• Recently Written

  • Tell Your Story
  • Prayer and Worship at Noon today
  • Men’s Prayer Time
  • 21 Days to a Healthier Body
  • West Rome Stepped Up Tonight
  • A gift just to be a part of it…
  • WOW… What God did today!!!
  • Good To Be Back!
  • Hip Check
  • A Great Sunday Coming!

• Categories

  • Family
  • Pointless Rambling
  • Stuff About Rome
  • Sunday Night Updates
  • Uncategorized
  • West Rome
  • What I'm learning
  • XL
  • XL Volunteers

• Archives

  • January 2010
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007

• Blogroll

  • Bil Corneilus
  • Church Marketing Sucks
  • Craig Bagwell
  • Gina Scurlock
  • James Wisener
  • Jason Alford
  • My Blogs Blog
  • Pastor Steven Furtick
  • Perry Noble dot com
  • The Floyd’s
  • The Mick
  • Tony Morgan
  • XL

• Misc

  • Subscribe via RSS
  • Log in

A Little Reminder

Posted on August 30, 2009 | Filed Under West Rome, XL

If you don’t know, West Rome did a 21 Day fast back in April. One of the things we used during that time was a Prayer Guide written by Ken Oates. After XL tonight someone reminded me to check out day 6 of our 21 Day Prayer Guide. I thought it might be of interest to you. Either way, here it is. Have a great week.

Day 6: Going some place? (Read I Chron. 22-28; Luke 14:28-30) How many projects have you started and not finished? Honestly. Are you better at creativity, but poor at follow-through? Does your weakness of not planning cause problems with family, work, or friends? Is God interested in helping you in this area? What would He have to do to get your attention? David had it in his heart to build the Lord’s temple, but God said differently, “. . . you shall not build a house to My name . . . your son shall build a house for My name.” David prepared much: 100,000 talents of gold; 1,000,000 talents of silver; bronze and iron beyond weight; timber and stone; and said to Solomon, “you may add to them.” It took 7 years to construct the Temple and Solomon hired: 30,000 men for labor; 70,000 men to bear burdens; 80,000 to quarry stone in the mountains; and 3,600 to oversee them, (I Kings 5:13; II Chron. 2:2).
But it was two pieces of advice that mattered: (1) “Know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever,” I Chron. 28:9. (2) “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished,” I Chron. 28:20).
In so many words, David said to Solomon, ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ Some practical steps on planning: (1) start with the plan (idea); (2) give it time (have everything ready); (3) remain faithful, or someone else may finish it; (4) write your plan down, 28:11-12,19; (5) have the right frame of mind, 28:9; and (6) follow through with it, 28:10-20. How do you plan; has it been working?

The Challenge of Pride

Posted on August 23, 2009 | Filed Under Sunday Night Updates, West Rome, What I'm learning, XL

We learned a lot this morning in our study of King Solomon. We all know that Solomon was the wisest man in the Bible. We’ve heard how God gave him the opportunity to ask for anything in the world and he asked for wisdom to lead God’s people well. Yeah, that’s what I would have asked for…! HA! I must say, I think we all learned something about ourselves by seeing Solomon’s choice that day. However, the one thing we really learned this morning is that “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” See, Solomon started strong and made some great decisions up front. But, at the end of life, he’s writing books like Ecclesiastes where we learn that everything seemed meaningless to him. What was it that took Solomon from having everything that we could all want or dream of, to sitting on his porch as an old man talking about how meaningless life was. Here are the four things we saw today that took Solomon down the wrong road:

1. He began to forget where all the blessings came from.
I think this is where the “slow fade” toward pride began in Solomon’s life. He began to think that some of the great things that God had done for him were actually his fault. We must be very careful to remember the blessings of God.

2. He decided he could handle things on his own.
When he started marrying the daughters of the Kings of rival nations, he was going directly against the command of God. At first, it’s a slow fade. Then, we are going directly against God’s direction for our lives. Be careful!!!

3. He surrounded himself with people that did not support his love for his God.
God specifically told him that, if he married these foreign women, they would turn Solomon’s heart against God. And, that’s exactly what they did. Learn from this. You cannot surround yourself with people that do not support you, and expect to grow toward Christ. They WILL have an affect on you.

4. He actually began to worship other Gods.
Anytime we allow the slow fade toward pride in our lives, if not stopped, it ALWAYS ends up with us worshiping something other than our God.

I was challenged this week that the story of Solomon reminds me of a lot of men in our churches today. We begin to think the good things we have accomplished in our lives have something to do with us. We move from there to trying to handle our lives on our own, and in our own way. Then, we find ourselves spending most of our time with people that WILL influence us against God. And, then, finally, we end up worshiping things (cars, houses, jobs, money) other than God.

Where are you on this scale? Are you fading slowly? Stop it now. Are you already worshiping things other than God? Repent today, and get back on track. You don’t want to end up like Solomon, looking back on a life that ended up meaningless. REMEMBER, it’s not how you start, but how you finish!

Have a great week.

The Challenges of Faithfulness

Posted on August 16, 2009 | Filed Under West Rome, XL

First of all, you need an update on XL tonight. Steve Karakos shared his story tonight (with some great input from Lynda). They did a SUPER job!!!! God was all over it and it was obvious that God was speaking through them both. They are both great people and I love them with all my heart. Thanks Steve and Lynda for being obedient to the Lord!

Everything else was great. The volunteers did a great job! The band rocked! One challenge for you: If you’re coming to XL next week, bring somebody with you. I don’t care where you find them, or what you have to pay them to come, just bring ‘em. I believe God will change their lives.

Now, for an update from West Rome this morning. It was crazy. God showed off this morning and changed some lives. We had one young lady give her life to Jesus today. We had another guy join the church, and all kinds of people dealing with God on all kinds of different things. It was really a great day!!!

The message this morning we called “The Challenge of Faithfulness”. We talked about Hezekiah and the challenges that he faced eventhough he was faithful to His God. One thing we have to understand is that, even when we are faithful to the Lord, we will still face challenges in our lives. Some of those challenges will have nothing to do with an action of our own. Some of them will actually be the result of wrong decisions that we’ve made. And, some challenges come when the enemy decides he wants to attack us. And, trust me, if you’re trying to live for God everyday, the enemy WILL attack you. When the enemy does attack a group of people, like our church for example, he is going to attack three different things. First, he will attack the leadership. If he can convince you that your leader is out of his mind, he can stop your whole group from moving forward. Second, he will attack the spirit of the group. He will try to tell you that there is no way you, or your group, can do what you are attempting for the Lord. There is no better way to stop a people than to break their spirit. The enemy doesn’t want you to believe you can accomplish what God has called you to do. Then, the third thing the enemy will do is switch the attacks to your God. And, once He does that, YOU WIN!! You know why… because your God can always beat up their god!!!

Your enemy is going to tell you that your leader doesn’t know where he’s going. He’s going to tell you that you can’t accomplish anything for God. And, then, he’s going to tell you that your God is not as big as He says He is. He will use this same method of attack in many different ways. However, if we prepare for him, and seek the Lord as Hezekiah did, the enemy can be defeated!!! I encourage you to recognize the challenges in your life. Prepare the best you can. Encourage those around you to stand strong in the Lord. And, then, pray like crazy. Scripture has proven time and time again that GOD WILL COME THROUGH.

Have a great week!