Want to see what I spend my free time doing with my son lately? Actually, most of this was his original creation, but we had a blast shooting. At one point, I was literally doubled over in laughter out in the middle of the street—I couldn’t stop laughing. Click here to view the video.

Whenever I teach on the thread of hope God’s woven through history in the messianic prophecies, I find myself saying, “How can anyone seeing this not believe?” But then I know most people don’t take the time to see it. I’m praying many people with real questions will take the time to check out this series. I’m loving teaching this again, but I always find I have to leave out so much. If you were not here for the first message, be sure to listen to it online. I talk about the amazing God of History who has written some aspects of world history in advance in ways that few could deny—all to show us that God is the one behind all this, doing it so those who truly will seek him can find him. Check it out at www.gatewaychurch.com messages online.

One of the great things about launching this deepen service, is it will allow us on Sunday mornings to do an even better job going after struggles in issues that people have who are just discovering faith or developing faith. I’m pumped about our upcoming series called Thread of Hope – Prophecies of Messiah. People ask all the time, how can you know, the Scriptures are from God? Why is believing that Jesus is the son of God, any different than believing the homeless guy claiming the same thing? We are going to take four weeks leading up to Easter to look in depth at the way the old testament prophets foretold. What God was going to do thousands of years before Jesus ever arrived! I will be trying to answer the skeptical “yeah but” questions along the way. Don’t miss it as it will really boost your faith, and be sure to invite friends who feel like they need reasons to believe. It’s going to be a great series.

I heard Bill Maher talking about four Amish teenagers arrested for violence. They broke windows, they overturned buggies. They got caught because the graffiti on the silos said, “Ye Suck.” It reminded me a little of my blogging lately. So I’m going to try to get more frequent! I’ll blame it in part on some of the new things happening around Gateway that I’m really excited about.

We’re now two weeks into launching Deepen, our Sunday 5 p.m. service–for those who want to dive deep into the Scriptures and worship to help them have a deepening impact serving the world around them. If you missed the first one, it brought me to tears. We’re studying I Thessalonians–a letter to a church full of people who just came to faith in a city that has a lot in common with Austin. Tony, our worship leader, did a phenomenal job leading us, and I kept thinking of how amazing that just a few years ago, he was closing down Sixth Street, using his musical gifts to promote drunken hedonism. As I looked around the room at those worshiping God, so many of us were in the same place, blowing their lives apart in the name of fun or success! I was overwhelmed at what God is doing here in Austin among us — the same thing He was doing in the wild partying town of Thessalonica in the first century! Go God—keep it up!

I’ve been reflecting on where I am spiritually right now. Usually, I do this each year on the backside of Christmas. But we ended up driving 36 hours with a carload of teenagers from Gateway on The Uprising snowboarding trip (can you say, “bruised tailbone”?). I learned to snowboard (which I discovered is nothing like wakeboarding, surfing, or skating) and tried my best to keep up with my son (who after three days was rippin’ it up—he’s in the orange suit!). So I’m just now reflecting on the year, which in the past might have caused guilt that I didn’t stick with my yearly discipline. This made me think back to seasons of faith that we typically all go through if we stick with it long enough. The next four posts, I’m gonna reflect on each season. People have called them different names; I call them the Honeymoon Phase, the Growth Phase, the Desert Phase, and the Love Phase. One thing to note, the seasons are not linear. I see them more as a spiraling up as we pass through different seasons again and again, but in “higher” more mature ways as we grow.

The Honeymoon Phase is that time when we first really get it that God is real and good and wants us! It’s the beginning of seeing the world as a place of hope and possibility now that Someone Bigger is in the picture. Everything’s new—prayer is new and fresh, reading the Scriptures is new–we’ve stopped being the accuser and cynic and instead seek to really learn—this opens us to see God and life in new ways. It’s like a honeymoon as you start a new life with God. I remember for me, though I didn’t have lots of warm-fuzzy feelings or any wild “experiences” this time was very hopeful and full of promise. Ironically, I remember my first ski trip was on a retreat right after I came to faith. Being in the mountains reminds me of this time of first love—for the first time, seeing the God behind everything good and beautiful and fun. Do you remember this time—do you remember your “First Love?” In Revelation, Jesus tells us to remember and return to this season of our “First Love” (Rev. 2:4-5). Those feelings come and go, like in any relationship, but we can rekindle the light of that first love for God by remembering and doing some of things we did before in this season.

My son Justin after his 3rd day.

Praying I don't land on my bottom!

... unanswered prayer.