Category: God

1.  It was a cloudy, chilly, drizzly, and raw Sunday morning here in Homestead – one of those rare mornings that only occurs about 3 to 5 times a year. It was a good 20 degrees colder this morning than it was yesterday morning. God decided that we needed a little bit of change in our mundane lives down here in our subtropical paradise, so He delivered Winter with a punch.

2.  I haven’t missed a Sunday morning yet at Life Pointe Church due to sickness, and I wasn’t about to start today on my one-year-anniversary. It’s Day 3 of my 2ND bad cold in less than 3 months, and I could have been sick and miserable in the darkness of my home, or I could have chased the daylight of my church family. I chose the latter, and it felt great to be with everyone. I hope that I didn’t infect anyone with my cold germs. I tried hard to keep my hands and my hugs to myself.

3.  I think I drank the equivalent of 4 large cups of Starbucks coffee this morning while serving during the first service. After awhile I forgot that I was sick because I was pinging on caffeine. The hot coffee went down so smoothly down my sore throat.

4.  Pastor Travis was about 55 miles away this morning at the grande 10:29 AM launch of InDependence Church up in Weston Florida. Hopefully Travis and Nathan will do a ‘Sunday Wrap-Up’ of how things went up there with the official start of the brand new church plant.

5.  Pastor Paul substituted for Pastor Travis this morning, and he delivered another powerful teaching to us. We are disciples. We are ministers. We are priests. God wanted all of His believers to serve as priests. There are many functions of being a priest. Here are 5:

• Discipleship – to disciple to others
• Intercession – to pray for others
• Evangelism – to tell others about Jesus Christ
• Service – to serve others
• Worship – to celebrate Jesus Christ with others

If you’re not doing all of these functions then you are dysfunctional as a priest. We are all dysfuctional in one or more of these key areas, but it’s very easy to correct the situation. Maintain your strengths, but focus on your weaknesses. Never settle for mundane. Always strive for better. Look toward and move forward to those thousand points of light !

SPECIAL TWO-FOR-ONE SALE !

1.  Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows.
This may be the wisest fortune cookie message I have ever received. This is a ‘Chasing Daylight‘ fortune here. Look forward. Proceed. Move forward. Don’t look back at the darkness. Look ahead at the light. Seize every moment in time.

2.  Avoid senseless contradictions with others.
This seems like it’s straight out of the Scriptures. Don’t put on a show. Don’t be one person on Sunday morning at church and then a totally different person at all other times. If you are following God on this fantastic journey then you should be doing so 24-7. You are the hands and feet of Him on His Earth. You are a Disciple of Him. Be the Disciple that you are all of the time. Everyone is watching, but most importantly He is always watching.

1.  Anne J. was back in business on this glorious Sunday morning. All of us on the Setup and Hospitality crew welcomed her back with open arms, and she proceeded to slide right back into her urgent role as our leader. We love to serve each other and the Lord with Anne in charge !

2.  It was also great to welcome back Mark and Terry after an extended hiatus. Mark brought about 25 servings of Cuban Colada and his muscular strength, and Terry brought her mad Information & Sales Desk skills and her smiles.

3.  Pastor Paul‘s laptop was back in action at the Information Booth, and ‘the small screen’ was rockin’ hard – so hard that it was too loud for Anne to concentrate. After arguing discussing with Anne that it was not loud enough he tried to show me how to turn the volume down slightly. I reminded Paul that I know how to use a computer, but that I was scared to touch his for fear that it would explode. He told me that it was fine for me to touch it. Paul turned down the volume a little bit, and then after he walked away I turned it down a little bit more. That made Anne happy.

4.  The main lobby was as packed as I’ve ever seen it in-between the two services this morning. I think that Flagship Cinemas would dream of a crowd like ours during the week when they are in the business of selling movie tickets, popcorn, candy, and sodas.

5.  The 10:30 AM service was as jam-packed-full as it could possibly be. I think that we may have exceeded the 300 mark again in attendees for the two services combined. The state of our church is strong and healthy ! 

6.  Pastor Travis did his teaching on Fear, Risk, Love, Loving God, and Loving Man. How does it all fit together ?  The biggest risk that we face is the fear of loving people. Love requires risk, and we are called to the Greatest Commandment – to love God and our neighbor.

Mark 12:28-31 (New Living Translation – 2ND Edition):

28  One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29  Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD.
30  And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’
31  The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”