- I didn’t post yesterday because I was still recovering from all the food on Tuesday night.
- I ate…2 skewers full of shrimp, a half rack of ribs, a nicely marinated piece of chicken and not 1 but 2 steaks.
- That doesn’t include the sides and of course dessert.
- Good thing I have a high metabolism!
- Yesterday and really for that matter the last few weeks have been intersting in that I’m getting a lot of questions in many different forms from people who are really questioning Christianity.
- Some are genuine seekers, some are agnostic and some are big-time anti-God, anti-Jesus, anti-Bible, etc.
- Picked-up some new books this past week, one of which will hopefully help in answering some of these tough questions.
- I know were just starting a new series this weekend, but I’m going to go ahead and announce on Sunday what the next series is…pretty excited!
- Today is Andy’s birthday…Happy birthday OLD friend.
- Got the DVR all set for tonight….between the Redskins game, the last night of the Republican National Convention and coming down to the wire on Big Brother…I’ll have enough to keep me up way past my bed-time.
- Good thing Friday’s are my “day off” and I can sleep in!
- Speaking of the RNC…it was pretty boring as compared to the DNC…until last night. WOW!
- Continue to pray for my ankle…it’s starting to throb again the last few days.
- I hear Earl out in the hallway busily getting ready for tonight’s membership class…not too late to join him at 6:30 or sign-up for the next one on October 4th.
- Only 11 more days until our new Creative Arts Pastor, Aaron Schwindt starts here at CFCOG.
- Looking forward to you getting to know him…more details to com ein the blog soon.
- Yeah, I know I said that last week as well…patience.
- Uhh-ooo…spell checker is not working…if you made it this far…congratulations.
Other Weekend Thoughts
- Think I “drank” too much of the dunking booth water…plus I was really cold afterwards so I was fighting a minor bug all weekend so we pretty much took it easy.
- Rented a couple of movies. “21” was decent but predictable. “Vantage Point” was really unique but in order to fit all the uniqueness in, they couldn’t develop the plot all that well…however both would be worth your time…they were entertaining.
- Just couldn’t get a good feel for the message so I spent much more time than usual on Saturday continuing to work on the delivery part.
- Still wasn’t happy with 9:15 but by 10:45 I thought it was acceptable but definitely not a home-run.
- Saturday night we went to the Miller household to see their daughter Stephanie who was in town for the first time since her bad car accident many months ago.
- She’s a walking miracle…prayer really does work.
- Brian set-up karaoke and I just couldn’t resist doing the classic Right Said Fred song, “I’m too Sexy.” Really it wasn’t the singing part I wanted to do, but the walking the catwalk part.
- I did just enough for Lisa to laugh and for me to be embarrassed.
- Not sure why she’s always found this song hysterical but I do what I can to make her smile.
- I don’t like to be out on Saturday night’s that I have to preach so we left at 9PM…yes everyone called us old.
- Met with a guy on Sunday whom United was created for.
- He’s truly trying to figure out this whole Jesus thing…and has a lot of great questions.
- He tried to apologize for the questions and even the way they were presented…but I quickly told him not to worry about it…because it’s guys like him that were trying to reach.
- I then said something clearer than I’ve ever said it…I told him that there are literally hundreds of churches in our area that can keep Christians happy, but only a handful are designed to help guys like him discover what Jesus is all about.
- Sunday night we ate Chinese with some friends and then played cards.
- Yesterday on Oxymoron day I actually did labor until lunch time and then took it easy.
- The highlight was the season premiere of Prison Break…love that show!
- Today is catch up day since yesterday was supposed to be a benefit.
- Since Sunday’s still roll around every 7 days, holidays are actually a bad thing for me because it just means I’m behind.
- Tonight we’re getting together with our small group to celebrate a couple of birthdays.
- From what I remember, the grill will be cooking up steaks, ribs, shrimp and other goodies will be served as well!
- Yet another reason to love small group!
Inside Today’s Experiences
Thursday Thoughts
- Over 200 middle and high schoolers and a total of almost 300 people showed up last night for the Edge party.
- Our youth pastor, Gene Reinemen and his team did an incredible job of making this an awesome event for the kids right before they went back to school.
- The Safety of Routine and the Ryan Payne Bandprovided the music, while Brad Mowry inspired the kids to make a difference this school year.
- Of course there was plenty of food, treats, prizes and games.
- The entire staff took turns in the dunking booth.
- I love how much Earl gets into these things…he was all dressed like a dunking booth jester and had plenty of one-liners to heckle them with.
- Somehow I drew the short straw and was in last.
- Got dunked about 20 times and got colder and colder as the night progressed.
- I had plenty of one-liners all prepared but for some reason most of the people throwing at me were in the 6-10 age range.
- Sort of hard to tell a 6 year old that he throws like a girl when it might cause him to cry, give up sports all together or have a negative self image for the rest of his life.
- I’m going to speak at the prison tonight…maybe I’ll try a few of the lines there…ummm on second thought…maybe not.
- In any case, it was a great event!
- Today Earl challenged Heidi Pisle to a 3 balls each challenge in the dunk tank.
- Earl went in first but Heidi missed.
- Earl didn’t…Heidi was soaked.
- Just finished up staff meeting…
- We have a lot of fun with one another…but we still get things done!
- Got a few meetings yet, then some programming for the weekend, followed by speaking at the jail and then catch the end of the worship team practice.
What Do You Care About?
I once heard Billy Graham say that if you knew the cure for cancer, he found it highly unlikely that you would keep that info to yourself. But yet as Christians we know the cure for sin but are often afraid to share it with others.
How crazy is that! I read something this morning along the same lines and want to share it with you…
If you REALLY believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ then why in the world would you show up at church every single Sunday without a carload of people who need Him?
Does Jesus save? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Does He change lives? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Has He called us to REACH OUT…or be obsessed with other things?
Jesus said in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek & save that which is “lost!”
If that was the heart of Jesus…and Jesus lives in our hearts…then that HAS TO BE IN OUR HEARTS AS WELL!!
We CANNOT claim to be followers of Jesus and NOT CARE ABOUT WHAT HE CARES ABOUT!!!
Remember one of our core values…lost people matter to God and therefore they must matter to me.
This Sunday as we wrap-up the God at the Box Office series, I’ll be sharing insights from The Dark Knight. From start to finish I’ll be sharing the good news that Jesus loves us and came to die for us.
So the question is…are you going to keep this good news to yourself? Or are you going to invite a carload of people to come with you this weekend? Your answer says a lot about your faith and your priorities.