Januray 31st - Brent Bramer
Last night our life groups got together as one large group to spend some time in worship and fellowship. We had the opportunity to sit and think about a time in our lives that we felt the Presence of God...that we stood in awe of Him. Last night was real...a night of real stories of God's faithfulness and power in the lives of many of our students.
I remember waiting for Keegan to be born. It seemed like forever...9 months of worrying and wondering and anxiety and impatience. I remember going to the hospital on several occasions in hope that "today is the day," only to hear that it wasn't time. That 9 months was crazy...a rollercoaster ride. I wanted to see Him, hold him, look into his eyes, experience it all with my wife.
Long story short...the day comes...the delivery happens...and it was awesome. But the part that I always hold close is when all the doctors and nurses had filed out of the room and there was silence. Jenna and I sat holding our newborn baby boy in this quiet...still place...completely in awe of what had just happened and the God behind it all.
Keegan had these big gorgeous eyes...and there we sat...starring at each other. I felt the Presence like never before. I could sense God saying... "All that waiting. All that worrying. All that anxiety. Just sit. Just look. Remember. I'm good and I'm faithful and I love you."
Maybe today you can think back on a time where you felt the presence of the most High God. Maybe you can remember an experience with Him. He is Almighty God...He knows you...He loves you.
January 15th - Matt Allman
Loving and doing…
I’ll never forget the night. Britt and I had just started dating. She lived in Indianapolis and I lived in the middle of Illinois. About 3 ½ hours of driving separated us. One particular night we were spending time together in Illinois and we let time get away from us. Before we knew it, it was almost 3 in the morning and Britt had to work early the next morning. She hopped in her car and practically drove straight to work. I was afraid that she might fall asleep on the drive back to Indy so I stayed up the whole night talking to her on the phone.
As I think back to that night, the one thing that sticks out to me is how easy it was to stay up and talk with Britt. Normally it’s hard to carry on a 3 ½ hour phone conversation with someone you just hung out with, but it wasn’t. She drove all night and I stayed up to talk, but neither one of us really cared. We were (are) so in love that we would do anything for one another. I think we all have experiences like that. When you’re so wrapped up in someone that you’ll go to extreme lengths just to please them.
This concept makes me think of a passage when the writer James says, “Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? (James 2 The Message)” In the same way I can tell my wife Brittany I lover here a thousand times, but unless I actually show her that love with my actions does it really matter how much I talk about it?
Lately we have felt convicted to go out and do something about our love for God. To actually go out and help people around us because we believe this is what makes our love for God complete. So for the past few weeks we have been working to show God our love through actions. This isn’t something we have all figure out, but it is definitely something we are working to become.
We are very excited to announce that in April, as a ministry we will be going all over the community to show God our love through action. We are simply calling this event Go. Our hope is that this will not be just another event, but an awakening and a call to be the Christ’s presence here on earth. We hope you jump in with us…Info to be posted soon on website.
December 25th - Brent, Barb and Matt
Cheers...
Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. May you be in awe of the grace of God sent to us through Christ Jesus.
December 5th - Brent Bramer
An email I received this week…maybe this is where you’re at…maybe this could help…
Hey Brent,
I've been coming to the Rising for a few months now and i was wondering if I could maybe come talk to you Sunday before church about some stuff. I'm a Christian, but I don't feel close to God like I used to, and I really want to change that, but I'm not exactly sure how.
My Reply…
Hey…
I know the idea of becoming more close to God is an intimidating one...where you sometimes don’t know what to do...or what to say...or to read to change that stuff. So here’s what I want to encourage you to do... Take some time today and be somewhere quiet...and I want you to talk to God. Tell Him what’s been going on in your life...what stinks right now...what’s good right now...how you feel about yourself right now...how you feel about Him right now...where you are right now with Him...where you want to be with Him...tell Him the things that you’ve messed up in that you don’t want to mess up in anymore...tell Him what your thinking...feeling...hoping for. and this might feel forced at first...might feel awkward...might be something new. But I challenge you to first unload on God. Tell Him everything. I know people don’t see it sometimes...but prayer is huge. If we just ask Him for strength...if we ask Him to begin to teach us...come close to us...it’ll happen. Another thing I would do is spend some of that quality quiet alone time with God reading in His word. Pick up a Bible...read a chapter out of the book of Psalms. Based out of that chapter right down the things that the chapter says about God and what that means for you. Then go to one of the Gospel’s and read a passage (a verse or a chapter or the whole book)...Matthew , Mark, Luke or John. If you have any questions about other ways of reading the Bible...or you want to talk about prayer or you need to talk to someone about some stuff in your life...that’s what we’re here for. But know that if you simply talk to Him, and ask Him to change you, and pray to Him all throughout the day (it doesn’t have to be while your in a quiet room...you can talk to Him always) and you begin to read His word...and read about who He is and what he wants for your life...i know you will begin to see yourself in a different light...you’ll begin to see God differently...and you’ll feel closer.
Understand that temptation and sin want to keep us from God. So if you feel guilty, if you feel bad...that’s Satan not wanting you to feel worthy enough to talk to God...or learn about God or grow closer to God. If you have any questions about this stuff let me know.
November 7th - Brent Bramer
I am learning more and more that in order to allow God to move in me…in order to change…I have to put the desire to please me…to death. We live in the midst of a culture that is saturated with self. And we are tempted daily to concern ourselves with what we look like, what stuff we have, what status we hold among our peers, what gets us ahead. And to be honest…it’s pretty common to concern ourselves with these sorts of things. I tend to care about what I look like. What new hoody I have. I like my stuff. I like that I get HDTV. I have a nice house and I care sometimes too much about what people think of me. And I look at my life and the desire of my heart…and my history would prove that God takes second to me…to mine…to I…a majority of the time. I am learning that this way of living (though spelled out hundreds of times in the scriptures and examples of others) is not the best way to live my life. In fact this way of living keeps me from experiencing and knowing and growing closer to God. Maybe Jesus was on to something when he said… you want to follow me? You’ve got to deny yourself. You’ve got to die to yourself… maybe Jesus knew that the thing that keeps us from God the most…is me. And I understand that I don’t have the power to change me…that I have to allow my everyday to be offered to Jesus. He will fix me. And He can fix you. We are lost people without Him. We are weak outside of Him. I don’t want to end up old and smelly with lots of stuff and no joy…with lots of pictures of me and no hope. I want Jesus…
Adios.
October 29th - Brent Bramer
CLOSER
So we went to Hidden Falls to get away…and what happened was amazing. There were smores with no graham crackers…a golf cart on steroids…a story of a deer and an ambulance…hours lost in the wilderness…paintball…zip lines and more. But the best part of my weekend was to see the way God spoke through Travis…through worship…through reading…through silence. I had the opportunity to see how our students responded to who God is…what He has done…what hope we have…what He calls from our lives. And I’m excited to see the difference made in their lives.
And that’s the challenge…to continue to be different. To live different. See what God has done. See Jesus and the life that He lived and the cross that He chose and be different because of it…not for a weekend…but for every day. See that Scripture is real and deep and alive. See that God is speaking and leading and calling you to open your eyes and see that He is here. See that God invited us to be a part of this redemptive story…see that He calls us to be changed…to battle…to struggle…to fight…to learn…to live. It is our prayer that this generation be different. It is our prayer that this generation not be about religion…about tradition and order and do and do not’s…but about deepening in this loving relationship with our personal God…our Father who loves us. It is our hope that this generation would chase after Him…
Commit yourselves to closeness.
James 4.8 … come near to God and He will come near to You …
September 27th - Matt Allman
Why so simple?
If you’ve been to the rising before, or even just looked at what we’re about on this webpage you have probably noticed that we like to keep things simple. There’s a short sentence that describes who we want to be (A generation rising to love God), and a small verse that’s the basis for everything we do (Ephesians 5:14). All of our events, services, small groups, and anything else you can think of exist to help a generation rise up and love God.
Some people might think its ridiculous to limit a ministry to just one verse and one sentence, but we believe simplicity is our strong suit. I believe with all my heart that God brought us together as a ministry team because we are all people who have simply sought to love God. If you think about it some of the things we love the most in life are very simple in nature. We’ve all been in relationships that were good at one point, but then got messed up by motives, complications, and selfishness. It’s the same way in life. We can all think back to earlier times when things were less complicated than they are now. As humans we desire simplicity.
In the Christian faith things aren’t much different. Humans constantly impose their will on God and make religion out of what He intended to be a simple relationship. If you think about it every major spiritual awakening in history was about making things less complex and more like God intended them to be. Stacks of books have been written about how to get back to the basics of Christian faith. Jesus even said the most important commandment of all time is to simply love God. This is why we intend to be, “a generation rising to love God.” We want to rise out of how the world says life should be and simply look at who God is and what he wants for us. It is our hope that this simple pursuit will ensure that Christianity never becomes more complicated than it should be and all of our focus remains where it belongs. On God.
September 13th - Barb Enata
The orphan clings to your hand
Singing a song of how he was found.
The widow rejoices
For her oppressor’s silenced now.
You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor.
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore
When you could just be silent and leave us here to die
Still you sent your son for us…
You are on our side.
The runaway falls at your feet.
You are what he has searched for.
The rich man is broken
When he stands beneath a sky full of stars.
You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor.
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore.
When you could just be silent and leave us here to die,
Still you sent your son for us…
You are on our side.
- Bethany Dillon “You are on our side.”
I love being reminded of who God is. I love situations, people, places or circumstances that come into my life who turn me towards remembering God’s character. I don’t think that I remember that enough. Recently, I have been really trying to focus on praising God for who He is by reflecting on my past…by remembering where I have been and how by calling on who I KNOW God is…I have risen out of certain situations in my life.
I look at the places that God has taken me, places I have moved, people that have come in and out of my life…and I am constantly reminded that God IS my Sure Foundation. He is my constant. I look at the past 2 years of my life and am reminded that God IS faithful. I look at the team of people that I am blessed to work with and am reminded that God IS my Provider. He was always in control. I look at hurt in myself and in other people and am reminded that God IS my comfort and He DOES heal. I see students growing…I see students making decisions to rise out of what the world has for them and live in the light of Christ…and I am constantly reminded that God IS our Shepherd. I need to remember more often who God is. I want to be a person who clings to those names as truth…and I want to be a person who causes other people to fall more in love with who He is…
September 10th - Brent
I have never really “blogged” before. I don’t really know what this deal is supposed to look like. So…I’ll start with the things that we care about.
The past 7 months has been amazing for me. to see how God has orchestrated and lead my family to a place where we have the opportunity to do life and ministry with some of my best friends has been a humbling experience. And through the past 7 months we really feel like He has had His hand on this place. A lot of healing needed to happen. A lot of rest needed to happen. We just needed to spend time with Him and spend time loving people. It’s in those times where the simple things happen…no big programs…no huge conferences…no big lights…but relationships and prayer and time that God begins to speak. And I have struggled with things…but in the last 7 months God has spoken and lead in my life…in the ministry in ways that I have never seen before.
“Awake, O sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.”
-ephesians 5:14
and so we are the rising. We feel like God has lead us to be a generation that rises out of our sleep…this darkness…this death to be people who see who He is and what He has done and respond to be group that falls in love with Him. I want this for my life. I want to be someone who daily chases after Him with my hopes. My dreams. My heart. My love. I want to be someone who is changed by the cross and molded into who He has called me to be. We want to be a group that cannot help but let our love overflow into everyday. We want to be with Him. To be people who are thirsty for Him…hungry for His word and His truth. We want to be a generation that loves people…we want to be real. This is our heart. we are all at different places. But we want to walk together…through highs and lows. We want to be a community that’s honest and open and real. We want to love God and seek to love Him more.
I’m reading this book. “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer. You should read it.
O God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thristy for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me a grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wondered for so long.
In Jesus Name, Amen
The Pursuit of God page 20
