Category: God

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Driving God Music Radio Travel

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

Last Saturday night up in Lehigh Acres Florida I went to a rock concert featuring Jubilee, Horizons Fall, and Manic Drive. All 3 bands rocked the joint hard and heavy. Jubilee screamed to the Lord Almighty, and they sounded pretty good too. Central Florida’s own Horizons Fall belted out a bunch of cool purpose-driven tracks including their emerging radio smash hit “Broken Man”. Manic Drive headlined the night. They also headlined a very special night for me nearly 33 months ago on the 20TH of January of 2007. It was the night of my very first Christian rock concert – and the very next morning I went to church for the first time in over 30 years !

Manic Drive put on a fantastic set – although it was shortened just a bit due to the fact that the lead singer was a day or two removed from being sick in bed with the flu. You could tell that he was slowly recovering and struggling just a little bit, but he was still a class act about it all. He performed admirably through the adverse conditions, and he and his bandmates made up for the lack of song performances by talking with us in-between the songs that they did perform. Good Stuff !

Here’s one of their great hits that they did NOT perform that night because it was admittingly too ‘hardcore’ for a dude that was on NyQuil. It is perhaps my all-time favourite Manic Drive song EVER !  It’s “Memories”:

I saw piercings galore, tattoos everywhere, spraypainted hair, and some other interesting creatures of the night, but through it all I saw The Holy Spirit shining through His creations as bright as can be. When it came time to speak directly to God through prayer you could hear a pin drop in that place. It was truly miraculous – like only Jesus Christ can deliver to the masses here on Earth !

Categories
God Money

Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie

Since I missed the Sunday morning services at the Homestead movie theatre I decided that a visit to the Plantation Key campus of Life Pointe Church was necessary. It was my first visit there in nearly 5 months. Here are my takeaways:

– The ‘Misfortune Cookie’ message series continues.
– This week’s message topic – ‘Making Fists Full Of Cash Fried Rice’.
– Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of Life.
– How you approach your money is the difference between Life and death.
– You can’t serve two masters.
– Don’t let the money master you.
– Always remember that the money is not yours – it’s God’s.
– Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.
– The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.
– Never let the money interfere with your pursuit of Jesus.
– Wealth should be used to advance the Good News and expand His Kingdom.
– I want to be a solution to the world’s problems.

This message was based on the following Scriptures out of the Good News: 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, 1 John 3:16, Luke 6:38, Mark 8:31-37, Proverbs 1:19, 11:1, 11:4, 11:25, 11:28, 13:4, 21:20, 22:7

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God People

Celebration Community Beach Church At The Park

This past Sunday morning at 9:30 AM at Cambier Park ‘in the heart of Olde Naples’ I attended a church service. Here are my takeaways:

– It was the 2ND week of their 5-week message series entitled ‘Be The Church’.
– The service started with about 30 minutes of ‘Praise & Worship’.
– The music could best be described as Tropical SW Florida Christian Contemporary.
– The prayer between the song selections was powerful and amazing.
– Jesus loves me this I know – For the Bible tells me so.
– Senior Pastor Gene Scott brought the message.
– God is God – I am not !
– Moment # 1: God creates the family.
– It’s a divinely ordained idea.
– The blame game begins, as Adam blames Eve.
– Moment # 2: The family sins.
– Each and every one of us is a sinner, as we were born into it.
– Moment # 3: God creates the new family.
– It’s a new family of believers.
– We love God, we love people, and we serve the world.
– That’s solitude, community, and ministry.
– It’s the power of connection.
– It is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat broccoli alone.
– It’s not about the steeple – it’s about the people.
– Your past can’t hurt you – unless you allow it.
– Do not judge or you too will be judged.
– God forgives, The Holy Spirit convicts, and we must just love.

This message was based on the following Scriptures out of the Good News: Ephesians 3:14-15, Genesis 3, John 15:12, Mark 3:21, Mark 3:33-34, Pslam 27:10, Revelation 22:17.

Celebration Community Beach Church – official web site / active WordPress blog

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Animals Blogging Driving Food God Holidays Movies Music Radio Shopping Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Southwest Florida

1.  It’s Columbus Day, and it’s a day of relaxation for me after a lot of walking and a lot of driving. I drove 415.5 miles over 37 hours. That’s about 3 weeks of normal every day Homestead driving for me, and it’s just as I had planned out prior to embarking on the road trip. 201.3 miles of driving occurred on Saturday as I drove from Florida City to Lehigh Acres by way of Everglades City, Naples, and Estero. The remaining 214.2 miles of driving occurred on Sunday on the return trip back home to Homestead from Estero (where I spent the night) – via Naples and Plantation Key.

2.  On my Saturday morning drive over to the southwest coast of Florida I stopped for brief visits at the Big Cypress National Preserve Oasis Visitor Center as well as the Everglades National Park Gulf Coast Visitor Center just south of Everglades City. I don’t think that I have ever been to Everglades City before. (If I have then I don’t remember it.) It’s very small and very historic. About 500 people live there full-time. I plan to return back there during the cooler winter months to walk around the historic downtown area and check out the museum there.

3.  After a MASSIVE Lunch at Pinchers Crab Shack at Tin City on the waterfront in Naples, a walk to the end of the long city pier over the Gulf Of Mexico, and a nice scenic neighbourhood drive along the peaceful and quiet south coast of Naples I proceeded up to the big movie theatre north of Naples to get out of the mid-90s heat and sun – and to see the current box office smash “Zombieland“. It was campy and hilarious – perhaps a future cult classic ?

4.  It was so great to hear my radio station – The Call – over in southwest Florida. They just recently moved over from 107.5 FM to 107.7 FM in Naples. It’s an extremely weak translator station, and it was a bit ‘staticky’ all around the city – but a weak CALL-FM was definitely better than no CALL-FM. Up closer to Fort Myers I picked-up the much stronger 91.9 FM signal of The Call. It sounded great up and down I-75. On Saturday night I made my way over to Lehigh Acres (10 miles east of I-75 and Fort Myers) to attend a rock concert at a church featuring Jubilee, Horizons Fall, and Manic Drive. Rob from The Call was there. It was cool to hang out with him for a little while. All three bands rocked the joint hard and LOUD !

5.  On Sunday morning (after church in the park) I visited the Naples Zoo to check up on my animal friends. I then walked around the Coastland Center Mall to cool off a bit before making the return trip back to the southeast coast of Florida. This was my first visit over to the Naples area in about 20 months – way too long. My next visit will be much sooner than that – hopefully sometime during the upcoming cooler and dryer winter season. I think that it’s reasonable to state that it’s no longer ‘possible’ that I plan to eventually live in Naples, but that it’s ‘probable’. I fell in love with Naples all over again, and I wish to live there in the future. There is so much that I wish to see and do over there, so that will justify my more frequent visits to the area, and with each new visit I’ll be looking around for potential new neighbourhoods to call my future new home.

LATER TODAY – 2 MORE BLOG POSTS:
– ‘Celebration Community Beach Church At The Park’
– ‘Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie’