Getting past…

The last couple of weeks in my life have been a little trying to say the least.

As most of you know my mother has been in the hospital the past couple of weeks and when someone close to you experiences something sudden like sickness it can really rock your world.

I remember something that Nancy Ortberg wrote in her book “Looking for God” when she was talking about pain.  Now I’m not talking about physical pain, but the pain of something happening that just doesn’t seem fair.  The kind of pain that many of us experience when something very unexpectedly happens.

“The problem of pain always insists on the question, “Where is God?”

Have you ever experienced pain in a situation in your life that has caused you to ask that question?

If so, how did you handle it?

Another publicity stunt?

Well like we didn’t know this was coming…..

Seems that child star Gary Coleman and his wife just can’t get along.  She contends that he has anger and intimacy issues and now she wants out of the marriage.

Instead of going through the channels like the rest of people in their situation, they have decided to go on the show “Divorce Court” and let the world see all of their stuff.

So is this just another way for someone to get more press?  Could it be a way to save money?

What do you think?

The difference

When I travel I have to admit that I am a creature of habit.  When I find a good place to stay or eat I really am inclined to make that my destination every time I am in the area.  Today was no exception.  When I arrived at my hotel I remembered just exactly why it is that I love that place.  The people are nice, the place is clean and everyone treats you like you are their number one priority.

What if the church was truly that way?  I know we give a lot of lip service to being that way but what if we were truly making people a priority?  Would people be drawn to us just like I am drawn to places that make me feel special?

My prayer is that at Crossroads we will continue to let people know we truly care……

Sunday Rewind

Here’s some things that stood out to me on Sunday…

• Looked like we had a full house….but all those buses were not coming to our place.  They were headed to the other building.  I thought about running the offering buckets over there as well.
• Days like today make me look forward to the new parking lot that we are about to get.
• Mark down that you heard a “banjo” at Crossroads today…….may never happen again!
• Volunteers did great!
• Lot’s of visitors.
• I just love hearing from you guys about the difference that Crossroads is making in your life.
• Sorry about the “Newcomers Luncheon”…..we will reschedule soon.

You guys have a great week……check back here often!

Headed out!

Headed to the ATL for a few days.

A few of us from Crossroads are headed to a conference and I am really looking forward to it.  Hopefully I will still be able to do some blog entries from my hotel or directly from the conference.  You will always be able to check whats going on by looking in the side bar under “Randy on the go.”

Holla!

Up and at it!

Time to hit the road.

Headed to church early and looking forward to seeing what is going to take place today!

Be aware that today at Crossroads is going to be a little different as it relates to parking…..there is another event going on really early this morning and shouldn’t really impact us.  It’s supposed to be over before our second service is starting.

See ya in a few!

Not again!

Well, after nearly three years it looks like Tom Cruise is about to return to the “Oprah” show for another exciting visit.

I don’t know about you but the last time he made an appearance on her show, I thought he was really a little odd. Maybe it was just love!

What do you think we can expect this time?

Useless Friday Info

“Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.”

“It takes about 150 days for your fingernails to grow from your cuticles to your fingertips.”

“The average human bladder can hold about 13 ounces of liquid (this has to be only men!).”

“Three consecutive strikes in bowling is called a turkey.”

Dealing with a blockage

Yesterday we talked about what happens to the heart……specifically when we have a blockage.  The blockage we were referring to was un-confessed sin.

So how do we deal with this blockage, this blockage called un-confessed sin?

The answer to dealing with this blockage is simply one word……confession.  That’s it.

Confession is the process by which I try to name my sin as honestly and specificly as possible.

But there’s one thing that confession is not.  It’s not excusing my sin, minimizing my sin, it’s not rationalizing my sin and it’s not blaming my sin on someone else.  These are all things that by its very nature that sin inclines for us to do.

The definition of confession is pretty simple.  Take a look at this…confession:getting painfully honest with God and the people that we have offended.

Next week we’re going to go a little deeper…….

All stopped up!

As we continue to talk about the heart, one of the things that we find out is that our inner most “heart” can suffer the same things as our physical heart.  I’m talking about a blockage or blockages and that blockage can come in the form of un-confessed sin.

This un-confessed sin can cause some pretty serious problems.

So what are we going to do with these areas of un-confessed sin in our lives?  What are you going to do?  What am I going to do?

Give it some thought……..