Do you believe in Magic?

This past Sunday I noticed in the TV Weekly section of the paper that the World Magic Awards will be televised sometime this week. I never had heard of the World Magic Awards. The fact that they are on television is proof that there is too much TV air time to fill. However, here are some folks that I think should be honored at this year's ceremony:

Award: Special achievement in making stuff disappear
Winner: Tommy Bowden and Steve Spurrier (tie)
Bowden managed to make a top ten ranking, dreams of a conference championship and appearance in a BCS bowl, and his job all disappear.
Spurrier has done special work in this field as well. Somehow a man who has been known for teams with amazing offenses has manged to make all the offensive fire power vanish from Williams-Brice.

Award: Special achievement in hypnosis
Winner: America's Financial Institutions
Hypnosis is the only explanation I can think of for how the big banks in this country convinced Congress to give them $750 billion. I know a lot of small business owners here in Greer who are wondering when their bail-out from the tough times is coming. My advice: Start learning hypnosis.

Award: Best Newcomer
Winner: Barack Obama
Four years ago he was a newly elected Senator, and today he is the most popular President-elect in decades. John McCain is sitting in Arizona wondering what I always wonder after watching a great magician, "How did he do that?".

Award: Lifetime Achievement Award
Winner: Doug Henning
He was all over the TV when I was kid back in the late 70's. He always looked like he came straight from a party at Jerry Garcia's house.

Sunday scripture and my favorite holiday

The first part of this post is for my buddy Dave. Of course, everyone else can read along as well. Dave thought it was funny that in yesterday's abbreviated post I reminded everyone that the holiday coming up next week was Thanksgiving. I did that partly to be a little sarcastic and here's why: Thanksgiving gets overlooked! It seems that now everywhere I look people move directly from Halloween to Christmas. It even seems that Black Friday gets more attention than Thanksgiving now. That's why I reminded everyone yesterday that this Thursday is Thanksgiving. You might have forgotten that fact from listening to the radio (which is already playing Christmas music), riding down the street (where in Greer the Christmas decorations are already up), or watching TV (where Christmas commercials are being shown).

I love Christmas. I am not a Scrooge, but I'd like Thanksgiving to get a little more love. Hopefully, this Thursday you will take time to relax with your family, eat some good food that God has provided for you, watch football, and just generally slow down the pace of life long enough to be amazed at how good we have it. No matter what the stock market or housing market is doing we have a lot to be thankful for!

This Sunday we're continuing our series on parenting. We will talk about "When a good kid makes bad choices". Go ahead and read Luke 15:11-24 to get ready. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Enjoy the humor of The Office

After being gone on vacation last week, and knowing that next week is shorter due to my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving)I've been a little too busy to blog this week. To all seven of my normal readers I apologize. In an effort to make it up to all of you, I have downloaded a funny clip from the current funniest show on television, The Office. Hope you enjoy it!

Best week ever

We're back from Disney. Sherry and I both agree that this vacation was as close to perfect as one can get. We had way too much fun to be able to tell about all of it, so prepare yourself for another post of random thoughts about the week that was:

- Our kids are awesome. We saw a lot of children at Disney this week. Most were well-behaved, but at least once a day we'd see some kid having a conniption over something. It made me more appreciative of Emily and Grace and how laid back they are.

- I think we walked 1,000 miles around the four parks. Without a doubt the most steps were taken at Epcot. That place is really spread out.

- With a good bit of coercion Grace rode Space Mountain. She didn't cry or even whine too much while we were on the ride, but Emily and I couldn't get her back on it when we went back later that day.

- Strangest sight of the week: Three Buddhist monks on Space Mountain. It was really odd to see them in their orange robes and shaved heads sitting in the rocket cars while the ride workers checked the snugness of their lap bars.

- We got in the Christmas spirit on Monday night when we watched a special Christmas parade in the Magic Kingdom. Free cookies and hot chocolate also added to the atmosphere.

- Emily and I rode the Tower of Terror for the first time. I was not looking forward to it, but it turned out to be great. It was much more fun than it was terrifying, but I guess calling it the Tower of Fun wouldn't sound near as cool.

- The first part of Rock and Rollercoaster is the best start to any ride I've ever been on. Anything that pins your head back against the head rest is awesome.

- 2nd best part of the week: Connecting with two families of friends who live in the Orlando area. The time we got to spend with the Marks' and the O'Sullivan's was a great bonus to an already fun trip.

- Best part of the week: Getting to hang out with Sherry and the girls uninterrupted every day for a week!

Vacation

We're off to see Mickey Mouse and all his friends in the morning! We're looking forward to catching up with some old friends while we are there as well.

Donny will be continuing the message series on parenting this week with a powerful message about discipline. Be sure you bring a friend to worship with you.

Don't expect any blogs next week, I am leaving the computer in the office. I believe a week away from blogs, facebook, and e-mail will do me a lot of good. I'm having a hard time concentrating today, because I' already thinking of all the fun we'll have next week! I'll fill you in on all of it when I get back.

What now?

We're finally finished. The almost two year process of selecting the new leader of our great country has finally come to an end. No more yard signs, negative TV ads, debates, conventions, or primaries. What's next? Here's a couple of things I think we would do well to remember:

Nothing takes God by surprise.
A couple of years ago I heard a message on leadership from Andy Stanley based on Daniel 4:17. If we believe that verse to be true then we understand that God places leaders in positions of authority for His purposes. We might not understand what those purposes are, but we understand that He is a good God who only wants what's best for us and our country.

The morality of our country doesn't depend on who is President.
When Jesus left earth and returned to heaven He left the job of changing the world to His church, not to any government. As followers of Jesus we need to quit putting so much hope into who is on the Supreme Court, and remember that Jesus wants His church to set the moral direction of our nation. We do that by influencing people in our communities one life at a time.

We should always pray for the leaders of our nation.
Blake read this scripture yesterday at our staff meeting, and it reminded me that praying for our President and other national leaders is something we should do regularly, not just around election time. Whether you are happy or unhappy with the outcome of yesterday's voting, we are still followers of Jesus who live in America, and one of our jobs is to ask God to give wisdom to our leadership.

Hopefully, if we can remember these things we'll quit worrying so much about things we have no control over anyway. Be thankful today that you live in a country where you can freely live for Jesus! Take every opportunity to be a shininbg light of His hope wherever you go!

Voting

I just arrived in the office this morning after voting. The wait was more than any other time I've voted, but not as bad as I had feared. It took an hour and 15 minutes at my precinct. I'd be interested to know how long you had to wait.

No matter how long the wait is, the whole process is always pretty cool. I'm always thankful that we have the freedom to make a choice, even if the vote doesn't always go the way we want.

Everybody sing-along

Yesterday was a great Sunday morning of worship! It was awesome to see the front of the auditorium filled with parents and kids on their knees praying together. The rest of this message series on parenting will be very practical. We always want you to invite your friends to Freedom, but this month will be an especially good time to do so.

I don't know about you, but I've got presidential election fatigue. I don't think I've ever been more ready for an election to be finished. The negativity has just gotten to me I guess. I thought it would be fun for all of us to be reminded how this great country of ours got started. Check out this video on Youtube.

If you watched cartoons in the 70's you should know all the words. Keep them in mind as you vote tomorrow!