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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 !):

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Food God People Television Travel

Saturday Morning Shenanigans

Here are a few thoughts from my Saturday morning:

1.  I walked in to Miami Internacional Aeropuerto at exactly 6:45 AM, and by 7:15 AM I had successfully self-checked-in with my airline, picked up my tag for my suitcase, and dropped off my suitcase with the screening section. By 7:30 AM I had successfully gone through security. It took a little over 45 minutes to get from the outside of the terminal to the actual gate. That’s not too bad. Anytime I can get from outside to the gate in less than an hour is a good time.

2.  Your typical big city airport may be crowded, but it can also be one of the loneliest places in the world. It’s never about the sheer number of people. It’s always about the quality of the interaction of the people. Call it fellowship. If there’s a lack of fellowship then it’s not fully alive.

3.  There were large organized groups of missionaries at the airport. Most of them came from or were headed to various Caribbean nations (such as Haiti) to assist in the relief efforts there. I know this because they all had colourful tee-shirts on stating that they were missionairies. Some of the tee-shirts had a map of Haiti on them. Some of them had a verse from Matthew on them.

4.  I usually can’t sleep at all no matter how hard I try to up in the air, but this morning I managed to somehow catch a few catnaps at 38,000 feet. I also listened to the hits on my iPod Shuffle and watched a couple of funny CBS sitcoms on the overhead monitors – “The Big Bang Theory” and “The New Adventures Of Old Christine“.

5.  Fuddruckers – It’s What Was For Lunch !  Need I say more my friends ? 

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God Life Philosophy

The Fortune Cookie Message Of The Week Club

DOUBLE FEATURE !

  • ‘Look forward to great fortune and a new lease on life.’
  • ‘You have an ambitious nature and may make a name for yourself.’

BOTH of these fortune cookie messages totally apply to me. As far as the great fortune and the new lease on Life is concerned – YES – I can truthfully sit here tonight and emphatically state that I have been enjoying God’s plentiful fruits of great fortune ever since my previous life died. All bad things must come to an end, and so it did. He saved me, and I was reborn again to begin a brand new Life on His fantastic journey. I think that the second fortune cookie message is the result of this vibrant new Life. For the past 22 months I have finally had real purpose in my Life. I am Fully Alive. I have finally made a positive name for myself after being a lifeless mannequin for the first 39 years on God’s Great Earth.

This is one of my favourite verses in the Good News:
1 Peter 1:23 (NLT) – For you have been born again. Your new Life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new Life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.