Professor Splash at Catalyst

The Catalyst Conference was great this year. I have been to all 10 years and believe that this year was the best. It is here that I saw one of the most insane acts that I have ever personally witnessed. Professor Splash who owns the world record for diving from 35 feet into a kiddie pool with one foot of water was there and did one of his dives. It was crazy. Here is the video from my friend Matt Mitchell who was standing behind me...You can also find Prof Splash at http://www.professorsplash.com/

A Recommendation

The best recommendation I can give to anyone anywhere for anything is that they follow Jesus Christ. That about sums it up for me.

Somebody

Most of us at some point in our week have thoughts about what “ought to” be done. What was the last thing that came to your mind that you really felt ought to be done? Was it some injustice that needed to be made right? Was it some ministry that needed to be started? Was it some person who needed a hand? Was it some task that would improve your community?

Chances are that everyone of us will have a moment today or tomorrow where we will think that somebody should do something about this or that. It is that “ought to” moment that I believe that God uses to prick us towards action. The challenge I want to leave you with today is when you sense that somebody should do something about an injustice, a need or a ministry that you will consider that the reason you have had an “ought to” moment is not for just personal observation only. It may be that God has put it on your heart to be the somebody to do something about it.

Narking

I was listening to Colin Cowherd on sports radio today. The subject of narking came up. The question was asked, "Would you nark to authorities on your brother if you knew your brother was murdering people?" Cowherd said he would nark on his brother. But the other guy, fish, said he would not nark on his brother. He would defend his brother.

Would you nark on your brother or sister for murder?

What does your answer reveal about your values?

By the way, I would nark on my brother. It is just.

Gratitude

Here's a verse you don't hear quoted very often,

"Ears that hear and eyes that see-- the LORD has made them both." Proverbs 20:12

I could have ears that don't hear. I could have eyes that don't see. Sadly, I take these blessings for granted. I live as though I am entitled to have the ability to see and hear. But these senses are a blessing from the LORD.

If I couldn't hear or see then I would miss out on...

• watching my sons play ball
• enjoying music
• hearing the words "I love you!"
• seeing the cardinal outside my window
• listening to the ocean waves crash on the beach
• being able to drive
• watching the Georgia Bulldogs play football
• seeing my smoking hot wife
• reading the Word of God

and I think that would really stink.

So, I stopped today and thanked God for these really great blessing of being able to see and hear.

The Myth of Obscurity

Sometimes it seems like when you work in a church that you minister to people in obscurity. But the truth is that there is not such a thing as obscure service in the Kingdom of God. I spent 15 years serving in youth ministry. When all the adults were meeting on Sunday evening, I was in a room far away with a bunch of hormonal middle schoolers. It seemed like no one knew and no one cared. It felt like I was working on a lost island.

I was reading Mark 12:41-44. It is the story of the widow who gave a couple of coins that didn't amount to a penny. The crazy thing is that Jesus sees here giving her last dime. He takes note and points her out to his disciples. She thought she gave in obscurity, but the truth is that God saw it.

When you serve Christ you never serve in obscurity. He is omniscient and omnipresent. He sees it all.

There are so many people who serve at GracePointe in what I am sure seems like obscurity. The pastors never say thanks. The people never pat them on the back. They never get called to do a national conference. They don't get a paycheck. They don't even get their name in the bulletin.

But I want you to know that Jesus sees your service and gifts. He knows. You never serve in obscurity because God is aware what you do.

The Greatest Leader

One way to measure a great leader is in the diversity of his or her following. Most of us who consider ourselves leaders only lead people who are for the most part like us. They look like us. They talk like us. They dress like us. They wear their hair like us. They are the same skin color as us. They really are not that different from us. We don't have a wideness in our leadership. It's not that we don't want diversity, we just are not that good of leaders. True diversity in leadership is shown in those who willing following without coercion, manipulation, fear or a paycheck. It is willingly following out of humble submission.

If you measured great leaders by the diversity of their humble followers, then who would be the greatest leader?

Jesus is the greatest leader in all of history. In Revelation 5:9, we discover that Jesus will be worshipped by people from every nation, every tribe and every tongue. He is gathering followers from all nations. He is making disciples of Egyptians, Americans, Spaniards, Italians, Africans, Polynesians, Iraqis, Iranians, Russians, Japanese and people from the four corners of the earth. He is, without a doubt, the greatest leader of all.

Swirl

We joined with Perpetual Praise and Worship Ministries for a time of worship. They are black congregation here in Douglas, GA. We had a great time of mixing our worship styles together. It was really cool and reminded me of the words found in Psalm 133,

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"

We have different backgrounds, different cultures and different colors, but the worship was sweet! I know that God was pleased.

The Apostle Paul says it like this...

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

Another Ingredient

Another ingredient that makes for a good church is unity. All week I have seen the people at GracePointe working together to make Summergize a blast for kids. One person can't do everything. It reminds me of Psalm 133,

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"

The church is and has always been a group working together to accomplish God's purposes. When this is happening there is no limit to what miracles can take place. Jesus prayed in his last days that we would be one. One body working together to show the love of Jesus. I think He had weeks like this in mind. It is a sweet aroma to our God!

Key Ingredients

There are a lot of things that go into the ingredients that make good Diet Mountain Dew muffins. I learned this during our first annual "Stud Muffin Competition" this month. (just in case you don't know... the Stud Muffin Competition is a muffin making/baking competition between the men in our church for breakfast/brunch in July.) My offering was Diet Mountain Dew muffins. They got me into a tie for second place and also in the worst muffin category. The worst muffin votes came from a poor presentation. They were falling apart. They looked liked they had been dropped on the floor, but they had a great taste. Anyway...

It takes many ingredients to make these fabulous muffins. It takes many good ingredients to make a good church as well. One of the key ingredients to a great church is having people who are willing to serve whenever and however they are needed. That's exactly what the members of GracePointe do. During Summergize this week, I have seen people pulling the load with kids by teaching, making sandwiches, cleaning up spills, running video, singing, dancing, playing games and so much more. All this is just to serve kids so they can see the Saviour.

This kind of service makes Summergize rock, GracePointe grow and God look great!!

Summergize

I am excited about this week at GracePointe because we will be having "Summergize" Monday thru Friday. It is our program designed to help kids grow into a relationship with Christ, make wise decisions and treat others as they would want to be treated. We will be focusing on the theme of forgiveness all week. It will be an awesome time.

If you live in the Douglas area and have kids from 3 years old to 5th grade send them to GPC. We will be live from 6PM to 8:30 PM.

God Views

We had a great time in worship today at GracePointe. Curt Cloninger came to do his dramatic presentation of "God Views". It is a series of monologues that portray different views that people have of God. Some see God as a Cosmic Sheriff. Some see Him as Divine Butler. Other views include what I will call the Small Box God, the Senile Old Man, the Good Vibe God and a few others. He did an excellent job of using acting to get us to consider some of unbiblical ideas of what God is really like. He presented to us the idea that Jesus came for us to see 2,000 years ago. He acted like a wise old car mechanic to tell us that God is really like a good Chicken Farmer who takes in the "mutts" who have destroyed His chickens and strayed from the path He had planned for them. He adopts them to be His own by paying high price for their life. He takes in the undeserving so that they can ride in the cab of His car, so to speak.

You can check out his site by clicking on the link enclosed in the title of this post.

Simplicity

I am a big fan of simplicity. I was studying the confrontations that Jesus had with the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day over what was lawful on the Sabbath (Mark 2 and 3). The Jewish leaders had made the fourth commandment like our IRS tax code. It's so big and complex that virtually everyone was breaking it either by commission or omission. They developed 40 minus one prohibitions for the Sabbath. This included such actions as tying knots, walking, smoothing and reaping. You would have had to consult the priest to see if it was okay to tie your shoes, put your hair up or rub some suntan lotion on your body at the pool. If you had the gift of healing you couldn't use it unless somebody was about to die. I don't think God meant for following Him to be this complicated.

This is the problem in most organizations and churches. The more they grow the more complex as they get bigger and older. They develop more policies. They get more rules. Complexity grows like kudzu and chokes the life out of it.

That's why I like what I call "the glory principle." It's simple. Whatever you do just do it for the glory of God. If it doesn't glorify God then don't do it. Jesus said it this way in Mark 3:4, "Which is lawful (right/just) on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" That is simple enough.

Father's Day Message

This past Sunday I spoke to the fathers at church about giving their children something more than physical things. The sermon was from Mark 2:9-11. I focused on the words of the Father to Jesus Christ the Son. In verse 11, God the Father said to the Son, "You are my Son whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

God is the perfect Father and we can learn a lot about what to give our kids by these words. This relationship between Jesus and His Father is holy and healthy. It is the perfect model. Give them

1. Connection - "You are my Son" - Our kids need to hear and feel like they belong. We all long to belong. Connect them to God, family and the church.
2. Affection - "whom I love" - Our kids need to hear and feel our love. Don't assume they know it. Go ahead and say it.
3. Affirmation - "with you I am well pleased" - Our kids need correction, but they need affirmation is well. Let's be as quick to affirm them as we are to correct them. We all repeat what is rewarded.

Jesus Divides

Jesus is divisive. It sounds strange to say that, but it is true according to Luke 12:51-53. Read what Jesus says, 

"Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." 

Choosing to follow Jesus will split some families. One of the greatest hindrances to the gospel in rural America is the family. Families get more committed to each other than they are to Jesus. I see people struggling with this choice almost weekly. The hard truth is that we must all follow Jesus even if it cuts into our most intimate relationships. 

Cool Wordle

This is a cool site that puts together the words I have used in my blogs...excellent!

Check it out at http://www.wordle.net.

The Church at Work

The church is the Body of Christ. God works through the church. It is His plan and has been the plan since Jesus came and planted it around 2,000 years ago. This week I have seen the church at work. One act has stood out to me. 

We have a family that has faced a difficult health issue with a family member and had their house burglarized while they were at the hospital fighting for a life. The church came around them with love, financial support and probably other acts of kindness that I have not heard about. This is way cool and pleases God.

This is God being glorified. Praise Him for He is good.

Purple Cow Idea

Seth Godin has so many great things to say about business and ideas. Here is a really cool post about a restaurant in Colorado. The following is a snippet from his blog... 

www.soallmayeat.org is truly remarkable. Imagine going into a restaurant and seeing no prices on the menu. You might think that the food was really expensive, but that's not the case at the So All May Eat (SAME) Cafe in Denver, CO. The fact is that there are no prices on the menu because everyone pays what they can, many people pay more. 

To read the rest just click on link enclosed in "Purple Cow Idea".

Thought

Jesus sees.

A Good Name

A friend of mine passed away this year. I received a DVD of the funeral today since I was not able to attend his funeral. The front of the bulletin had Proverbs 22:1 written under his picture.

It says, "A good name is to be more desired than great wealth. Favor is better than silver and gold."

His name was a good name. When people thought of him they smiled and spoke well of him. He was someone who didn't sell his name. He cared about what other people thought him. But, more importantly, he cared about what God thought of him. 

He was a business man who was ethical. He was leader who was a servant. He was husband who was faithful. He was father who was honorable. He was a follower of Christ in the good and bad times of life. He had a good name in the community and he made God's name look great. 

This is something we can all strive for.

(In honor of John R. Cook)

Adequacy

I have been teaching on the life of Moses in Men's Bible Study. We are looking at his conversation with God in the "burning but not burning bush" episode. God is calling Moses to do the unthinkable. The Lord is asking him to lead a nation of slaves out of slavery in Egypt. Moses had already attempted to rescue them once and failed. Now forty years later on the backside of a desert mountain God calls Moses out to do what was he failed to do before.

Moses had a question like most of us carry in our hearts. Am I adequate to the mission that God has called me to accomplish? The unspoken answer is "no". That's why Moses failed the first time. He was going about the rescue in his way and in his power. Failure is the result of our attempt to fulfill God's purposes in our strength. But the spoken answer that addresses our real adequacy issues is the promise that God gave Moses in saying, "I will be with you."

This is the same promise God gives to us in Matthew 28:19-20. He is with us. It gives us the hope and courage to whatever He calls us to do. We are not adequate to accomplish God's purposes for our lives on our own. But if He is with us we can do anything. We can free the slaves from bondage. 

He makes up for what I lack. I am adequate when He is with me. I can lead GracePointe Church if He is with me. And the same is true for you. You can (fill in the blank) because He is with you as well.

The Greatest Advice From The Greatest Mother

In John 2:5, the mother of Jesus, Mary, gave the greatest advice in the history of humanity. If we applied it as a principle in our life we would see our lives transformed and our world impacted with the power of God. Mary gave the servants at the wedding in Cana in Galilee some powerful instructions that we would all do well to follow...

"Whatever Jesus tells you to do. Do it." (NASB)

It gives us pause to ask three important questions...

1. Am I open to do whatever Jesus tells me to do?

2. Am I listening for what Jesus wants me to do?

3. Am I willing to do what He says?

If we will follow what Mary said we may experience the miracle of God in our lives just like those servants did in the wedding at Cana.

The Latest

The Watson's

• Trish passed the GACE. She will be a teacher next year if the Lord grants her a position at Indian Creek.
• Connor's baseball team (GracePointe) is still undefeated. We won Monday 6-2 over McCrae's Pharmacy. Connor had a good game at the plate.
• We got rained out last night for baseball, t-ball and softball.
• AC has been out at home since Saturday night. It should be restored today if the rain will hold off. We have a freon leak.
• Caleb passed the test and will now be in the Quest program (gifted or something like that).

GPC

• Our mission team is planning our backpacking to school project for the end of July. We will provide backpacks with school supplies to every student at Broxton Elementary School. Most of the kids that attend this school live in poverty.
• The Catalyst Conference is coming up in October. I am really looking forward to it this year. The line up of speakers is great. Check it out at www.catalystconference.com.
• Our GracePointe kids served a spaghetti supper last Wednesday to raise money for GPC Village. They brought in $559. Awesome job.

Update

It has been a while since I posted. Blogging takes discipline and creativity. I will try to ramp up these in the future for both of my readers. I thought I might just post some stuff that is going on with the Watson's and GracePointe Church (our family).

* Our kids at GPC held a spaghetti dinner last night to raise funds to payoff the debt for renovating GPC Village. They raised $558 from tips. They served us with a Christ-like attitude. It was great.

* Two weeks ago I asked the church to give money towards our food pantry which needed $750 to cover costs for food boxes and to give $40 to help a local hispanic man trying to get a landscaping business going by paying to get him some professional looking business cards. He had only handwritten cards. I asked them to pray at the beginning of the worship service what God would have them give and place it in our HOPE Box. The church responded to the Spirit's leading and gave $800.75. It was just a little more than the exact amount we needed. Way cool!!!

* GPC Men's Softball team has finally got a win streak going. We have won 2 in a row after dropping four in a row. We won Tuesday 11-7. Thanks to Matt Baker who has done a tremendous job leading the team. Our record is 3-4, I think. We play tonight @ 8PM.

* We have six people going through our 201 class.

* We are planning to baptize five children on June 3 at our baptism service. That's awesome!!

That's a little bit of the happenings.

Jesus Served Humanity

Jesus demonstrated His love for humanity through service. He was the King who became a servant to all. The kind of humility that Jesus displayed was not just submissive; it was also sacrificial. He laid down His rights. He deserved to be served, but He served the undeserved.

Jesus was a different kind of leader. He was the essence of servant leadership. His service was grounded in love. He served in submission to God and with passion for humanity. He demonstrated this by removing His rabbinical garments, which symbolized His authority, and washed the disciples feet. He did for the disciples what is typically done by servants.

The love of Christ has been shown to us in His service to humanity.

Jesus Served

If you knew you only had 21 hours left to live on Planet Earth, what would you do? Most of us, if not all of us, would not spend our time serving other people, especially ones who would let us down. We would most likely spend our last hours being served. If you follow similar questions like this on the web, you will see that people typically respond with statements like...

"I would have sex with my girlfriend all day."
"I would go to places I have never seen."
"I would spend time with my family."
"I would tell my best friend of my secret love for them."
"I would party."

and the funniest...

"I would get a second opinion."

Jesus started His last 21 hours by serving the men who would desert Him, deny Him and betray Him. Jesus had a mission statement and it is found in Mark 10:45. It says, "I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many." The fact that Jesus served rather than being served was just in keeping with His mission on earth. He came to serve. His love is demonstrated by His service to humanity.

A-Rod & Confession

Unless you have been hiding under a rock recently, you are aware that Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) of the New York Yankees admitted to using steroids a couple of weeks ago. One of the responses to this story that I find fascinating is how many people say that he would have never confessed had he not gotten caught. I say, "Well, duh!"

The truth is that most of us never admit we have done wrong until we get caught. It's part of our bent toward sin. We sin and cover it up. Adam and Eve did it. King David did it. A-Rod did it. And we all do it. I think it just makes people feel better when they act as if they are morally upright rather than be quick to confess and thus be exposed. The vast majority of us, if we are
honest and we are not, sin and cover up. What we don't like about A-Rod is true of us. We know it's wrong, but we will never own up to it. It would have been better for A-Rod if he would have confessed sooner. It is better for
us as well.

Proverbs 28:13 says: "He who conceals his sin does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy."

21 Hours

A couple of weeks ago I started a new series on the last 21 hours of Jesus' life on planet earth in human form. I got real creative with the series title...it's called "21 Hours." The premise of the series is to take a fresh look of the love of Christ for humanity in His last day.

I believe the love of God is ultimately displayed in full glory in these last 21 hours. What Jesus did in those 21 hours was radical and revolutionary! I will update everyone along the way.