Scott Clark

I have delayed in posting this for a few weeks but could no longer put it off. To not share, in part, what God has blessed us with would be shameful.

God has been so faithful to my family and I. Beyond so many daily blessings, more specifically, I am thankful for what God has done regarding this pregnancy. It has been a little over a year since Ashley had her miscarriage and we experienced the deepest sadness we’ve experienced thus far in this life, and going through the surgery to remove the miscarried baby that would have arrived in January. And although, admittedly, it is still a sad subject, we will soon, and very soon, celebrate the birth of our 2nd daughter (what if it is a boy?? ahhhh) Adelyn Makenna Clark.

We look forward to another healthy child, which many do not have the chance to experience, God have mercy on them. And we look forward to enjoying another addition to our beloved family. From little tiny diapers and late nights to some new furniture (which we were blessed with, thank you again, God) we get to walk through the beginning stages of a whole new life, that we are lucky enough to teach, discipline, nurture, and trust God for. The thoughts of the years to come bring a whole other wave of emotions from joy and excitement, to anxiety and
concern for the unknown, but it all starts with the “right now” of God redeeming our loss and the past months of recovery.

Regardless of our current blessing, suffering, favor, or discipline, God is faithful and loving to those who love Him. Daniel 9:4 1 Corinthians 2:9 Deuteronomy 7:9 Nehemiah 1:5. We are living proof, and I just wanted to share my thankfulness to my God who loves contraconditionally.

HAHAHA. All the people that are like, “Really?’ right now, but “Yes, Really”.

I don’t know about You, as corny, or old, or whatever that song may be; every time I hear that song I jam. So, as I sat and wondered “How can I incorporate this into my blog?” (Cuz i wanna blog more often)

This thought came to me:
I GUARANTEE YOU, SIR OR MA’AM, I CAN COME UP WITH at least 99 THINGS TO THANK GOD FOR.

I bet we all could if we took what, 10 minutes? And I bet there are more like thousands. And I’m talking fairly recent, every day life things. Not, “thank you Lord for…..ummm……pizza”. Although depending how religious you are, that might be a legitimate, heart-felt prayer, Praise Jesus.

So now, God is up in heaven jamming to “99 Beautiful Thank You’s” (cuz in heaven prayers/thank yous float, not balloons) literally seeing our thanks rising up to His ears.

Pretty sweet, huh?

And seriously, in the same way that that song can make me instantly feel like a goat eatin a hole in a bully’s shirt, those 99 things, or even 5 things that God has blessed us with, whether food, or family, money, or salvation, by taking the time to give God glory will definitely turn sorrow into joy, and probably bring a smile to our heavenly Father who paid the highest price so we can enjoy and glorify Him. (AWESOME)

God has been so good to us, as the bible, and our lives so faithfully attest, and He is worthy of all the credit.

I am going to write down 99 things, and you just might see them up here some time soon… What about you?

Be Blessed.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
And strips the forest bare
And in His temple all cry “Glory!”

What a beautiful description of the owner in who hands I securely rest. The same owner of the unending universe that ripped the darkness from the night sky with the words “let there be light”. The same author and lover of the human race that has almost spent its entire existence perverting His creation and worshiping the created, myself included. And still, the same owner of the precious tree that provided the wood for the cross that His Son would be murdered on. That same cross and murder that set me free and allowed me to crawl into these eternally safe hands forever removed from
hell,
[MY] sin,
shame,
and fear.

There are not perfect enough words to describe my perfect Savior and God.

Within the last two years I have learned so much. The countless times Pastor has told me that there are things He constantly reminds me of that have become second nature to Him (in encouragement) and slowly but surely I do my best to get them and then forget about them until one day I’ll be walking a volunteer through something and I’ll think “HEY WAIT A SECOND, PASTOR TOLD ME THAT” but I wont even have to think about it anymore (well not actively anyways).

I am so thankful for my time at Journey Church over the last 2 and a half years. I have been forced out of my fears, negative tendencies, bad attitude, etc. Not that I dont slip back sometimes, but thanks to Pastor Michael, Pastor John, and my teammates I’ve been able to make mistakes, fall on my sword, adjust, feel the pain of loss, joys of success (best Christmas EVER!!! ) man up and get my butt ripped (miss it Pastor), and learn about the Grace of God. AND THAT’S THE BIGGEST LIFE CHANGER. Understanding Grace.

Understanding God’s massive room for mistakes and even blessings on top of that when we’re walking that line He’s set before us, because believe you me, I’ve made mistakes, and God’s not given up on me. He IS that loving Father we all dream about hugging us and telling us He loves us unconditionally. Sometimes it’s just on His terms, He is God after all.

Back to my first point though. It’s been 2.5 years at Journey Church, and amidst all the learning, mistakes, doubt, discouragement, fun, joy it would have been another 2.5 years without 2 things:

1. Mentors that Mentor – don’t mince words and get confrontational when needed
2. Law of Process – Meaning consistent learning/challenge

You know this is convicting as I write it, because the men who have spoken into my life don’t wake up and go if Scott asks for a challenge today I’ll give it to Him, they are men of the word, integrity, and the cajones to do whats needed. Im convicted because my excuse for not being more like that myself is fear. Fear of being wrong, Fear of being misunderstood, Fear of not being liked. And seeing other men around me that need a challenge or even a rebuke (like I often do) I give into this fear.

I have to repent because just like I need other men, I know that I need to be that to other men, and that means standing up and being a man. Honestly, I still need freedom in this, I don’t have my breakthrough yet, but I’m not going to give up.

Still I wouldn’t even be here without those two things, so here’s a question or two for you.

Are you being mentored? (have you asked for it)
If so, are they blowing your precepts away or blowing smoke up your butt?  Even good intentioned mentors or meetings can just hinder. If thats the case then can YOU step up and create the atmosphere for change? For a long time I just sat knowing my meeting time (years ago) was ineffective, but I couldn’t say what was hard to hear.

Are you applying the law of process?
Meaning, are you reading books consistently to strengthen your weaknesses and reinforce your strengths? Day after day are you working toward a goal? Even if its minute steps… the law of process is the only thing that will lead to significant change apart from God’s radical transformation.

As I continue to do these things myself I can only imagine what lies in store. I can never achieve or succeed (on any meaningful level) apart from Christ, but with the Christ in me I am an overcomer, a son, a disciple, heir, messenger of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank You Jesus! God please continue to transform me. Make me like you, and bless the men in my life who want that as well.

In case you missed our services today, you missed out big, we shared 6 (awesome) video testimonies from our Journey people, and Pastor shared on the true reasons we have to be thankFULL.

But that was assuming that your circumstances were bringing you joy, right? O wait… UMMMM NO!!!

Again, if you missed today, you missed big, but here’s one of our video testimonies cuz we still love you…

Among other things, Pastor wrapped the message up with our #1 reason to be thankFULL. Jesus Christ. His grace, love, SALVATION. Forget circumstances, forget enemies, trials; we have Salvation regardless of our sin, past, laziness, selfishness, and on and on. We’re eternally thankFULL because we know who our Savior is.

If I don’t talk to you before Thursday, have a great Thanksgiving, and remember why, no matter what, you can be thankFULL!!

It’s like I forgot how to blog…..

Anyways, I thought I’d update you all on our house, which we’ll be getting the keys to in less than 48 hours!!

We’ve waited and prayed 3+ years for a house, and everytime it wouldn’t work out we’d pray for a bigger and cheaper house and, well, needless to say, Ashley and I would like to apologize to anyone who has suffered from the real estate crash due to our prayers, cuz gggggaaaaaaawwwwwwwlleeeeeee God is faithful!!

Below are the pictures of our new BIG and CHEAP home, that we are very excited to own.

And here is a picture with one of our color scheme ideas (more mine than Ash’s) for the living room and kitchen. Let me know if you like or dislike it. Do you have a better suggestion??

Sugar, spice, and everything painful and broken.

I don’t wanna blog. There is so much going on right now that I feel that I don’t want to spend any energy on pouring out, but as my title says; These are the things hearts are made of.

As you may or may not have heard my wife Ashley was pregnant. We were 11 weeks along and went in this last Tuesday to the OB’s to find out that the baby had stopped growing. No heartbeat. She went in today to have a DNC.

We are still taking everything in, it’s been 3 days, and obviously, there is SO MUCH MORE than I could write going on right now in my wife and my own heart, but I will share some of my top-coat thoughts as they have been coming to me since we started down this unexpected turn.

1. God is in control. Even though there are questions, pain, fear of future issues, physical and emotional implications, and stress etc. God is in control. His mercy and love are always there evident in our lives and circumstances.

2. The hurt comes and goes. For me, thinking that it could be 18 months + before we could possibly even hope to have another child is scary. We had dreams and hopes already. Looked at names, furniture, talked specifics, shared our excitement with friends, family, our church. It’s painful to go back and re-share the loss and experience their sorrow for us one person at a time. Thoughts like that just bring the pain right back.
We are thankful, however, that we have strong loving people around us to love and support us. http://JourneyChurchNow.com

3. I am very optimistic. I almost feel guilty that I am so focused on the positive things that are to come as opposed to crumbling under the loss. God has blessed Ashley and I and I do count my blessings in a time like this. My beautiful, kind, forgiving, intelligent, sensitive wife. My “couldn’t be any better” baby girl. Who is healthy, beautiful, energetic, so smart, and straight from the hands of God. A family that loves us and has shown it time and time again toward Ashley and I. Friends that honor and love us, showing their kindness and willingness to help every time we are in need. An amazing sincere God-loving church to serve in and a job that is fulfilling, challenging, humbling, pays money (cuz thats kind of a blessing) and I have a boss who is loving and uncompromising in our purpose and calling. Our future is not dim. It shines bright and is full of life, excitement, and joy because of the God that Ashley and I love and love to serve.

4. I am not foolish enough to think that my optimism is a sign that I am over this, or that there won’t be things to deal with in the future. I haven’t really broken down from this yet, and maybe I won’t, but I know that mourning is appropriate and an important step in the healing process, and I am more than willing to give in and mourn over a baby lost. To cry with my wife who was already carrying and connecting with that life in her. This sadness will only magnify our gladness when God reveals himself and also when we finally do have that second child.

I might blog on this down the road or not, I don’t know, but I do have hope that there is more to come, good and bad, and that we WILL make it through and be all the better for it because my Daddy is the God of the universe, and He knows how to take care of me and my family.

I hope you are blessed and encouraged by this. I hope your faith is raised to not only stand but to walk forward; to step out and move.

have been kinda quiet, I know. Sorry, but a lot has been going on church wise and personally. After this weekend, that was awesome, I thought I’d take a few minutes and spill some thoughts.

1. Why do I have so much energy? It was said at church today that Christians are the ones who instead of being broken they should be able to stand and say Christ has saved and redeemed me in the midst of my humanity. Well, I can at least be an example of that physically. We had a crazy week at church. I’m talking physical work every day for the daycare and just for the church as well. So I get to Friday and work a full maintenance day (still had 1 or 2 things to do when we left Friday, shhhhh don’t tell Pastor) and then we went mountain biking for a few hours, Ricardo, Pastor Michael, and I, doing some pretty intense trails chasing @garlanddavis and his dad Kent. So I go home and play video games until 2:30 in the morning, which should have wrecked my Saturday, right? Ashley wakes me up at 8am and She and I go on a breakfast and a movie date ’til 12:30. While Breanne naps Ashley and I catch a 20 min. power nap. Great but not able to save from exhaustion within its self. We then head over to St. Pete to go to the beach with my Dad, Stepmom, and Brother.

Sidenote- this was Breanne’s first trip to the beach and we had a blast. She played in the sand, chased birds, hung with me in the water, then ate some sand, which thankfully, she didn’t like. Plus I had a daddy moment as I stripped her down and showered her off with me. Now I will clean other people’s kids, but a. not in a public shower b. not with them naked and c. not whilst people watch. I loved every second of it.

So we do the beach thing (if you have kids you know its WORK) and ended up not getting back to Tampa until after 10:30, shower ourselves, watch the tube, pass out, go and serve the church. After church I cooked out for my fam, devin, angela, brenda, and matt. I cooked good too. We then hit 2 stores, and head out for the cookout and mountain biking tonight. I’m still wanting to go hit the single diamond track as I write.

Why do I have so much energy? It’s not just from biking, cuz I’ve been noticing it the last couple of weeks. I love it.

2. Due to some personal things going on right now I am appreciating serving both behind the scenes more, and learning to appreciate leading from the stage more. So much more. I am excited to clean our back building tomorrow. I normally see the honor in serving in such a way, but really I am thankful to be doing it lately. I also am seeing the PRIVILEGE that it is to be able to get on that stage and share my life, my relationship with God, and my personal worship with the church. I am sooooo blessed!! And I want to do it so much more humbly, sincerely, effectively, lovingly, God-honoring-ly

3. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I am going to be a father of two. It definitely makes me feel old. I am sooo blessed though.

4. I want to live this life to the fullest. Chasing God, that is. Loving my family, wife first, that is. Sincerely and Passionately, Loving God’s people, that is. But I am seeing the importance of consistency, perseverance, and PATIENCE. I suck at that last one. I did have a mini revelation friday coming back from biking though. I saw that I am only 24, 25 in days, and that there are a lot of reasons not to rush things. I just get almost freaked out because so many things are SOOOOOOOOO important, like not wasting a single day of this precious life, and not letting a single sin or habit steal our focus from God.

5. God is BEAUTIFUL and I want nothing more that to grovel in His dirt. To absolutely be His SLAVE. To truly WORSHIP Him as my 1 IDOL, GOD, KING, MASTER, OWNER. I am His belonging and that is good enough for me. To be near Him. To reflect and redirect any glory I can to Him. Just look at HIS creations!!! They are countless!!!

So many of those words are absolutely meaningless in our culture, church and American culture equally.

This ended up being an outpouring of me, kinda all around. I hope it is beneficial to you.

So it’s been about a week or more since my last post so here are some updates.

First on the list is the continual changing of my blog here. 1. I really enjoy playing with graphic designs, so don’t be suprised that it changes often and will continue to do so. 2. I am hoping to improve on the design and provide more resources more effectively for you on the many things I cover on the blog here. For instance, the books and music I am currently enjoying can be near the top now side to side as opposed to having a list that goes all the way down the page. I hope you find it helpful.

Ashley and BooBoo are back. Yeah!!! I am so grateful for them. I am truly blessed.

The worship team is growing spiritually, emotionally, and physically. What’s new is that I warned them a few weeks ago that God is moving, the team is changing, and the end product will most likely not look like we expected it to. Some of that is common sense, but God really pressed it on my heart to say that, and I even had them repeat it back to me. So presently I believe they are starting to believe what I said. And it’s great.
– Physically, we have 2 vocalists practicing with us now, soon to join us on Sundays.
– Emotionally, the team is facing some fears and challenges to grow in the areas we need to to better serve and LEAD the church, and a possible new worship leader is in training. God is great!
– Spiritually, I am doing my best to study, seek, and trust God like never before. I will probably be leading my team through a book starting within the next week or two. I think I have decided to take the team through the book in pairs. Sarah & John, Mark & Amanda, Amy, Heather. In other words; separately but at the same time to really share my heart with the team on what worship is, and why WE, AT JOURNEY CHURCH, do it. Not to mention those pairs all have separate roles within the ministry so it will allow me to address them more specifically.

Again God is good!! I could never do these sort of things without acknowledging and trusting in God that HE has called and equipped me to lead my family, this team, and our church both in congregational worship and in life. I am just Scott Clark, a 24 year old married guy with Daddy issues, a daughter of my own who I will try my hardest to not give daddy issues to. I used to be bullied from as early as I can remember. I later decided I didn’t want to go to college, cuz I hated studying and reading. Years later I’m here. I’m just a regular guy who God has gotten a hold of, and is using my life to, once again, prove how merciful and faithful He is. I want more of God, and hope to take people with me as I go. I am always so honored and blessed to be able to serve in the capacity that I do each and every week, and I am always excited to honor God through music. God is good!

P.S. I am getting baptized this Sunday!! WOW, a minister in the church getting baptized? Yes. When I did it as a kid I had no grasp on what dying to myself and being raised into life with Christ meant. So booyaah, I am declaring it this sunday! That’s me!! I’m ALIVE!!