Senior Prom 2006

" I got hate letters from girls all over America because I wouldn't go to prom with them." - Davy Jones (The Monkees)


Well, Amanda went to the Gulf Breeze High School Senior Prom last night. I won't be posting the photo of her and her date though. You see her date Chris G. ended up getting hospitalized earlier in the week and had surgery on Friday. Amanda stopped by the hospital along with several of her girl friends to see Chris and yes take a prom night photo with him. Something else pretty neat was that the kids hired a Trolley to take them to and from Prom.

Captivity - Wilderness - Promised Land - Heaven

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. - Phillipians ch4, v6-7

I just finished listening to a couple great sermons by Chris Seidman of Farmers Branch church of Christ. The sermons were originally given January 8th and the 15th of this year. Chris talks about Christians and their spiritual journey and draws a number of very good analogies to the Israelites escape from captivity in Eygpt, their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and their arrival in the promised land. Chris also makes a very good point that the "Promised Land" is not "Heaven".

One excellent point I took away from these sermons was a comment made about God's promises and the premises behind them. People often quote Phillipians 4:7 "And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." as a promise from God but they often fail to do their part, the premise, which is in the preceeding verse Phillipians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."

So if you are not enjoying the full experience of God's promise "the peace that passes all understanding" ask yourself "Am I taking everything to God by prayer and supplication?"

Loaves & Fishes

"Come you have my Father's blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me." Matthew 25: 34-36

Tonight our First City Church family hosted a dinner at the Loaves & Fishes shelter in Pensacola, Fl. They have a pretty awesome ministry that we have the privilege of helping with. Tonight we prepared dinner and fed about 70 guests. I don't want to sound pretentious but I really come away blessed by these events. It is so easy to get caught up in my own life, family and job while forgetting that there are many people, for a variety of reasons or choices, that do not have a home to go to, a bed to sleep in, a refridgerator filled with food or much else at all. After talking to and watching these "homeless" people over the past year it is becoming clearer to me that they are living in a sub-culture of our society that is very hard to breakout of without the help of others.

Imagine for a moment that you are standing in the middle of town with no money, no house, no job, no credit, no family or friends, no drivers license, no vehicle, etc... How would you survive? What would you do next? How much hope would you have?

Spring Break 2006

"A man should never neglect his family for business." --- Walt Disney

I would rather enterain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained." --- Walt Disney

Well, this morning we depart for Walt Disney World for our Spring Break 2006 adventure. We are heading out a bit early so we can attend services at the Meridian Woods church of Christ in Tallahassee. After services we will grab a very quick bite and hit the road for another 4+ hours. We will be staying in the Pop-Century Resort at WDW.

I really enjoy the whole Disney thing. Should be a good week.

Innovation

"If you do not know you are in a prison, you cannot know that you need to escape." -anonymous

"Good leaders must first become good servants" - Robert Greenleaf

Today at work I was able to sit in on a seminar facilited by a Mr. Bob Allen from Integrity Arts Corp. Mr. Allen worked for Disney for 25 years as an Imagineer and executive until starting his own bussiness effort. Today Mr. Allen discussed ways to cultivate and sustain an innovative & creative work environment. I smiled as he went through his 10 points because it was so easy for me to take his 10 points and apply them to my Christian journey. The challenges he described in motivating highly creative & innovative people were very similar to the challenges I see spiritual leaders (e.g. elders, deacons, minsiters, etc) facing in our congregations today. I really liked his first point.
Managing Innovation - Give it up because it cannot be done. If you try you will;
--run off your great innovators
--suppress innovation and creativity
--get annoyed trying to manage it
--and you wil try to do it anyway

How many times have you seen "spiritual leaders" try to manage their flock instead of tending their flock?

Sweet 16

"The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws"

"Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly misearable." - Tacitus



Well yesterday was Ashley's 16th birthday. I picked her up from school and took her to the DMV in Milton, Fl to take her driving test. She passed just fine so we now have 4 licensed drivers in the house. For dinner we went to Agean Breeze with a family from FCC and then Tammy and I took Ashley and her friend Lindsay to Olive Baptist for a Student Life Tour event some of the FCC kids were going to. Amanda left dinner and went to the Winn Dixie down the street from our house where she should start training next week and working the week after spring break. Makes me think back to my first job as a swim instructor / life guard at the East Jefferson YMCA. I think I got $2.15 per hour.