Sunday scripture and random goofiness

I'm looking forward to hearing Donny bring the message this Sunday. We will be resuming our series on the life of David called "God at Work". If you are reading ahead, you'll want to be sure and check out 1 Samuel 21-22.

Remember baptism this Sunday afternoon at Lake Cunningham. We will begin at 5:00, and be sure and stay afterwards for some awesome BBQ.

Other stuff for you to think about this weekend:

Yesterday Blake told me that when he plays miniature golf (or putt-putt as we used to call it) he always brings his own putter. I laughed at him. I know that people bring their own cue to play pool and their own ball for bowling, but there's something inexplicably funny to me about taking a Titleist putter to a putt-putt course. Of course my main man Mark Wilson agrees with Blake. Mark and Lisa used to take their own putters and their own golf balls with them. I told Blake that the only thing funnier than taking your own putter to play putt-putt would be to take one of those really long putters that guys hold with two fists up around their chests.

Dave has a funny video on his blog that you should check out. I'm thinking that dude's insurance is going up soon.

NCAA 08 update: Blake told me that I could change the settings on my game to junior varsity to make things easier. I did that, and last night I beat NC State 48-6. I don't care if changing the settings is like cheating. It's more fun when you win.

See you on Sunday!

Baptism and prayer requests

I hope you are making plans to be at Lake Cunningham this Sunday afternoon for our baptism party. We will begin at 5:00, and following the baptism we'll eat some BBQ from Bucky's, and just enjoy hanging out together. If you are new to Freedom and want to know what we're all about you definitely need to be there. Helping people discover true freedom in Jesus and seeing them make that change public in baptism is why this church was started. If you have given your life to Christ and would like to be baptized this Sunday you can still be a part of the celebration. Just call the church office at: 877-3604 or send me or Donny an e-mail:

donny@freedomfellowshipsc.com
cliff@freedomfellowshipsc.com

Until Sunday here are a couple of things I'd like to ask you to pray with me about:

Messages for Sept - Oct. - I am in the planning process this week for September and October messages. Frankly, discovering what God wants me to teach about for those months has been a struggle. Pray that God will make it very clear to me, and that He will help me think of creative ways to share His message.

My friend Jerry Chapman resigned from Capstone Church this past Sunday. I have asked you several times over the past few months to pray for Jerry and Yvonne. The issues they are dealing with haven't gotten any better, and they along with their church needs our prayers. You can read more about the situation here.

Grace makes the news

When I brought the paper in this morning, I was surprised to see a picture of Grace on the front of the Greer section. The picture was taken last week at basketball camp. Here's another one from the Greenville News website.

Weekend update

For those of you who get to the office early on Monday morning just to read my blog, sorry there was nothing for you to read yesterday. The girls are heading to Columbia on Wednesday to spend some time with my parents, so I took most of yesterday off. We went to Hendersonville for the morning and had fun eating lunch at Mike's soda shop, getting candy at Mast General Store, and just walking down Main Street. We headed back home before it got too hot.

Here's the regular Monday stuff along with other random thoughts:

Sunday was great...again. I know it seems like I say that every Monday (or Tuesday), but it's true. I really love getting to worship together as a church family every week. The band did a great job on "Song of the Redeemed", and watching video of people getting baptized always reminds me of why we started Freedom.

The new Batman movie is really good. If you like action, suspense, and a really evil villain, then "The Dark Knight" is the movie for you. I would consider seeing it again before it comes out on DVD. That's something I haven't done since "Return of the Jedi" came out when I was 12.

I bought a used copy of NCAA Football 08 for the PS2 last week. A used copy of 08 was $15 compared to the $50 that 09 costs. I can't justify spending $50 on a video game. I've only spent about an hour playing it, but I think I might be too old for such an intricate game. There's a lot of buttons to remember. Maybe I just need more practice.

More important news later this week...

Baptism update

This Sunday we'll take a break from the life of David to talk about baptism. If you're reading ahead (I know Alan W. is!) the scripture you need to look at before Sunday is: Matthew 3 and Acts 9:1-19.

Baptism update: Our baptism on 7/27 will be held at Lake Cunningham. Springwell church has let us borrow their portable baptistry, and the good folks at Lake Cunningham Fire Department have agreed to fill it for us. We'll have some great BBQ from Bucky's to celebrate after we're done. If you want to be baptized or have questions, please call the office at 877-3604 or send me an e-mail at: cliff@freedomfellowshipsc.com

Stuff in my brain today:

Emily will be home from World Changers tomorrow!

I watched the VH1 Rock Honors last night. The band being honored was The Who. They had current bands perform songs by The Who. The Foo Fighters were awesome, The Flaming Lips were pretty cool, and the singer for Incubus wore pants that we used to call "highwaters" in school. Is that the new style? I've never been accused of being in style, but if that's in, count me out.

I've been doing some personal training with a new employee at SSI, (how that came about is a story in itself) and I'm sore today. Especially my belly. I know the proper term is abs, but until mine get tighter the appropriate term is still belly. If it were bigger it would be a gut. The taxonomy of that part of the body from best to worst is as follows: six pack, abs, pooch, belly, gut, beer gut, overhanging gut. Now you know.

Bring a friend Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Movies for men

I bought three DVD's yesterday to add to my small collection of movies that men should own. Yesterday's additions were, Braveheart, 300, and Anchorman. I have a list of movies (in my head, not written down) that I want to own one day so that at any moment I can see a manly movie. Here are a few that are on the list in my head:

Blazing Saddles
Rocky (just about any of them, except maybe Rocky V)
Any Clint Eastwood Western
Talledega Nights
Gladiator
Hoosiers
any of the Rambo's (First Blood is still the best)
any of the Die Hard's
anything starring Bruce Lee
Cool Hand Luke

What movies do you think a real man should have at his house?

All-Star memories

I'm looking forward to watching the All-Star game tonight. Major League Baseball has been something that I have loved since I was about 11 years old, and I always look forward to the All-Star game. As I listen to sports radio, I've discovered that there a lot of haters out there when it comes to the All-Star game. Actually, there a lot of haters in general on sports radio, but I won't go into that now.

My message to the haters is this: If you don't like the fact that the outcome of the game determines home field advantage for the World Series don't watch. If you don't think it's a true game because pitchers only pitch one, possibly two, innings each, don't watch. If you think the fans shouldn't choose the starting line-up, don't watch.

If you want to see the greatest players in the world on the field together, playing the greatest game ever invented, tune in tonight. Here are three of my favorite All-Star game moments. These are moments that I watched on TV. I can't remember the years these events happened. If you want that much info you'll have to Google it.

- Torri Hunter robbing Barry Bonds of a home run. This happened in the last five years or so. I know I just called out all the All-Star game haters out there, but I'm guilty of being a hater when it comes to all things Barry Bonds. I didn't like him before he was on steroids. Needless to say, when Hunter made a leaping, over the wall catch to keep Barry from hitting an All-Star dinger I was thrilled.

- John Kruk bailing out against Randy Johnson. Kruk played for the Phillies, and he was one of my favorite guys because he didn't look like a ball player. He looked more like a dude you might see at the bowling alley on a Saturday night. When he stepped in the box against 6'10" Randy Johnson you could see he was scared. Johnson proceeded to throw the first pitch directly over his head. After getting up off the ground, Kruk swung at the next two pitches as he was stepping out of the batter's box. You could tell he just wanted to get back to the dugout without getting hurt.

- Fred Lynn hitting a grand slam. I'm not sure if this was the first or only grand slam in All -Star game history but I know it doesn't happen that often. I don't know why, but I can remember the name of the pitcher. He was a young guy playing in his first, and I think only All-Star game, named Atlee Hammaker. That's just one of the millions of pieces of useless information I have in my brain.

If your not a hater, enjoy the game tonight!