Amazed after the Watch Night Service

What a night. From the very outset of God dealing with me to have an all night prayer service, it's been a fight. Did I do the right thing? Who's going to stay all night long? What's going to happen? How are you going to stay awake? Well, it's over and the answer to all those questions are basically, "yes" and "God."

We started the first watch at 6 PM on Friday night. We had an awesome move of God during our preparation prayer. He began to fill the room up. As people walked in the sanctuary, God was touching them. Muscle spasms that were happening on the outside of the church instantly stopped once inside the sanctuary. We moved into our first service and God really moved in the worship. His presence so evident and so thick. I spoke on the prayer of Jabez and we prayed with everyone in the church. We had a good crowd too for a Friday night prayer service.

The second watch started a little after 9 PM. We moved into worship again and then talked about the power of the Word and praying the Word. We read the Word on an individual basis and began asking God to show us things. God began speaking to people as pens began writing things God was telling them. Many wrote letters to God thanking Him for all He had done in their lives and as they did the Spirit took over and began bringing back to their remembrance things that had been forgotten.

By the beginning of the third watch (midnight), there were only 6 of us remaining. I didn't know exactly how many would actually stay all night considering work schedules and everything, but I had confidence that for those who were able to stay that God was going to do something awesome. We talked about intercessory prayer for the third watch and how the church interceded for Peter while in prison in Acts 12 and their prayers set him free. We began to intercede for our church and families and friends. I know God was breaking some things lose during those times.

As we entered the fourth watch (3 AM), the fatigue was setting in. It was one of the toughest battles I had fought in some time. The physical battle was tough. The spiritual battle was becoming even tougher. We worshiped God and He began to move through the place as we pressed through. I spoke about Jesus coming to the disciples in the fourth watch of the night and how He had watched them from the evening (first watch) and that He had His eyes upon us as well. And just as the disciples were toiling in the sea, we had toiled through sleeplessness and fatigue, questions and doubt, and He was prepared to minister to us. We gathered in a circle and began to pray together. Then we each took a turn praying out loud for one another and God supernaturally began to fill the place like never before. After praying this way, we broke the circle and answered the question, "what miracle do you want to see performed in your life tonight?" We each took a turn in confessing what we needed God to do. After doing this, we prayed with one another for those miracles to take place. Spirits of inferiority and fear began to crumble. Peace began to move in. As we prayed, I began to hear what sounded like audible voices praying and felt as if the sanctuary was packed with thousands of people. I kept looking around to see if I saw anyone and I noticed others doing it too. I asked if they were hearing people praying and they all said yes. His presence became so real as if Jesus Himself was standing there in the flesh. We prayed for Travis who has been seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost and He received it with the evidence of speaking in tongues. If it was only for that, the whole night was worth it. We prayed together again and then anointed the sanctuary for God's service.

I'm dead tired right now and got several things I need to do today, but I know what God did in our midst through the night into this morning and I'll never forget it. I'll never forget how real He felt. What an awesome experience!

Tomorrow's Watch Night Prayer Service

Tomorrow is our Watch Night Prayer Service at church. A couple of Wednesday nights ago, God really impressed on me to do this and there's been excitement building for the past week and a half. I believe God is going to do some awesome things during the service and after it. The Bible is clear; when we pray and seek His face and draw near to Him, He hears, and answers, forgives, heals, and delivers.

The service will go something like this:

FIRST WATCH
6:00 PM - Opening, Explanation of Events, Prayer
7:00 PM - Worship Service

SECOND WATCH
9:00 PM - Worship
9:30 PM - Intercessory Prayer

THIRD WATCH
12:00 AM - Worship
12:30 AM - Prayer and Bible Study

FOURTH WATCH
3:00 AM - Worship
3:30 AM - Prayer and Miracles

6:00 AM - Service Ends

It's going to be a great night. I plan to sleep late to the best of my ability and to lay around at least until after lunch. I'll head to the church then to prepare. If you can't be here the whole night, come for whatever time you can. If you can't come at all, then pray for us as we seek the face of God.

House For Sale

Yes, we are selling our house. No, we're not leaving Perry.

Now that's out of the way.

We really like our house a lot and we know beyond a doubt that God gave it to us, but we also see a benefit in selling it and getting something a little bigger maybe so that's the plan. We're not filing it with a real estate company as this is more of a fleece thing if you will. It's for sale by owner and we'll see what happens.

It's a 3 BR/ 2 BA house with a fireplace, cathedral ceilings, 2 car garage, fenced in yard on a half acre property. Nice house really. Asking $94,000 for it.

Let the bidding begin!

From Multiple Blessings to Multiple Troubles

First, I'm not a big Jon and Kate plus 8 fan. I've not watched it a whole lot. Billie has watched it almost from the beginning I believe. Something about reality shows about family lives just kind of turns me off. I don't know exactly why, but I have to think in some way that God never intended for us to share our marriages, our families, our private lives with the world. When we let the world in, whether that's actually sin or something that seems like a blessing such as the media for this show, then there are consequences to it.

The tabloids were all over the story over the past few months of Jon boozing it up with another woman though they claim nothing sexual took place. Whether it did or did not, what's the likelihood we're having this discussion if he hadn't become a celebrity in his own right and having millions of dollars? The temptation would still be there; the guy is human, however added temptation is never helpful. Is what he did wrong? Sure it is, but the display I saw on TV last night was pitiful and so far from reality that I feel they are doomed almost.

In the few times I've watched it, I've seen a change in Jon and Kate from the beginning. They started out as this innocent family loving God and each other. As the seasons progressed, Jon seemed to almost dislike the show while Kate seemed to be becoming a celebrity, and as of last night, dare I say "diva." They both were asked about how they felt. Jon has resentment for Kate flying all over the country do speaking engagements and so forth when he quit his job 2 years ago for the show and so forth. I think he probably sees in her what it obvious to others, she's changed. They've both changed. I'm not sure that God intended for us to be sitting in our living rooms getting entertained by the invasion of other family's privacy whether they asked for it or not. Are we not to some extent finding joy or at least entertainment in other people's problems, and isn't that to some extent sinful or at least akin?

No way should there have been an agreement to do another season with this turmoil going on. One will be portrayed as the villain (Jon, she barely spoke or noticed his existence) and one will be portrayed as the wounded victim, (Kate). As if what they were going through wasn't hard enough, they are bringing the world in as a witness to a Christian family not only talking about, but considering divorce. Stuff happens with Christians and non-Christians, and as such, we have to deal with them. Now there's paparazzi. Now there's declarations of "I did this all by myself" (by Kate). Kids aren't stupid, and it'll be a matter of time before the price of fame and fortune will come and collect. You might say it's already beginning.

Kidfest 2009

This is the video of our Kidfest 2009 trip. We had a great time as you'll see in the video! Enjoy.

Updating everything - Sunday's services too

It's been awhile since I've posted. I've just been super tired lately. There's been a lot going on and a lot more to do.

The weekend was spent wrestling with some tough decisions and ideas. Friday night when I finally made it to sleep, I was exhausted from thinking and working. All during the night though, God gave me dream after dream of things He was going to do in my life and ministry and the church. Some were dreams of what would be if I didn't follow His exact plans, and others were a glimpse at what will be if I completely follow His plans and will. Then there's the dream about Simon Cowell . . . Not sure about that one . . . On the original thought . . . it's refreshing to have everything swirling around you with no clear direction or peace about what to do, and to wake up from sleep with a sudden understanding about the situations at hand.

Billie and I went to the Olive Branch on Friday in Dublin to pick up somethings for the VBS we have coming up in July. I picked up a book by Don Cousins called, "LeaderShift." Man, it's awesome. I sat down and read almost 100 pages on Saturday. It challenges the "heresies" of leadership as Cousins calls them. It's been tremendous thus far, and I'll certainly be using it in our upcoming leadership class for our current leaders and prospective leaders. More on that later.

Sunday services from yesterday . . . wow. First, I was really expecting a low crowd considering it was Memorial Day weekend, but far from it. We had a great crowd, but more importantly, a great service. Let me just take a moment and talk about how awesome our choir is. It's been a very long journey with our church in many aspects. In real time, it's only been a year and a half, and when looked at through that scope, our church has made leaps and bounds in forward progress and God is doing so much! In my time though, sometimes it seems we're never going to quite get there. Our music program was one such concern, but after remodeling our stage and jump starting our choir, it's really come together. There's been a great spirit of worship rising up and Sunday was no different. I could feel God moving in our choir practice. The praise and worship was great and then we went to choir. We sang "Worthy is the Lamb" and you could just feel the presence of the Lord invading the sanctuary. Then we sang the timeless classic, at least to me, "Holy Ground" and God took over. People began moving to the altar and stepping out in the aisle and letting God get a hold of their lives. It was powerful.

Yesterday was the beginning of our series on slaying giants, and I gave the congregation about ten minutes worth of my message and we just had an awesome time in the Lord. I may take a Sunday night and preach the whole message soon. We'll see.

Today's Memorial Day. I'm going to the church to get some stuff together. By mid-afternoon, I'll take off hopefully. Well, let's say it this way. When Travis calls and tells me the grill is ready, I'll be at the Bennett's. Until then, I'll be in the office! Have a good one!

What a service . . .

Our Wednesday nights have basically been like pure revival services. God has really been speaking to us and doing some amazing things in the lives of our people and in our church. Tonight for some reason was a little harder than before, but we broke through in a big way.

We began talking about prayer and bombarding Heaven for the promises He's given us. We talked about us losing out on hearing the still, small voice that Elijah heard at the mouth of the cave. It's that voice that gives us direction, but far too often we seek the direction with signs and wonders. Jesus said signs and wonders would follow those that believe as a sign and testimony to the world. And while they can certainly help us in knowing what to do or where to go, we can never get away from actually hearing His voice.

God really impressed on my heart tonight that we have reached a strong brick wall barrier in the church and we have to decide if we're willing to bust through it regardless the cost. We began praying out loud and praying for one another and God impressed on me to do something I've never done before. On Friday, May 29th, we're going to have a prayer service/all night prayer meeting. Current plans are to start at 6 PM that night with a service. When it's over, we're going to enter into prayer and won't stop until 6 AM. I'm going to have prayer stations set up all over the church, prayer lists, and we're going to mingle in worship all during the night. I believe God is getting ready to do some amazing things in our church and the lives of our people!

I survived Kidfest!

So it's almost 10 PM on Sunday night. I survived Kidfest! Though I'd been a Children's Pastor before, I'd never taken children off far away for an overnight trip. It was a great experience.

First, Billie did a tremendous job. She led the whole trip and did an awesome job putting everything together. We had some that had to drop out at the last minute, but those who were able to go really enjoyed the time together.

Some reflections . . . .

1. Kids say the funniest things! When driving through Cherokee, NC, some Native Americans were walking on the side of the road dressed in tribal clothes. Billie said she'd never seen a real Indian. Blakelyn, a little 7 year old girl who is probably about as tall as my waist, had a great response. Billie said, "Those men still have long hair. I wonder why their hair is so long." As only Blakelyn could say it, "Cause they hadn't cut it." Probably just had to be there, but it was hilarious! In addition, a driver slammed on breaks in front of me on the mountain for no reason. I yelled out, "Are you kidding me?!?!?!" Blakelyn replied, "No."

2. I hadn't been to Gatlinburg and all since I was a teenager at Winterfest. It was a lot of fun. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium. The kids kept asking were the fish and sharks real! Then we did the Ripley's Mirror Maze. I love Brooke Roberts too much to say what happened to her . . . We'll just say it's important to keep your hand in front of you when you walk . . . Then we played putt putt at Old MacDonald's course. It was great with all the interactive animals and stuff. We went down to the banks of the river where it's basically a creek and played in it awhile . . . and I do mean play. Just ask Alex. We ate at Bubba Gump's, one of my favorite restuarants of all time! Basically, we went everywhere and had fun!

3. The hotel was called the Park Vista, not the Palm Vista as I posted earlier. It was on top of a mountain and could easily be seen from the streets of Gatlinburg. It was a circular shape and the inside looked like a beehive. There were no aisles to walk down. Everything was in a circle. There were clear elevators that were a big hit. Of course we had to ride up and down them! Other than that, the place was just ok. The rooms wouldn't stay cool. The water temperature would go from scalding hot to freezing cold in a minute. Made for some noisy showers!!!

4. I can't imagine putting on a Kidfest especially with ages ranging from 5-12. I know 12/13-19 is a wide spread, but basically, you can hit a middle ground pretty easily. The gulf between 5 and 12 is vast so I hope my comments don't come across as too critical. To open up, a guy named "Burning Bush" came out and rapped. He remixed some new and old rap songs. Now I'm not a big rap fan at all, but he did a good job with the remixes. I guess though I'm wondering if rap was right for the kids. How young is too young? In particular, one rap song he did, he asked the kids to sing with him these lyrics, "If ya wanna be a gangsta . . . " I don't know about all that. The song talked about drug dealers and murderers and what have you. Not that it's bad to talk about this stuff, but if my six year old goes up to Kidfest and hears that and comes back talking that lingo, I've got a problem with someone. Friday's night service was basically a concert with the Lads. Great job other than the kids that are too young for the "Relient K" sound alikes were crying ready to go. Our group left early that night. Saturday included an awesome move of God that swept through. I really think God was doing some amazing things and maybe He did at the end, but even with kids crying and screaming out their prayers to God and revival moving through, the program was pushed through anyway. Our kids lost out after two or three things pushed through on the schedule. All in all, it was good. Not sure if we'll go back next year. We will however definitely take a trip to carry kids off. It was a good experience for them.

5. Always follow your GPS's advice. If you think it's wrong, it's not. If it is, it's because you messed up the settings. Enough said.

Had a blast. Thanks for everything!

Headed to Kidfest in Gatlinburg, TN

This should be a fun weekend. We did unfortunately have a family that wasn't able to attend due to some medical situations that God is definitely going to take care (praying for you guys Sammy & Stephanie), but we've got six of us going and it'll be a blast. The kids we're taking off to my knowledge have never been to anything like this so it's going to be fun just watching their reactions. We're leaving in about an hour. We've got a sack lunch packed for today. We'll check in the Palm Vista Hotel where the conference is also being held and chill out for a bit before service tonight. Tomorrow morning is service. Tomorrow afternoon, we're going to the Ripley's Aquarium, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and Old MacDonald's Mini Golf where the animals come alive! Then there's service tomorrow night and Sunday morning. Afterwards, we're headed home.

We should be back in time for service tomorrow night. To give myself a break after the weekend, Fire from the Heart, my brother in law's southern gospel group, will be with us starting at 6 PM. Everyone come out. It'll be great!

Vice President of Perry Ministerial Association

I'm definitely honored. Wednesday at our monthly Perry Ministerial Association meeting we voted to fill the vacancy of Vice President. I was nominated to be the Vice President and was elected unanimously. I've been in Perry a year and a half now and God just keeps doing awesome things. I'll be VP until December and in January I'll assume the role as President. Never thought anything like that would happen to me, at least this quick.

I'll be the first to say that sometimes I get down on myself and I don't feel like we're growing fast enough or doing enough, but I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been a year and a half. Considering that time frame, things are going amazing.

As part of the leadership of PMA, we're going to work together on establishing the National Day of Prayer next year as a big event in our city and also creating another community event day. We already do Holy Week at Easter, Perry Praise Sing in September, and Christmas at the Crossroads in December. The addition of the National Day of Prayer and another service will give us five big activities in the course of a year. Perry's a great town and I'm blessed to be here.

Our vacation video from last year

Billie has been working hard making videos lately. She made the Mother's Day video and she has made a video compilation of our vacation during Thanksgiving last year to New York City and Hershey, PA. We also made some stops along the way in Virgina and North Carolina. We had an awesome time as the video will point out.

The only bad thing about Billie enjoying doing these videos is she has already used up the limits on her free program she found. I know. I know. I've got something to buy now . . .

Enjoy the video. We enjoyed making it.

Mother's Day Video

Sorry I didn't get this up sooner. If you weren't able to attend Sunday morning, you may have missed a special Mother's Day message from your kids. Hope you enjoy!

Diet Update

Ok, so I weighed in yesterday and here's the good news. I hadn't gained any pounds. The bad news is that I haven't lost any either. So in three weeks, I've lost 5 lbs. The even better news is that last week I completely fell off the diet truck. In between switching diets, I not only fell off the truck, but I got ran over by it. I'm not off to a hot start this week either, but I'm working my way into it.

I'm still proud of my 5 lbs. Let me live in my glory!

Happy Mother's Day

Just wanted to wish all the mothers a very Happy Mother's Day. This goes out to all those who never had any children of their own, but who helped raise countless others, especially those in the church. I'm certainly bias, but I've got a wonderful mother. We've always been very close and I surely don't see that ever changing. We've always been able to talk about anything and everything. Usually our talks happened while she cooked supper or in the living room while I swung around the rocking chair and put my feet all over the wall to do so . . . (sorry, it was a habit.) My mama always saw something in me even when I didn't and she was always faithful to have me involved in church. It's safe to say that without her, I wouldn't be where I am today more than likely. I was able to meet up with her in Dublin to eat at Applebee's. If you're reading this, I love you Mama!

Mother's Day service is over and I'll be honest, I'm glad. Today is a hard day for me. Maybe it's because I'm inexperienced or maybe it has at least something to do with the notion that I have no idea what it means to be a mother, or even a parent at this point. These days also tend to be pretty starchy. Everyone has plans after church and the day is all planned out. So I didn't want to go too long, but I did want to honor mothers. I hope I did ok. I talked about the three mothers of Israel: Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel. Sarah displayed strength and faith in the face of impossibility. Rebekah recognized something great in her son Jacob and helped him to fulfill his destiny. Rachel went through the selfless act of childbirth a second time and died giving birth to Benjamin. All three displayed qualities that King Lemuel spoke of in Proverbs 31. Our text today was Proverbs 31:1 . . . All I've learned came from the words of my mother. I think that would certainly ring true in many situations!

BPC Graduation

So Billie and I spent most of the morning and afternoon over in Mount Vernon and Vidalia. It was good to be back over in the area. We lived there for about a year and a half before moving to Perry and we really enjoyed our time there.

Today we went back to Brewton Parker College for LC Caraway's graduation. LC is one of my very close friends and is a tremendous man and minister of God. I met LC on our first Sunday in Vidalia, which coincidentally (not really) was his first Sunday. We hit it off, and a great friendship developped. He was my right hand man for our youth ministry. I rode by Top's China today in Vidalia and remembered several nuts and bolts conversations in the "ice box" section of the restuarant. LC went on to help me start a college ministry at Brewton Parker for the Church of God called "Alpha Omega Campus Ministries." He was the president. Once I moved to Perry, he worked hard to keep it going. He graduated BPC today magna cum laude with his Bachelor's in Secondary Social Science Education with an emphasis on history. It's basically the same degree I received when I graduated in 2003. I know LC will do great wherever he goes and would love to have him in Perry with me. Whoever gets him in their community will be blessed!

On a side note, we saw the new Star Trek movie last night, and it's official. I'm a "trekie"!

I'm newspaper bound

What a day? If folks didn't know who I am in Perry, they will when the paper comes out. Let me explain . . .

Today of course was the National Day of Prayer as I blogged about earlier. Well I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I was going to speak or just pray or moderate. Upon arriving I got to talk with our Mayor. One thing for sure, Perry has an awesome mayor. He's a Christian and not ashamed of it. He was very complimentary of my preaching and work. That meant a lot. Upon talking to him, he said he would open up and then hand it to me to speak and pray and then to open the podium up to any who wanted to pray. Wow . . . wasn't quite prepared for that.

So I took the podium in City Hall chambers and began to talk about our forefathers' intentions for this country and how we were to be a Christian nation. I said that I completely rejected Obama's notion that we were not a Christian nation. Instead, I say that as long as there are good Christian people who love God and His holy Word, America has a hope and will always have to deal with a Christian remnant of blood bought believers. I went over the quotes from our forefathers and talked about the importance for us to stand up for Christ in these last days and to become more dedicated to prayer and the Word and to sharing the Gospel of Christ. I prayed and opened the podium.

Several came up and prayed and it was an awesome experience. I closed it out with everyone praying the Lord's Prayer together and then we dismissed. I heard so many comments on how awesome the event was and the Mayor and the city council was very pleased. I'm envisioning something bigger next year. It was photographed by our local newspaper and we'll see all the pictures in an upcoming issue.

The big story that remains to be seen is my quick interview with a reporter from the newspaper. He said that he was trying to find an answer to a question that no one seemed to want to answer. He wanted to know if I would be willing to answer the question. So I said sure. The question was, "Do you believe after Maine and the District of Columbia has now passed laws recognizing homosexual marriage that Georgia will do the same?" The night before I talked about how our Christian liberties, freedoms, and values are being questioned and threatened by our government's decisions and that we had to take a stand anytime we had the opportunity. The Lord brought that back to my mind immediately and so I stood and answered the reporter. I said, "I hope not. If I had to say yes or no, I'm going to say no. The reason is first a cultural one. We're the Bible belt and as such we have an affinity for the Bible and Christian values. Secondly, I say no because I believe that if it was introduced that there are enough good Christian people in the state that would stand up for what was right and defeat the measure. It's wrong. Make no mistake about it." How much of that ends up in the paper, I don't know. He wrote everything down so we'll see. What comes next? I'm not sure, but I'm reminded of the words of Paul and I would like to adopt them myself . . . for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ . . . He saved me. I owe Him everything.

National Day of Prayer

So I've been asked to help lead the National Day of Prayer here in Perry at the City Hall at 12:00 PM. It's a great honor and a little nerve racking at the same time, but it's all good. As one friend reminded me, I've done this before and it was on a grander stage. When I youth pastored in Douglas, my pastor (Rev. Jesse Ogden) was asked to speak in front of the courthouse steps for the National Day of Prayer. Douglas' courthouse is right in the center of a busy downtown intersection. They had it hooked up with a podium and a microphone. I looked forward to going and being a part of this. But then Bro. Ogden had an emergency pop up with a member and he had to go out of town to the hospital. So it fell on me. I studied hard, prayed harder, and everything seemed to go great. A lot of folks said they really enjoyed the message I delivered that day. It was definitely an awesome experience.

Today will be a little different. We'll be inside a city hall chamber room. There won't really be much speaking as much as there will be praying. Still it's an honor, and still, I'm pretty nervous. I take these opportunities very seriously because not only do I represent me, but I represent the church and our people.

The National Day of Prayer is extremenly important and should be to all of us. Amongst all the freedoms that our forefathers came to this country to give us and amongst all of the rights they died and gave their life's blood to protect, that of Christianity and prayer was of the utmost importance. Many declared that our nation was founded on Christianity as they noted 27 Biblical violations in the crown's treatment of them. Noah Webster could literally quote the Bible chapter and verse. James Madision reckoned that our future would be our ability to keep to the Ten Commandments. George Washington stated that we couldn't hope to have national morality apart from religious principle. Patrick Henry was very clear in stating that it was God who gave us this nation and it is He whom we should serve.

As many of our Christian rights have been and are being trampled under the fake guise of love, acceptance, and unity, let us take advantage of the one day that our nation has set aside as a fossil to our forefathers. For if we as Christians don't take seriously the one day that our government gives us, then are we not just as guilty as Madeline Murray O'Hare who single handedly had prayer removed from the school systems via her lawsuit? If you can't attend City Hall today, that's understandable as we all have to work. But wherever you are at 12 today, stop and have prayer. Set an example. Organize a prayer meeting at your job for a few minutes.

George Washington believed you couldn't call yourself an American if you went against the Bible. So today, let's all be the best Americans we can be . . . . .

Wednesday nights

I won't lie. I used to hate Wednesday nights. As with most churches it is usually when we are the slimmest with our crowd. I didn't quite know what to do with the service. I didn't want to cancel it, but I just didn't know what to do with it. Then God convicted me about my attitude. While the Wednesday night crowd is usually the smallest, you can bet that almost 100% of the folks that come out represent the backbone of your church. They are your workers and your volunteers. People that make an effort to come to your midweek service want to be in church and want to be a part of the church as a whole.

I realized that this was my opportunity to preach to the backbone and refresh them from all the work they do in the church. Additionally, the style and intensity of the service shouldn't depend on the number anyway. That would be like blaming those who came for those who didn't. So starting back in January, I've made a special effort to preach encouraging, faith building, territory taking messages and God has been showing up as much on Wednesday nights as He does on Sunday's.

Tonight I preached on the offspring of the first Adam and the second Adam. God showed up and moved and ended up taking us down a road I didn't know we would go. We ended up praying for the men by themselves and the ladies by themselves. It's the start of something tremendous! So for all you Wednesday night folks, I love you to death! Thank you for your support and love for the church and its ministries. You make the church what it is!

So the diet has to change . . .

I'm not chickening out first of all . . . promise. I'm going to have to go ahead and make the switch from low carb to weight watchers with my wife. I'm staying really sick on this low carb diet. I remember being sick and so forth when I did it before, but I guess I didn't have quite as much on me. I also wasn't asked out to eat by folks almost on a daily basis and two things are for sure. Low carb food at restaurants is hard to find and and if you do find it, it's usually expensive.

I'm still going to monitor my carb intake as that is my major weakness, but I'm going to have to do some tweaking to give myself more energy and to keep from being sickly. I did good on Monday. I did horrible yesterday as Jacob McLemore came over to the house to watch the Hawks get murdered by the Cavaliers last night in game one of the NBA playoffs. Enjoyed the hang out time, but man that game was horrible. It was so bad Billie fell asleep on the love seat while Jacob and I yelled at the TV. Not sure why we did that because they couldn't hear us, but it made us feel better . . . . lol

Brett Favre coming back . . . ?

If you didn't know, I have two all time favorite sports players. One is Chipper Jones and the other is Brett Favre. I finally got to see Favre play last year with the Jets when Billie and I went up for Thanksgiving. It was a great experience. But now I'm reading, that the Minnesota Vikings are trying to get Favre out of retirement and that a meeting is going on this week to determine if it's a right fit for both parties.

Now before it goes there, I just want to say that I know the retire/unretire talk has got old over the past few years, but he's Brett Favre. He holds every meaningful record there is to hold for quarterbacks in the NFL. He's earned the right to waffle back and forth if he desires. What it boils down to is he obviously loves the game and he's having a hard time walking away. Many NFL players have faced it, but none were as special as Favre. It's no different than you or me trying to walk away from something that we love and that has been part of our lives as long as we can remember.

I hope he does whatever he feels he needs to do. Some are worried about his legacy as a Packer. Listen, he'll always be a Packer and would still be one if not for the front office of the Packers. Now if he still wants to play and can, let him play, wish him luck, and let's play some football. Oh and if he does come back, I may need someone to preach for me on Sunday, December 20th. I might be in Charlotte, NC for the Vikings v. Panthers game . . . . lol

Today should be fun . . . NOT

I get to do one of my favorite things in the world in a bit . . . go to the dentist. And I mean that with extreme sarcasm. I absolutely hate the dentist. (not the person . . . he's a cool guy.) Something about teeth just makes my skin crawl. She scraping and jabbing and poking and drilling . . . well it's enough to make my skin run from here to China. Can't stand it! I'm having a few cavities filled so nothing major . . . at least not to the common world.

The rest of the should be more fun though. Work at the office, 9 holes of golf, youth worship, and then having a Hawks v. Cavaliers party for game 1 at the house.

Also be looking at the church website this week. I'm doing some work trying to revamp and add some stuff to it. Hopefully I'll be completed with the tinkering by week's end.

Perry Crossroads Church of God

Monday Weigh In

I lost a whole pound. Wow. I'm taking it in stride though. I didn't do good over the weekend. I ate pizza on Saturday at the church work day. I ate tater-tot casserole at Buddy & Felicia Sheffield's house after church Sunday morning. And I ate at Wendy's Sunday night after church. So I fell back on the weekend. I've been on the diet thought 10 days and I've lost a total of 5 lbs. Not too bad I don't suppose!

I'm going to try to be stricter this week!

Great time today at church

Great day! Great service. Great devotion. Great worship. Great choir. Great altar response. Great services all the way around!!!

We had great attendance today and a great day financially as well. We did two new worship songs for us this morning, "Jesus Messiah" and "God of this City." They went over really well. Great songs too! For choir we did "Midnight Cry" and "Revelation Song" and God began to really stir us into His presence.

I finished up our series called "After the Resurrection" this morning with the story of Jesus restoring Peter in John 21 after he had denied Christ during the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Peter had a great destiny in front of him and God had great things, but one question needed to be answered . . . "Do you love me more than these?" That was the question from Jesus to Peter. He had every right to ask it. After promising to go with Jesus to the very end, Peter denied him three times before the rooster crowed. After asking him three times and hearing the same answer three times, Jesus tells Peter of his fate. If Peter didn't truly love Jesus, he wouldn't be able to walk in all that God had planned for him.

I don't think it was ever the case that Peter didn't love Jesus as much as it was the entanglements and fear in the world began to weigh on him. Most everyone wants to know their purpose and furthermore wants to walk in it, but why is it that we seem to get so close and stay yet so far away? It's as the writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter 12 . . . we must shake off those weights that hold us down. Some folks can't get closer to the Lord and really operate in their destiny because of the cares of the world holding them back. Or maybe it's pain, regret, guilt, hurt, fear, worry, carelessness, or insecurity. Whatever it is, the writer is clear, focus on Christ, shake off the weights, and run the race before us.

To illustrate this message I had my good buddy Hunter help me out. Hunter is a teen in the youth group who loves God, his church, and his family. He weighs about 140 lbs. Well that's what he claims. I think it's less myself . . . No matter. I had him jump on my back and I preached with him on my back for about five minutes. At first, he wasn't a burden, but the longer I carried him, the heavier he became. The more his dead weight pulled on me, the slower I walked and the deeper I had to breath. As I told the congregation, these weights aren't always obvious. Sometimes we think we can handle the pain or ignore it until it goes away, but in reality the longer we carry those weights, the heavier they get. And the heavier they get, the easier it is for you and I just to give up and quit.

Do as the writer said to do. Shake off those weights. Let Christ and His pursuit of the cross for you and I be our source of strength and focus. His plans are too great for us according to Jeremiah 29 and Psalms 139. I want all He's got and there isn't anything in this world worth holding me back.

Thank you's for our Work Day

We had a church work day today at the church and I wanted to recognize those who came out and helped us. We were able to put in the new door in the kitchen and get rid of the rotted one. We also cleaned out a supply closet for a new food bank coming and organized the other supply room so you can actually find stuff. In addition, we added insulation in the hallways, finished trimming out a room that will soon become a classroom, and unloaded a bunch of trash . . . I mean old stuff that's not been used in ages . . . lol

So thank you to Jack & Carolyn Brown, Valda Browning, Travis Bennett, Brian Whitehead, Kirt Ryberg, Josh & Nicole Tomblin, and my wife for working so hard today and helping us get these projects completed.

We have a few more things to do, but that will be for another time. We'll see what happens between now and then.

Return to Alma Mater and Wolverine

Ok, so the two subjects in the title line have really nothing to do with each other, but I didn't want to make a separate blog post for them! lol

On the college thing . . . I think I've got a pretty clear picture of what I'm going to do. Of course that's if everything goes as it should. When I was working on my Bachelor's degree in Social Science Secondary Education at Brewton Parker College, I kept bouncing back and forth between majors. Two that I kept going between was Pre-law and Political Science. I was pretty close to having a degree in Political Science in 2003 (when I graduated). I love politics and law. It's certainly a facisnation for me. And if I had a quarter for everytime someone told me I'd be good in a courtroom I'd be rich. So if my degree audit comes back to me next week with not much having changed in five years (very possible it has), I think I'm headed back to Brewton Parker College to finish up my second Bachelor's degree. If it all goes right, I should graduate in May of next year. After that, I plan to transfer my Master's to Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL for completion. This latest run in at Seminary in Cleveland has kind of did me in. I don't want to hold a grudge or keep having to deal with the issue, so I think it's better if I just close that door, especially being that one opened out of the blue for me today with Southeastern.

Ah yes . . . Wolverine. Well I went and saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine today. Awesome movie. I'm a huge Wolverine fan anyway. I have some of the old comics of Wolverine. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed X-Men or Wolverine in general. It's a little less than 2 hours so it's not too long. You won't waste your money I promise.