Anticipation

Anticipation - 1. The act of anticipating. 2. An expectation. 3. Foreknowledge, intuition, and presentiment. 4. The use or assignment of funds, especially from a trust fund, before they are legitimately available for use. 5. Music Introduction on a weak beat of one note of a new chord before the previous chord is resolved. I want to take a few minutes to talk about this word, a word that has changed us as a family the past 9 months. Tara and I were completely out of the baby business. We are very proud of the way that Alexa and P.J. are turning out and continuing to progress through life. Alexa is a very driven, self motivated student and athlete. She is more disappointed in a bad grade than we are. P.J. is a closet nerd, she watches wheel of fortune and jeopardy and reads all the time. She is a sponge of information even when it appears she isn't paying attention she is. BOth of them make us proud in different ways. But, we were completely content with our little 4 person family. Everyone has their own bedroom(one bathroom is rough I will admit) but we were happy. Then, something happened. One morning Tara came to me and said I need to tell you something, what I said. I am pregnant she told me. I didn't react, I just told her let's go to the doctor and make sure before we tell anyone. As luck would have it I sat at a softball game that afternoon making fun of and harassing Freddy and Renee Allen(one of my favorite things to do lol) I was harassing them about their middle child Kaylee. I told them they baby their youngest and spoil their oldest jokingly. Just then, P.J. stopped what she was doing leaned over and told me, "That's called the middle child syndrome Jeff, that's why we aren't having any more kids right?" I was speechless couldn't react, couldn't get a noise to come out so I just laughed. Well, later that week we announced to P.J. that she was going to be a middle child. We went from completely content in life to anticipating an expansion. Tara is probably the best pregnant woman I know. She doesn't slow down one bit, she only put on 18 pounds total. She just keeps on plugging along. She was at the races, at ball games, doing housework and tonight she is going to a flag football game, and a basketball game with me and teh girls. This time tomorrow we will be in a hospital room preparing to have her induced, and praying for a smooth delivery of baby Braelyn(not sure that is teh official spelling lol) and a smooth delivery for mom. I will post a picture later of P.J.'s door, she made a count down to CHristmas but Tara and Alexa don't even care about Christmas they have been counting down to tomorrow, December 18th. Alexa already got all of her make up work and assignments done so that she can miss the rest of the week. Tara is texting me almost every hour telling me how slow her days are going. I anticipate that we will not get much sleep tonight as we toss and turn excited to welcome a new baby girl to teh family officially tomorrow. Thank you God for taking a fast paced, wide opened life like mine and spreading a little extra joy this season. Taking us from a life of day to day, wide opened never slowing down to a life of anticipating God's greatest gift to us, another little life. THanks for reading and have a great day. Odds are I won't be blogging as often over the next several days, but I will be tweeting and updating on facebook!

Hope : A Big God for a Little People

So our series on Christmas and the advent series has taken a different type of turn this year. I am almost always prepared with my sermons months in advance, but things have just been different. I had all 5 sermons ready for December and then one day I was reading letters to Santa and ended up changing one message. Then I felt led to let others share during this season so we started that yesterday with Tanya sharing a lot of her life's struggles and how she overcame them based on the hope that God placed inside her. So the messages got all comboed into one big long one and I am just sharing as much as time will allow each week and enjoying it. So today's blog post will be a little bit short, but still worth the read as we work through the Christmas season and think about the hope, love, joy and peace that was delivered when baby JEsus(our Saviour) entered the world. Hope : A Big God for a Little People—Luke 2:1–5 Have you ever thought at all about God’s ordaining in your life. I mean, I loved baseball and sports and always wanted to play in college. When the opportunity was there, I had no desire to. Why? Why did I have no desire to? God took that desire away, and in its place called me into the ministry. Then, to pay my way through college I worked two jobs, one of which was at a gas station where I met Tara. Then, I ended up in a Psychology class where I was going to have to sit near someone I was feuding with at the time, so I asked Tara to sit between us. We ended up talking after class most every day, I took her on a date and the rest is history. But it all started with God changing my heart and my desires. God goes to a lot of trouble to pre plan the good things in our lives doesn’t He? Have you ever thought what an amazing thing it is that God ordained beforehand that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem (as the prophecy in Micah 5 shows); and that he so ordained things that when the time came, the Messiah's mother and legal father were living in Nazareth; and that in order to fulfill his word and bring two little people to Bethlehem that first Christmas, God put it in the heart of Caesar Augustus that all the Roman world should be enrolled each in his own town? Have you ever felt, like me, little and insignificant in a world of four billion people, where all the news is of big political and economic and social movements and of outstanding people with lots of power and prestige? If you have, don't let that make you disheartened or unhappy. For it is implicit in Scripture that all the mammoth political forces and all the giant industrial complexes, without their even knowing it, are being guided by God, not for their own sake but for the sake of God's little people—the little Mary and the little Joseph who have to get from Nazareth to Bethlehem. God wields an empire to bless his children. Do not think, because you experience adversity, that the hand of the Lord is shortened. It is not our prosperity but our holiness that he seeks with all his heart. And to that end, he rules the whole world. Proverbs 21:1 says: "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." He is a big God for little people, and we have great cause to rejoice that, unbeknownst to them, all the kings and presidents and premiers and chancellors of the world follow the sovereign decrees of our Father in heaven, that we, the children, might be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

more planning

Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. This is an interesting verse and like so many other verses we can take it completely out of context. Yesterday I shared about my ministry goals, today I want to share some of my personal goals. The goals that I set for 2013 for my family were as follows: 1 - Teach my children to love God, to put God first. 2 - Reach the community for Freedom through the sports and events my children participate in. 3 - Teach teh girls and inforce the importance of getting better every day in the things that you do. 4 - Make sure the girls work hard regularly at the sports they want to play and in school. Those goals sound very one sided but they are goals that Tara and I set for the girls and want for them. The funny thing is they all fall under category 1. If I can raise my children up to love God and to put Him first, to live for Him in every aspect of their lives then guess what the other things take care of themselves. People tell me all the time about what awesome athletes the girls are, about how good of students they are and how driven they are and self motivated, well I cannot take credit for that. It's about God, if our children love the Lord then they do everything they do for Him, and if anything is worth doing for Him it's worth giving 100%. Reaching the community is a fun one, it means the places we go, the campuses we are on and the sports teams our kids are a part of need to know that I am a pastor. That we are Christians and that we love God very dearly. They will know this by our actions, by our attitudes and by the way our children compete. This portion has been the easiest part, but yet the most flexible. Why? Because when I started praying over oru goals for this past year I had no plan for a number 3. Braelynn will be joining us next Wednesday and what a huge blessing she is. And, time to work goals for her new portion of our lives. Committing to the Lord whatever you do means before you act, before you say yes or say no to anything you pray over it. And while you are praying over it watch to see if your attitude towards it changes. If it becomes somethign you are more and more motivated towards then God is taking you there. If it is something that you lose interest in, then with out a doubt God was never in it. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

plans and more plans

Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. This is an interesting verse and like so many other verses we can take it completely out of context. I am praying hard for 2014, I am excited about the change for another year of ministry. If I commit to God my plan to fill our sanctuary up by the end of next year it will succeed going by this verse. But here's the problem with that. Last year I set goals for myself, I spend most of December praying over goals for all areas of my life. I have set long term goals for myself, and I use each year to create steps for short term goals that will get me to my long term goals. Ministry: 1 - Find leaders to help reach this community and be truly invested in our ministries at Freedom. 2 - Get the church's attendance to over 100 consistently. 3 - Make the transition from church to ministry. Family: 1 - Teach my children to love God first, to put God first. 2 - Reach the community thru the sports and schooling of my children. 3 - Teach the girls the importance of giving 100% to anything they do sports, school, chores. 4 - Teach the girls to get better in all areas of their lives every day. 5 - Stop living paycheck to paycheck. Work: 1 - become more involved in teh community through the Betty Griffin House. 2 - Do more on campus stuff with sports coaches. Hobbies: 1 - Win a division championship 2 - Win a wally 3 - Win a Track championship Let's look at ministry first today. I was at times depressed and fully beat up at the lack of attendance at Freedom. The number of people that we minister to on a weekly basis that don't go to church on Sunday. I get asked all the time what our numbers are for attendance and then I am quick to cower and say we we are reaching a lot of people most of them don't come on Sundays though.I tell them things like if everyone actually came to church this Sunday we would have X amount of people there. But then, I look at my other goals and yes as a pastor I am motivated and driven to reach our community. But, let's look at number 1 find leaders to help reach this community and be truly invested. That has happened, I no longer mow the grass and I no longer vacuum the church. I am no longer doing all of the outreach for the church like years past. I have families who are taking care of those things. The last few families to join our ministry have been pivotal in taking Freedom from a church to a ministry. Pivotal in assisting me in reaching our community and a huge blessing. I quickly realized last February that if we did have 100 people at church I wasn't ready. We didn't have our childrens' ministry where it should be, I cannot meet all of their needs working another full time job as well as coaching high school softball just to make ends meet. I was exhausted and run down. God knew that and my heart and my prayers shifted quickly to number 1 on my ministry goals list and to number 3 I didn't focus on number 2 at all from April til now. That one can wait, and realize that getting to teh point that we are at now is such a huge blessing and knowing that we have prospered in teh areas that God knew we needed to and not just where my ego wanted to. So you can commit to the Lord whatever you do, but you need to realize that your goals will change as God uses you in the ways that are possible, and He helps you avoid the headaches of accomplishing what YOU want to. I wnat to take a few minutes to thank a few families and people. T.J. Weedman has stepped in and taken the reigns on our music ministry. He is there every sunday morning at 9:00 and I never doubt whether he will be there or not. Phillip WOrthington and Tori are a huge addition to what T.J. is doing and a huge blessing as well I am so grateful for all three of them blessing our hearts every Sunday morning. THe Nix and Gause families for joining our ministry, serving whole heartedly and humbly in so many different capacities. The Rhodens for not only joining and becoming a part of our church family, but for welcoming my family as if we are part of theirs. For their serving in every way they can and taking a huge load off of my plate every week to them I am eternally grateful. To Hali WOrthington for taking over the childrens ministries and giving them direction. Every week we have a different group of kids and knowing that she is there consistently every week loving on them, serving their families and providing them with a message from God's Word on their level is one of the things I have prayed most heavilly for the past 4 years. My mom and dad serve in many ways, my dad is huge because he takes care of my yard, my vehicles and my family when I can't sometimes. He also plans a lesson and leads our small group every week for us and I am so grateful to Him. My mom also pays all the bills, balances the checkbook and helps out in many ways. Jordon and Kyle every week have the power point and sound taken care of. We don't have to worry about any of that and it is huge. The funny thing is sound and power point is the least thanked position in teh church. If everything goes smoothly(99% of the time it does) no one even thinks about sound or power point. If there is a mess up then everyone thinks about it so to those two thank you. Amber Lowe and Hali Worthington opened up their home so that we have somewhere to meet every Monday night for the Bridge. Tanya takes care of the giving records and makes the deposits every week while working more than 40 hours raising an awesome little girl and taking care of a sick brother(who is getting better and better thanks to everyone's prayers). To all at Freedom I thank you for another great year, for another opportunity to serve God here at Freedom. And for those who are wondering, my long term goal is not to pastor a mega church. I have two goals at Freedom long term. 1. To share the Gospel with, pray with and baptize three generations. I want to be able to preach to and baptize the grandchildren of the young people that we have baptized. I don't know what Gods' plans are for me but I would love to say that I have reached three generations of families all in one spot at one church for several decades. Thanks for reading and God Bless! 2. Be full time and be able to minister all week long. I know I left a lot of people out but I am thankful to all who have done so much.

Humbled by serving

Psalm 30 : 8-12 8 To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9 “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? 10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.” 11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever. There is no way you can possibly serve God and not be humbled. I think one of the hugest mistakes we make, and David makes it here is that we put too much value on our service to God. I mean, how valuable are you to God? If you didn't go to church next Sunday, if you didn't show up the places that you go daily like work, school, play, hobbies, home would the people there's lives be any different? We think oh man, God is using me and I am irreplaceable. WRONG! David is attempting to say that, Hey God if I die, if these people who want me dead succeed at it, what do You gain? I am praising you, I am proclaiming your faithfulness if I am gone who will do that. The answer is, the next person God calls to do that. Look at churches all accross America, they are pastored by men and women who are called into the ministry. God called them, placed them there and many of them think they are irreplaceable. God always takes care of his church and His ministries. So, we are all as servants of God replaceable. Moses didn't want to lead, and then once he started leading I am sure he kind of got a big head. He probably thought man am I important. Then, God calls Joshua to step in and not only does he step in but he finishes leading God's people where Moses failed to. The story I like to tell is about a man I call Papa Brown. Papa Brown is the only Papa I have ever really had as both my grandpa and papa died when I was very, very young. So, Papa Brown is a servant of God and loves God and a times loves his church even more. One Sunday the Pastor called and said he was sick and couldn't make it so we had to plan out how to fill his spot. I ended up preaching, another staff member did some of the pastor's duties and we made it. The Sunday went off pretty well and I think it was a great success not just because I was preaching but because there was no angry mob there Monday morning at our offices lol. Well, a few months later Papa Brown was sick. What people didn't realize was papa Brown got to the church a few hours early every Sunday, set the air or heat, turned on teh lights and got the coffee pots started. Well, the Sunday he wasn't there was chaos. No coffee, people were waiting outside to get in early and could not, and Papa Brown's sunday school class all had to go get their own bulletins. The humble servants of God can always be replaced, but it's the true servants that are harder to replace than the pastors. God always takes care of His church and always provides a shepherd where His sheep need one. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Is your faith really childlike?

Sadly at Christmas we all become childlike, but the rest of the year we have an impossible time having childlike faith. I will honestly admit I am a big kid, anyone who knows me knows that. But I am also very driven, so I believe in staying on course and full speed ahead at all times. My coaching side kicks in and I feel like if I am not doing something to better myself I am wasting time. But, from about Halloween on it slowly gets to me. It starts with the great pumpkin Charlie brown, then Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and boom ABCFamily’s 25 days of Christmas takes over my life. I love Rudolph that’s my favorite along with Charlie Brown. P.J. loves the Grinch so we watch that one several times. We all turn into big kids don’t we, thinking about Christmases past and our childhood memories that are so fond. Kids believe in things with all their hearts, whatever it may be. As adults, we have seen so many things in a different light that it makes us skeptical about everything. John 20:24Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Ecclesiastes 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;the more knowledge, the more grief. Doubting Thomas gets a bad rap, but we are just the same, we need proof of so many things that if we are honest we believed more strongly as kids than we do now. It is now “tell the current time” now be honest how many of us looked? You trust me as your Pastor, you trust me to share with you God’s word but you don’t trust me to tell you what time it is? Interesting! The older we get, the more we struggle to believe in things. Why? Because we have a better knowledge of how things work, we realize that the people we looked up to and idolized were just people. Many of us have been let down by people and we gain a perspective of God as if He can ever make a mistake and let us down in some way. “Dear Santa, please get me some things on my list. And there is some fruit salad & water to help your type 2 diabetes. “ There you have it, this young man thinks Santa has diabetes. He is able to fly a sleigh around the world in just a matter of hours, slip down a chimney and deliver millions of toys to millions of kids, but he can’t handle eating cookies and drinking milk. How often do we see a God who made everything, who knit us together in our mother’s womb as if he has a weakness of some sort. God knows everything, and He is all powerful but He can’t get me out of this mess I am in. “Dear Santa, I like you. Do you like me? I would like a DS Mario please. Next year I will give you money. How does that sound? Pretty cool. It does to me. That’s the deal.” We often try to bribe God don’t we. We think in order for Him to forgive us we need to do something. God if you will forgive me I will go to church more, I will read my Bible more or give more to those in need. God sent His Son to die on a cross for your sins, not for your gifts or bribes. He did it because he loves you, not because he wants something in return. We love the people we love in our lives because they love us, hopefully not because they buy us stuff or do things for us to bribe us into loving them. If that is the case that isn’t love anyway. Dear Santa,“We don’t need very many presents. You can give them to people who don’t have money to buy toys.” We think we have it all together, so the sermon must be for someone else. That facebook post or tweet full of Spiritual insight has to be for someone else, not me I am a pillar of Christianity. If you aren’t asking God for anything then you aren’t evaluating your life closely enough. “Dear Santa, I want you to know that I want a puppy, I do not believe in you and I do not think you are real. A lot of us ask God for things just encase. I meet a lot of people who say they want to pray and accept Jesus, and get baptized just encase all the religion stuff is right. Sadly, that is not salvation, that is insurance. God didn’t send His Son into this world for insurance, it was for salvation and love and as a way to pour his grace and mercy out on us. Dear Santa, I would like a new keyboard and some costume jewelry but please don’t go into my private things. Thanks, God I love you, I believe in you whole heartedly. I want to live for you, I want the salvation and the forgiveness, but wait I need to keep this one part of my life mine. You can have these days each week, this time frame each night but this one part is my life and I can’t let you in there. Dear Santa,I know that you already know most of my Christmas list so I won’t bore you with all of the details. I really do want a bike and a bb gun, and anything else you think I might enjoy. And I was just wondering how you eat the hot wings from Domino’s without staining your white gloves. You know the ones you are eating on the Domino’s billboard by my house. Back to doubting Thomas, God I believe in you. I believe you sent your Son to die on a cross for me. But how do you do this……… If you fully understood God He would no longer be God would He? I remember watching magic tricks as a kid and as I got older I figured out how they were done and guess what they were not magic, but they were tricks. God is not magical in any way. He is all powerful, all knowing and in every place at one time. I do not need to know how or why He is, I just need to know that He is. You see sometimes we get so scientific we end up being like Thomas and well, we forget that we are not supposed to understand God fully. Dear Santa,For Christmas I want walkie talkies, the ones that really work, I also want some handcuffs and a gun, with a real police car. One just like the ones they drive on television. I also want some dinosaurs, a fake camera and cellphone and some small cowboys and indian toys. My sister wants all of the same stuff that I do, only pretend police stuff not the real ones for her please. And here we go with the competing. There are three types of Christians: 1. Christians who have a revelation from God and cannot wait to tell everyone about it and share it with everyone. 2. Christians who have a revelation and are just too lazy to share it, they get it and they add it to their knowledge base with no plan of doing anything with it. 3. Christians who take what God reveals to them and use it to make themselves feel and seem better than other Christians. That kid wanted all the real stuff, and all of the fake stuff for his sister. Little league and youth sports is a funny thing. You have the dads out there that just want to be a part of their kids lives. You have the dads who want to make sure their kid is the best and focus soley on their child. Then you have the dads who realize that in order for their child to get better all of the other kids need to get better therefore they spend as much time as they can with all of the kids. As Christians we need to realize that we cannot grow unless other believers around us are growing with us. And we cannot reach this world for Christ unless we are all in it together. “Dear Santa,All I want for Christmas is peace and a job for my daddy. I am a big boy and I do not want any toys. Mommy said you will not be coming to my house this year because Obama got elected again.” This child is limiting the abilities of what God can accomplish based on what others believe. What are you going to do with Jesus this Christmas, how powerful do you truly believe he is? How much has your faith grown or dwindled because of your head getting in the way of your heart?

Commitment

Proverbs 16:3Commit your work to the LORD, and then your plans will succeed. My thoughts on the act of committing. I do feel like there is so much going on in life that we don't truly commit to the things we should. And some things we seem to commit to but we really, truly aren't committed to them at all. How do we combat this? How do we decide what to commit to? And how to we know if we are committed to them? Commitment is defined as the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc. So commitment isn't necessarily an action, it's a quality. Commitment is so hard to find these days. If commitment is a quality then you cannot partially commit. You are either committed or you are not. THis throws out terms like partial commitment, and half way committed. There is no such thing. Let's put this in some context. In a marriage you are either committed or you are not. If you are "partially committed" then you are not in any way shape or form committed to that relationship. If you are "partially committed" to God and your church then you are not in any way shape or form committed there either. God should be a commitment, giving all that you can give with nothing taking the place of Him. Your marriage should be a commitment that is only overshadowed by your commitment to God. Commit your work to the Lord, man that is an easy thing to say, an easy thing to attempt, but very hard to pull off and here is why. You cannot commit to anything that your heart is not invested in. I was called into the ministry as a teenaged boy, I committed to serving God in whatever capacity He called me to. There is no way I would still be committed to the ministry, to Freedom Church, or to serving in any capacity as a pastor or chaplain without the commitment of my heart. Before I take on anything, anything at all I pray over it. I pray over it for weeks sometimes if time will allow. That way I am commiting it to God, and because He owns my heart there is no way I will commit without His consent. There are however, times where we act too fast, too rash and dive into something and call ourselves committed to it. Soon though, we realize we aren't that committed to it and as a Christian that usually means that our heart isn't in it, and if our heart isn't in it then God won't be in it either because that is where He resides. So when you are deciding on a job, a hobby, a place to volunteer or a relationship pray over it. GIve it to God and see if your heart is going to tune in. If not, then that isn't what God wants for you at that time and it will never prosper if you aren't committed. I love God, He has done so much in my life and revealed so much more to me than I can ever deserve in any way. I love my family, I am fully committed to Tara, Alexa, P.J. and soon baby Bray because my heart is in everything we do. I love my opportunity to minister to and thru Freedom Baptist Church and it is a commitment that stands strong until the Lord shows me it is time to move on. I pray over all three of those areas every day, and I thank God that He has helped me to remain committed to the things He has called me to. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Tips for staying thankful

This past week, we celebrated Thanksgiving in the United States. On this one day, we gathered with family, ate a meal, and took a few minutes to express our thanks. Then, we moved on with talking, eating, watching football, napping . . . and eating again.The weeks before people started on Facebook with posting something they are thankful for, and they posted a different item they were thankful for each day. If you watched it kind of slowed down as we approached Thanksgiving day and as the year goes on they probably won't post another thankful post until November 1st 2014. How do we fight this, how do we combat this, well like anything else we need to have a plan. We have so much for which to be grateful. I fear, though, that we too often limit our expressions of thanksgiving to only this day. Because the Apostle Paul tells us to “give thanks in every circumstance” (1 Thess 5:18), we need to practice thanksgiving. Here are some practical ways to build thanksgiving into your leadership role. 1.Handwrite thank you notes. We all text and call and facebook or tweet. But maybe you should hand write a letter to someone you want to thank. When you get a text that says thank you it is meaningful, but when you realize someone took the time to hand write a thank you it is more meaningful I promise. 2.Make a weekly thank you call. Somebody in your life deserves a “thank you” from you. Again, a text message might be the more common expression of thanks today, but God gives us voices to communicate. Each week or atleast each month, find somebody for whom a phone call of thanksgiving will mean much. Use the phone, and have a conversation. 3.Surprise someone you love with another “Thanksgiving Day.” Everybody expects to celebrate Thanksgiving in November, but few people will be ready for an undeclared day of thanksgiving. Choose another day during the year (and NOT your anniversary or your spouse’s birthday), and show your gratitude the love and support of your loved ones. 4.Write a thank you letter to your loved ones and family. I don’t care how awkward it may feel, how uncomfortable or inconvenient it may seem there is no one on the face of this earth that doesn’t want a thank you letter from someone they love. Even though you see them every day, or eat dinner with them regularly or ride to school with them every morning, a thank you letter will be much more powerful. 5.Spend one day a week in thanksgiving prayer. Choose one day, and pray only thanksgiving. Every time you pray that day only thank God for things in your life, family, His love for you, His son dying on a cross, his forgiveness, food, shelter, clothes a job whatever it is only thank Him that day. No requests, no praying for anything but thanks. It will eventually change your prayer life. Everytime I pray I would say 80% of the time I spend in prayer I am thanking God for things and it all started with praying only thanks one day a week. 6.Send a thank you card to people who have positively influenced your life. Each month(or week it’s your call) pick someone out who has influenced your life in a positive way and write them a thank you card. Send them a card and wait for their response, it may lead to bigger and better things. If nothing else it will help you to remain grateful. 7.Get involved in a ministry to needy people. Christians often help the needy during the holidays, but the needs continue throughout the year. Who is going to provide families with birthday gifts, with clothing through out the year? Unfortunately we only think about it at the holidays. 8.Start a thank you journal. I am not typically a journaler, but this type of journaling does not take much time. Keep a small journal handy, and simply write down things each day you are thankful for, and I bet it will give you names for your thank you cards and letters. All of this is fine and nice but if you do it with the right intentions and pray about who would be the recipient of your thanks God will end up using you. Your thank you notes will reach someone right when they are about to hit rock bottom, your letters will reach a heart that is hurting inside and your heart will be changed when you see the results. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

The day of the camel

That's right it's hump day, and the word hump has so many meanings(some of which I don't wish to discuss in this blog lol) and it has come to be the term used for Wednesday. I know that there are times in our lives where we are trying to get through something, and we say we want to get over the hump. If we can just get over the hump it's all down hill after that. The hump referred to here is the peak of a mountain or hill. If any of you have ever climbed a mountain(i haven't) you climb and the climb is extremely rigorous but your mind is focused on the peak. At that moment that you reach the peak you know that the climbing is over with, you have reached the highest point and from that point on whether you take the same path you just climbed back down or if you go down crossing the mountain you have an easy way from that point on. In our lives we get discouraged, we get beat up and we let things drag us down. One way to figure out if God is a priority in your life is where your week starts. If you consider Sunday the end of your weekend then when you actually do go to church you are giving Him the final day of the week. If you see Sunday as the first day of the gift of a new week then you are giving God your first day of the week. You are kicking your week off the way God had desired for you to. THis mindset makes Mondays a lot more barable as well. Sunday is my day to grow in God and kick off the new week. We all hate Mondays and dread the first day of the work week, then comes Tuesdays which arent' much better than Mondays but they are closer to Fridays. NExt comes hump day and if you can just survive hump day it's all a downhill cruise to the next weekend. Thursday is kind of a day that is crammed in between Hump day and Friday and then Friday morning we wake up ready for the weekend. The hump is about endurance and here is a little bit about what the Bible says endurance is and comes from. 1 Thessalonians 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words Hump day, Friday, a three day weekend or even a week's vacation is no where near the inspiration for endurance that hope in GOd can give us. In the simplest of terms we are facing Hump day today, hoping that it will go smoothly right to the peak of the week so that the downhill slide leads us right into a great weekend. Paul is remember before God that the reason we do all that we do is by faith. THere is no gaurantee of anything in this world, a paycheck, a job tomorrow, another day or another breathe we do it all based on faith that it will happen. The labor you put into your work is for love, either love for your job or love for your family and wanting to provide for them and finally we endure it all because of the hope Jesus Christ planted deep down inside of us the day he died on a cross for our sins and then raised again. Hope is where it is at, and hopefully you are hoping for more today than just a good hump day or a great upcoming weekend. Hopefully, you are longing for God to use you and longing for the day you are in eternity with Him based on your personal relationship with Him. Thanks for reading and have a great Hump day!

That 5 day weekend

As I am sure many of you are aware of I don't sit still well at all. I don't get invited to the movies very often because I don't sit still that long unless it is a very good movie. I don't attend a lot of events simply because I don't like sitting around. After being a team pastor and enjoying the sidelines the past 7 years I don't like sitting in teh stands watching high school football any more, and I love football. Well, last weekend was a 5 day weekend with little or no big plans. I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did find time to relax some and to be honest it wasn't all that bad. It was fun, Tara, Alexa and I watched a lot of football and as much as I love football there is no possible way I could plan my weekend around sitting all day and watching football. I saw several amazingly great games, one that ended with a missed field goal returned for a touchdown and one that ended in overtime. I don't do meetings well, I would prefer that you go to the meeting and tell me what needs to be done. That way the next time you are meeting I can be out doing what needs to be done. I don't attend staff meetings at Betty Griffin House unless it is pushed on me, I am required to attend one or two a year and that is fine but sitting for an hour or two talking about what we are going to do is just not my thing. I use the late night hours, many nights I use my pillow time to pray over and plan out what I want to accomplish. I don't need to waste an hour of my time. And these people who get up early Saturday morning to watch a show about football, what the heck? People honestly plan on sitting all morning and listening to people talk about football, hearing people predict who is going to win and why, I just don't get it. I work two full time jobs one as a pastor and one as a community educator for the Betty Griffin House. August thru November I am the team pastor for the football team so I am out there hanging out all the time and planning team meals and settnig up speakers. November thru December I start my conditioning for softball where I coach at PEdro MEnendez on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then January 6-mid April I am at softball every evening with practices or games. Not to mention countless hours sitting on a bucket with Alexa pitching to me, dribbling and shooting a basketball with both of the girls and enjoying their practices and games for all different sports. People ask me how do you do it? Why do you do it? I tell them that is just how I am wired. God put me together to be active and wide open at all times. That is just me. I also plan my down time. I have a few different ways that I take care of what I call self care. I am completely ineffective in helping anyone if I don't take care of myself. I do this in a few different ways. 1. I spend time in prayer and reading God's word every day. It sounds like the Vacation Bible SChool basic answer coming from a Pastor but it's what I need. I can honestly tell you that I hate Mondays with a passion. All week long I work on sermons and messages to share them on Sundays. Sunday morning is now the day that I spend the most time with the most people from our ministries. Monday mornings is like that day after Christmas when all of the excitement is gone, so some quiet time with God is all that it takes to get me going. And ofcourse I close out my Monday with the Bridge at 7 which is a great ministry that I am in love with. 2. Drag Racing, people think I don't take any time for myself I do it's every Saturday afternoon that I can afford to do it. I sneak away and enjoy it with my family. Drag racing serves two purposes. First of all it is the onlything I do all week that is totally about me, everyday, all day long I am husband, father and pastor and those jobs all intertwine in a way that you can't tell where one ends and the other starts. All three of those are on call positions 24-7 so drag racing is a nice get away. Secondly, I am probably the most intense competitor that you will ever meet. I love competition, drag racing for me is boring and I do not enjoy the speed or the thrill of a hard launch or driving fast. I enjoy the competition and Jeff Gatlin has got to have somewhere to compete. This gets all of that out of my system. Some pastors fish, play golf or collect stamps none of those work for this pastor so I choose to go to the drag strip on Saturdays and I am so thankful for a family, ministry and friends who understand that about me. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Hope for the Holidays

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Yesterday we had our benefit spaghetti dinner for Jimmy Jam. I shared a few verses and then a little of my heart and Mrs. Jill Gause Davis stole the show. She shared about righteous giving and the importance of beating down our pride and recieving as graciously as we give. These words rang so true, and are so useful for us at the holidays. There are so many who are hurting, who are struggling financially, mentally, spiritually and physically. Many of us are the ones who are suffering, yet we don't want to take anything from anyone. We just want to puff up and take care of ourselves. I also shared the verse above from Proverbs and then the following illustration. I heard a story of a ship that was sinking in the middle of a storm, and the captain called out to the crew and said, "Does anyone here know how to pray?" One man stepped forward and said, "Yes sir, I know how to pray." The captain said, "Wonderful, you pray while the rest of us put on life jackets--we're one short." Unfortunately, as CHristians our catch phrase is I am praying for you. We say this in all sorts of situations but I want to think a little bit about this. If every single Christian prayed and simply prayed for the needs of those who are hurting, or sick, or struggling in some way. If that was all that ever happened then nothing would ever get better. If I have $50 that I can spare for someone, a friend has another $50, a few others have $50 and all totalled we have $250 to spare to help someone out. Another friend has several pounds of Pork and is an amazing cook when it comes to BBQing, and still another can bake amazing cakes and has all of the stuff to do it. If all of those people simply pray for the needs of those who are struggling then all of the money, the abilities and the possessions are meaningless and in theory so are their prayers. We should instead be praying for ways to be used by GOd, not for God to heal the sick, help the poor and love on the hurting. We should pray for them, pray for their needs and then ask God to show us how to meet those needs. So your prayers are important, but more important is how you pray for those who need help. There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. Clare Boothe Luce. THink about that, no situation is hopeless, but if we don't use the gifts we have, and do more than pray then those who we pray for will grow hopeless and it may be too late not only for us to help them but also for us to lift their spirits. Thank you so much for everyone who played any role small or large in our day yesterday, from cooking and baking, to purchasing, to picking up the donations and everywhere in between you were a huge blessing and a major part of Freedom becoming a ministry instead of a church. God BLess!