Don't cure me of A-D-D

When I was a kid I bounced off the walls a little bit. I was funny, a good kid, but had a really difficult time staying on top of anything. When I was supposed to be listening to my teacher, I would be thinking about dragging a magnet through the dirt or launching a frog with my giant sling shot. Of course all kids do this to some degree but I was a little over the edge. There was something weird about me in that I couldn’t stand being in one place doing one thing for very long. I would want to bolt.

Years later, I began to learn the doctrine of hell through high school homework. I hated it worse than anything. Just a few minutes after I got started I would feel like fleas were crawling in my head because I desperately wanted to be somewhere else doing anything else. It was a serious issue which had to be overcome.

Today I refer to this as the Wal-Mart feeling. It’s the stressful anxiety I get every time I go there. I see the 50 cash registers and only 3 overwhelmed 15 year old girls frantically working behind them and it’s in that stressful environment I want to be anywhere else on the planet. My mind darts all over the room. I begin to inwardly freak out over the dental hygiene of the feller next to me and the choice of tattoos at the top of everybody’s butt. I desperately search for an answer as to why so many women wear spandex to this place. Is this really Wally’s World or a Choctaw bingo reunion?

I have a big laugh on the inside of my head. No one around me appreciates my humor because my thinking is in a lot of different places at one single time. And are you ready for this …it works for me.

THE CURE

Don’t try and put me on Ritalin or send me out for shock treatment. Having many irons in the fire at once and a dozen different programs running on my computer has made me be able to make a huge difference in a lot of different areas. Don’t try and cure me unless of course you are willing to hire a giant staff to do all I do on a daily basis. I have turned what some call a disorder into a valuable asset. I am a master at multi-tasking.

If you multi-task long enough, you become multi-talented. Because I can’t stand doing the same thing or thinking about the same thing for very long – I’ve branched out.

At the age of 42, I have recorded 8 music CDs and had several songs published by various artists though the years. My bands have traveled throughout the world and I have played every kind of venue from funerals to weddings, bars to churches and birthday parties to stadiums with more than 30,000 people. I started the Johnson County Food Bank and today we give away well over a million pounds of food every year to the working poor in our communities and beyond. I have four orphanages with over 700 kids in them on three different continents. I have written five books and have two more I am about to publish. I started a church with seven people and have preached four sermons a week for 14 years. I write a newspaper column that is printed in multiple newspapers throughout the state. I teach leadership courses to companies and do upper management consulting. I do two three day conferences a year here locally and speak at conferences throughout the world. I have a beautiful wife of 20 years and four kids. Two kids are in college and two kids in high school. My youngest son rides saddle bronc in rodeos and my oldest son plays bass in one of my bands. My youngest daughter is a leader in our youth group and my oldest daughter is in nursing school to be an RN. In my spare time right now I am building a walk-in birdcage next to my waterfall and learning to convert from PC to a MAC.

I’m sure the devil would love to have me healed of A-D-D but that cosmic punk should of never messed with me. The Brewer says, “No Cigar, Diablo!” all while checking my email and scheduling another mission’s trip to Uganda East Africa.

Just because a kid doesn’t do well in one setting, say a class room, doesn’t mean he can’t do well in lots of other settings. If you have a teen that struggles like this, have hope. I don’t think most people with A-D-D need a cure they need a purpose and a passion. That’s where Jesus Christ comes in. What the Lord has done for me is nothing less than turning a curse into a blessing. He can do the same for you because that’s what He does best of all.

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalms 139:13-14

Troy Brewer Pastors Open Door Ministries and can be reached at troy@opendoorministries.org

The Heart of the Instrument

As a musician, singer, songwriter and worship leader, Jon Abel’s world has revolved around his ability to play guitar. As far as his career and job goes he has been completely dependent on his ability to play those six strings. It’s how he makes a living and a huge part of his identity.

Jon’s hard work and commitment to his craft have paid off big. He has a manager in Nashville, on going record deals, and even a gold record for a song he wrote that fellow Christian artist Chris Tomlin performs. For Jon, to play the guitar and lead in contemporary worship is not just a hobby but a passion which makes him truly feel alive and significant.

A Mowed Down Dream

When Jon was a kid, he was taught to put up the lawn mower after the last cut of the season. You empty the gas and lube the wheels before you cover it up for the next 4 to 5 months.

In a hurry late last fall, to go on a date with his bride, Jon let the last of the gas burn through the lawn mower while he lifted it up to lube the back wheels. He was busy thinking about other things when he casually put his left hand under the mower to pick it up. A horrible sound and jolt of electricity went through Jon’s body. In that quick instant, everything changed in Jon’s life. He picked up his ring finger, covered his hand and went to the hospital.

After an unsuccessful attempt to reattach his finger, Jon recalls the thoughts and fears he was dealing with. “I just remember thinking…this will be something which would completely derail my plans. Everything was in jeopardy. How could I even play without a finger that is so crucial to every chord? Just so many unknowns with no immediate answers.”

And from that place Jon began a time of painful solitude and seeking after the Lord he loved so much. He fought the usual suspects of why me and why now but somehow after a while, he began to find small glimmers of hope.

Worshiping Warrior

Jon’s favorite verse in the Bible became Proverbs 16:9. A man’s heart plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps. To him it meant that when you can’t depend upon your plans, you can depend upon the Lord’s direction.

“As I have looked back through my life, I realized there has never been a time where God is unfaithful. I have taken great comfort in the fact that this was no surprise to God so I have started to look forward to my future again.”

After several months Jon has began to relearn to play his guitar. It’s very different but then again so is he. He says he has learned to trust God more and to surrender to Him more. Jon is now trying lead out of his weakness and not the strength of his ability to play but to lead out of the brokenness of his heart.

He still wants to be a skillful musician Jon says. “But the thing God is most concerned about in my worship to Him is to never forget that the instrument He is most concerned about is my heart.”

We are all rooting for you Jon. The Brewer sends his blessings with a thank you for choosing to be a worshiping warrior. May God find all of our hearts instruments he can put his hands on and play like Chet Atkins and Eddie Van Halen.

Troy Brewer ("The Brewer") Pastors Open Door Ministries and can be reached at troy@opendoorministries.org or at www.freshfromthebrewer.com

Kings and Kingdoms

The King of Handshakes

There are lots of neat world records in the famous Guinness Book. When I was a kid I would pour through the worn out copy of my middle school’s library trying to find one I could break. Most handshakes in a single day seemed plausible to me. A New Jersey Mayor named Lazarow was in the Guinness Book of World Records for a 1977 publicity stunt where he shook more than 11,000 hands in a single day. He broke the record previously held by President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1907 recorded 8,513 handshakes at a White House reception. I could do that, I thought. I mean, I had at least twenty friends -they would help.

The King of Toro

As a kid I never made it into the book but I know another kid who did. The accession of King Oyo to his father's throne in Uganda, East Africa marked the beginning of a new season for the people of Toro. At the age of three-and-one half years old, King Oyo of Toro earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest reigning monarch. In the fall of 1998 I had a chance to visit with the queen and the queen Mother at is Palace in Kampala. He was around 7 on the day I spent with him. His friends called him Oyo and he loved to play soccer but when business time came he dawned the royal robes, put on his crown and became King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi the 4^th.

I can’t say I envied him one bit. Yes, it’s cool to be the king when you’re grown up but not when you’re a kid -especially in East Africa. One major thing King Oyo had going for him was a mom who really had her act together. The queen mother was an extremely diplomatic and graceful lady who loved her little boy to pieces. After the regents left the room and she ordered the officials to go home, the Queen Mother asked me to pray for her little boy and it was an amazing afternoon.

Ambassadors for the King

I have learned from first hand experience that there is a certain protocol in dealing with a king. As a Christian, I am learning more and more to view my life and my relationship with the Lord through a Kingdom mentality. Jesus is the King of Kings and big part of what he preached was The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom.

Myles Monroe points out that as Kingdom people, the Bible says we are ambassadors for Christ. In his book Kingdom Principles, he points out the qualities of an ambassador.

An Ambassador is appointed by the king, not voted into position. He is appointed to represent the state or kingdom and committed only to the state’s interests. An Ambassador embodies the kingdom that sent him and is totally covered by the state.

He is the responsibility of the state, totally protected by his government and never becomes a citizen of the state or kingdom to which he is assigned. His goal is to influence the territory for His kingdom and he never speaks his personal position on any issue, only his nation’s official position.

As Ambassadors of the Kingdom and residents of Heaven, living in Texas, we Christians should be totally committed to representing the Kings heart and agenda. Let’s do what we can while we can. Some day soon, He will call you and I home and our assignment will be over.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:20

Religion and Politics

Today’s cup from the Brewer comes perking with feisty right wing flavors and liberal doses of what I hope will leave a good aftertaste. I’m highly caffeinated today – be warned.

I very rarely state my political views from the pulpit or PC but not because I don’t have any. I am a passionate person and whatever I feel is typically in full tilt. If you have read this column through the years it should not surprise you to learn some people would accuse me of being a little right wing of Attila the Hun. That’s not true…well for the most part.

The Sleeping Giant

Ten years ago I was invited to be on a political panel at a TCU debate as a special guest where they thought because I am so liberal in helping people; I would somehow be liberal in political arenas.

Some knucklehead suggested we as a nation owe Japan an apology for dropping the bomb on them back in ’45 and then turned to me and said “Reverend Brewer, don’t you agree?” I said I think Japan owes the world an apology for being a nation of rapists and locusts before we saw fit to put an end to their death march across the pacific.

Furthermore I said Japan owed us a great big thank you for only dropping two bombs on his highness the 666^th emperor and for rebuilding their nation afterwards. For some strange reason I was never invited back.

It insulted me that because they knew I was a Christian who reaches out to hurting people, they actually thought I would be a pacifist pansy. As the prophet John Wayne said in Big Jake, “Not hardly.”

About seven years ago, I was in London England and came across several hundred protesting socialists bad mouthing America and burning Uncle Sam. I’m no Dixie chick so I protested the protesters. Me and Andy Dally stood out there yelling, “God bless America!” As the Prophetess Flo said to Mel at the diner, “They can kiss my grits.”

Good Guys

So believe me when I tell you I do have passionate political views. I’ve been to tea parties this year and town halls. Like a lot of you, I have been very unhappy with our nation’s current administration. It completely pegged my cringe meter when our Commander In Chief literally bowed down to the Muslim king in Saudi Arabia this year.

I can’t say it surprised me, but oh how it turned my stomach. On that same trip he announced “While we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation” and that it could be said “we are one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Then he apologized to the world for how we have defended ourselves against our enemies and “in America there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role.” In my view the bad guys are very happy with our president.

The bad guys to me are the brainwashed Neanderthals who think they will get a free ticket to heaven complete with 70 perpetual virgins for decapitating our families. While many people in the world are not sure if this fits into their file of a bad guy, it sure fits into mine. We are the good guys and if Egypt and France don’t understand that, I would refer them to John Wayne or Flo from Mel’s diner.

I am wildly patriotic and I don’t care who doesn’t like it. If you cut me I will bleed red, white and blue. Not only am I an American, I am a sixth-generation Texan which makes me an American on steroids. So you would think these are the kinds of things I would write about every week but its not.

I am much more passionate about my hope in Jesus Christ.

The truth in Jesus is so much greater than the facts of politics. I am not an ambassador for all things American. I am an ambassador for the Kingdom of God and my highest agenda is to influence the world for Jesus.

So it should not surprise you to know President Obama has the fullest support of the Brewer in every way I am able to support him. As an Ambassador of Jesus Christ he can expect me to honor him. He can also expect me to hate anarchy, injustice and poverty. I pray for him everyday and if you are a Christian this should also be your position too.

Hoping for the Best

It doesn’t mean you have to support every policy and it doesn’t mean you can’t rigorously fight against his policies if you disagree, but president Obama should be able to expect Kingdom people to be blessers and loyalists.

Every Christian should want nothing but good things to happen to our president. He captured 53% of the vote and a huge part of it was due to race. Only 4 out of every 100 black voters voted against Obama. I say this because if something terrible happened to this president it would cause a racial division in our nation which might take another 100 years to overcome. The Kingdom of Hell would love for something like that to happen and there should not be a Christian alive who would partner with those kinds of words or even thoughts. Pray for our President!

To sum it up, it’s not about our opinions near as much as it is about the King’s agenda. The grace of God and the message of Christ are greater than any evil in our day. Jesus really is the solution and my hope is in him. God bless president Obama and God bless the United States of America. God bless everybody, on both sides of the isle, especially those I just really hacked off.

New Level / New Devil

Back To School

Do you remember Rodney Dangerfield? He was famous for off-the-wall one-liners mostly about how he never got any respect. He said things like, “I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous… everyone hasn't met me yet.”

To the Brewer that’s funny stuff.

“My wife was afraid of the dark until she saw me naked,” he said. “Now she says she's afraid of the light.” I know some religious folk won’t find this appropriate but truth be told, many of us can Identify. Can I hear an Amen?

Well, Rodney did a movie sometime in the eighties called Back to School. It was mostly very forgettable so you might not remember it, but movie or not, Back to School is on a lot of people’s minds these days.

New Levels/New Devils

I had a chance to speak to a couple hundred kids this last week which have reentered the fabled halls of public academia. The message I delivered in classic Brewer form was titled New Levels /New Devils. I warned these young minds full of American mush that with every new opportunity come new dangers which must be taken seriously and new responsibilities that have to be taken up.

You and I know this is how it works. If you get a bigger House, you have to pay bigger taxes and a bigger electric bill. You get a bigger car; you pay more at the pump. In the Kingdom of God this principle is a staple for every advancing believer but it is not our place to be cautious in going to the next level –its counsel to be willing to change.

The idea is not to avoid the next level. The idea is to understand that better is never easier. With advancement and promotion comes the requirement of maturity and responsibility. God wants us all to run to the next level and fully embrace the change which is required to have dominion there. It may be true that a lot more is on the line in being a General, but it is definitely better than being a buck private. So go for the next level.

Get Your Upgrade

Hunter Thompson wrote about fear and loathing in Las Vegas but the Brewer is a Herald of love and confidence in Christ Jesus. The enemy is always vulnerable to our confidence in Jesus Christ. Darkness hopes we will be see ourselves as quivering victims who are impotent, wounded and helpless. That’s not you my friend so get yourself up –way up. From faith to faith, from everlasting unto everlasting, from deep to deep just keep on going and conquer the next grade.

The Love of God never holds us back from the next level but lifts us up, propelling us forward and making us all overcomers. The Bride of Christ is not just wearing a wedding dress, we’ve also got on combat boots and the devil is scared to death we’re going to go to the next level.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord . Romans 8:37-39

Contact the Brewer @ www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com