As you may have noticed over the past few weeks there has been a lack of blog posts on our site. I wanted to give you an update and let you know what the Dive Deep group has been up to recently.

Over the past few weeks most of our staff have been starting classes on various college campuses around the nation. This means for a little bit we had to focus on a few other odds and ends, but now that those are tied up we can get back to delivering a weekly blog post for all of you who support us. We have also had the chance to start up some really cool things on one of the campuses in North Georgia.

I am pleased to announce we have started a Dive Deep Ministries Toccoa Falls College campus group. Toccoa Falls College is a small Bible college nestled in the North Georgia mountains. There is a huge opportunity for us to grow our organization in reaching those on campus, and we are quite excited about what God is doing there. This group has already started a weekly event called “Prayer at the Falls” where students meet for worship, devotions and prayer. Our sole focus of the Dive Deep TFC group is to create a community of believers who live in a lifestyle of prayer and wish to grow deeper in Christ. On the other side of things we hope to help believers on campus learn how to share their faith with others and reach people for Christ.

Another endeavor we are embarking on is the making of our first music video! While there aren’t many details we can share now as we are still working on the specifics we ask you to pray for God’s blessing on this new avenue. We hope to use this video as a way to share our message much farther than we can by just talking about our faith. More to come on this as we get closer to finishing the video.

Starting next week we will be launching into our new series called “Remix” where we will be talking about some Christian stereotypes and common conceptions of Christians as a whole. Our purpose for this series is for us to begin to change the way Christians are viewed in society and align ourselves more with the original mission of Christ. To give you a sneak peak to next week’s post we will be talking about “Remix: God is dead”. Now before you begin sending in all of your objections, we would urge you to stick around and check out the blog next Monday for an in depth look at this topic and what we mean by that.

Thank you again for your continued support of our ministry and we look forward to reaching more people with your help!

Dive Deep,

KC

One of the most historical cemeteries in the nation is Arlington National Cemetery right outside of Washington, DC. As you go through Arlington there are thousands and thousands of white tombstones of soldiers who have died in service to our country. It makes me stop and remember that without their sacrifice we would not live in a country that has granted us the freedom to have organizations like Dive Deep, our churches, and other organizations that allow others to impact change in this generation.

Freedom never comes without a sacrifice. It was our soldiers that sacrificed their lives to allow us to be free to speak our mind and live how we would like to. It was Christ who died on the cross to free us from the bondage of sin and death to give us eternal life. Nothing comes without sacrifice so today let us remember the sacrifice of our soldiers, family members, friends and our Savior, Jesus. Take a moment to thank them for those sacrifices that they have given to us so that we can live a better life.

Thought this week: We challenge you to thank the people around you that have made sacrifices so that you may live in one of the greatest countries in the world. Start with the people closest to you, God, your parents and your friends.

Dive Deep,

KC

Dive Deep Ministries was founded at the beginning of 2009 by a few students who were tired of seeing a generation continue to forget their spiritual roots. We have been given numerous things at our disposal for advancing the kingdom, and we want to use those to the best of our ability.  This includes things like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and the like to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to more people than we can do at a local level. We don’t want to be super spiritual, but we want to go after issues that everyone has and talk about things that are relevant to our culture.

We are founded on the principles of a few key verses. 1 Timothy 4:12 gives us a look at one of the reasons that we do what we do, even though we are younger than alot of people. The verse says:

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

Mathew 28:19-20 also gives us direction and purpose. It says:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We may not belong to the same denomination or share the same political beliefs, but what we do share is a love of Our Savior and a desire to learn more about Him.

Dive Deep is not a church or affiliated with a specific denomination. We do, however, believe a few core principles about our faith. We believe that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and lived among us, was crucified on the cross so that everyone could be redeemed though Him and live forever in eternal salvation, and that he rose again on the third day. We believe that salvation is open to anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord and commits to follow Him all the days of their life. The only absolute truth is the Word of God, and it holds no conflict with it’s text.

It is our desire to expand the ministry reach of Dive Deep. Over the summer we will be launching some new and exciting things. There will be some changes along the way, but our mission will stay the same.

Next week, we will be starting a series called Living Sacrifices. We will take some time to unpack the idea of worship. We hope that this series will help you find your pathway of worshiping the Father in your daily life.

Have a great week!

Dive Deep,

KC

It might be helpful to offer some insight on change itself and what the Bible says about change. Change is defined by Websters dictionary to be:

To make radically different

Out of all the definitions for change, this seems to be the one that captures what change means. It also means if you change- it is significant. In a world that casually talks about change, we must be committed to change and become more of what God has called us to be.

Paul addresses the issue of a God type committed change in Philippians 3:21 . Scripture says :

…by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body

This means as we grow, God will change us as we allow Him to work in our lives.

The hardest thing to do is actually make the effort to change. We like who we are, so why do we need to change? We use this argument to justify being stagnant. If we begin to stop changing ourselves we become blind to who we really are, or we become something that we are not. If we fall into resistance to change, we will never become the people that God has intended for us to be.

Lets take a minute to address the topic of positive change. We as a ministry seek to inspire positive change, and use the communication tools that we have been given to help others dive deeper into a relationship with Christ. We believe that Christ centered change is the only good change, and as the definition says, this change can be pretty radical. The Bible says in Romans 12:2:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We are not supposed to be the normal people, we are supposed to be different. If we become normal, we risk falling out of a desire to change. When you really think about it, the only change that we as Christians should make is those that are pleasing to God.

Sometimes we end up changing in ways that break us down. They might not seem like significant changes, but the more small changes we make tend to pile up and consume us. These can be things such as hanging out with the wrong crowd or choosing a lifestyle that is not pleasing to God. A common argument among people is that Christians don’t have great lives, but if you stick with the journey God blesses those who are faithful.

It seems that we as Christians have become masters in hiding what is wrong about us and ignore the issues so we are only motivated and accountable to ourselves. We hold back and don’t share with others to avoid the encouragement and accountability that would help us be better people. Some of the issues may be addictions, selfishness, friendships, and a host of other things holding us down. In these situations we start to wonder why God isn’t helping us anymore. The answer is quite simple–we quit allowing change so He can’t move within us.

The best change is one that is initiated by us and moves in a way that is pleasing to God. We tend to get confused on what to change so we need to look back to the One who never changes.  He is the only absolute truth, and the only thing that we can fully rely on.

Change is a process that takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. We encourage and challenge you to search yourself for areas that you need to change no matter how insignificant you may think the change may be. You might be thinking, “Well its no big deal, just a small thing”, but do you really want to justify not changing just to become a lukewarm Christian? Its time to stop hiding what we don’t want to change, and just do it. Life is so much better when you are running towards the God who loves you, and changing your life to align with His principles.

Dive Deep Ministries is always looking for ways to change and reach others.  Starting next week, we are going to address relationships in a series of blogs we are calling Awkward Relationships:

Relationships can be pretty awkward at times-things like asking someone out, asking them to marry you, and all the relationship issues that go with all that. We are going to look at some of the common issues among dating relationships, and what we believe is God’s design for relationships. He, after all, is the Creator of the big idea. This is a series that will benefit everyone–dating, single, married, or engaged. We are excited about what this is going to bring-don’t miss it!!  Encourage your friends to check this out as well.

This week, we challenge you to find one thing in your life that is in need of change and begin the process. Don’t try to change everything  at once, but start with little things and work toward the bigger things. As you change, you will be amazed how freeing it will be for God to do even more in your life.

Have an amazing week and look for our first post of Awkward Relationships next Monday!

Dive Deep,

KC

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Now that we have an idea of the labels that exist, lets dive into this subject.

If you think back to high school, or if you are in high school you can probably think of some labels that were placed on you. Those labels began to make you think that you were what they say, even if that wasn’t you. You begin to believe the lies that people around you are telling you.

The real issue that we face is not what labels we have but what voices we listen to. Casting Crowns sees that this is an issue, and addresses it in their song Voice of Truth. The end of the chorus says:

Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

In a world of messed up morals and lies, the only voice that we can truly rely on is that of Christ.  Sometimes it is so hard to listen to the voice of God, because it isn’t always the loudest, but most of the time the still soft whisper of our Creator. God doesn’t do this so that we can’t hear him, but rather so that we seek him to hear what he is saying to us.

So what keeps us from hearing the voice of God? Its quite simple, but something that we don’t even realize we do. We love to hang onto labels, because the longer we listen to the other voices, the more we become that label. We begin to allow ourselves to find our identity in the lies we are told. There is a quote that says:

A lie, if told enough times, becomes truth

What we fail to realize is that once we step into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we become a new creation! 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says

“Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”

Sometimes we end up taking this to the extreme, and sometimes we don’t do enough. The question that everyone ends up asking themselves at some point is where is the balance, and how do we achieve that. We don’t want people to think we are fanatics who need to be locked up, but we still need to convey our love for God. There are three types of evangelism styles; Signpost, Street Corner, and Chameleon evangelism. There is no right or wrong way to evangelize, but some are more effective. Let’s dive into this.

As you have driven anywhere on the interstate, you have seen billboard advertising products, services, and maybe even Christianity. You look at most of them just because your driving and have nothing better to do, but you don’t really remember them, with a few exceptions. There are some people who’s approach to witnessing is much like a billboard. They stand at a distance, showing they are a Christian but don’t really make any effort to reach out and engage others around them. Just like billboards, most people just pass them by and continue driving on the road of life.

When you walk around in downtown Atlanta, GA, you are bound to see someone on the street corner with a sign or a megaphone or just their voice talking about God. Mostly, with a few exceptions, these people talk about God’s wrath or the destruction to come. While their intentions are right, you can get more bees with honey than with peanut butter. The people that talk with them end up feeling scared and afraid, so the accept Christ as insurance instead of out of reverence.

An alternative is to live your faith among those people that you are around. St. Francis of Assisi summed the topic of evangelism up well when he said:

“Preach the gospel always, If necessary use words.”

An interesting observation about people is that we become like those we are around. We are infulanced by our environment, so if we live our faith, we will rub off on those around us. Chamelions blend into their surroundings, but you know that they are there. Our faith should be able to be seen by those around us, while not sticking out like a green dot in a sea of red dots. People will begin to notice that you are different, and when they ask you why it allows a perfect opertunity to share your faith.

You should never be ashamed or afraid of what you believe. Christ tells us that while we preach the good news that we will come under persecution. In those times, we should rejoice because we are being pursecuted for Gods name. It begins to mess with their heads, because its different than everyone else. When the group Switchfoot was talking about how to inspire change, they said:

They say there is strength in numbers. That doesn’t mean that numbers are right. Dare to be different.

Being different for the sake of Christ is a hard road to walk. We must surround ourselves with others to help us though the hard times so that we can rejoice when we are persecuted. Do not faulter in your faith, be strong and courageous.

However you share your faith with others, make sure that your life reflects what you are saying. Fight against the grain of conveniant Christianity. You are a Christ follower at all times, so live for God in your words and actions, and just watch how God will use you.

Dive Deep,

KC

Most of the things that scare us are things that we do not want to give God control over. We watch them spiral out of our control and begin to worry about the outcome. To live a fear free life, God wants to be given complete control over all aspects of our lives. Initially there will be some fear, but it will get much easier for us.

One thing that we as humans do is sometimes tell God our problems and fears like He can’t do anything about it. In Mathew 14, the Bible tells us of the storm that Jesus ask Peter to walk on water. Mathew 14:29-31 says

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

The reason why Peter sank was that he removed his eyes from Jesus, and looked around and was afraid. He had fear about his circumstance because at first Peter allowed Jesus to control what was going on, then he looked around and tried to control it himself. We as Christians do the same thing, and we must break the cycle of society. Even in the hard times, we can not take our eyes off of God.

The only way to counter fear is true love. Think back to something you were afraid of as a child. Maybe it was the dark or monsters were going to come out from your closet. In these times that you were afraid, you went to your parents because they comforted you. You went to them because you knew that they love you. Somewhere along the line as we got older, we began to not apply this to our Heavenly Father. 1 John 4:18 says

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.

We know that there is only perfect love though Jesus. So we should ask ourselves what we are fearing, and we need to give those areas over to God. Life without fear is much better than being consumed by fear.

There is an acceptable type of fear, and that is the Fear of God. Thoughout the bible, we hear of the spiritual leaders fearing God. Fear of God is looked upon as deep respect, greater than any other respect. Abraham was looked at as a man who feared God. We should have a great reverance for our God, and be willing to follow the promps that He gives us with no questions.

Fear is only bad when we allow it to control our lives and actions. If we have fear of God, we have it out of reverance, and we should strive to have that type of regard for our Creator. If there is something that we fear other than God, we need to search ourselves and give that control over to God so that we can live without fear.

So if your not already, begin to live a life without fear. Give up control of areas that you fear, and although its a process you will be glad that you did in the end.

Dive Deep,

KC

Mathew 6:33-34 says

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We have all probably heard this verse at some point in our lives, whether it was while singing a song in bible school, or in a sermon somewhere. In this chapter of Matthew, it is talking about worry. Then we are told seek first the kingdom and His righteousness. What God is trying to tell us is if we put him at the center of our lives, He will give us everything that we need.

The most common mistake among Christians is that we start off wanting to spend time with God, and that is our hearts desire, but we allow the busyness of life to get in the way. We start putting things in front of God, or just make God something we check off our list. We do this, then we wonder why God isn’t blessing us.

To solve this problem, we have to make some needed corrections and put things into perspective. Our thinking must be adjusted to view our relationship with our Creator as the most important relationship we have, because it is. He spends all day with us, but we rarely strive to spend time with Him, so no wonder when we don’t make time for Him, he doesn’t make time for us. He can no longer be a priority, but must become a lifestyle.

As a lifestyle, there is no question to who comes first. God wants us to talk to him about everything, so we always need to be in constant communication with Him. He should be our first thought in the morning, and the last before we go to bed, and occupy all those in between. We need to get to a point where we rely on God as much as we do the air we breath.

With life moving so fast, this can be hard to do, but only if you make it that way. We all have excuses why we can’t talk to God about things, but it all comes back to our priorities being messed up. So take God out of the priority checklist of your life. Make Him what your life’s priorities revolve around.

Proverbs tells us that we should put our relationship with God at the top of everything. It’s not just a good idea, it actually works. If your having problems with your priorities, relationships, work, habits, or anything, start seeking God first, and you would be amazed at how things will change.

God loves us, and nothing gets Him more excited than when we go to Him. We are His children, and as our Heavenly father, He wants to know whats going on, and lead us with advice when we need it. We need to live what we believe, not just check it off our list. God gives you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and sometimes the best we can do is 5 minutes a day. When we signed on to be a Christian, we said that we commit our lives to Him. Is this really represented by 5 minutes a day, or should we be always in contact with our Creator? If we are living as Mathew 6:33 says, we should be the second option.

So if your not being blessed by God, or feel there is a distance, God hasn’t gone anywhere. He is actually closer than ever, just waiting for you to talk to Him so that He can bless you. If we don’t make time for Him, does He really have a reason to make time for you? He wants to, but will you let him?

Challenge yourself to rise above the culture of convenient Christianity. Make God the center of your life, not a priority in your life, and watch what happens. Things will fall into place, and you will begin to see things as never before.

Lets go after this as a community, and let God do the rest.

May God bless you in all you do. To Him be the glory!

Dive Deep,

KC

Over and over again the Bible tells us that God is with us. God says in Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

We know this in our heads to be true in the times of prosperity, but what happens to us when we go though the hard times?

Some facts about challenges that seem to be helpful are that everyone has challenges, and even though they might seem insignificant to someone else, each of them impact the person in the same way. This might mean that someone is short on money, which is not a big deal to their friend. On the other hand, their friend might be struggling with relationships. In both instances, the persons have challenges. Neither of these are bigger than the other, but they impact them differently.

Sometimes when we face a challenge that seems to big we begin to embrace fear and worry instead of the Creator who is bigger than all of our problems. We run to fear because we so badly want to control our situation, eventhough God says that we should be courageous. One thing that is forgotten is that God is not up in Heaven running around trying to figure out what to do to fix the problem. God will put us though challenges that require us to lean on Him rather than ourselves.

Challenges are also what you make them. This is illustrated by groups that have done studies on cancer patients. The patients that go into the situation with a positive attitude have a much higher survival rate than those who don’t. It can be hard to be positive, but it will change your life dramatically if you decide to have a positive outlook.

When we get hit from all sides at the same time with problems and challenges, we have a tendency to become overwhelmed. The solution to this is to deal with one problem at a time. If your current problems are relationships and not having a job, see where they fall on your priorities list. If your wondering about your priorities, Proverbs says that it should be family, friends, then work. God shouldn’t be just a priority in your life, but the center of your life.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to others to help you along the way. Life is hard when we don’t have friends around to lift us up, so seek out other Christians to walk along with you. God absolutely helps you out, and often the way he helps is though community with other believers. We as Christians should be helping each other carry our burdens, as long as they are burdens that others can carry (or need to help carry).

Life is tough, but our God in Heaven is tougher than anything we could ever face. We need to surrender our will to His will, and allow Him to have full control of everything in our lives. If we can do this, God will surely bless us more than we ever have been. He can only do amazing things in the areas that we give him total control.

Take a self inventory and see where  in your life you might not be giving up to God. He always knows what is best for us, and sometimes putting us though challenges helps us to see what areas we need to surrender to Him. We can’t be servants to the Creator if we are still trying to be our own master.

May God continue to bless each of you!

Dive Deep,

KC

Relationships are a broad topic, so to narrow it down, I want to talk about dating relationships. Christians as a hole have different views on the aspects of dating. Those around us in the world have a different view as well. So we as young people can get very confused on what exactly is dating, how do you date, and how do you make sure its Biblical. 

To have a successful relationship with anyone, there are a few key things you have to understand. First and foremost, you have to have a strong relationships with God. Since God came up with this whole idea of community, how do we expect to have Godly relationships if we don’t have a strong foundation? 

God explains the concept of love to us in 1st Cor 13:4-7 when He says

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This is what true and perfect love is. It is the love that Christ showed as He walked among us. 

So now that we know what love is, how do we date as Christians? Most people see dating as a way to meet up, hook up, and dump the person. I think its much different than that for Christians. 

Christians should be dating a person because they are looking for a husband or wife, not for a girl or boy friend. While you are dating someone, you should get to know them for who they really are, not who they seem to be. You become interested more in them than yourself, and build a friendship that is solid. I highly suggest you have a strong friendship before going into a dating relationship with someone. This gives you a solid foundation, and helps the level of success for your relationship.

There are lots of opinions on how Christians should date, from group dates, to chaperoned dates, and many more. They all have valid points, but I think fundamentally you can have a safe one on one date, as long as you take some things into consideration. 

All relationships should have boundaries. These boundaries are set up out of respect for the other person, not as a line to see how close you can get to without crossing it. Boundaries must be firm, and shouldn’t be moved to justify the couple crossing a line. If a boundary is broken, the couple should talk about that instance and work to keep the boundary in tact. If either party is unwilling to do this, it might be time to reconsider some things within the relationship. 

You must never put yourself in a situation that could lead to compromise. As a couple, don’t be afraid to openly talk about type of situations to stay away from.  Make sure you stay away from the boundary line. In sports, you don’t play your game on the sideline of the court, you play it in the middle. Apply this same thinking to relationships. Once you set a boundary, stay back from it. If you do this, you won’t have to worry about crossing them. 

Christians have to approach a date as wanting to learn more about the other person, not talk about themselves the whole time. Learn to ask questions about the other person, and learn more about them. You will have your chance to speak along the way, but get to know more about the person you are dating. After all, you are dating them to see if they are the right mate.

Make time for God in your dating relationship. So often I hear of people wanting a relationship to work out because they want it to. If we never go to our Creator and ask Him what He thinks about our relationship, our foundation gets cracked. Allow time for prayer individually and as a couple to go to God about your relationship. This may seem weird at first, but I believe that God blesses relationships that have Him as the center. If you are afraid to go to God about your relationship, you probably need to do some self evaluations to remind yourself why you are in the relationship.

Your dating relationship should always strenghten your relationship with God and your relationship with others. God should always come first in the relationship, because if your significant other starts to become your everything, you are incidentally making that person your God. 

It is possible for you to have a dating relationship as a Christian. Make sure your relationship is Christ centered, and you set boundries out of respect. Be willing to spend time in prayer about the relationship, and God will honor those efforts. We have to be attentive to His will for our lives. Work on your God relationship, so that way when the time comes to be in a dating relationship, you already have a strong connection with your Heavenly Father. After all, He was the one who created relationships, so who better to have one with than the Creator of them. 

May God bless your week! Look for a new post coming next Monday.

Dive Deep,

KC