Meet Trouble (A.K.A. Slippy)

Meet the newest addition to my office! This is Trouble (a.k.a. slippy). My friend, Diana, and her daughter, Hannah, brought him by yesterday. Hannah celebrated her 5th birthday over the weekend and brought me a fish from her party.

Diana named him Trouble because while in the pet store purchasing him she bought Hannah a Guinea Pig before asking her husband. Therefore she thought she might get in trouble with her husband.

David has renamed him Slippy, because of the mess I made on my desk trying to pour him into the fish bowl. It will be interesting to see how long he survives.

Chartering Into Unknown Waters

As the time draws closer to David's graduation day, the more I resemble the picture to the left(wanting to put my head in the sand and pretend that it's all a dream). Seriously, we are chartering into unknown waters with trying to get scholarship papers turned in, financial aid forms filled out, and college applications mailed. David did hear back from one school of his choice (Full Sail Real World Education) on Monday by e-mail telling him he has been "conditionally accepted". Which means pending graduation, finanicial ability to attend and paperwork completed by the deadline he will be accepted.

This has been a learning process for the both of us. We have finished applying for Federal Student Aid, which by the way is quite interesting.

Though excited to see where God is going to lead him in this next phase of his life, I am struggling with the reality of him going out on his own in 6 months without me daily by his side to guide him. However, I confident that David will do fine without me by his side and that God will provide the courage, comfort and peace as I ship him off to college. I am constantly reminding myself "to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let my requests be made known to God."

Madeline Grace Brooks

Congratulations to Jonathan, Lori, and Hannah Brooks on the birth of their daughter and sister, Madeline Grace. Madeline was born today at 5:30 p.m.
She weighed 9 lbs 2 oz. and was 20 inches long. Both Madeline and mom are doing great.

Jonathan will try to post pictures tomorrow on Lori's blog. I can't wait to see this precious little one.

Alex and Brett Harris are co-authors of the Rebelution blog. They are using this blog to give teenagers a biblical worldview. Recently they did a Modesty Survey and released the results on Valentine's Day. Just today I viewed the results. Having two teenagers, I realize what a struggle this is for them. The results are very interesting and I have to admit I am much more aware after reading the results. I loved the open questions in the survey and the one response I wish to pass all to all young girls especially my daughter is this one:

There is one that is more in love with you than any man can ever be. You are incredibly valuable to Him, and you never need question His commitment to Him. He thinks you're beautiful in the morning without your makeup, and He'll think you're just as beautiful when you're 80. He is Christ. In you should treat Him with the loyalty and respect of a Husband. There is no need to attract a man to you - Christ will lead the right man to you. And when someone that loves you as much as Christ arranges a marriage, you may rest assured it will be far better than anything you could have done. You are His - be content there.

My Best Friend

Today is my best friend's birthday! He has brought so much joy and laughter into my life. Sometimes I wonder why certain people are placed in our lives. I know it is God's providence that people are placed in our lives and I am thankful that on this day I can celebrate his birth. But most of all I celebrate because he is a part of my life and is such a good friend.

Happy Birthday Tom! Praying that you have many more!

New Link

On Wednesday night the youth are studying the Voddie Baucham Bible Study "The Everlasting Truth". This study addresses the cost of being a twenty-first century Christian in a world that believes there is no absolute truth. Voddie answers questions such as: "Why do you believe the Bible?" and "How do you know the resurrection is true?" The aim is to teach the audience how to study the Bible, how to study the world, and how to give a defense for the basic doctrines of the faith." (1 Peter 3:15).

As Pastor Brian and I were talking about last night's study, he asked if I had read Baucham's blog. Which until just this morning I didn't know about nor had I read it. Now that I have, I recommend for others. Therefore, I have added a link to his blog for others to use to navigate to easily. I pray that through Voddie's thoughts we are encouraged, edified and spurred on to search for the truths that are revealed in God's Word.

My First Love

Being that today is Valentine's Day I wanted to take the opportunity to say I pray that my first love will always be Jesus Christ.

I am so unworthy to be loved by Him, yet He loved me.

Spuring One Another On

If you are interested in hearing a sermon on how believers are to "spur one another on in love and good works" listen as our former youth pastor preaches from Hebrews 10:19-27 at Christ Baptist Church in Wilson, North Carolina.

Mardi Gras

On Saturday night the Lion's Club hosted the annual Heart Ball to raise money for the Dan McCarthy Scholarship. This year's theme was Mardi Gras. The John Boy Auditorium was beautifully decorated by several members of the Lion Club to resemble the French Quarter. Bubba & I enjoyed getting dressed up for the night of dancing and being among some of our friends. Once again the Jukebox Band was awesome and we hated to see the night end.

A silent auction is held to raise monies for the scholarship that will be awarded to a high school senior that is vision or hearing impaired. Last year I did not bid on any of the silent auction items. However, this year the Ipod Shuffle caught my eye. After passing by it a couple of times I finally gave in and made a bid on it. I was expecting someone to out bid me, but I am now the owner of an Ipod Shuffle.

I waiting for a friend of mine to make a disc copy (I forgot to take my camera) of her pictures from the night so I can post some pictures.

Church Membership

Of late it God has burdened my heart regarding church membership. It is not unusual to find a difference in a church’s membership number and the number of those that are active within the church. Let me explain my view of active. . . An active member of a church is someone that is at each of the services the church has (given there will be times that you miss occasionally) and they are serving within the body of the church. With that said let me tell you some statics from the Southern Baptist Convention. Ready? The typical Southern Baptist Church has 233 members and 70 attending a Sunday morning service.

What does this mean? It’s obvious with that static in mind that church membership is no longer looked at as a responsibility or a testimony to unbelievers. Sadly, too many churches today have membership rolls where over half of those members have not attended regularly in years.

I spoke of membership being a responsibility. . . We are commanded in Scripture to be an active part of the body of Christ. Hebrews 10:25 says "we are not to forsake our own assembling together." Yet we have allowed it to happen. We have not sought after these names on our membership list that aren’t assembling with us. We have just brushed it off or under the rug. Then we wonder why the body isn’t functioning the way God intended. 1 Corinthians 12:14 tells us that the body is not one member but many. Verses following describes how the body functions, how God placed each member in the body as He has desired. To me that says every member of the body (the church) has a place within it. Yet how can the body function properly if each member isn’t present? As a member of a church we have a responsibility.

Church Membership is also a testimony to unbelievers. When we as a congregation welcome a new member into our body we are testifying of their salvation. Yet, how can we testify of someone’s salvation if they have not been a part of that body. How can we attest that they are faithfully running race Christ has set before them? How are we as the active part of the body caring for, suffering with, rejoicing with that part of the body that is not present?

I don’t pretend to have the answers about how to make people take church membership seriously, however I do pray that church membership would come to mean something more than it currently does. I pray that we would have a biblical understanding of church membership and practice it in our churches across the land.

New Links

Please note that I have added new links to the sidebar. Those links are:

Brian's Blog - Our Pastor's Blog
BibleGateway - tool for reading and researching scripture online

Congratulation Brian & Katherine

I am thrilled to announce that Brian and Katherine are expecting! Brian made the announcement this morning as he was dismissing us. Congratulations! We are very excited and can't wait to meet this new member of their family. We rejoice with you in this blessing, and we will be praying for you as God prepares your growing family over the next nine months.

Groundhog Treat

I had forgotten that today was Groundhog Day until returning from lunch to find three Groundhog cupcakes on my desk. Our preschool teacher's daughter, Hannah, had left them for Pastor Brian, David and myself. They were so adorable and tasted great. Thank you Hannah for such a cute treat.