This has been a crazy week!  It has flown by and each day has been jammed packed with activity and amazing ministry!  I have really enjoyed it, but I was more than ready for a little break today and I was actually blessed with a couple of hours on the bike after breakfast this morning, just scooting around town and soaking up a little sun.

Week started off with a great opening Monday at Grace Place.  Every week God shows up and continues to amaze us with confirmation that He is all over and through this thing!  Grace Place would end up being amazing all week.  We ministered to a lot of people and we got a lot accomplished!

Tuesday blessed me with the opportunity of meeting with our Non-Profit Roundtable Group.  We met at the Taylor’s Free Medical Clinic and had an opportunity to see first hand – what they do and how they do it!  This is a very special ministry and meets some big time needs for people who have no health care options in our community and yes they are a whole lot more people with no options than you realize!

I love The Non-Profit Roundtable, because we all seem to have our hearts and spirits in the right place and it is so great to be able to work together!  Tuesday night was another great night of ministry at GP and it was especially fun getting to visit with some of the Disable American Veterans!

Wednesday was a big day, because Eugenia (One of our GP volunteers) and I had a goal of getting our “winter resort project” cleaned up and packed away!  There were many who said that it could not be done, but with a lot of hard work, sweat and the assistance of two MFUGE Teams = Mission Accomplished!

Wednesday night gave me the opportunity to spend some time with some of my favorite people as we gathered together for FOCUS WORSHIP TIME.  While I was teaching on God’s Power, a big powerful storm began to blow in, but it could not even come close to the power that we were talking and learning about!  I hope we are learning to let the power flow into and through our lives for His glory!

I was hoping to take a little time off on Thursday, but it just didn’t look like it was going to happen.  The mortuary had called me and asked if I could do a funeral for a young man who I did not know.  I was glad for the opportunity to minister to the family and so I agreed.  When I called one of the family members, I could tell that this was going to require my meeting and investing a little time with them and so we arranged to meet later in the afternoon and was very blessed to begin a new friendship!

I then got a call from MFUGE and their outside mission projects were rained out and they needed something for two groups to do during their mission time.  We had finished the project at GP, so I had to think fast.  I remembered we had over 1200 cans that needed to be divided and delivered at Northwood, so we set the teams to sorting and I arranged visits and tours at four local ministries.

I am very thankful for the Greer Soup Kitchen!  Martha Littlefield O’Neal and her staff do an amazing job making sure that food and hope are given out everyday to people who are hungry for both.  The passion of the lady that provided the tour stirred the passion in my heart for reaching the unreached!

I am very thankful for Greer Relief!  Caroline Robertson has been very helpful in helping me to understand how things work and how to be effective in helping others.  She is always willing to take and make time to help others.  Greer Relief sees a lot of hurting people, but more than seeing them, they help them make a plan and work it!

I am very thankful for Greer Community Ministries!  Craig Dittmar their new Executive Director seems to have a very good handle on ministering to seniors in our area.  And I can tell you that our seniors are blessed to have Craig and his team of volunteers working so hard to make sure that meals are made, entertainment is provided and relationships are grown.

The MFUGE Teams got to deliver canned goods to each of these ministries and then got to tour and see what these ministries do and who they minister to!  After we finished up with the tours, we headed over to Grace Place for a little lunch, a tour and a little more work!  It was a great day for all of us!

Friday was my funeral day and it was amazing.  I will simply say that I feel very blessed that Woods Mortuary would give me the opportunity to minister in this way.  I really had a great chance to minister to a hurting family and lift up Christ at the same time.  We capped the day off with a great Grace Dinner and some shopping at Grace Place!

I got up this morning and met a group of our men at 7:30 AM for breakfast at Denny’s.  We have a great group of men and I really love being able to fellowship with them!  They encourage and bless me and I am glad to call them friend!

Tonight we celebrated my sister’s birthday at Outback!  I don’t even need to say anything about this, it was a lot of fun being with the family, but if I took nerve pills, I would take two and go straight to bed.  Speaking of bed, I better finish this up and head that way, because a brand new week starts tomorrow and I already know it is going to be something else!

“The consequences of today are determined by the actions of the past.
To change your future, change your decisions today.”

If we could remember this simple truth in the moment by moment living of life, it would make such an incredible difference in the way that we live our lives and in the way that our lives treat us!

Life does not have to be complicated!  Life does not have to be frustrating!  We are the ones that tend to complicate and frustrate life with our decision or indecision.  Think about your life right now – the things that you are facing and dealing with!  What do you need to do to make things better?  What can you do to make things better?  What are you going to do to make things better?

We don’t need action, just for the sake of action!  We need the right actions and reactions.  Right actions produce right results and right results change not just your day, but your eternity!

It does not matter who you are or what mistakes you have made, God has a plan and it is the most amazing plan that you could ever dream up, if you had the ability to dream it up.  So take some time today to practice some good actitions that make today count and tomorrow better!

Sometimes life gets to be really tough.  I was spending some time just talking with God, well actually it was probably more like whining to God.  I was telling Him how hard life could sometimes be, how I needed His help and how I am not sure that I can take a whole lot more of the tough stuff.

I should have known better, because whenever I go to God with this kind of “Woe is me” attitude, He almost immediately begins to work an attitude adjustment into my life.  This is basically what God taught me and it might be useful to you as you face some of the tough curves that life will throw your way!

As we live our lives there are all kinds of different attitudes we can possess and that can possess us.  It is true that attitude makes all the difference!  While they are many different attitudes, I have found that there are at least three that seem to have a reoccurring role in my life.  They are:  “I want to!”, ” I have to!” and “I get to!”  Each one seems to have an element of right, but only one will work to pull us through the really tough stuff to that place of blessing, growth and impact!  Let’s take a moment to think about each one as we seek to make sure that we have a right attitude that is pleasing to God and a blessing to others!

I Want To!  At first this seems like a pretty good attitude.  My wanting to is a good thing, but it is not the right motivation.  Just because I want to, does not mean it is right!  I want to do a lot of things that I don’t need to do and a few things that I shouldn’t do.  We convince ourselves – if it feels right, then go for it.  But haven’t we all lived life long enough to discover how this attitude can get us into trouble by taking us ultimately to a place that we don’t want to be, costing us more than we want to spend and keeping us longer than we want to stay.  Wanting to does not make it right, it just sometimes makes it easy and easy is not always best!

I Have To!  This one really sounds right when we say it to self and others:  “I don’t really have any other choice – I have to.”  You always have another choice and they’re a lot of things that we call have tos that we don’t do.  Doing something because you have to is not the best choice, because if you are doing something because you have to, it is very possible that you are not doing it with the best or right attitude.  You could be doing what you are doing just because you have to, and if you are doing it just because you have to, then are you really doing it right, with the right spirit, with all that you’ve got and then some?

I Get To!  This is that magical attitude that gets us through the tough, so that we become stronger, better and more effective.  This is that attitude that makes the sweet even sweeter.  I may want to or I may not want to, but when I look at it (whatever it is) as an “I get to”, then it changes everything.  (Perspective really does make a huge difference!)  The truth is:  I don’t deserve anything good and I deserve most anything bad that comes my way, but my Creator loves me and He wants to bless me with good as He protects and grows me for His glory from the bad.  Whatever it is that I am supposed to be doing at this time may not be a want to, it may be a have to, but I don’t have to get stuck there.  I can move beyond the limits of a “have to”, to the limitless and miraculous “I get to!”  It is at this place that God begins to do an amazing work to me and through me!

Take some time today to think about what God has you doing.  As you doing it ask yourself:  Am I doing this because I want to, have to or get to???