Is it Christmas Yet

Thursday morning was the first morning that I got to relax and do nothing.  That was nice Kim fixed a good breakfast and I messed around on the computer, blogging and what not.  By the Time lunch time roled around I was full force again with phone call and meetings.  I had the opportunty to be with Jay Grimwood the missions Director for Graceway as we enjoyed a conference call together for the BKA.  Jeff Adams popped into Jays office long enough for me a share a Christmas greeting with him and then he was off doing Jeff stuff. 

After spending some good fellowship time with him I headed back home to pick up the girls and we turned right around and headed over to Chris and Jennifer Rozicha's house.  Kent and Kim Liles were there.  Many of you will meet Kent when he comes to preach the Youth conference in a few weeks.  Chris had also invited Jim and Kelly Lee and there boys over so we had the old gang back together again.  I love those guys so much.  They are all sold out to the mission of helping and training people for the work of the ministry and building the kingdom of God.  It was a great night of cashue chicken, stupid (funny) youtube videos, and some great conversation.  I even was able to pick Jim's brain a bit on the restructuring of our Discipleship process at Fellowship.  It good to have friends on the same mission as you are. 

We ended the night by swinging by Wendy's to pic up some late night frostys.  Not a bad ending to a pretty exciting day.

Merry Oil Change

Kim and I were out yesterday monring getting breakfast a Panera Bread.  It was so good and the coffee was right on time.  After breakfast I noticed that Jiffy Lube was running an early bird special: if you came in before ten it was $10 off.  so I took Kim home and went back to the store.  as I was waiting I checked my android to see if the books I bought from amazon would be on my phone and my tablet and they were.  I had purchased the book "Heaven is for Real" before I left just because I was afraid someone would ask me about it and I want to be able to talk inteligently.  So I started reading and I quickly realized that most of the book is a setup for meat of the Story.  I've read to the 10th chapter and none of it has been about his experience in heaven, but more about the stuggle of the parents through the sickness of their little boy.  That isn't bad I just feel like the book is alittle deceptive in its concept.  I am hoping the book changes course shortly.  I'll keep you informed.  So, the guys at Jiffy Lube saw that my running lights were burned out on the Yukon and wanted to change them for me for $12.50 a piece.  I declined and they dropped it to half price so I agreed.  This meant more time to read. Once they got the lights changed I paid and was ready to go, but they had left the lights on the entire time they were changing the lights and ran the battery down and had to give me a jump. Last night we had a great time celebrating my nephew Nathan's 13th birthday. After we made him walk through the ring of fire we welcomed him into manhood. (that was a reference to the movie, "Finding Nemo" for those of you that missed it.) We had pizza and one of the best Ice cream cakes I have ever had.

Christmas Vacation

When we were planning our vacation we always take into consideration the girls and what they have going on at the time.  We were going to take the girls out of school on Monday and head up to Kanas City but Katie had a basketball game on Monday night and so we were going to delay leaving until Tuesday morning.  Then the rumor of the storm was coming on Monday night and Katie decided it was best for the family if we headed out on Monday morning and off we went (she made a good choice because the game was canceled anyway).  It was raining when we left and it rained the entire 8 1/2 hour trip.  It was crazy!! there were times when visibility was almost none.  There were a few times I wanted to pull over because I could barley see the car in front of me, but we pressed on.  We made it without event which is always good.  If you prayed, Thanks, we needed it.

We got to KC at about 5:30 p.m. and spent the rest of the evening catching up and getting ready for bed.  I was so tired that I went to bed at about 9 and didn't wake up until 8:00 a.m.  If you know me that is crazy.  I never sleep 11 hours, but I guess that is what vacation is for.  We got up Tuesday and pittled around until we were ready to run errands.  So, I put on my drivers cap and started getting instruction on where to go and what was next.  I did have an opportunity to sneak into Bed Bath and Beyound and buy a few last minute things for Kim.  (She has no idea what they are).  I spent the rest of the afternoon tieing up the last few loose ends from the ministry and tasting some of the wonderful goodies that everyone gave us for the trip.  And to top off Tuesday I went to see Sherlock Holmes.  This theater was amazing, the screen was one of the clearest that I had ever seen.  We went with my brother in-law and nephews and they sat at the very top seats and I am more of a middle type guy, but I wanted us all to be together so I headed to the top.  Man, did they get it right.  We had the best seats in the house.  As for the movie, it was OK. 

Snow Angels

Well, we woke up yesturday to the first snow of the season here in the Panhandle.  It was cold outside and the snow began to fall about midday and didn't stop until almost dark.  We ended up with about 3" or so.  Well, enough about the weather.

Last week I started meeting with the various ministries of the Church to discuss the new changes that are coming in January.  Everyone is so excited about the new structure and ready to contribute to the work.  It makes me proud to be their pastor.  In the midst of all the excitement there is also a darkness.  Obviously the devil is not going to be happy with the new structure or the excitement of the Church.  So we are fighting spiritual battles along the way.  That's what happens when you go to war.

I have also been counselling many of my leaders that have fallen into a state of anxioty for a lack of a better word; depression would be to strong a word.  They are feeling the preasure of growth from the Lord and are being stretched in their faith and in thier walk for the Lord.  The flesh is a curious animal.  There are times when we want to grow with the Lord and so we make the changes that are necessary to get what we want.  But, there are time when the Lord wants us to change or demands that we grow and change for the task in which he has called us, and our flesh is not ready or doesn't want to make these changes.  So we fight it.  We don't know why we are fighting it, but we do.  Sometime even when we know and are excited about the changes that are coming.  The difference is it wasn't our decision to make the change.  Change was thrust upon us, and we don't like being told what to do, so, we fight it.  What I have learned is that it is better to trust the Lord and allow him to make the changes and bring the direction that he wants for our lives no matter how painful and unwanted the changes might be.  The bottom line is simple: we don't have a clue what we need or when we need it. We must learn to trust the Lord and let him mold us into the image of his dear Son.  In doing so, we can accomplish the task that has been set before us and run the race for the glory of God. 

Naturally when God is doing things that we have never done before reality begins to set in, and we start feeling overwhelmed with the responsibility.  It reminds me of Moses as God came to him on the backside of the desert and told him to He was going to deliver His people and he was sending Moses to Pharoh to demand the relese of his people.  Moses' response was much like ours.  Who am I that I should go before Pharoh and deliver this people.  We want to take on the job of the supernatural and that is overwhelming everytime, because that is impossible for us to do.  We must remember that God does the impossible and uses his people to do it.  There is a big difference between the two.  God is doing the Work, and I am just along for the ride.

Black Thursday, Friday, & Saturday

When we moved to Borger we moved away from all our family.  Mom & Dad are 17 hours East.  Kim's mom & dad are 8 hours to the North.  We tried traveling at both Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we found it to be too expensive and too taxing on us.  So we made the decision to stay home for Thanksgiving and travel over Christmas.  This seems to work out just fine we have had family come and be with us on Thanksgiving which is just an added bonus. 
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We don't normaly do a lot of Christmas shopping on Black Friday so, it has just become a lazy day for us to sleep in or maybe put up Christmas decorations  but nothing to tiring.  Thanksgiving night Kim and I were sitting watching TV when we heard that Walmart had just opened and begun their black Friday sales.  I look at her and she looked at me and I said you wanta go?  and She replied, "Why not?"  The girls were downstars playing board games with their friends and we told them we would be back in a bit.  So off we went.  When we pulled up in the parking lot at Walmart my mouth literally fell open.  I had never seen som many cars in this parking lot.  I had to park four stores down in the strip mall just to find a place.  So off we go into the craziness that is called Walmart.  We didn't go in looking for anything but it turns out that we got some really good deals.

After a late moring on Friday we picked up Shawn and Mickey Dunigan and headed to Amarillo for our second dose of crasy.  And again we ended up coming out really well on things on our list.  God was good to us (as always).  We spend the whole afternoon shopping and having a good time.  Talking over dinner about the wonderful things going on at the Church and how excited we are for the new year to start.  We finally pulled in the drive way about 8:30 p.m. 

Thoughts of the Family

I have been having some new, strange and wonderful thoughts as I enter into this season of thanksgiving and also this new era of Fellowship Baptist Church.  I remember when I was 18; young and alive and ready to make my own way.  I always had a good home life but for some reason I was ready to get out from under the family and do my own thing.  I have always been pretty independent or aragant depending on how you look at it or how old you are.  So I left the family never to return but for short visits.  Here is my new thought.  Through my experiences with God and Church and the meditation is God's Word, I find that God has made us to function together.  Every institution of God (Family, Government, and Church) has always been based on the fact that people are meant to be together.  I look at families in the Bible and I see sons that stay home and help to raise and support the family.  I look in other countries and the idea is that home is with the family.  You can go to Egypt today and see 3 and 4 generations living under the same roof.  Even if the children go off to school and what not, they always come home and help the family once more. 

So, what's the conclusion to the very obvious thoughts?  Simply that maybe, we have messed up one of the greatest strengths that God has given us.  Unity in the family.  A very natural togetherness that should carry us through the hard times and never leave us alone.  But, in our araogence we have left our families and become individuals that are supposed to weather all the storms of life on our own, and in the process have made ourselves shipwrecked in the sea of life; hoping that someone will come along and save us from our individualness and give us a since of belonging.  Why did we ever leave?  Why are we pushing our kids out to do it all on their own?  Why must we reinvent the wheel with every generation instead of using the wisdom of our fathers. 

I look at our Church and I see that we have become a life boat for people that have become shipwrecked and are desiring to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.  But isn't the Church just a picture of what the family is supposed to be?  No wonder we have to start all over with the Gospel in every generation.  The family unit is broken down with every son that is born because he is a freeloader if he stays home.  Now, I'm not one for laziness (that's a whole different blog) but I do beleive the family should be tighter, closer, sharing, and caring for one another.  That we might grow farther than our ancesters and smarter because we were spared from the stupidity of our youth, and protected by the ones that know better.  But we are content to throw our young into the deepend and yell, "Sink or Swim!" with no instruction or guidence.  Sometimes they swim and sometimes they sink.  Is that acceptable.  I don't know.  Maybe I had to much turkey yesterday and it is clouding my vision, or maybe I'm just getting older and can see clearer in spite of the dimming of my eyes. 

Love your family this holiday season.  Draw close to them.  Love them.  Teach them.  Guide them.  There is always a storm on the horizon, but there is safty amidst family and friends.