Category: God

Categories
Animals Food God Health Holidays Life Travel

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Sky: Sunny & Clear
Temperature: 64°F
Relative Humidity: 100%
Winds: NNE 2 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.14 Rising

My thoughts:

1.  I added a tenth of a mile to my walk around my neighbourhood this morning during the seven-o-clock hour. I walked about 1.4 miles total in about 27 minutes.

2.  Ducks and chickens were in abundance during my walk. They were out and about eating breakfast. I steered away from them. I was once attacked by an angry duck. The unfortunate incident of a few years ago continues to haunt me to this day.

3.  Not a single car passed me during my walk. In fact I only saw three people outside. I think everyone was inside eating bacon. I can effectively hypothesize that because the unmistakable aroma of fresh cooked bacon permeated all throughout the morning air of my neighbourhood.

4.  A friend from afar recently asked me why I started this weekly walk. Besides the obvious health and fitness reasons this walk – inspired and encouraged by this fellow WordPress blogger – is symbolic of my walk with Jesus Christ. I’ve been walking with Him on His fantastic journey for about 18 months now. I was once a mannequin – plastic and rotting. Now I am alive. Since I am alive I am living Life (always capitalized) the way that I should have lived it during my previous 39 years on His great Earth. That includes throwing everything up in the air like ‘Tossed Salad’ (catch the symbolism there) and only catching the good stuff – the right stuff. A physical walk is now on my agenda to complement my spiritual walk with my Creator. No longer am I sitting still in neutral. I am now moving forward and going places with my Life. The Lord Almighty is driving me. I am merely His passenger.

5.  I’m taking this walk on-the-road starting tomorrow. I’ll be walking all throughout the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers tomorrow afternoon. The walk continues on Monday (Presidents’ Day) at Estero’s Germain Arena for the Cross Reference Faith & Family Expo. Maybe I’ll even make a pit-stop at the Naples Zoo on my return trip back to Homestead.

Categories
Food God People

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

1.  Tom and Anne both beat me to the movie theatre bright and early this morning. But then again I was about 8 minutes late (arriving at 7:38 AM). According to Tom and Anne the theatre was unlocked and ready for us to roll as soon as we arrived. I think Pastor Travis got that ‘locked-out’ problem resolved within the new lease agreement.

2.  Lisa has some cool ideas for the ‘Kid’s Life’ registration desk, so that makes us work even harder over at the ‘Visitor Center’. The think tank was at work again this morning. We decided that we want a red carpet that we can roll out straight from the ‘Visitor Center’ clear out to the front door. Anne stated that she would ‘look in’ to the ambitious idea.

3.  I think that we may have set a new attendance record for the 9:00 service (approaching 90), and if you were at the 10:30 service and tried to find a seat at around 10:40 then you were probably searching hard for one. I think that we shattered the ‘400’ mark in overall attendance at Life Pointe Church this morning. We may have even come close to 450 !

4.  We kicked-off a brand new message series this morning entitled ‘(un)christian’. Our church body collectively apologized for those times in which the name of Jesus was manipulated by unprincipled religious leaders, for those times in which we have been abused by church people, for those times in which we were judged without concern for who we are, for those times in which we were duped or taken advantage of by a Christian, for those times in which we were shown Scriptures selectively without concern for the whole counsel of the Bible, and for those times in which we were not loved by followers of Jesus. We apologized. We forgave.

5.  About 100 of us met over at Homestead Bayfront Park this afternoon for a nice picnic and water baptism. I think we had about 250 pounds of delicious food available for consumption, so anyone that was on a diet probably took about a 3-hour hiatus from their diet so that they could join in on the MASSIVE feast. Don’t bother weighing yourselves tonight. You can resume your diet in the morning.

I’ll be on vacation next weekend over in the Fort Myers area, and I’m planning to attend a church service over there on Sunday morning. I’ll have a special edition of the ‘Tossed Salad’ next Sunday night regarding my experiences over there. I’ll be back at Life Pointe on the 24TH of February.

Categories
God Holidays

Lent Begins

It’s Ash Wednesday, and hence the first day of the Lenten season. It caught a lot of people by surprise today because it’s only the 6TH of February. Why so early you may ask ?

It’s because we have a very early Easter this year. Easter Sunday falls on Sunday March 23RD 2008. It’s the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the 21ST of March. A full moon actually occurs precisely on the 21ST of March this year, so this year’s Easter Sunday falls on the 2ND earliest possible calendar date. The last time Easter Sunday fell on the 22ND of March (the earliest possible calendar date) – 1818 !  The next time it happens – 2285 !

Easter Sunday can occur as late as April 25TH. That would push Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent forward to March 10TH. In just 3 years – 2011 – Easter Sunday will fall on the 2ND latest possible calendar date – April 24TH. Blame it on the Moon !

Don’t forget that this is a leap year. Yes we have a February 29TH this year. It falls on a Friday.

Categories
God

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

1.  If the movie theatre were a giant desktop computer system then Pastor Travis is the Windows XP shortcut to get in to it. He arrives, he disappears for a moment or two, and then he reappears in the main lobby to open the door for the rest of us.

2.  The ‘Kids Life’ registration desk has some fresh new competition with the new-and-improved Information & Sales tables that are now (un)officially known as the ‘Life Pointe Church Visitor Center & Gift Shop’. We sported an exciting new look and vibe this week, and it’s just the start of some more wonderful changes that shall be coming soon.

3.  The maroon LPC ‘CHURCH ROCKS !‘ tee-shirts continue to multiply all throughout the main lobby and within the Sunday morning services. It’s the fashion statement of the season. You’ve just gotta get one if you don’t already have one. Come and visit us at the LPC Gift Shop for a good deal !

4.  We now know that the next message series that starts next Sunday morning is entitled ‘(un)christian’ – subtitled ‘confessions of a recovering hypocrite’. It could be controversial. It could be radical. But Jesus was both of these. We need to refocus and return to what Jesus was all about. We’re inviting 60,000+ households – our neighbours all across South Miami-Dade County – to experience this message with us. Save some room for our new visitors. Let’s welcome them to our church with open arms.

5.  Dr. Grant McClung was our special guest speaker this morning, and he spoke powerfully and wisely with us about being counter-cultural and living a conduct that is worthy, differently, carefully, with Love, and in Light. President Ronald W. Reagan told Mr. Gorbachev to ‘tear down this wall’ back during the Summer Of 1987. Jesus Christ destroyed the walls in our lives and directed us to live differently and change the world for the better.

Ephesians 2:14 (New Living Translation, 2ND Edition):
For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.