- I’m getting really excited about this weekend as we continue the One Prayer series. Perry Noble is such an awesome communicator and you’ll be inspired to do great things after hearing him speak about becoming dangerous.
- Make sure you invite someone.
- Also don’t forget that this Sunday morning at 9:30 is the vote for the hiring of a Creative Arts Pastor. Please come out and support this important next step in the future of CFCOG.
- I’m getting ready to go visit this afternoon with one of my spiritual mentors throughout the years. He’s my former boss and pastor at the church where I served in MD and its always good to get together to reminisce about the past and challenge each other to do great and mighty things in the future for the Kingdom.
- Hey speaking of, lookwhat I came across yesterday as I was catching up on some of the blogs that I read. It’s a tribute to Matt Orth, the son of our very own Larry and Judy Orth.
- Just looked over and saw the cover of this week’s Sports llustrated lying on my desk with a picture of Tiger Woods on the cover. In case you live on another planet and didn’t hear or see what Tiger did this past week, it was amazing. In fact it was so amazing that even Lisa watched it…and she hates sports. Having just recently had knee surgery, Tiger on a not quite rehabilitated leg, won the Open despite the fact that in the process he ripped his ACL and developed 2 stress fractures in his leg. Not only did he have to limp around the course for 4 straight days, the tournament went into a playoff where Tiger eventually won after an additional 19 holes were played on Monday. It was some of the most riveting drama you could ever watch on TV.
- The lesson I believe for us is that Tiger sacrificed his own body and mentally was tough, to do something as insignificant as win a silly golf tournament…in other words in the grand scheme of eternity it means nothing. We on the other hand have a chance to make an eternal difference in the lives of our families, churches, communities and all around the world, yet we often times shy away from anything that will cause us even the slightest discomfort.
- So what can you do, what can you sacrifice, who can you befriend, what could you give, that physically, mentally, spiritually or emotionally might challenge you, but it would make an eternal difference?
- Don’t think I’ve thought to mention it, but we were finally able to purchase a Wii Fit last week as vacation was wrapping up! They just happened to have one in Best Buy when we walked in and so I grabbed it…made for a nice Birthday present.
- OK to be honest, they actually had 2. I started calling friends whom I know have a Wii to see if they wanted me to grab them one since they are so hard to find. I knew Andy had taken his kids to see a movie so I left a message and after talking to another friend I tried Andy again. He answered, I told him the situation and he said, “Yeah get it.” I was leaning against a shelf around the corner from it at the time and so as i turned the corner much to my horror, I saw a woman bend down and pick it up saying to her husband, “Oh look the have a Wii Fit in stock.” I’m still on the phone with Andy giving him the play by play commentary as this couple stands there and argues about whether to get one or not. Ultimately they decided yes, but I still waited around for about an additional 5 minuted in case they changed their mind.
- Needless to say, Andy is rubbing it in that I have one but he doesn’t.
- It’s awesome though…truth be told, I don’t get nearly the exercise that I should. So this makes exercise both fun and easy (well relatively speaking, I can work up a good sweat and I’m now chronically sore…but that’s a good thing).
- Gotta go…don’t forget to vote this weekend and invite someone to the Experience.
Reticular Activating System
Last night during men’s group I reminded the guys of the phenomenon where when you buy a new car (or at least new to you), suddenly you see that make and model of car on the road everywhere else. The truth is, they were always there, you’re just now recognizing that they are there. In psychological terms this is called your reticular activating system.
We were discussing this in the terms of God opening doors everyday to share our faith either verbally or through acts of service, but that many times we miss them because we haven’t turned on our minds to be conscious of the opportunities the Spirit is presenting us.
In any case, let me encourage you to today become aware of how God is speaking to you through the various things going on in your life. I know for me personally I’m being challenged by Him in many ways and it’s been amazing hearing His voice through the words of others, through e-mails, through books, through even my devotional time this morning in my leadership bible where the topic was EXACTLY the issue I’m dealing with right now. It would be so easy to miss out on these things all together or think it’s just some strange coincidence but eventually even someone as thickheaded as me realizes that “Wait a second this is actually God.” So turn your RAS on, God is waiting on the other side.
Are You Kidding Me?
Well I finally got my laptop back, but they forgot to ship the power cord. Luckily we have another computer just like mine at the church so I can use that cord in the meantime. I just fired it up to start downloading all the missed e-mails (uggg) and my new screen looks great…it’s awesome being able to use all 17″ of it again and also not to worry that the problem was going to keep getting worse (which it was). Ok, looks like the e-mails are just about done downloading…later.
Jott
I’ve been meaning to mention this for awhile but just now remembered it. Check out Jott. It allows you to call a toll-free number from your cell phone (or any phone for that matter) and leave yourself a message. What’s so special about that you might ask…well it’s going to leave you an e-mail message…not just a .wav file but an actual transcript of what you said.
I use this all the time. It used to be when I was in the car I either had to try to write something down, remember it, or call my home phone and leave myself a message. Now I just call Jott, say what I need to say and when I get home…lo and behold there is an e-mail transcript of what I said.
There are other features as well that I won’t get into, but check it out for yourself. If you sign-up…which is free, let me know and I’ll add you to my Jott contacts.
Random Post Vacation Thoughts
- Great to be back in the swing of things!
- I’m a little handicapped though since my laptop will not be back from repair until Wednesday…so I’m having to use my desktop at home.
- It’s amazing how much we can become creatures of habit…it feels like I’m a lot less productive because everything is not in it’s proper place.
- Seriously it took me a minute just to type that last sentence because I keep rearranging the keyboard to be somewhere where it feels comfortable.
- Upon reflection, the funniest thing we saw while on vacation was a sign on a store that said, “In Jesus name we are only open on weekends.” Lisa and I both did a double take and then went back to make sure we had read it right. I guess they must take their Sabbath from Monday-Friday. :)
- Favorite meal…The Seafare Restaurant…I had filet mignon topped with lump crab meat….mmmmm.
- Favorite day…Busch Gardens.
- Favorite activity…my afternoon nap.
- Books I read while away….finished, Made to Stick, then read, I Became a Christian and All I Got Was this Lousy T-shirt , followed by unChristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity…and why it matters then Making Vision Stick.
- I just started 3 more books that I’ll comment on in the future.
- Had a great meeting this morning with Earl…can’t wait to see what God has in store for us next.
- Continuing to hear great comments about yesterday’s message…Craig is phenomenal but wait until you hear Perry next week!
- Speaking of next week don’t forget to come out at 9:30am on Sunday morning for s special meeting to discuss and vote on whether or not to hire a Pastor of Creative Arts.
- Thanks to everyone who filled out the Sunday School questionaires for the “You Asked For It” lesson I was supposed to do during that time. I will keep them and we’ll see about rescheduling the lesson for sometime in the future.
- Well I’m getting this whole keyboard thing figured out…time to get back to kicking the devil’s butt…thanks for teaming with me in accomplishing that…you guys are awesome!
- Hmmm…last note…for some reason the spell check is not working on my desktop…let’s make up a game…How many typos does Gilbert have in one post? Comment leaving your guess and then I’ll have someone smarter than me figure it out later….by the way, I’ll guess 4.