Joel Young Blog.com

The person who has had the most constant and lasting impact on my life is my loving wife, Jenna. She is wise beyond her years, discerning in ways I never will be, and a great partner in parenting, church planting, and gospel centered living. Yesterday, after months of contemplating, she officially entered the blogsphere.

She’s been a guest blogger here on my blog before (“Get Your Hopes Up” – Jenna Young) but it’s time for her to spread her wings.

Her new blog is called “Soul Splash” and in her own words it is a collection of thoughts spilling from the life she is living. Nothing more, nothing less. You can say that I am biased, as she often does, but I think you all need to subscribe to and read her blog. It will be full of honest, genuine, and thought provoking posts from one of the best writers I know. User the link below to check it out.

soulsplash.tumblr.com

A devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the capital city of Port-au-Prince in Haiti Jan. 12. Haiti is the poorest nation in this hemisphere and is not at all equipped to deal with this devastation. No one yet knows how many people have been killed, injured, or displaced by this earthquake, but early estimates are staggering.

As I watched people react to this tragedy via facebook and twitter the most prevelant question that surfaced was, “What can I do?”

Here’s something we can all do, and something our church will be doing IMMEDIATELY along-side one of our sister churches, the Amelia Church of Christ, where their Preaching Minister, Mike Edimisten, has a direct relationship with the missionaries at the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission.

THIS SUNDAY we will be collecting four very specific food items:

Peanut butter
Beans
Rice
Spam or Treet

We will be sending the food to the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission as soon as shipping lanes are reopened. Again, please note that we are only collecting these four basic items. The missionaries have told us that this is what they need.

The need is urgent, and we will be shipping the items ASAP, so please bring your food donation this Sunday.

I’m going to suggest that every person who calls Horizon their church home bring at least $10 worth of these four items to church with them on Sunday, and, if you’re able to, please go above and beyond that number. If you will not be able to be there, but would still like to contribute you can contact me via email or phone (859.429.0646) to set up a time to drop them off before Sunday.

Let’s step up and be Jesus to the people of Haiti.

If you have 30 minutes to watch, or listen, to anything today make it this. Over lunch I jumped back to catch a sermon series by Andy Stanley that I had missed originally. Let this one mess you up. Use 2010 to start gettin’ it right.

“Asking Big” by Andy Stanley

I’ll let this video be my Christmas sign off post to you all. It’s one of my favorite comedians trying to explain some of the weird holiday traditions we have, and how they are really a long way from what they should really be about.

Merry Christmas.

After a short, and planned, break from recording and posting sermons Horizon’s sermon podcast is back up and running. As always, you can use the link on my sidebar to get to the sermons page of our website or for now just CLICK HERE.

I really enjoyed preaching the sermons that wrapped up our series on Malachi. If you’re looking to listen to a few select sermons you missed during our down time, that’s where I would go.

Well, after a long week of vacation from normal work, so I could finish up some work on my “fixer-upper” of a house, I’m back to my normal self. For some reason the marathon of holidays that we run this time of year seem to take more out of us than they return. It’s easy to get beat down with it all, especially as a pastor, and not rejoice in who God is and what he has done. So here’s how I want to encourage you this week.

There is a situation currently happening with a fellow Pastor/Preacher that is rocking my world. Matt Chandler has spoken into my life in profound ways over the past few years. I have had the opportunity to meet him and hear him speak live on several occasions and there are few men who proclaim the word of God with as much passion and honesty as he does. This past week Matt found out that he has a 2″ x 1″ tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain. It has been a very sudden and very serious turn of events for him, his family, and his church.

If there is anyone who deserves to feel a little down about things right now, it’s Matt. If there’s anyone who might understandably be a little beat down by the craziness of life, it’s Matt. But, because of his passionate pursuit for God in all areas he continues to rejoice in God’s plan for this life and continual use of his life for God’s glory. I want you all to watch the video that he posted on his blog and see for yourself what true passion for God’s will looks like. Keep this in mind as you struggle to maintain this kind of attitude during the whirlwind that life creates.

“Video from Matt”

Alright Horizon people. This is your final warning. We are meeting at our new facility THIS SUNDAY! You will need directions and about 10 friends/family/co-works/people you just met to bring along (because it’s a monumental Sunday). Not only does this new place rock, but Malachi 2 is going to rock even harder this week. Be there, or miss out. There are no other options.

GET DIRECTIONS

Apparently links from my site are not displaying correctly in some feed readers at the moment. If you are reading a post with a link in it and would like to check it out please visit my actual blog site and the links will work fine.

Hopefully, I’ll have things sorted out shortly. Thanks for your patience.

Two things for all you faithful blog readers out there this Friday.

#1: Go to my friend Mike’s Blog and read this post about what’s happening at his church this Sunday.

#2: Pray like your life depended on it that God would put people at ACC this Sunday who need to hear this new vision they will be casting, and that it would melt their hearts because some people’s eternal lives DO depend on it.

Don’t give me that, “It’s not MY church,” junk. If you’re a part of the body of Christ then THIS IS YOUR CHURCH and a win for them is a win for the kingdom of God. Let’s get behind our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend and pray for a church that we may not attend personally, but spiritually we are a very important part of.

My little brother told me about this site today that I just had to share with the world called dudeperfect.com. On their site the guys from Dude Perfect share videos full of some of the most amazing and creative basketball shots you’ve ever seen! And while these guys are pretty impressive when it comes to pulling off unbelievable b-ball shots, that’s not the most impressive thing about them. They use all the attention and money they get from their videos to sponsor underprivileged children oversees and support local charities.

Read this content pulled straight from their “About Us” page.

Ultimately, Dude Perfect is a group of college guys that follow Jesus. We didn’t plan on this type of interest in our videos and we’re incredibly grateful. We want to use this platform for something bigger than us.

What in your life can you use as a platform for something bigger than yourself?

CHECK OUT WWW.DUDEPERFECT.COM TO WATCH THEIR AMAZING VIDEOS