Sermon Prep

Recently, I have been thinking alot about God...changing the hearts of men. How do we pray in a way that can bring this about. There are several people in my life who, if I were honest, I would say that it's gonna bring a miracle for them to come to know God. But I have such little faith.

• First, God can do anything. Gen. 18:14 "Is anything too hard for the LORD ?" Matt. 19:26, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
• God wants a relationship with People. 1 Jn. 4:19, "We love because he first loved us." Lev. 26:12, "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people."

So let's pray for those that we think are a lost cause. Ask God to show himself to them today.

updates coming more frequently

Sorry that I have been slow in posting, will do better.

I am preaching this coming week for Youth Sunday. I'm really excited about it. I have a friend that I really respect, he's also a great communicator, so I asked him to look over the sermon and let me know what he thinks. That was HARD! It's hard to open yourself up to someone like that. Just got his thoughts and I feel really good about them. He gave some valuable insight and suggestions. So, it was worth it but hard to do.

I'm sure there is a lesson in there somewhere. (You don't have to look too hard either!)

New Family Pictures

The pictures below show Anna Grace and Thomas at bath time--always having fun! Also showing Anna Grace leaving for her first day of Kids Morning Out--she was so cute with her little backpack and all. Lastly, it showed Thomas just hanging out in the exersaucer--a new favorite! Our children are so beautiful.

Please Hold for Technical Support

So after years of begging at the beginning of football season, we have finally upgraded to full cable- including ESPN! We ended up bundling our services- phone, internet, and TV. Which actually was only $3-4 more than what we were paying. So that's cool.
But, they changed our internet service, and sent us a new modem for DSL. I have had the hardest time setting this thing up! I know computers fairly well, at work I am the go-to-guy for computer help. So I have to call technical support (I have called the last 2 days with no success) . I am put on hold while my phone call is transferred to India. I know it is because I have talked to 3 people and they are all Indian and hard to understand. I don't care who helps me as long as it works. But thier computers are always "experiencing difficulties". So I wait and then repeat my phone number again and again and again. "Thank you for your patience, you are our highest priority, please hold." So we are going to talk again today, I can't wait to be put on hold. :)

So at home we are still down, but at least we have ESPN.

I just want to preach Jesus

Is it enough to just want to preach Jesus? I just got off of the phone with a friend who was telling me about a mutual friend that we have who just accepted a new position at a church. It is clearly going to end bad. He is at the opposite end of the spectrum from this church. He is pretty crazy and loud, loves to have fun, etc. And this church was founded in 1812 and still do things the same way. God bless those churches for what they have done and for what a few still do to impact the kingdom. However, this church is very liberal in their view of God and His Word. Our friend isn't.

In his very zealous state of mind and the excitement of being a paid youth pastor, he says that all he has to do is preach Jesus. What he doesn't realize is his view of preaching Jesus and the Jesus they believe in is very different. So please pray for my friend, I am sure he is going to be burned pretty quickly. After being here for 6 years, I have known many youth pastors who have started with great enthusiasm only to become cynical after they have been burnt by the pastor and the church. You really have to be careful which church you agree to be a part of. It is very much like a wedding when you go on staff. Your life can become very difficult if you are not careful.
Anyway, please pray for him, his name is David.