Simple Pleasures

Life is so busy and hectic that it hard sometimes to slow down and enjoy some simple things. This weekend was not necessarily slow, but it was very enjoyable. Friday night was guys night... I took my boys, Dawson and Griffin, to the pool and just had some fun.... of course we had soft pretzels and slushees. Saturday night some friends and I went to see Rush in concert.... wow - the boys can still rock! Sunday night our Lifegroup (a small group of LifePoint people who get together every week) hung out at Jeff and Jaime's house. Not only did we have some great conversation, but the kids all had fun in the pool.... Greg brought the "instigator" toys (squirt guns)... so the kids opened fire on us..... What a beautiful gift from God to have such wonderful friends and an incredible family!


James 1:17
Every good action and every perfect gift is from God. These good gifts come down from the Creator of the sun, moon, and stars, who does not change like their shifting shadows.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action.

Water Everywhere

We live near St Louis, MO. With all the rain we've had, and the rain North of us, we are haviong major flooding issues. This morning on the news I heard another story of a levee breach. The community of Winfield is now literally running for their lives (they actually have a few hours to evacuate).

















The destruction is UGLY!











Water can be a source of so much positive... even a source of life. But it can also destroy. (Side note - our attitudes / behaviors have the same potential.) Please keep these families and communities in your prayers. It's a trying time - let's stick together.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action.

Unity

u·ni·ty (yōō'nĭ-tē) n. pl. u·ni·ties

The state or quality of being one; singleness.
The state or quality of being in accord; harmony.
Singleness or constancy of purpose or action; continuity: "In an army you need unity of purpose" (Emmeline Pankhurst).

What can we do when we are united? The answer is CHANGE THE WORLD. Unity is very important and is addressed several times throughout the Bible. Check out this passage:

Philippians 2

1 Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness? 2 If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose. 3 When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves.

I unfortunately have been experiencing some lack of unity lately in some of my social circles. My goal is to be a catalyst for creating/maintaining unity.

This weekend at LifePoint ( a great place for winners and losers to connect with God) we are launching a new song from Sanctus Real called Sing. Check out the chorus:

Sing oh sing With one voice how sweet it will be When we sing oh sing One church under one King and we will sing

One! Unity!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Olympics

The 2008 Summer games will be starting in less than 2 months. I watch very little TV, but the Olympics is something I really enjoy watching. In celebration of the games, take a peek at these Olympic bloopers... some of these made me grimace...




Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Shadow

Well I am pretty excited... I sold my Kawasaki recently, and about a week ago I bought a Honda Shadow Aero. All I have is the stock photo at this point.... But I'll take a bunch of pictures eventually. I'm on a mission to get all the guys at LifePoint to get bikes... there are about 7 or 8 of us that have bikes already. We are trying to organize a ride day in the next couple of weeks. I'll post details and if any of you live near us in the St Louis area and want to go, come on out.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Which Way

I heard something this weekend that really bugs me.... In a street interview, there was a guy who said something about a bunch of different religions and they are all right. Say WHAT?? Uhhh.... NO - they're NOT all right. Let me paint a quick picture... I live near St Louis, MO. Let's say God lives in Chicago... (probably not, because the Cubs are there and God and Evil don't mix...) But, for the sake of our story, God is in Chicago. There are several roads in St Louis... Int 55 will take me to Chicago, Int 57 will take me there too. But, if I jump on Int 44, I'm going away from Chicago. Int 70 won't get me there either..... Those roads will take you somewhere... maybe even some good places.... but they don't get to "God." If you want to connect with God, you must choose the right road... follow Jesus... period. Proverbs 14:12 says this: Some people think they are doing right, but in the end it leads to death. Be careful which road you take... make sure it leads to God.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

For the Married People

How much effort are we putting into our relationship with our spouse? (OK guys, this is for us...) Take a look at what God says about wives...



Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.



Ephesians 5:28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself.



Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.



Proverbs 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.



Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure. God will judge as guilty those who take part in sexual sins.




I just read a story about a guy named Michael Sweet, whose wife was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. The doctors basically had no hope for her. Michael has been evaluating and focusing on how much she means to him. The cool thing is that God has done what no one else could.... wipe her body clean of disease! I'm sure Michael placed very high value on Kyle (his wife) BEFORE this ordeal... but how much more does he appreciate God's gift of her now...... Guys, don't let a tragedy or a threatening time in life be the only thing that causes you to HAVE, HOLD, and CHERISH her until God takes you home! I gotta go - I need to express to Vange what she means to me!







Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Good Tunes

I was searching for a song from Boston called Peace of Mind on You Tube the other day. I ran into this live clip featuring Michael Sweet (of Stryper) doing the lead vocals for this Boston tune. I also found out that Michael is doing this summer's tour with Boston as the front man. Check this clip out:




Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

God Doin' God Stuff

This weekend at LifePoint we are introducing a new song - Broadcast by Steve Fee. The chorus says this:

We're gonna broadcast all over the world

That You are God and You are good

It's great to hear reminders of how good God is. A good friend of mine told me this story Monday night. His wife had taken their daughter to a camp in Southern Illinois. On her way back, she had chosen to take a different route. The "normal" route that she would have taken would have put her in dangerous situation driving through a town where a tornado had touched down... she would have been driving through at the same time the tornado was "visiting".

You may see this as coincidence.... I choose to believe that God has his hand on this family and steered her from danger! So, maybe your question is why didn't God protect everyone in that town? Good question..... one I can't answer... (maybe they are all Lakers fans.... :-)

For me and my friend's families, it will be easy to sing this weekend.... You are God and You are good!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Dusty

I was moving my office today from one building to the building next door. It scared me a bit how much dust there was on the desk... you know, the places that you don't really bother to clean often.... under the PC, the back of the monitor, under all the cables that are piled on the desk.... I had a great physical revelation that could easily hold spiritual significance.... We can not afford to "clean" only the places that are highly visible. Those other places are real and important and the ugliness shows through when things are moved around or shaken up..... I'm going to think about that for a while.... Later Gators

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Project Completion

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who starts projects and does not finish them.... Bad habit... I've heard that in general, men are more prone to this than women. So, tonight I'm going to FINISH fixing the shower, and hopefully reseed the back yard (with straw this time...). Yesterday at LifePoint we talked about asking God to make us willing to do whatever it takes to change the world.... If we are honest, the best place to start changing the world is in our own homes, on our streets, in our office, in our classroom..... in the places where we have an influence. One of the hurdles to accomplishing world change is laziness.... While I'm far from lazy, I'm not a great time manager. So, this point about being lazy grabbed my attention and made me want to focus on taking effort to complete what I start (opposite of lazy.) What is it that you need to give more attention to? Do what you do with all you got!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Singing Chipmunks

OK, I must admit that I really hate "Alvin And The Chipmunks", but my boys love it! So... what do the guys do when Mommy and the Sisters are out of town.... and we just got back back from the pool???? Grab some snacks and watch Alvin And The Chipmunks. The time spent with Dawson and Griffin is INVALUABLE! ... and Daisy is hangin' with us too... This is what it looks like when the guys are chillin' with the Chipmunks....



On a side note... since I sold my Kawasaki motorcycle this past weekend, I've been on a mission to find a new (at least new to me) one. I've test driven a few and liked them... but have not fallen in "love" with one yet........ So, I'm off to check Craig's List.... Later Gators

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Just What I Needed

How many times have you been at a place in life when something happened or someone did something for you and you thought "that is just what I needed"? I've lost count of the stories I've heard about something Bob said at LifePoint that really hit home for someone, or a day when one of the songs was a comfort or confirmation for someone. Church is a great environment for events like that..... Maybe you had this happen outside of the church..... maybe a coworker gave you a compliment that just set the tone for the day... maybe you got an unexpected refund check.... maybe your husband / wife finally let their guard down so you could get past some tough relational barriers, maybe you got TURNED DOWN for that job you really wanted... (only to get a much better offer a short time later), maybe you got on the scale this morning and finally got to your desired weight, maybe that guy or that girl showed some interest in you, maybe that physical pain you've been living with has subsided (that's called healing and it's some of God's neatest work)....... The list goes on and on. Think about this... how many times have YOU been just what someone else needed? The more we move toward God, the more He moves toward us.... and I'm convinced He uses us for more and more incredible moments in the lives of others.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

All Guys Week

Dawson, Griffin, and I kicked the girls (Vange, Ashli, and Haley) out for the week! Actually, they went to youth camp..... So, what are the plans? We are going to stay up late, eat nothing but junk food, lay around in our underwear and watch sports, make chocolate shakes every night...... you know - GUY STUFF! OK, I can't back that up..... We ARE going to have fun... take Daisy (the only girl left in the house) for walks, read a few Bible stories, there will be a chocolate shake or 2 made, ride bikes, play baseball, and talk to God like He is our best friend! Oh... and I almost forgot... we're going to wax the new Harley... (at this point, I'm wishfully thinking...)





Live loud, live intentionally, (hug your kids), and love God / Family / and friends with every word and every action!