Welcome to Bremond!

"You are moving to a huge mission field..." Brother Stan on the community and area we serve in.

Beginning our third week living in the Bremond area and serving at First Baptist Church Bremond, we have already been blessed by some many people in some many different ways.

The blessings started with the moving crew who helped us get from Highland Lakes Camp to Bremond. It was an amazing picture of Christ like servant hood right on our front lawn, storage building unload and getting us into our temporary residence. Amazing!

We live by an amazing couple who have blessed us. They love the boys so much and the boys love them. We see them almost daily and between the cows and frogs Landon and Logan our learning to live a little differently and it's a blast!

Not forgetting all the others who have blessed us through prayer, time, money, food and just an encouraging word, thanks to each of you. It's been amazing to see how God provides.

Upon serving, the immediate need has been working with the student ministry. Our first Wednesday night 22 attended. Nothing I did or said drew these students to church, but the new facility built by the church to reach the community seems to have drawn interest from the students. It's a great opportunity to share and teach the gospel to many who might not have heard it. I'd say the church identified a way to reach the community and it has become a vessel in which the Lord is given glory and honor.

Pray for the students as they begin their summer.

Pray for Kari and I as we allow God to use us in our new community.

Some job opportunities have popped up on the radar (I currently serve part-time). Please be praying that whatever other income and housing God has in store for us, we would recognize and follow Him.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. God bless.

Win an iPad from Keeppy

Visit www.keeppy.com and start sharing today:

Introducing a Keeppy Game 

Earn valuable prizes and or money by sharing your stories and inviting new users.  

 Earning points:

    - 10 points for each keeppy view after reaching 100 unique views;

    - 10 points for inviting a new user after the invitee signs up for a new Keeppy account.  Inviting a user is easy: Click on the Invite Menu and provide an email address for anew user; 

    - 100 points when an invited user shares his/her first keeppy after the keeppy achieved at least 10 unique views.

Redeeming points:

    - 60,000     for an Apple iPad

    - 18,000     for a Nintendo Wii with Sports Resort

    - 5,000       for an Apple iPod shuffle 2GB

    - 1,000       for $10 

Check out Keeppy: A helpful tool while browsing.

Copy and paste on the internet much?

Forget where the link came from?

Want to compile and share quickly?

Newly released Keeppy.com allows you to copy anything you see on the internet to you own personalized Keeppy folder.  It copies the item you select into your folder, dates and preserves the url for reference.

Preserving the url is huge, especially when referencing something back to the original author.

Keeppy also features edit mode, multiple Keeppy folders for organization and publishing tool.  Compile all your favorite blogs into one Keeppy and share it with your friends.  At the bottom of the published document all your reference url's are listed and hyper-linked back to where you found the original post (click here to see 3 of Frank Viola's posts I have complied via Keeppy).

If you aren't already using Google Chrome, install it and than visit www.keeppy.com sign up and install the plugin into Google Chrome.  Simply highlight and right click on whatever you want to capture and it stores it in your Keeppy.  Pretty simple.

Try it today and let me know what you think.

What does God have for You?

"I have found that there are 3 stages in every great work of God: 1st, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done." - H. Taylor

God is in the business of asking His people to do crazy things. They may not be crazy to Him, but certainly there are times when man just believes its crazy.

Moses left his native country of Ur to seek the promiseland.

David danced naked in the streets.

Noah built a big boat and was delivered from a huge flood (see Evan Almighty for a similar telling of the story).

Jesus healed and raised the dead hundreds of times.

God delivered Paul from being the hated and feared Christian murderer.

Story after story reveal that God is in the business of doing crazy things.

My family and I continue this crazy journey and follow Him to serve in a little town named Bremond. Most of you will google map it and some won't care, but it is a crazy scary time for us.

God is about to do some more crazy in our lives and we are looking forward to seeing what's in store.

What's the Lord told you to do lately that might look crazy to man? Share Christ with your neighbor? Help a stranger? Smile at someone you might have ignored before?

If you have a crazy God story, share in a comment below.

Keep us in your prayers as we seek after the exact location He would have us live

God bless.

2000 Ford Mustang GT For Sale

Email jeremyhellums@gmail.com for details.

Winds of Change

Over the past four months Kari and I have felt like change was coming.  So much so, that I told a friend, "if the Lord doesn't move us before the summer, its going to be after summer."  It was that evident that something was about to happen, I just didn't know when and where it would look like.

Earlier in the month I called and spoke with Bro. Stan of First Baptist Church Bremond.  We chatted about their youth minister leaving and he asked me if I knew someone who might be interested.  I replied, "I am."  He asked for my resume and the roller coaster began with that phone call.

Another excited note: little did I know FBC Bremond had been praying for someone to call them.  I normally see Bro. Stan once a year and had never spoke to him on the phone.  The Lord had laid that church on my heart and I was obedient to follow His instructions.  It was excited to hear about their prayer and realize that God had His hand in all of these things from the beginning.  I encourage you to be obedient to the Lord, you never know what He has in store for you.

Sunday, April 22, we went in view of a call to FBC Bremond and I was able to share what God has been doing in our lives and the calling He has placed on us.  We had a little fun, I opened with a fun game and proceeded to tell the body what the Lord had laid on my heart.  It was awesome.  We closed the service with a Q&A time and I was able to field several of the church bodies questions.  The body voted unanimously and we accepted the positon as Family Pastor at the church.

Kari and I are very excited about the move.  I would call it bitter sweet, because our time at Highland Lakes Camp has been amazing.  We serve alongside some amazing people and will be sad to leave them, but we are excited about the new chapter God has in store.

Please be praying about our housing situation in Bremond.  We really believe we should be in the town, but are still searching for housing.  Also be praying for the camp as it prepares for the summer.

We are so thankful for all the many prayers and support we have already received.

God Bless.

Paul Harvey: True Than and Now

Paul Harvey, April 3, 1965:

"If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.” To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”. In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .

If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an athiest to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.” With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.

If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey, Good Day."

Singing Jesus Loves the Little Children

Do you have any loose wires?

"I'd plug it in and see what happens." Roger

I own a 2000 Ford Mustang GT.  In 2009, I started having some car trouble.  Being ignorant about how to fix cars I asked several professionals what was wrong with my car. Friends, mechanics, wanna-be mechanics, gave me theories about what might be wrong with my car.  Each theory of how to correct my problem would cost me between $150-$2,000.  Someone even told me my motor was blown.

I had a big problem, but didn't want to spend the money nor did I trust anyone enough to even identify and fix the problem.  What was my response to my impaired car?

Ignore it!

At first it was very easy to ignore my car.  She sat outside our home collecting pollen, dust and maybe a little bit of rust.  People would ask about it and I would be excited that I owned a Ford Mustang, but sadly had to tell them it wasn't working right.

As time went on, with some encouragement, my father in law decided to take my car and see if he could get her running.  What a deal!  Out of sight, out of mind.  My car was now 2 hours away, collecting more pollen, dust and probably rust somewhere else.  I didn't have to deal with the problem, it was now someone else's responsibility.  Trying to forget my car and the problem was very easy now.  Only when we went to see my in laws did my problem car haunt me.

It was on one of the trips to my in laws where I started feeling bad about sending my car away; neglecting the very machine that I enjoyed driving.  Kari, the boys and I washed the car off and it was apparent I was ready to bring my car home and deal with the problem.  Yes, the Mustang still had a problem.

I brought the Mustang home and their she sat in the driveway, occasionally limping her around camp to make the boys smile.  One day I noticed a wire hanging from underneath the car; I didn't give it a second thought.  Little did I know, I had identified the problem and than chose to ignore it.  Months went by and I continued to do the same thing, ignore the problem.

One day I decided to deal with the problem, or so I thought.  I had learned that I could buy 4 oxygen sensors for $140.  I was ready to spend $140 on these parts and I believed if I did this, my problem would be fixed.

As I contemplated the purchase, I asked one last person for his thoughts; he said it could be a number of things, but he would take a look.  Roger came over to the house, plugged his code reader into the car and told me, "One oxygen sensor code and 3 misfires on your cylinders."  What does that mean, I really don't know, but I am pretty sure it is not a good thing.  Inadvertently, "there is a hanging wire under my car, what do you think about that," shot out of my mouth.  Roger got on the ground and replied, "I'd plug it in and see what happens."

Three years my Ford Mustang had been ignored, talked about, pushed away, hidden and neglected because it had a problem.  Do you have any loose wires?

With the help from another buddy, Martin, we put the car up on ramps and I plugged the loose wire back in.  We removed it from the ramps and I turned the key, "VROOM VROOM!" My problem had been resolved.  I reset the computer and had Roger double check with his code reader, all the codes were gone.  For three years a loose wire had been neglected!

Do you have any loose wires that need to be dealt with?  I do.  We all have problems.  We are all jacked up. Many of us respond to problems in our own lives as I did to my car: ignore, talk about, push it away, hide it or neglect it. I even asked many people their opinion about my problem, but ultimately ignored it.  It was right in front of me, but it took three years to fix my loose wire.  To what benefit is this to ourselves, nothing.

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2

God no longer wants you and I to conform to the world.  He doesn't want us to look like that broken car, he wants you and I to embrace his grace and forgiveness offered by the blood of His son Jesus Christ and deal with these problems.  Once we are set right by His blood, allow the sanctification process (God begins to mold and transform you and I into holiness) to begin.  We are His creation, whom He desires for us to be living sacrifices daily; dying to ourselves and living in Him.  These are the things in which are, "holy and acceptable to God."

If we don't deal with our problems, we just have loose wires hanging down.  Nobody wants to have loose wires.  What loose wires do you need to deal with?  Are you ready to deal with them?

Today is a great day to start fixing loose wires.  Talk to God about your loose wires and get yourself back on track.

God Bless.

Let the frog ride the boat

A little tune for the boys in the bath tub tonight. Sung in the key of raspy wanna be blues man:

Let the frog ride the boat,
Let the frog ride the boat,
Let the frog ride the boat,
Down the river.

Oh that frog rode the boat,
Oh that frog rode the boat,
Oh that frog rode the boat,
Down the river.

Is Christ your foundation?

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Matthew 7:24-27

If He isn't your Rock, you're living each day sinking! Make Him your Rock and cast all worries and fears on Him.

God bless!

Selections from Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:1-5

"He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103:10-14

Life in the Fast Lane

Somedays I think, "I will blog," but this year seems more busy than most! I received and email from a buddy concerning my blog, "HELLO!" so I guess this post was long overdue. 

I have always enjoyed driving in the fast lane; typically it is fast paced, no stopping and gets you where you need to go.  I believe this is where Kari, the boys and I are right now, the fast lane. Everyday seems to fly by, the boys learn 100 somethings new daily and are growing, you guessed it, like weeds.

2012 has brought us a 2.5 and 1.5 year old. They each present us daily with many, many, many, blessings and many challenges.  For Landon, its obedience.  For Logan, its communication.  Obstacles yes, but nothing that my amazing wife and mommy can't handle.  Landon is running, talking, communicating, likes and dislikes, and looks like a little man.  Logan is thoughtful, analytical, crazy at times, loves to head bonk, and a great eater.  They both play well together, sharing and not sharing toys, wrestle and are sweet to one another.  And the love music.  If they aren't dancing to something mommy is playing they are singing with her.  It is amazing to watch them develop.

Kari continues to excel in her party planning, decorating and throwing skills.  Her most recent party was a gender revel party.  The theme was "What's it going to Bee?" Yellow, white and black decorations all around the room and the cake color inside revealed to all the party goers that the expecting couple was going to have a boy.  I looked at all the pictures and the grandmas reactions captured were priceless.

We continue to serve at Highland Lakes Camp and our blessed by our camp family.  I am now the Coordinator of Guest Services and Production.  What does that mean?  Basically I do all the same things I did before, but now manage my deadlines, which are dictated by the guests and ask for help from others when I need it.  It has been an amazing position and I am loving where God has allowed my family to serve.  In addition to work, I am taking Spanish 3 at Austin Community College.  It is definitely harder than Spanish 2, but will put me one course closer to graduation.

One final thing to share, at the end of 2011 God made the calling on my life more refined; he has told me I will one day be serving in the capacity as pastor.  When and where, we don't know, but while we seek Him and what He has in store for us, we are continuing to learn and grow from Him and those around us.  Its am amazing journey, one that I am so thankful to be on with Kari, Landon and Logan.

I hope that everyone is having an amazing 2012.  I plan to post more, but don't hold me to it!  I do love writing, etc., just need to find the time...which is hard in the fast lane.

God Bless.

Identity Crisis: Who we are in Christ

As I consider the Identity Crisis and all that entails, I am reminded of 1 Peter 2:1-12. This passage of scriptures lays out several characteristics that you and I, as Christians, should begin to see removed from our lives.  The passage continues to identify who you and I in Christ.  God considers us to be: living stones, chosen, precious, a holy priesthood, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own possession, and God's people.  Here is the passage:

"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,” and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:1-12

What does this mean in a nutshell?

We are VERY important to God.  We aren't "sinners saved by grace," or "poor me!," or "I'll never be anything." No, this passage says, with Christ you are no longer subjected to the things of this world, but He does the living.  If we die to ourselves, which Christ tells us, "Take up your cross..." than we can solely rely on Him for our identity.  If He is not your identity or rock bottom, than you need to figure out what is, throw it out and make Him your identity!

God has called you and I to be his ambassador or his representative on earth.  When we accept Christ, we must step into salvation, dig deep into his word, prayer, worship Him and fellowship with other believers (talking about Him).  Seeking Him and spending time with Him reassures you and I that these scriptures are completely true.  How do we build friendships on earth? We spend time with one another.  Same with Him, to know Him better we need to spend time with Him.

Stop beating yourself up or tearing yourself down or wallowing in self pity; as believers, be assured that your identity is in Christ and it looks like 1 Peter 2:1-12.  Don't listen to me, just read 1 Peter 2:1-12, the Holy Spirit will teach you.

God Bless.

Identity Crisis

"...the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose." C. S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

It's amazing how relevant this C. S. Lewis quote is today. Brian Dodd writes at www.churchleaders.com that, "Only 4% of Generation Y (the technology generation) is actively attending church."

Here's an example of one of those 4% attending church: she is a female student who was raised in baptist church and claims to know Christ, "Wish I could go out into public with no makeup on without people judging me." What am I trying to point out: The church is NOT actively pursuing men and women "into Christ."

Could this be some random quote or maybe the teenager was having a bad day? Sure. But when you consistently hear and read about students who are more worried about themselves and their physical appearance, where is her identity?

This is one reason I believe that many in the Church have an identity crisis. You and I are the Church.

Most students I come in contact with, high school age and college students are not grounded in Christ. There is a reason and sometimes we need to ask ourselves why 96% of Generation Y is not attending a church.

Brian Dodd also states "When Bill Hybels and Rick Warren admit that small groups in their current format are simply not effective on a mass scale..."

"NOT EFFECTIVE," Hybels even authored a book on how his mega church format was not working.

I am not attacking mega churches or small groups or any church, I am just presenting an example and hoping to spur others to start doing church differently.

How do you solve an identity crisis? The Church must be grounded in Christ.

As the Church/Christians we need to start investing in people, begin teaching and living the Word to one another. And always point those around is to Him.

Consider missional living and seeking Christ together with your neighbors and others around you, just doing life, letting others witness your living testimony. Impacting those around us, being the "Church" everyday, showing them Christ begins the change.

The next "big thing", the "wow factor", whatever, is distracting from Christ. If it is anything other than Christ, than the church is going down the wrong path.

Scripture says in Acts 6, "These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly" Christ is all about moving and changing people in BIG ways, but we MUST be grounded in Him. He becomes our identity.

"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30

Do you want our faith and the Church to become, "simply a waste of time?" Of course not. Find your identity in Christ and return to Him. Only in Him can change begin.

God bless.