Twas The Night Before The Bird

The day before the country and the world celebrate as Thanksgiving Day is here. Do you think tonight is the night the most people spend in the kitchen? Prepping their meals for tomorrow, trying to concoct new recipes or put their own spin to an old traditional one. More than the bird or the stuffing or the pies, its about the people. Let's give thanks for our families and friends, our co-workers, bosses, service people, vendors, even our perceived enemies. I thank God for my wife and child every day!

In everything give thanks to the Lord and He will bless you!

Tonight should be a fun night at church ... just spending time with church family with food, games, and prayer. Then have cousins from out of town staying over - should be interesting.
Then of course tomorrow morning ... the annual TURKEY BOWL! Play some football, build up an appetite and go have a great lunch with family.

Enjoy the bird or the fish or the whatever you eat tomorrow!

Enjoy the Ride,

Cecil

LOVE SERVED

Saturday was an interesting experience for the 15 or so people that stepped out into the neighborhood to show our neighbors that we care and we're there. The CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING initiative started off with minimal expectations I think. We set out to rake leaves from the yards of about 40 to 50 homes near our church. Three teams of about 5 people per team went out with rakes, bags, and brooms in hand.

I haven't even raked my own yard yet - thanks to Sherin for doing that! =)

I'll be honest in that I expected a little more resistance, but to all of our surprise, no one turned us away but welcomed our act of service for them. Some of us received cold drinks from the neighbors, some were offered pancakes, etc...

Our team helped two guys cleaning up their yard and hopefully was able to make a lasting connection with them. James and Gino taught us a purpose for bagging the leaves - you can use it to surround and "insulate" a fig tree during the winter season. I'll use that one for our fig tree.

I dont think any of us will forget that day and the people we met. Our prayer is that they saw the love of Christ through service for them. Just as Christ came to serve, the church is here to serve the people. Let's serve them what they need - LOVE!

Enjoy The Ride,

Cecil

Summit to Conference to Celebration

Heard from Paul Walker on leadership in ministry on Friday night. Heard about changing our words, thoughts, actions, and steps and the winds of the Holy Spirit to blow into our lives from Kevin Wallace at Mens Conference on Saturday. Worship Celebration on Sunday. Talk about trying to be a sponge and take it all in and try to retain as much possible.

The host pastor on Friday night, Dr. Calvin Rice, talked to the workshop of Pastors about teamwork approach & mentality in church leadership. He started singing the song from the kids show Wonderpets: "What going to work? Teamwork!" I cant beleive I started singing along ...thank you Abi for making me relevant. Paul Walker was the guest speaker for the general session and he really shared his heart and experience on local chruch leadership. So many great insights and stories. The principles are applicable in one's own life and in any arena of responsibility.

One of many things that stuck out to me ... you can gauge a church by how many sinners come in and get saved not by the programs.

Enjoy the Ride,

Cecil

Pizza Time

Last night we made homemade pizza for dinner. We made two "medium" pies. Toppings included: ground beef, peppers, onions, italian sausage, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Interesting conversations among a few people over pizza slices as well.

Sexual immorality inside and outside of marriage; sexual temptations and how to deal with it; the love languages ... and you'd think the food was hot and steamy. =)

Regarding temptations an idea that caught my attention: If you see yourself standing or walking into a situation where your sexual integrity may be compromised put on your running shoes and "run" out of there.

After all that, almost had one whole pie left over.

Canyon of Heroes

Wow! What a spectacle we either saw on TV, heard on the radio, or watched live in person in NYC. The ticker-tape parade for the 2009 World Series Champion - New York Yankees was awesome. It took nine years for the NY Yankees to ride in floats on the same route but as the players said it never gets old.

1 million people in downtown NY and millions around the world celebrated their heroes.

Who is our hero? Who orwhat do we celebrate? What or who do we cheer on? Whose name do we chant? Whose arrival are we waiting for so anxiously?

Is it a ballplayer that will be break down in a few years or a risen King who lives forever with all strength?

Enjoy the Ride,

Cecil

LIFE PIE & THE FORMULA

All of our lives are made up of basically the same areas:

• Self / God
  
• Home / Family
  
• Education / Career
  
• Finances
  
• Community / Church

Do we end up looking for happiness from any of these areas? If so, we'll end up worshipping those "things". Which will lead to us "serving" those things or people. In reality, our personal relationship with God needs to be at the center of the "pie" and He should extend into all the other ares of the "pie".

ADORATION + SERVICE = LIFESTYLE OF WORSHIP

ADORATION – asks us to LOSE our 5 senses and enter into “SPIRIT” worship

SERVICE – asks us to USE our 5 senses and enter into “ACTION” worship