“The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.”

      — Robert Louis Stevenson–

On Sunday mornings, I am excited to go to God’s house.  It is not just to be among God’s people but also in anticipation of what God might do.  I always look forward to see if we have new faces, lives changed and salvation.  My hope every Sunday is that God will be glorified and people will be touched by the worship and the Word.

It is our awesome privilege to worship God freely in America.  It is our privilege to hear the Word of God preached and to allow God to change our lives through that Word.  When we go to church we ought to be thankful but also come with an excitement of what He will do.  Do you have an anticipation from Sunday to Sunday or do you just go to church expecting to see the same ol’ thing?

God’s House ought to be an exciting place.  A place we love to Go.  Chili’s slogan is “No Place Else”.  That should be the slogan of God’s House, “No Place Else Like Church”.  On Sunday mornings, can you say with the Psalmist, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’?

Next week is Thanksgiving.  Time for the annual Thanksgiving meal with family.  Thanksgiving dinner is more than just food.  It is more than turkey and dressing, ham and mash potatoes.  It is more than candied yams and cranberry sauce.  Thanksgiving is about family, friends and conversation. 

When the holidays come we are often reminded of the diversity of our families.  Sitting at the table are Republicans and Democrats, Christians and Non-Christians, Introverts and Extroverts.  There are alot of different personalities gathered around the table: good and bad.  It is the reality of family.  As I have always said, “You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family.” 

So in light of all these things I have developed some ground rules for a successful holiday dinner.  There are Good Topics and Topics to be avoided at all costs. (Warning: Some of these discussions are tongue in cheek:) )

Good Topics (Neutrality is always grand):

1.  Black Friday shopping.  While waiting for dinner, break out the ads and discuss what you will buy the day after Thanksgiving.  Create a competition between the different family members to see who can go into the most debt before Christmas.

2.  Football -Whether it is College Football or Pro, makes little difference.  We should just be thankful that God created football.  Eat and then sit around and watch the game.  If you want to make peace with the family, always make sure you root against the Dallas Cowboys (right Judy?). 

3.  Food – A good subject while eating is what we will eat for the next meal.  I have always found it relaxing, while eating Turkey and dressing, to discuss another type of food; such as Mexican.  As Americans it is our right to be thinking about the next meal. 

4.  Exercise – Discuss your weight loss plan and compare notes with the others.  It is a good time to learn what works and what doesn’t work.  It is also a good time to evaluate the plans that do work.  If someone suggests a good diet or exercise program but they have gained weight since last Thanksgiving, simply smile and agree, but find someone else’s plan.

Topics Not To Discuss (Mood Killers)

1.  Politics – We are only weeks after the election, there are some at the table who would love to gloat. Others who are still depressed.  It is not the occasion to bring up your political persuasion.  This is the quickest way for the dinner to end in a family feud.  If you are Republican and would like to get one over on the family, quietly get up from the table, non-chalantly switch the channel from ESPN to Fox News and be re-seated.  If you are a Democrat, simply switch to any of the other 86 news stations.

2.  Religion – Most religion is okay to discuss, just do not discuss Christianity.  It is never a good idea to bring your Bible to the dinner.  Most families have a wide array of opinions that will create a certain dispute.  But if you are a fun-loving person, simply bring your Bible and discuss what Presidential Candidate was the right one biblically. (See #1)

3.  Kids – Always choose to stay away from the subject of kids.  No matter how good your kids are, everyone else’s are better at sports, school or church. 

I hope this helps.  These are lessons that you can apply to any dinner with the family.  Just to remind you, alot of this was written as satire. But if you would like to send it to Dear Abby for her to use, feel free.  Just sign my name, Family Figured Out, Rogers Arkansas.

The other night I purchased a small computer desk for my office.  It was a nice desk at an affordable price.  I unpacked the box, read the instructions (which I normally do not do) and laid out all my tools.  I was now ready for the assembly of the desk.

I began with the side parts and installed the drawer hardware.  I then placed the brackets on the top portion of the desk and was ready to attach piece “E”.  I looked for piece “E” which was no where to be found.  I looked in the box, out of the box, around the house (just in case Hannah ran off with it).  Piece “E” was permanently missing.  The box was brand new, never opened, but the factory failed to put in piece “E”.  I called the store and was required to disassemble the desk and repackage it so they could give me a new one.  I took it apart went to the store and got a new box with all the pieces in it.

When I picked up that first box at the store, you could not tell anything was missing.  The box looked good but piece “E” was missing.  This is like alot of lives.  Everything on the outside looks good but something is missing.  Before I came to Christ, I loved life.  I knew how to have a good time.  On the outside everything was great, but when I laid my head on the pillow at night, I felt like something was missing.  There was a void in my life.  In 1991, I realized that the missing piece was Jesus.  I gave my heart to Christ and He gave me the missing piece “E”.  Eternity.  Eternal Life with Him.

But the truth is I had to disassemble the sin in my life and trade it in for His grace and forgiveness.  It was the best trade-in I could ever make.  If your life is missing something, do not look any further.  Jesus is the missing link.

“If you want to conquer a besetting sin, you need to stop loving it.”
-Matthew Elliott

For me it is the official Christmas Season.  There are a few things about Christmas that I look forward to.  I am somewhat of a Bah-Humbug because Christmas has become too commercial.  I usually do not get excited about Christmas other than for a few things.  A few of my favorite things for Christmas is giving gifts to my family, Christmas Eve service and peppermint bark.  Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark.

Yesterday, Josh and I went to Staples Office Supply and on a Christmas display there was the Peppermint Bark.  I love Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark.  It is beautiful chocolaty goodness, with a layer of white chocolate with peppermint crunch.  I love chocolate and I love peppermint.  It is purely divine when you mix the two.  The problem with Ghirardelli’s Peppermint Bark is that it is only available at Christmas time.  So once it is out in stores, it is the official opening of Christmas.

This morning, while I was slaving 🙂 at the office, Sonya, Josh and Hannah stopped by with a surprise.  Two bags of Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark.  It was a beautiful sight to see them surprise me with this.  I didn’t even mention it last night, but Josh told Sonya where they had my favorite Christmas Candy and they came by and surprised me.  What a family!

Sunday’s sermon, “Flawed By Our Past” has been posted on our church website.  Click here

I woke up early this morning to get to the hospital for someone’s surgery.  I arrived at 6:00am to find out that the surgery was moved to 7:30am.  Instead of hanging around I decided to stop by Krispy Kreme for a donut. 

As I was waiting in line, the Krispy Kreme hostess presented me with a free glazed donut.  Imagine that free!  Because I rarely get anything free, I began to rationalize why she would do this for me.  The only reason I could find is that I am too skinny and she thought I might need to fatten up:)  The truth is she offered a free donut to the skinnier guy behind me too. 

All joking aside, the free donut was given because of kindness.  There is not much in this world that is free, but you know it is going to be a good day when you get a free Krispy Kreme donut at 6:15am. 

Thanks Krispy Kreme for making my day!