My cool daughter Kalli

Four years ago I wrote a blog about my cool daughter Kassi. It's time that I brag on my cool daughter Kalli. In my blog about Kassi, I shared something random that she did.

Kalli lives a life of randomness picking one thing would be difficult. We never know what she is going to say or do next. She constantly makes me smile. Last night, her youth group came over for an end-of-the-year pool party. I was setting next to an adult while Kalli was with her friends. Out of the blue, she came over and started randomly dancing to an 80's tune. Now you have to understand mine and Kalli's random dancing; we act out the song with a dance...a very goofy one usually. She didn't care who was watching, she only wanted to make me laugh.

Kalli is a very pretty girl AND she likes looking pretty. But I love how she still will act like a little girl and get excited over the smallest things. This morning, Kim got up early and decided to wake the girls and take them to the new Waffle House. Kalli (and Kelsi) were so excited, Kim said "you would have thought I took them to Regas". Kelsi is 6 so her being excited about anything is understandable. Kalli is 15 now, she just got excited because it was the fun thing to do. On top of that, she went as-is. She didn't care who saw her. I think it was because she was with her mom who is just as big of a kid.

It amazes me and thrills me how her and her mother have grown so close this summer. Anyone who is close to the Knights know that we have had some family adversity for the past 2 years and it has really been stepped up the past 6 months. Kalli has really stepped in to be a comfort for Kim. Somehow she always knows how to make Kim feel good...to make her feel loved, an extra special mother-daughter love.

Kalli went on a mission trip with her Rio 180 youth group this summer to Panama. Because of the flu outbreak in Panama nothing went as planned. When you are on a mission trip in a foreign country and you don't have an agenda, it can be rough. Kalli didn't complain. There was adversity and Kalli handled it very maturely. All the while, she was doing ministry.

Kim, Kalli, and Kelsi went to Girls camp this weekend with our church and with RIO Central. There were at least 40 kids there and most of the pictures that I saw with Kalli had her sister Kelsi in them too. She is such a good big sister. She has more motherly instincts than many mothers that I have met.

Oh yeah...and she made the Sevier County High School Dance Team this summer. I am so very proud of her and I am very proud to call her my daughter. Kalli and I are alike in many ways and I see a few contentious confrontations in our future but that's OK. Kalli and I are close and we can handle conflict. One of us will win and the other will say she (foreshadowing) is sorry. We'll hug it out and everything will be OK. Then she'll go tell her mom on me :) so she gets more hugs.

I love 'er (inside joke) and I just can't help it.

Thank you God for giving Kalli to Kim and Me.

Pretty Woman

Who would have thought that I could have been inspired by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman?  Pretty Woman is one of my wife's favorite movies and when she stumbled onto it this week she had to watch it.  What stood out to me was a moment in the film when Richard Gere was telling her how pretty and smart she was.  Then, he said something like he didn't understand why she couldn't see it.  She said "it's easier to believe the bad". 

That one statement spoke volumes to me.  As a father with three daughters, I'm always conscience of my daughter's self-esteem.  My wife is so very good at watching out for their self-esteem.  I try to say the right things but I just don't measure up to her.  We are fortunate to have three beautiful (inside and out) girls.  But I can't help to think about all of the pretty girls that I knew in high school that thought they were ugly.  Back then, I just wrote it off and assumed they just said that so they would hear someone tell them "you're not ugly, you're pretty".  Now that I'm older I can look back and see, based on the way some of them made decisions, they really did think they were ugly.

After all these years of Dateline reports, news reports, and other studies that I've been exposed to, mostly common sense stuff I guess, low self-esteem can cause a young woman to do things that aren't very Godly.  Low self-esteem is a tool that the devil uses against our teens to deceive them into making very bad decisions.  How many teenage girls have you known that have made some really bad decisions involving a boy that just didn't make sense?  I'll go out on a limb and say 99% of those bad decisions are because of low self-esteem.  Why?  Why does someone that is so pretty need to feel accepted by a boy so badly that they will do anything to win his approval?

The fact is that the devil will use one single thing to tear a teenager down.  For some reason, no matter how much good that has been said about you and to you, it only takes one bad thing to shake your self-esteem.  Like Julia Roberts said "it's easier to believe the bad".   That's why, as a parent, we MUST tell our children how good, pretty, or smart they are.  Starting from the day our kids can understand what we say we must give them positive reinforcement.  Because there is going to come a day when some immature boy or girl tells them "you’re not as pretty as you think you are" or they aren't going to win the starting position that they've worked so hard for.  You can be guaranteed that there will be times that will shake your child's self-esteem.  It happened to me and I bet it happened to you.  When that time comes, will there be enough good that it makes it at least harder to believe the bad?

Dad's, your daughters HAVE to know (not just think or wonder) that you think they are the prettiest girl alive.  They have to know that you believe in them.  Mom and Dad, they have to know that when the chips are down, they have parents they can go to who will help them and pray with them.  You must teach them what it means to be "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalms 139:14.  I know it's hard but we have to teach them that God's acceptance is the only acceptance that they need.  Dad's, I know it's hard for us to pay compliments sometimes.  I don't know why, it just is.  But for your children's sake, we must do a better job of complimenting them.

And above all, pray, pray, pray.  Build a hedge of prayer around your children to help protect them from the bad that the devil is going to send their way.

I love you and God does too!

Prison Ministry - Day one

This past weekend I went on a prison ministry trip to KY.  For anyone that doesn't know what I do, I go with a team of men from Sevier Heights Baptist Church into prisons in TN, KY, AL, and FL.  We play softball against the inmates and tell them about Jesus.  We get to spend time with them and build relationships.  I know that there are people out there that believe we should be doing other types of ministry because criminals "shouldn't get extra privaleges".  The fact is that in Matt 25 Jesus is pretty clear regarding prison ministry.  

Saturday, we saw several men saved.  I was a little disappointed because as of the last 1/3 of the day, I hadn't made a difference in anyone's life.  We were at Little Sandy prison and we had gone in for dinner at 3:30.  After dinner we had another 90 minutes before we could go back out to the yard where the softball field is so this gave us more time to spend with the prison softball players.  Our team and theres did different things to pass the time.  Some played basketball, some played corn-hole and some just hung out and talked.  

I was tired so all I felt like doing was sitting so I found an inmate to talk to.  I sat down with a guy named "Blue".  Blue and I talked for about 30 minutes about softball.  Then the Holy Spirit began to move on both of us.  Blue is from a town just outside of Memphis so I asked him what brought him to Kentucky.  He said "well, running dope and murder".  Thats when Blue opened up.  Blue is 41 and has been in prison for 19 years for murder.  He was saved in October of 2011 and for the last 6 months there has been strange things happening in his life.  He has found himself to be more compassionate to people and he is able to forgive when just a few years ago, there is no way he would forgive.   With all of this, there was still something wrong.  He said that he wanted to be closer to God but something wasn't right.

The Holy Spirit immediately revealed to me that He is working on Blue and that's why he has saw the recent changes.  He also showed me that the reason Blue is unsettled is because he hasn't forgiven himself.  I didn't beat around the bush.  When I brought it up, we spoke for a second and then he started crying.  He said "look at me!  what's wrong with me, I've never cried before".  Blue acknowledged that he had so much remorse for his crime that he doesn't think it is possible for him to forgive himself.  I explained to him that if he got saved God has forgiven him and he agreed.  I told him that by not forgiving himself, he is exalting himself above God and we talked about that for a while.  

When it was time to go back to the field I knew that God had worked through me and through Blue.  God was so good to us this weekend.  If God can provide hope to an inmate that is facing 7 more years to life in prison, imagine what he can do for you if you let him.

I love you and God does too!

John

Thank you God!!

If you are close to my family, you will know that the last few months have been VERY hard for us.  We have been presented with situations that we never dreamed we would be in.    We have been scared.  I know that we aren't supposed to be but the fact is that as God closed doors and opened others, we were scared.   We questioned God along the way, not much but we did.  

We saw God close a door in May and we knew it but we kept pressing until we thought it was opening again.  In June, we tried to open it again and it seemed like it was opening but once again, God closed it.  At the end of July, we tried once again to open it and much to our dismay, God closed it.  We knew what God wanted us to do based on this door staying closed but going through the open door was going to be hard, so hard.  As we were going through the open door, we tried one last time this past Saturday to open the closed door.  We did EVERYTHING we could to get this door open because it was the easy way out but for the last time, God closed it.

As we continue down this new path that God has set before us, we have to walk by faith.  We have to lean on God that he will always provide.  The thing that keeps us going is God's face and not His hand.  We do our best to have the attitude of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednigo "Our God will deliver us, but even if He doesn't, we will not bow".  We trust in God to provide for our needs, but even if he doesn't, we will continue to serve Him.  

Thank you God for loving my family so much that you guide us to where you want us to be.  Thank you for not giving in to our selfish wants and providing us with what we need.  Thank you for giving me the most awesome wife in the world who trusts me as the spiritual leader in our house.  Thank you God for giving me children that trust their parents with future changing decisions.  Thank you God for sending your son Jesus to die on the cross as the eternal sacrifice for my sins.  Lead us God and we will follow.

We so often confuse God's voice with the voice in our head.  Sometimes God's voice isn't a voice at all, it's biblical truths, it's honesty, it's integrity.  I challenge you this week to hear God's voice.

I love you and God does too!

Seek his face, not his hand

When was the last time you spent 15 minutes in prayer without asking God for anything except forgiveness? When was the last time you spent time in worship without asking God for a blessing? It's really hard when we are such needy people.

David was a man "after God's own heart". David was a man that just wanted more of God "Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek His face evermore.  Psalm 105:4". In Hebrew, "face" is used in place of presence. David was saying "seeks his presence evermore". When we can learn to be like David and just want more of God, we will truly be able to worship Him in "spirit and truth" (John 4:24). That is what being a Christian is really about, being in God's presence. That's why he created us. He created humans so he could have a relationship with a being that had a choice. Why do we settle for less than all of God?

I challenge you today to spent time with God without asking for anything. I challenge you to just praise him and acknowledge his forgiveness and his love. Thank Him for what He has done for you but even more, thank Him for who He is. Seek His face evermore!

I love you and God does too!

Names of God Wednesday Lesson

I spoke at church last night and here is the outline I used talking about some of the names of God. I love the story about Paul and the nameless or unknown God (Acts 17:22-26) but the fact is we know that God has a name. He told Moses he "I AM". There is a deep study just on that name and maybe I will share my opinions here some day. Would be too long to get into AND to list my outline for this blog. This study talks about some of the names in which people of the bible, through God's inspiration, addressed God.

Names of God: 

"ELOHIM"  is the first name for God found in the Bible, and it's used throughout the Old Testament over 2,300 times. Elohim comes from the Hebrew root meaning "strength" or "power", and has the unusual characteristic of being plural in form. In Genesis 1:1, we read, "In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth." Right from the start, this plural form for the name of God is used to describe the One God, a mystery that is uncovered throughout the rest of the Bible. 

Throughout scripture, Elohim is combined with other words to describe certain characteristics of God. Some examples: 
Elohim Kedem - God of the Beginning: (Deuteronomy 33:27). 
Elohim Mishpat - God Of Justice: (Isaiah 30:18). 
Elohay Selichot - God Of Forgiveness: (Nehemiah 9:17). 
Elohay Marom - God Of Heights: (Micah 6:6).
Elohay Mikarov - God Who Is Near: (Jeremiah 23:23). 
Elohay Mauzi - God Of My Strength: (Psalm 43:2). 
Elohay Tehilati - God Of My Praise: (Psalm 109:1). 
Elohay Yishi - God Of My Salvation: (Psalm 18:46). 
Elohim Kedoshim - Holy God: (Leviticus 19:2, Joshua 24:19). 
Elohim Chaiyim - Living God: (Jeremiah 10:10). 
Elohay Elohim - God Of Gods: (Deuteronomy 10:17). 

"EL" is another name used for God in the Bible, showing up about 200 times in the Old Testament. El is the simple form arising from Elohim, and is often combined with other words for descriptive emphasis. 

Some examples: 
El Shaddai - The all-sufficient God (Gen 17:1)
El HaNe'eman - The Faithful God: (Deuteronomy 7:9). 
El HaGadol - The Great God: (Deuteronomy 10:17). 
El HaKadosh - The Holy God: (Isaiah 5:16). 
El Yisrael - The God Of Israel: (Psalm 68:35). 
El HaShamayim - The God Of The Heavens: (Psalm 136:26). 
El De'ot - The God Of Knowledge: (1 Samuel 2:3). 
El Emet - The God Of Truth: (Psalm 31:6). 
El Yeshuati - The God Of My Salvation: (Isaiah 12:2). 
El Elyon - The Most High God: (Genesis 14:18). 
Immanu El - God Is With Us: (Isaiah 7:14). 
El Olam - The God Of Eternity (Genesis 21:33). 
El Echad - The One God: (Malachi 2:10). 

"ELAH" is another name for God, used about 70 times in the Old Testament. Again, when combined with other words, we see different attributes of God. Some examples: 
Elah Yerush'lem - God of Jerusalem: (Ezra 7:19).
Elah Yisrael - God of Israel: (Ezra 5:1). 
Elah Sh'maya - God of Heaven: (Ezra 7:23). 
Elah Sh'maya V'Arah - God of Heaven and Earth: (Ezra 5:11). 

"YHWH" is the Hebrew word that translates as "LORD". Found more often in the Bible than any other name for God (almost  7,000 times in the old testament and almost 1000 times in the new testament), the title is also referred to as the "Tetragrammaton," meaning the "The Four Letters". YHWH comes from the Hebrew verb "to be" and is the special name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. "And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM; and He said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you... this is My eternal name, and this is how I am to be recalled for all generations'" (Exodus 3:14-15). Therefore, YHWH declares God's absolute being - the source of everything, without beginning and without end. Although some pronounce YHWH as "Jehovah" or "Yaweh," scholars really don't know the proper pronunciation. The Jews stopped pronouncing this name by about 200 A.D., out of fear of breaking the commandment "You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). (Today's rabbis typically use "Adonai" in place of YHWH.) 

Here are some examples of YHVH used in scripture: 
YHWH Elohim - LORD God: (Genesis 2:4). 
YHWH M'kadesh - The LORD Who Makes Holy: (Ezekiel 37:28).
YHWH Yireh - The LORD Who Sees/provides: (Genesis 22:14). 
YHWH Nissi - The LORD My Banner: (Exodus 17:15). 
YHWHShalom - The LORD Of Peace: (Judges 6:24). 
YHWH Tzidkaynu - The LORD Our Righteousness: (Jeremiah 33:16). YHWH O'saynu- The LORD our Maker: (Psalm 95:6).

God loves you and I do too!

He ain't tired yet

My God is awesome. I was just thinking about Him a few minutes ago when He brought this verse to my memory. There is no one like our God. We need to remember that every day. It's so easy for some people to walk through their day-to-day and forget that God is God. He is our almighty and our strenth and our joy.

(Isaiah 40:25-31 NASB)
"To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,

He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,

Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS...Must Read

A good friend forwarded this to me today (Thanks Mark!). I have edited it some and added scripture references. I have preached this message a number of times and it is impossible for me to do it without crying. As I type even now, thinking about how my savior suffered for me, my eyes have filled with tears".


At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death. At the time, Crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus. Unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet. Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrist, not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe. With every breath in, His bear, beaten back had to rub the splintery cross. Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled his feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back and then using his legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage. Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours. Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? But before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.

The lungs filter oxygen from blood but because Jesus could not take a normal breath, his blood thickened leaving behind water in his lungs. He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest... all these without mentioning the humiliation He suffered after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where His hands were Nailed), He was crucified naked (as was the Roman custom).. As he became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21), God the Father could not look upon His Son, that's why he cried out "Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabacthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Mark 15:34).

Jesus had to endure this experience, to open the gates of Heaven, so that you can have free access to God. So that your sins could be washed away. So that you could be put in right relationship with God. 

JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!

God loves you and I do too!

Praise God today?

Have you given praise to God today? Not for what He has done for you but for who He is? God is so awesome and He desires our praise. He said that He inhabits the praise of His people (Psalms 22:3).  That means if you want to know that God is with you, simply praise him because he said He'd be there.  One thing is for sure, praising God doesn't require talent or even intelligence (not that you don't have both).  All it requires is a thankful heart.  One of my favorite things to do is to give thanks and praise to the creator of life.  There isn't much in life that I'm good at but one thing I sure enjoy is telling my God "thank you". 

If you don't know how to praise God there is a great song that can teach you called "Revelation Song".   I'm also including a link to an awesome video for this song.  If you have 6 minutes, I strongly suggest that you watch it.  What I like about "Revelation Song" is that it has nothing to do with me.  It is all about God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3LK3wIHnVE&feature=related

Give praise to God today.  You can start by singing this song to God:


Worthy is the,
Lamb who was slain
Holy, Holy, is He
Sing a new song, to Him who sits on
Heaven's Mercy Seat


Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And I will adore You…!
Yeah!


Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and
Glory and power be
To You the Only Wise King,
Yeah


Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I - will - adore You!


Filled with wonder,
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your Name
Jesus, Your Name is Power
Breath, and Living Water
Such a marvelous mystery


Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I - will - adore You!


Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come,
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I - will - adore YOU…




Come up lift up His Name
To the King of Kings…
We will adore YOU Lord…
King of heaven and earth
King Jesus, King Jesus
Aleluya, aleluya, aleluya!
Majesty, awestruck Honor
And Power and Strength and Dominion
To You Lord,
To the King, to King
To the King of Glory


God loves you and I do too!

John Knight was dead...

While Kim and I were on our way back from Nashville today I had a nice moment with God that I wanted to share with you.  Kim was busy cooking up shirt orders with her vendor so I was just listening to the radio when "Alive Again" by Matt Maher came on.  As Kim talked on the phone, I just drove and cried because of what God had done in me.  This happens to me frequently while driving so I know other drivers think I must look pretty silly praising God and singing like I'm getting paid to do it.  But I don't care. 

Last Tuesday I wrote about the ups and the downs that we Christians experience.  But what happens if we stay too long in the down period?  Or worse, what if we turn our backs on God when we're in the down period?   Before January of this year, I had allowed myself to reach an all new spiritual low.  I had turned my back on God.  I had turned so slowly, like the hands on a clock, that no one could see me turning.  I had kept God in my rear-view mirror so that I could keep an eye on him to make myself feel better but I had definitely turned my back on Him.   I was more or less spiritually dead and no one knew it.

In January of this year, Kim and I went away for a weekend (after a really big fight) to try to figure out what we were going to do.  After a lot of soul searching and brutal honesty with each other I had to come to grip with the fact that the marriage problems we were having were because I wasn't where I needed to be with God.  That weekend, God "shattered my darkness and washed away my blindness" so that now, I'm alive again. 

I got so emotional today for two reasons.  First, I was soooo happy that God "called and shouted and broke through my deafness" so that I'm alive again.  Second, I was soooo sad that I let God down but more than that, that it took me so long to let Him make me alive again.  I wasted so much time while taking so long to allow God to wake me up.  This song is very dear to me because I can relate so well to being alive again and it always reminds me to "do what ever I have to to break through" to get into God's presence.

Have you ever had an experience like I had today?  Where are you with God today, this very second?  Can you go to bed every night knowing that everything you did during the day was witnessed by Jesus Himself and you have nothing to be ashamed of.  If you did have something to be ashamed of, are you repenting?  I hope so.  If you haven't heard this song, you can visit the link above to listen.

 
God loves you and I do too!

God has been so good to me. His blessings and his grace are immeasurable.