Keyes for the Kingdom

Kid's songs...

I grew up in Baptist Sunday School since my earliest days. We used to sing quite a few "Bible songs" - like "Zacheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he" - I used to feel sorry for "Zac", but also felt kinship with him as I was rather short myself! Another song we sang was "The wise man built his house up on a rock... and the rain came tumbling down"...

The obvious question about THIS song, is this: What is the ROCK in this song/story?

I think when teachers asked our class this question, some brave soul would answer "Jesus - or God, or even The BIBLE!" - Though these answers all "sound good", they aren't even CLOSE to what Jesus is saying in this particular story at all!!!

Here's the verse in context - see what YOU think the ROCK represents now...

(Matthew 7:24-25)  "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (25) The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

So what is the ROCK? The rock is OBEDIENCE - hearing God's word and THEN DOING IT - living it in day to day life situations. This is where so many "Christians" blow their lives all the time. They hear it over and over and over again in church, classes, radio, etc... but it never gets down into their..... LIVES!

I shudder to think how many people come to CRCC each week to "hear" me preach...then go to lunch, home to watch the NFL, snack around with family, go to bed and NEVER even THINK about doing anything differently in the week ahead based on what they "heard"... Wow... scary, huh?

Guess who's coming to town?

Tomorrow we'll be having Aaron and Megan's FOUR boys to come stay with us for a short visit! Aaron and Megan are in France, so we'll be watching the little munchkins until Sunday. I hope to take the boys to the new Children's museum - SO amazing!

As soon as they arrive, the boys NEXT door will appear in our house at the crack of dawn. Adam and Shannah will be coming over bringing their two, so before you know if, we'll have all TEN grandkids in our home - it will be chaos and fun at the same time. The last time we were all together was at Disneyworld.

I had a Loooooong day of flying yesterday, heading back from Denver, where I taught a Walk thru the New Testament seminar at Foothills Bible Church. I LOVE Colorado - saw a deer in the church parking lot and I love seeing the snow-capped Rocky Mountains surrounding the city. It was the first day of ski-season, but I've retired from this "sport" and don't plan to pick it back up anytime soon!

A night of Praise!!!

I went to an awesome NIGHT OF PRAISE tonight - right in my..... house! A friend at Walk thru the Bible, Genny Baxley, gave me a this DVD of an "old time" guy for sure: Michael W. Smith - he's come a LONG way since "Friends are friends forever" and "Go west young man"... This is a LIVE worship concert from Houston, Texas with over 12,000 people in attendance.

I was blown away - singing along, clapping, standing,... even DANCING - YEP... me, all by myself with my TV and sound system CRANKED - I mean AMPED UP! I bet the neighbors could hear my house shaking! What a wonderful night of praising God - with some old songs and lots of great new ones - wow... I'm still in the "presence".... THANKS God for a GREAT night with YOU and YOU alone!!!

Becky's at a conference in Columbia and will return very late tonight - tomorrow I fly to Denver to teach a Walk thru the Bible seminar in the Denver area. Lead pastor, Rich Butler, will be preaching here on Sunday - I KNOW what's coming and it will be awesome!!!

If you'd like to BORROW my DVD, just let me know and I'll hook you up with it! Why keep a great thing like this to yourself? I also heard Micheal is coming to the BiLo center doing this same worship event - if it is HALF as good as this one was, it will be worth attending!

H1N1 advice

The young lady in our church, Ivey, is doing MUCH better after battling the H1N1 virus for the last few weeks. She's featured in a great article today on the front page of the Greenville News. Ivey is now in rehab working hard on being able to come home soon! We are so grateful the Lord for sparing her and her parents, Maury and Kellie want to thank everyone in our church for their prayers, love, meals, and concern! Here' some great info I found out about today...

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital , Tata Memorial etc.. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W). Dr. Vinay says….

                
The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is. 
        
While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu): 
        
 1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications). 
        
 2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat or bathe) 
        
 3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method. 
        
4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.* 
        

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption. 
                 
6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.
         

Amazing People!

We have some awesome people here at CRCC! During our VELOCITY series, we've highlighted some people who "do ministry" for God's Kingdom - NOT as an official part of our church, but JUST because they saw a need and felt led to step up and fill that need! We'll be doing some more testimonies over the next few weeks to highlight these people for you. I've always sensed that "stories" really motivate people. I saw this on Sunday after Jamie shared his story - people were standing in line to talk to him in the lobby after the service.

Speaking of "story" - that's what we're mulling over right now for our Christmas theme - "Story - the chronicles of Christmas". It's definitely a story that never grows old... an amazing story... worth repeating year after year...so pray for me and Rich as work on this exciting theme for the holiday season.

We're also making BIG PLANS for the new year ahead - new programs, new people, new budget - wow, I love Rich's heart in leading our church into the next new year. Can't wait to share it all with you soon!

Not yet...not now...

Thanks for your prayers for our downtown facility. The foundation chose not to help us at this time - This is an awesome group of people that give away lots of money to Christian causes - They support many, many groups of Godly people, and this year, we just did not make the cut with them.

My first reaction: discouraged - second reaction: acceptance - third reaction: "What is God going to do now?" - As our lead pastor, Rich Butler, often says, "our vision stays the same with or without a building". We do want to RADICALLY serve our city in the coming year - both here in Simpsonville and also in downtown Greenville. We want to partner with other ministries to impact our city for God's glory and Kingdom.

Pastor Rich reminded me today that Jesus asked his disciples to go get a donkey for him to use for Him to ride into the city on Palm Sunday. Jesus said, "tell the owner that the master needs it" - They told him and man said, "SURE... it's all yours!" - How strange was that? Rich said, "hmmm... I wonder if we presented our need for this building to the owners and told them the Lord needed it" - MIGHT they even.... gasp.... give it away? Who knows? Let's continue to pray that God will open a door that none of us right now can even comprehend!

Wonderful Day...

Sunday recap - We had a great service today - awesome worship... David did my new favorite songs: "Canons"...Rich did an interview with Jamie Hughes who has a ministry called "Isaac's Friends" - they minister to sick kids in the hospital.

After the service, people were all over his table in the lobby learning more about how they can make a difference in the life of a child...

It was SO good to get that extra hour of SLEEP today since we got back from ATL about 11:30 last night. We had a great time with our Walk Thru the Bible Donor family. We got to hear Henry Blackaby, who wrote "EXPERIENCING GOD". We also heard Dr. Tony Evans - WOW - what an awesome speaker. I loved his talks... WTB is trying to raise 4 million for their "World Teach" project. Next week I'll be in Denver teaching a Walk thru the NEW TESTAMENT. I haven't done this seminar in over 3 years, so I'll really need to brush up for sure.

Great time in rainy ATL

I'm down in ATL today and tomorrow - I'm helping to lead the "Live God's Word" conference for Walk Thru the Bible ministries. I've been an instructor with them for over 25 years- heading to Colorado next week to teach a WTB NT seminar - hopefully the snow will not cause a problem!

This morning we heard Henry Blackaby, who wrote the popular Bible study, "Experiencing God". I still remember several of the key thoughts to this awesome course. The one I LOVE is "Find out where God is working and join Him there!" - Tonight we'll be hearing Tony Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible church in Dallas, Texas. He's the chaplain for the Dallas Mavericks and speaks all over the world. Should be a great night!

I'll be back late Saturday night rearing to go for Sunday morning.... Jonah!!!!

Just Pray

I'd like everyone who reads my blog to do one thing for me - JUST PRAY

This weekend, a Christian foundation will be considering if they could help us with our desire to host a downtown campus through HINGE MINISTRIES.

Randy Pope, pastor of Perimeter church in Atlanta, once said, "Attempt something so great for God that it's doomed to fail unless God is in it" - that's really true about this - We have an awesome potential building but ..... no funding! Some of it could be a reality this weekend - all of it could be a reality this weekend, or none of it could...

so ...... JUST PRAY!!!! I am for SURE!!!

Inside the GR8 fish!

This Sunday we'll be speaking on JONAH chapter 2 when he's STUCK - in side the belly of a great fish! This is the part of the story that has been challenged and maligned by "scholars" for many, many years.
"You've got to be kidding", they say, "that you really believe that a human being could survive inside the stomach of a whale for 3 days - be spit up on dry land, and live?" - I would answer them.... uh.... YEP!

We either serve a God of the miraculous, or we serve a God of the explainable, predictable, and logical.

All THROUGH the Bible, we see God commanding the "animal kingdom" - whether it is a donkey speaking to Balaam or ravens, chose to feed God's discouraged prophet. God cause frogs to cover the land of Egypt as one of the 10 plagues. So imagine God calling that particular fish to be at that particular moment in that particular part of the vast ocean - to GULP - swallow Jonah whole. On Sunday I'll be showing pics of animals that could do this even today. Did got "create" some type of special delivery fish for the moment? Maybe - maybe not! But YEP, I believe He did what He said, just like I believe every word of the Bible is inspired and without error in the original manuscripts.

Come Sunday and learn how the story of Jonah begins to TURN at this point - Jonah will remember His God - and everything He has done and will do in the future... it's a great story - don't miss it!