Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of God.

Today at Dayspring we marked the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We finished up our sermon series God At The Movies using the movie The Apostle with Robert Duvall.

Unfortunately, our sound system went haywire and I spoke with reverb on the entire sermon. It was kind of like talking into a cell phone that is echoing. I am not sure what I said, but I wanted to say that we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is more than just a power but God Himself. We should not treat the Holy Spirit like some voodoo power that we can call on to do miracles in our life. We should care more about what God is doing in us and not for us. We see God at work best in us, not through some great miracle that occurs or our cavity fillings turning to gold, but through the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

OK, so there is my sermon for those of you who could not listen through the echo this morning. But even in all of the trouble this morning, I know that God was there and God can use us on the good days and the bad ones.

Music was outstanding today and I loved singing The Wonderful Cross this morning.

We start our One Prayer series next week!

I’m missing my kids “Field Day” today, but am lucky enough to have their songs on camera. Make a joyful noise!

We were at our normal attendance this morning and I was pleasantly surprised given the Memorial Day Weekend. The service went smooth and just a few minutes over. I was a little worried because I knew my sermon might run long this morning.

The message topic was over anger this morning and probably a little “heavier” than most Sundays. Next week we will finish the “God at the Movies” series. After that, the “One Prayer” series begins—I am really looking forward to the series.

I am headed to Annual Conference (yearly gathering of Methodist Churches in our region) in the Woodlands this week. I look forward to catching up with old friends and connecting with new ones.

The Dayspring staff spent yesterday in Carrolton at the “Catalyst One Day” event. Andy Stanley and Craig Groeshel had some great thoughts and information to share. I appreciate their willingness to share out of their own experiences, even when they are different from one another. Each of them had strategies and thoughts on leadership that at times differed, but both are working. There is no one right way; there is no one right strategy for the church, but multiple ways to advance the Kingdom of God through the local church.

The idea that I hung onto the most yesterday did not even come from one of the speakers, but from the manual. It was a quote from Andy Grove’s book Only the Paranoid Survive and read, “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he or she do? Why shouldn’t we walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?” Hmmm….

The Dayspring staff is attending Catalyst One Day today in Dallas. Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley talking about church and leadership—good stuff. I am looking forward to us just getting away from our usual setting and pace and being together at what should be a great event. If you are reading this, say a prayer for us as a staff and church!

We had a great service at Dayspring this morning. We started at new series called God At The Movies. We did this series last year, but it is a natural fit since we meet at the theater.

My friend, Rhett Ansley, who is chaplain at Lon Morris College preached for me this morning. I was able to sit back and worship without worrying about what was coming next. Rhett preached over Discipleship and relayed it back to the movie We Are Marshall—great message and video clips.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be preaching the rest of this series and then we will begin One Prayer which we participated in last year as well.

This morning our son was playing outside with a water gun, cup, and bowl of water. We told him to please not get the dog wet. When he was through playing, the dog was wet.

My wife said, “Anson, how did the dog get wet?”

Anson: “He drank out of the bowl.”

My wife, “but his head and body are wet too, how did that happen?”

Anson: “Well, well…I baptized him.”

**parents snickering**

All I can say is that the full immersion must be the East Texas Baptist influence. The head would have been sufficient.

My daughter is home sick today. A few minutes ago we went to the pharmacy to get some meds for her. When we were paying at the pharmacy, the pharmacist asked, “Aren’t you a doctor?” In my mind I thought, my oral defense is complete, revisions are finished, and the final paper has been approved—tomorrow I graduate with my doctorate of ministry.

For some reason, though, I don’t think that is what the pharmacist had in mind. I should have said yes, but alas—no.

I bet there is some kind of medical doctor discount that I don’t know about. I have spent the past 12 years in higher education. Maybe I should have gone with the M.D. after all.

Tonight Anson’s tooth was finally wiggly enough to “come out.” He has been anticipating me yanking his tooth out with dental floss and a doorknob. Avery “lost” her first tooth this way as well. Now the circle is complete. He also requested in writing that the Tooth Fairy leave him a robot instead of money. The boy knows a good deal because I thought his request was creative enough that he actually deserved a robot. Sharla went and picked one up this afternoon because we knew the tooth was coming out soon. So, tooth number one cost us like $40 bucks. The Tooth Fairy better be real and leave him some change in the future because he isn’t getting anything more from us!

Below is the before and after pictures:

I knew they would not sound bite my previous comments! Here it is:

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10289240