Freedom Fest 4th of July!

This Saturday, our church, like many churches around our great country, is throwing a great big party for the 4th of July. Part of my job at the church is coordinating events like this. Today, I was getting the last of things together and two volunteers came in and offered to help me set up the "staging area" (A nice word for putting all the stuff that goes to one area on Saturday, in one pile in the church lobby). With their help, what would have taken me hours to do only took about 45 minutes! Earlier in the day, I was unloading a truck full of water, and a friend stopped by and helped carry cases of water. Others helped unload some stage platforms. God is great at sending help when we need it! There are so many incredible volunteers that make events like this possible! If you are one of them and reading this, whether you are volunteering for my church or another one, I want to tell you Thank You! Without all you guys pitching in, things like this would never happen! Oh, and if you are looking for something to do on Saturday, July 4th in Easley, SC, just swing by 5 Point Fellowship anytime after 3:30 and enjoy the fun! Everything is free! Inflatable rides, Thomas the Train, Rock Climbing, Bungee Swings, Hotdogs, Snowcones, Cotton Candy, Popcorn, Drinks, lots of smiles... Hope to see you there!

A HUGE God!

Our God is so BIG! This is really a random thoughts type blog post today, but I have a lot of thoughts about all that God is doing in this world that I know about...He is doing so very much that I have no clue about! (That is your cue to post comments about things you see God doing!) Many times, he works through people! Yesterday in church, Pastor Dean asked the church to step up and buy 200 chairs for a growing church in Africa. The chairs are simple plastic $10 chairs. It was great to see the congregation give above and beyond what they were asked for with a cheerful heart! Now the church in Africa will not only be able to have chairs under their tarp, but they will be able to buy a piece of land they were looking at and will be able to build a church! God is incredible!
I blogged last time about going to my Aunt's house to help her out with some house projects. It was not only great to work with my dad again, but seeing the joy that doing that list of simple projects brought to my Aunt was wonderful! God knew that she needed help, and through an odd series of events, brought my dad and mom to this part of the country at this time. I couldn't have done the projects myself, but with Dad's help, they went smoothly, and we had a good time working together.
Seeing new believer's growing in the Lord never gets old! God is doing some incredible work in the lives of many new believers in our church!
There is a camp in Honea Path, SC that has been having a great affect on kids and teen's lives over the years. This year, a group of retired people got together to go work on the camp before it opened. This year was also the first year that the camp director was able to feel like things were ready when the first day of camp came around! (Note to retirees, you have worked hard and can spend your retirement years as you wish..but I want to put a bug in your ear to investigate one of the many groups that volunteer to work and help out volunteer organizations. Most denominations have a ministry that helps match up retirees with jobs around the country. It is a great way to travel, meet new people and also lend a much needed hand at the same time.)
God is using youth to reach out to the community as well. In our own area of the upstate of South Carolina, Youth are helping out with groups like Meals on Wheels, Miracle Hill(children's home), Soup kitchens and many more...
I am amazed at the things God is doing through people and I am praying for magnificent supernatural things to happen that can only be explained by giving credit to God! Have an awesome day! We serve a HUGE God!

Riding with God.

This morning, I rode the motorcycle to work. One of the benefits of doing so that is different from all the normal ones you hear about is that there is no stereo. Yes, I realize that some higher end bikes have systems in them, but mine is a cheap 500 Kawasaki Ninja with no frills. So why is a lack of stereo a benefit? It gives me some great time to pray! God and I can talk uninterruptedly through my commute to work! It is great! Yes, I know I can just turn the radio off in my truck and do the same thing, but there is something about riding a motorcycle that just puts you in the mood to pray. From what I hear, bike riding atheists even pray from time to time. There were no near death experiences, it was just a beautiful ride down the country lanes I commute on. Somehow, God's creation seemed even more beautiful from the bike seat vantage point. It just seemed natural to talk with Him and thank Him for all that He does in my life and all that He is! God is awesome and He makes a great riding buddy! Next time you are out for a ride, try riding with God. (And if you don't have a motorcycle, I am sorry, but you might just have to make do with turning off the radio in your car or truck.)

Friday Morning

It is the day before the big event! The egg drop you have been reading about for the last month or so. All has come together wonderfully! Of course the next 36 hours or so will be very busy, but it is great to see it all working! Hundreds of awesome volunteers have come together to accomplish vast quantities of work that I could never have gotten done alone! This morning, a man who used to go to our church delivered over 2000 hotdog buns! It is great to see even people who aren't going to 5 Point Fellowship getting involved in reaching out to the community! Do something different to reach your city or community for Christ this year! Love on people outside the walls of your church and see how God will work!

A Wednesday Night

Last night, we celebrated the Lord's Supper at church. That in and of itself is always an amazing event as we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made of Himself for us. This one was special. Almost all of the 100+ people in attendance had spent the day fasting for our egg drop event that is coming up on Saturday. Having over a hundred people, who have spent the day praying, come together for a time of worship and sharing in communion was an incredible way to break the fast! The idea of corporate fasting is honestly new to me. I am sure many other churches have times when they fast. The Roman Catholics give up stuff for Lent which is sort of like fasting. But having a large crowd of people who show up ready to worship the Lord, and who are already focused on God made the worship time something extra special last night. Hopefully this encourages you!

Easter Egg Drop

As April 4th comes closer and closer, it is amazing to me to see how many people are stepping up to volunteer time, money and possessions to help make the event happen! One of the things that really is amazing is that people who just got saved and/or just started attending our church are jumping in with two feet and signing up to help out! This morning, I got an e-mail from a man who saw the ad in the paper and wanted more information. He is new to the area and is just looking for something for his 5 year old daughter. I look forward to meeting him. And even if I don't get to, it is great to know that he will get to meet many of the wonderful people from our church and I pray that he will feel the love of the Lord as he has a great free day with his daughter. For all of you who are volunteering, I can't thank you enough!

Incredible Week

Ok, some would say my brain doesn't work, but, here is a glimpse as to how it functions....

This last week has been an incredible week of positives and negatives. One friend got saved! Three young men at a camp I worked last week got saved! Six were baptized! One friend from church died. One student died in a car wreck. Girl Scout cookies came in, so I and my work study have enjoyed those! A friend lost his job. I picked up some more work for this summer. My wife and I paid off one debt! The April 4th egg drop is really coming together! The city is changing their mind on some of the things we had agreed on. My church office was repainted while I was gone, and it looks great! Home TEAM ministry is growing like crazy! Need some new leaders and hosts! Sunday was incredible! 8 people accepted Jesus into their hearts! Started New Believers class Sunday night!

Old Testament Faith

We as a church often skim over the Old Testament, some churches even claim to be a "New Testament Church". Every time I read through the book of 2 Kings, the first few chapters make me take inventory of my faith. If it has been a while, the stories in those chapters include Elijah calling down fire from heaven to burn up the captain and his company of 50 men who were sent by the king to get him. Not just once, but twice! The third captain comes with his 50 men and begs Elijah to spare his life! 51 tough, battle trained men are scared to death to take on one prophet in a garment maid of hair! Then in the next chapter, after Elijah gets taken to heaven in a chariot of fire, Elisha is walking along when some teens make fun of his bald head. He cursed them and "two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." When is the last time you heard the pastor of 1st church of your town call down fire from heaven to burn up the people who disagreed with what God had called him to preach? I can see the headlines now. "Sheriff's entire force wiped out" followed by an article describing what happened while they were trying to enforce a law against preaching in public. Anyway, just my thoughts for the day. Have a great one!

Feeling very blessed!

Do you ever feel sorry for yourself. You start thinking, if I didn't work for a church or not-for-profit I could earn a descent salary and buy a big house, new car, cool shiny stuff? OK, maybe you don't, but I admit that I occasionally have those thoughts. This morning, I was reading a magazine article about a guy who pastors a homeless church. I don't mean that his church has a ministry to the homeless, or that they run a soup kitchen. His entire church is homeless people. Then the next article I read was about a guy ministering to AIDS patients in Uganda. Suddenly, I felt very convicted for ever having the aforementioned thoughts. God is so very good to me! Just the fact that I haven't had to miss a meal for financial reasons and that I have a roof over my head and a car that runs make me part of the richest group of people in the world. Sure, I am not rich by American standards, but compared to the whole planet, I am filthy rich! I pray that God will help me to be more generous with what He has blessed me with. Have a great day!

Connections!

This is an incredibly busy week! And that is AWESOME! The part of my job that I absolutely love is helping people connect to God and to each other. The busy part of this week is that tonight, the men of the church are getting together to meet with a missionary and investigate helping out with his mission next summer. So Connection will happen there! Then tomorrow night is a Home TEAM meeting which is temporarily at my house. Connections again! Thursday night is nothing, and my wife works, so the dog and I can just veg out! Friday night is the start of a brand new Home TEAM for young couples! Connections will be started there! Saturday night is date night with my wife! Definite connection possibility there! Sunday night, I am teaching the New Believer's class. Connections again! Monday night, we are having a leadership/vision casting meeting with the church staff and some of the lay leaders in the church. Connections will be made there! As you can see, it is a busy week, but I am jacked up! People will be connecting with God and with each other at each of these events! God is awesome! When we seek Him, He gives us the desires of our hearts! As I see people draw closer to God and grow in their relationship with Him, the desire of my heart is fulfilled! When I see people loving each other in community and not just "doing church", it thrills me! In your church, are you helping people to connect to God and to each other?

Merry Christmas!

I pray you all had a wonderful Christmas! This has been a great year! My wife and I had all of her family over for Christmas eve dinner. That was the first time all of her family had been under our roof at the same time, and the first time ever for some of them to visit us, so it was a great occasion. In all the fun and joy of family reunions of this type, I sometimes wonder if that isn't a little taste of what heaven will be like as the body of Christ gets together for a HUGE family reunion! There might even be some surprises when we see someone and think; (((Can you believe he made it?!))) Maybe not, but I know that however it turns out, Heaven's family reunion will be a great one! While I still have much to do here on earth, I am looking forward to the day I get to stand before God Almighty and just get to praise him for a few million years face to face! Have a great rest of your Christmas week and a Happy New Year!

Praises!

Paul talks about boasting in the Lord, well today, I am thrilled to brag on God! Ten people gave their heart to Jesus yesterday in our services. As I think back over this year, there have been quite a few services when five or six people asked Jesus into their hearts! As the guy who teaches the New Believers class, this excites me, but as an ordinary Christian, this excites me more! Seeing how God saves people and then transforms their lives is incredible! Hey, if you leave a comment, I would love to hear how God is changing lives in your church! I know this is not just happening here at 5 Point Fellowship! I know that a few weeks ago another church in our city had 11 people get saved! That is awesome! I am sure some huge churches have more than that each week! One church in the next city to the south of us had 220 people come to Christ yesterday! And some small churches see one or two come to Christ in a year! The great news is that it isn't a competition! As long as we as the Body of Christ are seeing new souls coming into the kingdom, that is Awesome! We can all do more, but today is a day of celebration! Praise the LORD!

Abundantly and Exceedingly more...

Pecans, yes, Pecans...that is the topic of conversation around my house lately. You have probably heard the term "Bumper Crop", well this year, the 10 pecan trees around our house have yielded exactly that. After harvesting about 4 of the trees and having given away many, many gallons of pecans to most of our friends, and having boxed up pecans for Christmas gifts, we still have a big rubber tub full! We have exceedingly and abundantly more than we ever could have asked or imagined from a bunch of old trees that I was temped to cut down when we first bought our house. I realize this post isn't very "spiritual" but is just shows how God is over everything in our lives, even if a bunch of old pecan trees will produce good nuts or not. Have an awesome day!

Why does God choose us?

I live a wonderfully blessed life! I don't mean that I am rich financially, but I do mean that I am very blessed by God! In today's rough economic times, I still have, not just one but, two jobs that I absolutely love! I have a wonderful wife who loves me! We both have a vehicle that runs! We haven't had to miss any meals due to financial hardship! God has blessed me with wonderful friends! I could go on and on, but this morning I was wondering why me? Not the Why Me! that we scream at God when life is not going as we think it should. I am talking about the quiet "why me?" that we ask in wonder as to why God would choose a sorry sinner like myself to work for Him. He, the Almighty, All Powerful, All Knowing, Everlasting, Ruler and Master of the Universe reached down and saved my soul! Then, he chose to give me so very much to be thankful for! I pray that one day if I, like Job, am asked to suffer for the Lord in a very real way that I too will stand true to my faith in Jesus Christ. I just praise God that He has given me another day alive to serve Him, and I pray that I won't waste it!

Upside Down Chaotic Orderliness

This week is finals week. Which means that all normal scheduling is out the window. My normal arrival at the church wasn't at 8:00am but at about 3:00pm. Two finals in the morning. Each day this week is thrown into turmoil. It is times like these that doing daily devotions is the toughest. We as humans love our routine!Chaos is not usually our friend.
God however isn't ever caught off guard by anything! Isn't that awesome! When we wonder at the chaos of the world around us, we can remember that God didn't wake up this morning shouting "Oh no! What did America just do now? I didn't see that coming! What am I going to do?" No, God knew from the laying of the foundations of the earth what each day was going to hold for us and for each person on earth. He has a plan even when all seems lost! When we put our faith in God, even the upside down chaos begins to have order. Have an awesome day!

Thoughts on God...

This morning, I was reading in Acts and some verses in Chapter 14 just leaped off the page at me. In verses 8-10 we see a crippled man listening to Paul preach. "Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out 'Stand up on your feet!' At that the man jumped up and began to walk". I have seen God move in mighty ways in healing and I am always thrilled to see God move in miraculous ways! The part that did the "leaping" was that Paul looked at him and SAW that he had faith to be healed. I realized that I have no clue what that is like! If I look out at the congregation at my own church, would I know that someone has the faith to be healed? Do we relegate that kind of activity to the hyper-pentecostal fringe? I believe that God is still doing marvelous works in the world! I pray that He will not let me put Him in a little box! Please pray with me that God will move on this generation in a miraculous powerful way that goes so far beyond sciences ability to understand that only God can be given the credit!