Growin' Up Gregory

Evangelism Evangelism is simply communicating the gospel.   I’m willing to bet that there are some people in here who feel confident that they are obeying the Lord in their Bible intake, prayer lives, their giving, and their service.   But I wonder if any of us are fully confident that we are being as evangelical as we possibly can.   Why is evangelism expected of us?   Well because Jesus Christ himself commanded us to: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.   And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20                   Mark 16:15 – “Go into all the world and preach the good news”                 John 20:21 – “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you”                Acts 1:8 – “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to  the ends of the earth”  

Worship I read a story about a boy who was super excited about his 10 th birthday party.   His mom got the invitations together and sent them out.   The day of the party, all the boys played football and basketball outside until it was too dark to see.   Then, his dad grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and they even had cake and ice cream.   Each of the boys brought him a thoughtful present, and the grand finale of the evening was going to the high school basketball game.   The little 10 year old boy was so excited.   He couldn’t wait to sit in the middle of all his friends, eat popcorn and candy, punch each other, and cheer on their high school heroes.   But as soon as they went into the basketball gym, his vision of the perfect game ended.   All of his friends scattered and went and sat elsewhere, he never saw them the rest of the game, they didn’t even say goodbye before running off.   Is that sometimes how we treat God in worship?   Are we here on Sundays and Wednesdays where

Prayer The second most important spiritual discipline is prayer.   It can be argued that there are anywhere from 9, 12, or even more spiritual disciplines but Carl Lundquist stated that “Whatever varying religious exercises we may practice, without the two basic ones of prayer and Bible reading the others are empty and powerless.   We are expected to pray.                   Matthew 6:5 “And when you pray…”                 Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray…”                 Matthew 6:7 “And when you pray…”                 Matthew 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray…” Colossians 4:2 tells us to devote ourselves to prayer.   We are all devoted to something, most of us are devoted to too many things, I know I feel spread too thin a lot.   But when we make something a priority we make sacrifices for it, we dedicate time to it, and God is clearly calling us to be devoted to prayer.   After all his son Jesus prayed.   Luke 5:16 tells us “But Jesus often withdrew to lonel

Football season is right around the corner and very soon we’ll be seeing all the Friday night football highlights.   And then we’ll see nothing but football on ESPN when college and NFL teams kick off in a few weeks.   It’s the most exciting and often game changing plays that make the highlight reels, and there are only a few of those plays each game.   The only thing is that when the ball is snapped, we don’t know which play is going to be the game changer.   So how do we make sure that we’ve done our part when that game changing opportunity comes up?   By making sure that we do all the small things each and every play.   God may call you do something big, something great, but in order to be ready to answer that call we must be obedient in the small things.   The QB who made the perfect pass has thrown 100s of passes at practice, the WR who got open for the touchdown has run 100s of routes and done speed drills, and the lineman who blocked his man so the RB could score has spent hou

It's hard to believe how fast the past month has gone by.  It seems like just this past weekend we were at the hospital welcoming "Baby Thomas", as Wilson would say, into the world.  He's starting to notice us more, or at least seems to any way.  According to doctors, he's doing well and is healthy.   Not sure what he's doing here but I like the pose lol  And just in case you were wondering if he cries any     This month has flown by and been one of the most joyous and toughest of my life.  I'm thankful for the amount of help and support we have received from friends and family because without them there is no way we could make it.  I also have a tremendous amount of respect for single parents because it seems darn near impossible sometimes for Brittnee and me to be able to get everything done.  In Thomas's first month he has made a couple lake trips, a church trip, and a work trip. I'm thankful for this first month

I know I haven't posted much in a while but I've been kind of busy the last 2 1/2 weeks.  Brittnee and I have been going thru the ultimate on the job training...becoming parents!  Friday July 18th started out like every other day for me.  I got up, did my daily Bible reading, and went to the gym.  But after my workout that day was anything but ordinary.  We had a C-section scheduled for 10:30 since our son was breeched.  We rushed up to the hospital, actually on time for once and got there at 8:30.  They put us in one of the triage rooms to wait a little while....which turned into a long while.  Any one who knows me even sort of good knows that patience is not one of my strong suits but I got some practice that day.  We FINALLY were told that we were up next after what seems to be a very chaotic day in the labor and delivery area at the hospital.  I was told that mom started throwing food away (her and Kat were eating) and said "We've got to go now!".  It w