It is great to live in a free nation like America.  What a privilege to be able to worship without fear in the Land of the Free.  Let us not forget that freedom is not free.  It was won with the lives of our brave men and woman who have fought throughout history.  Our forefathers won freedom many years ago and thank God that freedom has continued.  On this Independence Day I am thankful for our soldiers.  Our prayers are with them.  As we have BBQ’s and fireworks, they are in the line of enemy fire, ensuring that we maintain our independence.

I am also thankful for the greatest of freedom.  Freedom that is found in Jesus Christ.  He whom the Son has set free is free indeed!

It has been nearly a year since I found Hannah a shirt that she would eventually wear when she got big enough.  It would be a shirt that would describe her affection for me.  It would be a statement of her hard-core love for me.  What it would say would be a description of our relationship!  Daddy’s Little Girl!

Last night, when Sonya brought Hannah to church, in Hannah walked with that bold declaration for everyone to see.  In walked Daddy’s Girl.  When she walked in I was hoping for her to run to me with open arms and prove that the shirt was true.  Instead, she clung to Sonya’s leg and pulled her back to the nursery.  So much for proving the shirt to be true.  After service, however, she loved on me and at least acted like she was Daddy’s girl.

This is often how it is with us in our relationship with God.  Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are adopted as the children of God.  He places on us the label as the Father’s children.  We are His!  Sometimes, though, we may have that label but we do not run to Him.  How often do we pull away from Him?  How often do we cling to other things besides Him?

God loves us with an immense love.  Even when we pull away He doesn’t love us less.  What God desires of us is exactly what every parent craves, to be loved back.  Some of the sweetest words I hear Hannah say are, “I want a kiss.”  Or to hear Josh say, “I love you dad.”  Those words mean so much.  How much more does our Father in Heaven crave for us, not only to wear the label of The Father’s Child, but to hear us cry out “Abba Father”. 

Today we had our leadership seminar with Pastor David Plank.  He inspired and challenged us to go to another level as a church.  He talked about hitting the wall in church growth.  Studies have shown that there are growth barriers.  We are currently experiencing the 100 barrier.  It is our goal to break 100 in regular attendance within the next 18 months.  I believe that this is doable as well as within our reach.

He talked about the ways to break that barrier:

Delegate
Discipline
Discipleship

Remember the key to what Pastor Plank said, “it is up to all of us to build the church and carry it to another level.”

God is certainly up to something in our congregation.  I can see God actively working in so many lives and the growth of our church has already begun.  We cannot lose sight of what God is doing and what God wants to do.  He desires Nederland First Assembly to impact our community and every one of us has a part to play.

If you were not able to attend the training today, there will be CD’s available.

As many of you know we have been in a series entitled, My Last Series.  It is a journey through some questions from the perspective of, if I knew I was dying what would I do?  Last Sunday I preached “My Last Sermon“.  This Sunday, I am preaching “My Last Wish”.  Many have said that though these are thought provoking questions, it seems a little morbid.  In some ways it is morbid, especially today. 

Hannah came to visit my office today and as her custom is, she gets into everything.  Today she only pulled one thing off of my book shelves.  Out of the thousand books that I have, she happened to pull out One Month To Live by Kerry and Chris Shook.  I am really feeling morbid now.  I haven’t read the book yet but maybe I should and I certainly hope I have more than one month left to life:)

Come Sunday for Father’s day to hear “My Last Wish”

I have long held this conspiracy theory that Bill Gates is actually using the PC to cause Christians to fall.  Every time something goes wrong with my computer, I have to battle my anger issues.  This conspiracy notion can be proven by reading the forums on microsoft.com. 

Last night I was up until midnight trying to fix Sonya’s computer.  She could print in every program but in Internet Explorer.  The trouble shooting began before church last night and I finally finished up at midnight.  The Problem?  The Anti-Virus software conflicted with Internet Explorer.  AVG and IE7 could not work together.  It worked fine until I uprgraded my Anti-Virus software and that one change wrecked my computer.  There was something in there that was not compatible with my other programs.  After uninstalling AVG and using something else, everything worked fine.

Life is often like this.  We are going along fine until we we make a little change in our lives and it creates a train wreck.  Sometimes changing the smallest things can lead to the biggest mess.  Oten it is allowing a small sin to creep up in our lives and all of a sudden things begin to go down hill.  It changes your life.  The fortunate thing is that we just need to do an uninstall.  Whatever you have begun to allow into your life, uninstall it, change it, do a system restore and God will help you get back to where you were.  Small compromises can effect all you do.

BTW, I really do not think Bill Gates is at fault here, but I still dream of owning a MAC!

Today is Josh’s 14th birthday and today I feel like I am getting old.  It just seems like yesterday that Josh was a toddler and now he is fast becoming a man.  God has blessed me with a wonderful well-behaved son and I am proud of the man he is becoming.  NOTE the key word becoming.

In our household there is a major contrast when it comes to the growth of our kids.  We have a 14 year old and a 19 month old.  As I watch my children grow up it is an interesting picture.  One is becoming mature, the other is growing into a toddler.  There is a natural progression for children to grow and develop.  A 19 month old girl doesn’t become a mature woman at 2 years old.  A 14 year old is in the process of becoming a man.  This is the perfect picture of Spiritual Growth.

As we come to Christ and begin our spiritual journey, growth is a natural process.  We are babes in Christ and we have a progression of growth that comes when we are followers of Christ.  We grow from infancy to toddler, from childhood to young men and women of God and then to maturity.  It is a process of our spiritual lifetime.  However, if we are not progressing, we should check our spiritual pulse.  Something is wrong.

Hebrews 5 tell us, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

If we have spiritual health, we are growing.  Often the case is that we stop “becoming” and stop growing.  This journey of faith should produce fruit that we bear along the road of life.  We should be ever growing and always evolving in our faith and relationship with God.  There comes a time when we should stop just feeding ourselves the Word but begin to teach others the Word.

Where are you in your spiritual growth?  If you have been saved six months you are in infancy in your faith, but if you have been saved for 20 years you should be on your journey to becoming mature. 

Today Sonya and Josh went to the Belle Steamboat Ride, then we went to the Mid-America Science Museum and then on to the Garvan Woodland Gardens.  We finished the day with dinner at La Hacienda (not to be confused with the one at home).  It was good, but Mexican food is not the same as we know it in south Texas.

Life is full of choices and it is how we make those choices that will shape our destiny.

Friday, I visited a young man in jail.  He is a 20 year old, likeable and friendly kid.  His only problem is that he makes bad choices.  It is the bad choices he has made that has him looking at a sentence of 2 to 20 years.  Choices can destroy a life.  On other occasions I have helped crack addicts.  I have poured energy trying to help them get clean but only to find that they “choose” to go back to the drugs.  Choices!

Joel 3:14 declares, “Multitudes, Multitudes, in the valley of decision! The day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision.”  Everyone faces choices.  Everyone has to make decisions.  We cannot make excuses for making bad decisions.  If we have gone the wrong way or done the wrong thing, we can only admit that we were wrong and choose to make it right.

There are many people who are highly successful because of good choices.  There are those who have wrecked the lives of their family because of bad choices.  We choose to sin or refrain from it.  We choose to spend money or not to.  We choose to go to church or stay home.  We choose to follow Christ or reject Him.  We are all in the valley of decision.  Will you make the right choices in life?