Blur

Have you ever felt like everything was a blur? Life seems to be moving around you a million miles an hour, and when you try to enjoy those little moments here and there, they just seem to evaporate almost the very moment you notice them?

With all the wonderful technology around us, I think we have turned ourselves into Monsters who have no time for anything but being connected to computerized personalities of the people we “know”.

Do not get me wrong, I love technology!!!! In fact, I am writing this blog from my relatively new Apple iPhone 3G!

 

   It is such an amazing piece of technology! Do you realize that even in the simplest cell phone there is more technology in that little object than all the computers inside the Apollo 11 Spaceship (the Spaceship that put men on the moon)!

 

So without completely dissing technology, I have come to realize that if we are not careful, we will lose all personal contact with the people we care about. Now, instead of a nice letter or phone call to let someone know that you are thinking of them, we send a quick text or email. These things are wonderful tools in and of themselves but were not meant to replace thoughtful use of time and energy to convey our love.

Not only do we see this problem, but there are other things that the technological revolution has robbed us of. Because of computers and in the name of convenience, many places of business have reverted to an impersonal sales force. Instead of having “Bob” or “Sally” to be there to assist us in finding merchandise or answering our questions, we now have kiosks to guide our shopping experiences! Or, instead of the quality craftsmanship of man-made cars and etc, we now have these things made by robots. Then, we complain about the unemployment rate!

All these wonderful inventions and technologies have turned our world from a “only work and play during daylight” society into a “work or play anytime of day or night” society.

Kids and Parents are busy with their extra-curricular activities (to get that golden scholarship or promotion at work), that they do have time to even sit down together for dinner.

It seems as if everybody thinks their bodies are like a Mac Computer (never crashing). No my friends, we are more like PC’s (which is what I currently use)! PC’s, although wonderful, have a problem in that when the computer gets “stressed-out”, it crashes! So, we seem to be a society that is crashing under the weight of all the stress.

We wonder why we are stressed out, overworked, tired, irritable, and etc.

It is because, we are trying to be the ultimate piece of technology, instead of the beautifully hand-crafted human beings that God has created us to be!

We need to learn to simplify our lives! Make sure we are spending more personal time with God and our fellow human beings than we are playing with our wonderful technology (this is not a put down on anyone that works with technology for a living)!

I think we just need to slow down a little and make each second count in our lives!

Dominion By The Word – Part 1

So it is that time again! Dominion By The Word conference! To get more info go to www.lwfc.org/dominion

First we heard from John Avanzini (he is awesome each year he comes)!
Here are some highlights from his message.:

We are living in perilous times, but we have promises from God that are true in Good… Bad… And All Times!

Seven Anchors For These Perilous Times:

1. God has already Made Plans For Your Prosperity. Jeremiah 29:11

2. Everything you will need and want has already been provided for you, by your great God. 2 Peter 1:3

3. God has already given you his best (His Son) so there is no need to worry about him denying you anything else. Romans 8:32

4. God wants you to live with limitless supply. Judges 18:10

5. You wealthy place is always on the other side of the perilous times you are facing. Psalm 66:12

6. It gives God great pleasure to prosper you in Good times.. In Bad times… At All times. Psalm 35:27

7. In Good times or Bad Times God is willing to make You Rich. Provers 10:22

God has given us a natural reminder of these promises; a stone!

Genesis 31:44-48; Joshua 24:24-26; Luke 19:40; Habakkuk 2:9-11; Joshua 4:6-7; Judges 6:12-21

Gideon’s Offering ignited his stone! We can ignite these promises in our hearts by our giving. The key to our victory is that the Lord has sent us!

You can’t live like a king if you give like a bum! This is not the amount numerically speaking. Is it big to you?

God has never failed to bring His children through perilous times!

2 Peter 1:3 God has given us everything we need for life (vehicles to drive, fuel for those vehicles, food, electricity, a house to live in, and etc)!

At the Ole Ball Game…

Today, I’m getting to do one of my favorite past times; watch a Baseball Game! In fact, actually TWO games in one night (Double Header)!

My wife got 4 free tickets w/ meals to the Carolina Mudcats. So we invited our good friends Paul and Dawn and headed to the Ball field for some good fun and fellowship! Had some Dippin’ Dots! Mmm, they were good!

Game 1: Mudcats Won!
Game 2: Mudcats Lost. Boo!

True Love

   So they say that once you find your true love, you should never let it go! Well, I believe that statement 100%!!! My wife honestly is so amazing! I just love to look at her! She is so intoxicatingly beautiful!

   I just can’t get enough of her! She is everything I could ever want in a wife and mother of my children! She is my TRUE LOVE!!!! And I am not going to ever let her go!!!!!!!!!

It’s a BOY!!!

   So we had the ultrasound yesterday and it was absolutely obvious that are little bundle of joy is a BOY!!! There was no doubt about the “parts” that we saw on the ultrasound! So now I guess you are wondering what we are going to call our little boy. We have decided that our baby’s name is Caleb Joshua Spinks! These names are because Caleb And Joshua were two men that chose to walk in faith despite what the rest of their friends were doing. Plus the name sounds good with our last name! LOL!

Boy Vs. Girl!!!

   So this Friday is going to be a big day during this pregnancy! This is the day when we are scheduled to find out if our baby is…

VERSUS

   Although it is not 100% conclusive, it is still very accurate now-a-days! So Jennifer and I are really excited to get a better idea about what our first child is gonna be. I have a feeling it is a girl, but that could be a bad piece of pizza I ate or what not! LOL! Look for the next blog about the pregnancy to find out the results of Friday’s ultrasound!!!

 

Memorial Day

   All too many times we all forget the reasons why we celebrate a holiday! Such as Christmas, Easter, etc. This memorial day let’s not forget those who have given their lives for our freedom!

   May we not forget to pray for our soldiers and their families!

Improving Your Marriage

   So Pastor Steve taught an awesome message this weekend. It was part of the message series being taught at www.lwfc.org.

 

   This message was titled “How to Improve Your Marriage”. Here are some of the main points of the Message:

Hebrews 13:4 – Marriage is Honorable…

Honorable means valuable and costly.

The Main reason why the devil wants our marriages to fail is so he can distort the image of Christ and His relationship with the Church. This is what the marriages are designed to represent.

1. Focus on the covenant you made.

   How many of us actually knew what we were committing to on our wedding day?

   The number one reason marriages fail is not because people stop loving each other or because of money problems. The number one (and only) reason marriages fail is because a person breaks part of the covenant they made before God and witnesses. Essentially they break a promise they made.

2. Time

   A failing business is one that the owner has shown neglect towards. A successful flourishing business is one that the owner has spent alot of time in the right areas. The same applies to marriage.

   But in what way should we spend time:

   A. Dating (this one really hit me hard). The two main excuses people give why they do not continue dating after marriage are:

•    Not enough time.
•    Not enough money.

   These are the same people that enough time and money to do other things they want to. What is more important to you? The Boat or your Wife?

   B. Study each other (learn their motive gift, love language, etc.)

   C. Listening to each other (God created us with two ears and one mouth for a reason!!!)

   D. Sex (This is a healthy part of every marriage, especially if they are doing the first 3 things). 

3. Peace in every conversation (a harsh answer turns away wrath). Why is it that when our spouse is really angry we feel like it is our “duty” to get angry too?

4.  Trust God (The best things that are a part of our marriage are not the things we bring to the table. They are the things that God brings to the equation).

   A. The Holy Spirit (there to help us in our weaknesses)

   B. Supernatural Love (When you get married God gives you supernatural love for your spouse. This is why you see an old couple still love each other despite their change in looks).

 

   C. The Word of God (to give us direction)

   D. The Blood of Jesus (to give us forgiveness for all the dumbs things we have said and done).

This message was powerful and I know it will change my life!!! Hope it changes yours!

Walking to Church

   So I was left without a vehicle this weekend. My wife went to Virginia to visit some friends but left me here at home with no vehicle. I am not complaining, I am just stating the facts that were influential to this blog.

   Today, I walked the 2.5 miles from my house to Church. I know it is not a really far distance, but I always drive whenever I go to church. This walking made me think about some things.

   First, I am very grateful that I even own a car. The automobile is something that we as wealthy  Americans (yes even the “poor” among us are quite wealthy) take for granted. We rarely stop to think that there are millions of people in other countries that have to walk or ride a bike to get to any place they need to go.

   Secondly, I realized that there are probably a whole bunch of people that would love to come to our Church but have no method of getting here unless they were willing to walk for a couple of hours.

   Thirdly, although we are down to one vehicle and that can be annoying at times to figure out schedules and such, I think we have generally made it through pretty well. God has really made it easier to deal with. For instance, it could be very difficult if we worked at two separate ends of town, but instead we actually work across the street from each other. Also, most days it works out for us because of schedules. Plus, I end up getting to spend more time with my Beautful wife!!!

   So I think I learned a few lessons from walking to church today…

Leadership Updates

   I love Leadership Updates at my Church! First of all, it is just amazing to be in leadership at LWFC! What an amazing oppurtunity to help fascilitate change in the lives of people. There are not very many places where someone my age is trusted and developed as a leader like this church! This church really believes in equipping the next generation.

   At this particular Leadership Update, the Executive Team unveiled to the Leaders our new building upgrade campaign! It is going to be so amazing!!!! I’ll post some more info later about this.