Lost! Life with a blank map and a broken compass

In Sunday's sermon Lost! Life with a blank map and a broken compass I used these illustrations and promised to post them on my blog for your viewing as you listened to the message. Hope this helps! If you're viewing the blog and want to listen to the sermon visit our website, www.lighthouseonline.org, and click on the sermon audio tab where you will find a link to our podcast on iTunes.

Creatorade coming up!

I'm getting excited for the next Creatorade coming up on Feb. 23rd. Watch for your invite-everyone in 6th, 7th and 8th grade is invited. We will have the event for three Mondays in a row, with lots of giveaways and lots of games.

Happy New Year!

I am always excited to see a new year roll around, to look back on what happened in the past year and set plans for the new one. 2008 was a great year starting with Creatorade in February, VMA's in May, 3 on 3 basketball for Ayr Days, Road Rulz in July, Doug had a couple of excellent concerts, joined the efforts of the RCMA, joined the Chamber of Commerce, it was a full year! I feel like there was real forward progress. Plans for 2009? There are always many plans, with God's leading and by His grace I'll hopefully get many of them accomplished!

One of my main goals this year is to love my "self" less and to love God more. I preached on this topic Sunday night because I feel a lot of conviction in this area. I don't want my desires to be the fuel of my life. I don't want to wake up in the morning and be concerned with my plans first. My desire is that God would be my first thought always, so I know that my natural first thought, myself, has got to go. I have nothing without Him and the grace He has given me, my prayer for 2009 is that my actions and efforts and energies would reflect that truth.
God bless in 2009!

Life Blind:do you see what He sees?

This week begins a new series called "Life Blind:do you see what He sees?". You can listen to the sermon on iTunes, the podcast link is on the church website www.lighthouseonline.org under the tab 'sermon audio'. These are the images that I use in the sermons.

Creatorade

Check out the video preview for the latest event for the Lighthouse! Our Generation Christ group, which is 6th, 7th, and 8th graders will meet at the teen center in Mount Ayr for some fun on three upcoming Tuesday nights, February 26th, March 4th, and March 11th! Be sure to mark your calendars, assuming you have a calendar, and be there! Everyone who attends Creatorade gets a prize and one lucky person is going to go home with a brand new fully loaded PSP!

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

Do you know the song by Marvin Gaye? Ain't nothing like the real thing. How true. Sometimes we try so many thing to replace what we really want and need but they never measure up to having the real thing.
Why should we give so much to pusuing God? Matt 6:33 says we should seek first the kingdom and everything else we need will be added to us. Seek First. Is the first thing we seek what God wants? Why should we seek God first?

Because there ain't nothing like the real thing. Sure, we can be kinda happy, be kinda satisfied, have kinda good relationships, but they don't compare to having the real thing. Like the scene in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon and Robin Williams are having their conversation on the park bench. He says to Will that if he asked him about love, he'd probably quote a sonnet from Shakespeare, but that he had no idea what it was like to really love someone. He said that if he asked him about Michelangelo, he'd come up with all kinds of details, but that he had no idea what it was like to stand at the Sistine chapel and to look up at that, to smell what it's like to really be there.
Why give so much to pursuing God? Because there ain't nothing like the real thing.

Don't make your choices to quickly

What is the motivation behind your choices? Have you ever been burned by a choice you made that seemed like a no brainer before you made it? Have you every sat and spent hours weighing out the pros and cons to a decision only to find out that you still made the wrong choice? Don't feel bad, your not the first person to make a wrong decision based upon your misinformation. In the book of Joshua, chapter eight is the story of the Gibeonites deception. They basically disguised themselves and sold Joshua a story to get him to make a treaty with them. Joshua does his best to try and figure out if their story is true, and by all appearances they are telling the truth. So Joshua, based upon his own conclusions from false information, decides to honor their request for a treaty. Of course the story goes on to tell how the Gibeonites really outsmarted Joshua and as a results Joshua has to keep them around.

But, you say, how could Joshua have done any different? He was making the best educated guess that he could make using the information given him. I agree, he was but was there something more he could have done? The answer lies in Joshua 9:14,"The Isrealites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. (TNIV)" Joshua failed to ask the one person who would probably help him make his decision. How many times do you make decisions and not inquire of the Lord? Am I the only one who has reap a disaster from a poor choice that I made only to realize in hindsight that I never bothered to even pray about my decision? Let's take a lesson from Joshua, realize that things are not always the way that I perceive them and maybe I should get a different opinion on the matter, namely God. Read your Bible, spend time in pray, ask godly people you can trust, whatever, just make sure you inquire of the Lord.