Josh Turner

I am not sure if there has ever been a greater leader in our nation then Abraham Lincoln, recently I have been learning about some of his leadership techniques and one of them really got my attention.  

Lincoln made it a practice in his life to reflect on himself and his weaknesses so that they would not over take him and bring his downfall.  In a book called Lincoln on Leadership author Philipps writes this about Lincoln….

All human beings have their weaknesses, but not all of us realize them, come to grips with them, or offset their negative impact.  As a group whose primary endeavor is interacting with other people, leaders must accomplish the paradoxical task of managing their darkside.  

Honest Abe was a man that knew he had a darkside in his leadership and because of that was able to focus on offsetting those dark qualities. One of the things that he did which really spoke to me was, he never allowed his anger to show in public.  Instead of allowing his anger to show he would write a leader to the person or persons that angered him and hold on to it reading it periodically over time until his anger subsided, then he would throw it away.  It just made me think of myself and how many times I have allowed my anger to show and make situations so much worse…….

Maybe I need to look into my darkside?…..maybe we all do 

Last night was one of those night where God completely moved and did what only He could do.  I love it when God comes in and changes our plans to do what He wants because what I have learned is that Gods plans are so much better than mine. 

The thing that I have learned is that as a pastor and a preacher I have got to be sensitive to the tuggings and direction of the Holy Spirit during the message.  There have been more times than I can count where my planned message has changed and morphed in to something else as it is being preached and that is all God and never me.  The cool thing about these changes is that almost everytime it has happened it has been for someone that is there in the room. 

Last night that happened and the results were salvations and freedom in Christ.  It was awesome

 ³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

 ⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,⁴²but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Every time I read this scripture I always find myself being convicted of the words that Jesus said to Martha, because if I am honest I am like Martha.  There are so many times in my daily life that I fill my days with running around trying to “prepare” things for Jesus that I often forget to spend time with Him….It is hard for me to be still and just sit at His feet and listen for His voice because to me just like Martha there is a lot of “work” that needs to be done, but as Jesus points out that is not what is the most important thing.  Now, don’t get me wrong I fully believe that Jesus wants us to work our hardest for His glory, but not at the expense of our relationship with Him….For, me there have just been to many times that I have focused on the work and not on Him……

Where is your focus??

Ayden my 7 year old son is playing his second year of baseball and loving it.  I can honestly say that I have waited for this for the majority of his childhood because of how much baseball I played growing up.  My knowledge of baseball and my son’s lack of knowledge has caused me to be one of those parents that gives him instruction from the stands (I bet he is pumped about that)….Anyways, I noticed something one day that kind of hit me like a ton of bricks.

You see in t-ball when the team is on the field the coaches are out in the field with them giving them instructions on what to do as the game is being played.  However, one of the things that I noticed is that my son has a tendency to loose focus during the games and no matter how much the coaches call his name he is in his own little world…..However, all it takes is one word from me his father to get his attention….My voice in his life drowns out all of the other voices fighting for his attention.

God wants His voice to drown out all the other voices in your life that are fighting for your attention…..Can you hear Him?

Last night I had the honor of being part of Brandon Geiger’s funeral.  It is by far one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but at the same time one of the most rewarding. 

Last night as John Wyatt finished preaching the message and gave the invitation about 45 people recieved CHRIST…It was amazing….It just made me think of the verse Romans 8:28..God works all things togther for good for those that love him and have been called according to His purpose…Lastnight was the funeral for an 18 year old boy, but God used it for good….God, took a horrible situation and used it in the lives of students and adults to bring them to salvation.

One of the things that always sticks out in my mind in this verse is that God says that He can work all things together for good, not that all things are good.  You see the fact is we live in a fallen and broken world and because of that bad things happen.  However, when we take these bad things and submit them to the Lord, He is able to take them and do amazing things with them.

Marc and Terri Geiger (Brandon’s Parents) have been amazing through this whole process…They have submitted it and themselves to the Lord asking Him to take this tragedy and use it for good in the kingdom and because of that 75 people have put their trust in CHRIST.

AND THEY ARE NOT DONE YET!!!!

Last night before I went up to preach one of my leaders pulled me a side and told me that one of our students had committed suicide….WHAT?!?…..I was blown away, my world was rocked in that moment, I had all of these thoughts flood through my mind of what did I not do right…did I fall short as a youth pastor….all of those thoughts.  Now I know that I can’t go there in my mind and that it is not my burden to carry that it is Jesus’s, but it is still hard to take.

When you find out things like that it changes the sermon that you had planned to preach that night.  I put down my journal and spoke whatever God said through me and just tried to be obedient to His leading.  Last night 30 students came to know Jesus Christ…it was beautiful and tough.

It has never ceased to amaze me how God can take a tragedy and turn it into a beautiful encounter of His Grace.  I mourn with the family over the loss of their son, but I also rejoice with the family because of all the students that came to know Christ through the life of their son.