being jake wood

We all go through change on a regular basis. But very rarely do we go through “life altering” changes. Things that happen in your life that alter the way you currently live. Here are my 8 monumental changes in life. Because of these changes, God has shaped me into the person I am today. Without these sometimes painful and rewarding experiences, I don’t know who I’d be.

1. Losing my father. I was 11 years old when I was exposed to the very real side of death and it played a real factor in making me who I am today. God said that He would be a father to the fatherless, and I can honestly say that He was there in ways I could’ve never imagined.

2. Meeting Jesus. I was eighteen when I finally made a decision to drop EVERYTHING and follow the ragtag Jesus that I now know instead of the religious, stuffy one I was first introduced to growing up.

3. Graduating Bible College. I felt consumed with a passion to reach people that has never really left. The feeling was like a warrior being prepared for battle and finally being let loose. Nothing was impossible!

4. Going into ministry. The reality and the dream finally meet. I learned a lot about myself and God during this change. This was not your 9-5 job… it was a lifestyle. I learned to lean heavily on God for strength and understanding.

5. Getting married. Marriage teaches you things spiritually, physically and emotionally. You have to learn to think of someone else and not just you. It’s about compromising, sacrifice and companionship. It’s a complete “shift” in your identity and way of life.

6. Having children. There are things that I understand about God only because I’m a father now. I don’t know any other way to say this.

8. Planting a Church. I’m convinced there’s no way you can ever be 100% prepared to undertake planting a new church for the first time. I learned so much about myself and ministry during my 5 years in Las Vegas helping start a new church. Working a full time job, doing full time ministry, being husband, dad and friend while still keeping from going insane was enough to handle.

7. Spinal surgery. Nothing will test you more in your faith like long term physical pain and all the complications it comes with.

There’s a lot of life to live in between the peaks and valleys of these life changes. Without change, WE would never change. For that I’m grateful.

JW

Weither big jobs or small jobs, we’ve all been victim to good and bad criticism. How we respond can show how foolish or how wise we really are. If it’s a best friend, boss or a stranger on the street, here are 3 things I’ve tried to remember in the midst of criticism.

1. Listen. We can’t always throw criticism to the wayside. Even God can speak to us through encouraging words and discouraging words. If we automatically shut people off at the smallest critique, we’d never grow and learn. Sometimes, even in the most absurd critiques we can find a nugget of helpful use. The wise will sift through the criticism and find something of use.

2. Don’t Always Take Things Personal. It’s easy to tie our job, ministry or talent to our identity. When we do this, then we open ourselves up for deep hurts. If your job is “who you are”, then when someone criticizes your job, you feel they are criticizing “who you are”. We can’t always take criticism so personal. If we feel that “hurt” when someone is criticizing something of ours, then it might be a good sign that we are tied too close to that “thing” and in danger of it being an idol.

3. Your Response will determine your level of maturity. If I fly off the handle at the smallest criticism, then no one will ever want to speak honestly to me if there’s a danger of me being offended. Even if the criticism is way off base, your reaction to it will determine how far you can and will grow. A wise person will always be slow to react and slow to speak.

Criticism can be a good thing when used by the wise and can be fuel for the fool. If nothing bad is ever said, nothing good will ever get done.

JW

Things that we protect are things that we find important or give value to.  What is valuable or important in your life that you need to protect?  And what things are you protecting that shouldn’t be as important in your life?

A Few things that I need to protect…

• My family time (time with my kids and dates with my wife)
• My relationship with God
• My sabbaths (time of rest)
• My Health

A few things that I protect (value) too much…

• Media (tv shows, movies, etc.)
• Technology (iPhone, computer, audio, etc.)
• Email (yep, I’m officially addicted)
• Image (not just my own image, but my families and ministries image)

Greg Stier over at Dare 2 Share sent this video out that I thought was very interesting.  Penn from “Penn and Teller” is a confessed atheist.  But on one particular evening an average business man wanted to share a Bible with him.  This is the description of that encounter.  There is some great insight on how Christians should prosthelytize.  

Penn argues that if we think someone is going to Hell, we should definitely warn them. He argues that we shouldn’t keep our religion to ourselves. After all, he says, “If I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t believe it. There’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope your break from the grind has been a good one so far.  This was a quote I found from another blog I read.  I thought it interesting enough to post it up here.  Thanks Dave!

“I remember coming back from a very long tour…. On Christmas Eve I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. …It had dawned on me before, but it really sank in: the Christmas story. The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty… a child, I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry. Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and …tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this. Because that’s exactly what we were talking about earlier: love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. It’s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen.  There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.” - Bono