Hello all. I had a busy day. Good study day. Processing quiet a few things right now. Just came off of a busy Sunday School planning weekend. I enjoyed meeting Martin Babb the Minister of Ed at Springfield Baptist Church. I appreciate his insight and input. I appreciate our Sunday school teachers who were able to hang with us and work through the planning sheet. I am looking to meeting with all of our teachers during October to give everyone a heads up about some things in our Sunday School future.
Tuesday morning we had a great small group with the men. 6:00 AM. THose men are dedicated. They are making some great strides in Spiritual growth. Busy night on Tuesday evening at Celebrate Recovery. Great Testimony. Thanks Roy. Powerful story. Wednesday was a day of meetings. I only got to attend one meeting. Never made it to the second one. Had a good Bible study tonight. We studied Psalm 2 together. I appreciate seeing everyone. Busy Thursday planned. Meeting at 9:00 AM and planning to sit down and finish planning Sunday's worship plan. This Sunday is another busy Sunday. Sunday School at 9:00 AM, Worship at 10:15 AM, abbreviated service to go from the invitation into a stretch break and right back into a town hall family meeting until 12:30. Busy schedule but the church family will be better for it.
Pray for the preparation that has to take place the rest of this week.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Saturday Night
Spent the day with our Sunday School teachers and Martin Babb who is our visiting Minister of Education. We discussed many things pertaining to a Sunday School growth strategy for our church. Lot's of good ideas. Looking forward to Sunday. Martin will be visiting with us, observing our Sunday school and worshiping with us. We will debrief the weekend on Sunday after noon. We will have a six month growth plan to begin implementing with our teachers and Sunday school classes.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday September 20, 2010
Today is Monday and it has been a good day. Got a little done at my desk on a brain drain day following a busy Sunday. Sunday was a wonderful day of Worship. The day began early for us and ended as usual rather late. I have spent the day mostly shuffling paper back and forth, attended a meeting around the noon hour and grabbed lunch on the go. Began sketching Sunday Morning's idea on 1 John 3.1-10. And will be heading off to the annual meeting of our Baptist Association this evening. I am kind of looking forward to arriving home this evening. The contractor has a sub-contracting crew at the house installing our Granite counter tops. Looking forward to seeing that coupled with the paint, the flooring and the cabinets. Tuesday the backsplash will be installed and the appliances will be delivered. The appliances, and sink, disposal and the remainder of the lighting will be installed on Wednesday and Thursday. We would love to be back in that kitchen dinning room. But we will just have to wait until next monday evening. We have a very busy Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will be out attending meetings most of the time through the weekend.
Todays reading is from 1 John 3.1-3; "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does no know us, because it did not know Him."
v. 2; "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not et been revealed what we shall be but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
v. 3; "And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (NKJV)
The idea is that verse one is a literal outburst of joy and wonder. "Behold," "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, . . . that we should be called children of God!" What a verse. John opens the passage with utter amazement. "See how great a love, . . ." The word translated "see," or "behold," is both a command and an exclamation that exhorts the reader to give close attention to the rest of what is about to be stated. "Behold how great, what manner, . . ." Here the adjective implies a reaction of astonishment, and usually of admiration. The expression conveys a quality and a quantity "what glorious, measureless love!" MacArthur writes; "God loves believers with a "love," that is impossible to articulate in any human language and that is utterly foreign to normal human understanding and experience. " He goes on to say; "This is agape love, God's volitional love that He, of His own feee and uninfluenced choice, "has bestowed on" all whom He has called to savingly believe in Jesus Christ. Think about it. And while we are at it, "Behold." "See," "Would you look at that!" "Consider, what marvelous love the Father has bestowed upon us, just look at it!" John Piper suggests that we read so fast through a passage that we miss the impact of the words we are reading. Slow down. Consider your reading. "Behold."
Well this is my ramblings for the afternoon.
Todays reading is from 1 John 3.1-3; "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does no know us, because it did not know Him."
v. 2; "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not et been revealed what we shall be but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
v. 3; "And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (NKJV)
The idea is that verse one is a literal outburst of joy and wonder. "Behold," "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, . . . that we should be called children of God!" What a verse. John opens the passage with utter amazement. "See how great a love, . . ." The word translated "see," or "behold," is both a command and an exclamation that exhorts the reader to give close attention to the rest of what is about to be stated. "Behold how great, what manner, . . ." Here the adjective implies a reaction of astonishment, and usually of admiration. The expression conveys a quality and a quantity "what glorious, measureless love!" MacArthur writes; "God loves believers with a "love," that is impossible to articulate in any human language and that is utterly foreign to normal human understanding and experience. " He goes on to say; "This is agape love, God's volitional love that He, of His own feee and uninfluenced choice, "has bestowed on" all whom He has called to savingly believe in Jesus Christ. Think about it. And while we are at it, "Behold." "See," "Would you look at that!" "Consider, what marvelous love the Father has bestowed upon us, just look at it!" John Piper suggests that we read so fast through a passage that we miss the impact of the words we are reading. Slow down. Consider your reading. "Behold."
Well this is my ramblings for the afternoon.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Saturday Morning September 18, 2010
This morning it is a beautiful day in Whites Creek, Tennessee. The Humidity is low and the breeze is mild and the sky's are blue. I am at my desk wrapping up Sunday's messages and reading over my sunday school lesson. We have an appointment later with a decorator to finalize our project with the kitchen and dinning room. Everything gets installed next week. Granite, appliances, sink, faucets, pendent lighting, dinning room chandelier, the rest of the painting. We will be so glad to get into those rooms again. It has not really been long only about five or six weeks or so. And it has worked out pretty well all things considering. It is indeed going to be a comfortable space.
Once we can get back into the kitchen I will be able to get back to the discipline of eating like I am suppose to be eating. Although, I have managed pretty well in the restaurants. Fish is my main stay meal, asparagus, roasted veggies without the potatoes please, leafy green salad hold the feta thank you. Toss in all the veggies and perhaps a little grilled chicken of some chilled salmon. Water with lemon keep it coming. Also park as far from the door of the restaurant as possible and enjoy the walk. This is the drill and it works. I have learned that a great meal needs just a few key ingredients. A nice piece of grilled chicken of fish. Not grilled to death thank you. Nice and juicy and well seasoned. A goodly portion of asparagus, or green beens or roasted veggies with some herbs fresh herbs if possible. A leafy salad with a Mediterranean flare. A little balsamic vinegar and some really good olive oil. If there is a good variety of greens in the bowl you don't need much else. Perhaps a few walnuts, a couple of strawberries sliced or mandarin slices, a slice or three of avocado, dash of sea salt and call it a salad. There you have it, protein, veggies, a cold glass of water and lemon and someone to share it with. I call it dinner.
What I am doing is not a diet so I have been told. It is more of a life style. I must admit I really do feel better. I had my reservations about ceasing to use diary products, sugar, and light colored carbs, and sugar substitutes. But I have to say it works. 40 lbs and almost two waist sizes later I believe I am the better for it. I have more energy, my joints and muscles do not ache. I am more alert at work and best of all I am not starving to death. I might add that this works well for me because I really to enjoy vegetables. I have just had to learn how to eat them. In the south we tend to cook our vegetables to death and call it "Southern cooking." I am learning that there are powerful tools contained in a vegetable and when you don't destroy it with cooking it will work for you. So my helpers have taught me to eat as many vegetables as I can, to eat them raw when possible. And if I just have to cook them then either, steam them, or roast them / grill them. Boiling is like a very low priority although I can boil them however boiling leaches all the good stuff out of them if you boil them to long. And cooking them until they literally fall apart is not recommended.
I have to borrow a forbidden word from the above paragraph, "boiled," my program down to three letters. E. S. E. If I rearranged the letters certainly it would spell S. E. E. And this program is something good for everyone to S.E.E. But I arranged the letters I think in the order of priority recommend. E. -- Eat. You must eat. Folks who want to lose weight make the colossal mistake of fasting or not eating. Rational, "If I eat I over eat." "If I eat I will gain weight." That simply is not true. If we eat we boost our metabolism and our bodies begin to employ the food we eat to nourish us and to burn fat. So the first "E," is eat. To quote my helper and I will call him a mentor "You cannot over eat a vegetable. So EAT. (All caps means I am talking very loud!) The "S," -- Stands for sleep. Adequate sleep I am learning contributes to weight loss. I don't currently have this part of the equation down like I need to. It is a work in progress. I am sleeping fine I just get to the bed later than I want to. I bet you guessed what the final "E," stands for and you would be correct if you said "Exercise." The beauty of the exercise is that the plan is not trying to turn anyone into an Olympic athlete. In this plan exercise means moving. Get moving. Thirty minutes a day. Walk. It is best done out of doors. Fresh air and sunshine are important. So walk, out of doors. No big exercise plan. For the working person take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park your car as far away from the entrance as possible and walk. If you think about a persons average day to day coming and going if we planned it we could easily get in thirty minutes of so through the course of our average day.
Well this is a sketch of what I am up to in the healthy living department. I would love any questions or feed back you care to share. Have a great Saturday. Bob
Once we can get back into the kitchen I will be able to get back to the discipline of eating like I am suppose to be eating. Although, I have managed pretty well in the restaurants. Fish is my main stay meal, asparagus, roasted veggies without the potatoes please, leafy green salad hold the feta thank you. Toss in all the veggies and perhaps a little grilled chicken of some chilled salmon. Water with lemon keep it coming. Also park as far from the door of the restaurant as possible and enjoy the walk. This is the drill and it works. I have learned that a great meal needs just a few key ingredients. A nice piece of grilled chicken of fish. Not grilled to death thank you. Nice and juicy and well seasoned. A goodly portion of asparagus, or green beens or roasted veggies with some herbs fresh herbs if possible. A leafy salad with a Mediterranean flare. A little balsamic vinegar and some really good olive oil. If there is a good variety of greens in the bowl you don't need much else. Perhaps a few walnuts, a couple of strawberries sliced or mandarin slices, a slice or three of avocado, dash of sea salt and call it a salad. There you have it, protein, veggies, a cold glass of water and lemon and someone to share it with. I call it dinner.
What I am doing is not a diet so I have been told. It is more of a life style. I must admit I really do feel better. I had my reservations about ceasing to use diary products, sugar, and light colored carbs, and sugar substitutes. But I have to say it works. 40 lbs and almost two waist sizes later I believe I am the better for it. I have more energy, my joints and muscles do not ache. I am more alert at work and best of all I am not starving to death. I might add that this works well for me because I really to enjoy vegetables. I have just had to learn how to eat them. In the south we tend to cook our vegetables to death and call it "Southern cooking." I am learning that there are powerful tools contained in a vegetable and when you don't destroy it with cooking it will work for you. So my helpers have taught me to eat as many vegetables as I can, to eat them raw when possible. And if I just have to cook them then either, steam them, or roast them / grill them. Boiling is like a very low priority although I can boil them however boiling leaches all the good stuff out of them if you boil them to long. And cooking them until they literally fall apart is not recommended.
I have to borrow a forbidden word from the above paragraph, "boiled," my program down to three letters. E. S. E. If I rearranged the letters certainly it would spell S. E. E. And this program is something good for everyone to S.E.E. But I arranged the letters I think in the order of priority recommend. E. -- Eat. You must eat. Folks who want to lose weight make the colossal mistake of fasting or not eating. Rational, "If I eat I over eat." "If I eat I will gain weight." That simply is not true. If we eat we boost our metabolism and our bodies begin to employ the food we eat to nourish us and to burn fat. So the first "E," is eat. To quote my helper and I will call him a mentor "You cannot over eat a vegetable. So EAT. (All caps means I am talking very loud!) The "S," -- Stands for sleep. Adequate sleep I am learning contributes to weight loss. I don't currently have this part of the equation down like I need to. It is a work in progress. I am sleeping fine I just get to the bed later than I want to. I bet you guessed what the final "E," stands for and you would be correct if you said "Exercise." The beauty of the exercise is that the plan is not trying to turn anyone into an Olympic athlete. In this plan exercise means moving. Get moving. Thirty minutes a day. Walk. It is best done out of doors. Fresh air and sunshine are important. So walk, out of doors. No big exercise plan. For the working person take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park your car as far away from the entrance as possible and walk. If you think about a persons average day to day coming and going if we planned it we could easily get in thirty minutes of so through the course of our average day.
Well this is a sketch of what I am up to in the healthy living department. I would love any questions or feed back you care to share. Have a great Saturday. Bob
Friday, September 17, 2010
Ready to have the kitchen back!
Eating out every evening is not always a wonderful experience. Ate in a restaurant to night that would be a good place for a restaurant. The hostess three were oblivious to the presence of customers. "Customers," i.e., the reason you are in business is the customer. But I digress. The hostess' three were busy trying to determining whose turn it was to seat the customer, and which waitresses turn it was to have a customer seated at one of their tables that they failed to greet the customer they were trying to seat. Is this a reality show, do we get to vote at the end of the meal as to who goes home and loses the chance to win the grand prize. Back to my experience at the restaurant. There were only four tables in use in the "dinning room," by customers and one in use by what appeared to be a manager or a book keeper or a human resource person. They were using the table next to us, "the customers." I was able to be part of the interview with one of the bus boys, and a couple of the waiters. Then the menu was presented, with a hand written copy of tonights specials. Once inside of the lack luster menu I am not surprised that there is not one thing in this menu that would be considered noteworthy. Beyond the country farmhouse decor, which is to be expected since that is name sake of this marketing idea, there is not much separating this establishment let's say from denny's, or Bob's big boy, or Bob Evans. So what is the attraction. It is local, it is convenient but not sure it will be here through the Holidays. This was my third visit to this Nashville eatery I am not sure there will be a fourth visit. The veggies were cooked to death although the menu advertised Herb Roasted Veggies. The grilled chicken was on the grill about 10 minutes longer than it needed to be. I understand food especially chicken needs to be brought up to temperature but when it starts to resemble the sole of Jr. Samples work boot it is an indicator that it needs to come off the grill. And when omelets advertise 5 ingredients then the omelet should not be served with only three of the five of four of the five. If you are planning a trip to Nashville anytime soon I would avoid the Farm House Restaurant located on Whites Creek Pike. Not a good experience for the third time.
Psalm 17
This week I have been studying Psalm 17. I taught from this Psalm on Wednesday evening. And I gave a brief (about two or three minutes) devotional sketch at the Thrive group on Thursday. Verse 3 is the verse that the Lord is working in my heart which says: "You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." (NKJV) One commentary suggest that the word "transgress" literally means "to pass beyond." He goes on to say that this is probably the most common sin of the tongue -- to say more than one meant to say, or to say more than was wise, or more then was necessary. W.O.W. What a WORD. When I am uncomfortable, when I am frightened, when I am afraid, I chatter. Do you ever chatter? Chattering is not saying anything in particular but usually saying what does not need to be said. It is like "who cares" talk. "What difference does it make," talk. Have you ever had to apologize for chattering. For saying more than you meant to say? Man I have. Lord, give me grace to "purpose that my mouth shall not transgress." Literally that my mouth will not "pass beyond," where I intended for the conversation to go. Psalm 17. What a blessing. Thanks for convicting me Lord. Help my not only to make a covenant with my eyes but help me to make a covenant with my tongue, my mouth. May we be blessed as we think on these things.
Friday After Lunch
Tonight a bunch of folks are gathering at Two Rivers Baptist Church for Celebrate Recovery. This is an awesome ministry and time for fellowship and accountability. I look forward to meeting some new people tonight.
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