The past few days or week or so have been utterly chaotic to say the least. But I am enjoying the pressure, the hard work and the satisfaction of something new. I love those that have committed themselves to God and a peculiarplace. They showed up big time this weekend to help us clean the house in Dallas, GA and support us in our move. I REALLY LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Today is a major move day for us. We get all of the heavy stuff out of the apartment and off to the house. I still have to ask God from time to time, “are you sure?”.

So what major moves have you had to make recently that caused you to over extend, be anxious beyond repair, and even ask God, “are you sure?”

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Due to the fact that next week will be here faster than ever and i have to pack a lot of stuff, and that I HAVE TO HAVE SOME BBQ on Friday, this weeks post may  be a little scattered and sparse. Once again I to thank all of you for your prayers and well wishes for me, my family and the church. This is no where near the end of the road, just another chapter in this beautiful story that God is writing.

Love Ya!

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I guess I truly am missing my boys as this will the the second blog about them in as many days.

On sunday I got two phone calls, one from Texas and one from Florida. My chest was sticking out pretty far as my boys wished me a Happy Father’s day. Tyler, my oldest, asked if I had gotten my iphone, which he has been praying for me to get for a while now. I told him daddy was waiting on the new one. Then like any kid wanted to know if we had gotten his ipod. You see before he left I made a deal with him. If he finished the school year with no drama, behaved in Florida over the summer and saved half the money for the ipod, we would match it. So needless to say he is uber eager to come home and buy his ipod. He might love music more than me and that is saying something.

Late Sunday night i got a second call from Texas. Jah, my youngest was so excited. He barked through the phone on how he rode his bike without training wheels. “Pappa, took the wheels off and I rode by myself. I only fell twice and got back on and rode to Mr. Jackson’s house.” Wow.

I cannot believe how fast they are growing up. It only seems like yesterday they needed me for everything, now they are wanting things I would have never asked for at 8 and riding bikes with no need of assistance. I love IT!!!! As much as I might want to be needed to watch them GROW is the most amazing thing in my life, besides watching the seed in my wife’s womb grow (more to come about that later…)!

As a father this is a time to reflect, ponder and prepare for them for the rest of their lives. God, our Father has the same prescription for us as well. He too is proud of us and watching us grow. Giving us room to fall when the training wheels are removed, there to pick us up and dust us off only to say get back on and try again. He too is eager to meet us where we are, remembering our hearts desires and giving us direction.

I love being a father, a husband and chosen of God to proclaim HIS RICH GOSPEL!!!

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Please stay tuned and keep coming back regularly as i hope to be making some very important and major announcements next week….

God has been so good to my family and I, His Favor has been endless, and He is writing the story of my life! (Thanks Olu)

Thank you all for being a part of this journey with us… it means the world to me!!!

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I was privileged to meet with David Putman last week and I must admit the last few weeks I have truly been humbled by the willingness of outstanding men of God to hear my heart concerning the vision God has given me. David was even gracious enough to share his latest book with me, Breaking the Discipleship Code. I am enjoying it immensely NOW!

I have been tossing around the notion in my head about what the difference is, the distinct difference is in a life of someone on fire for God versus the church attendee when I stumbled on this paragraph in the book that explains it clear and succinctly.

“Living as Jesus lived is about coming to know Jesus personally through experience. It’s about coming to know Him through the lenses of the gospel and the presence of His very Spirit; it’s about a journey of friendship. It’s about living life to the maximum by living minimally. It’s about giving up to ultimately go up. It’s about laying down in order to be lifted up. It’s about becoming last only to find yourself first. It’s about decreasing in order to see Him increase. Living as Jesus lived is a new way of life that requires rethinking all of your assumptions, opinions, expectations, and experiences about the kingdom. Jesus descended in order to ultimately ascend, and so must we.”

An incredible passage that sums up so many thing for me. I could go on forever, but I wont this time. But seriously, WE MUST EXPERIENCE JESUS. Please notice that “experience” is a verb, meaning there is action required. There is so much more to a relationship with Jesus than church membership, tshirts, cute bumper stickers (yes i said cute) and whether or not you wear a suit or have doctoral/ theological differences!!!

WE MUST LIVE LIKE JESUS IN ORDER THAT OTHERS MIGHT SEE HIM IN US.

We must serve, serve in our local churches, serve in our schools, in our communities, serve our families (men, I’m begging you to learn to serve your wife instead of expecting her to always serve you)… to minister is to serve! It is an experience that must shared with EVERYONE WE COME IN CONTACT WITH!!!!

So have you EXPERIENCED Jesus lately?

Thanks for the book Dave, you don’t know how much it has meant to me already!!!

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No this post is not going to refer to R. Kelly or his trial….

yet i want to share an idea with you. We often look outside and if you live here in GA or any other area recently hit by straightline winds or tornadoes then you like all of us believe in the wind. But why?

You can see it? You cannot smell it, unless of course you live near a waste dump or refinery or a bbq restaurant, but it is invisible to the naked eye, yet we KNOW and are fully persuaded that it exists.

BECAUSE WE CAN SEE IT BLOWING THE TOPS OF TALL TREES, WE CAN FEEL IT ON OUR FACE OR THE BACK OF OUR NECKS, BECAUSE WE CAN FLY KITES IN IT OR EVEN SIMPLY BECAUSE WE WATCH THE LEAVES FALL FROM A TREE AND DESCEND TO THE GROUND LANDING IN UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY YARDS FEET AND MAYBE MILES FROM WHERE IT FIRST FELL. WE BELIEVE!

Would we believe in the wind if none of these things existed. If there was no physical evidence or no sensory evidence that wind whether light or ferocious existed, would we BELIEVE?

Jesus? He lives! He is the Beginning and the End. The Author of our Faith. Our Healer. Redeemer. Lord of Lord and King of Kings. The Way. The Truth. The Light. Life, and Life more abundantly. He IS!

But pastor lloyd, I cannot see him. I cannot pick up my iphone and call him. I cannot go to His house and visit Him. So how do I know He is real. Or that He lives and was not some historical philosopher figure head who died as all men do and thats that?

The same trees who tops blow in the same wind you cannot see, He created them both. The kids who miraculously begins to walk after suffering most of his childhood feeble, broken, and his legs in braces, Jesus did that. The man who was a drunk, an abuser and a low life who woke up one morning and left all those things behind him and has created a new life, Jesus is responsible for that. Life change happens everyday around us. There is peace is a mothers heart as her kids leave to go to school every morning because she KNOWS that her kids are safe, Jesus is responsible for that.

We have the Word of God filled with evidence, physical and sensory, that attest to His existence then. We have CHANGED LIVES , men who never wanted to step foot in a church, but now you cannot keep them out, families reconciled healed and growing together, husbands and wives who love each other more today then ever before and kids who have left drugs and drinking behind them leaving to go do missionary work; that my friend is your evidence that He lives TODAY!

The funny thing is that the saying… “seeing is believing” does not apply here at all.

I challenge you to change your perspective! Change your outlook. The next time you see tall trees dancing in a summer breeze or kids flying kites know that the wind would exist whether you could see these things or not!

JUST AS JESUS LIVES AND IS ON THE THRONE, whether you can see him or not!!!!

Change, renew your mind and understand that…

“BELIEVING IS SEEING!!!!”

CAN YOU FLY?

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WOW!

So last night my wife and I were joking around, she looked at me and said, “Baby your arms are starting to look like arms?”

Huh?

I said so what did they look like before, thighs?

You know I was just telling everyone how proud she was of me for sticking to my new lifestyle choices and working out… so i guess that was a compliment… whatever the case we are still laughing about it this morning…

My arms are starting, note they have not reached their full potential, they have just started to look like real arms…

Talk about busting my bubble before I even have a chance to blow it up… I guess i have a lot more work to do.

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in a political season where rhetoric has become more than an obvious and obnoxious distraction to those hurting, unable to afford health insurance, gas, keeping their homes and just staying afloat, we need action!

Reading Perry Noble’s blog today I was moved, moved to be more, want more, give more, give even more after that and be the church God called us to be and said we are.

In his Sunday Night Reflection, he tells of a house they gave away to a single mother, and a handicap accessible van to another single mother who cares for her adult son with disability. He makes a statement that we MUST ALL CONSIDER AS WE LIKE PAUL PRESS TOWARDS THE MARK OF THE HIGH CALLING…

“Generous giving enables a church to do far more in a community that it ever dreamed it could.”

Are you generous? With your time? With your money? with your love? With anything God has given you as a gift, a word, a song, a hope, a vision…?

I challenge everyone today, to one thing… TO DO MORE THAN YOU HAVE BEEN DOING. TO GIVE MORE THAN YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN. TO BE MORE THAN YOU HAVE BEEN!

Actions speak louder than words… it is time for God’s church to become the only audible voice the earth hears!!!!!!!!

Will you?

Tony Morgan, I love your Church too. And I pray. that apeculiarplace can raise the standard that New Spring and others have raised to an even higher level.

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OK, don’t get super spiritual on me and comment on the title without reading the content. Too often we shun or judge people, places and things from merely the first glance, or cover or in this case the title. Allow me to reach for a moment and tie something very important together for us…

Fellows and ladies this could apply to you as well. Imagine if you will middle of the day, or at your favorite coffee shop or even the club you attend regularly, an amazingly beautiful woman (or man) walks in and completely assumes control of all of your attention. You look, she/he looks… you exchanges smiles… and you cannot take your eyes off of her/him. She/he is all you think about as you fill your shopping cart with eggs and bread, pretend to be listening to your friends or sip your coffee. Finally you reach deep down inside of you and gather the strength and courage to MAKE YOUR MOVE. If you are at a club or bar, you probably grab a shot or two! You make your way over to them and it is as if she/he has been waiting on you all night, when you open your mouth and ask…

WILL YOU SLEEP WITH ME?

or

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

I know I know I know, Who in their right mind would do such a thing. Who would ask for something so intimate, so personal, so final, who would reach out to someone they dont know for a commitment, who would embarrass in such a foolish way, not to mention how the other person would feel… offended, angry, put off, and depending upon where you are and who that person is you might just hear a few choice words that i dare not mention here!

Yet, Christians ask these types of questions of perfect strangers every day. Christians have been asking perfect strangers to make life altering commitments of this nature without knowing a persons name for years. Allow me to explain, once again before you go all deep and get offended.

Jesus, was a relational God and Lord. God spent every day with Adam in the garden before “The Fall”. Jesus spent day and night with the disciples before instructing them to go out and teach the world about His Kingdom. Peter before his first sermon after Christ’s acension spent day and night praying with his congregation. Paul pitched in and made tents with the tent makers before he began to teach Christ and Christ crucified. Do you see a pattern developing here? I could go on if you need me to. There are countless examples throughout the bible of men and women of God, who developed relationships with people before they professed their love for God and His love for them.

All I’m saying is that we MUST, not try…  not see what we can do… not hope you can, but WE MUST DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE,  before we ask for any such commitment. We have to like Jesus, allow those around us to SEE the fruit of our FAITH before we pound their heads with the latest bible verse we memorized. Before we go and tell someone they are going to hell because they fornicate, or lie or steal or whatever they do, we must know them. To “know” them, is to become “intimate” with them.

Quick side note: Intimate or Intimacy has nothing to do with SEX. Get over it, open a dictionary. It is amazing how this word has become bastardized and misused to have anything to do with sex.

OK, back to where we were… I’m simply saying that we cannot afford to cause any more trepidation  concerning the Body of Christ. In case you have not noticed the attacks on the Church are doing fine without the Church going out and making it any worse.

Give it some thought.

Have you made friends with anyone outside of your circle lately? With someone who doesn’t look like you, or believe what you believe?

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I just read this blog and it amazes me who simple “ministering” to people could be and SHOULD BE. I want you to note as you read the testimony of the volunteer, she LOVES her church, LOVES being able to volunteer, and most importantly she LOVES GOD. Please take note, “church is no longer a chore, but an adventure” that she cannot wait to get back to every week, but more importantly she cant wait to invite others to experience the life change she has!!!

Big ups to Shawn Lovejoy and the MLC Family once again, and Penny Burklin YOU ROCK!!!!

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