Gilbert Thurston

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

Friday Thoughts

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  • Turns out that not only did I lose a lot of sleep on Wednesday night, but we lost a bunch of our shutters as well.
  • Late Thursday morning I started finding them and kept chasing after them for quite a distance.
  • By the time I had collected them all, I had 7-8 under my arms, but I had to walk into the wind.
  • I might as well have been an airplane…for every 3 steps forward, I got blown back 2.
  • Now I’ve got to file insurance claims and all that good stuff…great…like I don’t have anything else to do.
  • Speaking of airplanes, I was a bit shaken up by the crash this morning in Buffalo.
  • I have flown into that airport at least 8-10 times, sometimes under icy conditions like they had today.
  • I’m quite thankful that in the hundreds of flights I’ve been on, only 1 ever had some sort of emergency.
  • Speaking of emergencies…attention guys reading this blog…tomorrow is Valentine’s Day…if you don’t want to be killed, make sure you’re doing something nice for your sweetie.
  • Had a great time speaking last night at the prison…about a dozen guys showed up and I shared with them the message from the Pursuit series on Overcoming Adversity.  They really got into it and 2 guys got saved!
  • Ok…one final shout out asking you to please, please, please, invite someone to come with you this weekend.  I believe this is going to be a very freeing message for so many and lives can truly be changed.
  • Also don’t forget that at 10am we will be doing baptisms in the sanctuary…this means the 9:15 United will be dismissed early and those that normally come at 10:45 should show up early.

    • Random Thoughts on a Thursday

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  • Anyone else have trouble sleeping last night with all the high winds blowing through?
  • To put things into perspective…my mom when I was a kid could vacuum my room in the morning and I’d still be sound asleep.
  • So last night to be woken up by the winds making the house shake was rare for me.
  • Lisa and I kept moving to various rooms to find one that was quietier.
  • Finally I just put ear plugs in and went right off to sleep.
  • It’s 10:15 and she’s still in bed…don’t think she was so lucky.
  • The last few days have been great having Lamont in town to speak with us each night. 
  • He’s the real deal and we were blessed to be able to have him here.
  • He asked me to call him last night at midnight to make sure he was still awake on his drive back home.
  • He sounded alert and was within 2 hours of seeing his “mother-in-laws favorite daughter”.
  • You know how almost all famous actors want to be singers and singers want to be in the movies?  Well it’s like that sometimes for us as pastors…
  • I love Lamont’s style and quite honestly I’m jealous of it, but God keeps reminding me that He created me in a unique way and I just need to be the best Gilbert I can be…
  • So don’t expect this week as we wrap-up our Pursuit series to hear how Benaiah was big, bad, bold and brave.  Or how in the midst of our situation he is an inspiration for our continuation.
  • Actually, I’m really excited about this final message in the series…invite someone to come with you as we’ll discover what it means to say Jesus came to free the fool that lives inside of you.
  • And we’ve got a free gift for everyone this week that I think you’ll find sort of cool.
  • No this isn’t Oprah…you’re not getting a car…sorry.
  • I’m speaking at the prison tonight so please be praying for that…I’m going to share with them some of Benaiah’s story and how we can never allow what’s wrong with us to keep us from worshipping what’s right with God.
  • I got quite a few more e-mails yesterday with potential questions for the “You Asked For It” series.
  • Remember if you have a question that you’ve always wondered about and you’d like to hear me preach a message on it, send them to me at gilbert@unitedworshipexperience.org.  Or we’ll be collecting them again this week on inserts if you wish to remain anonymous.  From there we will collect the top 8 or so then have you vote on which 4 make the final cut.

    • Inside Today’s Experiences

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    • As promised in today’s message, here are the Fasting Guidelines to help you in this spiritual discipline.
    • Another great day!
    • New attendance record!
    • It was great having the opportunity to briefly interview Lamont Monford at the start of each Experience.
    • Come on out each night starting tonight through Wednesday, at 7PM to hear him speak.
    • Wow…unbelivable that we had him on the “anniversary” of his mother’s murder.
    • God is doing some awesome things all around us including I know of at least 3 people that just annoucned pregnancies and a couple told me this morning that they got engaged last night!
    • Thought today was one of the better days we’ve had as far as each Experience being equally exciting.
    • Lots of days there is an obvious “better” one…but today I thought everything went great and the energy was equally high in both.
    • I know fasting is not a popular subject to talk on, but I felt good that I had delivered what God wanted people to hear…what they do with it is now between them and God.
    • I was so excited to annoucne the series that is coming up in mid-March called “You Asked For It”. 
    • In case you missed it, we are going to take your questions and develop a series around what you want to know.
    • So if you’ve ever thought, “I wonder what the Bible has to say about ___________?  Or if you’ve thought, “Is it ok for a Christian to ________?  Let us know!
    • My e-mail address is gilbert@unitedworshipexperience.org. Trust me no question is too weird or strange so let me hear from you!
    • Got to get going, we’re taking Lamont out to The Orchards for lunch…mmmmm…can’t wait.

    My First Blog Entry

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    Remember the song that said, “signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs…”  Well blogs are everywhere as well.   So why one more?  Uhhh, because I want to…because I think it will make me cool?  No, really it’s just a chance for me to get my thoughts out of my head and allow anyone else that wants a peek inside my cluttered mind a chance to observe organized chaos.  So sit back, relax, and let’s have the blogging begin.