God speaks

This past weekend our church had what was called, an "Experiencing God" weekend. If you are not aware Henry Blackaby wrote a study called Experiencing God years ago...really great stuff, real life changing. I went through this study when it first came out back in the early 90's.

Anyhow, our "EGW" (Experiencing God Weekend) was well publicized, promoted, prayed over, I mean all the right things to do were done. The talk was how the weekend would be life changing, uplifting, amazing stuff going on, etc.

Well I was pumped, primed and ready...I didn't have any leadership responsibilities cause a youth team were leading our youth, so it was nice to be able to be with the adults. Again, pumped and primed for a great experience...but it didn't happen. I mean I left Friday night thinking, "hmmm...God are you speaking? are you there?" cause everybody else seemed to be having this incredible experience, but me. Maybe Saturday will be different...nope, same result, same feelings.

So now I'm evaluating my spiritual life, thinking I'm really missing the boat somewhere...everyone seemed to have this new revelation of God in their life, a real experience was taking place...but I wasn't getting or feeling it (and no I'm not saying that God is a "feeling"...I hope you know what I mean)...I just wasn't having this incredible EXPERIENCE that was talked about. I really struggled with everything...

BUT...Sunday night...God spoke through countless numbers of people as they were giving testimony of the weekend. People I didn't know real well, people I'd been friends with for a long time, you name it , they were sharing and it finally hit me...God was speaking through these people to me. And the one word that kept on running around in my head was COMMUNITY.

I've used that word before in sermons and in conversations, but last night that word came alive to me. We, as a church, are a community of believers trying to become like Christ Jesus together...and to hear person after person standing up and talking about their experience, caused me to have that experience with God. I felt connected with folks that I never really knew...and the common denominator of that connection is Jesus, plain and simple. COMMUNITY! I like that word even more now, because I saw and heard it lived out last night, and really I was watching it lived out on Friday and Saturday...and didn't even realize it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to our body here at FBC after this weekend. I suspect others felt the same way I did about Friday and Saturday...maybe I'm wrong, but God speaks even when we think He's not. Anybody else relate to this idea? Anybody else have a similar experience?

What's on my iPod?

I'm loving my iPod...I got it back in November and I've downloaded a plethora of music and a few videos. Sometimes I find it hard in making a decision on what to listen to...I mean you have all this music, like having too many choices. I kinda go through different moods of music at different times.

In case you didn't know what kind of music that I like...here's a sample of my top albums on my iPod:
1 - U2 (all of their stuff) Lately I've been jamming out to their "Elevation: Live from Boston." I've been a fan for many years, even saw them in 87' at Rupp.

2 - O.C. Supertones - Their greatest hits...too bad they've called it quits.

3 - David Crowder Band - "A Collision" A GREAT piece of work...the dude can write some great lyrics.

4 - Collective Soul - Greatest Hits...good, late night driving band

5 - Mute Math - Their second disc...great sound, kinda reminds me of Beck a little bit, with all those funky 80's sounding loops.

6 - Paul Colman - "Let it Go" Paul is a down under guy who has a great sound, you may remember him from the Paul Colman Trio. Paul is now the lead guitar player for the Newsboys.


7 - The 77's - This is one of my "jamming out, play it as loud as you can" kind of bands. Great to listen to after a long day!









There you go...a little of my musical likes...rock on!

Deal...or No Deal?

Man, I love this show. It's one of those "no brainer" game shows...all you have to do is call out numbers / eliminate suitcases, win lots of money (sometimes!). I saw this on Marko's blog this week...very addicting, so far the biggest amount that I've won is $500,000! Try it out here.

What my "day" off was like...

Alright, officially Friday's are "off" days for me at the church...all of us on staff have at least one day in the week, and we try to make sure and do just that, don't work at church...here's my day off broken down for you...like anyone really cares!

6:30am - wake up...(snooze button)
6:34am - wake up again...(snooze button)
6:38am - woke up, for real
7:40am - took son to school
8:05am - went to Starbucks (or four-bucks!) enjoyed some coffee and a newspaper
8:40am - went to the office (I had several things that had to be done)
12:00pm - went to the grocery to get my sick wife some ginger ale...
12:30pm - arrived at home, fixed some chicken noodle soup for sick wife...
1:00pm - lounged around
1:30pm - played Scrabble with sick wife...this has been our new game that we've been really addicted to lately...she's won BIG time
2:30pm - played some Ghost Recon on the xbox360
3:30pm - son comes home from school and together play xbox360
5:00pm - took son to friends house to spend the night
6:30pm - got more soup for sick wife from Tsing Tao ( i had orange chicken)
7:00pm - watched movie, "Lady in the Water" kinda weird, but intriguing, thumbs up
9:00pm - watched Trading Spouses on TV...crazy lady was on there, interesting show
10:00pm - watched weather station telling us that we'll get snow...I bet we get nothing but RAIN.
10:30pm - blogged about my day off...

**approximate time that I may go to bed tonight?? 12:30am...tomorrow I'll be sleeping in a bit!

The Edge Conference

This past weekend I took my high school students to The Edge conference in Gatlinburg, TN. A great weekend...good times we had...crazy weather (70's and mild). The conference was put on by a ministry called "Inlightened Ministries" you can go here to check them out. Very quality stuff! Great worship music, hyper-jacked up on RED BULL youth communicator...Craig Tackett (I've known Craig for years...incredible communicator, loves God and students) A way cool illusionist from Washington...Drew Worsham (go here). This guy was pretty amazing with up close card illusions, I was very impressed!

Highlights from the weekend for me...
1. Spending time with our high schoolers. It's really a challenge sometimes when you have a large group of yutes and it's difficult to spend quality time with all of them, so weekends like this were good. It's amazing the conversations that come up and questions that are asked...

2. Seeing a former yute, Chris Barger, who is a part of the Inlightened Ministries staff. He plays bass guitar in the worship band and does a host of other things. Chris was in our youth ministry since he was in 7th grade...to watch him grow over the years has been a highlight for me. It's really incredible to see how God is working and growing in him...kinda makes me proud! And I am!
**For those who are in youth ministry and your reading this...I can't tell you how important longevity is in a ministry. We've been here at FBC for almost 8 years now...and the benefits/rewards of being able to watch youth go from 6th grade to graduating is really priceless.**

3. And the number ONE highlight of the weekend (drum roll)...one of our youth Cole accepted / invited Christ to be Lord of his life. You talk about awesome...that's awesome! Seeing someone's life changed...to go from darkness into light is a very amazing experience.

Say it ain't so Bobby!

What has happened to "LOYALTY"? If you didn't know or haven't heard, maybe you don't even care...Louisville Football Coach Bobby Petrino is now the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. This is of course after he has said numerous times, "I'm not going anywhere...Louisville is home...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH." (I added the BLAH's)

But I guess I can't blame him or the 25 million reasons why he's going. Really, I mean how much money does one person need? And I know it may not be about money...it's the challenge, right? WHAT HAPPENED TO LOYALTY?

Oh well...life goes on...God is still God (and that's what's really important!) But I'm a little steamed...oh...and the other guy in the pic (Brian Brohm)...you can say your goodbye's to him too, cause I'll make a small wager that he's not coming back for his senior year.

Thanks Bob...Go Cards!

A disgruntled fan of Louisville Cardinal Football

Random Pic of the Week

I'm a real sucker for a sunrise/sunset...I have a collection of them that I've taken over the past several years from all over the place.

One of the cool things about our new home is the fact the sun sets right in front of our house (for now)...and as you can see it's nothing but farm land...a real beautiful sight.

Cardinals & Oranges Do Mix...

Go Cards...a great regular season, capped off with a Orange Bowl victory over Wake Forest last night. The Cards have almost everyone coming back next year. I will predict that Brohm will stay...Michael Bush will go pro...and the Cards will see the BCS Championship game next year.

Holly and I are thinking about getting season tickets next season! Boo-ya!