Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of God.

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We had a great Sunday. It felt very relaxed in service after a tense Easter Sunday. We were able to support two churches today—one in Longview and one in Russia. One of our members spoke about the need of First Methodist Church Moscow. Basically, they needed a projector and screen. We simply asked the congregation and they gave over twice the amount needed. Dayspring is such a generous congregation! The funds will go far for the Kingdom work in Moscow.

We had a pretty full service this morning as I started a new sermon series called “One Another.” This week it was Encourage One Another. We also had a couple of families back this morning who first came to our Easter service. My small group finished up our last Bible Study session tonight. Next week we will do our service project.

My calendar has recently cleared of several obligations and I am feeling less stress right now than I have in a long time. I’m looking forward to this summer and a different routine of ministry.

Tomorrow I am presiding at the funeral service for a young woman who is gone too soon. She had been part of our softball team and involved in Bible study at Dayspring. I have two things to say tomorrow as the service begins:

1. She is with Christ RIGHT NOW. There is no waiting for those who know and love God and although our pain remains, her pain is gone.
2. We must not ask WHY? Right now the question is pointless, for we can never know the depth of someone’s thoughts, but we can be certain that today she has found the light that she longed for. So, we must accept it for what it is, as we remember and celebrate her life.

We don’t move from life to death, but from life to life!

We had a casual dinner with my parents and our children on Monday for sharla’s 33^rd! Life is good.

Here are my kids all dressed up and ready for Easter services. I realize I am biased, but I have the cutest kids!

UPDATE: FINAL COUNT WAS 416 FOR EASTER SUNDAY.

Although I was disappointed that we were not able to host a community service due to rain, we had an incredible morning. Here is a picture from this morning’s service (maybe not). We did have a packed house and I was excited to see Dayspring members giving up their seats for guests. I don’t have a “firm” count yet but we had about 450 people at worship this morning. I feel incredibly privileged to be part of what is taking place at Dayspring. I could not sleep last night because I was so anxiously excited about today. I pray that people heard and responded to the gospel this morning.

I read once where Rick Warren said that in the early days of Saddleback, the biggest challenge was for people to find them since they moved so much. We made the decision to cancel the park service at 10:30 last night. The service was supposed to be at the park at 11:00 this morning, but to be indoors we had to change the service time to 10:00. Even with the last minute change and a service an hour earlier than expected, the people flooded into the movies for Easter.

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Easter, filled with the fullness of the resurrected Christ!

Our Easter service at Bergfeld Park is canceled due to thunderstorms.

Dayspring will be holding Easter services at the Carmike Movie Theater at 10:00!

The new dayspringumc.com is live so just click to check it out:

New Dayspring Site

We will meet this Sunday at 11:00 at Bergfeld Park for Easter Services. It will be incredible, and you don’t want to miss.

If it is raining on Sunday morning we will meet back at the theater at our regular time of 10:00. Confusing, I know, so just pray for great weather.