Perspective

Sunday September 25 Dear Mother and Dad: It has been three months since I left for college. I have been remiss in writing and I am very sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up to date now, but before you read on, please sit down. You are not to read any further unless you are sitting down, okay. Well then, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed by now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital and now I can see almost normally and only get those headaches once a day. Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump was witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the Fire Dept. and the ambulance. He also visited me at the hospital and since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt out dormitory, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. It's really a basement room, but it's kind of cute. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven't set the exact date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show. Yes, mother and dad, I am pregnant. I know how very much you are looking forward to being grandparents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love and devotion and tender care you gave me when I was a child. The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests and I carelessly caught it from him. This will soon clear up with the penicillin injections I am now taking daily. I know you will welcome him into the family with open arms. He is kind and although not well educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different race and religion than ours, I know that your oft-expressed tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by such a minor detail. I am sure you will love him as I do. Now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you there was no dormitory fire; I did not have a concussion or a skull fracture; I was not in the hospital; I am not pregnant; I am not engaged. I do not have syphillis, and there is no man in my life at all. However, I am getting a D in sociology and an F in science; and I wanted you to see these marks in proper perspective. Your loving daughter, Perspective – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. This encouragement series based on the verses in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 has taken us on some major detours. From revenge, to living in peace to warning the idle and the weak to being patient and joyful to praying continually and not we are at give thanks in all circumstances. This verse is all about perspective. Perspective is really important isn’t it. ILL.- One morning after a terrible snowstorm, Susan was outside shoveling her driveway. She stopped to wave hello to her neighbor, and he asked her why her husband wasn’t out there helping her with the chore. She explained that one of them had to stay inside to take care of the children, so they drew straws to see who would go out and shovel. "Sorry about your bad luck," he said. Susan replied, "Don’t be sorry. I won!" Give thanks in all circumstances. ILL.- Dr. Dale Robbins writes, “I used to think people complained because they had a lot of problems. But I have come to realize that they have problems because they complain. Complaining doesn’t change anything or make situations better. It amplifies frustration, spreads discontent and discord, and can invoke an invitation for the devil to cause havoc with our lives.” Complaining makes us miserable. Psalm 77:3 says, “I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.” I. WE HAVE IT SO GOOD I Tim. 6:17 “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” EVERYTHING we have comes from God, EVERYTHING. Perspective comes to us when we see life through God’s eyes. It all comes from him and no one and nothing can snatch it away from us. II. WE ENJOY IT SO MUCH Philippians 2:13 “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.” This is funny timing because just Wednesday night I was telling our youth to complain a little, but transparent and be real. Because let’s be honest when you are doing well and everything is falling into place for you the odds are it is quite the opposite for most of your friends. But when things are falling apart, and it just isn’t going your way every one can relate to that. Be real, and be transparent but try to do it without complaining all of the time. I race with a guy who said, Jeff why don’t you go complain if you complained it would carry a whole lot more weight. I complain every week and it’s lonely. Think about just how much wisdom there is right there in that statement made in a passing conversation. In which you shine like stars in the universe. How do we shine? By having perspective, how do we get that perspective? By the last two verses we studied. Pray continually and be joyful always. 3- We express it so little ILL.- Some years ago, the cartoon pictured Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy’s dinner on Thanksgiving Day. But it was just his usual dog food in a bowl. Snoopy took one look at the dog food and said, "This isn’t fair. The rest of the world today is eating turkey with all the trimmings and all I get is dog food. Because I’m a dog," he said, "all I get is dog food." He stood there and stared at his dog food for a moment and said, "I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey." Instead of thinking about how little we have, we need to count up what we do have and give thanks! - In Los Angeles a parking citation with a five-dollar bill attached arrived at the traffic-fine bureau. An accompanying note said: “I found this ticket on the sidewalk. Not knowing if the car owner has ever seen it, I would like to make the remittance for him—in gratitude for the occasions when I have parked over the allotted time and not received a ticket.” How’s that for gratitude? I Thess. 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I am Thankful for......... and in………. ....the taxes I pay because it means I’m employed. ....the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat. ....my shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine. ....a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home. ....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking. ....my huge electric bill because it means the A/C works and I am comfortable. ....all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. ....the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear. ....the piles of laundry because it means my loved ones are nearby. ....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I’m alive. ....the weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive. I truly believe that people with perspective are a whole lot happier. We went to a softball game a few years ago and the faciltiies were amazing. Then a few weeks later we went to another field, the grass was in need of being mowed, there were holes in the outfield, the dugout benches were worn out and splintered. One girl looked at me and said we aren’t ______________ but we sure aren’t this place either lol. I believe life is full of choices, God loves us unconditionally and lets us choose to love Him back. HE also watches us intently, daily. We can be joyful and pray continually and get perspective, or we can complain and grumble all of the time and at some point something bad will happen and we will look back and get that perspective when it is too late to enjoy what we once had.

Sunday, August 7 The power is IN you

I am involved in a new domestic and sexual violence movement on Flagler College’s campus. The idea is so simple and it is so resourceful that it is a piece of cake to teach. We are putting all of the power in the hands of the bystander. We teach the whole thing thru the lense of a bystander. We are teaching people to do something that no one has to do something huge, but everyone has to do something. The whole premise is about breaking down barriers, knowing your comfort levels and your strengths. It’s about knowing there is ALWAYS an option. We teach them the three D’s to be direct, to distract or to delegate. It’s about everyone playing a small role in changing the culture. How on earth have they put together something and made it so simple and so resourceful? It’s simple, they are meeting needs with the correct attitude. It’s an attitude that when you see someone being harmed you have a job to do, because if it was someone you loved one of your children or grandchildren you would step in and do something. Well, as Christians we are called to be involved in the spread of the Gospel. We have barriers and we have weaknesses but Timidity shouldn’t be one of them. That is why Paul wants to encourage the timid, because it shouldn’t be that way and he is more direct with Timothy in his second letter to him. Encourage the timid – remind people who are a little reserved and less likely to speak out of God’s promises. Teach the timid that we were not wired that way, we weren’t put together that way, and help them. Don’t yell at them or put them down, encourage them along the way until they are ready to get plugged in. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline. First let’s address what Paul says to Timothy here about being timid. He says God did not give us a spirit of timidity. In other words you were not put together that way and come to think of it, the moment you accepted Christ and received the Holy Spirit you were now empowered with everything you will ever need to serve God in every capacity. Then, he says not only that you have three characteristics as a Christian to combat timidity. 1. Spirit of power - Think of power, the word power and it’s meaning. I grew up loving to watch wrestling. I liked Hulk Hogan and Jimmy superfly snuka, Macho Man Randy Savage and the list goes on and on. Sure the wrestling was entertaining but the real thing drawing me to it was the size and the power of those guys. They were almost super human. I watch the world’s strongest man sometimes on tv and I am in complete amazement as they accomplish feats that are mind blowing. Those guys do things that we cannot even relate to, but we watch in astonishment because it’s amazing. I obviously grew up in a drag racing house, I have been going to the drag strip since I was born. I love being at the track, the sounds, the feeling and the scenes are some of my absolute favorites. While I will admit I don’t race for the speed or the feeling of the power I do it for the competition. But horsepower is a cool thing, most any human being can sit behind the wheel of a car with more horsepower than they have ever felt and immediately they will smile and be blown away. Power, we all have a different picture that pops up but for all of us it is usually something we don’t have. I won’t ever be on WWE Raw, I won’t ever be on the world’s strongest man. But, I know the creator of all things on a personal basis and He has put inside of me a spirit. His Holy Spirit which is full of power and strength and there will never be a day that I don’t have the power to overcome the things the world puts in my path, never ever a day. But, I have to call on that strength. I shared with a young man during a training with chaplains a few weeks ago. I shared with him that to me there are two types of believers in Christ. Those who pray for no storms and smooth sailing, and those who pray for the strength and the ability to get thru life’s storms. It’s that second group that impacts the world for Christ. Each morning we need to call on God’s Spirit dwelling inside of us to empower us to face the day, it’s trials and it’s ups and it’s downs. Then it is up to us to walk in confidence thru the day, confidence that the power of God is living inside of us and we can take on anything life throws our way. 2. Spirit of love - You want to talk about power? What about the power of love? Love can be the driving force behind so many things. When we are in love we are blind to so many things. We overlook flaws, we overlook pitfalls and we many times leap blindly. These things we do for a love of a fallible human being. Yet, before we jump for God, before we leap we walk out and toe the line carefully and slowly. We want to know every detail, we want to know as much as we can and we slowly piece it all together and get our ducks in a row. Then we step out like this(crawl slowly across and hug the plank). 3. Spirit of self-discipline – What are we talking about with self discipline is the work that goes on behind the scenes. It is empowering to serve God, to love like Jesus but it takes work. But it’s work that is rewarding. I read my Bible each morning and I pray each morning and the more I do it the more I want to do it. I preach on Sundays and Wednesday nights and the more I do those things the more I want to do them. I started out a journey in April wanting to lose weight by my 40th birthday. I didn’t want to start my 40’s overweight so I started out dieting. I cut out carbs and started losing weight but eventually it wasn’t moving along fast enough so I started running on an elliptical machine, finally I added a workout to it. It became almost an addiction, I wanted to do something every day that led me to lose weight because it was a good feeling. But, it still wasn’t nearly the fulfilling I get from growing in Christ. Gary Player, one of the most successful international golfers of all time, lost count of how many times someone said to him, “I’d give anything if I could hit a golf ball like you.” After one particularly grueling day on the links, Player couldn’t resist correcting the person, “No, you wouldn’t. You’d give anything to hit a golf ball like me, if it were easy.” Player then listed the things one would have to do in order to achieve his level of play: “You’ve got to get up at five o’clock in the morning, go out and hit a thousand golf balls, walk up to the club house to put a bandage on your hand where it started bleeding, then go and hit another thousand golf balls. That’s what it takes to hit a golf ball like me.” God places within every believer strength and power. It isn’t just the ability to speak, it’s the ability to get involved boldly in the spread of the Gospel. It’s the self discipline to prepare for those moments of boldness each day. Close out with illustration of balance beam. Stand on the beam and say that this is how we feel when we are speaking out for God. Then lay down flat and hold on tightly to the beam and tell them that is what we really look like to God. Just like the gymnasts that we see in the Olympics doing amazing things on the beam, they started out clutching it and crawling across it. God wants more and can do so much more thru us as soon as we acknowledge that all of the power we need is inside of us already.

Sunday July 31

PJ is a driving machine, at the age of 9 I put her in the riding lawn mower here and let her mow the back field. She took off around and she was soo excited. She started out making laps and just having a blast but by about the third or forth time around the field she started driving with her feet and attempting to do tricks, why because she got bored with it. So we started letting her drive the cars and things around. Since about 11 she has been driving my truck around in private areas. She and I will go to the ballfield and hit some in the batting cage and then she will ask to drive around the parking lot some. We started out with the same rule I was given by my dad when he let me drive at a young age around parking lots. No gas pedal, you can drive but you cannot accelerate any. Well that lasted almost 3 minutes, next thing I know I we are zooming around the parking lot around 25-30 miles per hour and laughing and having a blast. Idle was too weak, too slow, not enough. Why on earth then is idle enough for us in life. This is a big scary world, not because of the bad people in it, but because of the number of people not doing anything about it. - Albert Einstein Warn the idle – the devil’s greatest tool isn’t temptation or sin, it’s a believer who isn’t doing anything active. Idleness is something that we fear. We fear it in many different capacities. There is the fear that we will waste our lives or waste our time. Switchfoot has a new song called Life is short I want to live it well. God does call us to be good stewards of our time and we don’t want to waste it. I am not a good sit around and watch tv, lay on the beach and do nothing person. If one of those is going on I prefer to be reading, because I want to be bettering myself in some way shape or form. There is also the fear that comes from idleness and it is that fear that drives us to issue curfews. Listen, when our teens go out to a movie or to dinner maybe to bowl or play putt-putt there is nothing at all wrong with that. But, we all know that when that wraps up there is a lot of sitting or hanging around and that’s when they are going to get into some sort of trouble. The old Ponce de Leon mall was a major hang out in some ways I wish my kids could experience it, but it was after the mall closed when kids were just sitting and standing around waiting for their rides that the most trouble occurred. I find this amusing the way different versions of the Bible use different words. The word Idle in the New International version has replaced the word unruly in the King James Version. I go two different places with those two different words. Idle says to me lazy, sitting around and doing nothing. Unruly says to me getting into trouble, not following the rules. It is a person with a lack of discipline and self-control. Let’s be honest teens who are on fire for Jesus and being used by God to do big things stay on the go. Then they meet someone, start dating someone or get into a group where church isn’t as important and they slowly disappear from church and more importantly they become idle. They stop showing up to encourage others and to be encouraged by others. There are believers right now who know they should be in church today who are not. Here’s the thing, we are working through this encouragement series because I think far too many people today are pushing. We are attempting to push people to Jesus. The old saying you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink is true. It’s oh so true, but you know what you can do? You can make him thirsty. That’s our job as believers in Christ to make others thirsty and we do that thru encouragement not thru yelling, pushing and being abrasive. At times it is going to be tough to tell the difference between the two things we are addressing here today. Idleness and timidity. You are going to know Christians, people who you know have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who don’t seem to be doing anything at all with it. They could be idle and just doing nothing or they may be timid and just not comfortable doing anything. Either way it’s going to be encouragement that gets them into gear. That same person may be purely lazy or they may be afraid they will do something wrong. Encourage the timid – Let’s be perfectly honest for a minute, we all have a certain amount of timidity. But there is almost always strength in numbers. Just knowing that someone else has your back, is in your corner and wants to walk with you can be the difference between being idle and timid vs. serving and speaking out. An article by John Piper a pastor and well respected Theologian wrote addresses busyness and I have read and read and re read it before plugging it into this message and here it is. Busyness is moral laziness [because it is often a statement of our self-importance and our excuse to be inattentive to people]. . . . But God has given us just enough time to do what we need to do moment by moment to respond to him. And his grace is there; it is eternally present. Every moment is a sacrament where time touches eternity and there is exactly enough time to do what God has called us to do. “Busyness Is Moral Laziness” We all know busyness. Everyone is busy. And everyone complains about being busy. Busy, busy, busy. Busy is a buzzword (even phonetically). Most of us have grown fairly comfortable with busyness. But to call busyness (meaning a frantic, distracted lifestyle) “moral laziness” suddenly makes us uncomfortable. It means that busyness is not something that merely happens to us. It is something we choose. As objections begin to rise in our minds, it is helpful to remember what Jesus said to busy Martha: “Mary has chosen the good portion” (Luke 10:42). Martha, you have chosen something else. So why do we choose busyness? Prof. Hindmarsh says that too often we make it a “statement of self-importance.” We use busyness as a way of telling ourselves and, maybe more importantly, others how essential we are. Busyness is a way of posturing our significance. Ouch, right? But a more serious issue is that we choose busyness as a way to avoid having to make harder, sometimes more costly choices. Busyness can easily be an escape. It provides a convenient way to opt-out of wrestling through complex decisions that we will be responsible for. It’s much easier to be the victim of circumstances than to be responsible for a mistake. And an overflowing schedule can become a shield protecting us from the unpredictable, inconvenient, time-consuming needs of other people. It’s an effective cover. Who can argue with you if you have too many things to do? Jesus can (Luke 14:15–24). Now, of course there is such a thing as being legitimately too time-taxed to take on another need. We really are finite, with many limitations. “Just Enough Time” I need to break the very bad habit of saying I don’t have enough time. When I say this, I’m not only blaming my own moral laziness on my circumstances, I’m actually blaming God. I’m essentially saying that God is either insufficient or he’s stingy. In reflecting on this I’ve become more aware of our lack of faith for God’s provision of time. This past year I have taken on about 4 more programs thru work, it has me stretched thin but somehow there is always enough time. I still have ample time to prepare messages for Wednesdays and Sundays as well as time to coach softball and spend with my family in the evenings playing cards and such. I struggled mightily with accountability when I started working bi-vocationally. I turned in a schedule each week and everyone could know where I was when I was full time at ACBC. So I started posting what all was going on each day for people on facebook to know. Well that backfired in ways that I never saw coming, it meant I looked too busy so people didn’t reach out to me when I they normally would. God has given us just enough time to do what we need to do. “Every Moment Is a Sacrament” “Every moment is a sacrament where time touches eternity and there is exactly enough time to do what God has called us to do.” What a beautiful and fearful statement. It’s beautiful in that every moment belongs to God (therefore every moment is holy) and he gives each moment to us as a gift. And he gives us enough moments to provide for our callings, whatever they are. It is fearful in that we are stewards of these gifts and we will be held accountable for their investment. Here is the truth, we all walk thru this door at different places in life. Some are retired, some are in school still. Many of us are in debt up to our eyes and some are debt free. Some of us drove up here in a brand new car that is paid for, others an old beat up heap that also is paid for, some drove here in something that brings the stress of a huge payment once a month. Some of us live in a house that is in the best neighborhood in town, others don’t live in the best of neighborhoods. But there are two things that absolutely equal us all out. One is Jesus’ love, we all receive the same amount of it, it’s the same and consistent thru and thru. The second is time. We all get 24 hours in a day, we all get 7 days in a week, we all get the same about of time. Time is the great equalizer. The difference then is not in the amount of time we have but how we spend it. Most people want to invest their money wisely, why don’t we invest our time wisely. I make it a point each day to better myself in every area of life.

The "Oh Crap" message 6/26/2016

So years ago in my youth ministry we did all sorts of things. We had a Bible study before worship on Sunday mornings that was well attended, we had a lot of youth in worship on Sunday mornings, we had a good attendance on Wednesday nights and we even had a good group of kids coming to a small group study on Sunday evenings. We called that group HAISM and I have to be honest the name came from Hali our children’s leader. The group was based on the last verse we are going to read today. Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, “Here am I send me”. That group served and to this day they are serving God in amazing ways. They were different and it wasn’t because of anything I taught them or any secret thing we did. They had a real relationship with God and they saw themselves in light of God’s glory. It made them prioritize differently, it made them put the important things first and it made doing youth ministry a breeze to be honest with you because they were always there, I mean always. Why isn’t the church of 2016 serving people, saving people and making an impact? How do we truly get people from here I am if it’s convenient to Here am I send me? Isaiah 6:1-8 Many in the church aren’t seeing God. In these verses the prophet sees God. He hears the angels singing Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory. What is his first reaction? I will paraphrase it for you. Oh crap! When I used to work in construction as a young youth pastor I can recall many, many times when someone was talking to us on a jobsite and they later found out I was a pastor and they would say man if I had known you were a pastor I would have talked differently around you. I am sorry. Let me tell you, a face to face with God would lead you to say man if I knew it was like this I would have lived differently. If you were to come face to face with God here on earth right here today, your mind would not start playing your highlight tape. Every thing you have done wrong in your life will start running through your mind like you are Chunk in Goonies. That’s right it’s not AWE and wonder. It’s not a feeling of man that’s God this is cool. I watched a little bit of the parade they threw in Cleveland for the Cavaliers after they won the first championship that town has had in 52 years. People were in the streets for hours and hours just to catch a glimpse of the players. Lebron was like an idol standing on the back of a truck and I saw fan after fan amazed and the look on their faces was oh my God! That’s Lebron I just touched his hand. Let me tell you when you are in God’s presence your reaction won’t be oh wow that’s God, it’s immediately going to be a feeling of unworthiness. It will be the same for your pastor who is a sinner and makes mistakes as it will be for anyone else. It’s oh crap, I am a man of unclean lips. The first thing that happens when we are truly seeking and seeing God is that we see all of our mistakes, all of our sins in light of all of His glory. In today’s world people make comparisons. I had a parent approach Tara during a softball game recently, the parent said “Man Jeff sure does push his daughters.” This happened to be a parent who makes every excuse for her kid, and Tara looked at her and said, “Not really he just doesn’t accept any excuses and they know that.” I don’t compare my kids athletically to others, I compare them to their best and I don’t accept anything but their best. There is the old addage, no matter how great you think you are there is always someone better couldn’t be more truer than when looking at these verses. It applies to sports well and the business world, but it’s application is second to none. Stop looking around and saying I am better than them. I am better than that person or this person, here is a challenge I gave you guys back in January. Take the word atleast out of your vocabulary completely. At least is a comparison that shows complete weakness. It’s a justifying of the weakness of things. Atleast I go to church, atleast I don’t sin in THIS way or THAT way. At least I am trying. Atleast I blah blah blah. At least is setting yourself up to feel better about things and I am not saying you walk around tearing yourself down all the time, but stop saying atleast. Make a real comparision. Many in the church aren’t serving God. We live in more of a here am I give me setting today. How do we get to Here am I send me? The formula is right here in the verses from Isaiah. By coming to a place truly face to face with who we are. By facing God and realizing just how unworthy we are of anything He gives us. God is perfect, he sent his son to earth who lived a perfect sinless life, and then he bled and died on a cross for our sins and we can’t even turn our cellphones off while we are in church. WE can’t even give him the reverence and the worship that He deserves for 30-45 minutes because we see ourselves as the consumers. WE can’t focus on Him during the time that is set aside for Him. We are customers when we walk into church instead of unworthy sinners who deserve nothing, we see ourselves as high and mighty people who are owed everything. When you walk into a restaurant you are a customer. You are owed service, they bring you drinks, they bring you food, they take care of your needs and they do that because you are going to pay them for the food and hopefully give them a tip. You are owed that for your payment at the end. When you walk into church you aren’t owed anything, no matter how much you give in the offering plate, how much work you did around the building or how much you prayed for the church all week you are owed nothing. Many in the church don’t see or care about their uncleanliness. I tell you this, we don’t seem to really care what God thinks. There are so many Christians in today’s world who do so many things that are so wrong. When I first got started in youth ministry I was bi vocational much like I am now. I was surrounded by some good times let me tell you. I do truly miss the opportunities I had on jobsites to share. I actually prayed with a guy one morning because he was really struggling with things, he worked on several job sites the same time as we did. We were outside lathing a house getting it ready for stucco while he was inside doing the final work on the drywall. He just came outside and said , He Jeff I want to talk to you when you get a second. So he stood under me while I was hanging some bands and getting the corner bead on them so they would look good. (I know I lost half of you but this is the image in my head of it and how I remember things). He said, “Jeff you are different” now I can tell you most times the group I worked with an many of you in here know those guys and that wasn’t a compliment most times but it felt different from this guy. He went on to tell me that I was always happy and always had a great attitude on the job. He told me it was encouraging to hear me talking to the guys about my wife and my family and the things God had blessed me with. He said he never had heard me cuss or lose my cool in any inappropriate way and he noticed that when the builder we worked for in one particular development brought everyone beer on Fridays he always brought me an icee. He saw that as an insult and an attack on me, like I was a child or something. Me, I saw it as he was respecting me and saw me as different from the others. Long story short I ended up praying with him and he accepted Christ right there(and the other thing I remember was Lex and Terry was playing in the background and anyone who remembers Lex and Terry on the radiio knows what the content was. When we got done praying he walked inside and turned the radio off. My co worker looked over and said that was awesome man, then he said to me what I will never forget. Now my boss was a Christian but the rest of the crew was far from it. This one co worker looked at me and said, I guess Lex and Terry is too much for him now Jeff, you ruined him. I didn’t respond the way I wanted to, but the truth is a moment of truly being in God’s presence ruined him. He saw things differently in light of God. HE didn’t turn it off because it was bad, he didn’t turn it off because he felt like he had to. He walked inside and turned it off because in the light of God and his glory it was unclean. So, what in your life would quickly disappear in the light of God’s glory? Is it your language, your actions, your attitude, the way you talk to your spouse or your children? Is it a relationship you are in? Is it a habit or an addiction?

Youth April 13 Polluted by the world

Youth April 13 Polluted by the world So when I was a teenager way way back when we didn’t have google or bing. We had hours in the library and we had these ancient things called card catalogs and wait for it……. Encyclepedias lol. We had to thumb thru pages and pages of things to find info to write papers and do research. There was no get your phone out and google a few good answers in less than 10 seconds and quote them. There also weren’t at our fingertips reviews and info on books. If you were forced to read a book and didn’t like reading you went to cliff notes. These were summarized 20 page versions of 250-300 page books. You would go to the store and find cliff notes and know that you would get the majority of the book and hit all of the important parts. The book of James was cliff notes to the Bible. If you want to know how to live as a Christian then you would look at the book of James before you read the entire Bible. And, if you are even lazier than that you can just look at the two verses I share today. James says here is the bare essentials: James 1:26-27 If anyone considers himself religious The original word here was Threskos which actually meant devout Christian. So if anyone thinks of themselves as a devout Christian --- The athletic director at Pedro was once a dean. When Coach Sapp was a dean he would take things away that weren’t permitted like hats or cellphones and things like that. He would then start a dialogue with the students that would be 3 questions. That student had to answer those 3 questions before the end of the day in order to get their things back. One kid had his hat on in the cafeteria, I watched him walk over and take it. Towards the end of lunch the boy walked over to ask for his hat back. Dean Sapp told him answer three questions for me. He looked down and saw a Dale Earnhardt #3 belt buckle. So the questions started. 1 – Who is the main sponsor for Dale Earnhardt? 2 – What is Dale Earnhardt’s nickname? 3 – What color was his car when he drove for Wrangler? The kid couldn’t answer any of them so Dean Sapp told him he was embarrassed for him and he should take his belt buckle too. Lol Don’t you think God feels that way? Like hey you go to church and you play the Christian card when you can but you can’t even control what you say or how you say it? And yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue Oh man, it doesn’t say to be perfect, it says to keep a tight rein on it. Controlling it because reins in a horse’s mouth were meant to control them, so too your mouth and the things you say, the way you say them controls all of your body and all of it’s actions. He deceives himself and his religion is worthless. I spoke at a youth camp on a native American reservation a few summers back. Tara and I went and spent a whole week there. We had to fly to one city and take rental vans to the camp. Well, there were a lot of things that went on at the camp. We would wake up each morning to the kids standing around the flag wanting to watch it be raised on the flagpole, then breakfast and a morning Bible study. Then lunch and lots of games in the afternoon. Kickball, basketball, paintball, you name it we played it. I may or may not have stretched the rules to a few of the games in order to win. We drove a couple of the kids home at the end of the camp in our van and while we were driving the boy was just talking and we asked what his favorite parts were. Ofcourse it was some of the games and some of the crazy late night stuff we did. Then he turned to me and said I will never forget how much you cheated at the games. Lol Sometimes things outweigh the important things. He could quote my messages word for word but they were nullified by cheating at the games. The flip side of that is we can do some really great things, showing love and compassion to those who are hurting and turn around and erase it with our words. Not just vulgar language, but the way we say things and when we say things. Gossiping and rumor spreading are part of it too. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: I know it’s confusing because God knows we aren’t perfect, He doesn’t expect us to be but he does ask for atleast the bare minimum which is this: Devout Christianity that God accepts as pure is this, wow so if we get down to the bare essentials here they are: To look after orphans and widows in their distress I use this illustration a lot but think about Birthdays and Christmas. For the most part you give gifts to people who are going to give you gifts. You do that for 2 reasons: 1 – You don’t want to look cheap or like a loser when they give you a gift and you have nothing for them in return. 2 – It’s an even swap, you know that spending that money is bringing a return because they will be spending money on you as well. What if we take care of people in need who can’t help themselves and more realistically probably can’t repay you in any way. I am sure you have at some point heard the quote, :It isn’t really giving unless there is no way it can be repaid.” And to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. And the toughest part of this scripture. To keep yourself from being polluted by the world. I absolutely love youth ministry, I would do it til I am 80 if I was effective. I don’t see myself anytime soon wanting to just do adult ministry, youth ministry is important. But, there are parts of it that are easy because teenagers are real, they are honest and sometimes brutally honest. I can ask 20 adults how they are on Sunday morning and get fine, good or great. I can ask one teenager and get the short version of something bad going on in their life. It is also before they are completely decided on everything. So they are making decisions on what they believe what their morals are and what they truly believe. Then, college happens and early adulthood happens. That’s when all of the changes usually take place. They start to believe differently than they did before, the things they stood against they now indulge in. Why? Because there are new influences in their lives, they have a lot more freedom and well they start living different. True religion, true devout Christians keep themselves from being polluted by the world. What you watch, what you listen to and who you allow to influence you are all very important factors in just how acceptable your religion is to God.

Sunday April 10 2016

So I sat in this training this past week and listened to trainers teach how to engage your audience, how to re engage them every certain amount of time and how to tell your own story and make it good. Well, we were broken up into groups and in hose groups we were told to share our story with small groups to prepare to share it in larger groups after the training. The trainers said, don't use humor because not everyone likes humor and you won't connect to those people, then they said u need to connect with people. My comment was no, people need to connect to you, the real you when you are speaking. Not some stuff, professional speaker. So after I shared mine with the group everyone had a turn and they apparently liked it so much they told the trainers how good it was. Eventually I ended up sharing with the whole large group and guess what, it was chocked full of humor. That's me, the real me is sarcastic and most of the time funny(many times at your expense) Here is the problem, we have thru the years connected to a Jesus who is perfect and stuff and boring. But, God invented humor and He invented sarcasm and when used correctly they both add to any situation. It might come as a surprise that Jesus was very sarcastic, but he was. First, let us look at what sarcasm is: 1. harsh or bitter derision or irony. 2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark The origin of the word gives us a better understanding – it comes from the Greek “sarkasmos” and that comes from another word which means “to tear flesh, bite the lip in rage”. Sometimes sarcasm can be used to make a joke (but be careful of your audience). Sometimes it can be used to make a strong and biting point. This is how Jesus uses it more often than not. So, was Jesus harsh, bitter, sharp, sneering, cutting, and ironic? Yes. But, first I will give you my favorite Old Testament usage of sarcasm (there are a lot) – it comes out of 1 Kings 18. Here the prophet Elijah puts the priests of Baal that they should accept a challenge from him to see which God is best – Baal or Yahweh. So, they have a challenge to see which God would show up to burn up the sacrifice made by Elijah vs the priests of Baal. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” What you don’t see in the majority of most English translations is how much Elijah was really taunting them. Here is a better translation: “About noontime, Elijah began mocking them. ‘You’ll have to shout louder than that,’ he scoffed, ‘to catch the attention of your god! Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toilet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened.’” Baal might be asleep? Might be on the toilet? HA HA! I love it!!! Mocking is tough isn't it. PJ took the time to teach Brae sounds. Animal sounds were first, what does the cow say Moooo, what does the dog say bark bark!, what does the cat say? Meow! what does the horse say? Nay Nay! What does momma say? Nag nag nag nag nag. that's mocking 101, as a father I have never been prouder of PJ or Brae than when I first heard this lol. That is all in good fun, but when arguing with a teenager a good mocking really hurts doesn't it. It cuts to the core. God used sarcasm through out scripture to make the point. Let's go to the scripture in Luke now. But sarcasm can be used in a way that gets people to see something that they may not have seen before, and I think that is a good use of sarcasm. Luke 7:37-50 Jesus must have believed that, because He used it from time to time. My favorite example of Jesus's sarcasm is in Luke 7 when Jesus is at the home of Simon the Pharisee. You know the story.........Simon is offended because Jesus is letting this woman who is a "sinner" kiss His feet, and then wash his feet with both tears and perfume. Simon never said anything to Jesus about it, but Jesus knew what was going on in Simon's mind. Jesus then told him the parable about two men having debts to a moneylender, one great and one small, and having those debts cancelled. He asked the simple but deep question: "Now which of them loved him more?" Simon answered correctly, and somewhat sheepishly: "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled." Jesus told him he was correct. Then Jesus pointed out to Simon how the woman has smothered him with love from the second she had been with him, and how Simon had done NOTHING. He concluded his remarks about her by saying "Her many sins have been forgiven.....for she loved much". If the story had ended there, it would have been a great story.........right? Ah, but it doesn't, and it gets even better. Jesus puts on his sarcasm hat, and really zings Simon. Jesus says: "But he who has been forgiven little loves little". Have you ever been forgiven "LITTLE"? Do you have any LITTLE struggles? Forgiveness is ALWAYS big, and never "LITTLE"! That is the only way God knows how to do it, because He loves us so so much. Jesus, God in the flesh, only forgave big when He was on the earth. It's impossible to be forgiven little! The Pharisees were arrogant folks, and Simon was one of them. In his mind, he had no need for God's forgiveness.........or if he did, it was very "LITTLE". Jesus knew Simon felt that way about himself. Because of Simon's arrogance and self-righteousness, he didn't have the ability to love anybody...........not even Jesus. Oh he probably loved one person, himself. But he knew in his heart of hearts how sinful he was, and that he had been forgiven BIG.......even if outwardly he acted like he had "little" to be forgiven of. It had to zing him. It has to zing us. Do you want to be able to love? Then you better acknowledge how much YOU have been loved and forgiven! I don't know that I can prove it, but I believe with all my heart the same principle applies to grace. If you are not a grace giving person, you probably have never acknowledged how in need of grace you are........and how God smothered you with His grace. Kids don’t necessarily understand love and what it means in it’s totality. I love that Jesus compares love and forgiveness. Those of us who have kids have probably had a situation where a kid tried to add to love. Things like Iove you soooo much, I love you more than words can say are things adults say to people they are in love with. But, what about kids. I love you lots a much is what PJ used to say when she was really little. I used to say I love you to Brae and she would say I love you too. Now she responds with I love you three. Laurie and her kids say I love you big much. WE all know those things, but in reality saying I love you says it all, just like saying I forgive you. That is huge and it says all that needs to be said. I wonder how sarcasm affected Simon? I wonder how it sits with you and me? In closing, let me ask you something. See, that is who Simon was with.......another believer......and he wasn't loving her very well. Is withholding fellowship an expression of love and grace? Of course it isn't. We for sure at times have been like Simon, and been guilty of loving "little". Why? Maybe because we had the heart of Simon..............a heart of self-righteousness and arrogance. God help us to not need His sarcasm to realize that. Like most everyone in this room I tended to put my foot in my mouth at times when I was younger. I got a good handle on it and considered myself a strong communicator and then came email. I am a very, very sarcastic person and You need to see my facial expressions and hear my tone to catch it. Emails I think allow for those two important ingredients of sarcasm. Then, comes texting yeah we have all sent that text to someone and infuriated them because there again is no tone and no facial expression involved. Here is my problem with our study of the Bible. We have dried up all humor and any sarcasm from Jesus or the leaders in the Bible. Why did we do that? Why do we even want to imagine a person with no humor and no personality. I do a thing called dating bingo with kids when I am speaking on campuses. Each student is given a bingo like sheet and told to choose their 5 favorite attributes when looking for someone to date and EVERY time three come out on top. Good looking, honest and funny but do u know which one always wins? funny, it gets the most votes, then why on earth do we want to worship a God and a Savior with no humor? A vanilla Jesus with no personality at all. It just doesn't make sense.

Easter Sunday

Sunday March 27 Jesus is ……Alive! There are so many curious things that cannot be proven or have left us curious. Things like why did the chicken cross the road “Insert your cheesy answer here” Or did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? Mary's father has 4 children; three are named Nana, Nene, and Nini. So what is is the 4th child's name? Mary The tomb where Jesus was laid on “Good Friday” is now a completely different tomb … it requires a different type of watchman. It does not need a cemetery caretaker or a company of Roman soldiers assign to protect the dead but an angel from the realms of light and life. For Christ has risen indeed … Let us turn to Matthew 28 in God’s Word and find out why was the stone rolled away? Introduction: Do you think there was any significance to the fact that the stone enclosing the tomb of Jesus was rolled away? The stone didn’t need to be rolled away for Jesus to leave the tomb, and perhaps an empty tomb with the Roman seal still affixed to the closed stone would have been a more convincing proof of the resurrection vs. alternate theories. Was it to release Jesus? Well, of course not. Being God, Jesus could move freely from one place to another without being encumbered with worldly limitations. Let us assume the stone wasn’t rolled away, but Jesus began appearing to his disciples. Word would spread, and the Jewish leaders likely would have had the tomb inspected; if the stone was still closed and the seal still affixed, and they had the tomb opened and Jesus was not there, they would be hard pressed to claim the body was stolen, that he wasn’t really dead, etc. obviously God decided that the stone would be rolled away; I am just looking for any special significance to this. While the stone covering the entrance to the tomb was there for many reasons, we know its existence wasn’t to contain Christ. Why was the stone rolled away? 1. Witness the testimony of the power of Christ (vs. 2-4) Before we answer the question about the stone, let’s visit the importance of the guards on resurrection Sunday. They had been placed there as an integral part in God’s plan to communicate the resurrection. They were special soldiers, handpicked for being strong, skillful, alert and loyal to death. Their posting was made the day after Jesus’ burial as a last minute decision to ensure that these Jesus’ followers couldn’t steal the body. Both the authorities and Disciples had something to prove here. The Pharisees wanted Jesus to rot in that tomb as a public demonstration that their motives were correct. The Disciples, proof that Jesus was in fact the risen Messiah. As the guards awoke from their God induced slumber, they saw the empty tomb and the angel sent by God. Matthew 28: 4 records that they were ‘as dead men’ because they met a heavenly being. The impact was so significant an event that they froze. I’m sure these handpicked soldiers were in a situation that they had not encountered before. They certainly weren’t trained for it. So they quickly ran off to their commanders, and then to Pilate, to report on what had happened. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in their shoes. Their superiors would not have been happy, and although they would discipline them for failing in their duty, they couldn’t deny the truth of what had been relayed by these trained professionals. The authorities knew that they spoke the truth so they paid the guards for their silence, as we are told in Matthew 28. It was a brilliant, God inspired strategy to use professional, loyal soldiers to share the truth of the resurrection with those who denied Christ. Who better to challenge a skeptic than two of their own! What we need is the resurrection power manifested by the stone rolled away. You see, the stone was rolled away because Jesus could not be held by death. He said about Himself, in John 11: 25, "I am the resurrection and the life." In other words, resurrection power centers in Jesus. 2. Bear testimony to the resurrected Lord (vs. 5-6) Instead, the stone was rolled away so that we could look in. It was rolled away for our sakes, so that the empty tomb could be visible to all. The empty tomb is the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in all of history. I believe it is indisputable evidence. Cynics and critics have tried to explain it away, and they have not been able to. The empty tomb still stands as evidence to all that Jesus is not dead, that the bonds of death could not hold Him. He is alive today. There is no other explanation. Some say it was the wrong tomb. But if it were the wrong tomb, the Pharisees and the Sadducees who put Jesus to death certainly would have found the right tomb, rolled the stone away, and produced the dead and decaying body of Jesus Christ. But they were unable to because it was the right tomb, and it was empty. All of the great religious leaders of history have lived and died, and their bodies are buried today. Only Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Only Jesus Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and came forth as victor. The significance of the stone rolled away is found in the words of the angel, "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. The tomb was opened to show that something tangible, something real, had happened. Who’d have believed the resurrection if the stone was in place and the seal unbroken? It was an open, public statement of the divine. The stone had been rolled away, the guards had seen the Angel of the Lord and the tomb was empty. Each of these incidents confirms what had become public knowledge about Christ’s prophesy of His own resurrection. The rolling away of the stone became a symbol to all that Christ was the real Messiah. 3. Proclaim the testimony of the risen Jesus (vs. 7-8) You have to wonder what the disciples would have done if the stone hadn’t been rolled away. Would they have locked themselves away, frightened that what they believed was false? I’m sure those 35 or so hours after Jesus’ death on the cross would have been filled with nervous anticipation, waiting and not knowing what to expect. “(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)” John 20: 9 (NIV). But on seeing the empty tomb, the scene that Sunday morning was one of action. There was disbelief, fear of Jesus’ being taken by the authorities, then heavenly beings speaking to the women and then Peter. People were running to tell others as the Angels gave instructions to GO TELL. (a) A Command to Depart - The angelic message is an imperative message. It calls for action, for engagement on our part. The angel says to the ladies...... “Go!” Are we living as though our Lord is risen and living within our hearts? Are we sharing the message that “He lives” with others? We are not to linger near the tomb, but we are to take the good news that it is empty and that Jesus lives into the entire world. The message of the resurrectioncalls us to action! (b) A Command to Deliver - “go quickly, and tell …” The word “quickly” means “without delay”! These women were commanded to go with a sense of urgency spreading the good news that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead! Why so? Because everyday people are dying, people are being deceived and being despondent. The message of the tomb is still the message for this hour, “Come, see … go quickly and tell.” 4. So that we could see his things: I shared a few years ago that in Biblical times if a master was eating and excused himself from the table the servants would be confused as to whether he was done. If they folded their napkin and placed it on the table they were coming back, if they just threw it down unfolded they were finished. Jesus very signifigantly left his things folded as a sign that He wasn’t just gone, he was coming back for us. The empty tomb was the time of first belief. It is from here that the news spread that the prophecy of the resurrection had indeed occurred. This was a real event, that all that was foretold was being fulfilled. The news could not be contained. 5. To also remind us that Man didn't put Jesus there. Jesus went to the cross by His own decision, and the government out its stamp on the bolder and God had to remind us that His power is far superior to man's power. I think we need that reminder today because there is something keeping each of us back, and we need to remember that God is bigger than whatever it is.I watch Social media and I see the fear that so many are expressing over our country and where it is at. I see people getting more and more political, we are not Americans anymore we are left wing or right wing, we are liberals or conservatives. We are afraid of this candidate or that. Listen to me closely, God is in control. That stone was rolled away to remind us of that and it may be more relevant to us today as Americans than it has ever been. That bolder took 5 guys and a machine to move, an Angel of the Lord moved it all alone. That bolder had the stamp of the government on there as if to say, we the Roman Empire have the final say and the ultimate power. God moved that bolder to remind us HE IS IN CONTROL! Have you experienced the good news from that empty tomb 2,000 years ago? Is Jesus your Savior today? Are you ready to meet him? Does the risen Lord live in your heart? You can be saved today! If He is calling you to come to Him, you need to come to Him today. I shared with you last Christmas that YOU are the reason for the season, Jesus was God’s plan for you, not for himself. Well, today I am telling you that you are the reason the stone was rolled away. It was about you and your faith. The rolling away of the stone is the beginning of our faith.

God is ....... what it's all about (Sunday March 13 notes for those who couldn't hear me lol)

I hear people say it all the time. When I share how I started taking off Fridays to be off with Brae during the day they say man, that’s what it’s all about. When we took a victory photo last week with the whole family there they say man, that’s what it’s all about. I hired a new softball coach, she is awesome, she actually played softball all of her life until in college she found out she had an enlarged heart. She shared with our team about how she realized how valuable softball had become to her, and how she missed it and would give anything to play again. The girls were speechless and then she said while I would give anything to play again, I am here to coach because I love the game. My assistant coach said, man that’s what it’s all about. Peyton Manning retired this past week and shared an 11 minute speech. You knew it would be well prepared because he was the king of football preparation. He shared how he realized later in his career what it is all about. I can go on for hours with moments where I have heard people say that little sentence. But today I want to tell you my God is statement is God is what it is all about. A couple decades ago, Pastor Rick Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Life, which went viral and global. I read it and taught a study on it to a small group many years ago.And this best-selling book starts with a single line that polarizes and leaves no room for negotiation on a single point… It’s not about you. I’ve grown the deepest in seasons when God uses circumstances to remind me of this simple fact. Life isn’t about my happiness, health, or wealth. It’s about God’s good pleasure and glory. Romans 11:33 Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out. In other words: Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. You can believe this or not. You’re free to disagree. But this much is true: Life doesn’t make sense until you realize it’s all for God. God, in his goodness, is good to us. Why? Because it brings him both pleasure and glory. And when we, as feeble creatures, feast our hearts upon his goodness and grace, he is glorified and exalted in the earth. Life is not about being happy, but when we relate rightly to our Creator, happiness often results. And when I find my joy in my relationship with Him, everything else starts to make sense. Everything comes from Him- I think we sometimes struggle with this one more than we should. Hey I won, or I did really good at something. Think about all of what comes from God and how much credit we take for it. Oh you are naturally good at it? That makes it really easy to give God the credit. But wait, you aren’t naturally good at it, you aren’t all that gifted but you are still good at it because of your work ethic? Where do you think the work ethic came from? God put you in the family you are in, in the circumstances you are in, to be who you are. Paul even makes fun of this in Philippians when he talks about how they are bragging about where they are from and what their blood line is, and so on. He reminds them that they had absolutely nothing to do with that at all. Everything happens through Him- So many times I have prepared myself, I have seen myself as perfectly ready for whatever may come my way and then boom! Some kind of surprise some sort of eye opening experience that I never prepared for. How about Philippians 3:1-6 Paul is making fun of people who brag about their lineage, their heritage or their family line. He makes fun of them because they are bragging as if they are better in reality they are giving God all of the credit. We have absolutely no say in where we are born, who we are born to, God controls all of that. Everything ends up in Him- So here is how it works, we can give all of the credit to Him to begin with, we can make it all about Him, or we can make it about us and then in the end realize we missed out on so much of life because we made it about us when we could have been glorifying Him. All the glory goes to Him- If it were about me, I’d expect God to fix all of my circumstances. But it’s about him, and he’s more interested in growing my character. If it were about me, it would be unfair to have to wait for gratification. But it’s about him, so his timing is what matters, and he is set on developing patience in me. If it were about me, I would need to worry about making sure everyone around me likes me. But it’s about him, so his approval is all that matters. If it were about me, I’d go nuts trying to do all the things I think are important. But it’s about him, so his simple agenda – his perfect will, is all I’m responsible for. At the end of the day, the most important thing you can realize about life is that it isn’t about you. It’s about the One who made you to love you, to make you his, and to make you holy. Why is this so important for us to grasp? Because of Psalm 78:1-8 Every one of us on this earth today, every person here today in worship. Until we not only fully accept that it is about God, but also exemplify it to the next generation there will be no changes in this world. We tell people to come to church, we tell people to turn their faith and their trust to God, we tell people to accept the free gift of salvation. But we continue to talk about sports and hobbies and finances, those aren’t all bad but our kids figure out what is important by our actions. The next generation will see what we make life all about and they will look at one another and say, that is what it’s all about and I pray and hope they say that God is what it is all about. Alexa and PJ often talk me into going on long bike rides at the beach. It mostly goes something like this, we unload the bikes and head closer to the water, PJ tears out wide open and Alexa takes off not far behind. They both keep a pace that would make Lance Armstrong jealous, and their dad well I seem to keep up just enough speed to be able to see them what seems like miles ahead down the beach. One day we were riding and I was way behind and struggling, it was really windy and ofcourse we were riding against the wind. PJ and Alexa struggled less because they don't stop the wind as well as their father does. Well, several miles into the ride I see PJ turn around and then Alexa and start heading back towards me and back to the truck. Well, as PJ passes she says "Hey it's a good thing the wind shifted so that you can keep up better fat boy." Well, she was young and her statement was partially correct. It was a VERY good thing that we were going with the wind now and I would be able to keep up a little better. The wind did not shift, we changed our direction. Basically, in life we have two major options. Acknowledge that life is about our creator or find out later after we pedaled against the wind all of our lives that it wasn't about us. I don't know about you but I despise not having the opportunity to thank people when needed. I want to thank GOd each day and give him the glory now so that I don't wake up years from now and realize I missed the opportunity by making things about me.

God is FOR US (Sunday march 6 2016)

Get a marker board and write down things that are negatives that can happen. Things that can be viewed as negatives. Doing this series on God is, I asked a series of questions and placed them on the back table. Here is some of my research findings: Who is God? Maker Heavenly Father Our God Creator Our Father Father of all Jesus Creator of life I am Creator of the universe Creator of all things Someone who cares for you King of Kings The Supreme Being Outside of Church: Creator of everything The founder of religion Supreme being* Maker of the universe A myth A farce created by man for them to find hope in life. Where is God(IN church) Everywhere In our hearts With all of us Anywhere you are willing to see Him In my heart In heaven Everywhere forever Large enough to be everywhere, small enough to be in our hearts Where is God(outside of church)\ IN heaven IN the air we breathe Everywhere all at once In your imagination, anything is possible with a great imagination What does God think of us?(In church) He loves us unconditionally We are a work in progress He loves us We are his children We are sinners He loves us no matter what He loves us and wants to have relationship with us He thinks we are worthless, we make Him angry We are His blessings We are sinners in need of second chances He thinks we are perfect in our own way His brothers and sisters That we can do better, but his love never falters Outside of church: He thinks we should do better He thinks we are sinners He has probably given up on us by now He deserves better He thinks we are idiots for believing this stuff Romans 8:28 says all things work together for the good so you know what, he doesn’t have a big huge board like this one where he rights out good and bad in two separate categories, therefore it all goes into one category. Good but only for them who love the Lord. Sometimes God’s truth leaves us almost speechless. Romans 8:28-30 left Paul almost speechless. All things work for your good – God sees to it, This leaves Paul almost speechless. Almost. He says, "What then shall we say to these things?" I hear two things in those words for Paul and for us. I hear, "It is hard to find words for these great things." And I hear, "We must find words for these great things." I think when Paul says, "What then shall we say to these things?" his answer is: We must say it again another way. We must find different words and say it again. That’s what he does with the words, "If God is for us, who is against us?" That’s what he has been saying all along. But he must say it another way and so must we. If you have shared the gospel with a child or a parent or a friend many times, you must say it again, say it another way. We must write another email, send another message, text another text, make another phone call, teach another lesson, put up another plaque, write another poem, sing another song, speak another bedside sentence about the glory of God and His Son Jesus. "What then shall we say to these things?" We will say them another way, over and over again till we die, and then to all eternity. They will never cease to be worthy of another way of speaking the glory. God Is For Us O how precious are those two words, "for us." There are no more fearful words in the universe than the words, "God is against us. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). God is entirely for us, and never against us. None of our sicknesses is a judgment from a condemning judge. None of our broken cars or failed appliances is a punishment from God. None of our marital strife is a sign of his wrath. None of our lost jobs is a penalty for sin. None of our wayward children is a crack of the whip of God’s retribution. If we are in Christ. No. God is for us, not against, in and through all things – all ease and all pain. Who Is Against Us? Which means, to say it still another way, "Who is against us?" We are still in verse 31: "If God is for us, who is against us?" The answer Paul expects when he asks that question is, "No one can be against us." To which we are prone to say, "Really?" What does that mean? Verse 35 says that there will be tribulation and distress and persecution and sword. Verse 36 says that Christians are being killed all day long, they are counted like sheep to be slaughtered. Paul said that. So what does he mean, "Who can be against us?" I think he means no one can be successfully against us. The devil and sinful men can make you sick, can steal your car, can sow seeds of strife in your marriage, can take away your job, and rob you of all of your money. But verse 28 says, God works all those things together for your good if you love him. And if they finally work for your good, the designs of the adversary are thwarted and his aim to be against you is turned into a Christ-exalting, soul-sanctifying, faith-deepening benefit. If God is for you, he does not spare you these things. But he designs good where the adversary designs evil (Genesis 50:20; 45:7). The things that are against you he designs to be for you. No one can be successfully against you. I have played sports and coaches sports and I can tell you there is one thing you never, ever, ever do. That is guarantee victory. You can’t do it I’ts never a good idea. Yet Paul tells us in these verses, nothing can work against you because all things work together for the good of those of us who love the Lord.

Baby dedication notes

There are lots of different religious traditions that churches do. Many of them are Biblical many are not. Today we are going to be sharing together in a baby dedication service that is simply about a mother, father and two families wanting to dedicate their little gift to God. God gave us an indescribable gift and what makes it indescribable is the package it came in, a baby. All of us who have children know that there aren’t enough words to describe what you feel and go through at the birth of your children. There is nothing mystical or magical about what we are doing here today. We are simply taking God’s greatest gifts to us our children and giving them back to Him. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 Man those verses sound so easy, train up a child and he will stay the path. Just raise them right and they will grow up right. Sounds simple, and I remember when I was a young, young youth pastor watching parents and thinking man they are doing it all right that kid is just a knuckle head. I have also sat with high school football coaches who are stressed out because parents expect them to raise their kids. That is where the idea of being a chaplain came from. I have watched in my ministry as I teach and watch kids grow but also see it all erased. Kids grow up with a set of beliefs and morals and then they cross paths with someone who has different beliefs and morals and theirs falter. Usually it is an adult who has this negative influence on children even though we blame it most on their peers. This service is more about a church and a family and friends committing to the growth of a baby than just a mom and a dad. Brandon and Katie there are people in this room who watched you grow up, people who know your personalities and who will see things in Brant and be able to warn you or share advice and encouragement with you. FOUND A VERSE OF SCRIPTURE THOUGH, THAT HAS TOUCHED MY HEART WHILE PREPARING FOR THIS MESSAGE. IF IS PROBABLY NOT AS FAMILIAR AS THOSE WE HAVE JUST READ. I DO BELIEVE, HOWEVER, THAT IT HAS GREAT APPLICATION TO PARENTS. BUT NOT ONLY PARENTS, BUT IN FACT EVERY CHRISTIAN. IT CONCERNS OUR BEHAVIOR. NOW BEFORE WE LOOK AT THIS VERSE, I WANT US TO MAKE SURE THAT WE ARE ALL CLEAR ON A FEW THINGS. 1. ARE CHILDREN BORN INTO THE WORLD, FULLY CAPABLE TO SURVIVE ON THEIR OWN? NO! 2. OTHER THAN INSTINCT, CAN WE SAY THAT CHILDREN ARE BORN VOID OF ANY KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING GOOD AND EVIL? YES! 3. DO CHILDREN HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO DO EVERYTHING, THAT WILL HELP THEM TO SURVIVE PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, AND SPIRITUALLY? YES! 4. WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT TO TRAIN/TEACH CHILDREN HOW TO LIVE AND TO SURVIVE? PARENTS! 5. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN? WHAT IS ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THAT WE NOTICE ABOUT BABIES, BESIDE HOW CUTE THEY ARE? ISN’T IT HOW ALERT THEY ARE? Colossians 4:5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. The real root and true meaning of this verse taking the original text and language of the time is actually this. Walk wisely at all times for those who do not know any better. Wow, if we take that and plug it into a baby dedication service the meaning is life changing. Walk wisely at all times Mom, walk wisely at all times Dad because baby Brant will learn and grow and make decisions based on your actions and your decisions. I get a lot of questions about infant baptism so I want to share some history with you. First, where did infant baptism come from? It actually comes from Genesis and the beginnings of the worship of Baal. Infant baptism began as a pagan ritual as a sign of belonging to a non Christian religion. The professed conversion of Emperor Constantine in A.D. 313 was looked upon by many as a great triumph for Christianity. However, it more than likely was the greatest tragedy in church history because it resulted in the union of church and state and the establishment of a hierarchy which ultimately developed into the Roman Catholic system. When Emperor Constantine made 'Christianity' the official 'STATE RELIGION of Rome, one of the FIRST LAWS passed was the law decreeing infant baptism as the law of the land in 416 A.D. That simply meant that everybody within a certain age limit had to conform to it. When they passed that law in 416 that every baby in the Roman Empire had to be baptized at the hands of an authorized Roman priest... OR ELSE! First and foremost nothing we are about to do is going to change the eternity of baby Brant. What we are doing is letting God know that this little guy is a blessing, a gift and in return we want to offer him back to God as a gift. In doing so we want to commit as a family and church family to help Katie and Brandon raise this blessing the way God would want it. Katie and Brandon you know my commitment level to this little guy. Katie you are like family to us, and my daughters absolutely adore you. I will never forget sitting in Denny’s as you prepared me for the road life was about to take us down. I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther Today we are taking this little blessing and offering him back up to God. Our greatest way of saying thank you to God for His gifts is to offer them back to Him. Now a few challenges for the family: - Do you today recognize these children as the gifts of God and give heartfelt thanks for God’s blessing? - Do you now dedicate your children to the Lord who gave them to you all, surrendering all worldly claims upon their lives in the hope that they will belong wholly to God? - Do you pledge as parents that, with God’s fatherly help, you will bring up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, making every reasonable effort, with patience and love, to build the Word of God, the character of Christ and the joy of the Lord into their lives? - Do you promise to provide, through God’s blessing, for the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of your children, looking to your own heavenly Father for the wisdom, love and strength to serve them and not use them? - Do you promise, God helping you, to make it your regular prayer that, by God’s grace, your children will come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and for the fulfillment of all his promises to them, even eternal life; and in this faith follow Jesus as Lord and obey his teachings? Church: It is equally important that we as a church make these same commitments as we realize it takes a village to raise a child. I can tell you having been raised in a Christian home and attending church since birth I have had hundreds of people cross my path who were influential in my development. From greeters, to people who sat near us in church, to pastors, youth pastors, and church friends they were all equally a part of the process. Church family we are all committing to the very same things that these families are because we know the importance of positive reinforcement. Katie I know that the birth of Brant has brought pulling and tugging in every direction and you aren’t able to be here with us as often as you used to be. I want you to know that our investment in you as a mom, in Brandon as a father and most importantly in Brant has never waivered. We are here and as much a part of this ceremony as you are. We have loved on, prayed for and cared for you guys and Brant from day one and that will never change. Now a few challenges for the church: - Do you today recognize these children as the gifts of God and give heartfelt thanks for God’s blessing? - Do you now dedicate your children to the Lord who gave them to you all, surrendering all worldly claims upon their lives in the hope that they will belong wholly to God? - Do you pledge as this child’s church that, with God’s fatherly help, you will assist this family in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, making every reasonable effort, with patience and love, to build the Word of God, the character of Christ and the joy of the Lord into their lives? - Do you promise to provide, through God’s blessing, for the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of your children, looking to your own heavenly Father for the wisdom, love and strength to serve them and not use them? - Do you promise, God helping you, to make it your regular prayer that, by God’s grace, these children will come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and for the fulfillment of all his promises to them, even eternal life; and in this faith follow Jesus as Lord and obey his teachings? - Do you pledge your assistance to these parents through prayer, fellowship and encouragement? This now concludes our ceremony, our baby Brant dedication. Here is a certificate of dedication as well as a letter from me for Brant to open when he is a teenager. Thank you so much Katie and Brandon for letting me be a part of this ceremony. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your lives and the birth and continual growth of this little guy who has been as much a blessing to my family as yours.

Sunday February 7 Communion message

I teach a curriculum that I wrote myself called Men of Character. In it I talk about a lot of things, but one of the main points is that we are failing young men. Every generation gets a little bit worse in the way they treat each other, in the way they treat and objectify women and in the things that are important. We watch as young men are sexually promiscuous and they are almost rewarded for it by their peers and by their elders. Boys being boys we say. Then, we watch each generation as they create an obsession with successs which is painted as being rich, powerful and or athletic and talented. What we DO NOT do is teach them how to be men. WE don’t take the time to teach them about the importance of respect. Respect for one another, respect for others, respect for the person they date and marry. Harrell and Harrell has a commercial on the radio right now talking about how little ones watch our moves. They talk about texting and driving with kids in the car and about wearing your seat belt when kids are in the car because they will eventually copy those behaviors. Every good parent in the world wants things to be better for their kids then they were for them. They also want their kids to be better at the things that they do than they were. Well, here is the flip side parents, your kids want that too. They want to do what you do and do it better. They want to out do you, and odds are they will. The things you do wrong they will do even worse, the things that you make important and do well they will do much better. Leadership, everyone wants to be a leader but what our teens don’t realize is that most every leader is actually a follower. Leaders aren’t popular and cool, leaders are people who do what is write no matter what. They do what their gut and their morals say they should regardless of who or what the circumstances are that are surrounding them. In kindergarten PJ went to staggered start. Basically, this meant that she went to school with about 4 other classmates. Well that day the teacher let her lead the lines because she knew her way around. Tara worked at the school so PJ already knew where everything was. When they returned for the first day with the full class the teacher assigned a line leader. As they walked to lunch she looked up and PJ was up front leading the way. Well, the teacher asked her to let the young man she assigned lead and she said No. PJ, it's his day to lead I want him up front. I cannot do that Ms Johnson, my dad told me I had to be a leader so I have to be up front. This sadly is the picture of leadership our young people are carrying around, being up front and in charge, being pushy and overpowering people. Next, and finally this is so big and this is so where we are killing our next generation. Community. I am going to tell you this, if you want to have a strong relationship with Jeff Gatlin you better sit down with him on occasion and talk. I borderline demand it. WE need to grab a bite to eat and hang out, we need to crash at my office, or here at the church, or on your front porch and talk because that is community. Facebook is not community. Twitter, KIK, Instagram, snap chat are not community. Sitting and talking and interacting are community. But think about this with me, babies come into this world completely innocent. Their eyes are opened and they are taking in everything they come across. We use words like cute, cuddly, adorable, and innocent but something happens. Their environment changes and they are slowly exposed to more and more. Eventually they are no longer surrounded by people who love them. They are surrounded by people in competition with them for attention and for progress. People who instead of building them up and telling them they love them, they are beautiful and they are the best are calling them names, pointing out their weaknesses and hurting them regularly. Community, it is where America is most failing this generation and we have to do something about it. Today we are going to take Communion, the Lords Supper regardless of what you call it you are sitting down and focusing on what is important in this world. As Christians what is important in this world is that God loves us, continues to love us and had a plan from day one to prove that love to us. What is important is that we bring ourselves back to a place where we have to be very real with ourselves and the people around us. I remember as a kid eating breakfast and dinner with my family. Breakfast was at the table. Dinner was sometimes at the table sometimes in the living room. Regardless of where it was it was a time to be genuine and real. If one person wasn’t it was awkward(I am an only child) Today my schedule will not permit me to eat at home every night, but we do our best to eat together as often as possible. And when we do we are forced to think about what is important on the family side of things. Community. I long for community in my life, if you know me you know I hate relationships based on texting and even phone calls for that matter. Communion is a time when we as a church family are sat down together. Focused on what God has done for us, What Jesus accomplished for us. It is also a time for making sure we are on track where God wants us to be and a time to become more thankful for God’s grace than ever. Go wash up my parents would tell me, clean up for dinner I would hear from the back door to the hosue. I would come in from outside playing run into the bathroom and wash my hands. Without fail I would sit down and be told to try again. Sometimes two or three times I would be told to try again. This happened all the time. Why? Because I just washed my hands, not the back of my hands or my arms or elbows. Communion is a time for community, a time where we sit completely transparent in front of God’s table and remember all that Jesus did for us. But, if we do it correctly it will remind us of all the places we need to clean up so that we can sit transparently in front of a God who knows everything about us. 1 Corinthians 11:26 Luke 22:19-21 So here we are, I am going to pray and during this prayer I would encourage you to do the same thing. Pray that God will help you to focus on the elements, the imagery of them, and pray that He will help to prepare your mind and heart and clean up all the places where you have sinned and fallen short.

Sunday January 24 message

Who is God? Message 1 I am a big picture thinker. I look at things and I immediately see down the road a ways. I try to put big picture thinking into everything I do, people call it being a visionary. Well, there are times where it is vision that God gives me and there are other times where it is simply big picture thinking. Things like putting an underclassman in to play in a lot of softball games even when they are struggling simply because a few years down the road it will pay off. Maybe playing someone out of position from time to time because well, things happen like injuries and such. We make a lot of decisions as parents don’t we. I will guarantee you that the bigger the picture is of your kids future, the better decisions you will make. We have to punish them, and feel like they hate us in the immediate moment but in the big picture we know that they will grow up to be better people and love you more because of it. I tell parents all the time to let coaches be hard on their kids and push their kids because it prepares them for life. Un-coachable kids grow up to be unemployable adults. Now if I, as a fallible human being can see the big picture what does God’s picture look like? I liken it to a puzzle, each day we are given a piece of that puzzle and each day we search for where it fits and God has the box cover before we are even born. He knows where the piece you get each day goes and he knows what you need. God is a different type of gardener: Jeremiah 17:5-6 Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands, he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives. Now I know quite a few farmers, and they have seasons that they plant their crops because that is when they will grow the best. They can plan and plan and watch their almanacs or their weather channel apps, regardless they are not going to be able to overcome floods or a drought, they just can’t. Jeremiah 17:7-8 But, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Now look at these verses, this second half of our passage and think about what they are saying. I mean yes a tree next to a stream isn’t worried about the heat or the weather, but what about a real roots system. I mean a roots system grounded in the water isn’t very strong at all. The whole point to these verses is that when we trust in God, when we place our trust in Him, we can release all of our worries. Because, God isn’t just a gardener who plants, he is a gardener who guarantees the fruit that He needs. But let’s look at another passage on God as the gardener. John 15:1-2 Now a gardener in a vineyard would have several jobs, all of them pretty much for the same purpose but different all the same. 1. He oversees the wellbeing of the vine. Overseeing is not micromanaging. If God micromanaged us we would not love Him as strongly as we do. 2. He oversees the wellbeing of the branches of the vine. He oversees the vine and he also oversees the branches. 3. He prunes the branches so that they produce more fruit. Here is the part that none of us like. He prunes the branches so that they will produce more fruit. Raise your hand if you want to be pruned to produce more fruit. God uses us to reach the lost, but when the fruit isn’t happening He does some pruning. You see if a grape vine was left just to grow on its own it would. It would grow and it would produce fruit but it would stretch out and grow all over the place and soon it would produce less quality and then soon less quantity and what it does produce eventually would be overbearing and would end up on the ground, trampled and rotten. The vine has to be pruned, it has to be watched over or it will never produce the way it was created to. 4. He oversees the production and development of the fruit. He oversees again, no managing but overseeing. Giving the nutrients and pruning needed to bring about the best of results. 5. He gathers the fruit. No the vine doesn’t gather the fruit, no the branches don’t gather or eat the fruit, the gardener does. We talked last Wednesday night about how if we truly believed John 3:30 and that all that man has comes from above then we would take every ounce of fruit, every positive gain that comes to us as a gift from God. Realizing that we were simply vessels that God used to reach His people with. Instead, however, we do something good and we post it on social media, we wave our flag, and we eat up every ounce of credit, AKA glory hogs. Chinese bamboo many times gets chopped down prematurely by unsuspecting people. To those who don’t know anything about it Chinese bamboo appears to do nothing to grow the first 4 years of it’s life. At the end of 4 years it is rarely more than a few feet tall, it is seemingly puny and weak. But, the entire first 4 years of it’s life it is growing underground, it is growing a roots system that will stand up the demands of year 5. In the 5th year of it’s existence Chinese bamboo can grow to well over 80 feet tall. Think about that, 2 foot in the first 4 years, 80 plus the next year. That is all part of God’ design and if you don’t know anything about it, you know nothing about the roots that God put there first. God always has a plan. The birth of Jesus was not God’s alternative plan when the rest of His plan didn’t work out. God foretold of Christ’s coming as far back as the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15). You can trust today that God has a plan for your life.

WEdnesday evening's message

Ten ways to check your character week 2. Malcolm in the middle clip on Youtube as the Duel at the Mall Everyone has a guiding power in their life. It’s that innermost voice that guides and directs us in the decisions we make. It appears in many cartoons as an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Well, as Christians we are called to be driven and guided by the Holy Spirit. That is God’s gift to us to help with tough decisions. If God and the Holy Spirit are the guides in our lives then there is fruit that comes from that. Fruit is the product of a tree, the same way spiritual fruit is the product of a life lived for Christ. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. To be honest just sharing Galatians 5:22-23 is the answer to all of the character tests I gave you in our list of 10 ways to test your character. Love – we know what that is but do we show it? And do we show it in the times that it will mean the most? It’s pretty darn easy to love the people who love you back, but what about the flip side? Joy – not happiness but joy, which is the overflow of our hearts. Happiness is circumstancial I can be happy when things go my way, I cannot be happy when life throws some impossible things at me but I can still find my joy because that will never faulter. Peace – not the absence of conflict but the absence of worry, fear and stress in the middle of conflict. Forebearance – Toleration of an offense, AKA patience Man oh man, tolerating someone who offends you in some way that is quite the test now isn’t it. Kindness – the act of being kind, very rarely is anyone referred to as kind. WE say man he/she is such a great person, so giving or so loving but never kind. Is it because we have forgotten how to be kind or because we don’t even think about kindness at all? Goodness – the outward act of being good and full of good. No not for goodness sake, but Goodness as in full of good. Faithfulness – the quality of being faithful Gentleness – the quality of being gentle, now here is a tough one. I have met a lot of people who never seem to get mad or upset, they are what we refer to as gentle. They can speak for themselves, they can correct wrongs and do it without getting mad or ugly about it. Self control – yikes this one is scary, self control is a control that overtakes all others, it means absolute control over your thoughts, actions and attitudes at all times. 1. What you think when someone takes your parking spot, or your driving lane Christmas time, driving thru a crazy parking lot and hoping to shop for the things you want to get for your loved ones. There is a certain amount of hurry because you have waited until the last minute and the place is packed. You cruise thru and find a good parking spot a row over, you speed down the row make the turn and rush to be met by a little car whipping right into your spot. Or worse, you drive up and turn on your signal to show that you are pulling into that spot and all of a sudden they pull in knowing you were headed in there. What do you think, what do you do, how do you react? How do you want to react? Character is deeper than our actions. It is controlling your thoughts, if you can keep yourself from wanting to set fire to their car you have won the battle for your character. A few years ago I was talking to someone who suffered from road rage, possibly some of the worst road rage you will ever see. She was always angry when people cut her off in any way. I tend to laugh it off, I mean someone cuts you off now you are going to be a whole 3-5 seconds later where ever you are driving. She told me the story of how one morning she was headed to the dentist, got in her car and realized she was running just a few minutes late. SO she drove fast to make up for the time, she was coming up to a red light and as she was slowing down a car cut her off. She didn’t have to hit the brakes she just didn’t like the car pulling in front of her so when the light changed she whipped out of line and drove fast to get around the car and get back in front of her just for spite. Not only that she drove as slow as she could for a while to prove her point. As she reached for the door at the front of the office when she arrived it was locked. She stood there for a minute and a lady opened the door. She said sorry I am running a little late, my daughter threw up in the bed this morning and I had to clean it all up before the sitter got there, my car wouldn’t start and I had to get my neighbor to come over and jump start the car in the freezing cold this morning and then to make matters worse as I was driving to work a car cut me off and drove as slow as they possible could. Yep, sometimes we need to realize that others are in the same hurry we are(and at times not in a hurry at all). 2. How you react to slow internet or phone connection: Patience, patience patience. We live in a world of constant contact. We want so badly to be in constant touch with people even when we aren’t around them. Tara is the world’s worst phone person. I can get a text from her, respond immediately with a phone call and no answer. It’s so frustrating but is the frustrating part that she is so bad in responding or that I am not getting my way. I work in the field of domestic violence and all unhealthy relationships boil down to power and control. One person is overpowering and controlling the other. I hear horror stories of people not getting their way and hurting others violently. Not because they did something wrong, not out of frustration but out of a need for control in that moment. As I type this Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide seem to be positioning themselves to make the college football playoffs and contend for another title. Actually I can say that they have won another title now that I proof read this Tuesday morning the day after they won it. People ask all the time what makes him tick, what makes him so successful and so different. I watch and I see a few things, one work ethic. It seems nothing gets in the way of his work, his preparation and his determination. I also see determination and drive. He is self motivated he doesn’t need anyone telling him he needs to win, he will win because he is driven to. But I also see control. He only loses his cool when things happen that are out of his control. The press, he hates them because they post and print and spread things he cannot control. He had someone ready to write about book about his life and he was going to make millions and millions but he wouldn’t do it because he demanded to have the final say in what went in the book. So no book. Control, he is fine as long as he is in control and I think in many ways we all are. So a lot of this boils down to the fruits of the Spirit which I shared at the beginning and a lot of it boils down to learning to control what you can control and letting go of the things that you cannot.