Stephen's blog

This past week in Wednesday Night Live, we talked about passion and desire.  The cayalyst for this discussion was a commonly heard statement (well, prayer) among Christians that goes something like this: "God, give me a passion and desire to follow you."  Does God ever actually do that?  I think that, as a teenage Christian, I used to convince myself that, when I prayed that prayer, God would magically wave His wand of grace over me and I would suddenly feel this irresistable compulsion to follow Him with reckless abandon.  Looking back,

Tonight, I preached the last sermon in a series about sex, relationships, and love. Throughout the series, there are many different adjectives that I could use to describe the reaction of the students, such as awkward, withdrawn, surprised, engaged, amazing, etc. I am so thankful that I am their youth pastor.

Over the last few months, I've come across a myriad of situations in my life that I would define as negative.  Some of these negative occurences find their cause in me - fair enough.  But some of this stuff simply isn't my fault.  It's stuff that God could have protected me from and apparently chose not to (not cool, God!).  Isn't that unfair?  I feel like, if I do most of the stuff that God asks me to do, then I should be rewarded, right?  Life should be easier!  Well, as I thought more deeply on the subject, I began to comb through scripture in my mind i

This coming Monday, school starts for the HISD (Houston Independent School District), the district in which most of my students attend middle school and high school. Disciple Now just finished a couple of days ago, and the students are pumped with excitement about Jesus as they go into the school year. But as things progress and the excitement wears off as it is continually bombarded with the daily pressure to conform, I wonder how the students will respond. Will they give up fighting because that's clearly the easier choice?

I learned this past week that death can be a blessing.  My grandfather, Arthell Moore, Sr., passed away last Tuesday at 1:11am.  He was 84 years old, had a career in the military, fathered ten children with his wife of 62 years, and was an absolute rock of a man.  I never saw him drink.  I never heard him curse.  I barely ever heard him even raise his voice.  Wherever he went, he commanded attention and respect...not vocally, but simply by the presence of his integrity.  And all of this was the fruit of his unwavering faith in God.  I pray that, one d