Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Spiritual Enabling

John Ortberg writes in the nov/dec edition of Rev magazine: It could either turn out to be a fantastic success or one whopper of a failure. We started praying even more. We sought God's guidance, wisdom, providence and protection. Again, Richard Foster's words from Stream of Living Water rang true: "In prayer, we wait in the power of God for the evil to dissipate and the good to rise up. By prayer, we receive spiritual enabling."

I am so there as a church planter and as someone trying to follow God's call/invitation/adventure. The Point really could be a fantastic success or a whopper of a failure, which leads me to prayer. We do need God's guidance, wisdom, providence and protection. We are waiting. I am waiting. We need a spiritual enabling from our Heavenly Father.

I just wanted to pass on that quote for you to meditate on. May it motivate you to prayer.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

How 'bout them Tigers!!!

All I can say is: That was crazy! I've been going to Death Valley for years, but last night may have been the most excited I've seen the crowd ever. It was a good win.

I'm really writing this to give a shout out to Chris Buccafusco. I hope you're not too depressed. Matt and I were worried about you last night.

The only downer was the parking at Clemson. When is the staff going to get that fixed. Parking lot 4 had about 2000 more cars than spaces. And where are the parkers directing traffic getting in and getting out?

On another note...Today we're going home from the hospital. Real life begins with three boys. I told Levi that I hope he's enjoyed his stay in the hospital because this is a quiet as his life will ever be! (FYI: He was awake during the game last night and watched it with Liz).

Saturday, October 21, 2006

New Clemson Fan


Just wanted everyone to know that we have started him off right. He's ready for tonight's Clemson/Georgia Tech game. Go Tigers!!!

Loving Brothers


These are some excited big brothers. They are ready for Levi to come home.

Friday, October 20, 2006

The Stork has Landed


Well he's here! Levi Harris Everette was born at 4:34 AM on Friday, October 20. He was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 and 1/2 inches long. He's doing great. Liz and I are a bit tired (Liz is much more tired than me since she just celebrated a literal Labor Day. Big brothers are doing good and ready to wrestle with Levi. I think we'll wait a few days. I'll post some more pictures later.

I love this wireless access at the Hospital!!!

Speaking of the hospital...the staff at Spartanburg Regional has been AWESOME. I haven't ever been able to be such a part of my newborn's life immediately after birth. I got to spend the first 30 minutes of his air-breathing life chatting with him, weighing him and getting him warm with no medical professionals hovering around.

Now for some rest!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Not yet

I feel like we're on some sicko ride at the amusment part. Liz's contractions go from strong and consistent to almost non-existent. Who knows when this baby's going to get here. Today would be a good day, however. My Grandpa turns 91 today. Pretty cool!

Can you imagine being 91? I'm working on a sermon now that has Jeremiah 29:4-7 as its main text. The idea is that "You are where you are on purpose, for a purpose." My hope is that if I get to live 91 years or 41 years I'll be able to look back knowing that I made the most of my time.

Maybe today we'll make the most of our time by getting this baby out into the real world. We'll see.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Maybe today

This could be the day for Levi to enter into the world. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to stick some pictures into this blog. More later...

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The honesty response

Who knew what kind of response a little honesty can bring.

Oh, that's right, you may not even know what I'm talking about, so here it is: I send out a prayer request update each week (well, almost each week) to a group of about 100 people who've said they would pray for me, my family and our The Point. The update I sent out yesterday contained some bluntness about the difficulty of this church planting journey. I mentioned that after our gathering on Sunday I was ready to quit. I then said that although I was having visions of leaving early, that there is nothing I'd rather be doing than planting this church.

Here's the thing, people were so responsive to my honesty. Why was that? Maybe it's because we so rarely see honesty. It's so easy to put on the happy face and act like everything is fine. It's definitely easy for a "pastor" to fall into that trap.

I guess why it's so easy for me to fall into this is because I don't want to be a failure. Who does? The thing about it, however, is that the standards that I use and that other pastors use to rate our success have nothing to do with the standards that God mentions in Scripture. We use numbers, money and momentum. I think God uses things like faithfulness, trust, obedience and perserverance.

But those don't always look as good as the other stuff.

Now let me say: Numbers, cash and momentum aren't bad. They can be evidence of God's hand. They could be the result of our hard work. I really don't understand that anyway.

All I know is that I want to be faithful, obedient and someone who finishes well. I'm not sure how well I'm doing. Ask me in a week. I'll try and be honest.