An update

Just for you Spydermonkey!!

Worst nightmare!!!

This HAS to be this guy's most embarrassing moment.  When you get up and speak to lots of people every week, things like this are bound to happen!!

My Little Boy is growing up!!

Several weeks ago, I said in church that I had never been the parent of a two year old.  I will never be able to say that again after today!

It's hard to believe that Jonah is growing up so fast.  It is such a joy to see him growing up more and more every day.  I say this all the time, but I LOVE being a daddy!  It's one of my favorite "jobs" that I have ever had.  Better than being a minister, better than being a camp counselor, better than being a bag-boy, hey...even better than working at the Cookie Store!  I absolutely love the responsibility of being a Daddy!!

Today, we were at Natalie Ainsworth's birthday party and Jonah was completely infatuated with the big fan they had going to keep a little bit of the heat down.  I was watching him closely because I had already told him not to touch.  I didn't want him to get hurt.  As I was talking to somebody, I caught him out of the corner of my eye sticking his straw into the fan!!  I let out a sound that can only be described as the guttural "uanh" that you use when your dog does something wrong.  I wanted to get his attention and quickly.  He got the picture!  Then, I wanted to lean down and tell him how much I loved him and that I was only trying to protect him from getting hurt.

I see that as my role in his life right now.  I want to lead him to be the little boy that I know he can be so that he will be able to live his entire life being that person.  I've said it before, but I want to follow Christ and tell Jonah to follow me.  I want to see my little boy reach his full potential in this world but, more importantly, in the kingdom of God.

HOWEVER, here's the deal about my kid:  I think his little heart could lead more people to the kingdom of God in one week than I may be able to in a lifetime.  I continually see God working in this little boy's life (and he's only TWO!!).  I truly believe that God has big plans for my little boy.  It may not be as a minister (boy will I try to lead him away from that one) or as a teacher or as a counselor or anything else you can think of, but one thing I will try to always teach Jonah is that no matter where his life leads him...let God use him there!

At this point in his life, I truly believe that God is developing his heart to be compassionate (you should see the terror on his face when someone else cries), caring (he never passes an open door without wanting to close it...now that's caring), loving (you should see him run to someone's arms), and kind (he truly is a "nice" kid.)  I just hope that those qualities continue to develop and that God (and his parents) protect him from developing some of those qualities that are so prevalent in the world today.

I'm the father of a two-year-old.  For some of you that know me well, that's a SCARY thought!!  However, I'm so glad that I can say with confidence that I don't raise this child on my own strength and knowledge...I'm just going to follow God's leading and then trust him to cover the slack.

Happy Birthday, Buddy...I LOVE YOU!!!!

GI Joe and the Bible

Jon Acuff over at stuffchristianslike.com has a post comparing the different versions of the Bible to GI Joe.

You should go over and read it then come back here...

As a point of information...I was a HUGE GI Joe fan when I was a kid. I still remember the "...and now you know...and knowing is half the battle" lessons at the end of each episode.

Well, I'll leave it up to Jon to describe the bible in terms of GI Joe characters, but I'm curious what you guys think about this debate. Is it really worth all of the time that people give to it? Is it really worth the headache and division that it can cause?? As a matter of fact, when you really think about it, is the version of the Bible a reflection of your character like so many people seem to assume that it is??

I for one don't think so. The Bible that you carry is just a personal preference. Me? I preach from the NIV, but at home, I read the New Living Translation (one that didn't make Jon's list...sniff-sniff). How about you? What version of the Bible do you like best and why? Is it just because that's what you've always had or because you actually see something in there that really interests you? Leave me a comment and let's do a little unofficial poll...

Here's Joe!!!

Here's the video I promised yesterday...this is a video of the man who "reverently" proclaims the Word of God every Sunday at FBCV doing "Hello, My Name is Joe." Please...don't fire me!! HA!!!!

EDIT FROM THE WIFE: Be sure to watch the video all the way to the end. It only gets better! I'm so proud!

OOOOOOOPS!!!!

This week is SMACK week at FBCV. We've been doing our Summer Music Activity Camp for Kids for 5 years now. It's a really great week, but VERY exhausting. Well, I guess the exhaustion got to me this morning.

You see...ever since the very first year of SMACK, we've been singing a song almost every morning to get the kids geared up for a very active day called "Hello, My Name is Joe." Some of you may have played before, but for your information, I have posted a video below that might give you an idea of how active this little song is. (I'm going to try to video it tomorrow and maybe post a video of yours truly doing "Joe.") Watch the video even if you know about "Joe" because it's absolutely adorable.



For those of you that didn't catch the words to that aerobic workout, they're:

Hello, My name is Joe
I got a wife, three kids, and I work in a Button Factory
One day my boss said, "Joe are you busy" I said, "No"
He said, "Good. Work this button with your left hand."

You continue adding body parts to the song until you just can't go anymore!

Ok...here comes the "Oooops." Today I was doing this game with the kids and having a great time. About half-way through, I looked to the back of the Sanctuary at one of our youth that was obviously trying to get my attention. He made a motion that I immediately recognized (and any of you would have, too) to mean "Your zipper's down!"

This has not been a big problem in recent history for me, but apparently I didn't quite get all the way dressed this morning. How EMBARRASSING!! I would have loved to just ignore him, but I thought about what could happen if I didn't go ahead and take care of my problem.

So, right there in front of God, children, youth, and adults, I had to fix my issue. It was unbelievably embarrassing...probably my life's most embarrassing moment to date.

Aren't you glad that we have those moments in our life that remind us that we don't have it all together. THANKFULLY, God loves us anyway. What a good God we have!!!

How about you? Care to share one of your most embarrassing moments?

A Long Awaited Day...

I enjoy golf. It's one of the places that I find solace. I really enjoy getting away from the busyness of my day and going to the golf course to enjoy some moments of solitude (and some challenging competition at the same time.) Well, one of the things that I have been looking forward to ever since we knew that we were having a baby boy was taking him out to the golf course with me. We took Jonah out to Duncan Park on his 1st birthday, but that was just to take a picture at the 1st hole marker (an idea Nicki got from one of her friends). We also took him to the putting green that day, but it was quickly obvious that was not his scene! I thought my days of enjoying the golf course with my little boy may be coming to a premature end.

So yesterday was a real joy!!! Nicki was in Jackson, so Jonah and I had the day to ourselves. That meant lots of playing, lots of chasing, and, at the end of the day, a short round of golf. It was Jonah's first real time to go to the golf course to play. We had recently bought him a "just-his-size" putter and I was anxious to give him a chance to use it.

I actually figured we would just go out and play around at the putting green, but when I stepped outside and noticed how hot it was, I figured riding on the golf cart would give him a chance to cool off between shots. So, we arranged a price with the pro shop and ventured out for a few holes. it was not very long before I realized how much fun this was really going to be. The first time I got into the golf cart and put my arm around my little boy, it almost brought tears to my eyes. I was so excited to be able to have my little boy with me enjoying some thing that I have enjoyed for so long.

One story from the day. I had a putter ("puh-er" in Jonah language) for him but not any other clubs. That will take a couple of years of growing. So, when i was doing anything except putting, I had to find something for him to do. I would tell him where to stand and he would stand there without moving a muscle. Then, I would tell him to watch the ball. Right after I hit the ball, Jonah would let out a typical, "Iownno." For those of you that don't speak a language...that's "Jonahese" for "I don't know." Of course, that's because Jonah would be looking intently at the ball on the tee or the ground and all of a sudden a "whoosh" and the ball was gone. Hard to describe here, but it made me laugh every time.

What a cool experience to see that little boy growing up. I'm so excited thinking about all of the years of enjoying many experiences like this over the years. We only made it through 4 holes yesterday, but I know the day is coming when Jonah will last through all 18...even beat his dear old dad. What a day that will be!!

Praying for your pastor (a semi-stolen post)

Nicki and I read  Perry Noble's blog from time to time. He's the pastor at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. He's always got some really interesting insights on life, ministry, leadership, and how to do church. You should check it out. Well, this is a semi-stolen post from his blog about praying for your pastor (that means I'm stealing the outline, but adding my own insights.) If you're a member of First Baptist Vidalia (or family), I would love to have you praying for me. If you're a member of another church, you can use this to pray for your own pastor.

#1 His Connection With God--This is a tough one. Pastors are sometimes the first to get off of their connection with God. The only way I can describe it is the way sometimes you see very out of shape coaches on the sidelines. They're so busy coaching their team that they forget to keep themselves in check. The same can be true for pastors. I would so appreciate your prayers for my connection with God

#2 His Family--The pastor's family is under enormous pressure! I don't know if any of you have ever realized it, but I rarely get complaints about the church. Nicki gets them ALL! She has to shoulder the responsibility of being supportive of her husband but at the same time field the issues that the church wants to bring. For some reason, we don't talk to people anymore. However, we LOVE to talk about people! That means that people would rather discuss things with Nicki than me. That's probably because Nicki usually has more compassion than me as well, but that's beside the point.
The other thing that's tough about being a pastor's family is that they are always under the scrutiny of the entire church. "That's too much. That's too little. He's too rambunctious. He talks too much. Well, you know that's just a preacher's kid for you." It's really not fair that my wife and child have to hold up under this pressure. They are just unfortunately linked to "the preacher." You should really pray for them. Besides, when you pray for your pastor's family, you're really praying for him as well because they're without a doubt my number one support system. I NEED THEM!!! and I'm so glad God gave them to me!

#3 His Relationship to the Staff--This one seems like a no brainer, but do you know what you get when you put three (or more) driven/called men in a room and tell them to decide what the best avenue is to do ministry? You get HUGE conflict. I'm talking tough stuff to deal with. I know this may be disconcerting to some of you, but sometimes ministers don't like each other. We respect each other, but we disagree sometimes and have to go do ministry to the best of our ability. It's kind of like putting two pit bulls in a room and coming back to check on them in a couple of days. The obvious goal is to get out of the room, but those two dogs are GOING to have different ideas on how to make that happen. I love our staff and I'm so glad God has given me this opportunity to work with them, but praying for our relationships is crucial to seeing the ministry of the Gospel and FBC continue! (P.S. Just so you know, I REALLY like our staff!)

#4 His Battle with Spiritual Warfare--The enemy loves nothing more than seeing men of God fall! Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard...need I say more? I have personally seen lives devastated by the fall of a church pastor and it is awful. Let me just tell you, there isn't a moment of my day that I'm not fully aware of the lure of Satan trying to draw my eyes, ears, heart, mouth, life away from my Savior. Imagine the impact if I followed the "wide road that leads to destruction." PLEASE pray for your pastor in resisting the schemes of Satan as I pray for you in the same!

#5 His Rest--Ministry is a 7 day-a-week, 24 hour-a-day, 365 days-a-year job! Rest is crucial. Sometimes I wake up at night thinking about things in the church. Sometimes it's a sermon coming up. Sometimes it's a family having difficulty. Sometimes I don't know what it is, I just wake up with a burden on my heart. I used to feel like I had to get out of bed and go watch some TV or read a book to get my mind off of things and rest, now I just lay there and ask God to clear my mind of everything that doesn't need to be there right now and let me get some rest. But the thing remains...sometimes it's hard to take a break. But, just like all of you, a break is NECESSARY to going on for the long run! So your prayers for rest and recuperation are so appreciated.

Well...there you have it, 5 ways that you can pray for your pastor. I hope you'll take those burdens and bring them to God on my behalf. Why don't you leave me a comment and let me know how I might be able to pray for you.

Can I Wear Jeans?

The guy from "Stuff Christians Like" (a daily read for me) just posted a new site. It's called "Can I Wear Jeans" you can find it here. Anyway, the point of my post is that I would love for some of our church members to post a comment describing our church on there. You can stay anonymous, but I would love to hear what some of you thought about FBCV. It's also a way to describe our church so that others can find out about us and maybe visit someday. Check it out and be sure to leave a comment!!

You learn something everyday!

I didn't realize it, but apparently I'm going to hell!  This is a new revelation to me.  I thought things were ok until I saw this picture on another blog.  I was ok until number two on the list an then when I got to number 4...I knew I was done for!  Oh well...how did you come out?