Assessing the Damage

Last night a string of storms ripped through the southeast producing tornados that have claimed over 250 lives and in one report, wiped out a small town. Many today are hurting and questioning why this happened. I don't have answers, but I do know that in the midst of all of this, God can shine through. He can comfort the hurting, rebuild the lives of the broken, restore the materials that were lost, and ultimately save the lost. However, He will need us to be the hands and feet in some cases. We must as believers find a way to help out in this time. Some may be able to go down to Georgia, Alabama, or Tennessee. The rest of us, and all of us for that matter, can give something towards the relief efforts. Families are in despair and we need to show them compassion and love. Pray for them yes, but please get involved and act.......STEP FORWARD!

STEP Forward!

If you have been reading my blog the last few days then you have noticed that at the end of each blog I type the words STEP Forward. It comes from Philippians chapter 3 and what Paul tells us about leaving our past behind, and pressing forward. As I mentioned the other day, this has become something special to me that I am, by God's grace, trying to apply to my daily life. It stands for, "Saved from my past, Transformed and Empowered for my present, and Pressing forward to my future in Christ." That is the life I want to live. Saved...Transformed...Empowered...Pressing! Each day is a STEP that has to be taken. A STEP to forget who we were so we can become who He called us to be. A STEP forward in understanding that it is by His power and not our own. A STEP forward in realizing that we are not finished on this journey and that heaven awaits us. We must take a STEP each day or we will go backwards. To not be pressing forward is to retreat. So please....STEP Forward!

Keep Sowing

I pray that everyone had a great Easter weekend. Our service at Friendship was awesome and our community event Sunday evening was off the hook! We saw decisions made for Christ and that's what it is all about. I realize that some of you invited people who did not show,or perhaps came, but did not make a decision. Do not give up on your Hosanna prayers and do not quit sowing seeds of Good News in to their lives. Do not quit inviting them. Do it every week! I want to share a story from Pastor Perry Noble about something that happened at there services this past weekend. Check out how God can move if we give Him the chance.

This year for our Easter services one of my opening illustrations was taken from the movie “Smokey and the Bandit.”  I talked about how in 1977 that I really wanted the Trans Am that was in that movie…and thought that if I could have it then I would never want anything else again.  (The message will be online and on itunes by noon tomorrow.)
Anyway, a family had been inviting a friend of theirs to NewSpring for three years and he finally came to a service last night.  (Don’t EVER give up on people!!!)  He did not pray to receive Christ during the service…HOWEVER…
On the way home he was listening to the radio and “East Bound & Down” by Jerry Reed (The theme song for “Smokey & the Bandit”) came on!  When that happened he pulled his car over on the side of the road and surrendered his life to Christ!

Wow! What a testimony! So there you go, go sow some seeds!.....STEP FORWARD!

Easter 2011

I am gonna take a break from my series of thoughts on "STEP Forward" to share some thoughts about Easter. This is the high holy day for believers in Christ. This one single event changed history, but most importantly has changed countless lives over the past 2000 years. This morning I will be sharing a sermon called "It's True." Though I will be sharing a lot of different things, the most powerful evidence of a risen Christ is a changed life. The story of Paul going from persecuted of the church to persecuted for the church is just on example of what experiencing the resurrection of Jesus can do for one's life. I am a life changed. Perfect, no, not by any means. But what I am, I am by His grace. I have a firm and steady belief today that He is indeed alive forever more. It is the anchor of hope in my life. I pray today that on this celebration of the risen Lord, many will come to the cross and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.....STEP FORWARD!

Going Forward

Back towards the end of January I was preparing for a message that I would speak at a friends church in Greenwood, SC, and the Lord began to deal with me from the book of Philippians chapter 3. In it, Paul begins to share how that he had accomplished a lot in his life and had a great heritage, but that in coming to Christ he realized that it all meant nothing and that Jesus was the prize. Then he made a powerful statement, "I have not yet reached perfection." Wow! Here was a man who was an apostle, who preached across the Roman empire, who wrote most of the N.T., and he says that he had not yet reached perfection. That statement hooked me. I have gone back to it over and over. He was not giving himself room to sin or live how he wanted, but was reaffirming the fact that He depended on Christ and that Jesus was the prize before him. It started as a message in me for a revival I was scheduled to preach, but it has become a way of life I am trying to live. To realize that Christ is before me and that I am pressing towards the goal of heaven. Along the way I will have fights, struggles, and setbacks, but through it all, with His strength, I can press through it all! My prayer today is that we all...STEP Forward!

I'm Back!

I'm back! It has been close to a year since my last post. To be honest I was burned out in a lot of ways. I found myself coming to the computer and not having anything to say. In fact, it was taking everything I could get to speak on sundays and wednesdays. I was still doing devotions and sermon prep, just wasn't getting anything out of it like I once did. The problem was in me. The last 21 days has revealed a lot to me about me. I have gotten my "edge" back so to say. I saw compromises that I didn't before know I was committing. Things I didn't think were affecting me, were. I am re-learning how important it is to cut out all of the noise in our lives from time to time for the purpose of listening to God. I can not, nor can you, operate without a clear Word from the Lord.
One of the things that I am coming to terms with is my insecurity. This has been a life long struggle for me. As a teen, i was very shy, and even around my friends always felt on the outside. As I came into ministry I was constantly under the heaviness that I wasn't good enough. No matter what I did, it was never enough. The enemy used this to the max and it drained me terribly. During this fast, I have begun the journey out of this. Understanding that indeed I am not good enough, and I can't do enough. It's God's grace. Though I am to be diligent to do His work, and to be obedient to Him, ultimately it is His grace. Somehow I began to trust in my works and not His. I feel like there are a lot of us in the pews. The enemy is draining us because of this. Over the next few days, I am going to go in to more detail. Until then......STEP Forward! (more to come on that statement later)