Easter Recap

• We had a great Easter. The time spent with our church friends and family and the time spent with our immediate family made for a great day.
• Some technical problems with sound and video and the slow gathering of the crowd (at 10:00 I was wondering if anyone was coming) caused early concerns about what God was doing (not that I'm blaming everything on Him but I was hoping for some help). But He came through as He always has and we had the largest gathering of the year and a great service together.
• I love visitors and we had many. I am thankful for all of our people who volunteer in our ministries and make our visitors feel welcomed. We did no advertising for this Easter so all of our visitors came through the invitation of our people. Thank you for inviting your friends and keep up the good work.
• We had a great offering which is unusual on Easter. Usually its the biggest crowd and the smallest offering but this year was different. Thank you for your generosity. We have one more week to give toward our Criminal Minds campaign. I will share those results later.
• The band did a great job and Rayanne sang a song about the cross and knocked a homerun.
• We probably gave out the most unusual Easter gift any Church has ever given - elephants. Everyone got an elephant for Easter. I never believed in the Easter bunny so I'm campaigning for the Easter Elephant. It was a promotion for our next series beginning this Sunday called "The Elephant in the Room." It is going to be about some painfully obvious flaws that people see in the church and in Christians but most churches never talk about them or are in denial of them or simply don't care about them. We handed out the elephants and never said a word about them until the service was over. Even the people who were handing them out didn't know why we were giving elephants to everyone. It is going to be a great series to invite those who are skeptical about Christianity or have been turned off by church or by a Christian they know.
• Grilled out for the first time this year and it was awesome. Jenny and Brian also joined us for lunch.
• We have a great new series in the Children's Ministry also starting on Sunday. It's going to be awesome.
• All of our babies have been born now. We had 4 couples expecting babies (3 of them were first time pregnancies). The first came in Nov. and the last one delivered on Easter Sunday morning. Congratulations to Al and Mary Interiano for their Easter baby.
  
• My sister is coming home from the Ukraine this week for a couple of months to attend their son, Nathanael' graduation from college. It will be great to see her and David.
• It snowed yesterday.
  
• There is much more to share but it will have to come later.
  

Easter Sunday!

I always look forward to Easter. We are going to look at the question above. Have you ever wondered that if you can forgive someone without dying, why couldn't God? I think that there are a lot of Christians who don't really know why God couldn't just say the word and our sins would be gone. We have a great service planned. I met with some of our leaders over lunch at Stevi B's and had a productive time. Discussed Easter, our next series, small groups, and "The Big Give-away" our community-wide outreach in April. I am very excited about how our student ministry which is largely Seniors is stepping up to help grow our church. Their input and ideas have been invaluable.

New signs

We had our new signs out and around the Holly Springs area. Joe Stag designed them and we added directional arrows to the one's that needed them.

Sunday Recap

• What a weekend! Tornadoes, hail storms, Easter egg hunts and a beautiful Sunday. Fortunately, we escaped the storm damage and Pattie and I missed most of the excitement because we were in Trenton, GA visiting Pattie's mother. We had a great visit with her and only encountered some heavy rain on the way. Joe called us from Rachele's basement and Rayanne called us from Jenny's basement as the storms moved through our area but everyone was fine.
• We helped out with a community Egg Hunt put on by the city of Holly Springs on Sat. I am thankful for those from our church who showed up in their "churchinthewarehouse" t-shirts. Hundreds of kids showed up and they were able to get everything done before the storms rolled in.
• Another great Sunday! I think the band has stepped it up a notch. They have been rockin' the past couple of weeks.
• Finished the Criminal Minds series with a look at Pilate in a message called "God on Trial." This series has centered on the issues of justice with a particular look at injustices. We said that the purity of justice is determined by the clarity of the evidence and the character of the one's judging. The injustice of crucifying the sinless Son of God, despite clear evidence of Jesus' innocence, was perpetrated because of the selfishness of Judas, the pride and envy of Caiaphas, and the desire to maintain power and control by Pilate. All of us have the opportunity today to judge whether Jesus is the King and if He has any claim to the throne of you hearts and the direction of our lives. Your decision doesn't determine if He is king. Jesus is King. It is not up for a vote. It only determines if you accept Him as king or not. If you reject Him, the tables will turn, and you will stand before Jesus as judge. And even though you will probably never commit a crime worthy of jail time, your criminal mind (resisting or ignoring God's claim on your life and following your own agenda and desires) will be exposed and you will find yourself guilty before God. If you embrace Him now, you will be pardoned and your guilt will be gone.
• We're looking for a generous offering on Easter to aid the cause of justice. $1700 will cover the cost of a single day's operations in an IJM field office somewhere in the world. $1000 is for Innocence Atlanta to help stop sex trafficking in our own city. And the rest will go to the Covenant House in Atlanta that helps those who are victims recover from the injustices done to their lives.
• Sunday was a crazy sports day! GA Bulldogs pull off an incredible 4 wins in three days romp through the SEC tournament to be champions and win an improbable birth into the NCAA March Madness tournament. Houston Rockets beat the Lakers decisively for 22 victories in a row. Jeff Burton wins the NASCAR race. And Tiger Woods hits an aewsome 20 foot putt on the last hole to win 5 in a row and ties Ben Hogan for 3rd in career wins. And I saw it all from my living room chair.
• It was a great day!
  

We had an awesome Sunday!

• First, the band was absolutely rockin' on Sunday. They were incredible. It was loud, great songs and they looked good. I appreciate the way Bob approaches the music and how seriously he takes this responsibility. He is not a paid minister but a volunteer. He is more concerned about worship than performance but the performance is good too.
• Second, I love the simple stage design that Joe Stag created for this series! The interogation table with the single light bulb has been effective. We have been opening the teaching time by sitting at this table and reading a few stories from the IJM website of rescued women and children who had fallen prey to evil men with criminal minds. I hope it is stirring everyone's hearts to give generously toward these ministries.
• Third, I have been loving this Criminal Minds series! Sunday we looked at the crime of resisting arrest that led Caiaphas, the High Priest, to plot the murder of Jesus. Caiaphas resisted believing in Jesus as Messiah even though he was faced with many undeniable signs that Jesus was the one. We shared 3 reasons people resist God's authority over their lives: 1) Fear - we fear that God will mess up our lives and our own plans, dreams, desires will go unfulfilled. 2) Anger - like Judas, we get mad at God for not playing our game so we refuse to play His. He didn't do A so I'm not doing B. 3) Caiaphas' problem was the arrogance to claim ownership and control over that which he didn't own or was able to control. We are stewards not owners. When we think like owners, Christ becomes a threat to everything we think we own. But when we act like stewards, we can easily surrender all things to the rightful owner, Jesus Christ.
• Fourth, at least two young men, 21 and 24, received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior! What a great thing to see! God at work in the lives of our people.
• Fifth, offering was great! Thank you all for your generous giving.
• Sixth, it's always a great Sunday because Christ is alive and because of that, we live also!

Lost Party

The last 2 Thursdays, we have had extras at the house to watch Lost. It has been fun. We drink IBC Black Cherry Sodas from the bottles, snack on cookies, popcorn and fruit, and watch a great hour of TV. I love this show.
Speaking of parties, I am looking forward to going to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel with all my Bus buddies in the morning after our routes. I love these people and enjoy my time with them.

Where did I go?

I'm finally able to get back to you and I apologize to all of you who read my blog. I am not a mobile blogger. I am bound to my desk top pc so when my schedule is slammed it is hard to get enough time behind the pc to adequately blog. That's why it sometimes is a few days between entries. So here I am at home alone with all the tv's turned up so I can hear the American Idols Result Show and then be ready Lost. There are 3 or 4 guys that are pretty awesome on AI but only 2 or 3 girls with legitimate shots at the title.
But the other part to this entry is where did I go on Tuesday night. Jim, Donna, Pattie and I all went to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (a beautiful new theater that was a treat in itself) to see Jesus Christ Superstar. From my background, this wasn't easy because in the 70's this rock opera was nothing short of blasphemy according to every preacher I had heard. So we decided to go see for ourselves what it was all about. Here are my impressions:

1. It was a great show as far as talent, staging, theatrics, etc.
2. It really was a rock opera and not a musical. Everything was done in song.
3. Things that I thought they did well: Jesus raising the dead, triumphal entry was beautiful, the purging of the Temple, the turmoil that Judas Iscariot was going through, Caiaphas as a conspirator, a hilarious portrayal of Herod demanding a sign from Jesus but Jesus remained silent, Pilate's desire to set Jesus free, the whipping of Jesus 39 times with the cat-o-nine tails, parts of the crucifixion.
4. Things I didn't like: they definitely portrayed Mary Magdalene as being in love with Jesus and Jesus neither reciprocated her affection nor did he discourage it, the anointing of Jesus at Bethany was portrayed a little too affectionately (for my liking) than as ceremonial or custom, they seemed to show Judas as a reluctant participant in God's plan to have Jesus crucified and in the end (after his hanging) he returns in white as if he was forgiven and in heaven for his part ( he is the one that actually sings "Jesus Christ Superstar"), I didn't like the liberties they took with Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, and finally, I didn't like most of the crucifixion including the end when Jesus comes off the cross and ascends directly into heaven like Peter Pan ( I'm assuming that they put the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension in one scene for time constraints and for theatrical impact not because they believe it really happened that way).
5. I'm glad that I got to see it first hand and draw my own conclusions. I didn't see it as a deliberate attempt to discredit Jesus as merely a man but at the same time I don't think that they embraced Jesus fully as the Son of God. They definitely were more interested in portraying His humanity rather than His deity.
6. Final conclusion: great performance but don't get your theology from it.
   

Sunday report

• We had a good start to our new series - Criminal Minds. The crowd was good, the band was excellent, and the new staging was great.
  
• This first sermon was on Judas Iscariot called Fraudulent Behavior. Because God knows the intents of our hearts, He cannot be betrayed and His will cannot be thwarted. To be betrayed you must get caught off guard by the one betraying. That is impossible with God. To God, Judas was not a traitor. He was just a fraud. We gave 3 tests to determine if you are guilty of fraudulent behavior: 1) If you are in it for the benefits (what God can do for you) rather than the relationship, you could be a fraud. 2) If you barter with God (if You do A, I will do B) more than surrender to Him, you may be a fraud. 3) How you respond to God at the point when you feel He has let you down ( He didn't do this or allowed this or didn't answer this) could indicate that you are a fraud. Since God doesn't deal, He will let us walk away from the table to pursue a path that will eventually hang us or bring us back to Him in full surrender.
  
• Spent the rest of the day just chillin' at the house.
• Started my new route today. It was better than I thought it would be. It was easy and short. Even the ride to Woodstock High didn't take as long as I thought it would.
• Pattie went to work today but her back is still bothering her some. Keep her in your prayers.
• I can't believe where I am going tomorrow night! Maybe I'll tell you later.
  

Hard start to a beautiful day

We had a bus accident this morning. I am thankful that no one was seriously injured. As a driver, this hits close to home. It pains the heart and reminds me of the preciousness of the cargo we carry. Pray for this driver and these students.