This morning I was sitting outside at the pic-nic table having the first part of my Quiet Time!  I typically spend some time sitting down with my open Bible, an open journal and an open heart and mind!  I use this time to just listen and hear whatever it is that God wants to tell me!  This morning as I was having this time of listening for God’s voice through His Word – someone walked right up and started to ask me questions!  I was in a private place, trying to have a private time with God!  All signs should have alerted anyone that happened to pass by – that this guy must really be into the Bible and should not be disturbed!  But I was disturbed and I was disturbed that I was disturbed!  I think the thing that really got me was the fact that the person that did the disturbing should have known better.  They claim to be a Christian and they have heard me speak of the importance of a Quiet Time.  My Quiet Time is an appointment with God – I do not answer the door, the phone or nothing!  I work to give God my undivided, complete and total attention!

The thing that disturbed me at first was that I was interrupted!  The thing that really disturbed me, the more I that I thought about it was that the person that did the disturbing claims to be a Christian, yet had no idea of what I was doing or how important it was!  At the very least, they should have realized that I was studying my Bible and yet they felt that it was okay to come up and pursue a conversation!  (And the bad thing was – it was a conversation about nothing!)  The really disturbing part is this:  There are many people in our world today – in our churches today, that do not have any idea what it means to have a real, meaningful and growing relationship with Christ.  At best they think they have insurance to get out of Hell and into Heaven!  If Heaven and Hell is the best that we get out of our relationship with Christ, it is still more than enough to motivate us to pursue God!

Jesus died for me, what I could not do for myself, He did for me!  My life belongs to Him!  He and He alone is worthy of my praise and I want to meet Him at the beginning of every day, because I can think of no greater way to begin my day!  I love Jesus and I love you, let’s all get closer to Him in the moments and days ahead!

I know – I have not posted in a while and some of you think I should post something every day!  I promise I am going to try and do better!  I have been working really hard for the past several weeks on getting Northwood’s new web site planned and organized and I am happy to report that we are now full swing in the process of building the site – it is going to be a super tool for reaching out to our community and world!

We left a little early for our trip, so Joy and I could visit with the Stewarts!  Erin is doing great – she was and is even more now one of God’s miracles!  Philip and Kay are great and I am so proud of the way that they are dealing with all of the challenges.  Joy and I got the chance to take them out for dinner and we spent a couple of hours just praising God and enjoying sweet fellowship!  I also want to say here – how proud I am of our Northwood Family for all of the love, support and prayers that they have shared with and for the Stewart family.

I have has some very special times with the Lord over the past several days!  I have had the opportunity to spend a little over an hour every day in prayer and then another hour or so, just listening through His Word!  It has been hard to not work on sermons or strategy, but I have pushed myself to stay focused on nothing but God and my relationship with Him!

The first big thing that God has made clear for me is:  It is not our job to grow the church, it is our job to grow ourselves and each other!  I have spent to much energy on trying to grow the church.  In the days ahead I hope to invest my life in growing myself and others!  I hope that you will join me, because I know that God has great things in store!

By the way – I survived my first Sunday not preaching!  I enjoyed the church that we visited and appreciated the message.  I did miss Northwood big time!  Gracie actually missed Northwood more than anyone – she spent the first twenty minutes of worship with one of the saddest faces I have ever seen!  Her thought:  “Any church that is not our church is just different!”  She’s got a very good point!

Pray for me and my family – that God will bless us with some sweet family time together!  That I will hear from God and acquire His wisdom and knowledge, and that someones life might be changed because of meeting me and my family!  I Love You!  God Bless & Press On!

Give more than you take!  We live in a world of takers!  Almost everyone is looking for something for nothing!  Now a days, the takers even act as if what they are be given is deserved or earned.  Rather than being grateful, we are often demanding!  Stop and think for a moment:  What if we all continued to be a world of takers?  What if everyone that is a giver started to be a taker?  It would not take long for this world to become a very bad place.

Real growth takes place in our lives when we give!  There is not anything wrong with receiving!  The problem comes when our focus becomes what we are receiving over what we are giving!  God gives to us, so that we can give t each other!  The very moment that we get more focused on what we are getting over what we are giving is the very moment that we begin to die!  We need to think about how can I help others, rather than always worrying about how can I get others to help me!  How can I help someone else deal with their frustrations?  How can i help someone else take advantage of the opportunities that God has put in front of them?  How can I help others accomplish their goals and achieve their dreams?

Stop thinking that the world owes you anything!  Be grateful for what God has given you and prove your gratefulness by always being willing to jump in and help in whatever way you might be needed or useful!  Zig Zigler says:  “You can get everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want!”  Let’s start planting some seeds of success in others by helping them to live the blessed life and then let’s not be to surprised when we catch ourselves enjoying the blessed life!