Small Group Promo-Big Day in May
Having fun with our Small Group promoting the Big Day in May which will be held at Turning Pionte Church on Sunday May 19th! Come Join Us!
Question Everything – Book Review
Being a great teacher or student of the Bible is about learning to ask great questions. Tyler Ellis has made this easier than ever his new book, Question Everything. Unbelievably the book has a question for every verse in the New Testament. You may think I’m joking, but you can check it out HERE on amazon.
Family Tech/Media Agreement
Someone called and asked me about this today; so I thought I post and share. It’s a combination of others that I found online. I print this out and discuss it with the kids a few times every year. Then I have them sign it and post it in the kitchen.
(Surfing,Texting Social Media, iPod, Gaming)
| 1. | I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents’ work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my home without my parents’ permission. |
| 2. | I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information, photos, or videos that makes me feel uncomfortable. |
| 3. | I will never agree to get together with someone I “meet” online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along. |
| 4. | I will never send (email or text) or post a picture of myself or anyone else without first checking with the person photo’d and my parents. |
| 5. | I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents right away so that they help me avoid future content. |
| 6. | I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission. |
| 7. | I will not give out account passwords to anyone (even my best friends) other than my parents. |
| 8. | I will check with my parents before downloading or installing apps or doing anything that could possibly hurt our computer/phones/iPods or jeopardize my family’s privacy. |
| 9. | I will be a good online citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is against the law. I would never write or post things that I would not want shown on the evening news. |
| 10. | I understand that bad people can be VERY GOOD at pretending to be a friend of your age. I will NEVER talk to strangers even if they are my age. |
I understand that using Technology is a privilege and my parents have installed apps and software to keep evil out of our lives. I understand that if I break the rules my parents give me then I will lose my technology/media privileges.
__________________________________________________________________
Children sign here
Keep Your Eye On The Ball
I played organized baseball from the time I was 6 until the age of 17 (High School). I was a decent player as a kid, but the older I got the worse my hitting became. I went something like 1 for 28 my senior year (no I’m not kidding); it was humiliating. In the months that followed I searched for an excuse, which I finally found when I was diagnosed as having visual astigmatism. Finally, I thought to myself, I know now that I was a terrible hitter; it was simply because I could not see the ball.
Well as I learned today from this 1954 article from Sports illustrated<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1129050/>, the fact is; no one can actually see the ball all the way to the plate. All pitches, even the slow ones (55mph), disappear about 20 feet from the plate; batters actually swinging blind. After reading this, and losing my excuse, this verse from 2 Corinthians 4:18 came to mind:
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Could it be, that like hitting, life has some areas where we have to operate by focusing on the “unseen”? You may think it’s impossible to focus on unseen things, but somehow, there are people in this world, who can walk up to home plate and hit a ball they can’t even see. God has delivered to us the truth in the person of Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible. As you read God’s story you can sense Him coming toward you, but then it can seem as if he has disappeared. But that is when you have to swing and trust the unseen hand of God, and know that He is there. That my friend is called faith.
Who Are We?
Think about your children, what are all the needs they will have in their lifetime? Physical, Social, Emotional. In “The Sensation of Being Somebody”, Maurice Wagner 
suggests that all these needs could be grouped into three categories.
- Acceptance
- Security
- Significance
How do people go about trying to gain acceptance, security, significance?
- Work
- Family
- Friends
- Jobs
- Money
- Kids
- Church
All of these are really good things; things we consider blessings. But can we really depend on these to meet our primary needs?
What happens if a relationship fails? Or what if we lose our job or our savings? What if our children don’t turn out the way we hoped? What if the new pastor changes the church we love?
Only, in and through a personal relationship with Jesus can these greatest needs be permanently satisfied. Our faith relationship with Christ is brought into reality through His promises in the Scripture. 2 Peter 3:3-4 reads,
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Below are just a few of these promises. Memorize these and remind yourself and your children that Christ is the truth, not our feelings, and in him all of our needs have been and will be meet.
Acceptance
- 1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Security
- Romans 8:35-39 “ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”
Significance
- 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
The Road Back
As most everyone in our area knows, my beloved Golden Eagle Football team had a perfect winless season in 2012. That’s right 0-12. At one point in the season I wanted to blog, Facebook, or tweet, and make some derogatory comments about “The Fall”, but really I couldn’t find adequate words to describe what it was like going from 12-2 in 2011 to 0-12. However sights and sounds from a cold wet week in Hattiesburg are already showing the changes in attitudes that have come with our new coaching staff. Watching this video challenges me.
Watching this caused me to ask questions about the level of my spiritual hunger. Do I desire God enough that when it’s raining on the inside of me, when I’m dreary and don’t feel like it, that I will rise up go out to Jesus. Will I open up the Word and turn up the music and allow God again to remind me that “I am not my own.” We have a choice here. We can either let our emotions determine our Spiritual life, or we can make a determination to push through the resistance of the things that keep us from growing. It make take extreme measures, but let’s get moving. I’m ready to get on the road, back to the top. -TD
So You Are Considering Homeschooling?
My wife and I developed these questions to help parents think through homeschooling for their families. I encourage you to sit down with your spouse and give thought to each of these questions and write out your responses below. I believe God can use these question to bring clarity to anyone interest in homeschooling.
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Why do we desire to homeschool?
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What is our ultimate goal for our children through the process of homeschooling?
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How well equipped do we feel to educate our children through the different stages of their development? How do we plan to educate ourselves about homeschooling?
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What role does our faith play in our homeschool desire and design?
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How much money will it cost us to homeschool? How much do we plan to spend on curriculum and programs?
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What will our homeschooling schedule look like? Schedule Months, Days, and Specific Hours
