Life

So I really don't know where this blog post is going to go but it is going to go somewhere.

I thought I would just share what I've been up to in life and whats on my mind.

I have really enjoyed this holiday season, mostly because I was able to use my saved up vacation days. They were much needed. Now my job is not horrible by any means, it can be, but it is usually not. But not having to get up and go to an office has been nice.

I long to be lazy! To just lay on the couch, Facebook and Pinterest on my iPad, play my guitar and just spend time with my wife and our wiener dog.

Life doesn't have to be extravagant, it really is all about the simple things in life. Like getting some vacation days not to go somewhere or do something, but sometimes it is nice to just do nothing.

I'm growing a beard currently, why? To be honest, on my vacation I was to lazy to shave. So after a couple of days of not shaving I thought: "Might as well go for the beard!"
So that is what I'm doing.

Ordinary? You betcha!

But life is ordinary.

Life is not always cinderella's ball, sometimes it's frozen chicken and whatever is on Netflix.

-The Adam Rainwater

What is The Adam listening to?

At one time I owned a 160 gig iPod, it was crammed with all kinds of musical goodness.

These days I listen to Spotify non-stop! If you don't know what Spotify is, where have been? Hiding under a rock? (Patrick!?) 

Spotify is a lot like iTunes, except you pay for nothing! You pick the music you want to listen to, add it to a playlist and your good to go. You will hear the occasional commercial, but it is worth it.

ANYWAYS!

I thought I would share what I'm listening to these days

1. Eye on it -Toby Mac

2. Planetshakers (All of their albums are good!)

3. Shawn McDonald (All of his stuff is awesome)

4. Switchfoot

5. Paul Baloche (He is like an old school Chris Tomlin, He wrote "Open the eyes of my heart")

6. Kari Jobe (I don't like to listen to many chick singers, but she has some good songs)

I could go on forever! But those are just a few of the artist I listen to these days. I recently got a record player, so I've been spinnin some vinyl! Old school stuff like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis, James Taylor, Neil Diamond (I will get that record for Christmas!!)

Whatever music you listen to, all I ask is that you be careful what you allow to penetrate your brain.

Garbage in, Garbage out. 

You may think that listening to gansta rap about smoking homies in a drive by is harmless. But I promise, soon that is going to come out of you in a negative way at some point.

So be careful, enjoy some good tunes, and if you have any suggestions for me, let me know!

I am always on the look out for some good tunes.

-The Adam Rainwater

Running from your faith

I've been a christian since I was about 14. Starting out as a Christian I really didn't know much about God at all. Now 12 years later I feel like I have somewhat of a clue, not a giant one, but a small clue. 

I am not a deep theologian, I don't enjoy disecting every little thing about God, nor do I really enjoy a lot of history. The history of the church and such don't interest me.

What does interest me is a realtionship with the creator of the universe. The maker of the stars and He calls me by name. One thing I am curious about is why God would choose to love me even though I do not deserve it at all. I am a sinner, I mess up daily. I mean I've blown it more than a million times in my short 26 years on this earth.
But there God is, love unfailing, mercy new each morning. Holding out grace, waiting for me to take it.
I am truly humbled.

Let's get to the point of this blog shall we? Last Christmas time my faith was under attack. Satan was hitting me hard, I was beginning to doubt all of the things that I had believed for years. 
As I sat in the church service hearing the story of the birth of Jesus, I began to question.
"Virgin birth? what if these people just made up this story and it's be carried on?"

Soon I had entertained these thoughts so much, that soon I was doubting everything.
"Was Jonah really in the belly of a large fish for days?"
"Did the waters really part for Moses?"

It was a rough time for me, These were things that I hadn't struggled with! I had always believed these things! Why now!

Was I going to have to run from my christian faith? I mean if I didn't believe these things why was I in church? Why was I leading a childrens ministry?

I cried out to God, "Whats the deal!? I don't understand! Why do you ask us to believe things that are hard to believe!?"

And then it hit me. God had spoken. It wasn't an audible voice, it was more like a thought entered my head. The thought went something like this:

"I do ask you to believe things that are hard to believe, thats why it is called faith. How dare you say that those things didn't happen. You are looking at things through a finite mind. I am infinite. My ways are way higher than your ways. Trust me, I got this."

From time to time the thought "This didn't happen" will enter my mind as I am reading the Bible, but I have to come back to that thought "I am looking at things through a finite mind, God is infinite. His ways are higher than my ways, trust me, I got this."

I know a lot of my friends who have gone through this very same thing. But for them, they just can't stop focusing on the questions.
Drop your questions at the foot of the cross and just gaze at your savior, trust Him, he is in control, you are not.
You are a finite being, you have a beginning and an end. God is infinite, he was not created, nor will he end, he has always been, and always will be. He can do things that you can not do.

I think the problem is, we like to humanize God. We try to put him on our terms, and we just can't do that. God is bigger than our punny little minds could ever imagine. 

-The Adam Rainwater

17, 18, 19, Routine

I don't know if your life is anything like mine, but I bet it is. It seems like I do the same things over and over. I eat the same things, watch the same things on t.v., go to the same website. Even church is routine. We have the same order of service, sing the same songs.

Routine is enough to make anyone go crazy! Now some routine is good I will say, like brushing your teeth before bed and paying your taxes.

There is more to life than routine though. We need to bust out with something random! Something that catches us off guard, and dare I say it, something that makes us uncomfortable! Maybe even brings a cold sweat.

We have hearts, it's what pumps our blood, it keeps life going, but we've been doing the same things over and over that our heart is just numb, beating the same amount each day. Not any faster or any slower.

We need to spike that heart rate! We need to live! We need to punch our routines in the face and bust out something random! I don't know what that random thing can be, hey it can be anything! Just do something different! Catch yourself off guard! We need new ideas, a fresh ways to look at the world around us, and that is only going to happen if we step outside of our cookie cutter, routine existence and really live!!!

Your challenge is to do something you normally wouldn't do everyday for a week, or maybe a month! Heck you might like it so much that you make it an everyday thing! But whatever you do, just break free.

"Randomness is the spice of life."
                               -The Adam Rainwater

Yeah I quoted myself, it's a great quote that I try to live my life by. I came up with it.
What are you going to come up with?

It's been a crazy year!

So around this time last year I start my journey as a full time children's minister at FBE Lawton.

I gotta say, it has been a crazy year! But, crazy good!

I have made tons of mistakes because I've never done anything like this before. I am constantly learning. I am still in the process of forming my opinions on what is important in children's ministry. It is an ongoing process. A process that will not end until I die! I learn something new everyday. And ya know that makes life exciting.
I have grown to love everyone here at FBE Lawton. I am way beyond blessed to be here and to be a part of what goes on.

Something I hear over and over is: "Your young!" "Your just a baby!"
Well yeah! I am young! Sorry I didn't play hide the dinosaur egg when I was a kid!
I am young! I will take full ownership of that. But I have a passion inside. I am called by God to lead kids to the Lord. God has gifted me and he is with me and is helping me everyday. I can not do this on my own. It is only with God that I am able to do anything.

It's been one awesome year! It's been so crazy. Sometimes I just sit in my office and think "Is this real? Am I really a children's minister?"

Like I said, I am beyond blessed. When I first got here to FBE I decided something. If God isn't helping me every second of every day as I am ministering to children and families, then I don't want to do it. I can only do this with Gods help.

I am forever dependent on him. I am nothing without him. I am worthless, but with him, I'm a little less worthless

-The Adam Rainwater

How to be a Dangerous Disciple.

We have been in revival this week with a great speaker. Last night he talked about being a dangerous disciple. He shared 7 characteristics of a Dangerous Disciple based on 2 Timothy chapter 2. I thought I would share this with you. This is something every christian should strive to be.


How to be a dangerous disciple

1. Have a healthy relationship with God. (What crooked bones in your body does God need to break and set right?)

2. Be disciplined. (Keep your mind on your mission.)
-Scripture memory
-Priority time (This is what I call my quiet time. Its not a quiet time to me, its a priority.)
-Prayer life

3. Set some Goals in your life. Know the rules. Cast your vision
-Ask the Holy Spirit to give you goals

4. Have the work ethic of a farmer.Work Hard.Also don't pick and choose verses from the Bible you like and focus only on them. Read and focus on the hard verses too. Faith without works is dead.

5. Be an Artisan, a craftsman. Make the word of God live and breathe.
-Memorize scripture.
-Make it part of your D.N.A.
-What you memorize is different from what you read. When the word of God is in you, it will ooze out when you are squeezed by life.

6. Be a holy Vessel. You are no longer pottery, with Christ in your heart you are fine China. The creator of all of the universe in living inside you. God has chosen to love you. Even though you sin, and mess up constantly God doesn't see you as pottery, you are fine China in his eyes. He created you, you are his most prized possession. Set your standards high, set your goals high. Have godly character.

7. Be a servant, teach it to other people. Look for ways to serve other people around. and serve expecting to get nothing in return. Serve just to spread the love. Be a vessel of honor, and of character. Character is what is you do when no one is watching. Are you truthful when alone? Are you doing things that would be pleasing to the Lord when no one is watching?


-The Adam Rainwater
Minister to Children and Families
FBE Lawton

The "I'm talking to a kid voice"

There is a certain tone in an adults voice when they speak with kids. I think we all know what I'm talking about. Its the same tone you use when talking to your dog.
"AWWW HEY WHOA! HOW ARE YOU MY LITTLE BAY BAY!!!"

I've talked to kids and I have asked them about this very thing. I usually get the same response from them.
"They are talking to me like I'm a baby..."
You probably don't even know your doing it, but when you talk to a kid in that "I'm talking to a kid/ I'm talking to my dog" tone. It really belittles children. You are talking down to them. You are saying you are just a little baby and I'm going to treat you like one.
Kids just want you to talk to them like anyone else. Does that mean you should talk about adult topics? NO! You are not getting what I am trying to say here. They want you to talk to them about what they are interested in, just don't use the "I'm talking to a kid" tone.
Since I don't talk to kids like this, they actually talk to me! I talk to them like I am their friend, not like they are a little baby sucking on a binky, ya feel me? Smell what I'm steppin in?

So the next time you volunteer in kids church, or teach elementary Sunday school, remember this blog post, and stop talking to kids like they are little babies. I promise they will open up to you more.

Don't belittle children, build them up.


-The Adam Rainwater
Minister to Children and Families
FBE LAWTON

Routine.

Routines are a funny thing. We seem to get into a lot of them. How we brush our teeth, how we get dressed, even how we eat dinner. Life is a system of patterns that just repeat themselves. Are routines bad? I don't think they are fully bad. But I think we can get stuck in this sometimes.

There are times when you just need to break free.

There are times I will get in my car to go to the grocery store and I will end up in the church parking lot in my usual spot that I park in, why? We are creatures of habit. And this woke me up a little bit, I thought if I go on auto-pilot while I drive, how else do I go on auto-pilot?

I think this is when we start taking things for granted. This is why we never tell our loved ones that we love him, because we just go through out life on auto piolt. This isn't tuesday, this is routine day. I do the same thing ever tuesday.

So why do I type all of this? I just want you to break free, do something different! Take a different route to work! Have breakfest for dinner. Tell your loved ones you love them, wake up and see the world around you.

Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

God ways are higher than our ways

So recently I've been thinking about the greatness of God and how His ways are higher than our ways. No one created God, He has always been. He didn't have a beginning and he certainly won't have an end. He is infinite and we are finite. We have a beginning and an end. So see there? We are already starting off in a way of thinking. We can only think with our finite minds.

Now as a Christian, I can tell you that there are things in the Bible that are just hard to fathom. Does that mean they didn't happen that way? No. Just because we can't fully wrap our minds around something doesn't mean it didn't happen. (Double Negative for the win!)

Many would argue that the Bible is imperfect. They would say that it was written by many men and they question if those men didn't put in there own agendas into the Bible.
Now let me stop right here. I will agree that man is by nature, sinful. Humans screw things up, it's just what we do. But to say that God would just allow these people to put their own agendas into the bible would be belittling God.

God could crush existence its-self by blinking! Don't you think that he would be able to dictate what would and would not go into the Bible.

Another may argue, "Well Adam what about all the books that are not in our Bible. What about those?"
And to this I say, I have a hard enough time reading the bible I got, with the 66 books in it. Do you really think I want to add more books to that!? I mean I haven't even read all of those 66 books.
I really believe the bible that Christians use is enough. I know it's enough for me.

It's good to think, but sometimes we think to much. God gave us the Bible to help us out in life. To give us a clue! and I am very thankful for that.

Now I know there are other Bibles out there that have other books in them. and thats fine. But I don't think I will be reading them anytime soon. I have a hard enough time reading the Bible as it is.

Heres a thought, instead of arguing about the Bible and worrying about what happened to the other books, why don't you just pick your Bible up and read it and let the God of all the universe speak to you. Have faith like a child! Trust in the Lord! He is bigger than anything you could ever face in your lifetime, God is way smarter than you are, He is way more powerful, and He is in control you are not!
Why not just have a little trust?

I challenge you today to just take your concerns about the Bible, your argument that it's not perfect and your worrying about all the different books that are not part of your Bible but are parts of other Bibles, why don't you take that and place it at the feet of your Savior who is on the cross, and just simply gaze up at Jesus.

Life is full of unanswered questions, and heres a secret, you don't have to know all the answers.
Kinda freeing huh?
As long as you live, life is going to be filled with more and more unanswered questions and thats ok!
Place those questions in the hands of God, and simply gaze at Him and see his amazing power.

Looking at the past

I catch myself reminiscing all the time. Thinking back to the summers I spent as a staffer at a children's camp. I think about the way I was, and how the friendships I made those summers seem to help define me. I seriously don't think I would be the man I am today if I hadn't worked all those summers at camp.

God showed me a lot of things in those summers. I learned a lot about leadership and a lot about children. I feel thats were my calling of being a children's minister started.
When I worked my first Summer at camp in 2007 I had no intention of becoming a children's minister, to be honest, I didn't even know children's ministry existed.
But as I started the next summer in 2008 I began to think more seriously about children's ministry, the question in my mind "Could I really be a children's minister?"
Did I have it in me? Was God leading me in that direction.
By my 3rd summer working at camp, I was ready to move on, I still enjoyed working at camp and getting to minister to so many kids. But I just felt my time at camp had come to a close.
In 2010 I didn't return to camp, instead I was an intern at a church working under the children's ministry. It started out well enough but, soon became a huge thorn in my side.
I was constantly belittled by my boss, told that I had the raw talent but that it needed to be more defined.
He constantly would say "I'm just waiting for you to take ownership of something"
Those times working at that church were really hard, on top of my boss belittling me, I was beginning to die spiritually. In the years that I worked there I maybe only attended a service at the church 6 times. I worked at that church for 3 years.
When I approached my boss about it, he advice was to listen to podcasts or just find another church to go to that wasn't having church at the same time we were.
Terrible advice!
Before I left the church I was really at a cross roads. I did not want to work at this church anymore. Spiritual things didn't interest me anymore. I went to service in the children's area at the church just for a pay check and not for the joy of ministering to children.
I had reached an end with children's ministry. I was done.
I began to put my application in at different places, I started with churches and then I put my application in at Lowes, Target and pretty much any where else I could think of. I just wanted out.
So in the middle of all of this my boss leaves on a mission trip for a week and leaves me in charge. And I gotta say I really enjoyed it. I got to do children's ministry the way I wanted to do it. Thats only confirmed that, thats what I wanted to do with my life. While he was gone on his mission trip, a church contacted me saying they were interested in me being their children's minister. So I went for an interview, after a few more meetings and going to the church and getting voted on, I was their children's minister.
I gotta admit after all this, I still felt like I couldn't do the job. Could God really use me? I was burnt out spiritually, my well had run dry, I was thirsty.
I remember when I went to the church in view of a call, and I had my beautiful wife by my side during the worship service and I remember how good it felt to just be ministered to. To just sign a praise song to God with other people, to actually sit and hear someone preach a sermon.
I still get to sign a praise song to God with other people and hear someone preach a sermon each and every week.
We have an early service and a later service, and we have kids church in the later service. I am blessed to be able to be a children's minister and also that I get to go to service. I actually get to go to sunday school. Wow! What a blessing.
So why did I type out all of this? Whats the point, Adam?
The point is, you never know where life is going to take you. You may be in the middle of a real crappy situation, you may hate your job and you feel like you can't work another day there. Or you may feel like you have reached the end with a relationship and you are scared whats gonna happen.
Can I tell you that life is full of those moments? Life is full of questions, and to be honest some questions will never be answered, so we just have to accept that and move on with our lives.
I use to tell myself "Adam this is just a transitional time in your life, once you get past this life will be better and you will finally have arrived!"

What a stupid thing to think! I have since learned that your whole life is a transitional time, you will always be inbetween something in life. You are constantly between one chapter and the next.
What matters is, what are you doing with your time now? Are you truly enjoying the days in which you are giving, or are you looking forward.
There is a saying that say "The grass is always greener on the other side"
You know why that is? Its because you are not taking care of your own grass, you are always looking over the fence at someone elses green grass.
We need to take care of our own lives, enjoy the time we are given. Stop worrying about the future and just enjoy life right now, stop looking over the fence at someone elses grass, look at your own grass and enjoy it.
Ya feel me? Smell what I'm steppin in?
Let tomorrow worry about its self, today you have enough to worry about.
Enjoy the days you are given.
Keep God #1
And all else will fall into place.

-The Adam Rainwater

Marriage

As long as I live, I don't think I will ever understand women.
Also I don't think I will ever understand myself. I say dumb stuff a lot, I mean a lot!
It feels like when I open my mouth it is constantly filled with a size 13 converse shoe.
I think in life and most importantly in marriage you need to learn how to just shut up sometimes.
I think that could be the best advice I could give.
Just shut up sometimes.
When you think you have something to add just stop, think about it and then just shut up.
Be careful.
The end

Do you have Valor?

When I read the word Valor I think of Cuba gooding jr in deep sea diving gear. But this word came up today while I was reading my devotional. It was in 2 Peter 1:2-11. In this passage of scripture it telling us to put on these things and it makes a long list of things, and I'm not gonna lie, many times I just read this passage and quickly skip over it like yeah yeah yeah I'll do all of that! yeah right! but today I took some time and looked up a few of the words and well......lets just get into it!

The first thing it suggested that we have is faith. now some might say faith is a weakness, your just believing in things you can't see. Yes believing in the God we can't see is a part of faith but it is not the whole picture. Faith is having confidence and trust in God. Confidence that what God said he would do, he will do it! I am happy to say that I have that confidence.

Next it spoke of virtue. Which is moral excellence, uprightness and valor (Boldness or determination in faceing great danger.) Do you have virtue? or are you like me, you have some virtue but you need to work on it. I know I need to work on my moral excellence. I feel I am upright, but there are some things that I feel aren't as bad as others and therefore my uprightness isn't as upright, ya feel me?

Next it when on to speak of knowledge. which are truth, principles and facts. As a christian we have a set moral compass, and how we find out what is in that compass is to read the bible. God has clearly put together a great list of do's and don'ts. But the bible is so much more than just do's and don't think of it as a list of having a great life vs. having a bad life filled with pain, lonelyness and seperation from the father! HEY! I'm just sayin!

Next is Steadfastness, which means you are fixed in direction. As christian our attention should be focused on heaven. that is our direction, let us fix our eyes on it and acheieve it. I heard a music minister say once, "If you are thinking about the things of this world to much, then you are not thinking about heaven enough." Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.

Next on this list was godliness. which is having great reverence for God, also going from the carnal to the spirtual. godliness is one of those really hard ones to master. After all we all live in a flesh suit and lets face it the flesh is stubborn and when it doesn't get it's way it throws a fit like a 5 year old in walmart, ya dig? Paul talked about beating his body and making it his slave. That is exactly what we all need to be doing today. Take your body and make it submissive to your spirit. Easier said that done right? but that doesn't mean we can just dismiss it and move on about our day. Let us beat out body and make it our slave.

Next is brotherly affection. Which is devotion, also in the definition it talked about the act of influencing, and at first I gotta admitt I was like, "WHAT!?" but then I began to think about it and it makes sense. When you have affection for your brother or sister or fellow human being wearing a flesh suit, you influence them to be affectionate to someone else! it challenges them to spread the love And last but certainly not least was love. Now love is a profound tender passionate affection for another person.

My prayer is that love would motovate everything I do. That when I hold the door open at the store for a bearded man, that my motovation would be love. Christians should be the face of love to the world, but they aren't.

Are you being the face of love? are you showing God's love to the world around you.

What are you doing today to show someone love.
I challenge you to show someone love today and not exspect a thing in return.
Just love and leave it at that.

I am curious, how are you loving on others today?

-The Adam

What I am thankful for.

Today in my YouVersion devotional (I'm so hip with the lingo!) It was talking about being thankful and it went on to say that being thankful is the password into Gods presence. My devo also suggested that I make a list of things that I am thankful for. I will attempt to do that here today. LETS GO! (By the way these are not in order of importance, I'm just typing them as they pop into my brain! I am thankful for... -Salvation -My wife Madeline -My dog Dobby -A bed to sleep in -Water -Food -A vehicle to drive -Oxygen -Shoes -Clothing -Love -Working at a church -Friends -Dr. Pepper -Pepsi -Mt. Dew -Family -Facebook so I can keep in touch with old friends -A couch to sit on -iPad -An acoustic guitar to play -An electric guitar to play -A djembe to play -Candy -Toys -Netflix -A bible to read -A free country to read my bible in -Music -The sun -Warm weather -Air conditioner -Having warm water to shower in -Toothbrush and toothpaste -Cheez-its I could go on forever! but I think I will stop here. As you see there are many things that you can be thankful for, even those things you take for granted. -The Adam

Music

Music. More specifically making music. It's been on my mind a lot here latley. I love everything about music, weather its just one acoustic guitar and a vocalist or a full band. I like it all really. But man do I love a guitar. I have both an electric guitar (Fender Telecaster) and an acoustic (Taylor 214ce) and I enjoy playing them both. I was at a funeral here recently and I noticed something, there was a lot of music played at this funeral. Then I got to thinking, I have been to several funerals and the number one thing there was music. Why? Music has this way of comforting us, I really can't explain it. It just envokes us and draws us in and puts our mind at ease. Music is very personal. Music really captures emotions and personality and all things humane. It's beautiful. I wish I got to play music more. I'm trying to make more time for it. Between having a full time job and a wife that I want to love on. It's hard to find some time to devote to music. I know I'll find my balance and I'll get music back in my life on a more consistant bases. Just a small foot note to keep in mind about my blogs. I missspell things all the time. And I'm okay with that, and you should br too lol -The Adam

Madeline and I's first date.

Ever wake up on the middle of the might and can't seem to get back to sleep? That happened to me last night. My mind took full advantage of being awake, I was thinking about all kinds of things! One of the things thst came to mind was my first date with my wife, Madeline. I remember how nervous I was driving to her house and how the G.p.s. totally got me lost. But mostly I thought about how awesome our first date was. Heres what happened: I picked Madeline up from her house, then we proceeded to go to burger king to feast. After we had eaten we went to a park. Madeline had no idea what was in store for her. For I had some hidden treasures in my trunk. We got to the park and walked over to a picnic table to just sit down and talk, which we did. I remember us looking through each others cell phones and taking pictures of each other. Then just as things were starting to get boring, I told her it was time for her first surprise. So we went to my trunk and I got out some sidewalk chalk! We drew on the concrete, Madeline drew me and I think I drew a dinosaur riding a skateboard. After we drew with chalk it was time for surprise number 2 (number 2 hehe) we walked back to my trunk and i pulled out some bubbles! We had a lot of fun playing with bubbles! Madeline just liked blowing bubbles in my face! But I didnt care, we were having fun. So about this time it was starting to get dark, which was perfect for surprise number 3. So it was back to the car to get it out of the trunk, I opened my trunk and pulled out.......Glow Bracelets! As I was opening the glow bracelet packages, Madeline said something that I will never forget, she said: "How did you know these were all of my favorite things?" To which I replied "I didn't, I just got things I liked and hoped you would like them too."

A Whole New World

Isn't this new! I started a blog back in high school on the website Xanga. I had been blogging on there until my wife said that Xanga was totally lame. So I decided to swtich to the blog you are now reading. So what should you exspect with this blog? Will it have a certain theme? Not a chance! When I blog it is usually just me rambling about what is on my mind. I have good thoughts all the time, just some of them are not worth sharing, on this blog you will read the ones that I think are worth sharing. I'll talk about life, love, Jesus, and probably music. If you have read this far congrats to you! want a cookie? .......well I don't have one so...... ......awkward! -The Adam out!