Winterfest Report

What a trip!!  I used to say that about just about anything that was wonderful, but this was a truly awesome trip.

We arrived to the chalet a day earlier than most of the teens.  We had already rented the chalet and later found out that many of our group including our fearless leader Jason, had to take some exams at school on Thursday.  Three of our families, however, decided to go and enjoy the chalet anyway.  We had a wonderful time.

This place was beautiful.  It was two stories high with eight rooms, each with it’s own full bath.  It had a game room with pool, air hockey, foose ball, and big screen.  There was a great meeting room and a deck screened in with a hot tub.  It also had a kitchen–fully equipped and a huge eating table.

Enough about that.  The really wonderful thing about  Winterfest is the fellowship, worship, and spiritual growth that happens every time.  The theme of this year is one that Creekside has had for sometime now, “Love God, Lover Others.”  We add the word “Serve.”  These words are the key to understanding what it means to walk with Jesus.  They sum up all that there is to know about the heart of God.  It’s simple, but profound all at the same time.

Things I learned at Winterfest:  1.  God’s love poured into me through Jesus needs to be distributed outwardly in all aspects of my life.  2.  Loving others is not always a clean, neat, easy thing to do.  It takes getting my hands dirty–to the point of washing feet, which was done this year by hundreds of people at the conference.  3.  I learned the value of praise leaders in worship.  This was the only negative I felt like happened at Winterfest this year.  The singing lacked the intensity that it normally does.  When the leaders lack the leadership quality, the worship seems a little less meaningful.  (Just an aside–This may say more about my expectations these days than reality–I just don’t know).

The really great news this year was the mother/son combo baptism that happened.  We rejoice with Keyna and Dakota who both were baptized into Jesus.  This was probably the most powerful highlight of the weekend for us all.  Please pray for our new brother and sister.

I want to say too here in this little report how much I appreciate Jason and Erica (our youth leaders) for their leadership this year.  It is a lot to take on to lead a group to an evant like this.  They did a great job.  We carried 43 or so to the conference this year and I heard no griping, arguing, or negativity amongst the kids.  They were awesome.  I will also say that behind any great youth ministry are great parents and adult leaders.  Ellen and I appreciate you all.  We were honored to be with Ken and Marnie, Brent and Felecia, Tim and Keyna, as fellow-teen-parents who stayed in the cabin with all this group.  Thanks to Tish and Carol who attended the conference with their children.  I also want to thank all the parents who sent their kids to this event and allowed Jesus to work on their heart.  None left unchanged.

Winterfest

Tomorrow we have planned to leave for Gatlinburg, TN and the annual Winterfest Youth Event.  This is an absolutely uplifting event.  I’ve never gone to a Winterfest event and been disappointed in the message, the worship, and all the fun.  We are taking around fifty from Creekside.

Please pray that this will be an exciting time of spiritual growth and family growth for our church.

Because of the cabin we are in, I’m not sure if there is any Internet access, so I may be out of commission until Sunday night.  We will just have to wait and see.  But, if I get the chance to blog while there, I’ll let you know.

God bless you my blog family.

Old Friends

It’s just hard to beat the feeling of being around old friends and lately in my life, God has brought some of my old friends back into my life.

John was a young man I baptized years ago in our youth group.  He is now the worship leader at Friendship Church in Athens, AL.  He came to lead our worship time at the ConXion–read about it below– and did a fabulous job.  I’m so proud of him and the praise and worship ministry he’s doing at Friendship.

Rusty, Darell, Mark, and Mark.  I told you about them a few blogs ago.  We are still working on forming a band to set out to glorify God.  This is the first time in my lifetime that I’ve had the opportunity to put a band together and play primarily Christ-focused music.  Please pray for me that this can happen.  I know I want this and I know they want it too.  It’s just difficult to get our schedules together.  Pray that God gives us time and direction.  We want this to be about Him, not us.

Danny and I talked a few weeks ago after an article came out in a magazine that kind of perturbed me.  I read it to him and it did the same thing to him.  An event that God worked in Danny’s heart primarily and was started by him and me was credited to another individual.  Our names weren’t even mentioned.  Praise God, the event is going well, but the story told in this article  was just not true.  Be that as it may, and I’m trying to leave it there, I’m kind of glad I read it because it brought Danny and me back together.

When we talked about that, I invited Danny to come and speak at our monthly meeting called “The ConXion.”  It’s a high energy worship setting for folks to come together and just worship.  Rusty and John (mentioned in the lists above) came the last two months and shared their songs with us.  That was awesome too–but I digress.

Danny has a story to tell about his life and journey with God that I thought we needed to hear.  To hear about the brokennes of others kind of encourages me in my brokenness.  His story helped us all see that we are all broken and need the Lord so desperately bad.  Danny’s story includes some things that the “church of Christ” has seen as as taboo and unforgivable.  I’ll just leave it at that.

After the evening was over, I told Danny what an encouragement he was to everyone there.  He felt like he was a little rusty and was rambling.  He hasn’t spoken before a group in about ten years so that would make one rusty.  After he floundered some, he just sat down on a stool and just told his story.  Then the really great sharing began.  One encouraging word after another.  An admittance from us to him that we are all broken allowed him to share deeper.  It was wonderful.

We ended the night with “This is How We Overcome” and we gathered around Danny, laid hands on him, and one of our shepherds prayed over him and us.  Wow!!  What a moment!!

I’m glad that Danny was able to come.  I’m glad to have gotten back together with Darrel, Rusty, Mark, Mark,  and John too.  I hope that God will allow me to get together with more old friends and share our journeys with Him some more.  It sure has brought me lots of joy lately.

Smiley Spike!!

Well, once again Spike has made it to the blog world.  You will recall his last picture here was him taking up the bad habit of smoking.  Well, this one is a much better pic.  We have a smiling dog on our hands. I was trying to take a picture for Ellen’s Facebook and got this.  I think it’s the biggest smile from Spike that we’ve seen.

Fear — NOT!!

One of Satan’s top tools of destruction in our lives is fear.  Right now in our culture so many are afraid of what’s happening in our economy.  Many fear losing their jobs, houses, savings, and more because of it.  We fear other people–what they might do or say to us.  We fear the past, present, and future.  There seems to be a fear in the kingdom that we might lose the battle against sin and evil in this culture.

I think that as long as Satan can keep us in fear, the happier he is.  The work of serving the Lord in our world slows down at best and completely stops at worst when fear is at the helm.

Here’s the deal though.  The people of God ought to be the most relaxed people on the planet.  Do I get a hearty AMEN from the blog church?!!  It’s really true.  If we believe that our Father God is in control, what are we worried about and whom do we have to fear?

Let the scriptures encourage us all:

(Psalms 56:4 NCV)  “I praise God for his word. I trust God, so I am not afraid. What can human beings do to me?”

(Revelation 1:17-18 NCV)  “When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He put his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. {18} I am the One who lives; I was dead, but look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys to death and to the place of the dead.”

(Isaiah 41:14 NCV)  “You few people of Israel who are left, do not be afraid even though you are weak as a worm. I myself will help you,” says the LORD. “The one who saves you is the Holy One of Israel.”

(Matthew 14:27 NCV)  “But Jesus quickly spoke to them, “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.””

(Luke 2:10-11 NCV)  “The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news that will be a great joy to all the people. {11} Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord.”

Now relax in Jesus and live today, which is all we have for Him!!  Live it abundantly.  Bless someone as you go on your way with a word of encouragement.  You know and they know that they need it.  Test the Lord’s promises today and fall into His arms of grace and mercy.  After all, He has promised to take care of us even “through the valley of the shadow of death.”

Who Said It???

See if you agree with this statement.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Do you know where that statement came from?  Click Here To Find Out

Were you surprised?

How in the world have we gotten to where we are in our religious world?  How can we take such profound simplicity and blow it with so much junk that it takes so-called, and/or self-proclaimed “scholars” to figure it out?  Why can’t we just get back to this simple message?  How can we get past ourselves enough to see clearly the way to go?

God help us!!

A New Chapter

Last Friday night, January 30, one of our “boyfriends-in-law” popped the question to our daughter Tabitha.  It was a big night for them.  She of course came home with a huge smile and was extremely happy. They have been planning to make it official now for about two or three months. They have set a date for December 12.

This is a new chapter in the Davis’ household–one that we’ve never traveled before.  It is a happy time, but for me, it’s kind of strange.  Thinking about giving my baby girl away to another is almost a sad thing.  It seems like only yesterday that we were taking our first steps and saying our first words.  We were learning how to tie shoes and answering thousands of questions like “Why does that do that” and “Where are we going next daddy?”  Tabitha was a quick learner in all these things.  She talked early, walked early, and potty trained early.  She was always a great student and gave us no trouble with other people.  An absolute parents’ dream.

Some of my favorite times with all my kids, and Tabitha is no exception, was on the ball field.  We spent lots of hours on softball and baseball fields learning about the greatest game in the world (in my humble opinion).  Tabitha was my first baseman (or would that be “base-woman”).  I called her “Scoop.”  She didn’t let much get by her over there.  She was also a power hitter-usually in the number 4 spot on the line-up.

Tabitha has always had a great faith.  She has been taught all of her life that God is a loving and forgiving Father–not a tyrant trying to destroy her.  She has been taught that Jesus died for her and that she is filled with the Holy Spirit.  I am so proud of her faith in God.  She’s like all of us, not perfect and struggling with some things, but she knows with out doubt that she is forgiven and loved by God because of what Jesus did.

We have prayed all of her life for God to be preparing her a mate who would help her live for Him.  After dating two other guys that we thought were not that , she has found a young man who loves the Lord and loves her big time.  His name is Thomas.  He is from the Scottsboro, Alabama.  They actually met on the internet.  I knew I was going to like Thomas wwhen he told Tabitha that his favorite band was Casting Crowns.  Thomas is a quiet kid for the most part.  He is as country as a green bean.  Great southern accent.  He is in college now and is wanting to be a welder.   He graduates this July.

The most impressive theng about Thomas is that he loves the Lord.  Recently I had the honor of baptizing him.  He came to Tabitha after one Sunday and told her that his grandmother (who raised him) would not let him be baptized, even though they were “church” folk.  I don’t know all the ins and outs of that, but I was glad to baptize him into Jesus.

I truly believe that he is the one that God has prepared for our Tabby.  Please pray for them and us as we begin the process of wedding plans.