1. I arrived at the movie theatre at around 7:25 AM on this glorious Sunday morning, but you’ve got to wake up mighty early to beat Anne J. to the punch. Why she already had her dependable fuel-efficient maroon car (AKA the ‘LPC-Mobile’) emptied out and parked in a legitimate (legal) parking space by the time that I arrived. She’s expedient like that !
2. I decided early on that it would be in my best interest to attend the 9 AM service for the first time ever, and then (perhaps) go home and continue on to the road of recovery from my 5TH cold in 8 months. I did just that – attended the first service that is – but then due to a torrential thunderstorm (in which we received nearly 3 inches of rain in about an hour) I decided to stick around and serve during the 10:30 AM service. As it turns out I very much enjoyed the split serve / service / serve morning so much that I asked Anne J. if it would be OK to switch permanently to attending the first service and serving during the second service. She stated that it would be coolio, and so now I am a hero for giving up my prime seat at the second service.
3. As the 9 AM service began I saw J.T. directly in front of me, and maybe 3 or 4 other people in the ‘cheap seats’. There were more people up on stage performing ‘Praise & Worship’ than there were down in the ‘banana section’. People then started to flow in at a rather steady rate for the next 30 to 45 minutes after that. We finally hit our ‘summertime slump’ this week. That’s right – instead of the upper-400s in total attendance we (unofficially) only made it to the lower-400s. Blame it on the rain – oh yeah – and the 4TH Of July holiday weekend.
4. Pastor Travis spoke on Temptation this week. I think that it was one of his most sensible messages in a long time. Temptation is a fact of Life. Recognizing temptation to sin is a gift from God. It is the absolute power of the Holy Spirit in our Life. If we stray from what is right and then blow it then we must acknowledge it and move on. Even when nobody else is looking we must always act like a true follower of Jesus Christ if we claim so. We must not be a follower for a mere 90 minutes on any given Sunday morning, or just when our fellow believers are all around us. It must be always and forever. Our walk with God must match our talk about Him. It’s OK to be angry at one another temporarily. It’s never OK to be sinful. To be sinful is to be tragic.
5. After 5 hours of serving, service, and more serving at the LPC I enjoyed a nice Lunch at Chili’s with Tammy. I then proceeded over to the LPC office suites in olde historic uptown Homestead for a couple of hours of follow-up work related to all of the new guest forms and connection cards that were turned-in at both services this morning. It is now time for me to populate this fresh-new-and-improved EXCEL spreadsheet o’ mine !
That’s your ‘Tossed Salad’ for this glorious Sunday at Life Pointe Church in Homestead Florida. Be sure to join me again next Sunday for more on the continuing excitement that is the steady expansion of God’s Kingdom here in the big city. We’re making it really easy to find, hop on, and navigate His fantastic journey. Won’t you join us as we follow Him ?
Be sure to check out Pastor Travis’s ‘Sunday Wrap-Up‘, as well as Kelly’s ‘Sunday CHICK-kabob‘. There’s also Jesse’s ‘From The Stage‘.