Wednesday

It is halfway through the week and your kids should be reading their Bibles or you should be reading to them if they can't read yet. I hope you are enjoying watching your child grow with Christ and hopefully you will be growing with them. We love you all.

Grace and Peace,
Brantley

the tentmaker

It is Saturday morning and I am about to leave for work. I am so exhausted from doing something that is not my passion in any sense. I mix paint everyday, I hurt my back everyday and I have customers who get angry with me, most times for no reason, everyday. I just have to remind myself that even Paul made tents when he was not working his passion for ministering. That motivating factor is starting to run low on power for me though.

I am getting tired.

Peace and Energy,
Brantley

What, A House?

So, theoretically we will be closing on a house next friday. Have you ever had the feeling where you don't know whether to jump up and down or to just crawl back in bed? Wow, it is exciting and I have dreamed of this forever, but now that it is here I am wondering if we can handle it. I am sure we will be fine, but sometimes I am a bit of a pessimist. God is blessing us and I need to relax and remain in contentment with His blessings.

If any of you want to help, we are tentatively scheduling our move for next saturday August 16 around 1:00pm. You can get a hold of us at church or send me an e-mail. The more people we have help us, the quicker everybody can go home. We will need all the help we can get. We love you all.

Peace and Contentment,
Brantley

Sunday's Hindsight

Looking back on Sunday morning...It rocked! Some things did not go quite as planned, but overall it went well. My laptop was supposed to be fixed by Sunday and in fact I even got it back Friday afternoon. The down side is that the guy who was supposed to fix my laptop, filled out his own address wrong for the box that I was supposed to use to send it in. So, it had been floating around FedEx for 2 weeks.Needless to say, it never got fixed. The skit was alittle bit rushed and was considerably shorter than we had planned, but that is what happens when people get nervous. We will work through that though. Those two things were really the only glitches we had. God took it and ran with it. We are looking forward to next week and we hope to see you there.

Love and Grace,
Brantley

August 3, Kick Off "Live from the Living Room"

With our kick off for "Live from the Living Room" we will be learning how we need a guide in this safari called "Life."

A qualified guide is someone who:
1. Has been where you are
2. Has been where you are going
3. Can tell you what is safe and what is not
4. Can help you when you are in danger

We are going to look through some scripture and show how Jesus is our perfect Guide through life.

Go Big or Go Home

It's here or it's gone. It's now or it's never. It's life or it's death. And it's all or it's nothing. What is going to happen on August 3 will forever change the course - the momentum of children's ministry at Embassy Metro Church.

Satan cannot limit us or hold us down.

We will not retreat.

We will fight. We will grow. We will win.

God has given us a task to reach and teach the people of Woodstock and we are going to draw more children into this ministry than anyone ever thought possible. This thing called Kidz Live is about to get on a God-sized energy drink and no one will be able to deny the power of God in this ministry!

We will go big - not home.

Love and Peace,
Brantley

The wind up, the pitch - strike three!

As some of you may have noticed this morning, my wife and I were not there and there was no kids church. Well, we did that for two reasons. First, we needed a week off and second, we want to build some anticipation for the new program "Live from the Living Room."

Today, Instead of going to church, I am going to the Braves game with my dad. That was his birthday/father's day present from me. Hannah is going with my mom out to see my God-mother and her enormous house. So, overall it will be a relaxing day. I love y'all a lot.

Grace and Blessings,
Brantley

To all of my Volunteers - please do not forget our meeting next Sunday during church.

Well the last couple of weeks we have been taking it easy on the kids. We are trying to get prepared for our new program starting August 3. Please help kids there anyway you can. For the next 2 sundays the kids will be in Big Service. I am taking my dad to a Braves game this Sunday for his birthday/father's day gift and so that he and I can have some father son time/ relax time.

peace and love,
Brantley

That was sad.

We talked about words sticking to you today and I had the kids tell me one name that they had been called. I wrote the words all over my arms. Just seeing all of it and knowing that these are the words that will stick to them forever...it is just really sad. Some parents surprisingly thought the words written all over my arms was funny. However, if you take what was written on my arms and wrote it on your child's arms I think that all you would see is the pain that these children are feeling. These words are words that will stick to them forever.

I challenge you to look at the picture above and feel the pain your child is feeling. All of these words that you see are most likely written all over your child's heart. Please look at the image and see how serious and how heart breaking this really is.

Peace and mercy,
Brantley

Shhh

One of the things that stands behind me camouflaged in the dark, is a collaboration of words; that over the years have been collected and collectively determine the way I feel about who I am when I get ready every morning. I have been called stupid more times than I can count in French and as such my daily struggle is more against myself and those words than the people I am attempting to prove wrong.

Loser. Fat. Ugly...Words.

These are the things in life that matter. The things you cannot see, smell, taste or touch, but feel. You feel these every day and though it was not intended to last a lifetime - a word can.

The way it lives, the way a word thrives is off of our sticky skin. God created us with sticky skin. (One thing to keep in mind is that Satan creates nothing, only perverts what God has created.) It allows us to say positive things to one another, have those words stick and help build us up every day. However, the opposite also sticks and often times lays over the positive words, so that all we can see is the negative.

James 3:5 talks about how the tongue, such a small part of the body, makes such a big impact. We need to control that and control our words so that we do not continue sticking negatives on people constantly. Instead, this week your kids will practice saying nice things (not just I like you or your cool but real thought out nice things.). We have got to learn to start sticking positives on each other and stop leaving people with more negative words than when they started talking to you.

Peaceful words and Love,
Brantley

wow

We had 6 new kids in Kidz Live this morning! That was awesome. I think they may have come on a bad Sunday because unlike my blog I did not talk about my best friend, I talked about my sister. I have three and one of them cut off all contact with us and I have not seen or heard from her in over 10 years. (I ended up crying in front of the kids) However, I think it was pretty impactful on the kids.

August 3 is the start of our new program that is going to rock! Encourage your kids to bring friends.

Love and Peace,
Brantley

Forgiveness

I had a best friend once.

I knew everything about him and he likewise knew everything about me. He lived about three minutes from me and we would spend almost every afternoon together. Our favorite things to do were play on the trampoline and write music. We went to the same church, we talked the same way and we made the same facial expressions.

It was weird.

I never had a brother, but he was the closest thing I ever had to one. I loved him like a brother and he loved me the same. Our moms were each other's moms.

It was nice.

It was nice knowing that no matter what I was going through; who I was dating or who I was breaking up with - he was there for me.

Best friends forever...

I am hoping that you have had a friend like that in your life at some point and you can relate to what I am saying. Once you have that kind of bond, that kind of brotherhood or sisterhood - you don't want to lose it. But I lost mine.

Day after day of seeing your best friend and it just ends. It dies. It died.

No "goodbye." No "see you later." Just end.

He wanted to do everything I was going to do. He lacked imagination. He lacked ambition for his life. So, when he suddenly said he wanted to be a pastor just because he thought it was the "right thing to do" - I called him on it. I totally did not do it the right way, so I apologized and apologized. I wrote him an apology letter. But no matter how much I admitted fault, he could not bring himself to forgive me. The best friendship I had ever had came to an abrupt end because he refused to forgive.

In Mark 11:25 Jesus commands us to forgive one another. I am to forgive him just as much as he is supposed to forgive me. I could be way off with this, but I think God wants us to forgive because He does not want to see good things come to an end. Pride severs the thickest of bonds and forgiveness can strengthen the weakest of them. We are told to forgive one another and as such, your children will learn that tomorrow morning.

Blessings and Forgiveness,
Brantley

Holy Crap My Wife Is Hot

Hannah just went last night to some kind of hair studio because she had a gift certificate. She got her hair cut and colored dark brown. They straightened her hair and she looks ridiculously hot!

Peace and Fun,
Brantley

But God Theology

As some of you know, my beautiful wife and I have been in the process of buying a house. (Internet shout out to her because while I am busy trying to get school work, work and church done she has been cleaning and packing....she's awesome.)We had finally gotten through the loan process; all of our I's were dotted and T's were crossed. We had one final phase to wait on before we could close and that was the appraisal. Well, it happened yesterday and the house appraised for a considerable amount less and as a result, right now we are unable to buy the house. The sellers would either have to come down on their price or the appraiser would have to change his mind. Neither of which look to promising. However, nothing is beyond God's control.

This was supposed to be a great move for us. This was supposed to be our blessing that we had been waiting for. This was supposed be done within this week and us move in next week.

This sucks!

But God is sovereign.

The whole But God Theology is this: Not faking the reality of pain, but in the same breath realizing that God is sovereign. God has perfect timing. He knows the future. Yahweh is in control.

Hear this. But God is made up of two parts, both of which are reality. The first reality is pain. God is omniscient, he knows everything about us. So, why, in a painful situation would people try to lie and say, "Everything is just so wonderful and praise the Lord?" God is big enough to handle your non-understanding - that is why He is God. It is okay to say "life sucks," or "this sucks." Those statements just have to be followed with "But God."

The "But God" is the second reality. It is the reality that we do not know what is best for us or for God. In life, God is going to get glory. He will see things point back to Himself. If that means not giving you what you wanted because you can point to Him better from over here - He is going to stand you up over here. If that means that someone has to get sick or even potentially die for Him to get glory, that is what will happen.

We have such selfish natures that we cannot see beyond the "things" in our lives. We have no panoramic lens, only our zoom. We need to anticipate movement from God in every situation and not just leave it at a rhetorical "God why would you do this?"

Sometimes you can look for the good in things, but always look for the God in things.

This sucks right now thinking that we may not get this house, but God is sovereign and He knows what is waiting for us three months from now.

Grace and Peace
Brantley

Directions

Coming from the church, take a right on Towne Lake Pkwy. Go down the big hill and at the traffic light, turn left (you will see a wachovia on the left if you are sitting at the traffic light.). Turn left at the next light into the Terraces. You may have to use the call box. our last name is Johnson. take the first left when you are in the complex. We are in building 400 appt 103. you have to go down stairs to get to our appt.

Another Late Night

Well it is 11:30 and I just got done with some school work. Hannah is sound asleep and I wish I was too. However, if I laid down right now, my mind would still be racing with ideas for Kidz Live, thoughts of work, thoughts about school, what needs to get done for Sunday morning, sermon ideas and so forth. I feel like I have to trick myself to stop thinking. If you are ever talking to me and I seem like I am not paying attention 100%, it is probably because I just got an idea for something or I am thinking about my next step/task. Sometimes that is an awesome attribute to have and other times it is awful. It can be draining on Hannah when I am going a hundred miles an hour and she wants to tell me about some roses she stopped to smell. I have to figure out a way to turn my mind off because I am always thinking. "I can make this better," " I could do this in that order," "this would be a cool idea," "I wonder if I could do that" and "what is God doing or is He going to do next?"

That is something you can pray for me on, God help me harness my mind.

Peace and Joy
Brantley

Put On Love: Serve Them

Colossians 3:12-14 is our focus scripture for this series.

The first week we learned how love was kind of like an old comfy t-shirt that we are supposed to put on everyday. The first aspect of that love was what we called common courtesy. We opened doors for each other, picked up stuff that people dropped and practiced saying "please, thank you, yes sir, no sir, yes mam, no mam, hello and have a good day." Simple stuff, I know. These are fundamentals that are getting missed and simply not used.

This week we are looking at the second aspect of what it looks like to put on love. We are talking about serving. (Parents if you liked what your kids were doing for you this past week, you are going to love this.) Luke 12:37 says that we should gird ourselves to serve and wait on the people at our table. As I looked deeper into what it really meant to "gird himself to serve," it actually gives a picture of someone putting on a belt.

In other words, we as Christ-Followers are commanded to serve people. The Jewish culture viewed hospitality and service as one of the highest codes of moral conduct. Some Rabbis taught that hospitality/service was more critical than your service to God.

Putting someone's needs before our own is so ridiculously important for Christ-Followers and yet it is so hard to accomplish. From birth, we learn that if we cry because we are hungry, we will be fed. If we cry when we need to be changed, we will have our diaper changed. We are taught to let others have a turn playing after we have already had enough time playing first. Am I the only one who heard, "You have played with it long enough, now let him play with it"? We are, in a way, taught to be selfish from the get-go.

That's why this week at dinner your kids will be serving you and whoever you have over first and then they can get their own food or drink after they have completely served everyone else. These kids need to learn how to not be selfish and how to put the needs of others first. They need to learn how to buckle the belt of service on a daily basis.

Love and Service,
Brantley

Waste a night?

What happens if you waste a night? If you forget to say I love you before your family goes to bed? If you get wrapped up in what your doing and not who your loving? If you don't do the little things because they are - little?

What we do changes history. Every word that comes out of our mouth is frozen in that moment in history. We can never get a single word or a single moment back. We could apologize for that one time we said that one thing that hurt that one girl's feelings. We could apologize for the time that we did not spend time doing what the people in our lives wanted us to do with them. We can apologize, but we cannot get that moment back.

That second is gone.

That minute no longer exists, except as another memory of a time we could have spent making a difference in a life or in a relationship and chose something insignificant over something little. We need to spend our time wisely on this earth because you will never get -

a minute back.

What you do matters. Every second matters. Every word matters. Every night matters. Don't waste a night.

Love and Little Things,
Brantley

School

If I could get everybody's prayer for me, that would be great. I have about seven more months of college left, as long as I don't mess anything up, and I am so burned out. I just want to be done and to be quite honest, sometimes it is really hard to motivate myself to just buckle down and get it done. My problem is that I love to study. However, I only love to study what I want to study at the time. These classes don't always fit in with what I want to study at the time. It is all great information, but I long for the day when I don't worry about what needs to be turned in.

If you would like to e-mail me a prayer, that would be great or even stop me at church. Thanks for all of your prayers.

Peace and contentment,
Brantley

Put On Love: Common Courtesy

I went to a revival last night and really got stirred up. There were probably about two thousand people there and the preacher kept on yelling out about how God is going to make a revival in Atlanta. All the people there were so excited shouting "uh-huh," "oh yeah," "amen" and some "come on!" I could not help but think that all these people were there expecting God to just start up the revival. However, God does not work that way - He could if He wanted to because He is God, but that is just not His mode of operation. In order for there to be a revival in Atlanta, we cannot just go to some long worship fest and have it happen. If the people of Atlanta want an effective revival to happen, that is absolutely filled with God and is unquenchable, we have to have a revival within ourselves first and we have got to get back to basic common courtesy.

I cannot help but wonder how many "Christians" have Jesus plastered across the bumper of their car, then proceed to be a jerk in the drive-thru at a fast-food restaurant? How many "Christians" actually hold the door open for people that are behind them when walking into a store? How many "Christians" are polite when talking to other people, older or younger? Christ-followers get a bad label because it seems like "Christians" cannot manage to even show the slightest bit of common courtesy. (As parents, you get to see a little bit more of my real side.)

Sunday we are going teach the kids that Jesus wants us to be nice to everyone (Colossians 3:12-14). The best way that we can practice that is by doing it on an everyday basis (common courtesy). We will demonstrate a few different things they can do to be courteous on a day to day basis.

There will be a challenge for them in this coming week (June 1-7). The challenge will be for the kids to use as much common courtesy as possible. These courtesies include: Opening the door for someone else, Picking up something that someone dropped and handing it to them, Saying things like "Hello" "have a nice day" "thank you" "your welcome" "yes mam" "no mam" "yes sir"and "no sir." Take notes on how much they actually do and who ever has more than 15 of any of these, in any combination will get a treat the following week. You have to sign off saying that they did it for them to receive the treat.

I know some of this may sound silly, but you would be surprised how many kids and adults do not do this stuff. Maybe you don't do it- my challenge is also for you to try it for one week. I guarantee if we all did these things, we would improve the image of the Christ-followers.

Grace and peace,
Brantley

Put On Love

I have a t-shirt in my drawer at home...actually that's a lie - it's in a laundry basket at home. I have had it since I was in eighth grade. It is an orange University of Tennessee t-shirt that has severely faded over many washes, the sleeves are torn off, it has holes all over it and it is so comfortable it's not even funny. My parents begged me to trash it before I got married and now Hannah has also asked me to throw it away. The hard part is that I have become so attached to it and it is so comfortable.

I'm sure that for most of you, at least most of the guys, you have had a shirt that has been washed, trashed and resurrected many times and you love it. Nothing feels quite as comfortable as that shirt.

When we were saved, God gave us a shirt like that. He gave us a shirt that no matter how much we try to mess it up or how many times we are told by the world to get rid of it - it is perfect and as a Christian it is the most comfortable shirt we could ever wear. In Colossians 3:14 we are told to "Put on Love." The previous verses give us some kind of idea of what the attributes of Love are. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to take a look at aspects of love that Colossians talks about ("Heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other.").

[Children's Translation] - Being nice to everyone, serving, patience and forgiving.

I will have this Sunday's overview up tomorrow.

Love and God's Prosperity,
Brantley

Happy Memorial Day

I worked this morning and hung out by the pool the rest of the afternoon. I hope nobody got too sunburned and now I get to go do school work.

Peace and good food,
Brantley

Prayer Math

I am safely back on land! We will have no projector tomorrow because it is broken. This means normal worship and fun images will not happen tomorrow. So, Let's get to it!

Colossians 4:2 says "devote yourselves to prayer." We can find this word "devote" in relation to the word "prayer" all throughout the New Testament. As a result, I figured it would be one of those fundamentals that your children should know about. Every Sunday they come in, they pray out loud in front of their small group. I will explain an easy process and I hope that you can help your child practice this at home, so that they become more comfortable in their prayer life - both private and public.

Check it out: The book of John was written to believers of all kinds. Most of the time when a person comes to Christ, most people recommend reading John first. Why? It shows fundamentals of Christ-following. The main thing I want to focus on is that in John 14:13, 14:14, 14:26, 15:16 and 16:23 they all talk about prayer in JESUS NAME. This is crucial and we will come back to it in just a minute, so tuck that in the back of your mind.

I will be teaching the kids how to pray a basic prayer using what I will call "Prayer Math." I think all of the kids in there know that 1+1=2 and probably even 1+1+1+1=4. Using that and Matthew 6:9-13 (The Model Prayer), I will show them how to pray a basic prayer.

Jesus started with "Our Father in Heaven." He identified whom He was praying to - God.

Dear God + ________

Then He said, "hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." He gave worth or praise to God. For the sake of children we will translate this as "Thanks."

Dear God + Thank You for... + _________

"Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Jesus Prayed for what He needed/wanted.

Dear God + Thank You for... + Please help us/give us + ___________

Finally, we come back to John and praying in Jesus name. Jesus, in the Model Prayer did not pray "in Jesus name," because... well He's Jesus. However, we are told by Jesus to pray all things in His name. So, that is the conclusion to the prayer.

Dear God + Thank You for... +Please help us/give us + In Jesus name, Amen

These four components added up equal a basic prayer you and your children can pray. Now then, tomorrow morning...or I guess at this point it would be this morning, I will teach your children this "Prayer Math." Their assignment for this week is to teach you the "Prayer Math" and pray with you.

Something I would encourage you to do, something Hannah and I are bad about doing (so I am encouraging myself as well), is make sure you pray with your family.

May peace and mercy flow abundantly through your home,
Brantley

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Well, Thursday I will be getting on an airplane for the first time ever! I'm scared. Yes I know I am a wimp. Anyway, my lovely wife and I will be headed to Ohio for her brother's wedding. We will not be coming back until Monday. This means that I will not be there to teach. However, Mrs. Wiseman will be there to entertain your children with KidMo. The newer kids have no idea what this is. It is basically a DVD that teaches the children.

I know this is baseball season for some of the kids and I am sure there are other things going on in your child's life. So, if you would like for us to come to a game or whatever it is - shoot us an e-mail with a schedule of games and we will try to make it to one.

Peace and Love,
Brantley

May 11, 2008 Sermon overview

Last week we talked about Yahweh (God) wanting us to become tangled in Him. Once we accept Christ, God puts a spiritual leash on us - so to speak - and does not want us to run away from Him, but run into Him. Much the same as you might be walking your dog and he/she decides to be so close to you that he/she gets tangled in your legs with the leash. God also wants us to Get tangled in His legs. He desires for us to want to be close to Him.

This week we want to show the kids exactly what it means to be tangled in God and and to become tangled in God.

When Yahweh created man, He desired a relationship, a personal relationship - one that would allow Him to walk with Adam and Eve on an evening basis. This was shown in Genesis 3:8 "They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." However, after the fall of man, God would no longer be walking through the Garden to talk with Adam and Eve, and we would not be able to have that type of relationship with Him either. So, did His desire for relationships with mankind die with the fall of man? No. But how are we supposed to have that relationship with Him if we cannot walk with Him?

There are two pieces to this answer. The first of which is that He put something amazing inside each of us. He put His characteristics inside of us. In Genesis 1:26 the word for "image" closely translates to "Representative figure." If we look at the way we form relationships here on earth we can also figure out how to form a relationship with our ultimate best friend, Yahweh.

First, we need to know His name - Yahweh.
Second, we must learn about Him - through the Bible.
Finally, we must continue to talk to Him on a day to day basis. Yes, He already knows everything, but He desperately wants us to talk to Him. He desperately wants us to get tangled in Him.

There is a second crucial piece to the answer of how to get tangled or how to have a relationship with God.

We have to accept Christ as THE/OUR Savior and the Son of God. That Opens the door for the rest of the beautiful relationship.

Grace and Peace,
Brantley

Migraines Stink

Welcome to Kidz Live! I woke up and received a migraine from God this morning. Praise His name. If I did not get one i would have spent my time probably working out and doing something far less constructive with my time. Seeing as how finals are tonight and tomorrow, I need most of the time today to focus on school. As soon as I am done with this, I will take some medicine and take a final in Theology... nothing like take finals on drugs! I will start updating this pretty frequently for all my parents out there who want to know what the heck is going on in Kidz church. I know the music is loud, the kids are crazy and I do things a little unorthodox, but by golly, by the time they get to Pastor Robby - they will know how to get a hold of God and know the fundamentals. Grace and Peace, Brantley