Gilbert Thurston

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

My 20th Spiritual Birthday

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The picture above was taken a few weeks ago in front of Coral Ridge Church, in Ft. Lauderdale. FL.  I had Lisa snap it to commemorate my 20th spiritual birthday, which is today.

In 1962 the pastor of this church began a program that helped his congregation share their faith with others.  It quickly caught on an spread to other churches throughout the world.  On July 27, 1993, two men (Keith Skidmore and Marvin Bower) who were involved in this program at their local church in Maryland showed up on my doorstep on a hot summer night.

For the first time in my life, someone explained to me what Jesus, Christianity and the Bible were really all about in a way that made sense.  Up until then I thought it was about following a bunch of rules but they explained how I could never be good enough to keep all those rules and that what Jesus really wanted was a relationship with me.  So right there on the front porch I asked for His forgiveness and leadership and prayed that we could have the kind of friendship that these two men said we could have.

Here we are 20 years later and Jesus has never let me down.  He not only became my friend, but my best friend.  He’s helped me to become more than I could ever possibly hope or imagine.  He’s constantly challenging me to grow in my  relationship with Him and others.  Most importantly He continues to forgive even when I do stupid sinful stuff that isn’t in my or His best interests.

Having just physically turned 40 last month, I’m now basically at the point where I’ve lived half my life following the devil’s plan for happiness and success and half my life following God’s plans and purposes.  Let me say unequivocally that this half has been far better.  Yes sin has pleasure for a short time, if it didn’t we wouldn’t do it  ;)   But if we can take a long term approach and be disciplined to following God’s plan, the joy and the peace of mind that comes with it far surpasses and pleasures that Satan or the world may offer us.

So what about you?  If God could take a sinner like me and give me a new life, He can do it for you as well!  Want to talk about it?  Let me know and I can share what was shared with me 20 years ago today…trust me…you want to here it…it’s both life and eternity changing!

Happy 19th Birthday to Me!

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Sorry I haven’t blogged in awhile…sort of got burnt out on it but I couldn’t resist today.  Why?  Because today I turn 19!  “Ummm Gilbert good try but you are a lot older than 19”.  Yes physically I am but today marks 19 years since I became a follower of Jesus!  This also means that I’ve now spent 19 years serving the devil and 19 years serving Jesus.  Now don’t get me wrong…I had some good times during those first 19 years (many times too good of times) but I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that these last 19 have been far better.

If you’re interested in hearing more of how and why it happened and some of the results since then, I’ve written about them before on spiritual birthdays:

How it Happened

Why It Happened (if you don’t read any of the others at least read this one)

How It’s Changed Me

Inside Today’s Experience

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  • Another great day!
  • Saw 8 more people give their lives to Jesus!
  • Had a lot of new people doing “First Serves” today.
  • So awesome seeing people step up and use their gifts, skills, talents and abilities to serve others.
  • Great having church planters, Luke and Sabrina from Raleigh, North Carolina with us this morning observing what was happening and then having lunch with them at the Rock Bass Grill.  Holy cow is that some good food.
  • Also awesome having Aaron Hoke leading worship for us today.
  • Aaron is normally one of our guitarists but with Bill away for a few weeks while he and Meghan welcome a new child into the world, Aaron is stepping up and did great!
  • FYI, Meghan was there today along with Bill…she’s now past due by a couple of days…they’re hoping for a Leap Year baby now.
  • As I told Bill, “The good thing is you only have to buy birthday presents every 4 years, the bad news is the kid will live with you for 72 years”.  :)
  • Not a lot else to report for the day…pretty smooth.
  • I preached part 2 of the Sun Stand Still series on how to turn your pitiful prayers into powerful ones.
  • Based on Facebook comments, it apparently was a good and convicting message.
  • You can listen to it here as I taught on how to pray using an acrostic for the word ASK.
  • Next week we’ll wrap the series up by looking at what to do when opposition comes to your new life of faith.  See you then…hopefully with a friend or two.

Inside Today’s Experience

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  • Just waking up from a 2+ hour nap!
  • Very tiring yet productive day.
  • Had 5 more people make professions of faith in Jesus!
  • That now puts us over 150 since we launched 15 moths ago…amazing…thank you Jesus for allowing us to be a part of building your kingdom!
  • For some odd reason I was wide awake this morning at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep.
  • It was weird having so much extra time this morning to get ready…sort of cool…but thus the 2 hour nap!
  • After a couple of nice warm weather days, I almost left the house with only a hoodie on but then thought better and put my winter jacket on.
  • Glad I did…it was freezing setting out signs this morning.
  • The technology gremlins were out in full force this morning during set-up.
  • Nothing too major but just a lot of little things that were annoying.
  • Grateful for Andy, Mike and Cris and their willingness to keep troubleshooting until everything worked perfectly.
  • Had a lot of people email/text/call in sick so we were short-staffed for serving but was able to get all the serving roles filled.
  • Despite a lot of sick people out, we had a pretty decent size crowd today and they came fired up.
  • Love when the crowd is engaged fully in worship!
  • I wrapped up the “Little Faither” series by looking at the story of Elijah worrying after Jezebel threatens his life.
  • You can
  • I really enjoyed preaching this series…in fact one of my favorites since we launched.
  • Had so many people say how helpful it’s been.
  • Even if for no one else, it’s been helpful to me during some stressful times both personally and professionally the past few months as I prepared for it and now finally delivered it.
  • Next week we begin a new series and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s going to happen next week…as a reminder…DO NOT INVITE ANYONE NEXT WEEK!!!!
  • That’s right you didn’t read that wrong…do not invite anyone…this will make a lot more sense once you’re there and see the special surprise we have in store for everyone.
  • Trust me you’ll be talking about this for a long time.
  • So if you’ve ever been to ExponentialChurch.tv, do whatever it takes to be there next week.
  • If you’ve never been with us, then hold off until February 12th.
  • Speaking of February 12th, don’t forget to mark your calendars that we will be sharing communion together in the lobby at 9:10am that morning and then everyone going out to Infinito’s for lunch at 12pm.
  • Should be a great day of sharing life together.
  • Hope everyone has a great week…see you Sunday for our special surprise.

Inside Today’s Experience

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  • Very happy with today!
  • 3 more people started a relationship with Jesus.
  • Many people commented how much they needed to hear and now apply the message I did on having proper priorities when it comes to how to spend our time.
  • As Chad said earlier in the week, today was reset day as far as attendance goes since the last two weeks were holiday weekends.
  • We had a really great sized crowd…hope to keep it going.
  • Alright as for the other details of the day…
  • Nice to be back on a normal schedule and without a lot of extra stuff.
  • Band was done set-up and warm-up early (actually normal time) but after the past few weeks it seemed way early.
  • During set-up, Lisa called me and said her car broke down so I had to run out to get her.
  • Once I got there though it started working again…it’s been acting weird the last few weeks so we’ll have to take it in this week for “repairs”.
  • The band started today with a cover of Coldplay’s song “Paradise”.  As always they did awesome but I know Bill was glad to not have to do any more Wooooo’s…especially that high.
  • Speaking of, he said something awesome during his prayer that Spirit spoke to me about.  He said  that “today was going to be a day where people go God’s way full-heartedly”.  It hit me in the moment that yes as a result of each message people either go FULL-heartedly or FOOL-heartedly.
  • Aren’t you glad we have a choice!
  • Speaking of choices, the message today was about making sure as we start a New Year that we don’t misuse our time chasing our things but instead prioritize our relationship with God and family.
  • The gist of the message was that someone is going to feel cheated, but we get to choose who or what that will be.
  • For the first time ever, I accidentally forgot to put my phone on vibrate and it went off during the sermon.
  • You’ll just have to listen to the message to see how I handled it.  :)
  • Love hanging out in the lobby and hearing people’s stories afterwards…God is doing some amazing stuff in our midst!
  • Next week we start the “Little Faither” series on how to overcome worry.
  • Here’s a Facebook invite you can share.
  • Also as I mentioned today the invite cards got delayed in shipping.
  • If you want some when they come in this week (and you haven’t already let us know), email me and I’ll make sure they get to you.
  • One of our core values at Exponential is that we must all become World-Class inviters.
  • Please help to do your part to make sure your family members, friends, neighbors and co-workers come out for this series!
  • This is such an easy series to invite people to since everyone wants to overcome worry…don’t waste this golden opportunity.