Hands To Heaven

With our hands to Heaven we worship You

And when we do, may it be in spirit and in truth

The image of raised hands brings 3 thoughts to my mind:

1) A posture of surrender (giving control to someone in power)

2) A desire to be held or rescued (like a child lifting hands to his/her parent)

3) Celebration

This weekend, we are using a song that simply talks about raising our hands to God. Whatever we do, make sure it is an honest means to step closer to God. Check out these few Bible verses:

1 Timothy 2:8 - I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

Psalms 28:2 - Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

Psalms 63:4 - I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

Psalms 77:2 - When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted.

Psalms 141:2 - May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

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

Mowing Season is Here

Besides working in IT for AT&T, I also own a small lawn care business. Yesterday, I fired up the mowers and started the dance for this season..... I actually enjoy mowing. I have a simple goal this year to balance my time between work, church, and family. My relationship with Jesus is first! Then I need to cultivate the relationship with my wife, Vange. Next is pouring myself into my kids' lives (Ashli, Haley, Dawson, Griffin). THEN there is LifePoint and AT&T and the lawn business and the.... bla bla bla.....

Side Note Confession... at this point I'm ticked because I can't get pictures to land where I want them to on my blog..... Oh Well.....

So, this week is going to be a busy week...... lots of fertilizer to apply, weeds to control, and landscaping to clean up. Here we go...

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

Griffy Grif

My baby is my 5 year old son, Griffin. He is hilarious. He's not a big eater, but he can drink enough Carnation to float a boat. He is VERY SNUGGLY. Grif loves to ride on my shoulders everywhere we go. He wants to be as big as his brother, Dawson. He is very smart. I'm not sure I've ever met a 5 year old that is as polite as Griffin - he is great with his manners. He has a new bike and has been riding it faster than an airplane! We are going to lose the training wheels this summer. One of our friends, Vince, is pretty tall.... Griffin always tells him that he is bigger than Jesus. Now when I see Vince, I call him BTJ for short. Griffin loves to play Wii, and he's really good. He makes me laugh... a lot! Emily has some great Griffin stories / sayings on her blog. He loves to have his back scratched at night before he goes to sleep. I am a blessed man!

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

Fireproof

I watched Fireproof last night with Vange and Haley. There was a line in the movie that screamed out to me and got my attention... "Being fireproof doesn't keep the fire from coming, it just enables you to handle it." (it was something along those lines...) How many times in life do we try to keep the fire from coming (a futile effort...) when we should put more effort into being able to handle it when it DOES COME....

In the last couple of weeks, I've listed the "Bringing Sexy Back" message series from Gary Lamb, the lead pastor at Revolution church in Canton, GA. (Actually, I've listened to it multiple times...) For me, it was Biblically solid, timely, and quite a catalyst for positive change in my marriage.

**WARNING: Uncomfortably Honest and Open Moment Ahead** If I can be brutally transparent, Vange and I are approaching our 18 year anniversary. Overall, we have a wonderful marriage. But God has used Gary Lamb and the movie Fireproof to thump my noggin! I have allowed my wife to be burdened by responsibility that should be mine. Last night, I had to apologize to her her for being mediocre in my effort to love her.... that makes God sick! On March 3rd, I made a decision to think about her differently (better) and to put her needs before mine. This is a process...... and I'm stepping forward.

I just started following a blog of a guy named Rob. First of all, Rob has really cool, layered pictures on his blog... I've got to find out how to do that. I don't know Rob well (yet), but as I read his stories and looked at his pictures I got a sense that he is HEAVILY invested in his wife and kids' lives. It was an encouragement to me to step up and increase my DEVOTION to my family (a good and perfect gift to me from God.)

We are spinning a lot of plates right now; multiple jobs, a bunch of kids' activities, church (after all, we have a freakin world to change), etc... Here is the deal - I'm praying that I get out of the way so that God can teach me the best way to spin my many plates without dropping any. That may mean I have to set some plates down... (Bob speaks the truth at LifePoint!) I want to handle WELL the fires that I'm faced with.

God, thanks for placing people in my path to steer me back on course. You do really cool stuff like that all the time.... Talk to You later.

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

Games

One of our family's favorite things to do is play games. It's always more fun when Kyle and Emily hang out with us and play a game called Joker (Marble Pursuit). Last night, Kyle, Ashli, and I had to put a whoopin' on Emily, Haley, and Vange. Victory is sweet!

Today when I got to work, Christy was telling me about taking her dogs to a dog park and just playing with them. That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm sure Daisy (our Golden Retriever) would enjoy that.

Dawson played soccer Saturday. He is usually defense... he really likes defense.... trying to be like his big sister, Haley. The coaches had him play forward and he scored a goal. Very cool.

Our Lifegroup went to an indoor water park yesterday. I loved watching Griffin play and interact with so many other kids. Vange and I had several opportunities to laugh and say "Say no to crack" as Griff's suit kept falling down a bit; exposing his... umm.... well..... uhhhhh... his crack. :-)

Play some games this week - have some fun.

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

Church Bulletin Bloopers

Christy, one of my coworkers, and I were laughing so hard at these that we caused a bit of a ruckus in the office.... Oh well.....

• Church Bulletin Bloopers
• Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
• The outreach committee has enlisted 25 visitors to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.
• Evening massage - 6 p.m.
• The Pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.
• The audience is asked to remain seated until the end of the recession.
• Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.
• Ushers will eat latecomers.
• The third verse of Blessed Assurance will be sung without musical accomplishment.
• For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
• The Rev. Merriwether spoke briefly, much to the delight of the audience.
• The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."
• During the absence of our pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.
• Next Sunday Mrs. Vinson will be soloist for the morning service. The pastor will then speak on "It's a Terrible Experience."
• Due to the Rector's illness, Wednesday's healing services will be discontinued until further notice.
• Stewardship Offertory: "Jesus Paid It All"
• The music for today's service was all composed by George Friedrich Handel in celebration of the 300th anniversary of his birth.
• Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
• The concert held in Fellowship Hall was a great success. Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her.
• 22 members were present at the church meeting held at the home of Mrs. Marsha Crutchfield last evening. Mrs. Crutchfield and Mrs. Rankin sang a duet, The Lord Knows Why.
• A song fest was hell at the Methodist church Wednesday.
• Hymn 47: "Hark! an awful voice is sounding"
• On a church bulletin during the minister's illness: GOD IS GOOD Dr. Hargreaves is better.
• Potluck supper: prayer and medication to follow.
• Don't let worry kill you off - let the church help.
• The 1997 Spring Council Retreat will be hell May 10 and 11.
• Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to church secretary.

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

The Hog

Dawson, my 6 year old son, (also known as Daws Hog, Hoggalicious, The Hog) is creating some very cool stuff on his computer.



Dawson is such a great son... He is so energetic, smart, and very polite (most of the time). He is really good about stopping and looking both ways before we cross the street.... He always watches for cars in parking lots.... He gets straight As in school.... He is a really good soccer player..... He prays like a big guy.... He loves Bible stories..... He is a bike riding machine... He water skis - 75 foot behind the boat like the big guys.... He is the tubing King! He is super snuggly at night when I lay down with him.... What a blessing! God, thanks for letting me borrow the Hog... I'm crazy about that kid!!

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

Joker

Vange and Emily are taking on Haley and Kyle in Joker. I think I'll grab my Journey cd and play Who's Cryin Now..... Cuz someone is goin down!



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

That's my Koolaid

Thanks to Gary Lamb for getting all up in my Koolaid and punching me in the throat today (not physically). I was listening to a series he is doing called Bringing Sexy Back. He stepped through the idea that great sex starts long before you enter the bedroom. As I listened to his story about how he and DeAnna almost did not make it, and what they did to realign with God's plan, I began to wipe the fluids leaking from my eyes (since I'm not on stage at LifePoint I don't have to add a $1 to the cry jar). Guys, it is this simple, I better treat Vange as my BEST friend and actively put her needs before mine. Ephesians 5 says that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church... that is a whole nutha level of love! Communication is HUGE!!! and I'm not as good at it as I want to be. Life happens (jobs, kids, projects, etc...) and we drift apart. Today starts a renewed love (not lust) for her... and there is no way in hell I will allow anything to become a wedge between us!

While Gary happened to be the guy God used to get my attention today, (serious flag) I'm privileged to sit under the teaching of Bob Robbins every week. Bob did a series about fighting for relationships... tonight, I'm going to grab the notes from those talks and determine to love my family like I never have..... BETTER than I ever have.

Here is my challenge for you... If you are in a relationship that is falling apart, or has already busted, I dare you to ask God what you can do to repair it and give you a relationship high like you've never felt..... I dare you.......

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

Anyone see the target?

Preparation is a big deal for me... most of the time. What I do at LifePoint (lead the band) I take very seriously.... and I pour everything I've got into it. In fact, I pour more than me into it... I borrow some others people's stuff to pour into it. Most Sundays I leave the church feeling like what we did was pleasing to God. Yesterday, I was just ticked! At who? Me! I prepared harder for this Sunday than several others, and I still feel like I missed the target... In fact, I could not even find the target. It just did not seem to me that the musical piece of the day connected anyone with God.... maybe it seems that way to me because I didn't connect.....

Here is the beautiful grace of God.... It has nothing to do with me, or the band, or Bob, or Kyle, or Dan, or the Tech team, or the LifeKids volunteers, or the Nursery volunteers, or the hospitality team, or the bla bla bla..... God is huge and meets people where they are!

God, thanks for being YOU! I love you and will talk to You later.

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