god’s way

In my personal Bible reading I am going through the book of Jeremiah.  As I read his warning to the people of Israel it sounds just like he is talking to us Americans.  Jeremiah lived in day when Israel had basically voted God out.  They were a culture of sexually immoral, idol worshippers and could not handle prosperity.

It just doesn’t make any sense to me.  When living under God authority is what got you to a place of prosperity, why couldn’t anyone look around and see, “here’s the problem, we have voted God out.  Let’s repent and do it God’s way.”

I believe that is what all of us need to do is to look deep into our hearts and ask the question, “Am I living under God’s authority and in God’s blessing?”  I believe this new spiritual growth campaign we are starting Sunday called, “Life’s healing choices” will help us do exactly that.  It will point us back to the basic steps of how to live under God’s authority and in God blessing.  I hope that you will be apart of this great spiritual renewal, I believe if you will take a step toward God by attending the next eight weeks at SCC, He will bring you the peace that you have been seeking.

Matthew 5:3 (Msg)   ”You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

over the next 8 weeks

Sunday night’s worship and communion service was awesome.  It was so wonderful having all of us come together to prepare our hearts for what God wants to do in us over the next eight weeks as we begin this new spiritual growth campaign called, “Life’s Healing Choices.”

I started this week with a new commitment to draw closer to God by reading his Word at night instead of watching the news before I fall asleep.  I usually watch Fox News for an hour until eleven.  So I decided I would step up my spiritual life by reading at night.   I made a decision a few years ago that the first person I wanted to speak to me in the morning was God so I started getting up at 6am and reading the bible.  Now, the last thing on my mind when I go to bed will be God and his Word..

I can tell you last night I had one of the best night’s sleep I have had in a few weeks.  I want to encourage you to do something different to grow spiritually.  Let me give you a few ideas that can help you turn up the heat in your relationship with God.

Maybe you can try fasting a meal once a week and spending that time praying and asking God to change you over the next eight weeks.

Maybe you can try saying a one minute prayer at the top of every hour for yourself to be open to what God wants to say to you.

Maybe you decide to read the Bible at lunch time for the next eight weeks.

 Maybe you start a prayer journal through the next eight weeks and you write out a prayer in the morning and read over it several times through out the day.

Maybe you begin to tithe over the next eight weeks in obedience to God and write down what happens during that time.

Remember your life changes for the good when you open your mind and heart to what God wants in your life and most of the time that means slowing down or getting still so you can hear him.

I would encourage you to say no to busyness and relax by taking a walk or doing something outside that you enjoy.  Let your mind focus on God and his creation. 

Psalm 19:14 (KJV)   Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

 

my hang ups

Tuesday our church staff met together to prepare our hearts for a spiritual renewal.  I shared with them that this spiritual growth campaign is for me.  I want God to change me from the hang-up I have.  I shared with them that I have been a person who has always struggled with trying to do things myself.  I have at times prided myself in being such a practical thinker and problem solver.  I tell you for years I have been self reliant.  I have used God’s principles to guide my life and listen to that still small voice to keep me from evil, but my hang up has been playing it safe.  In other words, I would never take risk that I didn’t have two or three back up plans. 

 

I can tell you when you live like that it produces all kinds of pressure because you make yourself totally responsible for everything that happens around you.  I am learning that when I try to control what is out of my control I am playing God and totally remove God from the situation.

 

So I am praying God will help me have the change I need in my heart that I may spend the rest of my life taking God size risks and not Jeff size risks.  I look forward to God changing me over the next 9 weeks that I may live in his peace and depend on his power instead of living with pressure and depending on my power.

 

So I can tell you that this campaign will be different than any other I have ever led because the focus is on me and God not on others and God.  I invite you to choose the same attitude, the attitude that says, “It’s me Lord that needs healing, hope, help and happiness.”

 

Matthew 5:6 (NIV)   Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

 

it’s coming

I have been preparing for our fall spiritual growth campaign.  A spiritual growth campaign is when our entire church studies the same topic for a set amount of time.  This fall we are calling this campaign “Life’s Healing Choices.”  It is based on the beatitudes that Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 5.

In these eight beatitudes we learn eight choices we can make to help us find real happiness.  There is one common denominator in all of your failed relationships and problems…they all involve you and my problems involve me. 

In this series it we will open our hearts as we open God’s Word and allow his healing power to change us from the inside out.  You and I only change when one of two things happen to us.  We change when we “see the light.”  That is what this spiritual growth campaign is all about.  Or we change when we feel the heat or pain of hurts habits and hang-ups.  Trust me, it is better to change by “seeing the light” than to have to feel the pain.  So, as we dive into the next 9 weeks, you can expect God to turn the light on in several areas of your life that you may receive hope, help, and healing.

back from the beach

I am back and well rested mentally and spiritually.  My family and I went to Myrtle Beach for a five day get away.  It was really fun.  I am not really a beach person but I must say I enjoyed this trip more than any other we have ever taken to the beach.

In September the beach is mostly filled with senior adults who are relaxing and so we don’t have to put up with all the college kids being crazy.  I enjoyed this aspect of the trip, but my children reminded me it was boring to them because there were no young people to hang with.

Needless to say I had the ocean to myself and boy did I take advantage of that.  The waves were about four to five feet high and Katelyn and I played in the water all week long from morning until evening while Rhonda and her mom and dad sat under a 10×10 tent that we put up every morning as Robby, Katelyn and I entertained them with trying ride the waves with a float and inner tube.  They would watch us day after day get flipped, crashed and twisted by the waves.

I could handle all of that, but Katelyn went to the store and saw a board called a “skim board.”  Some kid salesman told her how fun it was and how easy it is to ride on the edge of the water.

For those of you who have never heard of skim boarding, you take a small board that looks like a small surfboard with no fin, throw it on beach as the water comes into about an inch deep and the board is suppose to skim across the shallow water.

All I will say about this is it doesn’t work very well when you throw it on the edge of the water, run beside it, jump on it and the water runs out.  If you do I tell you from experience, your feet will come off the board and go over your head as your body rolls across the sand.

So, with that said, I am rested, although a little bruised,  but ready to lead SCC into the greatest spiritual growth of our churches history.

reminders from Patrick Swayze

Guest Blogger:  Chesnee Dorsey

A lot of prominent people have died this year.  Walter Cronkite, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, and recently this week, Patrick Swayze.

You may remember Patrick from Ghost…and that other movie with a lot of dancing   Guys may remember him from Roadhouse and an older movie with a lot of then up and coming stars, The Outsiders.

I saw an interview with Patrick and his wife last night with Barbara Walters that was filmed earlier this year.  She asked a lot of questions about death.  He mentioned a very famous line in the movie, Ghost where his character says, “The love you have….you take it with you.”  His character had died and come back from the other side to help his widowed wife.  He also mentioned in the interview that he does believe that we have a soul and that we will live forever somewhere else.  Immediately that verse came to mind that “God has set eternity in the hearts of all men.” Ecclesiastes 3:11.  No matter your background or your religion….a sense of eternity exists in all of us.

My first hope for Patrick Swayze and all of these others is that they accepted Jesus as their Savior.  My second thought is that time is short and every minute we spend with our loved ones is a gift.  So, make it count.  Then, when it is all said and done, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and live for Him, we’ll spend eternity together.

John 11:25-26   Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

at the race track

This blog post didn’t make it to email subscriptions so enjoy if you missed it!  Originally posted September 8.

This weekend I had the privilege of going to the Atlanta motor speedway and watching the race with some wonderful people from SCC.  It was very different from all other races I had been to because it was at night.

The cars under the lights looked fantastic. The temperature was just right.  Going to the race with Joe Anderson and Jimmy Martin is always great.  Joe provides the entertainment by talk to every person around him and Jimmy provides all the “technical gadgets” like headsets that pick up the drivers conversation with their crew.  I just enjoy it all.

The other thing I noticed about the night race was the amount of alcohol being consumed and the effect of what had already been consumed.  Alcohol brings out the worst in people because they lose all self control.  We saw two guys get into a fight three row in front of us, who actually came to the race together. 

When I was a child I was around Alcohol all the time and the results have not changed in all these years.  One person starts running their mouth at someone else and it always ends bad, even friendships and families break up.  That is why the Bible is very clear about getting drunk, because it makes people do things they would never do unless they were under the influence of Alcohol. 

Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)   Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.

God’s Word brings Alcohol and the Holy Spirit up as a comparison because both have to be a choice by an individual to consume.  You consume alcohol by drinking it, but you are consumed by God’s Spirit when you read God’s Word and meditate on it or by listening to someone share it or even praying to God.

The consumption of alcohol brings a state of being out of control in your own body.  Being consumed by God’s Spirit make you more in control of your attitude and actions.

hope, help and healing

I read a statement this week that I think is so true, “WHEN WE LOOK BACK WE LIVE IN REGRET, WHEN WE LOOK AROUND WE LIVE WITH WORRY, BUT WHEN WE LOOK UP WE LIVE WITH HOPE.”

I, like most of you, have had a time of looking back over my life and have seen all the mistakes I have made as a husband, father and pastor.  If I dwell on them, I get down.  Especially when I think if I had done things differently with my children, they would not have some of the struggles they have.  I think that is a road block for many parents…blaming themselves for every problem the kid has.  A Christian psychologist told me once that God was the perfect parent to Adam and Eve and his children still made big mistakes.

When I look around at all that is going on in the world and our country, it is easy to let worry take over.  I was sitting in our Financial Peace class last night watching Dave Ramsey teach on video about how to get out of debt by being very committed to the process.  He said, “You can’t borrow your way out of debt no matter who you are.”  I thought you and I know that, but some how Washington DC doesn’t get it.  When I look at our country paying over five hundred million dollars a month to China just in interest, it is very concerning to me.  I hear all these new programs that the government wants to start on borrowed money… that concerns me.  Our generation is leaving our children with a country that is broke. 

Here is the good news.  When I look up I see hope.  God is hope and I understand that he is in control.  That is why we are doing this spiritual growth campaign called “Life’s Healing Choices.”  You know, God’s principles are never changing and they work and have worked all through history and will work into eternity.  It is like a compass. No matter where you think north should be, a compass will always point to north.  In this sermon series and during our small group sessions, we will look in God’s Word for real hope, help and healing for many of our hurts, habits and hang-ups.  We will have a new perspective on real answers to life’s problems through finding true north through God’s Word.

my run in with a ticket scalper

You are not going to believe what happened to me last Friday night. I had planned a date with Rhonda to go to the Braves game. I know she is not into sports, but they were having a fireworks show after the game so I knew she would enjoy that. I called one of my neighbors Ann Rourk and asked, “How could I get into the game inexpensively?” She always knows the best deals. She found a coupon for buy one ticket get one free and gave it to me.

Friday night comes and I take Rhonda to my favorite place to eat, The Varsity. Yes I am the king of romance, ha ha ha. We get to Turner Field about 8:20pm the game is in the fourth inning. We get in line to buy our tickets with my coupon and right before I step up to the window a man behind me asked me if I would like some tickets cheap. Well needless to say, those words got my attention because I knew I was looking at spending about fourteen dollars with my coupon. He said, “Step over here.” So I did and he handed me two tickets. I said, “Are you giving me these tickets?” then he said “How much?”

At that point it hit me that he was a ticket scalper and I was about to say, “No thank you”, but before I could say anything I heard a voice say, “Hey come here!” and the guy took off and left me holding two tickets. The voice was a police officer yelling at the scalper to come to him. Well, I don’t know what to do so I look at the officer and he looks at me as he is scolding the scalper for being inside the gated area selling tickets. The officer says, “Sir take those tickets and enjoy the game.” I am thinking, “I don’t want to take the man’s tickets.” So I turned to try and give them to the officer or scalper and the officer followed Rhonda to the gate to make sure we didn’t give the tickets back. It was either we go to the game for free or the scalper goes to jail. After I got into the ticket gate and the attendant scanned them, I looked at the tickets to see where the seats were. They were in section 103 row 8. If you don’t know, there is not a better seat in the stadium. The face value of the tickets were $52 each. After we got over feeling bad for the guy, it was the best night ever. The temperature was great and the fireworks were wonderful.

Luke 6:38 (NLT) If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you.”

alcohol

This weekend I had the privilege of going to the Atlanta motor speedway and watching the race with some wonderful people from SCC.  It was very different from all other races I had been to because it was at night.

The cars under the lights looked fantastic. The temperature was just right.  Going to the race with Joe Anderson and Jimmy Martin is always great.  Joe provides the entertainment by talk to every person around him and Jimmy provides all the “technical gadgets” like headsets that pick up the drivers conversation with their crew.  I just enjoy it all.

The other thing I noticed about the night race was the amount of alcohol being consumed and the effect of what had already been consumed.  Alcohol brings out the worst in people because they lose all self control.  We saw two guys get into a fight three row in front of us, who actually came to the race together. 

When I was a child I was around Alcohol all the time and the results have not changed in all these years.  One person starts running their mouth at someone else and it always ends bad, even friendships and families break up.  That is why the Bible is very clear about getting drunk, because it makes people do things they would never do unless they were under the influence of Alcohol. 

Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)   Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.

God’s Word brings Alcohol and the Holy Spirit up as a comparison because both have to be a choice by an individual to consume.  You consume alcohol by drinking it, but you are consumed by God’s Spirit when you read God’s Word and meditate on it or by listening to someone share it or even praying to God.

The consumption of alcohol brings a state of being out of control in your own body.  Being consumed by God’s Spirit make you more in control of your attitude and actions.