Contently searching

I know, oxymoron. How can you be content and searching at the same time? I don't know, but that's the way I feel this morning, so that is the title!
We are coming up on a Live CD recording at the church this Sunday. Of course we are also working on Easter music. Ball practices. Tournaments. Getting ready for the CRCT. Busy at work (Thank God). Going and coming and going and coming...... You get it. A LOT of stuff going on! It is great! It is one of the joys of having children; there is always something to do!! Donna and I are looking forward to Sunday and the live recording. I pray it will be a great time of worship!! I hope it will be a great "lead-up" to Easter; but an amazing experience in and of itself. I have not ever done anything like this with a church. I did it every year for music camp, but in a church setting, not so much! I think it will be cool and I hope the finished product is a blessing to many people!
Forgotten God is a book that we are going over in bible study class. I am in the process of reading it as "homework". I will be writing more on it later, but suffice it to say, it is and is going to be challenging!
That's all for now! Sorry for the quick update, but I am lucky enough to be busy at work!
C

Great weekends are good for the soul!!

I had another incredible weekend. Friday night we went out with some friends to Red Skye in Marietta. It is a piano bar. I had never been to a dueling piano show, even as much as I love music! The two guys were incredible! It was 3 straight hours of great entertainment! They knew and played one of my requests, one of my all time favorite songs, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, by Billy Joel. They played the whole version!! (Like 7 minutes long!!)
Saturday was a nice relaxing day! We didn't do anything worthwhile. Just hung out at the house, took a nap, watched a TON of college basketball!! Then I had already decided to cook dinner and what I wanted to cook!! So I went at it:
Fried Chicken!!!
Mashed taters (Donna made these! Best I ever ate!)
Pineapple cheese casserole
And, with apologies to Moore's Gourmet Market:
Sweet Potato Biscuits!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Great Day!!
Sunday morning got to my house an hour earlier than normal (I know it did for everyone, but this blog is about me!! LOL)
I was on vocal team, so I dragged myself in early and went to singing. I got there in a bad mood!! You could say that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but if I told you the truth, I was in a bad mood for very selfish reasons. I wasn't in the mood to lead out in worship. But, thanks be to God, I couldn't stay that way. Somewhere during the first song of the first service, while we were singing Hallelujah, God is Here, He got my attention and changed my thought process. Period. My attitude changed, I'm sure my demeanor changed, the sound I was hearing changed and by the time we got to the second song, I was singing TO God, not about Him.
Pastor preached a tough sermon. Not all that tough to hear, but a tough sermon inasmuchas (LOL) there is a lot of controversy on the scriptures he preached on. And I can ALWAYS respect anyone who says, "I don't understand all of these verses", before he starts. Fact is, there is NO way to understand ALL the Bible. But I can promise this: there is no way to understand ANY of it if you aren't in it. Period.
Bible study was challenging. I think I'm going to ask Shep if he will speak on tort reform for a few weeks in Bible Study!! Then I could tune out without God continually poking me in the chest! LOL
We are beginning a study on the book Forgotten God. It is going to be interesting to say the least!!
Have a great week!
C

I had the best weekend!!

How often can you really say that? We had an incredible weekend!!
Friday night we went to the Hodorff's for pizza and a game night!! It was an absolute blast!
Saturday morning, Donna and I helped with the Awana Grand Prix at Church! Lisa Lovett did an amazing job, putting that event together! We were done by 12:30 and then decided to go have lunch before going home!
We went to Moore's Gourmet Market, which I have never been to, and sat on the patio to in the mid -50 degree day in the sun and ate lunch! It was chilly enough to have to keep your jacket on, but it was wonderful to eat outside and enjoy some warmth after this winter we have had! Not to mention, having my wife's undivided attention and she having mine is ALWAYS a pleasure!! Very romantic lunch!
We went by the grocery store, so I could get a couple of items I needed for a romantic dinner!! Donna and I got in a good nap. Then, I watched Grif shoot his B.B. gun in the backyard while I was grilling dinner. Bailey was unfortunately reading a book for a book report!
Carribean Jerk Chicken
French Onion Rice
Wilted Spinach w/ crumbled bacon
Homemade Apple Pie a la mode for dessert!!
After the kids went to bed we watched a couple of funny movies. Hangover (Funny parts but overall slow I thought - and raunchy!!) and Couples retreat (Funny parts but overall slow I thought too!) Been a while since I have seen a GREAT movie!
Anyway, Sunday brought a wonderful day of worship! I was on vocals and had to be at church at 7:45 (still yawning,LOL) Then we had 7 songs in the lineup!! 7! is a lot!! times 2 services, but it was an incredible worship set!! I led out on our newest congregational worship song called "I Will Rise". An absolutely incredible song! I felt good about the 1st service, but I went flat a couple of notes in the 2nd service!! Not to bad, just not the way you want to lead out on a new song especially!
Anyway, Bailey's pitching lessons went great, but you could tell she missed a weeks lesson. She was rusty, and had work extra hard! The weather was still great when we got home, so Grif and I went outside to throw the baseball (yes the season in right around the corner already!!) Then he wanted to shoot his bb gun, which he did for a few minutes until he came inside and broke one of the major rules (DO NOT COCK THE GUN IN THE HOUSE PERIOD!!) Gun put up, number 1 son not happy with himself!! LOL.
Prayer time at church was incredible! It just always is!
Got home to the smell of mimi frying catfish, hushpuppies, and home fries, mmmmm come on!! Surely my cardiologist wouldn't approve, but I got after it this morning in the gym to makeup for it!!
Anyway, A phenomenal weekend with the family and the sun!! God made a beautiful weather weekend and we took FULL advantage!
C

Another thing WE don't do enough of.....

We Christians don't do enough of sharing when God comes up big for us!!
Monday night, one of the things I was praying for was more business. I know a lot of people who are praying the same thing right now. My company averages about $25,000 per month in sales. I tell you that to say this, between yesterday and today, I have gotten orders totaling over $3600.00!! That is 15% of what we normally do in a month, in a day and a half!! We NEEDED that for February that has been TERRIBLE!!
Thank you God!! I want to praise you in public just as much if not more than in private!! You alone are God and You are AWESOME!

C

Submitting, praying, reading, learning

I have a confession.
Before last night, I had NEVER spent over 5 minutes in a place by myself on my knees before my God. How bout that? I am of the opinion that those type of confessions are why our "witness" to the world falls on deaf ears. I read something a guy, who is either an atheist or an agnostic, wrote that said MOST "Christians" are painfully ignorant when it comes to the Bible. He went on to quote a survey that just over 90% haven't read the Bible cover to cover. (I am one of the 90%, but am in the process of doing so,fyi). BUT, If we don't pray, and don't read the Bible HOW ARE WE REALLY DIFFERENT? In their eyes? I know the Christian correct answer is we are different because Jesus lives in us. But in their eyes? They know a lot of "good" folks, how are we different? Anyway....
I have been attending a prayer service on Sunday nights for 5 or 6 months. Over the course of that, my prayers have changed. (so have I). But I am praying like I have never before. I LOVE IT. Prayer is tough. Prayer is challenging. Prayer is freeing. Prayer is a lot of things. But ABOVE ALL: Prayer is scriptural and Prayer is RELATIONSHIP!! I want it. I NEED it.
So ALL day yesterday I am yearning. Never had that happen before. But I have been praying for that desire!! Yearning to read the Bible, and pray. I had a great day!! Because I knew I was going to make time.
So, last night I had to take some time to pay bills. (FUN!! woohoo) And after, I locked my bedroom door, I got my Bible on my bed, I got all my bills and financial stuff out on the bed, and I got a business plan out (more on that another time). I got on my knees to pray. 30 minutes later I was done. It was an incredible time. I prayed for a lot of different things. I prayed over our finances (literally), over the business plan, But most of all I just prayed with a spirit of Thanksgiving for saving me, and for the changes He has been and continues to bring in my heart!! Then for the next 30 minutes I was singing songs in praise. A bedroom worship service!! Tears flowed, joy, excitement, healing. It was awesome!! (Andrea's blog is a great place to get the music for that if you want to have an alone worship service, FYI).
In the title you'll notice I wrote submitting, but now that I'm writing, I feel that God doesn't want me to share that right now, so...
I guess I'm done.
C

A quick update

Things have been going good. I have had a few things in my mind for the past couple of weeks, and as of today, feel a weight lifted off my shoulder because I have made two decisions!! WooHoo.
After much thought and prayer, I am putting in my letter of intent to run for Euharlee City Council. A friend called a couple of weeks ago to ask me to consider doing this. If you know me well, you know that I LOVE politics. While this might have seemed like a "no-brainer"; it was very much a "brainer" (if that makes any sense). The reason I finally decided to do this is that in these tough economic times, I believe that the kind of elected officials we need, are those who love God, love their families, love their communities and are fiscally conservative. I believe those qualities are found inside me and therefore I believe I can do a good job for the City of Euharlee.
Councilman David Stout quit mid-term and I am applying to be appointed to fill his remaining two years in office. I don't know any of the other Councilmen which may be a disadvantage, but I don't come in with any preconcieved notions or agendas either! I covet your prayers and I should know within a couple of weeks.
The other decision is that I am not quitting my job. At least. not yet!! LOL - I am going to start my own desert bakery out of my house, on the side for now. That one was a little more of a "no-brainer", but it was still tough, because I have a vision. Anyway, more on that another time!!
Workouts are still going great. My new cardiologist is happy with all the "progress". On a side note: 18 years and 2 days ago, when I met Donna (she hit on me (that is another story)) I weighed 195 pounds. Today, I weigh the same!! Kind of cool side effect of this keeping my heart healthy thing!!
C

Thank you to Drew Startup!!

Sunday before church the choir was all behind the stage where we meet. Frank asked Drew to pray for us. One of the things he prayed was that each one of us would get an opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus this week. I think most of the choir members were in agreement with his prayer. I was. Even though the prospect of a witnessing conversation strikes fear in me (and most I would say).
Fast forward 24 hours to Monday around lunch, I had a customer that I have known for years come in to get copies and mail a package. She is a book editor. She was making a comment about the book she was editing for a lady that is here local. My customer said, "she is one of those crazy evangelicals....oh, I hope you are not". She looked at me to see if she had offended me, and it struck me that she has known me for 7 or 8 years and has no idea if I am a Christian or not! (Painful!) Anyway, I told her yes maam I am. When she started apologizing profusely, I told her that she had not and could not offend me because I was comfortable with everything I believe! She proceeded to explain that the lady writing the book speaks in tongues and heals and .... She asked if I believed in "all that"?!! Too funny!
Thank you to Drew for the prayer! And thank you GOD for the opportunity, BUT...couldn't it have been a easier question??
The gifts of the Spirit are things that we have discussed recently in Bible Study with our study of Acts. I won't bore you with the whole conversation, but I will share with you two highlights. I was as honest as I could possibly be with my opinions and why this topic in particular is so "touchy" within the Baptist faith and I was very honest in with the information I gave her. I also tried VERY hard to distiguish between the things I KNOW as FACT and the things I hold as opinions! Second, she is Jewish. I knew that and every time I mentioned the name Jesus, she physically became uncomfortable. It was obvious. Anyway, she said that she believed Jesus was a great prophet. I told her my opinion on that subject as well.
Either Jesus IS the Messiah, born to be the perfect Sacrifice and save the world, OR he is a bold face LIAR. There can't be any in between, because He said that He IS THE WAY to God, so either He is, or he lies. She was taken aback with this statement and will be thinking about it for a while I think.
She left saying that she needs to ask for some of these "gifts of the Spirit". I explained that she would probably want to ask Jesus into her heart BEFORE she asked for the gifts of the Spirit. She grinned at me and left.
Who knows?... Very interesting conversation, so once again thanks to Drew for praying that! and to God for answering!
C