wisdom...

I read several blogs throughout the week...I've got my favorites that I read everyday. There are some that are really inspiring and helpful for me. Here's a recent post from Craig Groeschel, who is the pastor of LifeChurch.tv...pretty profoud I thought:

Let’s review yesterday’s thought:

You are not what you did, what you do, or what you are going to do. You are who Christ says you are.

When you are doing ministry, try to remember:

* What you do is a result of who you are in Christ.
* What you do doesn’t define who you are.
* Don’t confuse the “who” with the “do.”

You are not successful because:

* Your kids’ ministry grew 10% this year.
* Three people got saved last week.
* Your budget increased by 5%.
* The parents of your student ministry like you.
* Your church is bigger this year than this time last year.

You are successful because of who you are in Christ. You please God by obeying him, not performing up to your personal expectations.

Are you doing ministry to get worth, feel successful or to find your identity? Or are you doing ministry to please, to resemble, to delight in Christ and bring people to Him?

I need to be reminded so many times about who I am in Christ. It's sad, but sometimes in the "church" world, you can lose focus on why you serve. I really struggle with some of the present day church success indicators...and with people who really believe in them. They really fire me up!

Savor the Holidays

Had a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family. As always I stuffed myself and swore I wouldn't eat for a week, only to have dinner three hours later. We spent some time that night playing rummy. Now you have to understand that we take our rummy very serious...we even have a trophy that the winner keeps until we get together for another "sanctioned" game. My lovely wife Holly has recently started blogging, you can go here to check out some specifics of our rummy.

So now it's officially the Christmas season...and I love it! Every year I try to really savor every moment of the holiday and not wish it away. I'm not a huge fan of shopping in a crowded mall, but I sure do enjoy it around during Christmas time...even if I am just window shopping. I want to savor all the people that we'll be with...savor all the different celebrations...savor all the times of worship that we'll experience here at our church...and I especially want to savor time with Holly and Bryan.

Make sure you do the same! Savor the Holidays...it's all about Jesus.

T-day is coming

Tomorrow morning we'll pack up the truck and head to the Ville for some Thanksgiving time with my family. It's a long time tradition to have T-Day celebration at my mom's house, we've been doing it for years. Sadly, this is the last one that we will share in her present home. Mom along with my sis and her family have been building a new home and should be moving in sometime soon. So this will be the last T-day at 3816 Baymeadow Dr. (that's kinda sad to think about!)

Here's the low down of the day tomorrow:
-Eat breakfast with Holly's parents in Lexington (Cracker Barrel)
-Go to Louisville
-Catch up with all my uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.
-Eat gobs of food
-Watch some football
-Eat more food
-Play some guitar with uncles and cousins (bluegrass??)
-Eat more food
-Play our annual rummy game (we're playing for the mouse!)
-Eat food while we are playing!
-Go to bed...

Tough day I know...but I'll do my best to survive!

Saturday, Christmas Trees and Ollies

I love Saturdays like today. Holly and I had a breakfast date together at Cracker Barrel, we then traveled over to Winchester to drop off 'da deer' to get him all processed so we could start snacking on him. We got home and decided to put the Christmas tree up and we got an early start. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas...the whole back-to-back holiday celebration is something I have always loved...just some really great family time, reflecting on the past year, etc.

Here in about 30 minutes we are going to watch the Cards play some football...South Florida, at South Florida...it could be really ugly!

By the way our son Bryan has been shredding up the skateboard stuff...notice I'm using some of the hip skateboarding lingo! (I still got it in me!) After he got his cast off several weeks ago, he's been non-stop on his board. Here are a few pics that we took tonight...I love my son...he's pretty awesome.

Successful Hunt

This past Saturday morning, we (my hunting buds) woke up at 5am and got ready for opening day of the modern rifle deer season. Dang, that's early, but it's almost like the night before Christmas as a kid...you can't sleep, it consumes your thoughts, you can't wait until the morning, know what I mean?

I got into my stand about 6:25am, it was dark and very still. I love watching the woods come to life when I go hunting, it's really a spectacular thing. I'd been in the stand for maybe an hour or so and I turned to my left, and I saw this buck heading my way. I've been hunting for almost 10 years now and in all those years I have shot 2 deer. My first deer was a spike buck...little guy, but a buck. Two years ago I got a small nine pointer...a pretty small rack, but hey it's a nine pointer. As I looked through my scope on Saturday I saw that the buck coming my way was a pretty decent size. As this buck was headed my way, I found my heart was pounding something fierce...it was like my heart was in my throat! I pulled the safety off, waited until the deer was in a clearing...and BAM!! The deer was harvested.

**The official term for killing a deer is to "harvest" a deer...I find that funny. Some other alternative terms...to 'bag' a buck, to 'cap' a deer, to 'lay a deer down', to 'smoke' a deer...I think any of those terms are better than 'harvest.'

So it was officially an eight point buck...I'm having him mounted at a local taxidermist (talk about a creepy looking place!)...I ought to have it sometime in January.

We had a great time...I'd call our camping experience "semi-roughing it". As you can see in some of the pics, the old bus we stay in is kinda cozy! We didn't see many more deer after Saturday...deer are smart and know when they are being hunted. So it's kinda like a waiting game...got to be consistent in the hunt! I came home on Tuesday morning, the rest of the guys continued to hunt and my father-in-law called last night and said one of the other guys 'harvested' an eight pointer as well. Until next year!!

to the hunt!

I'm preparing to hit the road this morning and head towards the western part of the state. My first stop will be at Hillvue Heights in Bowling Green. There I'll be hanging out with a dear ole friend Jamie Ward...just spending some time picking his brain a bit. Jamie is on staff there at Hillvue...their church is doing some really innovated ideas to reach people for Christ. I've been looking forward to getting up with him and again, just picking his brain.

Tonight I'll be watching the UL / West Virginia game...ought to be a doozy! It's in Morgantown, so that alone will be tough. The Cards are coming off a bye week, so hopefully they'll be fresh and pumped. After the Cards beat WVA last year, I'm sure they'll be out for some blood.

Friday morning officially begins some off time...more important it's about some serious deer hunting. I'll be with my father-n-law and a handful of other fellas. It's nothing but hunting, eating, playing cards...in that order for about 5-6 days. I hope I can bag a monstrous BUCK. That's always the plan...if I don't see any bucks by Tuesday...look out Bambi!

No blogging will occur until I return...I'll try to take some pics so you can capture the moment with me while sitting in a tree stand.

UnChristian

I'm about middle way through Dan Kinnaman's book unchristian. Dan is the president of The Barna Group, they are the George Gallup in the Church arena. I blogged several weeks ago when this book first hit the shelves...I picked up a copy at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. One of the sessions that I attended was Dan and several others who contributed to this book lead a panel discussion about the premise of UnChristian.

The ideal behind the book and research is what a this generation really thinks about Christianity...and let me tell you from what I've read, we better listen up, because we, the church, need to address this in some form or fashion.

Kinnaman has researched and looked at several key words and phrases that people use to describe present-day Christianity. One of those words is HYPOCRITICAL (saying one thing, doing another) Here's a quote that really struck me hard in the "hypocritical" chapter...of the pool of unchristian people polled:

"84% say they personally know at least one committed Christian. Yet just 15% thought the lifestyles of those Christ followers were significantly different from the norm. This gap speaks volumes."

Dang, that hurts!

"I am not trying to hammer born-again believers; it deeply troubles me that our witness - including my own - waters down the image of Jesus."

That perception smacks me upside my head! It challenges me...Jesus sums it all up when it comes to this idea of hypocrisy.

"Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are filthy - full of greed and self-indulgence." Matthew 23

I'd encourage anyone who is a follower of Christ to pick this book up and read it...then react.

Good weekend...good friends

This past weekend some very dear friends to my family came up from Chattanooga...Geron, Lydia and Cora. We've known the Browns for about 8 years now...we were all members at FBC together, Lydia played piano...Geron was on staff with us at FBC as an intern (the Intern of all Interns!) Just good ole friends!

We didn't have a real set agenda, just hung out...some good late night conversations, dined at a couple good restaurants (You can't come to Richmond without eating at Casa Cafe'), and played some cards. And not just any card game...I'm talking some 'Hand n Foot' A great game they taught us some time ago...usually we play guys vs gals...they (the gals) KILLED us on Friday night, but we sought our revenge on Saturday night.

Geron and I spent some time tweaking the blog site. He's a computer savvy kind of a guy...so we took some pics...toasted them up on Photoshop, and made some changes. By the way the sunset pic was taken from the front of our house...we've got a great view out here!

We are blessed to have good buds like the Browns...always a good time when we get together...let's get together soon guys!

a new look

going for a new look...i'll share more later

Trunk or Treat

Last night our church hosted a "trunk-n-treat" for kiddos in our community. Bunches and bunches of kids came through...ministerially speaking at least 1200! Kids were racking up on the candy without having to walk fifty miles in the neighborhoods.

Bryan did some trick-or-treating on Tuesday night (that's when us richmond folk celebrate halloween...Oct. 30th...didn't get that decision from our city council) he brought home all kinds of good stuff. I reminisced back to my younger days of hitting the neighborhoods with friends...and then I found this picture...this was so me after a night of trick-or-treating! I was a bit of a neat freak/gotta have order about certain things in life...this was one of them.