I love the journey God took me through. Although I have been doing pastoring and working a full time job in sales for over 3 years now, I’ve always served in church through worship leading with my free time, for years before that. I truly have a whole new appreciation for what I’m starting today. I feel a sense of burden lifted off but I still have a sense of concern as to the specifics.

I am truly in a “trusting God” season of my life. Financially we aren’t the same, but that’s the “exciting” part. Now it’s time to see how God ends up providing for us. Faith is the one thing that God says we need to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). I know God is more than faithful to His Word and that He will provide. We, as a family, believe it’s the right time and God has spoken.

My prayer is that my step of faith will do a few things:

-Start a new season in mine and my family’s life. A season of a deeper walk and expectation with God

-Encourage others to take a big faith step in their own life. I don’t want to live a “safe Christian life”. I want to do crazy things for the one that has given me life and life more abundantly.

-To usher in a new level of growth and maturity in our church. I believe a church or organization will only grow and go as far as the leader is willing to. I want to see God do even greater things in our church and I believe I need to put action behind my words from the stage.

-Grow in my walk and relationship with others. Now I have the time I can help invest in others and in my own spiritual walk.

I’m amazed that God is using a person like me to help lead a healthly and growing church like SouthView. I have so many dreams and visions I can’t wait to see happen here. I believe we are starting to experiencing a whole new dimension of God’s anointing and favor. It’s exciting and the least I can do is take a big chance on the One that took a big chance on me.

It’s a new season…so thankful for it!

M

I love my music and my iPod, there’s no doubt about it. I think the thing that bothers me the most is that they did it in front of my house where we were all sleeping.

After I was over the shock of it, I realized something much deeper. The night before we had an amazing time of prayer at church. I’m talking about lives are changing, healings are happening, marriages are being restored, salvations are taking place. You think the devil is angry? You bet. He hates me right now. He wants nothing more than to frustrate, discourage and disarm me. That ain’t happening!

This morning was a wake up call. The enemy is pissed at me, my family and this church. My iPod was the payback. Well you can have my stinkin’ iPod and I’ll take the changed and set free lives any day.

Bring it on devil! Have you ever heard of 1John 4:4 ?

M

Group prayer night are…not your “cup of tea”? Why is it that Prayer Nights are some of the least attended nights in churches? But on the same hand, why is it that those that come seem to get refreshed, encouraged and strengthened? Don’t you think something so powerful and life changing would be something everyone wanted a piece of?

I can honestly say each of our prayer nights are different. Last night was sooooo refreshing to me. We worshiped and prayed and I walked away knowing that I truly spent time in God’s presence. It was so needed.

So why aren’t people packing the house for nights like these? I have some thoughts on the matter:

1-…Inconvenient! (aka – The devil doesn’t want you to come) Tons of scripture back up the fact that the devil hates us and wants us to be separated, disconnected and disillusioned with the church and the power of corporate prayer. (1 Peter 5:8-9, Matthew 18:20). Ever wonder why prayer nights are always the nights when kids get sick, you feel extra tired, late nights at the office, last minute things pop up?….things that make you go hmmmmm. Plan ahead, know that every bone inside you might say it’s tired, but go anyway. Don’t allow the enemy to stop you from using one of the most important weapons that God has given us.

2-...SCARY! 1 simple word – FEAR! People are afraid they will have to pray out loud or share some amazing story to everyone. That’s not the case. In fact some people come and have yet to pray out loud at our gatherings. God just asks you to come and agree in prayer. Sure we would love for you to get involved but to have you there together with us agreeing with the prayers being spoken, it’s very effective.

3-…Not my THING! Oh man, I’ve heard this one used a lot. “I’m not a prayer guy/gal”. Lame excuse and 100% not Biblical. That’s like saying I love God but I’m not into believing that He really died for me. Prayer is so important to our day to day lives. Corporate prayer is through out the bible. For all the WWJD bracelet fans – Jesus prayed (John 17: 20-26). Pentecost was a direct result of people getting together to pray and seek God in unity (Acts 2). Guess what was the by product of Pentecost, THE HOLY SPIRIT. Seems like a great trade off, don’t you think?

4-…Not Important! Misplaced Priorities. This one might hurt…here we go….Prayer is more important than ….American Idol, LOST (r.i.p.), Glee, Modern Family, The Office, 30Rock….you get the idea. People are willing to put anything in front of prayer. Nothing does more for you, your family, your spirit and your future than what prayer can do. That’s one of the reason God created DVR recorders. Seriously. What else takes priority over prayer in your life? I guarantee it’s not that important!

5-…Too long! I can’t pray that long. There’s a new thing created to help with this one…it’s called a “door”. You can leave anytime. Come for 10minutes, 30minutes, 2 hours, doesn’t matter…just come. I guarantee the more you do it, the longer you will be able to pray and want to be part of it. Last night almost went 2 hours and it flew by. Some of you almost fainted when I said 2 hours of prayer. I used to be that way as well.

6-…For chumps, wusses, weaklings, dorks! New flash…You’re a Wimp! Whoa, what did you call me? Yup…if you don’t grasp the power of prayer you might as well give up now. Prayer is part of the reason why you have power to do anything effective in this life (James 5:16). If you like to continue to complain about the same issues over and over again and live a powerless life, then make prayer something you rarely do.

7-…Already taken care of at home! I Pray at home by myself. Ok, good one. I’m glad that you said that. That is important. Acts 2:42-47 explains all the amazing things that happened when believers got together and did things unified. Is prayer just as effective alone as it is together…Sure. I believe God hears it all and acts upon it. There is just something extra special when we do it together as it promotes a special bond of encouragement and unity you can’t get alone (John 17:22-23). It’s like being a solo musician. There is something so much cooler and exciting when you have a full back up band behind you. Much more power I say!

What’s your excuse? We all have them. Maybe I forgot to list yours. Trust me, I can find a ton of excuses to not do something. Sometime we spend more time making excuse when we should be just making it happen.

M

Thank you Ian and Zach!

M

Enjoy.

M

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2-God can show up anytime and anyplace if you let him. He showed up at our picnic yesterday and in my car on the way to work. NICE.

3-I’m really looking forward to band rehearsal tonight. We are rehearsing for our 3rd worship night this Friday. I think this band is AWESOME. We got some seriously talented and anointed people in it. Can’t wait to fire it up! SERIOUSLY Friday night is going to be AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4-I’m really looking forward to prayer night on Wednesday night as well. These night continue to blow my mind and my thoughts on prayer.

5-I love this series on marriage we are currently doing @ church. I can’t wait to see how it effects mine and others in our church.

6-Can’t wait for the cool fall weather!

7-I need some big orders to come through at work. I’m praying for some big breakthroughs this week.

8-My buddy the mole is back…this time he’s hanging around in the back yard. I’m leaving him alone…..for now atleast.

9-Football starts in two days!!! Go Titans!

10-Once again…more new people this Sunday at church. Amazing how people keep coming to check us out…and most are staying. Still blown away every Sunday.

11-Two of my kids are in school now….weird.

M

Had a awesome salad and soup yesterday at the new Asian restaurant in Spring Hill. My inlaws are here and we all went out to dinner with my parents as well. I really love our families. We have such good times together. It’s amazing though that most family fuctions revolve around food. I ate the soup and salad and felt GREAT. Not feeling stuffed and sick after was great!

Went to a huge egg hunt today with the kids. Grace Park Church put it on and did a great job. I dropped the kids off and by the time I got back they had already begun and I missed most of the hunting.

Really looking forward to tomorrow’s service. I think we have a great line up of worship songs, videos and short messages brought by Ps Jed, Dave and myself. It will be nice to have our full family there as well. We are also starting our first Sunday serving Starbucks coffee. Excited about that, although I won’t be drinking it this Sunday. Still trying to stay low key and healthy.

Have a great night…enjoy your family and teach your little ones about the REAL meaning of Easter.

M

Stupid thunderstorms woke me up and now I’m up here typing. I’m going to get into the word. I’ve heard years ago that if you wake up in the middle of your sleep, it could be God waking you up to pray. I never wake up in the middle of my sleep, so here I am….

I started feeling sick last night. Not sure if it’s because I pushed it by cutting the lawn and all that stuff with no food? We also got a call yesterday that LeeAnn’s parents are literally driving down to see us as a surprise and spend Easter with us. I really love LeeAnn’s parents and I’m looking forward to it. We now have a bunch of people coming over for Easter dinner. What a week to do that!

I’m going to start to slowily drink some soups and eventually eat some salads. I’ve learned alot about my body and eating process. I’m also thankful for the opportunity to do this right before Easter. I’m so excited for our first Easter Sunday. I’m really looking forward to seeing what God is going to do with our church this year. I’m blessed to be a part of it.

I will continue to update into Easter Sunday….oh great, I tornado warning!

M

Having a strange desire to get some Wasbi…I think I’m making a point to get sushi next week.

Had a great time reading about Jesus’ resurrection at lunch.  John 21:24-25 stood out to me…can you imagine those stories? Not enough books to write them in….wow! And Jesus goes on to say we will do even greater things than him. Can you grasp that?

M