The Journey

My Time Flys

2007-06-03T21:01:00.000-05:00

You ever blinked and found that time had not only passed, but warped?
That is what I feel like has happened in my life since October.

Has it really been eight months since I blogged? I know some of you said, uh yes and we are bored.

Well I will do a quick catch up for everyone

September- Celebrated Solomon's 1st Birthday (Fish Theme) and found out we were expecting baby number 2 on the same day. Excited and Scared all wrapped up in one bundle. But Hey I guess we really have done better than we thought with Solly.

October -Found out D had a Blighted Ovum (which is basically pregnancy without the baby. It was just a shell and no baby. She had a D&C and we began the process of emotional restoration. Went to the Pumpkin Patch with the best small group in the world. Thanks guys for all the support.
November-Solly starts really making sense with his words, and is running all over the place causing us run after him. Turkey Day was a blast and we have tons to be thankful for.
December- I have always loved Christmas, but this year was unbelievable. There is nothing like putting toys together and setting them up (with complete exhaustion and cross eyes from reading instructions that say place part b into section c and then use the 2" screws to connect the lower panel to the side panel while holding your left foot over your head and singing the Elmo theme song.) parents you know what I'm talking about. The look on Solly's face as he came through the door that morning was one that is forever etched into my heart. I honestly felt my heart ache with the tremendous amount of love and joy of seeing my child in awe. At that point I realized the joy of the Father when He sees His children in awe of what He does.
January- Happy New Year 2007, Solly starts School aka: Daycare. He loves it and after 2 weeks D and I stop crying. :)
February- The month of love and kisses and candy. The three things I gave D. She in turn gave me the joy of knowing baby #2 is on the way. WOW!!!! Need I say more. I predict we are having another boy, and D says no it's a girl.
March-Solly is talking up a storm and we realize we have a full blown TODDLER. D is doing well and we are due October 20th. We hear the heartbeat 162 beats per minute. Was asked to sing for the largest group of people I have ever sang in front of. Officer Shelton's funeral. May God bless all those who protect us.
April-In addition to Worship Ministry I began working with the students at CHBC. It is a challenge but I'm always up for one. Solly's vocab is growing and so is our library of children's movies. Sometime I go to sleep at night singing the Alphabet song.
May- Great month. I turned 35. Wow that is an entire blog in itself. Had a little scare with one of the screening tests on the baby. It came back positive, however we went for an ultrasound and everything was fine. D was right we are having a $$$$ I mean a girl. She cried, I cried the ultrasound tech then joined us and cried also.
June-Looked at my blog after small group and it was pretty bad. Thanks Sloan you inspired me.

You know blogging is a lot like going to the dentist. If you do a little each day, then you don't spend and hour in the bathroom trying to catch up on six months of flossing. Which reminds me I have a dentist apt. tomorrow.

As the journey continues I rest in the grace and comfort of knowing my God loves me and cares for me everyday.

Solly at the Pumpkin Patch

2006-10-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

"I think this one is just right."

"I'm not sure whether to eat it, jump on it, or talk to it."

"Our little pumpkin."

"The pumpkin just wasn't big
enough to carve Solomon."

It's Been Awhile

2006-10-23T19:31:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days? What am I talking about have you ever had one of those months?

You know the kind I am talking about, where there is so much that you are wanting to do, so much that you need to do, but you find yourself feeling like you are trying to thread a needle in a tornado.

This past month has been like that for me. There is so much that builds and builds until finally you reach the point where you are going to break. I reached that point the other night.

After being sick for a week and getting well, I returned to the sick zone. It was a set back of the sinus kind. My wife joined me in the coughing and stuffiness. Then we found out our son had a double ear infection of the worst kind. In the midst of all of this we were dealing with the surprise of being about seven weeks pregnant, and then the shock of it being a failed pregnancy, that ended in a D & C.

I found myself in a place that didn't want to be, however I knew no matter how much I wished I wasn't having to deal with it, I was going to have to. I did what I had done many times, I cried out to God for help. This time I was frustrated and angry. All this stuff that was going on "why is it happening." My answer was not what I had hoped for, in fact it just seemed to get worse. The pressure that I felt inside made me feel like I was a bomb ready to explode.

I found myself trying to put our child to bed without any power because of some power station problems. He did not want to go to sleep and let us know by screaming at the top of his lungs. As I lay there in the darkness, knowing that all my son needed to do was go to sleep, I was torn. I was torn between letting him cry it out allowing him to sooth himself to sleep or to go and pick him up and hold him close so that he was no longer afraid. It was a that point I knew he wasn't going to calm himself. As I went into his room he was standing in his crib with tears streaming down his little face and arms stretched out. I scooped him up and held him against my chest. One or two sobs and then complete silence. I just stood there in the darkness holding my son, feeling his little heart beat.

After easing him back into his crib I returned to my room, however not at my breaking point, but at a point of brokenness. I realized just how much God has blessed me with and how I am nothing without Him. It was at that point with tears streaming down my face and my arms outstretched the Father scooped me up and held me against His chest. One or two sobs and then complete silence. He just stood there in the darkness and held His child, feeling my heart beat.

The Battle Belongs To The Lord.

2006-08-28T20:01:00.000-05:00

Then Jehoshaphat took a position before the assembled people of Judah and Jerusalem at The Temple of God in front of the new courtyard and said, "O God, God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven above and ruler of all kingdoms below? You hold all power and might in your fist—no one stands a chance against you! And didn't you make the natives of this land leave as you brought your people Israel in, turning it over permanently to your people Israel, the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived here and built a holy house of worship to honor you, saying, 'When the worst happens—whether war or flood or disease or famine—and we take our place before this Temple (we know you are personally present in this place!) and pray out our pain and trouble, we know that you will listen and give victory.'
2 Chronicles 20:5-9 (The Message)

It is amazing how awesome our God is. Truly when we fight our battles on our knees in the privacy of our secret prayer places; God will give us the victory in the public places.

Whatever challenges that you may be facing give them to God, don't be the reactionary. You will be truly overwhelmed at what our God can do.

Got Milk?

2006-08-13T19:47:00.000-05:00

We have come to yet another mile stone in journey of parenting. We have begun to give Solly milk. Yes the nectar from the cow, the stuff that is a lot cheaper than formula. It is hard to believe that in a few short weeks our little baby will be 1 year old. Man time is flying by, so that is why you better make the most of every moment.

Over the past few weeks Raymond has really hit a chord in my heart with the sermons on family and parenting. I pretty much had rearranged my entire priority list, but this has taken it to the next level. It is amazing what a child, your child will do to your life. I mean we all have the understood things like you no longer will sleep through the night without listening for that cry, or it now takes 3 times longer to get ready or go anywhere than it did before. These things are the basic stuff you expect. What you don't expect is the overwhelming responsibility that hits you when you look into those eyes and see how much this little life depends on you and when you look even deeper in those same eyes and are smacked with the magnitude of love that this little person has for you.

I really want to be the godly father that I should be for Solomon. What do I need to do? What do I need to say? How do I become less concerned with my needs and more with his? What can I sacrifice in my life, so that his will be better? How am I investing in Solomon's life emotionally, spiritually, and relationally?

Then two things hit me as I'm standing there with all the cold air rushing out of the door of the dairy case. One, all I have to do is go deeper in my relationship with my heavenly father, because as my relationship with Him deepens I will know the answers to my other questions. Then two, Wow! Who would have thought all that would come out of grabbing a gallon of milk out of the dairy case.

What's In It For Me?

2006-08-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago when I began this entire blog revelation, I asked a question. The question was one that I thought would be answered very quickly and by many. However only one response was given and the response was "you tell me." At the time I found that somewhat amusing, but several days ago I listened to a sermon on worship by Louie Giglio. It was a sermon that I had heard some time ago and filed it away as another good sermon that really hit home and would have been great for others to hear.

I received a phone call today that brought that sermon back to my mind. The conversation was one that stemmed off of what someone had heard about the our venues of worship. For those of you who are not aware of what a venue is or how many venues we had, it is very simple. A venue is a "style" of worship, we have a classic hymn venue and more modern venue. The reason is that not everyone likes the same style of music. As the conversation unfolded the person was asking if we were eliminating the classic venue and replacing it with the modern venue. It was a totally legitimate question and the person was telling me they were just curious.

It seems that someone heard we were going to use some of the band members at 8:30 and they assumed (deadly word by the way) the music would be changing. I of course assured this person that we are only trying to improve the service and it would continue in the same classic style venue. It was at this point where I made the statement that "we don't know how to worship." The guy is was talking with agreed and said he had made a similar comment to someone and got blasted!!!!

My response to that is how many of us leave the worship service and say "I didn't like that song" or "I like it better when she sings" or "The music was too loud" or "He needs to shorten his sermon" or "I just didn't get anything out of that today."
Hey I got a news flash THE WORSHIP SERVICE IS NOT ABOUT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many of us have ever stopped and said "God were you pleased with the worship?" or "God were you blessed by the hearts of your people?"

I really want to say to all those who are so afraid that "they are going to take our worship away" what are we worshiping the "style" or The "Savior". It's not OUR worship its HIS and no matter how many choruses of Amazing Grace we sing, no matter how we flow from How Great is our God into Heart of Worship, no matter how we cue the videos or lights or sound, no matter when we take up the offering, no matter how the invitation is done, if God is not blessed and pleased then we have missed it...

Going back to my original post of "What Is Worship?" maybe the reason there is no response is due to the fact we don't really know.

Small Group.. The Element Of Fellowship

2006-08-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

It is Saturday night and I found myself having to return early from our small group outing. Let me just say that I LOVE OUR GROUP. I was a little bumed that I had to come home early (Solly was not going down quietly), so I left early from the bowling frenzy that was taking place. By the way the guys were sooooo stomping the girls. GO Squash!!!!!

Anyway, when I returned home Solly of course had gone to sleep and this left me with some time for Jeremy. So I began to think about the people in our small group and how we had begun to make connections with each other and it hit me. This is the Koinonia that is spoken of in scripture

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42(ASV)

This is our group!!!! We pray togther, study scripture together, laugh together, cry together, Do A LOT of eating together and most of all we love together. It is the coolest thing to have a group of people that you know you can count on.

The video clip you just watched was not a clip from Napolean Dynamite, although if we looked within our group we may just find some characters. By the way thanks to Chris for the excellent footage. We are just out and about doing life together. Isn't that what we should do as believers, be there for each other?
I guess the thing that kills me is when I hear people say "small group is just not for them" or "they don't like small group."

WOW, you don't want people to be there for you and hold your arms up when you feel like you can't go on? You want to go through life without knowing people are lifting you up before the Lord and asking God's blessings on you and your family? You don't want to laugh and laugh hard when you share the crazy experiences that you have had and then realize others have done crazier? You don't want to have the blessing of riding down the road and getting a call from out of the blue from one of you small group family and hear them say "I just wanted to tell you I was praying for you and I appreaciate you."?

Well as for me GIVE ME SMALL GROUP!!!!!!!!

Cause You Gotta Have Friends.

2006-08-02T23:02:00.000-05:00

Friendship has got to be one of the greatest things in the world. Here is my little man Solly (on the right) and his buddy Cody. I have a feeling that these two are gonna be handful when they get older.

Oh Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say!!!!!!!!

2006-08-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

It was so interesting how the day unfolded after lunch. I returned to my office to check my voice mail and discovered a very irritated lady that had left a message. Upon returning her call she began to, well how do I say it UNLOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!! on me. She began to say things and call names of people that had done things to her, which by the way I had no idea who this lady was or any of the people she was talking about.
After about 5 minutes I was able to break into the one sided conversation and ask her what she was talking about. Long story short she had called the wrong church. I am so thankful that I was able to keep my cool. I was then able to help her with the steps she needed to take to fix the problem she was dealing with. I couldn't see her face, but if it was anywhere close to the color of mine when I am quick to speak and slow to think, then the color was definitely RED.

OUCH!!!!

2006-07-27T08:28:00.000-05:00

I was reading in Revelation this morning and there was a verse in chapter 2 that really stood out. Jesus is talking to the church at Ephesus and he says, "Hey you guys are following the rules, I know what you have been doing, all the hard work, all the stuff you have put up with and how you have made sure that evil stays out and the work for my name goes on; and you have not even grown weary." APPLAUSE HERE!!!!!! This is kinda where I can see everybody doing high fives saying "yeah we got it all together!"
Then the bomb of reality is dropped, "But I have this one thing against you, you have left your first love." OUCH!!!! It hit me like a ton of bricks, because that is what we do so often. We get all caught up in the Christian agenda of do this, do that, pray here, sing here, etc, all that stuff is great. However, we leave our first love, we leave the realization of what God has done for us through His son Jesus.
Recently I was out of town for a week. I thought of my wife and child often and even called several times the first few days, but as the week went on I became caught up with everything that had to be done, meetings, general sessions, concerts. It was a great week and I learned a lot. However when I stepped off that plane in Charlotte and began my descent down the escalator, there she was my wife, my companion, my best friend. It was at that moment that I knew I was returning to my love.
I truly believe that if we are not careful we can get so caught up in the agenda of the Christian life that we forget our first love. How sad it would be to reach the end of life and realize that although the things we did were good, we ultimately missed the best... (Revelation 2:1-5)

More Than A Song!!

2006-07-26T15:26:00.000-05:00

I was reading the other day out of one of my new favorite books called "The Worship Answer Book" by Rick Muchow, and I was struck by something. A passage out of Isaiah 29 that says "These people come near me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from m. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. " (Isaiah 29:13)- GOD I was totally blown away by that statement. I have read that passage and heard that passage many times, however recently I have been very struck by the fact of a lot of Christians are just giving lip service to God.
There is always going to be a battle between is it the new songs we sing or the old songs we sing. The thing about it is what is "new" today will be old tomorrow. So, there really is no relevance in whether the songs are new or old. Honestly it has very little to do with the songs altogether. Worship is about so much more than music. Worship is about expression of our love to God. So, I'm worshipping if I am singing, praying, confessing, thanking, giving, testifying I think you get the picture.
I just couldn't help but wonder what would happen if we put aside our half hearted, self seeking, self indulging, self honoring, me worship and honestly said "Lord I love you and I am grateful to you for all that you are and the fact that your love is steadfast and unchanging."

The words of the song are so true... "I bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required. You search much deeper within to the way things appear, your looking into my heart. I'm coming back to the heart of worship, when its all about you, its all about you Jesus. I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it, when its all about you, its all about you Jesus."

There have been so many times in my life that I have had to come back to the heart of worship and realize that it is not about me it is all about Him.

2006-07-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

A Day At The Park.........
There is nothing any sweeter than the sound of child laughing. I would even go another step and say when you hear your own child laughing it just does somethng in your heart.
The other day Solly (Solomon) and I went to a local park and he experienced the swings for the first time. As I watched him go back and forth giggling with excitement each time, I couldn't help but think what joy God gets when He hears His kids laugh. Have you laughed today? When is the last time you laughed?

2006-07-07T11:15:00.000-05:00

What is Worship?