Zboys new vest

Some sweet friends hand me downed a vest to Z. He's been wearing it ever since he saw it.

Gods creativity

Wow, no man has a more creative mind...awesome creature...more awesome creator.

Love the way this reads...

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,

and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;

when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. (Proverbs 17:27, 28 ESV)

A "cool spirit" - that's like the Fonzie of spirits!! ;-)

Being able to not be over reactive to situations - not letting words fly on a whim. That is a cool customer, cool character, a man with a cool spirit.

Beautiful day out

Things happening

This morning I was praying about how fast life is screaming by. We've got things happening every where and others that we are close to have things happening which means those things are on our minds. The kids are shooting up and my hairs falling out. It is an absolute flurry of activity. Then my wife came over and asked if she could be beside me...and it stopped. Everything was put on hold and we had a few minutes of quiet nothing. We filled it with prayer and outpouring of our hearts and listening. Then it was time to get ready to go to work. And the thought occurred to me how prayer was already being answered this morning.

If you don't know how good God is, stop and listen for Him. If you still don't know after that, call me, I'll tell you. :-)

I have been really intimidated by my new job

In case you may not know, I am the new youth minster at Immanuel Baptist Church in Fort Smith. They were brave enough to risk hiring a total newbie! It’s something that I’ve never done before…never even WANTED to do. Now that it’s my job and it’s kind of official and all, I am really intimidated. Give me an IT project, 1.5 million dollars, 500 users dependent on it, 100 Doctors demanding it…Not a problem. In contrast, put me around 5 kids (that are not my offspring) that I need to teach about God…major intimidation.

However, God has been good to me as I seek His direction with it. During my observations of how things are currently rolling, I noticed that the kids were responsive to Bible stories, but I didn’t really know what I could do about that. I mean, there are only a certain number of stories, right? But, this morning my good friend walks up and says, “hey have you heard of the “Story thru the Bible” book?” Literally..wow. Well, I think I found my curriculum. Then, as I was reading some more material I was really comforted by the following psalm. Especially verses 6-8… Hopefully, your day can be encouraged like mine was!

Psalm 112

The Righteous Will Never Be Moved

 ¹Praise the LORD!
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
   who greatly delights in his commandments!
² His offspring will be mighty in the land;
   the generation of the upright will be blessed.
³⁾Wealth and riches are in his house,
   and his righteousness endures forever.
⁴ Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
   he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
⁵ It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
   who conducts his affairs with justice.
⁶ For the righteous will never be moved;
    he will be remembered forever.
⁷ He is not afraid of bad news;
   his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.
⁸ His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
   until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
⁹ He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
   his righteousness endures forever;
   his horn is exalted in honor.
¹⁰ The wicked man sees it and is angry;
   he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
   the desire of the wicked will perish!

 

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Another adventure begins

It looks like I will be hired on as the youth minister for a church. It's a part time job but it's occupying all my thoughts lately.

However, I am going to miss our old church. I love, love, love getting to lead worship. Shoot, I love just playing the guitar during worship. It's an extremely fun/honorable thing to do. I just love it. The cool thing was that the pastor was letting me lead more often it seemed. And I had the feeling, that he might even have asked more as he became comfortable with how we were doing it...But it looks like we will never know now. If I am employed by another church, I kinda have to be at that church...which means I can't be at this one. In addition, the pastor is extremely easy to listen to and does a great job presenting his material week in and week out. Our final week there (this Sunday) is the opening of the new worship center too. Man, I hope I don't cry Sunday...I will definitely miss it.

But, I have a lot to look forward to. A lot! It's an area that I have no training and have never even attempted. In fact, I think I've only been to one youth thing ever...and I wasn't impressed. In fact, my longstanding belief was that youth ministry was no place for youth. Quoting Sgt. York "the Lord sure do work in mysterious ways." So, here we go. A brand new adventure. One that I dedicate wholeheartedly to God. One that I will require full guidance/dependence from God. One that I suspect will sharpen my ability to hear Him as I seek His help. One that I am hoping will draw me even closer to Him....as I boldly seek uncharted and previously unattempted missions.

Engage.