I’ve decided what I am bringing for the men’s dessert competition tomorrow. . . Come on, men... let’s pull out all the stops! Whose got game!

Chocolate Decadence Round Two
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Need a reason to smile? This cracked me up. 14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands... pretty cool...



Who is this guy?

With this Sunday being July 4th weekend, I’ve decided to preach a special message on why our country has been so blessed. While researching for the message, I ran across this prayer by President Abraham Lincoln. He had called for a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer. Here is a portion of that prayer. We would indeed do well to give thoughtful consideration to it:

Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. . .

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!... All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

Abraham Lincoln, President
March 30, 1863

Two simple words. . . “I do.”

But oh how meaningful. Twenty four years ago today I said, “I do” to Laurie Michele Bryan and we became husband and wife. (This picture was actually taken about two years later when I was almost through puberty.)

I married my best friend. . . and she still is. I remember the first day we met as though it happened yesterday. It was on the campus of Atlanta Christian College. We were in a meeting together for those who would be serving on their summer ministry teams. You were sitting diagnonally across the large conference room table.

Ron Lewis had all of us introduce ourselves. And in the give and take of the meeting that followed, with everybody asking questions or providing their feedback, I saw your heart. It came out in your transparency. There was just something about your demeanor that separated you from the rest of the girls who were in the room that day. Even though our friendship would take time to develop, and we wouldn’t officially begin dating for quite some time, I was immediately impressed and drawn to you the very first day we met. . . I still am. Read More...

I just read the following question on somebody’s Facebook status:

• Did Jesus intend communion to be shared in an institutional church setting? Or in the context of relationships?

That’s one of those stir the pot questions that automatically makes me want to ask about forty other questions, the first one being, “What do you mean by the term ‘institutional’?” It’s also one of those ‘either/or’ questions which, unfortunately, end up pitting one thing against another, in this case, creating a dichotomy between the (institutional) church setting and relationships.

To be fair, I’ve been in some church settings that were more institutional than relational. But I don’t think the original ‘either/or’ question about communion fits the we way we “do communion” at Christ’s Church. I love it that we celebrate the Lord’s supper as a part of our weekly worship celebration, i.e. within the corporate church setting. I also love it that it is celebrated in an significantly relational context. Read More...

I’m looking forward to our annual Hot Doggin’ cookout and talent show. It is being held this coming Sunday (July 6) at Jack Dalton Park. We have the large pavilion reserved from 3:00 pm on, so feel free to come any time after that. Big Tom usually serves as our emcee for the talent show, but since Tom is on the mission field up in Chester, the baton is being passed to Brad Peters!

As in previous years, we’re on the prowl for hidden talent for our show, so if you would like to participate in the talent show, please let Brad or Don know no later than next Sunday. If you can sing, dance, play an instrument, or perform a skit involving Hershey’s chocolate syrup. . . okay, maybe not that far. . . we’d love for you to ham it up. . . Whether funny or serious, consider yourself officially invited to participate.

Here are some of the other highlights:

• Softball and Volleyball at 4:00 pm for whoever is interested.

• Men’s Dessert Competition - All of the Christ’s Church men are invited to pull out all the stops and prepare a dessert. The only rule is that your dessert cannot come straight out of the deli case at Wal Mart. We had some delicious entries last year! As in previous years, we’ll be judging (and ENJOYING!) the entries.

• Dinner at 5:00 pm under the large pavilion - hot dogs, chips, drinks and desserts. Suggested donation of $5 per person, $10 per family, all the proceeds go toward funding this summer’s mission trip.

• Home Run Derby immediately after the talent show.

Accordance Bible Software just hit version 8 and it keeps getting better and better. It’s the only full-featured Bible study program designed specifically for the Mac. I’ve been using it for several years, and I love it! It has become an indispensable tool for both sermon and lesson preparation, as well as my personal study and reflection.

Click on the picture to see what a sample layout looks like. Having the multiple translations side by side is a huge convenience, and that literally is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a short list of some of the features. If you’re into the Mac and Bible study, it’s definitely the way to go.

While in the process of preparing for Sunday’s message, I landed on this excellent post from a mom named Jeana who has the blog Days to Come. Even though she is writing from the perspective of a wife and mother, I can relate to her list of ‘Things That Don’t Make Sense To Me’ . . . I’ve tweaked it just a bit to apply to my own life:

1. How having three children tripled the love I have for my kids instead of dividing it into three.

2. How focusing on meeting my wife’s needs results in my needs getting met.

3. Why having a lot of “me” time tends to make me more self-centered, not less.

4. Why serving other people makes me more content, not less.

5. How spending time with God usually results in me accomplishing more that day, not less.

6. Why exercising gives me more energy, and not exercising makes me more tired.

7. How submitting to God’s will brings freedom rather than confinement.

8. Why things that taste good often are not good for me.

9. Why having fewer things makes me enjoy them more - and vice versa.

10. How I can know all of these things are true and too often behave as though they are not.

No, I didn’t forget how to spell my last name. . . I’ve been playing around with a little Java Applet called Wordle. It basically generates “word clouds” from large amounts of text, visualizing them in cool ways. The more a word is used the larger it will appear in the cloud of words.

I decided to copy and paste our Christ’s Church statement of faith into the program and this is what came out. Pretty creative, eh? Even more interesting are the words that showed up BIG - I’d say they communicate the main things. . .

Read More...

We’re going to get back into our Radical Faith for Ridiculous Times series tomorrow. I’ll be preaching from Joshua 5-6 on demolishing spiritual strongholds. . . about my Jericho and your Jericho. I can’t wait! In the process of finishing up, I ran across this post by Mark Beeson that got me even more fired up!

“Lord, help us to live fully surrendered lives for Your glory!”