Elevate Series

January 22, 2008 / danny777 / Leave a comment

Tomorrow, I was going to preach a one part message on our theme for the year, ELEVATE. As I began to study it out, my first point took 13 pages. For your sakes I decided to break the whole message up into several parts. You do not want to miss this message tomorrow, however. It is about elevating our relationship with God. Going to another level. We look at the story of Moses, Joshua, the elders of Israel and the children of Israel. Each was at a different level in their spirituality. This message will challenge you to go higher in your relationship with God.

The following weeks we will look at Elevating our Prayer Life especially as a church, Elevating Our Commitment To Ministry, Elevating Our Outreach. I am excited about these topics. I pray that you will make an effort to be at our Sunday Morning services.

Setting Goals

January 22, 2008 / danny777 / Leave a comment

Tomorrow is the new year. Another year to make a difference for the Kingdom of God.

As we look at another 365 days, have you made any goals (resolutions)?

You can tell there are alot of people who make new year resolutions. The most popular is losing weight and getting into shape. You can tell this by driving by the high school track in the month of January. It is packed! People are everywhere trying to get back into shape. February rolls around and there is a decline in people. Every month after, there seems to be a decline. We start the year off right but do we follow through?

Those who make these resolutions start off good but do not finish well. I think, in a lot of cases, we are all like that. I have goals I set every year and when March rolls around I find myself wavering on my goals. I even forget some of those goals. So I started doing something different. I started writing them down. I put them on a piece of paper that I can print and read over periodically. I even transfer a copy onto my Blackberry so I can read my goals when I get bored.

I challenge each of you to set some goals for 2008. You can set goals for several areas of your life.

Health/Physical
Personal/Spiritual
Family/Relationships
Education/Learning
Ministry/Church
Work/Career

Sit down in the next couple of days and write down your goals and put them in a place that you can refer back to them. It will help you have a great year.

One Weird Morning

July 16, 2007 / danny777 / Leave a comment

I awoke at 3:00am this morning thinking I heard an explosion in the distance. Since we live around chemical plants this would not be too out of the ordinary. I looked out the window to see if I noticed any fires in the distance. I saw nothing. As I laid down in bed again, I noticed another noise. Thump, thump, thump, etc. I went out in the backyard and discovered that our neighbors on the street behind us were playing basketball. At 3:00 in the morning. What is this world coming to?

I couldn’t go back to sleep so I stayed up and read my Bible and prayed for a while. I always enjoy early morning prayer times, there is something special about the Lord’s presence that early.

I went back to bed about 4:30 and was awakened by the phone at 6:23am. It was from a person I didn’t know. I said, “Hello.” No one answered. 6:27am someone else called from a different number, still I did not know them. I said, “Hello.” No one answered. 6:40am yet another call from another person I did not know. I said, “Hello.” No one answered. 6:57am another call. 7:18 another call.

It was kind of a weird morning. I am always alarmed when someone calls early. As a pastor, you know that it is usually someone in need. But five people whom I don’t know and none of them want to talk to me. It was just plain weird. It seemed kind of like one of those weird dreams you have that everything goes against the grain. Where everything you pick up falls down or you cannot get your car started when someone is chasing you. It was just a weird morning.

In spite of all of that, God is good! We serve a great God who is high above all other gods. This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Facing Death

July 10, 2007 / danny777 / Leave a comment

Last week was a busy week with two deaths in the church family. One was 84, the other was 39.

As I prepared for both funerals, I was required to ponder on how life is lived. 84 years is a good long life, 39 years is short. Regardless of how long we live we must live life in light of eternity. The 84 year old died after a long struggle, the 39 year old suddenly and unexpectedly. One had a long time to prepare for his eternal destiny, for the younger one it came more suddenly.

Life has radical turns and changes that come without warning. We are not guarunteed our next breath. Our life can be cut short in a moment…in a flash. We must be prepared for eternity at all times. We have no guaruntees that we will have a long approach to our death. Therefore we must live like we will die in the next moment…we must live life for Jesus Christ.

Most people do not like to think on these things. It is much too morbid for us to dwell on. But on the other hand, if we never think on this, we will never evaluate our spiritual lives. Are we ready to meet the Lord? The Bible says, “It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment.” We will all face the grave. We will all meet our maker!

Are You Ready? Jesus Christ is the way to prepare. You must surrender your life to Him and choose to live for Him. Living life for Jesus is the greatest thing anyone can do. Any other life is empty and vain.

What’s Up With The ‘Stros

June 28, 2007 / danny777 / Leave a comment

I am never one to dog my favorite team, but what is going on with the Astros? Can they turn their season around?

A read where Tim Purpura is going to make some changes in the line up once Bigio gets his 3000th hit. Burke will see more playing time and I agree, that is a good move. Give Burke a chance to play and hit. He’s a hustler, he will add some spark to the line up. Many say, “well he is not a power hitter.” You cannot have everyone in the line up be a power hitter. We have Carlos Lee, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, even Luke Scott has power… Morgan Ensberg used to but now it is time to give his spot to Lamb.

I am not an expert on running a baseball team but there is a consistent trend here…starting pitchers are keeping us in the game but the bullpen has blown it. They have allowed 32 runs in the last 21 innings. We need a different strategy.

Good luck Astros, even if you are in last place you will still be my team!

Tuesday Morning

June 26, 2007 / danny777 / Leave a comment

Have you ever had things happen on Tuesday that felt like it should happen on Monday?

Things started off good. Up at 3:00am, couldn’t sleep so I got up and did some work and had my devotional time. We had a good men’s breakfast this morning. It is always enjoyable to have breakfast with the men of the church. Good conversations and good food.

I came into the office and I can’t get our New Copier/Network printer to work. It is one of those things that it works when it wants to…it just doesn’t work like you want it to. It won’t recognize the paper, it won’t recognize the paper and it won’t recognize the paper. The moral of the story is it won’t copy or print. You expect this stuff to happen to old equipment not new equipment.

Now I will tell you that it is probably something that I did to make it act this way. But it is frustrating. I feel like I am on a constant test of my patience. I thought about hitting it with a hammer, but I don’t think the insurance will cover that. Patience is something that God is trying to work in all of us. He allows copy machines to act up, people to be rude to us or even a driver to cut us off on the freeway. Just so we can learn a little more patience.

The lesson I am learning is that if I will be a little more patient in this life, things won’t bother me near as much. When things crimp my workflow, I am just learning to go with the flow. Patience is meant to be a virtue, but I have let it become an issue. I am learning to let God work in me and help me deal with the stress of little things as they come.

Feeling Good!

June 21, 2007 / danny777 / Leave a comment

It’s Thursday morning and normally this is the crunch day. Feeling the pressure of getting everything done for Sunday. Thursday and Friday are usually the High Energy days for me. But I’m feeling good this week. It’s Thursday morning and I am already finished with my two Sunday Sermons. Life is good! I might just take tomorrow off.

We have our monthly board meeting tonight. We will have dinner at Cowboy Red’s then take time for our business. I thank God for a good group of men to work with. We are fortunate and blessed to have Godly men on our board.

On another note: Why can’t the Astro’s hold a lead? Up 4 to 2 and then give up 6 runs in 1 inning. Relief pitching has a tough time in the Astro’s organization. But holding a lead is also tough in a church. We can be up 4 to 2 and in a matter of time we can begin to lose. We have to learn how to hold the lead. We can gain new families and have them attend for several weeks but if they are not assimilated they leave and we lose the lead.

Just like in baseball, relief pitching is the key. It takes all of us, not just the pastor, to maintain the growth of the church. It takes every member embracing and going out of their way to build relationships with new families. It does not matter if we think we are too busy for more friends…we must stretch ourselves and take every opportunity to build the kingdom of God. Go ahead invite someone to church Sunday and while your at it invite someone from the church out to dinner this week. It will do you good!

Letting Go

June 19, 2007 / danny777 / Leave a comment

It is hard some times to let our kids go. Part of the maturity process for children is giving them a little more freedom. Josh is 13, he is a great kid. I am not just saying that because he is mine…well maybe I am saying that becuase he is mine. He is a great kid and I trust him to make the right decisions in life. But letting them go to a friends house overnight is tough. You spend alot of time pouring into their lives to make sure when the time comes, they will do the right thing.

I am picky who Josh hangs around. The friend he is with is a good kid from a great family. But having said all that, it doesn’t make it easier to let Josh go. Last night after we dropped him off, Sonya and I came to a conclusion, “our son is growing up.”

Part of parenting is having to let go. I let go for this moment, but it is still my responsibility to instill in Josh the character of Christ. I am not ready to cut the reins yet. As long as he lives in my house I will hang onto him as much as I can. But there are occasions that our kids need to know that we trust them. This helps them to be more careful not to break that trust.