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Fireproof

Jill and I got away to spend an entire day with one another without the kids.  Wow! We actually had a conversation without interruption.  I will admit that after a day you start to miss those interruptions.  We used our opportunity and time to take in an afternoon movie and we went to see Fireproof.  It was great!  Here are some thoughts:

• Marriage is hard and there will be challenges in every marriage.
• You can’t have a successful and growing marriage without outside help.  Parents, friends, and in my opinion, a church family offer needed support. 
• It is hard to have a great, long-lasting marriage without faith in Jesus.  Doing marriage without God makes the challenges much harder to overcome. 
• Unconditional love is necessary for both parties to make a marriage last.
• Never Give Up!
• Successful marriages that last long do so after resisting temptations.
• Individuals must be willing to see their own faults first in order to make the marriage grow. 
• People are watching and when a great marriage overcomes trials and troubles, people will see Jesus as a result.  God uses marriages to shine His light. 

Fireproof was a great movie and I recommend it to anyone.  My friends at Sherwood have something special going in their ministry and God is using them in a great way.

Sunday Reflections and Discipleship Notes

Big Idea:  “Every Spending Decision is a Spiritual Decision”

Memory Verse:
Luke 16:13 (NIV)
¹³ “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Action Step:
Spend some time reflecting this week on necessary changes in managing your money, wealth and stuff in relationship to God’s mission for your life.  Discuss with your spouse, and/or family how to use your money and stuff as a tool to lead people to Jesus.

 Reflections:

• Thursday night the ladies of The Grove gathered to hang out and have some fun and they had a great crowd.  I have been hearing RAVE reviews!  Thanks Sandy Terrell and others who put this together.
• Jill and I were able to get away for a day on Friday to look at some pretty leaves in the mountains (man we sound old don’t we?) and actually have a conversation without someone screaming, “Mom, Dad, she’s bothering me!” or “He took my purse!” or “Come wipe me!” Well…….you get the point.  We had some great conversation.
• I hate  it for Tom Kirby, but Georgia hung in there to beat the Kentucky Wildcats!
• Sunday morning was great!  Thanks to Brian and Trina Peart for help us break down some financial wisdom and put some feet on it.  I have heard great comments.  Remember www.biblicalprinciplesinc.org for some financial advise.
• I am having a blast with this “STRETCH” series and I am hearing some good feedback.
• Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just over two weeks away!  Christmas is around the corner.
• I can’t wait until this Sunday!  We have a special treat in store for everyone.
• I love Shane Smith’s (G Smitty) song and the video that Melissa Willet produced.  Awesome and fun!
• I love seeing so many visitors these past 2 weeks.  We had someone come as a result of our Halloween outreach in our neighborhood.

Let’s stay focused on what God has in store for these coming weeks and months.

Goal for an epitaph

I just finished Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase.  I highly recommended it.  Here is an excerpt that states what I would love to have said about me when I am gone. 

I’ve been inspired by a group of early-twentieth-century missionaries who became known as “one-way missionaries” because they packed all their earthly belongings into coffins and purchased one-way tickets  when they departed for the mission field.  They knew they’d never return home.  The story is told of one such missionary named A.W. Milne who felt called to a tribe of headhunters in the New Hebrides.  All the other missionaries to this tribe had been martyred, but that didn’t keep Milne from chasing the Wild Goose.  He lived among the tribe for thirty-five years and never returned home.  When the tribe buried him, they wrote the following epitaph on his tombstone:  “When he came there was no light.  When he left there was no darkness.” (Page 149)

What an epitaph!  May we all strive to be a light that pushes back darkness.

Sunday Reflections and Discipleship Notes

Big Idea:
You cannot wholeheartedly follow Jesus and neglect what God says in the Bible about our personal finances. 

Memory Verse:
Matthew 6:21 (NIV)
²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Action Step:
Track every expenditure you make this week.  You can do this by keeping a receipt on everything you spend this week and placing it in an envelope.  Make a commitment to track every penny spent.

Reflections:

• I love the relationship we have with Youth Middle School.  Monday morning we did an outreach by serving coffee and snacks to the teachers by going classroom to classroom.  It was awesome.  On Tuesday I was able to share some encouraging thoughts to the accreditation team at YMS as a business partner from the community.  YMS is a great school. 
• Friday night at our house was WILD and CRAZY.  We did our annual Halloween neighborhood outreach where we provide some inflatable toys for the children to play on and goodies for adults and children to eat.  We had several families from CATGrove to partner with us and we had a blast!  We served coffee, hot chocolate, popcorn, boiled peanuts and of course, we serve up some great candy!  Jimmy and Christi provided the peanuts, Billy and Melinda helped serve, my friend Dave brought lights and a heater and our neighbors Peter and Stephanie served pizza and cider.  Yummy!  Most importantly we had some great conversations. 
• I had to endure the DAWGS getting stomped by the gators on Saturday and to make it worse, I had to endure it while at the home of my gator lover friend Lee.  I did get to eat his awesome RIBS.  The loss still hurt but it helps me remember what is really important in life.
• I hurt for our friends John and Janice.  Janice’s mom past away Friday night.  They are in our community Group and I hurt for them.
• Sunday was awesome.  We had an incredible crowd as we began our new series ”STRETCH” on personal finances and money management.  We had an incredible offering.  We had people trust Jesus as Savior. 
• Ric Wortham, our worship leader called on Sunday morning to tell me he had been throwing up all night.  Austin and Shelley jumped in with the band and did an incredible job leading and I am so proud of them for allowing God to use them in that situation.  Thanks Austin and Shelley!
• Shane Smith’s (G Smitty) song was incredible.  Click here to watch the music video that Melissa Willet edited.  It is hilarious and great!