Update

Cathy's father is having surgery Thursday morning. His blood pressure was too high to do it today. Please keep him in prayer.

Today I began writing the sermon for Sunday morning. I am really excited about the series. I believe this series has the potential to change people's lives. The series is entitled "Victorious Living." The topic is spiritual warfare. I believe that every believer is destined to live victoriously. I can't wait for Sunday.

Tomorrow night is our family night. We will have cheeseburgers and hamburgers. Missionary Rick Causwell is our guest speaker. Rick was a youth pastor in Madisonville when I began my ministry in Louisville. Rick has been a friend for a long time. He will do an excellent job tomorrow night. You don't want to miss it.

Prayer Request

Please pray for Cathy’s father. He had a stroke this weekend. They are going to remove the artery in his neck. The surgery should be today or tomorrow. We are waiting for the doctor to come in this morning and schedule it. It is a pretty serious surgery.

Mistake

Have you ever made a mistake? I mean a big one. Well I made one today. I am in charge of the Kentucky Unsion Challenge Cup. Because of a lack of interest Missionary Bill McDonald and I decided to cancel the event. I had been working with a sales agent at the hotel that told me that I could cancel anytime. They knew they were working with a mission’s agency and would work with us. When I called today the hotel informed me that the girl no longer worked there and they were going to hold me to the contract. That means to cancel would cost Unsion $5,000.00. That is not good. I had to call Bill. That is a call I did not want to make. We decided to have the event rather than taking the lost. So now I am trying to put together an event in one week. Even if we pull it off I think we will still lose money just not as much. I have been calling all my pastor friends to come to the event. This is not something I enjoy. I could beat myself up.

I guess I have learned to always follow the contract no matter what someone tells you. Bill was very gracious but I know Unsion needs the funds and losing money is not good. Please pray. We need a miracle.

Sunday

We had a great day yesterday. Dr. Earley spoke on the three generation of Christians. I definitely want to be a first chair, on fire, believer. The time praying around the front was amazing.

Last night Cathy and I went to Dee Dee Sellars and Chris & Michele's connection group. They joined with Jamie & Selena's group. They had a house full. It was fun and the worship and discussion was great. I am obsessed with small groups!

Today will be a busy day. We have staff meeting this afternoon and Pastor's Cabinet tonight. Investing in leaders is a main priority of my life. The church can only grow to the level of it's leaders. We must continually multiply leaders in our church.

Connection Conference

The Connection Conference went great this weekend. This is our annual training event for our small group leaders. I think the most important thing we learn is we are reintroduced to the big picture. We once again see the vision of small group ministry. In addition we discover things we are doing right and other areas where we can improve. Some of the areas of improvement I saw were:

1) Developing future leaders
2) Emphasising multiplication
3) Increasing evangelism

The good news is we are doing much more right than we are wrong. Our small group ministry is only 1 1/2 years old and we have gotten off to a great start. Relationships are being made and people are being discipled. It is really encouraging.

Dr. Dave Earley blessed us again. He will minister in the service tomorrow morning. You don't want to miss hearing him teach God's Word.

Frustration

Last night turned into a night of frustration. We were suppose to have a nice family night after being gone for a few days. Charles and Tyler received some college financial information while we were gone and we had to fill it out last night. I think I need to go back to college to enroll my kids in college. You need a doctorate to understand the forms. I do not remember it being this complicated when I went to school. Today we are calling the school and trying to figure out what we are doing. College is so expensive and with twins it is double everything. We were all stressed out by the end of the night. Pray for your pastor and his family.

On a more positive note, tonight begins our Connection Conference with Dr. Dave Earley. We are having a reception for all of our small group leaders and interns. It is more of a motivational time. Tomorrow begins the leadership training. A church in Owensboro will join us. They started small groups last year. They are coming for the training on Saturday. We want to be a church of influence and a teaching church. This is a good start. I am really looking forward to it. Last year Dr. Earley really helped us. Sunday Dr. Earley will minister in the morning service.

I have been working on my next sermon series. We will finish the exposition of Ephesians entitled "Digging Deeper." We will study Ephesians chapter six. It is on spiritual warfare. I think I will call it "Victorious Living" and it will be in four parts. I believe God wants us to live victoriously over the devil, our circumstances, and anything else that stands in the way of us fulfilling God's purposes for our lives. I am getting real excited about teaching it. It will begin on the first Sunday in May.

Home

We are on our way home. Cathy wants to stop by the mall on the way. Pray for me!

District Council Day 3

Today was the final day of District Council. This morning we had communion service. Bro. Berryhill preached another great sermon. Tonight was the ordination service. Several ministers were ordained into the ministry by the laying on of hands of the presbytery (leadership). Pastor Joe Girdler preached a challenging message to ministers.

The highlight of the day for Cathy and I was this afternoon. We went to my brother's house and played with Emma and Macey. They are my nieces and are seven months old. We had a big time. I got my baby fix!

We are coming home tomorrow. Looking forward to the Connection Conference with Dr. Dave Earley.

Evening Service

We had an incredible service tonight. Ray Berryhill was the speaker. He preached on the Holy Spirit being a lifestyle. It was awesome. The altar service was even better. God moved in a powerful way. Can't wait until the service tommorrow morning. The ministers take communion together.

District Council Day 2

Not much happened today. Pastor Joe was reelected on the first ballot. He received a great response. There was some discussion concerning the district finances but not much. Seemed to be a good spirit of unity among the pastors.

I went to lunch with Dick VanHuss. Cathy goes to the women's luncheon on Tuesdays and Dick and I have had lunch together for many years during that time. We had great food. It was a bistro downtown called 301. It was really good. Dick has been a friend for a long time and I always enjoy catching up. Dick is our newest KY missionary. He is a US missionary with Global University. He will visit our church on May 18.

Getting ready to take a nap. The evening service begins at 7:30 p.m.

Kentucky District Council Day 1

We had the opening mission experience tonight. There was approximately 900 in attendance and we raised over $36,000.00 for church planting in the Muslim World. I think the service challenged everyone who was there. It was definetly out of the box.

This afternoon was the Unsion luncheon. I did not get an exact count but it was packed. There had to be close to 100 there. Bill received over $300.00 in monthly pledges.

Overall a good day for the kingdom of God as we work to spread the good news of Jesus Christ around the world. Thanks for all your prayers.

Our first business meeting begins tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I think I am ready for some sleep.

Dinner

Just had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I think it is my favorite restaurant. They have great Thai food. Missionary Steve Turley joined us.

Louisville

We just arrived in Louisville. We are staying at the Galt House. This is where the conference is being held. The rooms are real nice. It is a sweet with two bedrooms. Why do Cathy and I need two bedrooms? Because I snore real bad. This way Cathy can get some sleep. We are headed to the conference room to help set up. We hope to get out and get some dinner later. I have to pick up a missionary at the airport at 11:40 p.m. Staying up that late is a real stretch for me! Hope everyone had a great friend night. I thought the morning service was awesome. We had 477 in attendance but most importantly I thought the prayer time was great. To see the children being blessed by God was wonderful. I love seeing tears run down their face. Some of the parents and grandparents were being blessed as well. God is good.

Weekend

This is going to be a special weekend. Sunday morning is “God bless the Children” service. I will end the sermon series on Principles for Raising Children and we will lay hands on every child high school and under. I believe for a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. I want our children to experience the presence of God. Sunday night is our friend night and we have set a goal for 300 in attendance. Last week we had over 200 in Connection groups with 65% of Sunday morning attendance in groups. That is awesome. I am so looking forward to our Connection Conference with Dave Earley.

Please pray for Cathy and I next week. We are leaving Sunday afternoon for Louisville. Kentucky District Council begins Monday. I am personally in charge of a luncheon for Bill McDonald Monday afternoon and the evening Mission experience Monday night. In the night service we want to raise $100,000.00 for church planting in the Muslim World. We will come home Thursday in time for the Connection Conference.

Thanks for your prayers.

Earthquake

Did you feel the earthquake? My dog woke me up at 4:30 a.m. I thought she had to go out and was getting ready of fuss at her and then the shaking began. I guess animals can sense these things. Someone told me that dogs can hear the rumbling before we can feel the shaking. That is incredible.

The Bible talks about the believer having a gift that gives him a special ability to sense things. It is called the sense of discernment, a special ability to distinguish that something is of God or of the devil. The ability to discern between good and evil is especially important in these last days. There is so much out there that it can get confusing. This ability is not relying on our own wisdom or trying to guess what is good and what is evil, it is a special ability given by the Holy Spirit. It is a gift from God. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give you that gift today. This gift is especially important for parents. I cannot keep up with the popular culture. It changes too fast. I don’t know who anybody is or whether my children should listen or watch them or not. But the Holy Spirit can enable you to know. Enable you to protect your children.

A couple more thoughts about the earthquake:

1) Glad I am ready to meet God. You never know what is going to happen when.

2) We are living in the last days. I believe Jesus is coming soon.

Worship

In the book Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow we have learned about Bible Study and Prayer. Today we will learn about Worship.

Worship and praise go together. Worship is acknowledging God for who He is. Praise is thanking Him for what He has done. Both of these if important to your spiritual growth.

1) You need to acknowledge God for who He is.

God is your savior, healer, provider, and support. He is wonderful, counselor, marvelous, soon coming King. He is the baptizer, helper, and refuge in times of trouble. Acknowledging God for who is He is will build your faith because you know His character. This allows you to trust Him.

2) Thanking Him for what He has done.

This keeps you humble as you acknowledge all the things God has done for you. It produces gratitude in your life. We live in a world of discontentment. People continually want more. Thanking God for what He has done puts the spotlight off what you do not have and on to what God has already done. Again, this builds your faith because it increases your trust.

Worship is to be done privately and corporately. You are to worship God alone acknowledging Him and you are to come together with other believers and worship God as a family. The Bible teaches not to forsake the coming together with other believers to worship.

Make worship a regular part of your life Praise Him today and come Sunday and worship with your spiritual family

Prayer

RC Sproul has written a book entitled “Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow.” The first was Bible Study. The second is Prayer.

For a person to grow spiritually they must develop a consistent prayer life. Prayer is communicating to God and God communicating to you.

Why should a person pray?

1) Prayer is a duty.

Throughout the Bible God teaches us that He expects us to pray.

2) Prayer is a privilege.

The created can communicate to the creator. What a privilege! What an opportunity.

3) Prayer works.

Prayer moves the hand of God. God answers the prayers of his people.

4) Prayer is partnership

God has called us to go into all the world and make disciples. One of the ways we accomplish the task is through prayer. We pray for salvation and we pray that God will send workers.

How does a person pray?

Prayer can be made up of different aspects.

1) Worship I worship God because He is _____________________________.

2) Praise. I praise God because He has done ________________________.

3) Confession. I ask God to forgive me for _____________________________.

4) Forgiveness I forgive _________________ for ________________________.

5) Intercession (praying for others) I ask God to help _____________________.

6) Petition (praying for yourself) I ask God to ___________________________.

Faithful consistent time in prayer to God will make a huge difference in your life.

Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow

I love to read. Reading good books has help me grow spiritually. It has increased my knowledge of God’s Word and my knowledge of God. One of my favorite subjects to read about is prayer. Reading about prayer does not replace prayer but it has enhanced it for me. One book that has helped me in my spiritual disciplines is “Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow by R.C. Sproul. I do not agree with everything Bro. Sproul writes but this book was good. Over the next few days I want to highlight one of the things you need to grow spiritually.

1) Bible Study

Studying your Bible on a daily basis will help you grow. It will

*enable you to gain the mind of Christ and learn what discipleship is.

*enable you to grow in faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

*The Bible is God-breathed. Dr. Spoul says “the idea is not one of inspiration but of expiration; that is, the Bible is breathed out by God. The whole point here is that the Bible comes from God. It is His Word and carries with it His authority.”

*The Bibles is good for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. This means the Bible teaches what to believe, what not to believe, how to live, and how not to live.

*Enables you to repent. Repent means “changing of the mind. You are not suddenly cleansed of all wrong thinking. Renewing your mind is a lifelong process.

This brings the question how do I study the Bible. Here are some things I do:

1) Read the Bible systematically. I read the One Year Bible so I can read the whole Bible every year.

2) Journal. Write down what you learn from your reading. I use the SOAP method of journaling.

S- cripture. Write down the passage that sticks out to you.

O-bservation. Write down what stuck out to you in that passage

A-pplication Write down how you can apply what you learned.

P-rayer. Write out a prayer that God will enable you to live out the passage

3) Meditate. Meditation means to fill your mind with God’s Word. Read and reread your journal entry.

4) Live it. The Bible was not meant to be just learned, it was meant to be lived.

I encourage you to make Bible study a daily part of your life

marriage

Yesterday I was talking to Rick Fueger. His wife Linda had been out of town taking care of sick relatives for several weeks. Rick spoke about how much he missed her. He said this was the longest they had been apart since they were married. He was ready for her to come home. I love seeing a marriage like this. They have been together so long that life seems strange when they are apart. When Cathy went to Ecuador my life seemed disjointed. Everything was different, off. Marriage is the highest human relationship a person can have. It is a level of intimacy that no other relationship can achieve. This week do something to make your marriage better. Good relationships need good investments. Invest in your marriage. Make it better.

Family

Thursday I had the privilege of giving the invocation at Heritage Days at North Middle School. I was impressed with the student body of the school. The young people were well behaved and responsive to the speakers. The chorus and band performances were wonderful. The student leadership was outstanding. I want to commend Principle Scottie Long and organizer Roy Pullam for their efforts. It was a great day.

This weekend my nephew and niece are in from Louisville. We had them and my parents over for dinner Thursday night. The whole family was there. Saturday night we are celebrating Maddie’s birthday. As I have been studying for the sermon series “Principles for Raising Children” I continue to remember the importance of family on children. Having input from parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, and the rest of the extended family is so important to the development of children. The first institution that God established was the family. God knew its importance. There is an attack on the family in our culture. I noticed a recent Oprah Winfrey show entitled “Gay all over the world” or something similar to that. The Church must stand up for the traditional family or our culture will destroy it. Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy. He is definitely on attack against the family. I will continue the sermon series on family this Sunday. Please pray for the American family. The best thing you can do for the family is to strengthen yours. One of the ways to do that is to worship together. Hope to see you in service Sunday.

Wednesday Night

First Assembly has supported the Assembly of God Industrial School in India for many years. Tonight Steve Jeyaraj will be our guest in the service. He will eat dinner with us and then share about the ministry in the Bible study. His father started the school but now Steve is running it. It is always good when we have missionaries but it is even better when we have nationals. Steve is from India and has a different perspective. His accent is heavy but what he says is really good. We are having fried chicken for dinner. Hope to see you there.

Missions

This morning I spoke to one of our missionaries. Steve and Deanne Turley are missionaries to Belgium. They lead a ministry called “Students for Christ.” They actually minister at a college that is officially “atheist.” What a challenge! Unfortunately reaching atheist for Jesus is not their only challenge. They face a huge financial challenge as well. The dollar is devaluing and the Euro is getting stronger. That means their missions money does not go as far as it used to. The exchange rate is eating up their finances. Here is what Steve and Deanne can do with nine dollars:
1) Buy one gallon of gas for their car
2) Purchase one gallon of milk
3) Buy one Big Mac Meal at McDonalds

Can you imagine trying to make it at those prices? It is making it tough. Steve is back in the states raising some finances. I am having lunch with him next week to try to encourage him. Please keep Steve and Deanne in prayer.

Pray, Read, and Relate

Last night Cathy and I went to Jayne James’ Connection Group and we had a great time. I left once again thinking that this is how church ought to be. We ate together, studied God’s Word together, prayed together, laughed together, and cried together. The key word is together. Life was not meant to be done alone. God has given us friends to do life with, to help us grow. I thought last week that if I could give every believer three priorities to grow in the faith, what would they be? I came up with:
1) Pray
2) Read
3) Relate

If every believer spent time in prayer, communicating with God, and spent time reading and studying the Bible, and relating with other Christians, they would grow. The Holy Spirit would use those disciplines to develop their faith.

I encourage you to pray, read, and relate and if you are not a member of a Connection Group, get involved this week.

contentment

Friday is my day off. Today we went to Moonlight Bar-be-cue with Cathy’s parents. My father-in-law and I like to eat their. We had a great time. We don’t get to spend too much time with Cathy’s parents and I enjoyed our time together.

Then this afternoon Cathy and I went with my parents and looked at a house. Cathy and I really are not looking to move but with the housing market down we thought it would be worth the time. We liked the location of the house so we went and looked. Once we got inside the house we didn’t like it at all. Our house really looked good to us. Once we saw the condition of the house for sale, the house we live in looked a whole lot better to us. I thought a little about this. I tend to take what I have for granted. I live a good life. I have a wonderful family and God has blessed us. We have everything we need and much of what we want. I came home much more content with what I have. Paul said we need to learn to be content in every situation and circumstance. My flesh does not like that. It always wants more. I think the Holy Spirit taught me today to work on my contentedness. I need to learn to be satisfied with who I am and what I have and not constantly striving for more. Living discontented is a miserable way of life. I want to be content in all things and at all times.

Weekend

This Sunday we have a guest speaker. Missionary Mike Keys will be preaching. He was here several years ago and is an excellent speaker. Mike has seen many miracles through his ministry and I am excited to see and hear him again this weekend. I am hoping to get some yard work done. My grass is getting tall. I am sick of the rain and ready for some sunshine. Isn't it amazing how our moods change? The gray skies and rain can get to you but as soon as the sun comes out our moods lift. That is why we live by faith and not trust our moods. Have a great weekend.

Spring

This is week is the beginning of spring for me. It is the opening day of baseball season. I don't now watch a lot of baseball on television but there is nothing better than going to a baseball game. It is America's past time. It is also a season of optimism. Every fan believes their team is going to win, even if it does not have much of a chance. You cannot help but to believe. I grew up a Cincinnati Reds fans. We have not won a world series since 1990. We usually are not very good but at the beginning of the year I believe. Maybe Johnny Bench and Pete Rose will come back and play again. Probably not realistic but it is good to dream and believe.

What dreams have you given up on?
I encourage you to be an optimist and believe!

test

Testing to see if I could add a post.

trying something new

I am trying something new today. We are working to make it easier for me to keep my blog updated. If this works I can update the blog anywhere and anytime. The problem is technology makes me nervous. I am not very good or knowledgable in this area. Whenever I try something new or differenct it effects me. Does it you? What is there about human nature that resists change? We like our routine and familar but unless we try new things we will never grow and experience all that God has for us. So pray for me as I am learning something new and I will pray that God will stretch you out of your comfort zone into new experiences. Let's grow together.