Gilbert Thurston

Have you ever played one of those games where you see a picture from up close of an object and you have to guess what it is?  Well look at this picture that I posted and see if not only you can determine what it is, but also why I took it.  Scroll down to see the answer.

If you guessed it’s a tire you’re correct.  If you’re guessing that the big hole in the middle of it is not a good thing you’d be doubly correct.  Today for the first time ever I got a flat tire.  What’s funny is that the tire is only 1 day old with about 30 miles on it…I don’t care who you are…that works out to be a pretty expensive tire.

Gene came outside to help me and let’s just say that the NASCAR guys should feel pretty secure in their jobs.  Oh well, we got to enjoy about 20 minutes of the beautiful day.  Thank you God for flat tires!?

• In many ways this has been an odd week schedule wise.
• Wow I thought week 1 of the series hit a nerve…the response from week 2 has been through the roof…God is really working in a lot of people’s lives.
• It’s only going to get better these next two weeks as we tackle how to get financial margin into your life.
• For the most part I hate meetings because 95% of the time they are a complete waste of people’s time.  I’ve had a few here though recently that have been very good, productive and will be very beneficial long term to the health and growth of CFCOG…that makes me happy!
• Please pray for Earl’s dad George.  Earl left unexpectedly on Tuesday to head to Arizona to be with him.  The last report I got was his dad was in critical care with lung problems.
• We finally got all of our PA auto stuff taken care of.  Paul Robinson from the church owns a great shop up near the mall and handled all my inspection stuff.  My tires needed to be replaced and Paul told me they were so bald that the only thing keeping me on the road was the Holy Spirit.  If you ever need anything, look him up…he did great work and in a very reasonable time.
• By the way, when I returned my MD tags at the MD DMV, I was in and out of the building in less than 5 minutes…unlike my PA experience…tell me again why I left Maryland?
• We finally ate at Moe’s recently and it’s very good…check it out some time.
• Don’t want to jinx it but I’ve got to say it now while it lasts….the Orioles have the best record in all of baseball!!!!   Folks be ready…Jesus may be returning soon…either that or hell is about to freeze over.
• I’m still sitting on my big announcements…hopefully next week I can unveil 1, if not even both of them.  Here’s a hint though…this summer is going to be unbelievable! 

Imagine if I told you that I was absolutely passionate about the Baltimore Orioles.  Then as a way to keep the conversation going you ask me, “When was the last time you talked to somebody about them?”  Then imagine I said, “Wow, I have no idea. It’s been like forever.” “Wait a second,” you ask, “How often would you say you talk about the Orioles in general?” I think for a second and then answer, “Well, basically never.”

Now ask yourself this question before continuing to read…based on the above do you still believe I’m passionate about them?

If you’re being really honest the answer is no.  So now the obvious questions are…when was the last time you talked to someone about Jesus?  When was the last time you invited someone to church with you?  When was the last time you shared with someone else about all that God is doing in your life?

If the answer is “It’s been a long while” or “I never do that” then it’s time to seriously evaluate just how passionate about Jesus you really are.  The big 3 indicators of passion are:
     1.  What do you spend the majority of your time on?
     2.  What do you spend the majority of your money on?
     3.  What do you most talk about?

We try to make it very easy each week for you to have spiritual conversations with those around you by presenting topics that are relevant to all of our lives.  For the next two weeks I’ll be talking about money and how to avoid all the stress that’s generally associated with it.  So take a chance and invite someone to come along with you this weekend….who knows maybe it will be the first step towards them coming into a relationship with Christ.

BE PASSIONATE!