Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of God.

I have an anxious feeling. I know that God wants more from me, more from the church. Something is happening, but I am not sure what. I believe that God is calling me and the church to bear more fruit and to multiply our ministry, but I am not sure how. I see several possibilities, but which one is it, or is it all, or is it none of them? Something is happening.

Hospitals are not my favorite place. I don’t have Nosocomephobia (Fear of hospitals),
I just have a general dislike and discomfort at the way they are set-up and run. I have personally never found them very hospitable for patients or visitors.

Since beginning my church-planting journey a year and a half ago, I have had very few hospital visits (maybe four). While serving a previous congregation, I was assigned visits two or three times a week for three years. I spent a lot of time in the hospitals here in Tyler and maybe was just burned out with the ongoing routine. This morning I was at the hospital at 6:00 praying with a member who was preparing for surgery. While I was there, I had two doctors and a nurse assume I was a doctor.

I have been mistaken for a doctor quite a bit. Maybe it is from spending too much time in the hospitals, maybe I have a haggard med-student look, maybe it is an air of confidence at knowing the layout and procedures of the hospital? This has happened to me for years. While my wife and I were preparing for the birth of our daughter, we signed up for a Lamaze class at a hospital outside of Houston. I was mistaken for a doctor while looking for the class and almost ended up ushered to a fancy dinner party for the real doctors–my wife and I almost gave it a shot, but decided we better not.

After the birth of our son, my wife’s ob/gyn asked me which circumcising technique I preferred and told me all about who he trained with in Minnesota or somewhere. I thought WOW they really are empowering the patients to make decisions now days (imagine his embarrassment when he discovered I was a preacher not a physician like he thought).

These are just a couple examples of my mistaken identity. This week I read about a 14 year old boy who posed as a police officer and even went on patrol after checking in for service at a local police station. That story caused me to think about the possibilities of my secret power of physician impersonation. I am just dreaming about the possibilities…

(I was going to make some kind of spiritual connection, which is the natural inclination of a preacher, but if there is a connection there, I’ll let you make it).

Each week when my sermon is uploaded to i-tunes, it is somehow classified. I am not sure how, but some magic computer determines each sermon’s genre. This week it was:

Nwa Mix 2006 / Hip Hop: Rap

I am a gangsta’.

Actually, I have never rapped in one of my sermons. My friend (RICK), however, did rap in one of his sermons. But you got to give this to him, it was memorable! I happened to be visiting his service that night and I even remember that it was from the Gospel of John.

Our Schnoodle dog is officially a Schnauzer for like 6 weeks while his hair grows out. My wife almost cried when she saw him – she was not expecting such a change. She hates the cut, but I think it makes him look better. He was just too big of a fluffy hairball before.

One of my members apparently saw me coming out of Pets Mart with my dog Carrier on Friday (obedience class). On Sunday he asked me what was in the crate – well, a masculine dog , of course!

We had a great Sunday at Dayspring. I finished the Jonah series and it was a perfect series to start of 2009.

We have so many new visitors right now and I am having a hard time meeting them. I wish I had more opportunity for this.

Next Sunday-Bishop Huie and Wiley A Cappella Choir.

Two weeks-I start the “I Am Second” series.

I am exploring what having more video preaching at Dayspring would look like. Right now I am searching for resources.

• I just finished class three of eight for puppy obedience. I hope to take him to the next level of classes after this. Right now, he responds to: look, leave-it, sit, down, stay, and drop-it (sometimes). He is house broken, crate trained and sleeps through the night without waking us up. I am finding out that training a dog is a lot quicker than training a child.
• I tried to start on my sermon this morning and made a little progress before being stopped the rest of the day for little fires here and there. This means that I will be writing my sermon all day tomorrow – L.
• I am starting my New Year’s resolutions in February. This is just the time when all of you are giving up on yours.
• I will finish the “Jonah” series this Sunday. Then, next week I will not be preaching, because Bishop Huie will be at Dayspring. Having your Bishop as pulpit supply is a pretty good gig!
• I finished my first round of revisions for my doctoral project Wednesday night and sent them back on Thursday. I go for oral exams in March.
• I was joking around and said that if my members did not show up on February 1^st then my Bishop would appoint me to four churches in Louisiana. Apparently a number of them took me seriously and were concerned (or secretly excited). I was JOKING! I will be in Tyler a long, long time.
• It’s a beautiful day and life is good.

Today is a historic day in our Nation. The 44^th President takes office.

Can you believe that a Muslim terrorist name Barack Hussein Obama, the anti-American, pledge refusing, Al Qaida supporting, possible anti-Christ, and known smoker is going to take office? It really is incredible.

And aren’t we all glad that George W. Bush the man who is responsible for TWO wars around the world, Hurricane Katrina, the shredding of civil liberties, one of the worst economies in US history, anti-American sentiment, the rise of Iran and Venezuela, and global warming is leaving office. It really is incredible.

in⋅cred⋅i⋅ble (/ɪnˈkrɛdəbəl) adjective

1. so extraordinary as to seem impossible: incredible speed
2. not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable: The plot of the book is incredible.

When I write incredible, I mean it in the second sense. Sentiments about both of these gentlemen are without credibility. One is the Messiah and one is the Anti-Christ, but we can’t seem to agree which is which. There was a lot of excitement about the future and cheering when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. But you better listen closely to the crowd because the “hosannas” can quickly turn to “crucify him.”

They did with Jesus, they did with Bush and they will with Obama. I will pray for our new president. I want to pray for him. My welfare and your welfare is tied up in his welfare and we must work together as a nation. And I am hopeful that tomorrow will be better than today.

Oh yes, Obama does smoke. But hey, he is going to need them. Smoke em’ if you got ‘em Obama!

And you who are without sin, cast the first stone…

My daughter wanted to take some pictures today, so I gave her the camera and let her loose. These are a few I found when downloaded the photos tonight. It’s like Ansel Adams reborn!

• We started advertising our Spring GRACE Groups (small groups) this morning. I am excited about this semester!
• I finished week three of the Jonah series today. In part of my sermon, I talked about being responsible for our “part.” We are only responsible for our part, God is responsible for His, and others for theirs. There is great freedom in this because we are responsible for being obedient to God’s call, but not the outcome. We don’t carry the weight of the world by ourselves. (e.g. I am responsible for starting and pastoring Dayspring-that is my part , but I am not responsible for every outcome-that is God’s part).
• We had our highest ever attendance at the theater this morning. We are 15 months old and had 296 people worshipping at Dayspring today (one of the benchmarks when I started was to see 300 people worshipping within three years).
• I’ll finish the Jonah series next Sunday and then the following week, my Bishop will be preaching.
• The Wylie College ‘A Cappella’ Choir will also be leading worship on February 1^st.

I used to poke fun at Jonah’s lack of articulation in his message to the Ninevites. I always pictured Jonah sounding like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, “Forrrttty days mooooore, and Ninnnneveeeeeh shall be overthrowwwwnnnn!”

Come on Jonah, can’t you do better than that? Where’s the passion, where is the plea, where are the personal illustrations?

Something caught my eye today. I guess I have too often read over verse 2 in chapter 3 where the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time and says, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I TELL YOU.”

The message was simple and short – 5 Hebrew words. And a whole city responds to the message. When God asks us to do something, how will we respond?

Will we do it just as God has said, or will we add our personal touch and take what God said a step further? Can we really improve upon what God has called us to do?

God’s words to us are often simple, too simple. The temptation is to make following God’s words harder than he does.