Gulfshore Baptist Assembly

I recently read the news about Gulfshore Baptist Assembly
It seems that ...
"The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board has voted to move forward on a developer's $18 million offer to purchase the property that served as the home of Gulfshore Baptist Assembly before being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "
I guess I missed the bit of news in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that the property there was destroyed.

I was there once. The summer after my 12th grade year, our youth group went to summer camp at Gulfshore. I suppose it was my last hurrah as a youth and I went with an attitude. My youth minister had moved to another church in the spring and there was this summer youth guy not much older than me leading the group for the summer. I had backed away from the group and spent a lot of time working to save some money for living expenses at college. I decided to go ahead and go to this camp.
God spoke to me on those gulf shores. I remember God telling me as I stood in the back of a worship service that there was nothing He would rather I do that to go into full time Christian ministry.
Gulf Shores was my Peniel (Gen 32:30). Although I did not wrestle with God like Jacob. I believe that I figuratively "saw the face of God." God blessed me there and my life path was forever altered.
So, when I read about the place having been wiped out and being sold, I was a bit saddened. I am glad it was the place where God met me, but I know that he is waiting for me where I am now as well. It reminds me to continue to seek the one who called me.

Check out the Advent Blog!

I have not had much time to post here recently becasue I have been posting at my Advent Blog

Check it out!

Merry Christmas!

God is

"He is unrestrained by the impractical and laughs at the impossible. His understanding is infinite and His ways are immeasurable. He is, after all, God!" - Ron Walters

I am encouraged.

Evil Lazy Servants

The Parable of the Talents

14 “For it is just like a man going on a journey. He called his own slaves and turned over his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents;[3] to another, two; and to another, one—to each according to his own ability. Then he went on a journey. Immediately 16 the man who had received five talents went, put them to work, and earned five more. 17 In the same way the man with two earned two more. 18 But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents, and said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. Look, I’ve earned five more talents.’ 21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy!’ 22 “Then the man with two talents also approached. He said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. Look, I’ve earned two more talents.’ 23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy!’ 24 “Then the man who had received one talent also approached and said, ‘Master, I know you. You’re a difficult man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his master replied to him, ‘You evil, lazy slave! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered, 27 then you should have deposited my money with the bankers. And when I returned I would have received my money back with interest. 28 “ ‘So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents.
29 For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 30 And throw this good-for-nothing slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’Matt 25:14-30 (HCSB)

Do I want to be the "food and faithful" servant or the "evil, lazy" servant?
Hmmmmmmm. Tough Choice.
The servants that doubled were good and faithful. The one who did not was evil and lazy.

I think that for far too long we church people have been evil lazy servants - hording away in our churches and waiting for the day Jesus returns so we can say, see we have kept the people you gave us. And Jesus is going to be like... "What? You didn't double? You evil lazy people."

What is going to get us off our ***** and get moving to do the work He has called us to?

We must be about our master's business.

Advent is upon us...

Check out my Advent blog for devotions for each day of advent!

If you didn't get a chance to use it last year, the devos from last year are there too!

Clearing out stuff

So I am clearing out stuff from my office today - stuff that at one time (mostly) had a reason to be here. You know the drill - VBS is over - I help take down some of the left over decoration on Sunday morning and stash them in my office - I'll put them away next week.... etc.

I have gotten in the habit of "floor filing" - making little piles of this and that on the floor around my desk.

Anyway, I cleaned some of that up today.

It makes me think that there are little piles here and there in our lives.
Stuff you were thinking you would do. Stuff that just didn't get done.
Perhaps if we cleaned it out and started fresh, we would do better next time.

By God's grace alone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

check out VBS 2008!

countdown to Christmas

Not to make you panic, but check the banner at the bottom of the page for the days until Christmas!

I am thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for many wonderful things beginning with my wonderful wife and children!

Of couse it goes withouyt saying that my relationship with God through Jesus surpasses that, but what a wonderful life I have.

I am so blessed!

The Indians and fanatics like me

Well, the Cleveland Indians did not make it to the World Series. They made it all the way to game 7 of the ACLS. They did well. I am examining myself and thinking about how crazy the last month has been. Staying up late to watch wins and worse, losses. Being so determined that they would win it all. Being obsessed...
Why do people like me get so consumed with the team, especially when they are winning?
It's interesting how we don't play, we don't train, we do nothing but watch and cheer and jeer. Yet, we use phrases such as "our team" and "we" did this and "we" did that. We manage the game from our living room. We whine and complain when things don't go well. We pat ourselves on the back when they go our way.
I think sometimes we live our Christian lives this way - as a fan, rather than a player.

Well, in the long run, life needs to go on, or in some cases life needs to begin again (after we put it on hold for the playoffs).
Cleveland Indians first baseman Ryan Garko says this:
"This is baseball. It comes after your family’s health and well-being. There are more important things in life."
(from Ryan Garko's Playoff Blog)

Yes there are more important things in life. But it sure was fun while we were in the playoffs and winning!
Well, maybe next year. Until then, I'm going to try to live as more than a spectator.

Christian profiling

How do we deal with those that are different from us?
Do we as Christian practice profiling...
Let's see - that person looks like a pagan... don't want to get too close... it might rub off... in the world but not of it you know.
Where did Jesus spend his time?
If I am honest, I rarely spend time getting to know unbelievers.
Jesus did it so much he got criticized for it. (Matt. 9:11)
I am afraid that my gut response to the shooting in Cleveland reveals my true attitude...
"Someone needs to do something about these kids"
Yet, Jesus would say, "I want to do something... I will be their friend, call them to me without any strings attached and watch God work in their lives."
How will I become involved in reaching those who are far from God this week?

Indians and School Shootings: Cleveland in the news

Go tribe!
As the Cleveland Indians head to the ACLS to beat Boston, Cleveland finally has something to be proud of... and then CNN has c-town as the lead with a school shooting.
Once again the story involves a young person involved in Goth. Again we are cautioned not to stereotype no racial profiling here. Just like the police were not to look at Muslims from Saudi any different even though almost all the 911 terrorists were Muslims from Saudi. When it comes to children (and yes, these are children) we need to be pro active and be aware of the dangers of the Goth culture. We must protect our children. We need to profile these kids and let them know that if they insist on wearing all black and being extremely moody and have an interest in weaponry then they will be watched more carefully than their peers.

Blogger gone bad

I know, I know... I haven't done this and I promised! I made it a resolution!

Anyway. Last week I was out of town. It is no excuse because I had a computer and could have jotted a note or two.

Anyway....

I did get to see an old friend last week and he was a great encouragement. We shared war stories and helped each other know we had done well in the battle. Then we said farewell and promised to keep in touch. I hope we do.

As for the conference I attended... well i wish I could say it met my expectations...

The New Ministry Team!

I was having a conversation with someone today and we were discussing how we have these "members" of our church who we have lost touch with - we have no address or phone number.

This person suggested that we need a system, perhaps an assimilation/desimmilation team that follows up on people every few months to find out what is happening with them.

I said, "We already have that system. It's called Sunday School. We have even broken up the list of names into smaller groups so one person does not have to followup on everyone. We just don't use the system well."

It was just a reminder to me that we need to do Sunday School better. me too.

I have another thought on the "Membership Rolls" but I will save that for another blog. You know I said I was bad at this, and this is twice this week already... I am exhausted!

Provoked

pro·voke /prəˈvoʊk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pruh-vohk] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –verb (used with object), -voked, -vok·ing.

1.	to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex.

2.	to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity): The mishap provoked a hearty laugh.

3.	to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action.

4.	to give rise to, induce, or bring about: What could have provoked such an incident?

5.	Obsolete. to summon.

I have been provoked (see definition #2, I am not angry!) to consider Josh Hunt's "You can double your class in two years or less" once again.

www.joshhunt.com


I am committed to working a plan to reach more people and make my Sunday School class worth more than just "us four and no more."

I am becoming so provoked (see # 2 again) that I am beginning to think that we could double our church in 5 years or less. (another one of Josh's books)

I'm just thinking out loud.

Fiddler on the roof - If I were a rich man (with subtitles)

I had to find out if this was out there. Enjoy!

Here we go again... If I were a rich man!

Okay. I am really bad at this blogging thing, although I really want to be good at it.
I am making a new year's resolution to write here at least twice a week.

Today is a new day.

I am thinking about the concept of "rich"
I love the musical "Fiddler on the Roof". I want to, like Tevye, be a rich man and all day long I too would da da da da da da daaaaaa!

I just listened to Andy Stanley's Sunday sermon and he says that nobody says they are rich. Even the rich think that it is those with more than them that are rich.
We are rich.
We live in houses. (Andy says "We even have houses for our cars!")
We have food.
We have cars.
We plan for what to do with our money that is left over after we die.
We are rich.
Andy is doing a sermon series on how to be rich. Not how to get rich, but how to be rich.
I have a sneaking suspicion that he is talking to all of us in America.

Monetary riches are good. We also have all those other riches. Some of those money cannot buy.
I like the riches I have in family. in faith. in church.

Paul prays for other riches for people....
16 [I pray] that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, Eph 3:16 (HCSB)

19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19 (HCSB)

18 [I pray] that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, Eph 1:18 (HCSB)

I pray that these "riches of His glory" be yours today.

Hopefully I will write again before January!

What is truth?

Paul asks the question in Romans, chapter three... "What advantage does the Jew have?" This follows a line of reasoning in chapter two in which he explains that circumcision is not necessary, but rather a cicumcision of the heart.
The answer to the question is ... They have the spoken words of God - the very words of God!
Paul says that not believing these words does not invalidate them! They are eternally true.
Have you ever gotten into the "that's your truth not mine" argument. You can't win that argument. They don't get it. Truth is truth. There is not your truth and my truth. We don't get to own truth. It either is or it isn't. Truth is truth, whether you choose to believe it or not. We would like to believe that we can change truth by our beliefs. Like the little boy who wants to believe long and hard enought that the ball did not go throught the window. Truth is true.
As Paul says, "God must be true, but everyone is a liar..."