- No…I’m not dead from the killer candy bar…but it was touch and go there for awhile.
- I’m pretty pumped up about this weekend…I think God is going to change many lives for the better.
- Last night’s practice was a lot of fun…we were all in a sort of goofy mood afterwards during our normal prayer time….it’s nice serving together and making a difference for Jesus with people you genuinely enjoy being around.
- Today is my day off so I’ve been just relaxing, doing some reading and playing Wii. I bowled a 279 earlier. I had strikes in the first 7 frames…in the 8th I left one pin standing on my first ball and then picked up the spare on the second. After that I struck out the rest of the way.
- Tonight is the coffeehouse…come on out and listen to the bands and grab a drink in our cafe’ from Susan of Heavenly Grounds.
Archives for April 2008
Random Wednesday Thoughts
- To file under the “Further Proof Gilbert is an Idiot File.” I had a sweet tooth earlier so Lisa gave me a “healthy” chocolate candy bar…it was huge and oh so good. Since it’s “healthy” I I kept eating and eating and eating…my stomach hurts.
- I’m also still reeling from the Caps losing a Game 7 overtime thriller last night.
- Seriously I hope I don’t puke…my stomach really hurts.
- Speaking of things that make you sick to your stomach. Someone has twice now in the past month stolen CAYA’s food and drinks from out of the refrigerator at church. It is clearly marked as CAYA’s stuff but yet someone persists in doing this. If it’s you and your reading this, please realize that you’re hurting a ministry and that in effect you are stealing from God. Really I could care less about the food/drinks, but I do care about your soul…please stop sinning against God and His church in this way and do the right thing.
- Not only has this week’s message been getting a lot of hits on the web-site, but I’ve been excited to see that literally dozens of you have downloaded last years Mind Your Own Businessseries like I suggested. Way to go…now put the principles into action and watch as God leads you to financial margin and to a place where you can be radically generous to those in need.
- We discussed this past week’s message last night in small group and we all agreed that one of the big problems in our country is we have too many choices. We have so much stuff, but yet because of the fact there’s all this other stuff we don’t have, were never content, which leads to buying more and more, which leads to a life without margin and full of stress.
- Dan reminded us of this verse.
- Hey have you noticed that new feature on the site? I looked up that verse by using the “Bible Search” link that’s now available on the left side of your screen.
- In this case, I knew the word contentment was in the verse, so I typed that into the Bible Search box and boom it spit back to me the different verses that I was looking for.
- Hope this new feature on the site helps you get more into God’s Word than ever before.
- Speaking of…tonight is our Wednesday night classes. I know for me, participating in the Men’s group…especially my small group…is a highlight of my week. If you haven’t tried out a class on Wednesday yet, give it a try.
- My stomach is starting to feel a little better…remind me never to do that again.
Check it Out!
One of my spiritual heroes has begun blogging…check it out here.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Another great Experience!
- The process of getting there…uhhh not so much.
- The morning started out ok except for the terrible weather which as I thought ended up keeping a lot of people home.
- During set-up it took me 3 times to get the computer booted up that runs the lighting software. Then later I noticed the computer had died…and by died, I mean it died and so we had to go to a back-up.
- Then during practice this morning our digital drum set died. Luckily Dr. Andy as you can see in the picture above was able to operate.
- Basically Andy tore the entire component apart, did some soldering, and reassembled it all in the low low time of 28 minutes.
- I’m so thankful for Andy’s knowledge and for the fact we thought enough to add a little work area in the AV closet.
- The bad part was he never finished up until about 15 minutes before we were to start…uh yeah I was getting nervous.
- Once we got started though, I thought the band had one of their best sets ever.
- Great energy from them and the crowd.
- Jan Krull ran lights today for the first time and did a great job.
- Someone (I guess that would be me) forgot to turn the Air Conditioner on so wow was it hot.
- I thought the message went fine…I was really unsure whether to share the story at the end or not, but I had quite a few people afterwards tell me that they were glad I did and that it was a real wake up call to them to get their financial priorities straight.
- I really did think I had left my mic on during the announcement video and thought, “Oh no everyone just heard me gulping water.” It made me think of the scene from the Naked Gun where Lindsay Nielsen forgets to take his mic off before going to the bathroom.
- I wasn’t kidding about how when I mentioned next week’s message would be about sex eveyrone’s heads popped up and looked at me….hilarious.
- Seriously though, next week’s message on sexaul temptation and getting margin in your morality is something so many people need to hear…do whatever you can to get people there with you.
- I’m not sure what created our technical problem with the mic at the end…ahhhh I hate things like that.
- Oh well considering how much worse things could have been with all of our equipment dying earlier in the morning, I guess I’ll take it.
- Funniest line of the week came from a 7 year old who told her mom after last week’s Experience…”Mom I just don’t have any financial margin at all.”
- Funniest story of the week was about one of our members who was in a department store the other day and really tempted to buy a treadmill. She shared though that every where she turned there I was saying no…I was on the TV screens saying it…my face morphed onto other people’s heads, etc.
- Ok nap time…my big ole meal from Red Robin is starting to kick in.
Insider Language…The Big Reveal
Ok, the other day I shared some phrases that only mean something to me and 1 or 2 people. Read it here to see why I did it, but to follow is some of the who’s and the why’s.
- “Schmoopie.” This is one between Lisa and I and comes from a Seinfeld episode where I believe it was George and his girlfriend at the time called each other schmoopie as their pet name for each other. In the episode they were obnoxious with it. We thought that the episode was hilarious and jokingly started calling each other that for the next week…now here we are 10+ years later and we still have variations of it that we sometimes call each other.
- “That’s awesome.” This one is my friend Aaron’s favorite phrase recently. He said the inspiration came from hanging out with Andy and I (whom we both way over inflated opinions of ourselves…especially when were working together). So Aaron saw this commercial, thought of Andy and I and thus a new catchphrase was born.
- “Oh carp.” Andy and I are huge perfectionists. I saw an ad for a t-shirt that says on the front side…”I’m a Prefectionist.” Notice the misspelling…and then on the back it says, “Oh Carp.” This became our phrase while spending many late hours getting the tech side of the new building completed.
- Another one for the same person…”I’ve upped my standards…” Yet another one from Andy and I and also seen on t-shirts and bumper stickers. The full phrase of course is “I’ve upped my standards, now up yours.”
- “Say hello to Carlos, or Juan, or Jose’ or whatever his name was.” This is the newest one on the list and it belongs to Andy’s wife Gayle. It’s a pretty funny story but I’ll let her decide whether to tell it or not….or you can just bug her to death until she does.
- “How long is the line? Very good.” Hmmm, just realized this one took place 2 years ago today. Lisa, Andy, Gayle and I were all in Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcaster’s convention and there was an exhibit to see the next generation beyond High-Definition television, but you had to wait in a line to go into the “movie theater” like room. This technology is coming from Japan and the people working for the company spoke very little English. We really wanted to see it, but the line was incredibly long…I kept asking the guy different variations of the question, “how long will we have to wait in line” but he always responded with a slight bow and the words “Very Good!” Finally we gave up.
- This is for two people…”Sheetz is hiring.” This one is for Adam and Brian on the worship team. Both are and have been searching for jobs for months. Since I love Sheetz, it’s always my recommendation to them. They always laugh at me, but I think I’m wearing them down.
- For siblings…”Peace in the middle east…Word to your mother.” Contrary to popular belief, my favorite style of music is not rock, but rather R&B, Hip-Hop and Rap. So Brian and Kelli Miller were shocked when I broke out some old school phrases on them one day. Now we occasionally throw out some of these phrases just in our random conversations with each other.
- “Thank you Jesus that no one was injured during this job.” This was a quote from Stan our Pastor of Visitation during the dedication service of the new building. Andy and I quickly shot each other a glance and just started busting out laughing because we knew of all the blood that we and others had shed during the construction process. Thankfully though Stan was right…no major injuries occurred which is remarkable considering the amount of people and the complexity of the project.
- “Hello loser.” This is one between Gene our Youth Pastor and myself. The context comes from when Dan Patrick used to have his radio show on ESPN and would interview Bob Costas. Apparently for like 12 consecutive years they were both nominated for sportscaster of the year, and every year Costas would win. I loved it when Dan Patrick would have Costas on his show because he’d always start by saying, “Let’s welcome 12 time sportscaster of the year Bob Costas to our show.” And Costas would always start by saying, “Hello loser.” Well the first week Gene bought the Wii for the youth room he and I played every game on it and I won them all. The next day I had to go into his office for something and when I walked in he said, “Hi” to which my response was “hello loser.” Now it’s sort of stuck and I still sometimes break it out although he now beats me from time to time in Wii games.
- “Use dynamite…save time.” Another one between Lisa and I, but one she hates. This came from watching an episode of Winnie the Pooh with my sister as a kid and I think it was Tigger said this phrase about something. In any case, I still break it out when a solution is needed to a problem and Lisa just rolls her eyes.
- “I said all that to say this.” What will inevitably be on the tombstone of my first pastor after I got saved and then later my boss in my first ministry position. I love him to death, but he was/is a very long-winded speaker. In fact, I heard that just recently one of his messages went for 75 minutes. A part of the reason is that he’ll get off on rabbit trails and when he finally catches himself he’ll say, “I said all that to say this” and then he’ll go on with the point he was trying to make.
- “GDT#3 don’t mess with me.” I grew up during the days of wrestling making a big public comeback…me and all of my friends were little Hulkamaniacs. Of course we all loved to wrestle and came up with our own names. So this is one my sister would get because she joined in on the fun and was Tough Tara T…I took on the persona of GDT#3. That’s simply my initials and since I’m the Gilbert Thurston III, and since “t” and “3” rhyme it just made sense to me.