Sterling Griggs

You may read that title and be thinking to yourself, "Is this going to be some big theological discussion about the size of God?" The answer to that is an emphatic NO! God is Spirit and His size is infinite so the question of God's size is already answered. What I am wanting to know is how big God is to you. I'll be the first to admit that I tend to limit God. Sure, I know that He is limitless and nothing is impossible with God, yet I will still view circumstances as beyond anyone's control. When I do that I tend to subscribe to "Hands Up Theology," a form of theology different than that of the Charismatics. It involves the throwing up of the hands in the air in discouragement and just giving up. "Hands Up Theology" is nothing more than a small view of God, one in which we don't or won't acknowledge that God is sovereign and is more than able to fulfill His purposes and plans regardless of whether we trust Him or not. It pains m...

The past meets the future This is past Wake Forest great Chris Paul throwing the alley oop to incoming Wake Forest frosh (and Yadkin County native) LD Williams. Go Deacs!

Today I took my high school students to a theme park called Carowinds, which is just an hour and a half south of us in the city of Charlotte. Years ago I used to enjoy going to Carowinds and riding all of the rides but now I find it about as enjoyable as having an ingrown toenail. There's nothing wrong with Carowinds and I am glad that so many people go and have a good time, but it's lost its lustre for me. Add to that the fact that it was blazing hot there today and you have whipped up a perfect record for misery. One thing that I do enjoy when I am at Carowinds is people watching. There are all sorts of shapes and sizes of people that come to this theme park and some of them are obviously seeking that perfect look for their lives. Now don't get me wrong - I am not being critical or making fun of people. But the way that people dress and carry themselves says a lot about how they feel about themselves. After careful analysis I decided to list a couple of observatio...

There are lots of people who I have run into that can give a myriad of reasons for not going to church. Many site "bad experiences" and when pressed they admit that their bad experiences weren't with God but with those who claimed to be God's people. In fact, I will venture to say that most people who have a problem with church probably don't have problems with God. Rather, their problem is with people. As I've thought a little bit about this phenomenon I've come up with several reason why people don't like church. For now, I'll list just two. First, there is the herd mentality . This describes the movement of Christians once they are gathered together. They lose their individual identity and morph into one giant blob of religiosity. It's hard to penetrate into this herd because they are so tightly knit and it can be difficult if not downright uncomfortable on a Sunday morning to get more than a moo out of them. A transformation takes ...

We had some pretty rough storms blow through last night. The lightning and thunder were impressive and the rain never seemed to stop. Of course these storms came right after we got the girls into bed so they were more than a little bit nervous and scared at all of the noise. Unable to reassure the girls that it was just some passing storms and our house wasn't going to blow down, I cuddled up with them in their beds and tried to calm them down so that they could sleep. At first I told them some funny stories that made them laugh but when a crack of thunder would shake the house it didn't make them feel any better. Knowing I had to switch tactics I decided to use this as a lesson about the weather. Now, I'm no meteorologist but I do know that thunder follows after the lightning, so I showed my two girls that they could anticipate a boom of thunder not long after they saw a flash of lightning. Sure enough they both became preoccupied with listening for the sound of the ...

This is one of the coolest dunks I've ever seen. I know the film is a little bit grainy but the guy dunking does resemble me just a little bit.

I love to see the students that I serve get excited about their ministry for Jesus. Just this past weekend they returned from a World Changers mission trip to Charleston, WV, and their excitement was overwhelming. Many shared testimonies on Sunday morning of how God and moved them and there are a few that are going to go back in a few weeks to continue some of the work that they started. Often God has to move us away from where we are right now in order to show us what He desires for our lives. He did this to Moses and Joseph and Jesus repeated this with His disciples. All of us need a healthy dose of God's vision for our lives, yet when we are surrounded by the distractions of life we aren't often able to see much of anything. Mission trips and camps become wonderful channels that God is able to work through in order to communicate His desire for our lives. I am not suggesting that is the only time that He does this - but it's usually the only time that we let Him. W...

I just returned from the beach today with my wife and kids and the drive home always seems to take forever. Fortunately for us, we have a large selection of CD's to choose from to keep us occupied on the way. We do have a DVD player in our van but we seldom use it anymore, mainly because we've worn out the DVD's that we have and the kids are just used to us not playing them anymore. Sometimes the same old CD's can get a little bit old too and channel surfing becomes the music of choice. But today an older Jeremy Camp CD called Carried Me: The Worship Project found its way into our CD player and it took me back to the summer of 2004. That summer was a good summer for me - I took my students on some incredible mission trips and I had the chance to speak at a week-long youth camp that turned out to be incredible. That CD was in heavy rotation for me that summer and hearing it today brought back a boatload of good memories. Those memories not only made me smile but...