Ryan Herrington

Weekend Activities

2009-09-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday morning and I wish I could say I was just waking up. Unfortunately, there are some alarm clocks you can't unplug such as my dog Bossie. When the sun starts coming up, it's time to wake up and eat. Technically I don't have to get up, but I'm less bruised if I do . . .

Had a great time with Marc & Lynn Reed last night at their house. Steak and potatoes . . . twice baked at that, were great. Awesome time together. Billie and I are looking forward to more of them. The Reed's are just some of the great families that God has been sending our church's way. And we're so proud and thrilled to have them all.

We spent most of the day yesterday cleaning house after lunch and today we'll do much of nothing until tonight when we'll be putting on the youth's Bananarama at church, or better yet, in Perry. They'll have a list of things to measure in bananas and also a list of stunts to pull with bananas. Youth teams will have one hour to get as many things done as possible. Team that wins scores 10,000 points for each individual member in our Points contest in the youth ministry. Individual with the most points wins their choice of a Wii, X-box 360, or PS3.

Looking forward to service tomorrow at church. Interested to see what God does next . . .

Praising God for a great Fellowship Dinner last night

2009-09-24T14:46:00.000-04:00

Once a month, we have what we call a "Fellowship Dinner" at the church. Everyone brings finger foods and drinks. It's nothing real big like a covered dish deal or anything. It's simply a time to get together and talk and get to know folks. Last night we 90 folks show up. Our social hall seats about 70. We had folks in the classrooms and standing up to eat. It was amazing! It was so great to see the reactions of many of the church folks who have been at the church for awhile. These past few months have just been all God.

I read a scripture last night in Matthew 9. Verse 35 starts off talking about all the miracles Jesus has been do ing. Verse 36 then speaks of His compassion for the crowds. He says the look like sheep without a shepherd. It's in response to this sight that He then turns to His disciples and says they should pray to the Lord for laborers for the harvest is ripe. I bet I've quoted those last few verses a hundred times since I've been pastoring this short while, but absent verses 35 and 36, they aren't nearly as powerful I believe. Why should we pray for laborers? Quite frankly, because this world is filled with sheep wondering around from this place to that place and that promise to this promise and this quick fix to that last fix looking for an answer. If the church refuses to work and labor, then we have no one to blame but ourselves when the world around us continues their pattern of spiraling out of control and looking everywhere but Christ for answers.

Jesus saw His own limitations in the flesh, as such one man, that is, the pastor, the music man, the youth pastor, the SS teacher, the clerk, can't do all the work. This is supposed to be a team effort and if we will accomplish the Kingdom objective, we will do so as a team.

So what do you say? Want to be part of a team? Want to "corral" the lost sheep and take them to the Great Shepherd? We need laborers . . . are you one of them?

Second post today . . . WOW!

2009-09-23T09:42:00.002-04:00

Let me quickly give an update on the blog site itself. If anyone has followed the blog since its first start at wordpress.com, it's been tricky for me. I wasn't too pleased with my blog at wordpress, not because of the site, but because of me. I felt like my writing was portraying me to be someone I wasn't. That, and I felt like I needed to write to make things sound better than maybe they really were for folks who would read the blog and maybe get introduced to the church. As I kept reading what I was writing, I found that my blog was no longer about me or the church . . . it became an image of what I wanted to be and what I hoped our church would be. I'm no expert, but there is a distinct difference in dreaming about something better and pretending. All that said, I moved to the blogger site and started my new blog to have a fresh start. So, that will continue. You're going to hear a little about the church, because ministry is very much part of my life. You're also going to hear a lot about me, my struggles, my victories, my frustrations, and my triumphs. It is what it is with me.

So for my new start AGAIN, I changed up the title and the header. I've come up with a new slogan for our church. The old one was, "Where every road leads to the cross." I really liked that and still do. For me, it suggested that everything we do at the church leads folks to the cross. But as we've grown and as I've grown, I've come to the realization of something I've known for quite awhile. People can't stay at the cross. Instead, we must pick up our own cross and hit the road. So while everything we do at church certainly leads to the cross, we must have a plan in place to move folks past THE cross and take up THEIR cross. So, I've put together a new motto, using our church name and the moniker for our city; "At the crossroads of Christ and culture." For me it suggests, that our church seeks to take people who live in culture, introduce them to Christ, and help them to become empowered to take Christ into the culture for the purpose of making a change. For too long churches have existed on the polar opposite of culture. Our rationale was that we must remain separate. Indeed, we must, but there is certainly a way to engage our society while still remaining separate in regards to our testimony, personal holiness, and image. Jesus did it and so can we. So that's the new change and that's why.

As for me, I'm trying to find some Disney World tickets . . . . lol

Kept my promise

2009-09-23T09:31:00.003-04:00

So I'm back for blogging . . . two days in a row. Got to be a record, I know. Thanks for your patience. If I'm honest, I really don't think I have that much to talk about . . . well at least that perfect strangers would care to hear about. But maybe that's just me. If Sonya in Kansas City (there's your shout out!) wants to read about what God is doing in Perry, GA and in my own life, then heck, why not write about it I suppose.

I left out last night talking about our expansion project. On September 13th, we laid out our vision relaunch for the church. It includes a brand new education building which will house our youth and children's ministries. They will have their own individual "sanctuaries" to decorate as they please. In addition, we'll have a larger nursery . . . if that's not a sign of growth, I don't know what is! The building will house 4 new classrooms, 2 large bathrooms, 4 offices, and a copy room. All of this is very much needed. We've already got a rough sketch drawn out, but it's way too early to post that yet. In time good folks. In time.

That's the expansion project. Now for the remodeling project . . . We're planning to enlarge our foyer. Currently our main entrance to the church opens straight into a hallway with the bathroom doors a step away from the entrance. It's not exactly the most kosher situation. Our foyer area is also very small. In one spot, 3 people can't even stand next to one another in a straight line across. Additionally, we're removing some metal beams that are visible inside the church. We'll have a vaulted ceiling. It'll look great. New lights are on their way too. Of course, new carpet as well. The fellowship hall will also get a makeover as we'll be busting out the 2 classrooms and 2 offices housed in the fellowship hall to make seating capactiy greater. The kitchen will also be expanded.

So what are we doing right now . . . well other than busting at the seams, having church and planning. Right now, we're taking donations for church chairs. We are getting rid of our church pews in exchange for chairs to give us greater seating capacity and flexibility. We're running a "Buy Your Own Chair" campaign where we're asking for donations of $28 from individuals to purchase a chair. I plan on setting up a page on our website for donations, just in case any of our readers and website viewers would like to help us with this project.

God is doing some amazing things here at Perry Crossroads Church of God and the sky is the limit!

Time for an update

2009-09-22T20:22:00.002-04:00

Well, here I am. I'm still breathing. I'm not going to waste your time and my time to tell you how crazy it's been lately and I've been unable to get back to blogging as I planned. But . . . I'm going to do my best to get back regular. I've received several of the emails some of you have sent me and I'm overwhelmed at your interest in the blog and what God is doing at the church. So here's the timeline of what has transpired recently . . .

The second Sunday of August, we broke an all time church attendance record at the church with 91 in service. Bishop Garner was with us and he certainly blessed us. He's going to be working with us on our plans for expansion, and we're so excited! The next week, we broke the 91 attendance mark with the first ever number of 105 in service. We finally broke 100 after 40 plus years in the church's history. Just this past Sunday, September 20th, we established a new attendance record with 112 in morning worship with 92 coming back for Sunday night discipleship. People are hungry at the church and in the community and God is moving mightily. Since the beginning of August, we've seen 19 saved. We've seen 13 saved since last Sunday. It's just been amazing to see what God is doing.

The first Sunday of September, we brought out on first part time music minister in Russ Creamer. Russ has been a friend of mine since I was a teen. We attended church together, played ball together, and worked together. He was always the boss man . . . the tables have turned now . . . lol. Just kidding man if you're reading. Russ has done a tremendous job at the church in 3 services. The worship is going up and the excitement is building.

I started a new series entitled "Revelation Revealed" the first Sunday of August and I'm still going. I was hoping to get it in 4 or 5 messages, but Sunday will be my 8th message in the series, and I probably have 2 more. God is moving mightily in the series and I'm so thrilled to see what God is doing. 22 months ago, we started with 7 people and a dream. Now we're a church of more than 100, but we still have our dream. That will never change.

Thanks for your prayers and supports. We've got a major remodeling and building project that we're about to embark on. I'll talk more about it tomorrow. Have a good night.

Bad Yard Sale Day

2009-08-22T15:42:00.002-04:00

Can I just rant for a minute? Let me first say, I've never been a fan of yard sales. Sometimes you can hit it big. Most times you hit about middle ways. And sometimes, you're just lucky if you hit anything.

We had a yard sale today. We're trying to get some extra money to get the air conditioner fixed in our Nissan Extera without having to dip into our vacation fund. So we cleaned out the house, rearranged some things and had what I felt was a good variety of items. We had a piano, a washing machine, a gas burning fireplace, an entertainment center, a 40" TV, a paper rack, name brand clothes, suits of clothes, CD's, DVD's, a stereo, Billie's scrapbook creations and a rug. Everyone that came either wouldn't buy or tried to talk us down from our price. A TV that's not even 3 years old going for $40 is bad??? Really? I just hate people's attitudes sometimes. They come to a yard sale expecting you to be Target and have the nicest things at dollars and cents prices.

Oh and ladies . . . I love ya and God does too. But don't hand me your money that you pull out of Victoria's Secret . . . Seriously . . . we have wallets, purses, or maybe even pockets. Bras weren't made to hold money.

Ok, so I feel better now. Looking forward to tomorrow's second installment of our Revelation Revealed series. Dealing with chapters 4 and 5 tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM. If you can come, we'd love to see you.

What a wild ride!

2009-08-18T11:38:00.002-04:00

Ok, so my plan to get back to blogging regularly didn't work out. I promise I'm trying. Between pastoring, youth pastoring, being the music minister and my wife doing the Children's ministry, I feel worn out most days and I can't get my writing juices going to write anything worth reading. I'm working on that however!

Let me try to update everything that has been going on . . . and it's all be great too!

August 8th - We took some teens to Six Flags Over Georgia for Christian Concerts. To be honest, I probably wouldn't do it if I had it to do over again. Too crowded. Concerts got started late and we ended up missing the main act to get back in time. Made for some upset folks and tired and grouchy teens. Heck, I was tired and grouchy too!

August 9th - Our State Administrative Bishop, Rev. Ray Garner, came to the church for the first time in some 10 years he thought. We broke an attendance record that morning with 91. We had a great day. We got to talk afterwards over dinner at Cracker Barrel about our future plans with the church. Coming soon is going to be our new Education building which will house a big youth room, a big children's church room, classrooms, and offices. We hope to start that project by the end of the year if not before. This of course will allow us to knock out the classrooms in the social hall and enlarge it which is desperately needed!

August 10th - We started an extensive discipleship group with our teens called Live Aid. Applications have to be completed to join. Each month we will read a book together to challenge us. Ministry activities and training will be part of the group. There is also a special password protected message board linked to our youth website (www.thecrossingym.org) in which we have discussions. These teens will be the future leaders in our church!

August 11th - We started 24-2Double as a church. This program is designed to train and equip pastors and churches for growth. As the numbers of Christianity continue to decline, this program seeks to engage our world to win the lost without watering down our message. It's designed that if you go through everything and work the program that in 2 years your Sunday morning church attendance will double. After going through the first workshop, I believe it. We'd already incorporated probably 90% of what we talked about into our replant here in Perry. As of December 2007 we had 7. As of last Sunday . . . well I'll get to that in a minute. Let's just say God has helped us to more than double.

August 15th - What a day! I had a wedding to officiate at 2:00 PM at the church. Then at 3:00 PM, I had a funeral to help with at the local funeral home. Talk about a rush! We made it though and I think both events turned out very well. Congrats to Jim and Billie Jo Rudd on their union. Farewell to Sis. Evelyn Prater. You will be missed.

August 16th - We broke an all time record for Sunday morning attendance with 105! We finally broke the 100 mark. We've been here going on 22 months, and God has given us the increase from 7 to 105. We had 3 families out Sunday as well. One individual claims that the church has had that before, but no one I've talked to or any records I've found or called about has ever reported the church having that many people except for maybe a midweek revival service, wedding, or a funeral. God is definitely doing something in our church and it's awesome! I'm completely humbled and overwhelmed. Why God is using me, I have no idea . . . I'm the worst or the worst. But I'm thankful that He is allowing me to experience all this. It's amazing. Next up . . . how to deal with being crowded. Our sanctuary seats about 125 comfortably. Our social hall seats about 70 comfortably. We have 2 classrooms. You get the picture . . . But nothing is too big for God. We also had a youth service Sunday night where the kids took over and led church. Crossroads Canyon Children's Ministries came out first and sang and danced. Then the youth led in praise and worship and the offering. I preached a message on waiting on God, and the youth drama team performed their original drama to the song "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller. We concluded with having teens that wanted to be used come to the front and pray with adults in the altar. It was an amazing sight!!!

August 17th - Had dinner with Rusty and Brandi Pearson. These guys are great. We enjoyed ourselves so much with them. Look forward to more times of fellowship!

So that's it. I'm caught up now. As you can see, it's been a whirlwind. Tonight I'm starting a 5 week curriculum with the local Cub Scouts called "God and Country." Should be a great time and maybe we'll meet some good folks. Tomorrow is our Fellowship Dinner at the church and we're hoping for a good turn out and Thursday is Chinese night for our Women's Ministries called "Esther Group."

A lot happened. If you live anywhere near us, we'd love to have you come grow with us!

Our trip with our Primetimers

2009-08-01T08:38:00.002-04:00

Let me say that the perks of "replanting" a church is that you have a hand in the starting of every ministry. This usually means you get to enjoy some of the perks of those ministries, at least while they are in their infant stages. One such perk was getting to "chaperone" four of our Primetimers to Cleveland, TN and Murphy, NC this past Thursday and Friday. It was a great experience.

We drove up to Cleveland on Thursday and had a guided tour of the Church of God HQ. It was a great experience. I had only been to the HQ once for a meeting, but that was it. We were able to see the room where the Executive Council meets. We also got to go in our General Overseer, Raymond Culpepper's office. We saw other meeting rooms. I got to see a Lori Lewis who along with her husband Gary are great people and have certainly helped me out a lot in ministry. Seeing the mural in the Evangelism building and the presentation was wonderful. We also saw some artifacts from the beginning of the movement. It was a great experience and certainly eye opening for those we brought. They realized that our church is part of something worldwide and we're all in this thing together. I then took them to Lee University and Seminary and then we went in North Cleveland Church of God and I showed them around. We went up to the Prayer Tower which they all really enjoyed. We shopped at the mall and then gave them their first taste of Five Guys Burger and Fries. We spent the rest of the evening in the hotel.

Friday we got up and drove to Murphy, NC for Fields of the Wood. The replicas of the Golgotha and the tomb were great. The 10 Commandments covers a whole side of a mountain and Sis. Audrey Cason and I walked the whole thing. The pastor working the gift shop said it was 358 steps total. I believe him! We also got to walk up the other side of the mountain to the place AJ Tomlinson prayed and received confirmation about the Church of God. The highlight though was going to the place where the first General Assembly took place. It was overwhelming. You could feel the presence of God in the room and we all had prayer together. Pictures of the first delegates were in the room and it caused us to think about all they paid just to get this movement started. We think we suffer persecution, and certainly we do. But these people had their houses burned down. Their churches were burned down. Their families were killed and possessions were taken. They endured all of this to proclaim the Pentecostal experience of the book of Acts. They went to church in rain or snow. How we need the pioneering spirit back in our churches today. We also felt the same thing at the marker for the old Shearer Schoolhouse and at a marker where the first log church was put up where the Holy Spirit fell for the first time. It was amazing to say the least.

Taking a Big Breath

2009-07-26T00:03:00.002-04:00

Yes I know at the rate I blog, it's more like a week long summary everytime. If I could begin to tell you how crazy July has been for us though you'd understand. It's midnight and I'm sitting at the church with Billie while she finalizes our mission trip video to show in church tomorrow. It's looking great!!!! Let me catch up on all that's transpired since my post about Billie's birthday.

July 19th - Restarted Discipleship for church, started our youth ministry back up and had our first youth service. I'm the interim guy again. We had 16 teens and 13 decisions and rededications for Christ. Awesome!!!

July 20th and 21st - Worked at the church all day setting up for our VBS.

July 22nd - First day of Studio Go Vacation Bible School. Had a good group of kids. Teachers and workers did a tremendous job!!!

July 23rd - My parents came to town for my birthday. It's on August 4th, but school will be back in and my dad will be driving a school bus and my mom is teaching. Ate some good food at Red Lobster and had another great night of VBS.

July 24th -Played golf with Jacob McLemore at International City and played horribly. I mean bad. Then went and picked up a piano and delivered it to my house with the help of Jacob. That thing was heavy!! Then had lunch with Roy Holton at Sonny's. Good food. Spent the rest of the day gearing up for the last night of VBS. Speaking of that, the boys won and I got to put a huge whipped cream pie in Billie's face. Pictures are coming.

July 25th - Youth Car Wash. It was supposed to be at a parking lot owned by a local furniture store. They forgot to mention when I scheduled it that they didn't have water . . . Hmmm . . . so we had to come out to the church and do it which was not good considering we're out of town about a mile. But it all worked out. We had almost 20 of us washing cars and we made about $300. Great day. Had dinner with the Pitts' tonight and the steak and shrimp was amazing. Great people. Great food. Great fellowship.

Now, I'm going home. Tomorrow is church and God is really dealing with me about a really tough word so we'll see what happens.

Happy Birthday Billie

2009-07-17T18:39:00.003-04:00

Today Billie turns 24. In about two weeks, I turn 29. Rob the cradle . . . na . . . Someone told me you could train a younger woman. That person should be lined up in front of a firing squad . . . lol

It's Billie Day. That means whatever she wants us to do, we've done today. We started off by eating birthday cake which I surprised her with. Then we went to Johnny G's in Warner Robins and played Deal or No Deal. Billie really got sick at herself over that game. She took a deal for 56 tickets and she had 400 in her suitcase . . . yeah, not good. Then she picked O'Charley's for lunch which was great as usual. Finally, I went with Billie and watched the new Hannah Montana movie. I will say, we stuck out like sore thumbs. We didn't have a kid, and everyone else did. Several adults walked in and giggled. Oh well. I will admit that it was a very good movie. Just don't tell anyone I said that. The in-laws are coming in tonight so we'll have a full house.

Anyway, I just want to wish my wife a very Happy Birthday. You deserve everything good in this life as you've given me more happiness than I've ever known. You're my wife, my best friend, my partner in ministry, and my everything. I love you with all that I am. Happy Birthday!

Man in the Mirror

2009-07-15T02:24:00.002-04:00

In the wake of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson's, death, I've been on an MJ binge. The man was no doubt creepy in many ways and where his soul is today is anybody's guess. I hope he made things right with Christ before he passed. Above all else though, the man was no doubt one of the greatest entertainers to ever live. I love a lot of his stuff, especially the older stuff like Thriller and Bad, Beat It, and Billie Jean. While in Illinois, the Wal-Mart in Mt. Vernon had a sell on Michael Jackson albums and I picked up a copy of Bad. While driving around listening to it today, I came across the popular song Man in the Mirror. What a great song. What a great message.

Maybe it's because I had pizza for supper and it's 2:30 AM and I'm not asleep, but I'm really taking a hard look at myself . . . the man in the mirror if you will. I just got back from an awesome week in Illinois ministering to people in the state and working with pastors and city projects. It was so wonderful to be doing ministry without stress. I wasn't worried about deadlines. I saw the people I was ministering to, and I was focused on the moment . . . not 3 months down the road. I'm a visionary so to speak so most of my thinking is future tense and while that's not altogether bad, I'm beginning to see that I'm putting much unneeded stress on myself and I'm suffering because of it.

To say we've had to work hard in Perry would be an understatement. To say we don't still have a lot to do may be an even bigger one, but I'm beginning to recognize in myself, that if I don't start making some changes, I'm going to lose out on the joy of ministry and life. Decemeber will be 2 years I've been pastoring and I'm a different person, both good and bad. The bad is what bothers me though. I've gained weight from eating due to stress. My health is failing on me as I'm developing stress and sleep related issues. This scares me because I've always been a relatively healthy person, but sitting here now, I can think of at least 4 reasons I should probably consult a doctor. I'm taking too much work home. If I'm not careful, my ministry will become my job and not my calling. I'm not liking what I'm seeing in me. While in Illinois, a few people, and maybe at least half way jokingly, told me I looked in my mid 30's. I turn 29 in August. I've got to get a handle on things. Some of that is handing stuff off and trusting the work I've already put in at the church is going to pay off. Some of it is learning to say "no" when I need to. I want to start a family next year and at the rate I'm going, I'm not going to be healthy enough or free enough to enjoy it. I'm looking in the mirror and not liking what I see.

Why bare my soul on a blog like this? My words will hold me accountable hopefully. I've seen the need for this change for quite awhile, but after our trip and being home for a couple of days, the difference is night and day. I ask for your prayers as I try to break some old habits and get some stuff together. As the song by Christian group Tenth Avenue North says, "you only get just one time around." I need to make the most of it.

We're back from Illinois!

2009-07-13T22:54:00.002-04:00

We arrived back home about 6 PM. What a trip!!! It was so much fun. Part of me was so ready to get home, but there's a big part of me that is sorry it had to end. Billie and I took three of our youth with us, Jacob, Sarah, and TJ.

We left Sunday, July 5th right after service for Decatur, IL. We had an amazing service that morning and God really showed up and brought deliverance and help to many folks. We finally pulled out of Perry at 1:30 PM. We drove straight to Decatur and got there about 12:15 AM central time. That was with 4 stops so we did pretty good. We drove straight up so we could spend Monday in Chicago. We spent the first days of our week with good friends Dow and Debbie Moses. They pastor the New Vision Church of God in Decatur and are doing a fabulous job. We met last year when Billie and I went up to get our church van. We spent Monday with them in Chicago. We went to the John Hancock building and ate at the Cheesecake Factory, which was a first for the teens. We love the Cheesecake Factory. Billie got to walk around the American Girl Doll store. We went to Navy Pier and rode the famous nonstop ferris wheel. We went inside Bubba Gump, another one of our favorite restaurants, and walked beside Lake Michigan. It was gorgeous. We saw Soldier Field, US Cellular Field, the Sears Tower, and then we took in the Braves v. Cubs at Wrigley Field that night. It was a lot to pack in and there was so much more we wanted to do, but it was amazing!

Tuesday, we worked with the New Vision church with their food pantry and boxed up about a hundred boxes. We went swimming afterwards and then checked out the mall in Forsyth where I got a new Jack Nicklaus putter on sale for $20. Sarah found a little toy in Hallmark that sounds just like her when she laughs. And I got asked a very weird question again. At Wrigley, some random guy walked up and asked if I had any weed. At the mall on Tuesday night, so guy walks up and asks me for a cigarette. Wow!

Wednesday, we worked at a house for the homeless that the New Vision church is preparing. Jacob and TJ helped tear out some old flooring. Me and Billie and Sarah painted some rooms. Painting wasn't Billie's thing and Sarah painted herself more than the walls I think, but we had a lot of fun. I preached that night at Dow's church and got to play the drums for worship. I really enjoyed that. I'd not played drums for a worship service since I left Vidalia to pastor in Perry almost 2 years ago. We also got to eat at Culver's which is a real treat for us. They specialize in butter burgers and custards. We love the place!!!

Thursday we got up and evangelized for the church in a nearby trailor park. Sarah and I got flashed by a 4 year old little boy whose mom didn't seem to care. Definitely interesting. We probably hit over 100 houses. Later that night we went back to Forsyth to watch Night at the Museum 2. Great movie. It was better than the first one to me. One of the greatest parts though was TJ. He had only been in a movie theater once before so he had no idea about movie etiquette. We were all watching the movie when this monkey jumps out and goes to screaming. It impressed TJ so much that he screamed back at the monkey! Ben Stiller's character then made the statement, "I don't know what we're going to do." TJ had the answer and he broadcasted to the theater, "I DO!" Hilarious!!!!

We left Friday morning from Decatur for Mt. Vernon and it looks like we'll be back to Decatur soon because Billie has her heart set on some puppies about to be born to the Moses' dogs. We made it to Mt. Vernon a little before lunch and had Fazolli's. I'd not eaten Fazolli's since Billie and I interviewed for a youth pastor position in Florence, SC years ago. We checked into our hotel and then met Larry Comer at a transition house where we would be working for the day. Jacob and I worked on dry wall while TJ, Billie, and Sarah helped with insulation and an extended room. We had as much fun as we could considering the job, and we went over to the Comer's house for supper. We met the Comer's last year when we got the van. They were the pastors we bought the van from shortly before they moved to Mt. Vernon. We had a great time of fellowship with them. Friday night thought was one of the most eventful nights of the whole trip. About 1:30 AM while Jacob and I were sound asleep in our beds and TJ was sleeping in the floor between the beds (that's what the guys decided), we were awakened to a horrible sound. TJ in his sleep began to scream bloody murder and throw fists at the air. Jacob thought we were being attacked and laid like a dead man. I tried and finally got TJ calmed down, but my blood pressure was probably out of the roof. Jacob and I layed in the bed for the next 30 mins without moving scared out of our minds. Later one TJ sat straight up in his sleep and yelled, "NO!" and fell back down into a deep sleep. Very eventful.

Saturday, we were supposed to help at King City Church of God's family fun day, but we got rained out, so instead we took off to St. Louis about an hour or so away. We walked beside the Mississippi River, took our picture with Lewis and Clark and their dog, went up inside of the Gateway Arch, saw Busch Stadium, the old courthouse, Edward Jones Dome, and went to the St. Louis Zoo which is FREE!!! It was definitely a highlight for all of us. Did I mention we also ate at Hardee's. I miss Hardee's in GA. Saturday night wasn't as eventful for TJ, but I did watch him get out of bed and stand up, look around, and fall back in the bed asleep. We made a deal with him. If he started screaming again like he did Friday, we were tackling him!!!

Sunday morning, I preached at King City Church of God and we sang a worship song, "You are Holy." I feel like the service went really well. We had a good response in the altar service. It was so much fun to preach there. I enjoy going and preaching different places. I think it helps you stay fresh. We ate at Ryan's Steakhouse for a few hours with Larry and his wife. That night, we met up with Cory Respondek and preached for him at his church, Bridge Community Church of God. Cory is doing a replant of sorts by taking an old community Christian church in a small little town and is bringing it into the Church of God. We led worship and I preached and we had an awesome move of God. We all ate at Bob Evans which was a first for all of us. It was a great time with Cory and his lady friend, Sarah. I think great things are ready for his church.

I always enjoy my time in Illinois and I'm already looking forward to my next trip up that way!
I'll try to get back to regular blogging now.

Catching Up

2009-07-02T16:23:00.002-04:00

It occured to me today that I'd not blogged in a week. Oh I know you all missed me . . . whoever you are and how ever many you are . . . lol

So let me try to give a synopsis of the past week and what's up next . . .

Friday, June 26 - Got back from Hilton Head Island. Had a great little getaway. Wished it was longer and further away. Working on that!!!! Picked up our dog Bossie from some friends and she was extremely hyper.

Saturday, June 27 - Took the teens to Ichetucknee River in northern Florida to tube down the river. We had a great time. I got majorly sunburnt and one teen lost his shirt. Sorry Hunter. Oh, and Hunter also had a baby cockroach in his milkshake from Steak 'n Shake in Tifton, GA. No apologies from the manger. Just took the shake off our ticket. Yeah . . . you just lost my business.

Sunday, June 28 - Started a new sermon series entitled "All in the Numbers." I'm going through some numbers that have spiritual significance in the Bible for the next few weeks. I preached on the numbers 3,7, and 10 and we had a great move of God. Sunday night we had our first ever youth service. The kids opened up singing "Jesus is my Superhero." The teens led in worship with myself on the electric guitar! They did a great job especially Jeremy and Sarah who sang in the mics for the first time. They performed a drama to the Casting Crowns song "If We Are the Body" and conviction hit the congregation. I preached a message entitled, "Who wants to hit their body with a hammer first." You would have had to have been there! Awesome job by the teens and kids. It went over great and everyone is looking forward to the next one. Mark the calendar for August 30th!

Monday, June 29 - Finished up our 3 week long Leadership Class with the leaders of the church and those interested in leadership. Everyone had a lot of positive things to say and I believe that through the class, God is going to spur all of us forward!!! Thanks for attending everyone!

Tuesday, June 20 - Billie and Bossie went to Donalsonville. Home alone!!! It was fun for awhile but it got too quiet and I was bored. I went to eat at the Mexican restaurant in town with some church folks who are like my family!

Wednesday, July 1 - Quarterly Conference time. We discussed our upcoming plan for growth which involves trying to get some plans made to build a new sanctuary. Several little projects are going to accompany it and we'll get started on those soon. As for now, we're about to install some stained glass windows which haven't been used for awhile in the foyer extension. Oh, and we're getting a keyboard for the church too!

Thursday, July 2 - Little bit slower day today. Was supposed to hook up with an old friend, but something came up. Got to talk on the phone for a bit anyway and that was good. I'm working my Sunday prep and also tomorrow night's Church Picnic and Movie Night. We have a poll up on the church website (www.perrycrossroadscog.org) on the movie to be watched. As of this moment, Prince Caspian is edging out Facing the Giants. Should be interesting to watch it the polls tomorrow. We're going to be watching the movie outside under the stars with food and fellowship. After the movie, we're shooting fireworks. Everyone is invited out at 7:00 PM to enjoy a good time together!!! Oh, and I've got a Men's Ministry meeting tonight at the Mexican restuarant at 7:00 PM.

We're leaving Sunday immediately after church to head to Decatur, IL for a Mission Trip. Here's our schedule:

Sunday, July 5 - Drive to Decatur, IL
Monday, July 6 - Fun day in Chicago
Tuesday, July 7 - Thursday, July 9 - Mission work in Decatur, IL
Wednesday, July 8 - Preaching in Decatur, IL
Friday, July 10 - Saturday, July 11 - Mission work in Mt. Vernon, IL
Sunday, July 12 - Preaching in Mt. Vernon, IL and driving to Nashville, TN
Monday, July 13 - WE'RE BACK HOME!!!!

I don't know how much internet access I'll have between working and having a good time with the teens and the pastors we're working with so I'll give a full update definitely upon getting back!

Have a good one!

Happy 4 year Anniversary to me and Billie

2009-06-25T09:13:00.003-04:00

Four years ago today at this very moment, I was pacing the floor at the Jameson Inn in Bainbridge, GA. In just a few hours, I'd be getting married to my soulmate. I remember waking up asking so many questions . . . "Am I ready for this? Will I be a good husband? Will I be a good provider? What if she changes her mind and gets cold feet?" Obviously she didn't get cold feet and I'm still working on the husband and provider part . . . plan to for as long as I'm alive.

If you don't know our story, I'll share it briefly. It was fall of 2004 and I resigned my position at a church due to frustration, anger, confusion . . . well all the reasons you're not supposed to resign, but I did. Even though I went off on a tangent, God still provided for me. I landed a job with the new Hibbett Sports in Douglas and within a few weeks, I was managing the store. I was making good money and was done with the hassles and problems of ministry until the day I got a call from Americus from Pastor Bud Wommack. He talked to me about coming to Americus as youth and music minister. I turned him down. We talked again a week or so later and I turned him down again. I told God that if he called me again that I would do it, and he did, so I did.

I didn't know but the whole time God was working on me to get me to Americus, He was working on Billie to move to Americus. She had lived in Donalsonville all her life and was trying to make a decision between entering a program called "The Mission" in Cleveland, TN or to go to college at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus. After praying about it, she felt she needed to move to Americus.

So on January 1, 2005, two complete strangers moved to Americus on the same day. I came for church I thought. She thought she came for college. We came for each other. We met on Sunday, January 9th during the PM service at Heritage Church of God. I was preparing to lead the music when I saw her walk in and I immediately heard what might as well have been an audible voice tell me that she was the one I was going to marry. I introduced myself to her that night. Our first date was the next Monday, the 17th, to Prayer Conference service in Tifton at the Church of God Campgrounds. Dr. Raymond Culpepper was preaching. Not really sure what he was preaching about . . . I think it was good though. February 14th, we got engaged on a small little island. June 25th, we got married.

It's been a wild ride and we've been a lot of places and been through a lot of stuff, but I wouldn't trade any of it. It's made us who we are today. My wife is my treasure and I'm blessed because of her. The memories we've already made are sure to be joined with a lifetime more of memories. Happy Anniversay Billie . . . I love you more than anything!

Tribute to my Great Grandma

2009-06-24T11:38:00.002-04:00

Lucille Hutchison was her name. She passed away over the weekend at the age of 92. Grandma Lucille spent most of the latter years of her life in pain and alone as her husband, Fred, passed away earlier. For different crazy reasons and excuses that we all have, I wasn't as close to her as I should have been. Yet, everytime I did go and visit, she always had such an interest in my life and what I was doing.

Grandma Lucille was a praying woman. She was a Spirit filled Christian. They tell stories about waking up at night and hearing her interceding for her children and asking God to intervene in situations. It was nothing to hear her pressing through until she began to speak in a beautiful Heavenly language. She loved her family. She loved God.

Today, she doesn't know what pain is anymore. She doesn't know what sorrow and loneliness are. In fact, she'll never have to write another check to a bill collector or worry about the crops on the homestead. She's in the precense of Jesus, her Lord and Savior. The Bible tells us that on that day, He will wipe away every tear from our eye. There will be no more sorrow, suffering, or pain. As I look at the world around me and I literally see the judgment of God on the horizon . . . when I see the communities we're going to be raising kids in . . . when I see Christianity slowly creep into an afterthought in both the world and the church . . . I'm jealous of Grandma Lucille.

She doesn't have to catch her breath to shout, sing, or pray. She doesn't have to use a walker to get down those transparent streets of gold. No . . . I just believe that if you want to see her now she's doing one of two things . . . running those streets with vitality and praise or sitting literaly at the feet of the One she sat before for years on earth.

I love you Grandma Lucille. I'll see you on the other side.

New youth website features

2009-06-19T23:34:00.002-04:00

I finally finished all the upgrades on the youth website. You'll find a new slide show of ads, a new poll, and a few new pages. Starting in August is Live Aid. This will be an extensive discipleship program for teens. There is a page for Live Aid that gives a description. If a teen joins Live Aid, all they will need to do is pull up the website, go to the Live Aid page, click on the picture, and it will take them to a Live Aid Message Board which is password protected. That's where discussions and weekly check in's will take place.

There is also a Download page. There are four different links on this page. The first is a permission form link. Parents can now go to the site and click on the permission form link on the Download page and be able to download and print a permission form directly from the site. No more waiting till church when we usually forget it all anyway! The next icon is a calendar so if you want you're on youth calendar every month, just pull it up and print it. The next icon is for applications. Right now, you'll find an application for the Youth Board which we will get back together and an application for Live Aid for the teens. Again, click them, print them, fill them out, give them to me or save them an email them to me.

The last icon is a chat icon and I'm really excited about this. Starting the end of July, we're going to be hosting weekly chat talks. One will be on Monday from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM and will be for parents. I'll give the password for each session each week. It'll be a place to voice concerns, ask questions, or invite other parents to share what they are experiencing. On Tuesday's from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, we will have a chat for youth with a Q&A format. On both chats, real names are optional as is registration. You can participate without ever registering with the site.

I'm pumped about what God is going to do with our youth. Check out the site daily at

http://www.thecrossingym.org

Also, teens can now sign up for trips online via the message board.

I stayed in a hotel in Perry

2009-06-19T11:17:00.002-04:00

It was very strange. I live in Perry, but last night I stayed in a hotel in Perry. Strange indeed. Our air conditioner went out sometime Wednesday afternoon and when we came in from church, it was like a furnace. We braved the heat Wednesday night anyway because it was so late, but it was horrible.

I spent Thursday trying to find someone to come fix it. A local company was unable to get to me. Our home warranty company was able to squeeze us into Friday, but that didn't fix Thursday night. So we went to the Microtel here in Perry. It's new and it was very nice especially for the price. We enjoyed our local stay . . . and it was comforting to know that if we forgot anything, we were only 2 miles from home.

Hopefully today the air gets fixed. It cost me a trip to Six Flags with some folks in the church, but hey Billie still went. She'll have fun for us both I suppose.

Hello, I'm the pastor, er um . . the youth pastor . . . well I'm both . . .

2009-06-16T23:02:00.002-04:00

Tonight marked the relaunch of our youth ministry at the church. I'm back to doing youth again as I'm taking over the youth program for the near future. We're not at a place where we can afford to give it to just anyone and folks aren't exactly knocking down opportunities to uproot their families for a part time position and know they will have to find a secular job on the side in this tough economy. So until God sends us someone or until we can train someone, it's me.

Tonight's meeting went well. We had good attendance and good reception to our plans. We are moving our youth service to Sunday night's immediately after Discipleship beginning Sunday, July 19th. Drama practice for youth will take place on Sunday's during Discipleship. Wednesday night will become the Youth's Discipleship night. In addition, we are creating "Live Aid" Ministries. Live Aid will be an extensive discipleship program designed for teens to teach them ministry in the local church and community. Starting July 19, a point system is going in place and up for grabs is the winner's choice of a Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360.

We've got some awesome trips coming up too. Not this Saturday but next, we're headed to Itchetucknee for a fun day of tubing. The big trip is our Night of Joy trip in September to Disney World. A lot of great things are coming.

The youth website will be changing some. Parents will see a "parents page" which will require a log in. It is on this page that parents will be able to dialogue with myself and others. We will also link all permissions forms on the page. We will be setting up a monthly chat time where parents and/or teens can log on anonymously or with their real name and ask questions, get encouragement, or advice.

Check out http://www.thecrossingym.org in the next few days to see updated material. I'll also be updating the church website (perrycrossroadscog.org) in the next few days . . . Thanks Evy!

A Biblical Approach to Leadership in the Church

2009-06-16T08:50:00.002-04:00

That's the name of our three week intensive class we're doing for all current leaders in the church and all prospective leaders. In time, we will make this class mandatory for anyone wanting to hold any position in the church.

We studied the leadership selective process by Peter in Acts 1. He wanted to maintain familiarity with the vision, mission, and directives of Jesus Christ. Paul would later reshape this idea by stating that we should know those who labor among us. We discussed how it's important for people to establish themselves reputably and spiritually among a church before attempting to lead the church. The individual must also show a grasp of the church's vision and mission and have a great understanding and comprehension in regards to the workings of the church.

We then studied the five fold ministry in Ephesians 4 and we divided people into two categories . . . verse 11 people and verse 12/13 people. Verse 11 people are those who are called to leadership and that calling is expressed through the offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, and preacher. We dissected the office of each and expounded beyond the modern day thought of these positions. We found that verses 12 and 13 are the barometer of success in ministry. Paul said the five-fold ministry was to equip the saints for unification in the faith, maturity in Christ, growing in the fullness of Christ, and pursue service in Christ's kingdom. If our ministries and leadership are not invoking those things, then either we are not called, or we are not working. Verse 12/13 people are those who do the service, help the unificiation process, and promote growth. A verse 12/13 person can certainly be a leader, but many times it is out of a burden instead of a calling. A calling is eternal. A burden can be lifted.

We talked about the need to take ownership of the ministry and that if it is a calling and not a burden, it takes precedent and priority in your planning and time consumption. We dealt with the problem of generics in church visions and projections. Everyone wants to win the lost at any cost. Everyone knows we have to reach out if we want to grow. And when the question is asked, "how are we going to grow our church" the answer usually is generic . . . "love people, invite them to church, etc." But Jesus didn't deal with generics. He dealt in specifics. Paul dealt in specifics. Our vision statements have to answer the following questions, "how, where," and "why?" How are we going to love people? Where are we going to reach out? Why are we doing this exercise? If we don't know as leaders, those we're training and teaching won't know either.

It was a great time together. I've divided the course into three segments, "Ministry in Leadership, Business in Leadership," and "Professionalism in Leadership."

Congrats Perry Crossroads

2009-06-13T08:57:00.002-04:00

You gave and gave to the YWEA project this year. You constantly outgive yourselves, but we've never outgave God. Because of your faithfulness in giving to missions and ministry, God is really blessing our church. And because you gave $1200 to YWEA this year, I'm bringing home a gold plaque as recognition.

Thank you church for your giving and seeing the big picture!

Campmeeting in Tifton

2009-06-12T14:25:00.003-04:00

What a week! I hate to see it end tonight, but it's been amazing. I can't really remember a Campmeeting quite so good. The services have been amazing, but for me, the highlight has been the Bible studies in the morning with Pastor Dan McEachin. He has been speaking on holiness and it's been very sobering to say the least. I'm considering playing the DVD of some of the sessions on Wednesday nights coming soon. It was that good.

Tim Hill preached an awesome message on the issues of the church. Mark Williams reminded us that we can go forward in faith or fear. Raymond Culpepper preached about the crucifixion and passion of Jesus and painted the picture as if we were in a movie theather. Last night Tommy Bates did a tremendous job. He said some very good things and reminded us that like the storm came to the ship due to Jonah's presence on it, a storm is coming to our nation because the church has ceased to be the church. I do enjoy his music as well!

Tonight is Tommy Bates again and Jason Crabb will be doing worship. It should be a good night. I'm very tired and I am looking forward to going back to Perry. Nothing like your own bed to sleep in!

Looking forward to Sunday as we finish up our giant series.

The Braves do it again

2009-06-05T16:45:00.002-04:00

I'm a little late talking about this, because I decided to give it a few days to rest my little feelings (thanks Carnes!) in regards to actions made by my favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves. On my other blog, I complained loudly about their treatment of John Smoltz. The man had turned down tons of money to stay with the Braves and pitched through tons of pain. He was a Braves icon, and we let him leave over 2 million dollars. That's a lot of money to me, but for a ball club, not so much. Just think . . . we could have kept Jeff Francouer at his salary from yesteryear instead of bumping him up and afforded Smoltz. There were other cost cutting measures for sure. But needless to say, I didn't like or appreciate the move or treatment of a Braves icon.

Now there's round 2. Tom Glavine may not be Mr. Brave like Smoltz was, but he is still no doubt an Atlanta Brave when it's all said and done. Yes, some folks lost respect for him when he went to the Mets (I was one) and didn't appreciate his comments with the labor strike of 1994 (I was one), but he's a Brave and you always give your Braves another chance. After doing so with Smoltz, the Braves do it to Glavine.

First the obvious, lots and lots of scouts say his velocity is way down and he'd get creamed in the majors. Maybe, maybe not. Jamie Moyer of the Phillies is doing pretty good with his 84 mph fastball. What it really boils down to is that the Braves resigned Glavine after he said he would pitch for them or retire. After signing, he goes through a surgical procedure to fix his arm to be able to pitch without pain. He goes through the rehab. He pitches more than ten shutout innings at Rome. He comes to Atlanta ready to put on the Braves uniform again and upon arriving is told that he's been released. I'd be ticked.

Look, I know it's a business and you have to make business decisions, but would it have hurt to run Glavine out there for a game and see what happens? How many times have they run Jo Jo Reyes out there bad start after bad start? If nothing else, it would have proved to Glavine, the Braves, and the fans exactly what needed to be done.

In reality, Glavine is done I believe. His better days are behind him. He should retire with his 305 wins and get ready to head to Cooperstown with buddy Greg Maddux. I'm not saying he should be on the ball club. I am saying that the Braves need to remember who got them where they are today and the individuals who turned down lots of money to stay with them. As one prominent Church of God pastor stated at a business meeting, "You don't strangle those you love."

Come on Braves. You can do better than this.

Happy early Anniversary to me

2009-06-02T06:50:00.002-04:00

June 25th will be four y ears of awesome marriage for me and Billie. It hasn't always been perfect, but whose marriage has been? We learned a lot in our first year as most do, but it made us all the stronger. Our story is an interesting story in how we met and so forth, and I'll save it for another time. But suffice it to say, it was only God who could have put all the pieces together and here we are today.

Billie is very creative and she's horrible at keeping secrets when they pertain to gifts and so forth. When the first present is wrapped under the Christmas tree, she begins on a quest to get at least one opened before Christmas day and for me to do the same. She loves it. This year, I got my anniversary present 24 days early. Billie has found a program that she's been using to make videos for the church and even a vacation video of our time in New York and Hershey. I guess this program can do a lot more than videos because Billie made an actual book out of all our pictures and letters, and the works. I guess she scanned everything in the computer and placed them how she wanted on the pages and journaled on them. The book is 51 pages long and includes pictures and memories from when we first met on January 9, 2005 to our engagement on February 14, 2005, to our marriage on June 25, 2005, and finally to our buying our first house in October of last year. Movie stubs, crazy pictures such as the one's you take at the mall in the photo booths, and little notes are all in the book. Even my best ways of describing this book is not coming close to doing it justice. It's definitely the greatest gift I've ever received. I love it! And I love my wife!

. . . though I must wonder . . . did I get this early and coincidentally get an annonymous email from "Zales" about a ring out of coincidence . . . .

Amazed after the Watch Night Service

2009-05-30T11:39:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-28T21:45:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-27T09:25:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-26T09:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-25T21:56:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-25T06:05:00.003-04:00

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 . . .

2009-05-21T00:06:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-05-17T21:42:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-15T08:58:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-14T21:23:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-12T21:58:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-12T11:40:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-12T10:28:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-10T16:59:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-09T15:27:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-07T23:25:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-07T09:02:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-07T00:16:00.003-04:00

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 . . .

2009-05-06T10:23:00.002-04:00

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 . . . ?

2009-05-05T23:54:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-05T08:52:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-04T11:44:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-03T23:15:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-02T15:04:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-01T17:04:00.002-04:00

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.

Diet Update

2009-04-30T17:44:00.002-04:00

So how am I doing a week from officially starting my diet? So far so good. I've lost 4 lbs. I've been really good on my carbs. I'm trying to stay below 80 everyday. Some days I've stayed below 60 and others I've fudged on the 80 . . . no pun intended. I've also started exercising. Monday and Thursday are my running days. Tuesday is my "walk 9 holes of golf" day. And Wednesday, I preach. That's a work out I promise! I play Friday and Saturday by ear. My goal is to get to 199 lbs and then I'll probably start Weight Watchers with Billie. The low carb thing is designed to shed lbs quicker and I'm trying to get rid of them quicker so there ya go.

Don't know if I'll get back down to my wedding day weight (170 lbs), but if I can get near it, I'll be happy. I've got two Sunday suits waiting to be wore again!!!

At a crossroads with my college . . .

2009-04-29T21:08:00.002-04:00

So I'm trying to figure out what to do. I've been thinking for awhile and decided to talk about. Maybe you've got some suggestions. If not, then maybe you could pray for me. That would be great!

I've been enrolled in the Church of God Theological Seminary since Fall of 07. I'm working on my Master's degree in Discipleship and Christian Formation. Now I'm going to be honest. Other than the knowledge and experience, I don't exactly know how this is going to help me. Maybe it would position me for a better church one day if I move. Maybe it lets me into state work. Maybe it'll give me credibility if I write a book. Yet in all three possibilities, there are countless numbers of individuals who don't have a Master's that have done just fine for themselves, if not better. Still, I do enjoy the classes and wouldn't be thinking about leaving it if it wasn't for a "situation."

Fall of last year, our church was growing by leaps and bounds. I was doing the youth, the music, teaching, preaching, visiting, involved in community organizations and events, not to mention denominational events. Quite frankly, I was burning the candle at both ends and the ends were just before introducing themselves to one another. So I emailed my professors and told them my situation. Basically, I couldn't continue with my studies. They were too time consuming that semester and I planned on taking off and coming back. I told them that they could give me an incomplete if that was possible and I'd finish later or an F if they felt I deserved that. I just knew what I had to do. So final grades came out. Three professors gave me an F. One gave me an A. Then I get correspondence from my loan company and the seminary about my withdrawal from school . . . WITHDRAWAL??? Come to find out, even though I got my grades, and even though I contacted my professors, I was listed as "unofficially withdrawn" thus forfeiting the semester and the loan money. This means before I continue there, I have to pay about $2000 back. I'm still pretty livid about this. The registrar informed me that this was gone over at the freshman introduction when I entered seminary. I don't doubt that, and I should have remembered their policy. But I guess my question is . . . if I was supposed to know the policy, shouldn't the faculty have known that . . . and if they did and they saw where I was . . . why didn't one, just one of them, mention what I was about to be doing? So needless to say, I'm at a crossroads. I want my Master's in Christianity, but I'm having a hard time going back to the Seminary after this.

Which leads to where I am now. I could transfer and continue my Master's, but a good many of my classes probably won't transfer. I've even thought about going back to my undergraduate school, Brewton Parker College, and finishing up a second major I almost had in Political Science and begin to build from there. I guess I just need some prayer as I make this decision. I don't want to be in debt $100,000 to student loans, but I certainly want to finish what I've started.

So which road to take . . .

Well it's Wednesday morning

2009-04-29T09:05:00.003-04:00

Some reflections from yesterday . . .

I did great on my diet. Finished up the day with about 60 carbs intake. I also walked nine holes of golf. Sorry Brian. Didn't get your text about Houston Springs until I was already through walking Perry! I didn't shoot tremendously well by any means, but I can tell my game is improving. I even had a couple of birdie putts which I missed, but that's besides the point!

American Idol was great last night. The whole group did great. It's going to be sad to see any of them leave tonight, but if I had to take a guess, I'm going to say it's either Matt or Allison. I'm hoping for Matt because I really like Allison. I loved her performance last night. Danny crunk his performance up. It was awesome. And Adam did what he usually does . . . blow everybody away. I don't know how anyone but him can win this competition but stranger things have happened. I'm personally rooting for Danny, then Allison, then Adam. If either of the three win, that's cool though. Kris isn't so bad himself, but he doesn't have what the other three mentioned have.

Finally got to watch a new episode of The Mentalist! It's about time. It's one of my favorite shows. Law and Order SVU was new too and it was really good. I'm starting to get worried about it though. It seems it is attracting audiences through guest stars instead of story lines. There aren't too much actually going on between the characters and that's never good.

I'm almost done with "Breaking the Jewish Code" by Perry Stone. Next up is "Closing the Back Door" by Bryan Cutshall. More on that later.

The Rainbow House at Leta's

2009-04-27T20:18:00.002-04:00

I just got back from Leta's on the Square in downtown Perry tonight. They are usually closed on Monday's, but they opened tonight for the Rainbow House. The Rainbow House is an organization that helps to prevent child abuse. The restaurant opened up tonight and a percentage of all proceeds raised goes to prevent child abuse. Great cause. Not to mention, Leta's has some great food. Billie and I have been recruited to wait on tables next year for the cause. That'll be fun!

I ate chicken parmigiana and a salad. I did good. Before we went, I walk one and a quarter miles and a I ran one a quarter miles. My knees are talking to me right now! Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be walking nine holes of golf!

Revisiting the Great Commission

2009-04-27T13:15:00.004-04:00

For the past few weeks on Sunday's nights, I've been teaching a series called, "Revisiting the Great Commission." We disected the verse in one lesson. The other lessons have revolved around attracting people to church, ministering to your family, and last night's recognizing opportunities. I thought I would share a little bit on the blog, especially for all you readers who could care less about how much I weigh . . . (you're my favorite readers by the way, lol).

In recognizing opportunities, there are a few phrases we should look out for. First, we must know 2 Peter 3:9 says it's God's will for all to be saved. Jesus instituted the Great Commission. Great theologians like John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards doubted people's salvation if they didn't have a desire to witness. I've found that the lack of witnessing that does occur is not so much a product of people not wanting to, but sometimes it's because people don't know how . . . or don't recognize the opportunities. To witness, we have to take the focus completely off of ourselves and think ahead.

Think about the last time you had a conversation with someone and these phrases came up . . .

". . . I just don't know what I'm going to do . . ."
Don't answer back, "Me either! My life is a mess. Let me tell you what I'm facing." That however is the typical response. We are inadvertently reinforcing the lost at that time. If we're saved, and claim to have a hope, and serve a God who loves us and works for us and through us, how come we have the same outlook at the sinner? Instead, forget about your own problems and in a not "in your face" way, tell the individual how God is helping you through some stuff you're in. Tell them how your church family is supporting. It will make a difference.

". . . My kids are driving me crazy . . ."
Again, don't just argue about what your kids are doing too. Talk about the change you may have seen in your kids through church and kids ministries. Give some hope that "this too shall pass."

". . . I'm so stressed out . . ."
The obvious response is, "who isn't." Instead of taking this opportunity and trying to one up the conversation with what's eating at you, take it and talk about how God gives you peace in the storm or how He's worked things out for you in the past. Misery is not the only feeling that enjoys company. Optimism does too.

". . . We always run into each other . . ."
I'd be willing to bet that it's not an accident. God strategically puts us in places to meet people that we may be a blessing to them or vice versa. If you keep running into the same individual in your day, whether you know them or not, consider it an opportunity for you to get to know someone and share the love of Jesus. You just don't know who you're going to affect.

Monday Weigh In

2009-04-27T11:49:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty happy this morning. I weighed in and I've lost 3 lbs. I'm pretty excited because I haven't been really strict on myself and I just started my diet on Thursday. Today, I'm in full gear. I had a bottle of water for breakfast with a sugar free jello pudding cup (6 carbs) and for lunch I'm having a salad with low carb salad dressing (3 carbs). I may add a few cashews to the meal for six more carbs which will put me at 15 carbs going into supper tonight. Not sure what I'm going to eat tonight, but maybe I'll be good!

Diet Day 4

2009-04-26T20:29:00.003-04:00

Today, I did pretty good for a Sunday. I had a bottle of water for breakfast with some cashews. I didn't eat so good for lunch as we all ate at the local Mexican restaurant. I had rice covered with melted cheese, grilled shrimp, steak, and grilled chicken. I could have done worse!!! Tonight I had another Zaxby's grilled chicken Caesar salad. So all in all, my carb intake for today is probably close to 80 which is more than I want to take, but still less than I have been.

Tomorrow is way in day, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also going to start getting stricter on myself for meals.

Diet Day 3

2009-04-25T22:23:00.001-04:00

I didn't do so hot, but hey, it was my splurge day!

I had a water for breakfast. I ate two grilled chicken go wraps from Wendy's for lunch with water. The Cheesecake factory wasn't the greatest though. I did drink sweet tea. Sorry . . . I was having withdrawals. I had a blackened grilled chicken sandwich with broccoli so that wasn't that bad. Now the chocolate chip cookie dough cheescake . . . we won't talk about that. Yes, I know they have low carb cheesecake there . . . but it didn't have cookie dough in it . . . I mean what am I supposed to do.

Tomorrow is Sunday and that's a bad eating habit day as well. I'll try to do good though. I do promise to try!

Saturday Recap

2009-04-25T22:17:00.003-04:00

What a great day. I slept in a little and caught in some pre-draft coverage of the NFL Draft on NFL Network. I love the draft every year. I love watching the teams think and bluff one another to get the player they most covet. I'm a closet General Manager myself I think.

Before lunch, Billie and I took off for Atlanta. We went to Turner Field for a tour of the stadium. I advise it for any Braves fan. We went all over the stadium from different seating sections up and down, high and low, to the press box where the Braves' announcers call the game. We got to sit in the chairs that Skip Carey and Pete Van Weiren sat in for years as announcers. We got to view the Braves' clubhouse and go into the luxury suits above ground and below ground. We walked on the field, sat in the dugout, and saw some other cool stuff. It's worth it for $14 a pop.

Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Last time ever in Atlanta. Sorry. They were doing road construction and it took us about 45 mins to go maybe 10 miles. Traffic was horrible. Not to mention, they make you valet park at this one. Ok, that's cool if the parking lot is a good distance away, but the spaces are like as far as a parking spot at CVS to the actual building. Ridiculous!

When we got home, I watched the first two rounds of the NFL Draft. It was a wild one! Three UGA players were picked in the first two rounds. The Falcons got to great defensive players. I'm looking forward to the finale tomorrow.

Also looking for a great service! See ya then.

Diet Day 2

2009-04-24T20:52:00.003-04:00

Today was a pretty easy day actually. I didn't stick as strict to the diet as I normally will, but weekends are made for cheating right? I drank a bottle of water for breakfast and ate a ceaser salad with grilled chicken at Zaxby's for lunch with Bro. Roy Holton. Then Billie and I went to Cheddars where I had a grilled chicken breast, broccoli casserole, and mashed potatoes. That obviously wasn't too carb conscious, but I saved some up for tonight lol! I just got back from buying groceries so I can have some low carb foods at the house to snack on. I hadn't started my exercise routine quite yet. That's Monday. So far so good.

I'm going to weigh in every Monday and I'll be honest and post my weight on the blog each Monday morning. Just be gentle ok!!!!

Some encouraging thoughts

2009-04-24T08:53:00.002-04:00

I was thinking back on Easter this morning. You know, Satan must have thought that it was over. After all, he's not omniscient. He just knew that having crucified Jesus that the victory was won. He thought he had killed the Son of God. But my what a difference a moment in time makes.

At the moment of celebration, I can imagine a big knock at the hell's gates and it was Jesus who Paul wrote took the keys to the Death, Hell, and the Grave. This is important because as Christians we don't have to fear death. It is merely the road that takes us home. We don't have to fear hell, because our souls can now be washed in the precious blood of the Lamb. We don't have to fear the grave, for we know we can't stay in the ground for when the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ will rise first to meet Him in the air.

You know in this world we live in today with all the maliciousness, hatred, and lies, the enemy is still constantly thinking that he's won a victory. He still looks for ways to cause turmoil and chaos. His limited view of the situation makes him believe that he has won. But we know in whom we have believed. When your situation looks as if the enemy is gaining the upper hand, don't be dismayed as difficult as it may be. The battle doesn't belong to you anyway. It belongs to the Lord. He will not allow the enemy to win. In cases such as this, all we can do is stand and see the salvation of our God.

There are two sets of people in the Bible who have promises: the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous are promised eternal life, a friend that sticks closer than a brother, the ability to be more than conquerors, the promise of our needs being supplied, and a promise to fight our battles for us. The unrighteous have their own promises: curses, hellfire, calamity, and judgment. When the great Jonathan Edwards penned, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," he wasn't kidding.

So let the enemy smirk and grin. Let him celebrate for a bit. When it's all said and done, it won't end well for him. As an old 80's song suggests, "look who's crying now."

Diet Day 1

2009-04-23T22:15:00.002-04:00

So I did start my diet today. I wasn't completely good, but my goal is to ease my way into the first of the week and go full blast. Considering everything that was going on today, I did pretty good I think.

First, I drank nothing but water today for the most part. I skipped breakfast, just because I'm not a big breakfast eater. For lunch, I had a district meeting at Red Lobster here in Perry. I ate grilled talapia and a plate full of broccoli. It was only 6 carbs. I did great.

Then there was the trip to Buckner's with Joey and Angie Graham. We'd been planning it for awhile and we wanted to go before Angie has to start her chemo so she'll still enjoy the food. So here I am at a feeding trough practically with potatoes, bbq, chicken, rolls, beans, and the works spinning around and around in front of me. Not to mention good sweet tea. So what was I to do? I didn't pig out, but I ate pretty good.

Then we got the call about Evelyn Ryberg's birthday party tonight. I'm not going to miss a birthday party you know. So after Buckner's, we dropped Joey and Angie off at their house and drove over to the Ryberg's house. I had a little piece of cake and a little bit of ice cream, BUT I did drink water!

So overall, a good day for my first diet day. Tomorrow should be interesting. I've got lunch with Roy Holton tomorrow at Zaxby's. Do they do low carb there???? lol

For all you Journey fans

2009-04-23T09:06:00.004-04:00

I'm a huge Journey fan. Awesome music. I ran across this video and was blown away. It's a group of kids with the oldest being 12. They do "Separate Ways" by Journey and you won't believe it unless you watch it.

Enjoy! I know I can watch this over and over again! Don't miss the guitar solo.

God was awesome tonight

2009-04-22T23:28:00.002-04:00

Tonight was one of those crazy nights. I'll be honest. I used to not look forward to Wednesday nights. As with most every other church, it is usually our lowest attended service during the week. It was really hard for me to get focused for it, but God started changing the way I thought about the service. You really get to see the backbone of your church at midweek services, and that backbone needs to be strengthened because they're helping you carry the load. I also realized that whether I have the biggest crowd or not, many folks need that midweek service due to things they've encountered since Sunday. So needless to say, I repented of my attitude and asked God to give us some powerful encounters on Wednesday night. Lately, He's been doing just that and He really showed out tonight.

I never could get settled on a sermon tonight and I read the scripture in Genesis 29 of Leah naming her children and thought some about it, but I still couldn't never nail down what I wanted to do. So what transpired was me not having a message prepared and not really knowing what was going to happen. I felt led to speak on Genesis 29, but I couldn't never get anything together, so basically I just told God I would read it if He would give me something to say. We had an amazing service and God broke through some situations with some people and the "spoils" are still being reaped. We prayed with some people and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that some things are about to start changing in their lives.

It's services like these that you remember and appreciate because without a doubt, God took over and there's no denying it. Afterwards, we had dinner (I still say supper most times) with the Pitts. I love those folks. They are an awesome family and truly have a heart for God and the church. We're getting ready to start a Food Bank at the church and they are going to help us head it up. I think it's going to be a great thing!

A waist is a terrible thing to mind . . .

2009-04-22T09:57:00.004-04:00

One perk of living in Perry for me is that I get ESPN Radio. It plays nonstop in my car unless I've got a CD going. It's hosted by 105.5 The Fan out of Macon. And being it's a local station, local businesses advertise. Some of them have pretty cool ads. Some just make me laugh. Then there's the Spa Medical ad. I usually think they are pretty corny, but I liked their slogan they came up with about their weight loss program . . . "A waist is a terrible thing to mind." Obviously it is the old phrase about a mind being a terrible thing to waste. But with that in mind, I'm making a big step. I'm going on a diet.

Why announce it here? Well you good folks are going to be my accountability partners! I've lost a bunch of weight before. Back before I met Billie, I weighed almost 250 lbs. I lost all the way down to 170 before meeting her and weighed 167 on our wedding day. Now, after almost four years of marriage, I'm tipping the scales between 220 and 225 depending on how many cookies I've eaten the night before. It's time to do something. Not to mention, I've heard doctors say that extra weight actually hurts people with asthma. So I'm doing it for my appearance and my health.

Of course, as the procrastinator that I am sometimes, I'm starting tomorrow. I've been slowly working myself up to this. Not eating so much here and there. Getting in the habit of drinking more water. So tomorrow, I start the diet that worked for me when I lost all the weight before . . . the low carb diet. It's a killer for me because I think I mainly eat one food group . . . carbs! But it needs to be done. So say a prayer for me. Don't tell me what you eat please. And wish me luck!

Thank You Miss California

2009-04-21T10:09:00.005-04:00

Maybe the Beach Boys had it right . . . . "I wish they all could be California girls" . . . at least in the mindset.

I don't really watch beauty pageants. I can't tell you who won it last year or anything of the sorts. What I do know however because my wife was in pageantry is that the questions that are asked of the contestants usually have a hidden side to them. They usually are asked to promote an agenda or to at least draw attention to an issue. And if the contestants know what's "best" for them, they'll answer the question the way the judges want them to.

Not Miss California. Not only was she a knock out, but she had brains and a backbone. When they asked her if other states should legalize gay marriage like Vermont has, she gave an honest answer. She appreciated the freedom our country gives us to act and live as we feel is right, but that the traditional approach of man and woman in a marriage is what she believes in. THANK YOU!!!! To the jacklegs and bozos who booed her . . . seriously, get a life. Even if you disagree with her, she's got a right to her opinion just like you supposedly have a right to raise a child with two dads or two moms. You don't like her right. She doesn't like yours. She was asked an honeset question and she gave an honest answer which is more than half of those contestants could stand by.

So kudos to Miss California. Marriage will always be husband and wife, male and female. The US can make it whatever they want to make it, but God's Word doesn't lie. It is what it is. If you don't want to hear how people feel about "alternate lifestyles" then don't ask. But if you do, get ready, because you're going to hear how we feel.

May I add, Miss California stood up for something that I'm not sure some of our popular evangelists on TV have even stood up for . . . . . ahem . . . . Everyone go have your best life now.

The Jackleg and a Bozo

2009-04-21T00:27:00.002-04:00

First of all, let me say that I believe the entire Bible is the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation, every scripture supports one another. There is no contradictions. You cannot pull one scripture out and apply it to your situation in such a way that makes another scripture false. You also can't take one scripture and excuse a lifestyle or way of thinking when there is a plethora of other scriptures which suggest otherwise. People who make a lifestyle out of this have often been referred to as "jacklegs" or in my terminology, "bozos."

Let me, if I may, give you a who's who of jacklegs and bozos based on good ol boy Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck" . . . . I've divided the two to protect the innocent . . . lol

You might be a jackleg if . . .
. . . you only pray with folks after you've taken an offering.
. . . you think your special oil can cure diseases better than someone else's.
. . . you're ordination papers were given to you much like you get 2 apple pies for a $1.
. . . you're entire ministry is based on what people said instead of what you've done.
. . . you've got more experience telling people what to do than knowing what to do.
. . . you see more demons than you do angels.
. . . after your on fire message from God, someone can tune in to a Jentezen Franklin rerun from
last night and hear your message exactly. Darn Jentezen stole your message didn't he?

You might be a bozo if . . .
. . . you claim to have been part of something before it ever started.
. . . you are an expert at spiritual beings, but are oblivious of spiritual things.
. . . you can't find a single church that can "feed" you.
. . . you don't have a life so you have to make up stuff about others to create one for yourself.
. . . you have a rock with your name on it, but plan to throw it at someone else.
. . . your only spiritual gathering is an online group.
. . . you plan to help someone become free of addictions in between drags.
. . . you have an excuse for all your failures and none of them include, "It's my fault."

Here's the good news. All of us have found ourselves in one, if not two, of these categories and God still loves us. He still has a plan for us. He still longs to take the blinders off of our eyes, but He also still plans to govern by His Word. God told Israel, "I put before you life and death. Now choose life." The same choice is given to each of us daily, and it amazes me at how often we choose death (lies, malice, anger, hate, vengeance, deceit, gossip, perversion, disobedience, disrespect, lukewarmness) over life (and it more abundantly).

Hey, nobody's perfect. Nobody's asking you to be. All we ask is that you try to "live at peace" among your fellow man. (that's scripture by the way) If your personal time is spent thinking about how horrible someone else is, how much they've wronged you, how right you are in a situation, or how you've got the idea and solution to fix everyone's problems . . . please, God loves you, but please . . . just go pray. It doesn't take a Bible scholar to realize the difference in a victorious and overcoming life and one characterized by bondage, cliches, and legalism.

Good day today

2009-04-20T18:19:00.002-04:00

We had our monthly Chaplains meeting at Perry Hospital today. I enjoy going to these events to fellowship, not to mention, that the hospital is a mission field in itself. If you ask someone who just drank a bottle of water if he wants another one, he may say yes or no. If you ask someone who hasn't drank anything in about a day if they want a bottle of water, the answer is most definitely yes. When people find themselves in a hospital, it slows them down. They have time to think and reflect. Often, a sense of mortality comes on them regardless of whether the condition is good or bad. Most everyone in the hospital that I've found has been more than willing to have me pray with them or just talk to them.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Travis Bennett. He's like my older brother. He's an awesome man of God and to see what God has done in his life in such a short time is nothing short of amazing. I only wish everyone had the desire to learn about God and grow in His Word and presence as Travis does. Anyway, I got some good old fashioned BBQ and chips. Can't beat that with a stick!

I'm fumbling through some ideas on our discipleship program at the church. More on that later. Have a wonderful rest of the day!

Great church services today

2009-04-19T20:55:00.002-04:00

This morning I started my series called "After the Resurrection." I spoke on the the three ways the Lord responds to us when we have faith. I spoke concerning Thomas and his doubt that Jesus was really alive. Of course this all changed when he saw Him and touched His wounds.

As with Thomas and in another instance of the woman with the issue of blood, sometimes our faith just needs to touch Him and we need Him to touch us. Other times we're like the Roman Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant and then told Jesus to just speak the words being he wasn't worthy to have Him under his roof. Sometimes we need a word of confirmation spoken to us that sets everything in order. Sometimes we just need to allow our faith to stand upon the spoken words of God to us . . . mainly the Bible, not just a preacher, teacher, or song leader. Lastly, as with the disciples in the room with Thomas, Jesus knew where they were and came through the door even with it closed and locked. In Matthew 8, there is the story of Peter's mother in law who was sick. She didn't ask to be healed. She didn't send for Jesus. But the simple fact that He invaded her space and moved into her vicinity made all the difference. Sometimes all we need to do is to get lost in His presence. It makes all the difference!

Reflections before bed

2009-04-18T23:34:00.002-04:00

I'm about to head to bed and was thinking about some things . . .

Went for a walk this afternoon and maybe half way through it, I started getting a song. Not really sure where it came from, but I kept trying to sing it to myself until I could get somewhere to write it down. Finally did, put some music to it and I'm liking it right now. I hadn't really wrote any songs since my time in Douglas and Florida. A few here and there have popped up, but lately, I've been getting more and more ideas. I'm certainly not opposed to that.

Getting ready for service tomorrow. I'm starting my new series called, "After the Resurrection." I'm taking three big occurrences that John writes about in his gospel. Tomorrow is the issue with Thomas and faith. God changed my sermon almost completely tonight while studying at the church. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm trying to stay positive about the service. I've already had a lot of phone calls and texts with folks telling me they won't be at church. In fact, I think the total is up to 16 right now . . . It can be a little frustrating.

Interesting Day today

2009-04-18T09:18:00.002-04:00

I'm still feeling the effects of a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon that kept me up until 3 AM, but hey it was worth it. I forgot just how good those movies were. And in a bit, I'm the designated driver for our Primetimers as they head to Juliett to eat at the Whistlestop Cafe. This will be our second attempt at this trip . . . The first time, the hours of operation were not looked at before we drove over there so we had to settle for Golden Corrall in Macon. Not a bad substitute I suppose. Then after that I've got the house to myself for awhile as Billie left this morning for her niece's birthday party in Donalsonville. So it'll be me and Bossie tonight. Thinking of starting another movie marathon tonight . . . .

Remember the cute bee story . . .

2009-04-17T13:07:00.004-04:00

I'm now proud to be a bee murderer. My house is infested with them. I tried to help one out after my last experience and it came at me like it was going to sting me . . . . So I got my bandanna and a can of raid and I'm the biggest baddest bee killer in Perry baby!

Great Men's Meeting tonight

2009-04-16T22:22:00.002-04:00

There was only a few of us there for different reasons, but we had tacos and the Bible. I don't know that you can beat that! Brian reminded us of the memorials in our lives that we can remember back to remind ourselves of God's purpose and hand in our life.

I think it's important that we all have those rocks in our life that we can go back to and remind ourselves of God's faithfulness to us. I mean we can be on the mountain one day and feel like God's forsaken us tomorrow. It's in those times that we need the reminder of who He is and what He has planned for our lives.

One of mine is the car accident I got into when I was just out of high school. My car stalled going across an intersection and I got t-boned by a truck going way over the speed limit. It hit me straight on the driver side door and tore my little 92 Pontiac LeMans inside out. The impact through me about 50 yards down the road with the steering wheel in hand. All I suffered was a mild concussion. The doctors were amazed that I didn't have more significant injuries or that I had even lived. God protected me because He had a plan for my life.

I could type out plenty that God has done in my life that I can keep going back to in order to remind myself of who He is and what's He's done in my life. What about you? What's your memorial? What reminds you of who He is in your life?

17 Again

2009-04-16T09:50:00.003-04:00

Don't know if you've seen the previews for the new movie with Zac Efron in it called "17 Again," but it looks pretty good. If nothing else, I understand the concept. Who wouldn't want to go back and change things? Well maybe some of you out there lived a perfect life and everything was great, but I'm not one of those.

No . . . I experienced a lot of great things in my teen years and in my early 20's (the fact I'm having to type early 20's makes me shiver!), but I also had my fair share of crap . . . most caused by me, myself, and I . . . you know, the three headed monster. You know looking back, I deserved to have been thrown away somewhere. God had every right and reason to forget about me and find someone else to do his plan.

It seemed like everything He gave me I messed up and abused it in some way. I hurt good people. I disappointed many more. I made a constant mess of my life and those associated with me. I was emotinally driven instead of faith based. I was a luster, not a lover. I was after the pleasures of this world while trying to keep one foot on the side of Heaven. And you would think after all the many ways God would get my attention, I would have listened before I finally did. I'm hard headed and stubborn, strong willed and fiery. I know God has forgiven me and I believe I've forgiven myself, but still there are those days when the memories of yesteryear . . . the good and the bad (and probably the ugly too!) come rushing in like flood waters after two weeks worth of Georgia rain. I think of the people I've known in my life and I know the marks I left were probably negative in many ways. If you're one of those people and you're reading this, I'm sorry. If I could change it, I would. If I could go back and not take advantage of you, I would. If I could go back and not have been so hard headed and hard hearted, I would.

I know we learn from our mistakes and what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I preach that constantly. I know God can and does and has taken my blotches and made something out of them . . . Yet from time to time, I'm humbled again to remember where I was and somehow by the grace of God where I am today.

Randomness in the Morning

2009-04-16T08:29:00.003-04:00

I was supposed to go to a Braves game today, but I'm still not up to par. The doctor told me Tuesday that I have a sinus infection, ear infection, and that my asthma has progressively been getting worse. She hooked me up with an antibiotic and three inhalers. She said my lungs sounded like an accordion! So occasionally throughout the day, more times than not, my head feels like it's going to explode . . . I can't breathe . . . and my ear feels like if it had a knife it would stab me repeatedly.

I watched American Idol last night. I love American Idol. Been watching it since it first debuted. Kelly Clarkson's still my girl! I wasn't surprised Matt was voted off, but I was disappointed that he got the save to stay. Simon obviously didn't want to, but you could tell the other judges wanted to save him before he ever sang for his chance to stay. I like Matt and all, but a lot of crazy things could happen in the next two weeks too. Anybody heard of Daughtry or Jennifer Hudson?

I'm reading Perry Stone's new book "Breaking the Jewish Code." Man this book is great. It's been awhile since I've started on a book and looked forward to reading it. Awesome stuff in it. I know some folks aren't in to Perry using all the writings not in the Bible and Josephus and all, but seriously, get over it. It would be one thing if the man was using these resources to say something the Bible wasn't saying. But to each his own.

Have a good day blog world. I guess since I'm not going to the game, I'll be trying to get a little work done here and there.

I'm a murderer

2009-04-15T23:07:00.003-04:00

I've killed many bugs in my life. I've accidentally hit animals with my car (possum, bird, goat - don't ask). But yesterday I felt so horrible. I killed a bee.

This was a bumble bee. It was a mad one at that. I'm guessing it came when one of our doors came open and it was flying all over the house banging into stuff and buzzing very loudly. It chased the dog some and I knew I had to do something. It wanted to go out, but how do you soundly usher a bumble bee outside without getting stung? So in our best interest, I sprayed some bug spray on the bee. What followed made me feel horrible . . . .

The bee immediately got angrier and started banging into the window. Then it started turning flips all the while buzzing. And then it fell off the top of the window onto the window pane and continued turning flips and buzzing. The bee was dying right in front of me a slow and painful death. He then flipped himself on the floor and began running in circles on his back. The whole time he was buzzing but as every second passed, the buzzing got quieter and quieter. Finally, he quit buzzing and it was over. I know it was just a bee, but I don't guess I've really ever seen anything actually go from being fine to dying. Call me a softey and a wuss, but I felt horrible.

Let me try to make this spiritual. Like the bee trying to get out, many times there are dreams and visions just dying to break out of us. Little glimpses show up here and there, but if we're not careful, we'll allow the words of others to "spray" death on them. What follows is a slow painful death of a dream. One saying goes like this, "old habits die hard." I beg to differ . . . . Dreams die hard. It's painful. And I started thinking . . . all of us have played the part of the bee at one time. All of us have played the part of mean ol' murderer (me). In either case . . . if your bee is trying to get out, don't be afraid to take the risk of opening a door or a window to see what happens. Yeah, it could backfire and you get hurt or disappointed, but at least you know. And, if you're the one with the spray can in your hand . . . don't do it . . . but if you must, step on it. It's quicker and easier.

Starting Over

2009-04-15T11:20:00.000-04:00

It's been almost a month since I've blogged. I took a much needed vacation from internet posting altogether. I started seeing something in me that I didn't like. Ever so slowly, a temptation was rising up in me to compete or to at least look competitive. Competitive in what you ask? Well . . . everything.

In my other blogging, I did Sunday recaps. The temptation was always to try to make the service sound better than maybe it actually was. This didn't happen all the time, but at the risk of it looking as if we had an off day to readers and maybe church members, I would sugar coat the truth. Nobody's fault but my own. Then of course, I got to thinking about my reasoning for posting Sunday recaps. Is my blog really my blog, or is it a church blog? Am I blogging my true thoughts, or am I blogging what I wish people would think about me and maybe my ministry? Honestly, I've felt quite hypocritical many times. There were many times I left our Sunday services scratching my head wondering what in the world happened only to blog that "we had a good service." I'm just trying to be honest here.

In a world and occupation where the natural tendencies to fight are those of competition and measuring up, I found my blog to be another fight rather than a place to express myself, my thoughts, and my feelings. Reading back, I mostly only blogged about church events. People in my church did read them and I got some great comments, so I recognize the importance and impact blogging about church happenings can have. This is why I've decided to separate the two. In the coming weeks, I'm going to develop a church blog in which anyone in ministry at the church can use and post on. It will hopefully become the official place for Perry Crossroads Church of God feedback and discussion. As for my blog . . . sorry to disappoint, but you're just going to get me. It'll be my thoughts, my struggles, my feelings . . . me. I may or may not talk about a Sunday service, but if I do, it'll be my honest interpretation.

Hey, I'm not trying to be selfish here. I'm not trying to be something I'm not. I think one thing I've learned over the past month is that people in general are tired of watching preachers put the "S" on their chest every time they are in public whether that be in the community or on the internet. When many people's dreams have crashed to the ground in the wake of reality, they want to see someone in reality that still has the ability to dream. I want to be that kind of person.

So here's to the new start. New site. New blog. New beginning. Hope you enjoy. I know I will.