July 4th Freedom Fest

Yesterday at 5 Point Fellowship, we celebrated the 4th of July by having sort of a community party/festival that we give to the community for free. There were inflatable rides, bungee slingshots, a rock wall, music, popcorn, cotton candy, sno cones, face painting, hotdogs and most of all, lots of smiles for free! I, along with many other volunteers, was able to share the love of Jesus Christ with people in word, but also through what we were doing. I was really proud off all the people from the church that started setting up about 1:00 and didn't leave until the parking lot and church were cleaned up at almost 11:00 at night! It was great to have so many hands pitching in, and when asked to do anything, no one said, "That's not my job." Every single volunteer pitched in where they saw a need! I love working with this bunch! For those who may read this who have never even heard of 5 Point Fellowship or even Easley, SC...Sorry the blog is a little off my normal fare...I just had to brag on my people!

Joy of the Lord...

Ever have a day in which you are just glad that the Joy you have comes from the Lord and not from your surroundings. Yesterday, I found that a man I look up to in the ministry resigned his church due to moral reasons. Also found out that my parents surprised me by showing up a little earlier here in South Carolina. Both are big news to me. One had the potential to shatter a church, the other is a great surprise! Just two examples of information or outside circumstances that could have an affect on our mood. Our joy isn't dependent on ouside circumstances or information. Psalms is full of verses about joy, but just two are Psalm 28:7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song." and Psalm 30:11 "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy," Notice that in the midst of wailing and wearing sackcloth, there was the Joy of the LORD! The LORD is our strength, not the things happening around us. HE gives us joy! Have a day full of JOY, no matter what the circumstances.

Easter was an Awesome Sunday!

So, like most churches across the world, Yesterday was a larger than normal service for us at 5 Point Fellowship! Like I mentioned in my previous blog, we had added a Saturday evening service to take care of some of the extra seating. We still had more on Sunday morning even with the 250 people who gave up their Sunday morning seats to come on Saturday night! The greatest number isn't the number of bodies who showed up, but the 20 people who gave their hearts to Jesus! Integrating new believers into the body of Christ is messy work! It just so happens that I love it! Surprisingly, I don't much care for real babies and changing diapers and all that, but I love baby Christians! They are so full of energy and haven't gotten their theology all screwed up yet! They just believe what the Bible tells them. And those who get saved often begin pouring over the Bible like a college student cramming for final exams! I love that! There are a million questions. Sometimes you laugh at the questions, but many times, those questions will really make you think! This blog is just to praise the Lord and say thank you to Him for all the baby Christians that were born in churches across the world yesterday! And a shout out to New Spring Church in Anderson, SC!(Where my brother in law attends.) Somewhere around 350 people gave their hearts to Jesus there! Praise the Lord! I would love to hear comments from readers on the great things God is doing in your church!

Saturday Night Service

Last night was the Saturday night before Easter, so we had an extra service. Our Sunday morning services have been fairly full, so to be ready for the extra Easter crowd, we announced that we would have a 6:30 service on Saturday. The really cool part is that over 250 people came! That is a lot of seats freed up for today's service! I can't wait to see what God is going to do this morning! As we remember Christ rising from the dead, remember that He is Alive and Well and working in our communities today! Have an awesome Easter!

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!

Praise in Sorrow

If you read my last post about the accident, it turned out that the fatality was a student from our school. A young lady named Tiffany lost her life which causes many of her friends and her family to be in mourning. There is a silver lining. I looked up her facebook picture just to see if she was who I thought she was. (Not someone I knew well, she was a name and face I recognized on campus.) Her "Status" was that she was praising God that her father had finally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart as his Savior. For those unfamiliar with facebook, "Status" is a one line post about you that comes up on your profile page. It is updated often by users. This particular status post was from the night before her accident. The great news here is that she will see her father again in eternity now!

End of the Year...

This Sunday five people gave their heart to the Lord! That jacks me up! After last week when 10 people accepted Jesus into their hearts, it is a great way to end the year! Like most, as the new year looms in the near future, I make new years resolutions. This year, my goals aren't really personal, they are things that affect many people. My number one goal is that we can start a new Home TEAM/small group each month in 2009. As our church grows this is becoming a crucial need to help people connect to each other and to God. Another goal is to spend more time on my "part time" job.
The second part of the end of the year thoughts are on how God blesses us in so many wonderful ways! I look around my house and see that I have a place to call home! God has given me a wonderful wife! In today's economy, it is a wonderful blessing to have a job and be able to pay the bills. God has given me two jobs in which I can serve Him! Just today I received an e-mail from a graduate of the school where I teach. He is serving the Lord in the middle east and just managed to buy a "sewage front" building in which to put a clinic. I am inspired by the stories that come back from the kids who graduate and now are out in the world making a difference. I am equally inspired by the lives changed in my local community through the second job of working at my church. I get to see people every week who used to be drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes...who are now living clean productive lives for the Lord! Have a great 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!

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!

In Sickness and In Health

The last couple days have been wonderful, yet trying. I have been more sick than I have been in quite a few years. In the midst of that, I find God's creation amazing! God created our bodies to be able to fight off sickness and come back to a fully functioning form! While I am not personally back to that fully functioning point, I am up enough to be seated at a computer having just checked my neglected e-mail. God is awesome! I sit amazed at the complexity of the human body to be able to fix itself with such simple remedies as sleep, rest and lots of liquids! I wish the computer would be so easily fixed. Just turn it off for a day, pour some water into it, and poof! All fixed! See, man's best technology can't keep up with something God designed thousands of years ago! Praise the Lord!