The Blessings of the Lord

How awesome it was to be in church today. We had a wonderful service, the praise and worship was great and the Lord was with us in each service. We had a Gideon representative in our service this morning and he gave a wonderful report. He said that the Gideons around the world places a testament somewhere in the world every time your heart beats! Wouldn't it be great if each time our heart beats someone gives their life to the Lord?

I am seriously concerned about the state of the church in America. We enjoy the blessings of the Lord in this country, but we are not doing what God has called us to do. We get so caught up in our programs that we get our focus off of the Great Commission. Jesus longs to see people saved (it is not His will that any should perish). My prayer is that God's people will get a burden for the lost around us. God is calling His church back to prayer and intercession for the lost. Let's get busy seeing souls saved in the House of God. Lord, send revival among Your people and let it begin with me!

Pastor Appreciation

Last Sunday was pastor appreciation at the church. We feel so honored to pastor such a wonderful group of people. It is our privilege to be apart of each of their lives. Sunday was a wonderful day and what love abounded in the service for us. I think I pastor the best people in the Christian world. This is not to say that we don't have our challenges, but God is so good to us that He helps us get through them all.

I can not wait to fire up the new barbeque grill this weekend and give it a try. It is one beautiful piece of equipment! The love offering was wonderful and a great blessing for us. Pastor Krieger and Pastor Jim did a wonderful job preaching the morning and evening service. Although I have a lot of "preach" in me for this weekend. I can't wait to deliver the message God has laid on my heart this weekend.

Please keep us in prayer as we begin our remodeling project next week! I know that it is going to look absolutely beautiful when we finish. Please pray that God will continue to provide the finances we need to complete the project. May God richly bless you is our prayer.

Discipleship

God has placed such a desire in my heart for training people in discipleship. It seems that since the beginning of the year, God has placed an even greater burden for this area. I feel that it is absolutely essential for the survival and advancement of the Kingdom of God. God has called each and every believer to be a disciple and to make disciples.

With this burden, I have decided to begin a discipleship class on Wednesday evenings. The class will be called Life 101. I am so excited about this new class and can not wait to get it started. The start up date is May 6. We are going to begin this journey by first defining what a disciple is and then we are going to work on how to disciple others. Please keep us in prayer as we begin this new class.

Finally, I can not begin to say how much God has blessed in our services lately. There has been such a freedom in our worship services and a deeper level of worship by our people. It is so exciting and refreshing. I agree with David when he said, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord."

Easter

Easter is such a wonderful time of the year. For Christians, it is one of the most important days of the year. Here in Tulsa, Easter was a very wet day rain pretty much all day. It seems that the weather effected our attendance and the children had to hunt Easter eggs inside the church.

In spite of the weather, the service went very well. People were blessed and the Spirit of the Lord moved in a wonderful way. Just goes to show you that God can move in any circumstances and weather has noting to do with His moving. I know that God has wonderful plans for our church and I am believing that we will be running over 100 by the end of the year. Please pray that Freedom Life Church of God will work toward the mission God gave us - Life Growing Strong.

Being Busy

Man, does life ever keep us busy. Many times we are so busy that we can not even rest well at night simply from staying busy in our minds thinking about all the stuff we have to do. The sheep we count turn into projects that need to get done or people we need to write or papers we need to get done.

I think that God is not pleased with all the "stuff" we have running around in our minds. The "stuff" crowds out His will and way for our life. He wants us to set time aside to spend alone with Him. He wants us to talk to him (pray) and in turn He will speak to us through His word.

Let's put forth the effort to remove the stuff so that we can spend quality time with our Father. He loves us so much He wants to spend time alone with us, so we He can talk with us. For He told us, "I know the plans I have for you..."

I hope everyone has a wonderful week in the Lord! God Bless each of you!

Blogging Is A Challenge

Well, once again I have not kept up with posting. I do have a great excuse this time. I have been busy working on an MDiv program. I guess that excuse is as good as any of the rest. Also, I can't seem to get anyone to post comments. It is boring to simply blog to myself. Maybe I need to try that Twitter thing. I am not sure what all is entailed in that, but I have heard allot about it.

I recently joined Facebook and found tons of my high school friends are on there. It is like a blast from the past. I have lots of wonderful memories from my High School days! After all I found the love of my life at that High School. Barbie and I have been together ever since. A total of 28 years we have known one another, we have been married almost 26 years now.

I have found in my MDiv studies, a new love that I love. It is Greek. It has been both a challenge and a wonderful learning adventure. I don't think I would ever be a Greek scholar, but I truly find the study of the Biblical language wonderful! Well, I am going to quit blogging now and call it night. Maybe, just maybe someone will post a comment on here and that will keep me motivated to blog.