I have been working the last couple of days on changing our church website.  I was able to upload the new version this afternoon.  Now, there are still a few things to be done like adding sermon audio and pictures of our leadership.  But for the most part, it is complete.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  www.rogersag.com 

Also, be sure to check back over the next several weeks as we continue to enhance the website.

I have been re-adjusting my Scripture reading time and I am taking a new approach to maximize my daily intake of the Word of God.  It takes me a little longer but it enables me to glean from more sections of the Bible daily.

I have broken down the sections of the Bible and now read one chapter a day from each section.

1 chapter from the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy – The Law)

1 chapter from the History Books (Joshua through Esther)

1 chapter from the Poetic Books (Job through Song of Solomon)

1 chapter from the Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi)

1 chapter from the Gospels and Acts (Matthew through Acts)

1 chapter from the Epistles (Romans through Revelation)

Doing this has helped me digest more Scripture daily and read through the Bible a little quicker.

You can download a copy of the reading plan here.  Just check of the box of the chapters you read when you get done.  This chart helps you keep up with your progress.

If ye keep watch over your hearts, and listen for the Voice of God and learn of Him, in one short hour ye can learn more from Him than ye could learn from Man in a thousand years.

-Johannes Tauler-

Every night, I have a ritual.  I iron my clothes for the next day.  This allows me to get ready in a hurry and not have to worry about it in the morning. 

There is something I have found interesting in the clothing world.  Wrinkle Free Clothes.  Seems to me like that is false advertising.  Every evening, I iron my wrinkle free khakis and my wrinkle free shirt.  If it is wrinkle-free, why am I having to iron it?  Does anyone else have this problem?  Wrinkle-free is a slight oversight in advertising.  Wrinkle-less, maybe.  But not wrinkle free.  In defense of Dockers and Hagar, I did buy some khakis that weren’t advertised as wrinkle free and I couldn’t even iron out the wrinkles. 

My point to all of this is, we don’t always get exactly what is advertised.  Wrinkle-free means wrinkle-less.  Lower calorie diet food actually means smaller portions.  Diet Coke is truly a diet because it tastes so bad, who wants to drink it?  In our world, advertisement often triumphs over the total truth of the advertisement.

With the Word of God, however, it is not so.  Whatever is written in the pages of Scripture is the truth.  We can rely on it.  There is no false advertising.  It has all the answers we need and we can rely on God’s promises.  II Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

Father’s day came early for me.  Sonya bought me a new grill.  I love grilling food and my other grill was shot.  We went to pick  it up at lunch and fired it up for dinner.  My other grill had been out for a couple of months so tonight I was excited to cook. 

Even though it was a quick dinner it turned out good.  Grilled BBQ chicken…Simple recipe: Tex Joy BBQ Seasoning and then about ten minutes before you are done, baste it with BBQ sauce (My choice is Sweet Baby Ray’s).

"Somehow or other an extraordinary idea has arisen that the disbelievers in miracles consider them coldly and fairly, while believers in miracles accept them only in connection with some dogma. The fact is quite the other way. The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them."

-G.K. Chesterton

HT: the bob blog feed

In honor of school being out and the beginning of summertime, I want to share Mikey’s Funny for the day:

YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off."

YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child because there’s no name you can come up with that doesn’t bring high blood pressure as it is uttered.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the U-HAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district.

YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

YOU might be a school employee if you can’t imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public.

YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child’s parent instantly answers this question, "Why is this kid like this?"

YOU might be a school employee if you would choose a tooth filling over a parent conference.

YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year.

HT: Mikey’s Funnies

It is rare for me to plan a sermon series and then change it at the last minute.  I have been planning our series Tall Tales? for a couple of months but over the last couple of weeks, the Lord has been stirring my heart about the things that hold us captive.  The enemy of our souls is holding many of God’s people hostage with doubt, worry, depression, bitterness and pride.  We must find release from these things.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  We must lay aside the things that ensnare us.  We must be set free!

Beginning Sunday we will start this new series Hostage.  Come expecting for God to change your life!