California Day Three/Please tease April!

Today was a little more relaxing than the crazy drive all over experience of the first couple of days. We slept in a little this morning. In fact, props to the Ayres suites in Mission Viejo. They have the most comfortable beds on the planet. I am not joking when I say this. These beds are incredible!

I digress....Anyway....we slept in a bit....had some breakfast and then drove an hour south to San Diego. There was a bird place April wanted to visit. I know it's a bit odd but the girl loves birds. She had them on her arms and was petting them. I think the things are the spawn of Satan and can't stand them so I took pictures from a safe distance. After that we drove to Coronado Island and had lunch at the Hotel Del. I kept telling myself "Jeff, your paying for the view" as I ate a very tasty but $20.00 surf and turf quesadilla. Let's just say that is an only on vacation lunch!

After all that we drove back north and went shopping at the Mission Viejo mall. We had dinner tonight at one of our favorite places the Cheesecake Factory. Now, HERE COMES THE TEASE PART. The photo you see is April standing in front of the cheesecake bar trying to decide what to get. This look went on for most of the 30 minutes (not kidding, I timed it) it took her to decide on getting the coconut cream pie cheesecake. Needless to say, a little teasing is in order. Now we are back at the hotel chilling the night away.

California Day Two

So, day two in California....We drove a lot. We drove down the PCH from Carmel to Grover Beach. What an awesome drive. It takes half a day to drive 100 miles but the time is well spent as it is really beautiful. From there we meet a pastor friend at his wife'c coffee shop and had lunch. It was neat to hear his story. He doesn't know it but some of the things he said were exaclty the same things that I had been kicking around in my mind. He just said them better than I probably would have.

From Grover we drove anther 250 miles to Mission Viejo where we are bunking up for the rest of the week. It's a good thing too because I am dead tired after what amounts to 3 consecutive days of travel. I need a day to chill.....

California Day One

Another long day....we started out this morning just north of LA and we drove 350 miles up to Monterey. We got in at 1 and spent the afternoon walking around Fishermans Wharf and Cannery Row which was cool. We stopped at Coconut beach and took lots of pictures of seals chilling on rocks.

On a side note I am dead tired! My ankle is still pretty swollen and sore. Hoping that gets better quick :)

We made it

We finally made it to our first hotel in California. We left Detroit a little late (5pm) and landed in LA at 8 pm (LA time) after a mild run around getting the rental car and weeding through LA traffic we made it.

Now its get a little rest and up to Monterrey tomorrow.

A little prayer would be great right now...

I am normally a pretty healthy guy but I have this condition in my right ankle that makes it tie up, get inflamed, and cause copious amounts of pain. As luck would have it, all three hit me Christmas eve and I have been hobbling around since. I went to the urgent care place today and got some meds for it but would appreciate prayers for healing on this one as we are leaving tomorrow for LA and I still can barely walk right now.

See you all soon.

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and we (April and I) are here at the church waiting for our communion and prayer time to begin. It's so calm and quiet. Normally, our church is noisy and full of commotion because we have so many kids running around having a good time but tonight it's just still. In a sense, it's fitting that we have peace on the night before we celebrate mankind meeting the Prince of Peace.

Enjoy your time with family and friends. Christmas is an awesome time of the year:)

Someone Shoot ME NOW!

I spent three hours yesterday working on the January 4th Vision 2009 message. I had two versions. One I started and didn't like and the one I spent all that time on. It would appear I saved the bad version and not the good version. There are three hours I am going to have to relive!

Maybe God is trying to get my attention :)

Sunday Mind Dump

A great weekend at Real Life. We had some awesome things happen this weekend and I cannot wait to see them play out. We were able to connect with tons of extended family and put faces to names and that was so neat to see. So let's dump:

• No church next weekend. You'd think as a pastor I would be dissapointed about that but everyone needs a weekend away now and then. Seriously, you guys are the bomb, enjoy the extra time with your families.
• The kids did awesome this weekend. It's no surprise we have a ton of kids with ADHD and to see them pull it together for a play. WOW, I just know a lot of parents and grandparents were really proud of their kids this weekend!
• Everyone at Real Life probably needs to eat lite over the next few days cause man did we pack the food away this weekend. I am going to have to spend 49 hours on the treadmill tomorrow to work of all that grub.
• We were able to help two families this year for Christmas. Both needed it and thank you so much for helping make that possible.
• Looking forward to the next two weeks, that's all I'll say:)
• Our new website is almost ready for you to test drive. We'll make it live soon and ask you to pick it apart helping us to find any potential bugs and typos.
• Thank you to everyone who helped make this a special weekend for our kids. They will remember the time there were in the play at church forever and we could not have pulled it off without the adults help. You guys are awesome!!

I am outta here!

Whew...

The play went of pretty nicely...We had a few boo boo's but it was really good. We had a nice turn out and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. A special shout out to Sheryl Trezzo....we have got to give her props for making the great lasagna. One more performance to go and this year will be a wrap. Remember, if you want a copy of the Christmas 101 DVD check they back table while they last :)

Nervous Excitement!

We had a nice run through last night for our play. The kids did great and pretty much remembered their lines. Tonight's the big night and I am printing the programs as we speak. Talk about nervous excitement starting to build :)

Sunday Mind Dump

What a long day!! First church this morning then a quick run home to get our presents then off to my Mom's to celebrate our Christmas. So Let's Dump:

• Nice service today. I pulled a fast one on Aaron (one of our worship leaders) and changed the message topic this week. The music he pick still worked :)
• After church we tore up the church getting everything ready for the play next week. We are going to be packed in tight.
• The band sounded good today. For some reason, every time we play Mighty to Save the band chokes on the ending. Such is life. The rest of the worship sounded killer.
• I know everyone is freaking out about the economy, but for Christians, this is an exciting time. Never before have we had a chance to share God's love with so many people that are fearful.
  
• Looking forward to the play next weekend. It's really starting to take shape. It's going to be a hoot!
• I am spent. Too much party for one day. Not good for us people "Over 40"

I am out. See you all soon!

Message Prep & Lessons Learned

This as been a tough week for me in terms of message prep. Normally I plan and write messages weeks and sometimes even months ahead of time. I work with them and tweek them a little every week until it's the weekend they're going to be given. This weeks message has been different. I have tried to sit and write this message off and on for weeks and I'd get little bits of it and then nothing. Then, between yesterday and today it just kind of came.

Remember, sometimes you want your answer. You want it now. You are seeking and nothing happens. Whatever you do...don't give up. Keep coming back and seeking God for an answer. If you were thirsty in your physical body you would keep drinking water until you were no longer thirsty. Way too often in our spiritual lives we don't get our fill the first time and we stop looking to God for that fill and we start looking for other things to meet our needs. Maybe we sought prayer once and nothing happened so we quit. Maybe we talked to the pastor and he gave us a little advice and nothing happened so we stopped.

Here is the rub. Keep going back to the well until you are satisfied. Perhaps God is meeting your needs and growing you through the process. Sometimes there is something that God is going to teach you through your needs and through your thirst.

Whatever you do don't walk away until you are thirsty no more.

Sunday Mind Dump

A nice Sunday today. It felt great to just sit back and worship while the band played. In fact, one of the reasons I really don't want to play in the band every week is that I just love being able to worship before going on stage to preach. It just helps set my heart right. So let's dump:

• The kids play is going to be freaking amazing. They are so funny and good. I love it.
• I liked the 10 am start! I felt like we were just getting started when we finished for the morning!
  
• We are changing up our web cast. We'll be running a live web cast of the whole service, but we are only recording the message. We can't get the worship to sound as good as it does in the house and we think we aren't doing the band justice by putting a less than stellar audio recording online.
  
• The church looks fantastic with all the Christmas decorations. A huge thank you to everyone who came out! I know Shelly #1 was really wiped out yesterday!
• Only 3 weeks left until Christmas! I can't wait. I love the Holidays.
• As mentioned in church today. We are going to sponsor a family or two. We'll start accepting the offerings for that next weekend. Non-perishable food can go in the boxes in the sanctuary and monetary gifts can be put in the special "Christmas Offering" envelopes.
• Be thinking about who you are bringing to the play and when you are bringing them. My guess is that the Saturday performance is going to be packed! Plus, lets face it, people like lasagna!

Peace....I am outta here!

Some pretty crappy thoughts from Perry Noble!

I know I quote Perry Noble too much but I loved this one. I read this the other day. If the situation applies.....feel free to crap. (Taken from www.perrynoble.com)

A Bunch Of Crap!

Posted: 04 Dec 2008 06:06 AM CST

Before reading this post and getting angry with me that I used an illustration with “crap” in it…take a look at Deuteronomy 12-14 where God tells the Israelites to get the crap out of the camp…MIGHT be a message out of this text in the future!)
Saturday morning is date morning…and when Charisse and I first began…we had an “interesting” ritual EVERY Saturday morning.

I would go upstairs to wake her up, change her diaper and then bring her downstairs to feed her (either Cheerios or a cereal bar and some fruit.)

After she ate (which took a while) we would then go upstairs, get her dressed and go outside or on a “car ride.”

BUT…not before she pooped.

Seriously, she always used to have an after breakfast poop…and if she wasn’t done pooping after she ate then we would just sit around and wait…

WHICH sometimes bothered me because I wanted to take her somewhere. I wanted her to experience new things. I wanted to see her go to places she had never gone before…

BUT…we could not moved until she got the crap out of her!!! Sometimes it took awhile…sometimes it happened immediately…but we didn’t move until she did her deal!

The same could be said with us and our walk with God…He is amazing, He is the perfect Father and wants to take us places in life that will absolutely blow our minds. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us His plans are awesome.

I say this often and people ask, “Then why do I feel stuck where I am?”

Could it be that He is waiting on you to get the crap out of your life?

Seriously, is there something in your life that you might call a bad habit or an “issue” that He would flat out call “crap” and tell you that you are staying where you are until you get it out of your life?

What is crap anyway? It is the stuff that our body has deemed wasteful and does not need. If God is asking you to get rid of something/quit something…then He knows that what He’s calling you to get rid of is wasteful…and you do not need it!

AND…if crap somehow gets into your bloodsteam…it can be toxic. The reason God wants the crap out of our lives isn’t because He doesn’t love it…but rather BECAUSE He loves us. He knows the damage it will do long term.

Sin, from God’s point of view…is CRAP! It is what caused Jesus to have to give His life on the cross. It’s the grossest thing in His sight…and instead of us forming groups in the church to talk about the crap in our lives and affirm our crappiness…He would rather us confess it and repent of it!!!
So…question…is there anything in your life that God would say is “crappy” and needs to go?

Just a thought!

Give it away

Real Life is going to take a special one time offering to help one or more needy families have the Christmas of their lives. I will be giving the details out this weekend in church. See you all there!

Remember....this weekend our service time changes and we are starting @ 10!