Monday Morning Perspective

BToday was one of those services I'll be thinking about for a while. Worship was incredible as Cross Talk was on fire. We had 3 students baptized which is always the highlight! East campus had a huge crowd and Eddie brought a great message! God changed it up on him some on Friday. I'm sure the planned outline would've been good too, but super thankful for a pastor who is sensitive to the voice of God and obedient because this message was anointed and greatly needed. 

With local issues and national news this week showing us what we look like when we give way to our naturally sinful self and try to cover sin rather than confess it, we find the best thing to do when we find ourself there and before we condemn others is look to Jesus. We also need to realize that God shows mercy and He forgives, but sin is not ok with Him. 

We are not to fight the devil, we are to flee from him. We don't fight for victory, we fight from victory. Believers are never comfortable and ok with sin. We may lapse into it, but we don't live in it. Jesus can change our want to if we let Him. Happy Monday to all!

Monday Morning Perspective

Yesterday was a great day to be a part of God's work at Fairview. We had our highest attendance ever in the 8:30 service. You people are inviting and bringing and God is honoring that!! We were blessed with a packed house in the 11:00 and enjoyed having the North Greenville University football team with us. We baptized 3 more which is a habit I pray continues after 4 last week! East was great with new faces and an abundance of energy.

We dove into 1John 3 with a great message on God's love. It was encouraging as we saw how God has lavished His love on us. I love that word lavish! Such a visual of God pouring out His love that has nothing to do with our worthiness and everything to do with just who He is! Our motivation to love and act like His children should have nothing to do with guilt or fear but our love for Him. What a comfort to know that as His children we will spend all of eternity with Him and also those who have gone before us. What a day that will be!

Where are you going August?!

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Maybe it's only me, but August, actually all of summer, is flying at record speed.  I've said it a million times, it's my favorite season and it's NEVER long enough for me.  August especially seems to be getting away from me.
It started with a lightening fast few days at the beginning of the month as Eddie and I headed to Nashville with our son Stephen for the Send Conference.  John had been working for NAMB all summer in Atlanta and they took all the Gen Senders to this conference.  Since it was required that we get him home one way or another we decided to go to the conference and then bring him home with us.  I love Nashville.  It's a great city. Our first stop our first day was, where else, a coffee shop.  We met John at the Barista Parlor.  It's the first time we had seen him in about 3 weeks so getting to see him for the first time at a coffee shop was pretty ironic.  And evidently it's where the who's who of Nashville hang.  He had met and talked with Kristian Stanfill earlier in the week there so that was pretty cool.  The conference was probably one of the best we've ever attended. Speakers and music all  fabulous and we decided to break up for the break out sessions so we could cover more ground! Those were a great few days and even greater getting to bring John home.  That's the only part about summer that didn't fly by was him being gone.
We got to celebrate with our marrieds their 5 year anniversary! Talk about time flying!! I can't believe it's been 5 years.  Reconfirms how we are only here for an instant and need to make the most of our time.
We took off for the beach where we celebrated our daughter's birthday, 25 years old. WHAT!!! Again. Time. Have mercy.  It was a great week of family time just relaxing.  Eddie was right.  It was probably Thurs before we felt relaxed and then it was almost over.  We also celebrated our son and his girlfriend getting engaged. Maybe that was part of our stress and not being able to wind down.  We were all afraid of saying something that would give it away and blow it.  They met at the beach waaayyyy back when Stephen was a sophomore in high school and she hadn't even started high school.  They were with different churches at a student camp and the rest is a marvelous journey only God could orchestrate.  But that's why he wanted to propose on the beach, their meeting place years ago.  She was definitely surprised and we are totally overjoyed.  Let the wedding planning begin. I get to be mother of the groom this time so not nearly as much falls on my shoulders, whooooo.
We still have a spiritual birthday and Eddie's birthday to celebrate this month not to mention school starts and TONS of ministry on our plate this fall.  And that's always worth celebrating! Here are a few pics to enjoy.  They make me long for the beach again as I sit here looking out at the rain...

Monday Morning Perspective

We missed our church fam last week as we were on vacation. It was so hard leaving the beach but good to be able to get back to church and worship together. We had a huge crowd at both campuses and both worship and the message was on point. I love that we had so many visitors,especially those first timers, and our college kids were back the first Sunday after moving back to campus. What a huge blessing to see them make church a priority! 

We were in 1John continuing our series but it also felt a little like Revelation as John warned us against antichrists who had come and will continue to come. Some quotes from the message...

The Christian life isn't about doctrine and rules. It's a relationship with Jesus. 

Cults are full of people from evangelical churches. They love you to death but they'll lead you to death. 

All Christians have the anointing. 

Best remedy for error is truth. 

Disciples love others, bear much fruit, and abide in the Word. 

Be instilled in the Word of God. Be filled with the Spirit of God. Be thrilled with the Son of God. 

Let's not get complacent and comfortable just because He hasn't returned yet. The rapture could happen at any moment. 

Monday Morning Perspective

I know it's Sunday and not Monday but I thought I would go ahead and post. We are on our way to Nashville for a conference and I doubt I'll get around to blogging tomorrow. Our son John has been working for NAMB this summer in Atlanta with their program called Generation Send. In a nutshell, it's learning how to do life on mission. It's going to a coffee shop and being intentional about starting conversations with people that turn to Jesus conversations. It's walking down the street and engaging with others. I like to think of it as learning to truly walk the way Jesus walked when He was on earth. They also help church plants and serve in various ways. It's an amazing way to live life not just for 6 weeks in the summer but always. Anyway, they are having a conference for two days in Nashville. All of the Gen Send people go and since we have to go pick John up we thought we might as well go to the conference and learn a few things. We have Stephen with us since he did this same thing last year in Atlanta so we are excited for that and of course ready to see John and bring him HOME! So I told you all of that just to let you know my reason for posting today instead of tomorrow. For those of you who hate details and don't appreciate the more wordy folks, I apologize =)). 

So it was a good day at both campuses. We had 3 first timers at our East campus. 

We celebrated at Greer the decisions made at student camp last week and had a superb message from my man out of 1John. 

Today we were challenged with the love that God hates which is the love of our world system and philosophy. We were challenged to live out the gospel in every area of our life and not compartmentalize our faith. We know that many times we say we don't love the world with our mouth but our actions and lifestyle speak very differently. We are called to invest in things that are eternal. Invest in people because every person will spend eternity somewhere. We know that the nature we feed most is the one that will grow so we need to feed our spiritual nature and starve that old nature. We should all be thankful that Jesus didn't give in to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life when Satan tempted Him. He wasn't nearsighted looking at the here and now. He was looking at the big picture, the cross. We need to look at the big picture as well and not get caught up in the stuff of this world rather invest in what is eternal. This world is winding down anyway. As Will Rogers said, "we spend money we don't have on things we don't need to impress people we don't like". We don't want that to be said of us. Have a great week!