Gilbert Thurston

Random Thoughts About Life, Ministry and Whatever Else Happens to be on my Mind

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • This week so far is picking up where last week left off…crazy!
  • Before I forget…on Saturday I went to the funeral of Brian Miller’s grandfather.  The entire Miller family has been attending United the last few years and wow are they crazy talented. 
  • Brian spoke, his mom read an original poem, his two sisters and brother-in-law sang and his brother produced a very touching video montage of his grandather’s life.
  • I also bought a new video game this weekend…Tiger Woods Golf 2009 for the Wii.  Haven’t got to play it too much yet, but boy do I stink….and I’m sore.
  •  You may remember a few months ago in a message I was talking about the healing power of God and how that week I visited a young girl in the hospital who’s water had broken after only 5 months of pregnancy.  Basically the doctors told her she was going to lose the baby, but God did a miracle and not only did she not lose the baby, but “somehow” her water was restored.
  • The reason I bring all this up is that this morning I got a call from her mom telling me that the baby was born today healthy as can be!
  • Just in case you’re wondering who won the NCAA basketball title this year, my answer is…Maryland!
  • They beat both North Carolina (whom supposed is the national champs) and Michigan State (who were the runner-ups)…in my book that makes them the champs.  Congrats to my TERPS on another great season!
  • Speaking of sports…this morning when I woke up I decided not to shave and to wear my Washington Capitals warm-up jersey…figures then that I had to make a trip up to the hospital…that always happens on the days I’m looking like a bum.
  • Hopefully by now you have made some invites for Easter this weekend…gonna be a great day!
  • In case you’re not a part of the United Group on Facebook, here is the   link to sign-up.
  • Oh yeah…how about my O’s taking it to the Yankees yesterday!
  • Now back to our regularly scheduled blog already in progress…please be praying this week the “3 open prayer”…
    • That God would open doors for you to invite someone.
    • That their hearts would be open to coming.
    • That you would have the boldness to open your mouth and actually make the invite.
  • I guess their is one final open then and that is that their hearts would we open to the message on Sunday…please be praying for me that God give me just the right words to share.

    • Random Thoughts on a Thursday

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  • Not the first time I’ve said this…but I’m an idiot.
  • Was ready to post to the blog and hit the refresh button on the page for some unknown reason, thus causing me to lose everything.
  • So here we go again…3/26/09 blog post version 2.0 this time less sucky.
  • Been a pretty good week!
  • Really excited about Easter coming up.
  • I’m done the message and I’m believing God for 50+ first time professions of faith!
  • Another prayer that I pray on occasion is for God to show favor to Lisa and I in unexpected ways.
  • On Monday we got a check in the mail as a part of settlement for a class action lawsuit.
  • I vaguely remember getting info about this a few years back, filled out my paperwork and then forgot about it.
  • Now I’ve got a check to cash!
  • Funniest thing of the week so far was on Tuesday when Aaron went to clean off the whiteboard in my office with the special fluid.
  • It’s in a spray bottle and when he hit the button he didn’t realize he was holding it backwards and it sprayed him in the eye.
  • Now your saying…”Gilbert I thought you said this was the funniest thing?  Spraying harsh chemicals in your eyes is dangerous”.
  • Mmmmm….you’re right.  (Insert fake sympathy bullet point here)
  • Seriously after taking about .5 seconds to make sure he was ok…he was crying like a little girl…I laughed my head off!
  • The bottle said if sprayed into eyes to flush with water for 15 minutes…uhh yeah right…a good minute later we were back to work…albeit he was still whining.
  • I’m working on some other stuff right now for the church that has the potential to be huge…very excited about it.
  • What I’m not excited about is that the NHL regular season is dragging on and on…come on already…let’s get the playoffs started.
  • Speaking of my sports teams…Gilbert Arenas is planning on coming back for the last 9 games for the Wizards.
  • WHHHHHYYYYYY??????  At this point the best thing that could happen is to lose the rest of the games and get the #1 draft pick.  Why risk that and your health at the same time?
  • Ok realize that was a few sports references back-to-back.  For you ladies who don’t like sports or for any weird guys (you know who you are) that don’t like sports….
  • …who do you like on American Idol?
  • Personally I like Danny and Adam.
  • BTW…Danny and Michael are worship leaders in their churches, while Chris and Lil participate on the worship teams at their churches.
  • For those of you who don’t like sports or American Idol, I’ve got 4 letters for you…
  • LOST
  • Love that show!
  • Alright…gotta get back to work…see you Sunday…let’s pack the place out…I’m talking about temptation…should be powerful!

    • Other Weekend Thoughts

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  • I’m still pretty pumped up about yesterday’s Experience where we discussed Is It Alright For Christians to Drink Alcohol?
  • Aaron, the worship team and creative team have done a great job of making this a very memorable series.
  • One unexpected side benefit from yesterday’s message has been the number of people who have told me or e-mailed me about giving something else up for the 30 day challenge.
  • In other words, they don’t drink alochol, but they are giving up chocolate, coffee, caffine, fast food, Mt. Dew, TV, for 30 days to make sure nothing has higher precedence in their lives than Jesus.
  • I realized yesterday after I sent out Inside Today’s Experience’s that Easter was one year ago yesterday.  This means for the second year in a row we broke our attendance record on the 4th Sunday of March.
  • Friday and Saturday Lisa and I travelled to Cove Valley Camp for a 2-day leadership retreat with about 40 others from the church to pray and discuss about what the next 6, 12 and 24 months may look like in the life of CFCOG.
  • Let me just say…buckle up tight, the adventure is just now beginning.
  • God has such incredible things in store for us to do…the key is staying faithful to Him and trusting in Him more than our own wisdom, the economy, the President or anything or anyone else that may tempt us to stray from the vision He has given us.
  • Was really disappointed to get home and watch my Terps get crushed by Memphis in the tournament.  I at least thought they’d keep it close but Memphis shot the ball incredibly well.
  • This week should be a good one.
  • Sometimes when we get done on Sunday’s I think…”Oh no only 165 hours until we have to do all this again”, but right now I can’t wait for Sunday to get here…
  • We’ll be talking about temptation and I believe God is going to set a lot of you free in amazing ways.
  • As always do whatever it takes short of sin to get someone to the Experience with you.

    • Week in Review

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  • Been a good week!
  • Worst part has been getting up real early almost everyday…like 7am early…I know for some of you that’s rountine, but for me going to bed normally between 12-1am that’s early.
  • Had some really interesting meetings this week. 
  • I know interesting and meetings should never be used in the same sentence but I just did.
  • My sister made it through her shoulder surgery on Monday with flying colors which was a big relief…thanks for the prayers.
  • Got to do quite a bit of hanging out with people this week which was cool.
  • Wednesday Aaron, Adam and I shot a video that will be used for the message on temptation.
  • Got to see a rough cut of it last night and it’s going to be hilarious.
  • At one point we were afraid we might get arrested while shooting…which made it even more…hmmm…how shall I say this…FUN!
  • Last week’s message is “burning up the charts”.  One of our most downloaded ever.
  • I have a feeling that this week’s message on alcohol though will quickly surpass it.
  • I love being able to talk with and help out other churches, so we were honored last night to have a team from Smithsburg Valley Baptist Church come in to check out our equipment and rehearsal.
  • Got home a little after 11 last night and after having sheltered myself all day long from the basketball scores, I sat down to watch Maryland’s game against Cal that I had DVR’d.
  • Yes…go TERPS!
  • In all I had 13 of the 16 games correct on day 1 in my bracket.
  • Today we prepare to head out, with the rest of our churches staff and leaders to our Strategic Planning weekend.
  • Going to be long and exhuasting but well worth the time to pray, think, dream and plan where God would have us go in the next few years.
  • As always, do whatever it takes to get people to church with you on Sunday…I promise you won’t regret it!

    • Random Saturday Thoughts

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  • Let me start by reminding you…DO NOT SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD!
  • We will all do this together after church on Sunday morning.
  • Enjoy the extra hour of sleep that you would have lost otherwise.
  • It was an interesting week…lots going on.
  • Thursday we had CPR training as a staff as well as learning how to use the AED device to shock people’s hearts back into rhythm.
  • Man…hope I never have to do either of those things.
  • Great to have the team from Haiti back home…sounds like they had a great time and got much accomplished.
  • RIP…Circuit City.
  • I can’t wait for the “You Asked For It” series to start on the 15th.
  • We’ve got some surprises in store for you that should be a lot of fun!
  • I’m so glad that the judges did not bring back Tatiana on American Idol…that girl was big time annoying.
  • I’m loving my new phone…it’s helping me to be more productive with time since I can check e-mails and stuff basically anywhere.
  • Mmm…also means my workaholic, Type A personality can work even more hours…maybe this isn’t such a good thing.
  • I’ll finish reading “A Whack on the Side of the Head” today…loved it!
  • Enjoy your nice spring like day…see you tomorrow…again at normal time.