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I really enjoy reading C.S. Lewis. He has a way with words and thoughts that makes one think deeper into the things of Christ and life. Here are two quotes by him I find to be quite profound…

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” (C.S. Lewis)

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (C.S. Lewis)

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Lately I’ve been on a U2 kick in my music listening. I often get on these kicks and will listen to the same band or artist and their music over and over again for awhile.
There are many songs I find myself singing loudly to no one in particular to when I’m driving by myself in my car. I’m prone to singing loudly in my car to no one in particular.  

But one of U2′s song’s lyric’s caught my attention as I sang and it made me think. It made me think of the hope I have in Jesus Christ and the eternal rest and peace and joy in heaven for those who have placed their faith in Him after this life is over. A place where those who love Christ will reside with Him forever and see Him face to face. 

The song is called “Where The Streets Have No Name”. And for some reason the song’s lyric’s and title make me think of heaven.  As I drove my eyes filled with tears as I thought about all that He has done for me on this earth and what He did on the cross and through His resurrection. I thought about how He has blessed me with my wife and children; my family; my years as a Campus Minister and all the students I have met through that; and I thought of people: friends He has blessed me with and people I have met along the way. 

I also thought of faces I have seen on my journeys on this earth. Faces filled with peace and joy and faces filled with darkness, sadness and sorrow and lack of hope.  Again, as I listened to this song my heart burned within me to share Christ all the more.

I truly believe He is the way and the truth and the life and the only way to the Father.  I believe there will be a day where we will all stand face to face before God and that those who have placed their hope and faith in Christ alone will enter into eternal rest in a place where, indeed, “the streets have no name.”

I want to tell the world of this Saviour who died and rose again so that they may have life in this life and the life to come. Our God is mighty to save.   

Your friend, Brant 

“Where The Streets Have No Name” By U2:  

I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name.  I wanna feel sunlight on my face.
I see the dust-cloud
Disappear without a trace.
I wanna take shelter
From the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name. We’re still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It’s all I can do).

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

“A new start”  

Where do you need to just start all over again?

I have found in my life many times where I wish I could just hit the delete button and redo stuff that I messed up.

Haven’t we all had that wish? There’s something about fall with the hint of change in the air, a new football season, a new year of classes and friends that reminds you that our God is a God of new beginnings and renewal. 

Let this Fall semester be one of growth and change for you. Determine in your mind that you will be that person that Christ is calling you to be. It won’t be easy, but then again, nothing worthwhile ever is.  With Christ all things are possible! It is through His power that we grow in Him.  Specifically ask God to help you grow in Him and watch what He will do. 

This year can be a new start for you in many ways. Are you willing to throw off all the stuff that’s holding you back and walk in the light of Christ?

We’re praying for you at BCM,Brant  

15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:15-17) 

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Mighty Is Our King
 
I was reading through Matthew and came across Jesus teaching about anxiety and worry and basically how counter-productive and destructive it is.
 
He says in Matthew 6:21 something very profound (as Jesus is prone to do
 
“… where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Then goes on to say in Matthew 6:25-27: “  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”  And then in Matthew 6:33-34: ” 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
 
To walk in Christ is to walk in hope and faith and peace, the exact opposite of the fruit of worry.
 
What are you anxious or worried or fretting over today?  When we sow anxiety, worry, fret, lack of faith we reap exactly those things. When we sow faith, love, prayer, trust, faithfulnes we reap those things. The Scriptures say we reap what we sow and I know this to be true…
 
Where is God requiring me and you to step out in faith and trust in Him?
 
The Psalms love to celebrate God’s guidance and faithfulness to His people as the Israelites looked backed to their past, especially in bringing them out of Egypt and bondage.
 
Where has God been faithful to you in your past?
 
I know without a doubt He has walked with me, even when I couldn’t sense what He was doing.
 
Is God bringing you out of bondage? Will we allow God to cut and prune our lives as John’s gospel speaks of?
 
  John 15:1-5… “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
 
If you are anxious or worried today, look up to heaven and rejoice in that you have a Jesus who loves you beyond our comprehension… A Saviour who took our sin and death and heaviness and has replaced it with joy and freedom and light and love.
 
A Jesus I want to tell the world about! A Jesus I want to exclaim from the rooftops of His love and power to forgive and redeem and our only hope for salvation!  A Jesus for the entire world… there is no other name under Heaven by which we shall be saved!  
 
Give Him your burdens and He will carry them.
He will carry you…Great is our King, mighty is He…
 
I cannot praise Him enough,
Your brother in Jesus,
Brant

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Hey everybody, hope today has gotten off to a great start for you. Today is another day God has given us to live for Him.

What we will each do with it?

The famous missionary martyr, Jim Elliot, said “He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” and something like the following, my paraphrase

“Wherever you are, be all there” and “Live to the hilt every situation believed to be the will of God.”

Where does God have you today? Look around and see what He is doing because we can be assured our Lord is always at work!

Shine the light of Christ, a city on a hill cannot be hidden…

The following is something I wrote a few years back and thought I’d share again…

Through the Eyes of God

“‘Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matthew22:9-10)

Jesus said heaven will be filled with people from all the ends of the earth. I can only imagine that great multitude standing before the throne praising God as described in Revelation. Believers in Christ from all tribes, peoples, and cultures will be there. Christ does not see color. There are no class distinctions made by Him. He came for all. All includes those people who are steeped in sins that are obvious. All means those who put on a front of holiness and happiness yet are dying inside. All includes those who believe their good moral behavior is what saves them. All includes the rich in their fancy mansions. All includes the poor in some downtrodden village.

Do we see through God’s eyes? Are we afraid to converse with “sinners”? How about those who don’t look like us or talk like us or act like us? Are we able to show them the love of Christ?

Jesus Christ challenges us to not be judgmental. He ate and spoke with the prostitutes, the lepers, the tax collectors, the Samaritans: all those in His day that were shunned as different or sinners. He was not afraid to be around “sinners”.

What a revolutionary thought! In order to reach the lost He took the time to get to know them…. Yet, He said some of them were closer to seeing God than the “religious” Pharisees. Let it not be said of us as Christ followers that we only hang out with ourselves. Churches and campus ministries shouldn’t be “Christian Clubs!”

Am I saying that we should join in when people sin? By no means! Should we be shocked when people who do not know Christ act in sinful ways? No, how else would they act? Let it be our goal to be Christians who love as Christ did, and I believe we will see the results in people coming to know Christ as Savior.

Let us pray to God: Father, we confess our judgmental attitudes. Lord, we confess we are sinners ourselves and in need of your grace! Lord, may we remove the plank from our own eye rather than worrying about the speck in our brother’s. Father, how exciting it is to think of the multitudes of people from all nations who will worship Jesus Christ in heaven. May we reflect that unity now on earth as we spread the Gospel to all we can.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Grace and Peace,
Brant

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RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM BRANT

*If squirrels could talk, what would they say? Probably something like, “Hey, I’m a squirrel and I can talk.” Ok, probably not…

* If a tree falls in a forest, and it lands on a gnome, does anyone know?

Alright, enough of my craziness…here’s something to ponder:

Have you ever thought about how awesome it is to be able to pray to God? I mean, the Creator of the entire Universe listens when we talk to Him and not only does He listen, He wants us to talk to Him and He loves us immensely!

Tomorrow (or tonight), go somewhere by yourself and talk to the Lord.

Prayer doesn’t have to be super formal or a set way. Bring yourself to Him, messy and all.

That’s all we can give Him anyway…ourselves…

And listen.

A lot of prayer is listening.

If you struggle praying, don’t quit. It’s not easy but I promise He hears you and loves you.

God responds to our faith.

Is there something that is a struggle for you right now?

Talk it out with Him. He wants you to be whole, to be restored.

Take heart that He helps us pray: Romans 8:26-27 says:

“26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

Keep on shining the light of Christ, a city on a hill cannot be hidden,
Your brother in Christ,
Brant

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“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Jesus spoke these words to his disciples in Mark 9:50. Throughout time salt has been used for a couple of major purposes: to preserve and to add flavor. Back in the day they would salt meat and other foods to keep it from spoiling. And people also use salt to add flavor to their food. 

And this is what Jesus is saying: those that love Him and follow Him will be ”the salt of the earth”…meaning they will be a life preserver in this world of rot and decay and that through Him they will add “flavor” to this world for His glory by the gifts and talents He gives each believer. All of this is done in order to share the Good News with the whole world. And what is this Good News?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

As you go throughout your day determine in your heart to be “salt and light” in a world of decay and darkness. And know that it is “Christ living in you” that does these things.

Be salty.

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 What’s up everybody? This is Brant from Baptist Campus Ministries at Auburn, where I serve as a Campus Minister. This past year we enjoyed meeting many of you. Hope your summer has been a good one. To all of you returners we look forward to seeing you again & for those of you we don’t know yet, we look forward to getting to know you! Check out all the ways you can get involved with us and come back often for more updates and ways to plug in…

I graduated from Auburn back in 1995 and during my time on the Plains the AU BCM impacted my life in a huge way. We like to have a good time. And we’re all about meeting new people and getting them involved in the fun…  If you’re interested in growing in Christ, meeting new friends, and being part of a community of people who love others and want to bring glory to God, then the AU BCM is the place for you!

In order for you to get to know me better, here’s some random facts about me:

*My wife, Allison, and I have been married for almost 10 years and we have 2 children, Coleman (5) and Caroline (3). God has blessed me with a wonderful family! Allison is a Speech Language Pathologist with Auburn City Schools. She loves the Home and Garden Channel, the Beach Boys and the Bee Gees. Coleman loves Auburn football and the Spongebob cartoon. Caroline is a big fan of Hello Kitty.   

*I am a huge sports fan. I love Auburn sports (especially football and basketball) and also am a fan of the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia 76ers.

*I am fascinated by great white sharks and would love to see them in the wild (behind a cage, not face to face while swimming!). Any show on Animal Planet or Discovery on great whites I make sure to watch. 

*I love music of all kinds. On any given day you will hear Bob Marley, Elvis, bluegrass, old school rap, the Beach Boys, Classic Rock, David Crowder, etc… in my car stereo or coming from my office.

*I have all kinds of useless, random knowledge stored in my brain (particularly pertaining to geography, animal and plant life, history, music, auburn sports, etc…) But I can’t do Calculus, chemistry or physics to save my life. I still struggle with basic fractions and percentages…

*I don’t trust spider monkeys, especially ones who drink large amounts of Mountain Dew.

Check back in the future for more Random Thoughts from Brant as well as some thoughts I have about following after Christ, my Lord and King!  

Can you imagine surfing and having this guy say “hello”? 

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