Wow! What a busy time this has been for all of us! I slacked off a little last week and didn't get to put up a devo. I appreciate all the feedback I received and all that asked where it was. That makes a person feel good! Have you ever found yourself in a really strange situation and you try to make sense of why or how you got there? I am currently in one of those "pickles." By now most of you know that I am no longer Pastor of the church where I was serving, however I am still working with the youth out there. This makes for an interesting conversation. When someone askes how things are going out there, I never know if they're asking about the church or the students.
Another thing that is really strange in my life right now is the fact that we don't have a "home" church. What I mean by this is that we are not attending any church at this time. Why? Maybe it's because I don't know how to shop for a church. I have always worked at the church I attended. I didn't know church shopping was so exhausting. The churches we have attended have really been kinda cold and fairly stuffy with no real sense of purpose or direction. That is a very harsh statement to make, but if I was to list the places we have visited I think you would agree. This has me really concerned about where churches are going and/or what churches have become.
I have started to really look at myself and evaluate who I am. What do I believe? Why? I have started digging a little deeper into the scriptures to see what they have to say about all this. I have started reading the book of Ecclesiastes. Here we find Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived and he has some pretty deep insights on some of these questions. I'm sure I will be posting some of my findings soon. Those who are reading this and are current church members; let me encourage you to support that church as much as you can, good churches and staff are hard to find. If you are not attending church right now; let me encourage you to continue that search. I really miss the fellowship of church. I also miss seeing choir members dozing off during long announcements, children's sermons going out of control, and those deacon prayers, you know the one's we ALL have memorized that we can lip sync and nearly finish for them!
Here is a quote I read that is really standing out in my head, perhaps you can apply it as well..."God will never change, this is why our faith must rest on His identity and not necessarily His activity..." Sorry I didn't post last week, but maybe this will give you something to chew for a few days!

God Bless You
Tony

John 16:33, says, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world."

This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to work out in the country all week. I am not a morning person! I usually tell people that, "I will be there at the crack of noon!" If I'm up before 10am, there had better be lots of fish involved! I was able to drive down one of the prettiest stretch of blubonnets I have ever seen. I was excited to be driving out to the job before noon. It was nice to drive and talk with God about "things" and where I fit in and stuff like that. It was during one of these mornings that I had the chance to reflect on life and think about what is really important to me. In my wandering, I let my mind go too far and my pondering turned to worry. It was really nice to remember this verse and hear God tell me that He has overcome the world!
Today is my birthday and normally this isn't a big deal to me. This birthday is pretty special though. In November of 2008, after being diagnosed with throat cancer I was told to get my affairs in order because I didn't have very long. This birthday, according to some wan't supposed to happen. God is good and with Him all things are possible. By the grace of God I am still here and enjoying my beautiful girls and my wonderful life! My oncologist told me how he loves to be wrong, then he challenged me to prove him wrong. I knew I couldn't do it, but I knew that God is bigger than any illness including CANCER!
This week I pray that you let those words ring true, "take heart! I have overcome the world"...God Bless

Tony

"It is Well..."

It is Well with My Soul...

Horatio Spafford was a 43 year old lawyer. He lived in a north side suburb of Chicago, with his wife Anna and his five children. In 1871 his only son died. A few months later, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 consumed Spafford's real estate investments. He lost his entire life savings.
Two years later, Spafford and his family decided to take a vacation to Europe. However, Spafford was delayed by last minute business. He sent his wife and four daughters on the S.S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22, 1873 the ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel, and it sank in twelve minutes. 226 people were killed. When the survivors of the shipwreck landed in Europe, Anna Spafford cabled her husband, "Saved alone. What shall I do?" Spafford immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home.
In the midst of his sorrow, while sailing near the place of his daughters' death, he wrote the words to the hymn..."It is well with my soul."
In Spite of their tragedy, in 1881 the Spaffords moved to Jerusalem to meet the needs of the people. Through their service the Spaffords were able to share Christ with the local Muslim and Jewish communities.
When was the last time we stopped and thanked God for all we have? Today was a very odd day for me. I began my day visiting with a good friend who has been given a few months to live and ended the day with several teenagers singing about being a "generation that seeks God first..." God has plans for all of us, but sometimes I wish the path was a little more obvious...Let's all pray this week that God will reveal something to us that's brand new and makes us excited about who He is all over again! God Bless...

Tony

Matthew 19:14..."Let the little children come to me..."
The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day yesterday! We had the opportunity to go outside and the girls were able to run, play, and scream all they wanted. We hid eggs since friday and the funny thing is, they weren't tired of it by sunday! It never got old to them. It shed some new light as to why Jesus wanted the children to come to Him. If we come to Him as children, we don't tire of Him, we just want more of Him. At one point the girls were watching us hide the eggs and they were just as excited when it came time to look for them! God wants us to search for Him on a daily basis. I wish everyone could have seen the expressions they would make as they found an egg. It was priceless. God has laid out many blessings for us. They're scattered throughout our life. I hope that I am as excited when I discover one of these blessings as the girls were each time they found an egg!
My prayer for us this week is that we get excited about discovering who Jesus is in our lives and each time we discover something new about Him, I hope we share it with others!

Tony

Due to my illness, I can't sing very well. A few weeks ago my daughter asked me to sing Amazing Grace with her at church so I did. This was not very comfortable, but I did it anyway and it felt great!

Hey guys, last week was a little crazy and therefore we didn't have a devo. I appreciate all the emails about it. As we enter this Holy Week my prayer is that not a day goes by that we don't think about what Jesus endured during this week. I want to share a message that's been heavy on my heart this last week. I was reading in the book of Matthew 8:28-34. I have these versed probably a hundred times or more over the years and I recently noticed something...at the end of verse 34, the people ask him to "leave their region..." Why?
The people ask Jesus to leave because He made them uncomfortable. They were happy with their lives the way they were. They went to work, came home at the end of the day, and probably talked about what was going on in the marketplace. As Christians, we don't like to be uncomfortable. We don't like people to stir things up in our lives. We don't like to see homeless people, we don't our services changed, we don't like things out of the ordinary. We like to be in control of what's going on. This week I want to challenge you to do something uncomfortable. Don't ask Jesus to leave your region, instead, invite someone to church, call that someone you haven't talk to in a while, maybe go back to a church and visit...Just a thought!

Tony

John 3:30 I must decrease, Christ must Increase...

So many times throughout my life I enjoy hearing people telling me how great I am. A few weeks ago I preached a message that I was pretty proud of delivering. After the service I had several people approach me to let me know how much they had enjoyed my message. After about the third person came up, I started thinking, "how dare me to think that was my message!" That was not at all my message, that was God's message. God gave me that message, God delivered that message, and God let the people receive that message! All I did was to be a mouthpiece. I don't know how many of you have ever seen a mouthpiece, but a mouthpiece is usually pretty gross and stinks!
Over the last few weeks God has really been dealing with me about who He is and who I am. I am nothing without Him. The verse today is very simple...He must increase in my life and I must decrease! My prayer this week is that I become smaller so that Christ can become bigger in my life! God Bless you all during "spring break"!

Body of Christ...

We are the body of Christ...1 Corinthians 12:12

Have you ever been walking around late at night in the dark and accidentally hit your toe or your "funny bone"? Not so funny after all, huh? Scripture tells us that we are all a part of the body of Christ. When one of us is "injured" or not pulling our weight, then we are causing the body to limp. Day after day I watch my wife in amazement at how she is able to do things with one arm. My wife is not missing an arm or injured, but she has a very attached little girl that refuses to let her do anything with two hands. My wife loves our daughter so much that in order to please her, she is constantly learning to do things with one arm.
Sometimes I feel that maybe that's what I do to the body of Christ. I cause the body of Christ to limp because I'm not where I'm supposed to be with Christ. Maybe I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Throughout this week, let's ask ourselves, "am I causing the body to limp?" It's not easy doing things when we get hurt and limp. Let's not cause the body to be limping this week!

Tony