Category: God

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Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

1.  I don’t even try to beat Anne J. to the movie theatre bright and early on Sunday mornings anymore. This morning she was already working on starting the coffee by the time that I got there (well before 7:30 AM). I’ve decided that of all of the tables that are set up in the main lobby the two most important of them all are the tables for the Café (where the coffee and the bagels and the cream cheese go). Everything else comes after that !

2.  The ‘summertime slump’ continues at Life Pointe Church. There were a bunch of our regular attenders and members out on vacation, but we still had an above average total of first-time and second-time guests. Instead of a total attendance in the mid-to-upper 400s (kids included) we were closer to the low-to-mid-300s this week (estimated). That’s not bad at all for the middle Sunday of July !

3.  While it’s fine to count people we must remember that it is always about the human lives and what God is doing to transform them. God is only going to send these human lives to us if we (as a church) know what to do with them. If we don’t have our act together at Life Pointe Church then He will stop sending them to us. Right now I think that we meet with His absolute approval. We must keep it that way. We must continue to expand His kingdom here in the big city. We must continue to lead our brothers and sisters by the hand so that they can have total access to Him. We must continue to walk His fantastic journey together as we all follow Him !

4.  Pastor Travis spoke on ‘Conflict’ this morning, and he utilized the following Scriptures from the Good News to reinforce his teaching:
Philippians 3:1-11
Matthew 7:1-5
Matthew 18:15-18
Matthew 5:21-25
Romans 12:17-19

5.  My favourite of the five Scriptures above is Matthew 7:1-5:
1  “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.
2  For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
3  “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own ?
4  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye ?
5  Hypocrite !  First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Check out what this blogging lunatic had to say about this morning’s services at the LPC !

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  Of all of the regular weekly blog entries that are posted on here this is the one that I look forward to compiling and posting more than any other. This is totally unrehearsed, and I am totally unprepared for it. This is raw, and that’s what makes it so cool. I have absolutely no clue what I plan to blog about for the next 9 items of interest, but I’ll just let my fingers do the talking and watch what happens.

2.  The 10TH season / 9TH summer edition of “Big Brother” on CBS-TV begins this Sunday night at 8 PM EDT / 7 PM CDT. Please don’t bother me while it’s on (three nights a week as usual).

3.  Some days everyone around me is a lousy driver. They either drive too slow in front of me, pull out in front of me, or tailgate me. This was one of those days. I couldn’t wait to get off of the streets.

4.  Everytime I sneak a peek at this book I spend more time in it than I intended. I need to find some time this weekend to intentionally spend a couple of hours with it. It’s what I do for Life Pointe Church. It’s how I serve God and His children here in Homestead.

5.  This afternoon I ordered a medium roast beef sandwich combo (with curly fries and a Sierra Mist) and an apple turnover via the drive-thru at Arby’s in Florida City (where all the food is). That’s what I paid for, and I’ve got the receipt right here to prove it. I got the curly fries, the Sierra Mist, and the apple turnover, but in lieu of the medium roast beef sandwich that I was truly looking forward to devouring I instead got – get this – a REUBEN !  I can dig mistakes like that when they work out in my favour flavour !

6.  Are you tired of all of the rain here in Homestead (nearly 14 inches over the past 22 days) ?  GOOD – I’m forecasting very little to no rain at all for the next 5 to 7 days (until perhaps early next week). Let’s see if I’m right.

7.  The Washington Redskins and The Indianapolis Colts kick-off the 2008 NFL season with the annual Pro Football Hall-Of-Fame Game in Canton Ohio on Sunday August 03RD 2008. That’s only 26 days away. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT !

8.  I saw my hot new laptop on sale at a Best Buy in Plano Texas last week. The longer I wait the cheaper it gets with more power. Laptops with 4 GB of RAM are pretty much standard nowadays. So are desktops with 8 GB of RAM.

9.  I survived my 5TH cold in 8 months. It lasted 6 days. I kinda knew that I was getting it before I got it, and it was pretty much gone before I realized it. Here’s hoping that I don’t have to be blogging about my 6TH cold in 10 months come Labour Day Weekend !

10.  THIS JUST IN – My brother and his wife (my sister-in-law) now have a cold. My 6-DAY cold ‘peaked’ on its 3RD day. That was my last full day at their house. I felt a little bit better on the 4TH Of July – the day that I left them behind and flew back home. A single contact with my nasty cold germs left behind and it was pretty much all over for the both of them. They’ll probably infect each of their coworkers.

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Blogging God People

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

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‘.

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Bedtime Stories

It’s great to be back home in Homestead. I’ve been home for a little over 24 hours now, and I’ve used this (Satur)day to relax and return to a more normal routine.

I’m looking forward to a lot of ‘normal routine’ things during this upcoming week. I’m looking forward to serving at Life Pointe Church for 3 hours starting at 7:25 AM tomorrow (Sunday) morning. I’m looking forward to attending the 10:30 AM service right after that. I’m looking forward to blogging the ‘Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad’ on here tomorrow afternoon. I’m looking forward to returning to work at 6 AM on Monday morning. I’m looking forward to the weekly staff meeting at the Life Pointe Church office suite right after work at 4 PM on Monday afternoon. I’m looking forward to a visit from the Orkin dude on Tuesday afternoon because he keeps my home bug-free. I’m looking forward to hangin’ out with my Life Group at 7 PM on Wednesday night.

I’m looking forward to all of these things and everything else in-between that makes this Life the best Life that I could ever imagine. All of these great things are possible because of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He has made this Life especially for me. I am forever greatful of Him and what He did for me, and what He is doing for me. There is no-one and no-thing that is greater than Him !

This morning I didn’t get out of bed until (a SHOCKING) 9 AM !  I’ve already set my alarm clock for 6:30 AM tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Despite the late ‘getting up’ time this morning I’m gonna try to get back to bed at a reasonable time tonight (such as 10 PM). It felt so great to be back in my own bed last night. In fact it felt so great that I was in it for nearly 12 hours (from 9 PM to 9 AM) !

May each and every one of you have a safe and peaceful Saturday night, and until we hang out again here on the blog or LIVE and in-person – remember this (and turn up the volume LOUD !):