There Is a Fountain

There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains,
lose all their guilty stains;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.

Great song right? its one of my personal favorites. every time i think of it i think wow, God had to die for me and i had to be cleansed by his blood. powerful stuff right?

So I have been thinking a lot lately. mostly about my future and what I will do after college. Even though this is quite some time away for me its still good to think about and all. I think it mostly comes from a lot of my friends graduating this year and moving on to bigger things.

I would be lying if i told you that i have it all figured out and that i am going to do such and such after i graduate. I still have goals that i need to meet (like going to every continent before 25, I need South America, Africa, and Australia… we all no Antarctica doesn’t count haha) But it still has gotten me thinking of what will happen when I graduate.

I have talked with some people about it and have said “I think I’m going to do grad school and get at least my Masters” I mean i know for sure that I want to be a pastor so may as well get a degree for it right? Though this brings up a good point that I would just like to mention in passing. Today in Convocation (I go to Liberty, Convocation is like Chapel and we have it every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) Ed Stetzer spoke. He said “I don’t know who lied to you all, but you don’t have to be a pastor to start a church. If you see the need of a church in an area start it. I don’t care what your profession is.” This really caught me because I have always grown up with the idea that you have to go to Seminary and be an ordained pastor to do big things church wise.

This all to say no im not going to skip out on Seminary, just that it got me thinking.

So back to my future. Me and one of my friends (Jon Floyd) have always talked about starting a church. Recently we have talked about starting one over in Africa. This is one of my goals to complete in life, I really think that we can make a difference over there and really feel that God is moving for that to happen. But like an 20 year old (almost 21 year old) I have more than 1 life goal. I mean what would life be without at least 3 or 4 things you want to do with your life.

I have always wanted to do ministry in some aspect with Basketball. I mean, i love the game of Basketball and i think that using it as a tool to do ministry is something I would be great at. I know of a missionary that we supported for awhile that was over in the Middle East and Africa doing this exact thing. So I could see this potentially becoming something I do with the rest of my life. Even if I only do it on the side and as a part of the Church that I am involved with starting in Africa. I think its realistic to say that I could do both and not suffer under to much stress.

My next goal is to if not start a church in America to at least partner with a Church and start some sort of movement. We always talk of how we want to see movements happen in Christianity, and yet few times I actually see people moving to make this dream a reality. I think in partnering with Churches I can possibly show them that yes there are lost people in America and we need to reach them first, but we also need to reach the world. I hope that at some point and through some way I find that proper balance of reaching the world and reaching our Jerusalem. In all honesty though as long as the Church I am partnering with is doing some sort of outreach I will not complain. Its when the Church stops doing outreach that there becomes a problem.

My first 3 goals are very realistic and very feasible. They are the typical Liberty Christian Student goals. And as much as i hate being stereotypical I do really see myself doing ministry full time as a pastor at a church. Its just how it is and I can’t help the fact that every other Liberty student says the same thing, the only thing i can say is I’m not going to change my mind about it and will be reaching for these 3 goals wherever i am.

My 4th goal is probably my most unrealistic goal of all. I’m going to suppose that not everyone who reads this blog has heard of Tooth and Nail. So for a quick background Tooth and Nail is predominately Christian Record Company that isn’t your stereotypical Christian Music. My 4th goal in life is to start a Record Company very similar to this. I have always thought that if its Christian it should be better, and sadly in music Christians seem to be lacking. This is why i want to start a Record company, but not a solely Christian record company, though i would mostly sign Christian bands. I just think that to influence people you can’t be separate from those people. And this is not to take a knock at solely Christian record labels, but i mean outside of Christian circles, who really knows who Casting Crowns is?? or any band like that for that matter. I want to be able to have outreach like Jesus had outreach. To have bands who live differently than what is the stereotype for those bands, but also eat with the sinners and are positive influences to the world. I think that even though this is my most unrealistic goal, it is one of my best goals.

Of course I think of life goals daily, so these are just the big 4 that i decided to write about. Honestly I just want to be used by God to do something great in the world, and just like the song says

Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream
thy flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.

-Th3rd