Tuesday Night Bible Study!

I was reminded the other day by a friend who lives in France, whose name is Annick, that I should post something after the Tuesday night Bible Study so those who missed it will know what we did! I thought that was a "bon" idea, that is a good idea to do. So just for an update of these past few weeks, we started the Bible study on September 23 with 15 people at Huff-Lane Elementary School. We meet at 6:55 pm and usually finish around 8:05 pm. The series we are doing right now is called "Morals From Mayberry" and so each week I pick an episode or short segment of an episode of the Andy Griffith Show to watch, then compare to a Bible character, then apply the lesson to our own lives. It seems to be going well, and as I said the first night we had 15 people; the second week, 12; the third week, 18; the fourth week, 12; the fifth week, 7; and then last week we had 12 again, so it seems to be up and down sometimes, but we always have fun and learn some good lessons about: responsibility, sacrifice, transformation, and love. Last week, we learned about discipline as we watched the episode of the "spoiled" kid who got his way all the time. It was good, even though it was cold outside, we stayed warm with some good hot coffee, hot chocolate, and a good life lesson from the Bible. Come join us if you can!

Thank the Lord, For He Is So Good!

I usually find myself writing about the church and how God provides for us in such neat and wonderful ways but today I just didn't want to nor couldn't limit my praise for God's provision and goodness just to church related things because God really showed Himself mighty today in taking such good care of my son Andy! Andy got up very early this morning (4:15 am) to embark on his trip to Scotland to do several things there, including getting to hear his favorite preacher, Alistair Begg, speak at a special service! But after leaving Roaoke, he found himself sitting in the Dulles airport for quite awhile waiting to leave and go to JFK. After waiting for a good amount time, he actually had one person who works for the airlines tell him, that he might be better off going back to Atlanta, then back to Roanoke, where he could get up in the morning and try this all over again! It short, it would be impossible for him to get on the flight he needed to get on to go to JFK and then onward to Scotland. When you fly standby you always have that possibility, but then again, with God on your side you might just have other things take place. With things looking a little bleak, I was reminded that with things looking "impossible' this is exactly where we need to be, so we can then see God do the "impossible" and we will then know that without a doubt, beyond our power, that it was totally God doing the impossible. So did Andy make his flight? Did he actually get on the plane that he needed to get on? Yes he did, and not only did he make the flight, but right at this time, he is on his way to Scotland and he is flying first class to get there! God is sooooooooooooo good! He is truly an amazing God full of grace, mercy, love, and yes.......provision, just when we need it! Praise the Lord for His blessings!

A Good Study Time!

God continues to bless us richly and encourage our hearts, just like last night at our Bible Study when we had 18 folks come out to enjoy the "Morals From Mayberry" series! It was just so good to see all those people come in, find a place, and take part in the Bible study.
I know it encouraged me and certainly blessed Ginny's heart too when we see a good number of people show up and enjoy the things we have planned for them! So God certainly blessed and encouraged us greatly last night! And twinning the Andy Griffith Show together with a Bible story or characater seems to work well, especially since the Andy Griffith show has so many good moral lessons in the episodes. So praise the Lord, and it is just so good to know we, with God's big blessing, are making hopefully an eternal difference.

Things Continue To Be Exciting For Life Pointe!

Here is it on the eve of our second Bible Study and I am again just so thankful, excited, and looking forward to what God is doing and has in store for us! Not only am I excited about the Bible Study for tomorrow night, last night, Ginny and I fixed up some post cards to send to all the folks who came to our Block Party that filled in a card showing or expressing an interest in receiving more information about Life Pointe and there were 60 cards filled in from the Block Party! A few folks were in the same family, but with names and addresses of over 50 potential visitors to Life Pointe, that is exciting to me, in that even if just a few folks come to the study who we sent cards to, that will be 5 or 6 more that can hear the word of God, enjoy His blessings, and encourage us to know that Life Pointe is growing! God continues to work and bless especially my heart to confirm we are right where HE wants us to be! Praise His Name for He is so good to us!

History Made!

One day after my 54th birthday and just 3 days after our fantastic Neighborhood Block Party in which we had a great turn out of between 150 and 200 people, we again had something very special happen. Last night on September 23, 2008 we had our very first Life Pointe Church Bible Study. Now while that may not be Big News to some, to me it is great! Even though we have had Bible Studies at our home before, this is the first ever, truly Life Pointe Bible Study! I was excited as a couple came in to Huff-Lane School and when I asked "could I help you, or are you looking for something in particular?" And when the man responded "Life Pointe" it made me realize not only how great God is to finally bring in to being a church that we have been dreaming about; working towards; and praying for, for literally months, and months, and months, but God also reminded me that I now am really the Pastor of a small group and that this is just the beginning of something Big that God has in store for us. It's exciting and was exciting as abou 15 people came in the library at Huff-Lane School and prayerfully will come back next week as I share Jesus with them. So while we haven't had our first true church service, we have had our first true Bible Study! Praise the Lord, and as Tommy Walker sings, "I Have A Hope!"

What A Mighty God We Serve!

Wow, here I am again with a "must post" situation even though it is almost 11:00 pm here on Sunday night, September 21, the day before my birthday! It seems God has already given me my present though, by exceedingly giving me such a blessed day, yesterday at the Block Party! I won't say that I didn't expect God to show Himself mighty, because since I serve a great God, I did expect great things, but still I am just sitting here now, amazed at what my God does for us and did for us, especially yesterday. Not only was it a beautiful, warm, Saturday with a gorgeous blue sky, but I was blessed so much by the Liberty University Students coming down to help and by their apparent willingness to give up a beautiful Saturday to just be used in any way they could to help show the love of Christ to the community. With face painting, moon walks, games, food, door prizes, and with over probably 200 people enjoying the day with us, I was just blessed out of my socks! We had the opportunity to share with many folks, both in person, and by means of a video entitled "Just Stop and Think" that God loves them, has a plan for them, and wants to forgive them and have a relationship with them. A couple of people even prayed to get things right with God so it was wonderful. Either they were making sure or making a decision for Christ and His salvation after being spoken to by the items presented in the film, so it was great if for no other reason that folks met Jesus for the first time, or got things right with Him, like they needed to! So it was a fantastic day! And we have a Bible study set for Tuesday, so the fun and blesssings will hopefully continue to flow there too, as we follow up on the contacts God allowed us to make yesterday! And I was even blessed yesterday, and again tonight by one of the LU students, whose name was Joseph, being willing to offer his help in the future as we have our Tuesday night Bible Studies. I told him to contact me and even last night, at almost 12:00 midnight he indeed kept his intentions and emailed me to again say he would just be willing to help out in any way he could especially working with the youth, which is indeed an area I could use some help with! Isn't it great that God sometimes supplies our needs, even before we can ask for it specifically. So I am continuing to be blessed and have a feeling I will continue to feel blessed by what great things God did for me and for us yesterday! To GOD BE THE GLORY!

A Must Post!

With my eyes so heavy that I am about to fall asleep, I still feel that I must at least post this very important thought before I head off to bed this Thursday evening. The thought simply is thankfulness. Thankful to the Lord for calling me and my family to plant a church and in just 48 hours we will have the biggest event we have sponsored yet in stepping closer to that goal of planting Life Pointe Church. I just finished counting up door prizes that I have been securing for the past 2 months or so, and God blessed so much in that we have between $500 to $600 worth of door prizes for our Block Party! God is great and so good to use in supplying what we need! And so with the prizes and the Liberty Group coming down and with me and my friend Cecil going to Lynchburg tomorrow to pick up the Block Party Trailer so it will be here on Saturday, and with Ginny picking up last minute things tomorrow and with Andy helping with the lists of items and activities that we are going to have on Saturday...............it's definitely an exciting time! And a pivotal time for our church I believe, so yes I am excited with all that we have done by God's grace and all that we are planning on Saturday, looking for our Great God to do Great things, but again I am.........................thankful. Thankful for a loving God who choses ordinary people like us to do perhaps some extra-ordinary things for Him. I am indeed thankful. Praise the Lord, we are on the verge of seeing some Big things happen in the life of Life Pointe! Let us, as Steven Curtis Chapman would say, "Saddle Up Our Horses....We got a trail to Blaze!"