Money, a personality trait

OK so we talked about Money this past week at church.  That’s always a great way to get people’s attention.  Especially when everyone is concerned with our economic slowdown.  The name of the series is Bailout, which is unfortunately, how we all look at money sometimes.

We always are waiting for the big payday.  Well just to share a little secret with you…. I had a little payday of my own a few years a go.

Five years a go my parents died and left with me with a little money.  I also had some relatives, who will remain nameless during this piece , that also received some money after the death of my parents.  Here were the differences;

Heather and I were already tithing, they were not.  Heather and I stayed away from debt and just had successfully paid off everything except what we owed for our old cars and house.  My relatives did not have enough to rub two sticks together living from pay check to pay check.  I got a good amount and they got the equivalent of what they were pulling in a year’s time of working.  Plus  they got the two cars and all the home furnishings.

Here is what happened;

Heather and I worked on getting out of debt, which we have done and we continue to keep ot of debt.  First they quit working or trying to work for the next few months. Then my  relatives spent all the money, wrecked both cars and abandoned all the possessions.

Reason….bailout is not the answer.  A reshaping of the attitude of the heart is.  When we begin to learn that it is not our money then we are blessed with more to do more for God and it seems that our margin increases.  It starts with giving back to God what is His.  This is one of the areas that Heather and I started doing early and ever since then we have always had what we needed.  My relatives from this story still have not learned this and they are living the same way.

What has happened to me!?

ok ok I know it has been like forever since I have written on this thing but hear me out I have some good excuses.

Since the last time I have:

Become the Connections Pastor, which means Journey Groups, Serving Groups, Set Up and Tear Down on Sunday’s, Assimilation Procedures, Follow Up, & whatever else comes down the pike.

Which means trying to get Journey Groups ready to launch in Feb,

Which means trying to bring a component of JG life to Serving Groups (by the way congrats to Dee Dee and her leaders on doing a most awesome job),

Which means trying to revamp Assimilation strategies (visiting w/First Time Guests, retooling our Next Step Area, Baptism, Fellowship One challenges etc…)

Which mean giving oversight to some really cool people who are our lead volunteers but we are leading at a higher capacity so it is about people and not all about the tasks.

Sooooooo, that means that the urgent things like this blog and the important things like family must be put in there right places.

This is something that I have usually done real well with and I plan to keep it up.

Sooooooo, if you are reading this and you know you should be doing something else then shame on you!  I mean seriously, go hang out with the kids and play.  You know make them laugh, tickle them, ask them about God.  Love your spouse, talk about what you have read with them.  Read your Bible!  Heather and I (as an example of important) have read the Bible together, nightly since before Thanksgiving.  What a blessing that has been to me and my family.  Living without blogging was great!

So I am back.  What does that mean?  Well, it probably means that it won’t be forever because life will get busy again.  But until then I will be hitting this spot a couple of times a week or Josh will get on my case again.  I appreciate you all for stopping by and we’ll catch up more this week.

What’s up with the May’s

Just wanted to update family and friends on what’s going on with the fam. and house.  Be in prayer for us because we are hoping we can use the existing well instead of having to drill a new one.  We should hopefully find out this week.  They should start putting the siding on this week and finish up the outside.  As for the family we had a great Halloween.

We hung out with some neighbors, one of which is George Wright who is the Lead Pastor at Cedar Crest Church.  If your in the Acworth area you should check it out.  We got to do a Hay Ride (which Avery pronounces Hay Wide) and get a ton of candy.  It was cold and the leaves are in full change up here.  It is beautiful.

Happy 6th B-Day Baylee!

May Family on the Hay Ride.

Didn’t get out of the fifties the week of Halloween.

The local crew about to hit the streets.

Home at last, been a long night.

“I can’t feel my hands!”

Roof is done.

Looking out from the front porch.

View from the backside.

Phase 2, Beginnings of a house.

For all of those from back home here are some pics of the house starting to go up and I threw in some pics of the kids.  Now that the house has started it is going up quickly.  We hope and pray    (and would ask that you would do the same) that this will be a real quick process. Thanks for checking in and I also have thrown in some pics of the fam as well so you can see how the youngins are doing.  Drop us a line, we miss you guys back home.

Well it finally happened

No, Heather didn’t finally beat me up.  That happened  a while a go .  They actually broke ground on our house so I wanted to post some pics for you.

It’s a weird feeling seeing some thing for two years remain the same and then it begins to take shape.

I will keep you all up to date from here out.  Please be in prayer for us that everything goes smooth and that this place becomes a way we can bless others.

bulldozer that killed all my trees

trees were never so big in Fl

It’s a little too late to be measuring?

The Danger of Falsehood

Two weeks a go Ray Boltz comes out and admits he’s gay, you can read about it here.  I don’t have a problem with this, as a matter of fact if the story stops there it’s fine.  I mean we all have things that are hidden and then we bring out these things for others to see.  Maybe it’s out of guilt or we need some closure to things and I get that.  What I don’t get, well let me rephrase that, what I unfortunately get is that we (the world) believe that this makes it alright.

One of my best friends did the same thing.  I already knew he had some tendencies and I knew he would probably never be rid of these feelings he had.  He got married, had two kids, then decided to let his spouse know that he was ‘living’ a gay lifestyle.  Even after this I ‘still’ accepted him and said I would stand by him through this.  Instead of facing the problem he left his family to pursue this lifestyle.  I guess I should have believed that this was alright too.

I can’t do it.  Am I angry?  Yes.  Is it because he left his family?  Yes, but that’s not all of it.  You see, like I said we all have things in our closet or things that we deal with. He left me, his friend.  I was a fellow Christ follower living day to day with temptations.  Normal everyday thoughts that come into your head that you have to fight against.  What is the difference between my friend and you or me?  What is the difference whether it is heterosexual or homosexual tendencies.  Why is the guy that comes out of the closet being gay should be understood and allowed to live a lifestyle the way he wants?  What is the difference if I want to leave my wife for another woman?  God made me that way and you should accept it.

I am upset because he gave up.  He left the game and left me on the field.  Guys, go after your friends.  Don’t let them skip out on the game easily.  The price is way too high.

Snow Miser?

OK so the other day I was pulling up old shows on You Tube and I remembered this song from when I was a kid. So, i decided to show it to my kids and they loved it.  If you never seen it then check this out.

Most of us remember the Snow Miser and “whatever I touch, I’m too much”.  Well now Avery can’t get it out of his head.

You see our kids enjoy the same things we liked when growing up.  Heck , they we’re a lot cleaner back then and I have to say the music was much catchier.  Just be prepared to have the song stuck in your head for a week!

Surprise answers

I don’t consider myself, what they call in the church world, a prayer warrior but I do pray for others.  Sometimes in my past I have been asked to pray for someone’s healing.  I have prayed over backs that have gotten better and once a buddy of mine had a hurt knee and when some of my friends and I prayed over him he had no pain the next day.  I kind of looked at it like  a 50/50 shot of someone getting better.  You know, maybe God will heal Him and maybe not, it’s all His choice.

I say this because I have prayed many times over my wife when she has been ill.  It seems that when I pray for her that He either doesn’t listen to me or it’s just something that she has to go through.  My wife gets this real bad cough every time she gets sick.  I mean like coughing 24/7 and you can’t sleep, your throat swells up, you choke, your ribs hurt, and cough medicine doesn’t even touch it!  When she was pregnant with Avery her body got so stressed that she couldn’t even carry full term.  It is stressful for everyone around the house and it takes her a long time to get well.

Yesterday she was trying to rest and actually got a little rest during the day when she had been up the whole night before.  As we were lying in bed talking she was lying real still not moving, afraid she might start coughing.  As soon as she got up she started with a full blown out coughing attack.  She couldn’t breathe and just started groaning, “no,no,no…”  She started crying because she was so worn out and tired of coughing.  After comforting her and calming her down she laid down and I started to pray for her.

Yes, your thinking is right, I didn’t want to because I was thinking, “What’s the use?”  I place my hands on her back and told God I believed He was healing her and to please let her rest and clear up this stuff that is making her cough.  She went to sleep and did not cough one time and slept all night till I had to get her up in the morning.  She has been good all day and is finally recovering.

So, I ask you, what was the difference this time?  Was it the belief that He would do it?  I think that’s part of it but I also believe that it was part of the hurt I carried for her and the wanting of to take this away from her as in I wish I could do the coughing for her.  It was  a totally empathetic moment and a belief in God along with knowing He loved her to.  The best part of it was to let her know that the reason she slept was because God put her to sleep.  Wouldn’t you like some of that lullaby action?

road to the theater: prayer guide day 2

Here is our blog post from our Family pastor Jonathan;

Reaching kids and families is not a secondary thing at Oak Leaf. It’s not an afterthought. And KidVenture (preschool & elementary) is not a low priority. In fact, it’s a top priority! God has called us to impact kids and parents in Bartow County and beyond. We are on a mission to see thousands of lives changed!

Today, please pray these three specific prayers for KidVenture:

1. Let Oak Leaf Church become the first place hurting families turn to in a time of crisis. Our prayer is that we become known in the community as the healing place for families. Through counseling, providing basic needs, or whatever the situation calls for, we want to reach families at the point of their need.

2. That our church would reach thousands of children through the public school system. We believe thousands of kids will come to faith in Christ over the next several years. And we believe this will be a direct result of Oak Leaf’s involvement in the public school system. Inviting kids to KidVenture on Sunday morning is great…but we must do more. We must go to where they are. Pray for the right strategic partnerships with our local schools. Pray that the right doors will open so we can take the Gospel in to the schools.

3. That God would raise up crazy, energetic, passionate volunteers on Sunday morning that would make KidVenture contagious. It’s no secret: Oak Leaf has the best volunteers on the planet! We are VERY APPRECIATIVE for all the sacrifice that each individual makes throughout the week and on the weekends. Our prayer is that as we go to three services at the theater, God would raise up even more terrific volunteers. We want to make that one hour on Sunday morning THE BEST hour of that child’s week! Pray that parents, teenagers, moms, dads…anyone and everyone would step up and volunteer for that one hour each Sunday. Let’s unite and make KidVenture so contagious that kids in Cartersville are dragging their parents to church each week!

Invest…

I was swinging Baylee in one of those cool tire swings the other day and a thought occurred to me.  This is the only time in all of eternity that she will ever be this age.  She will never again be 5 and I will never have this opportunity to interact with her like this again.  One day when we are both living on the other side of this physical life we will only be able to remember what our daughter/father relationship was like.  It will never be experienced again.

Like most fathers I already look back to the past times in my life and wished I would have been more engaged with my family.  Some of us believe that we have to sacrifice our family time in order to provide for them.  I believe this comes more from the man’s perspective that in order to be a good father I have to provide financially for the family.  But yet children desire time to be spent with them not toys or outings with friends.

They desire a relationship with the father.  The father that gives guidance and direction.  The father that creates a sense of comfort and safety.  Working long hours doesn’t do this, time together does this.  Research shows that many of our problems entering into adulthood stem from a lack father influence in a child’s life.  

Think about it.  We were created in the image of God.  We were created with a need to have a relationship with Him.  If we do not get the time with Him we encounter a life that doesn’t make sense.

Now, how do you think our children feel?  Don’t miss the opportunity, invest!