animals and a king? 

That is just one of many examples that can be examined.

Join us today in our sermon as we tackle one of the most important issues you can face in this life. What is your "why"?

Check out the Sermon here: SERMON

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and check our website!