Great Day to Serve the Lord



Sunday was such a busy and tiring day for me but it was such a productive day as well. The day started very early; I got up with baby Ripley at 3am and feed her. She fell back to sleep by 3:30 am but I didn’t. I guess everything I had on my plate was in the back of my mind which kept me from going back to sleep. Teresa got up with Ripley at 5am so I think I finally slept for another hour; but not sure.


I got to church at 8:30am and unlocked the doors, turn on the lights, and made sure the trailers’ heat was turned on. I started the coffee pots; yes I said pots. I rearranged the men’s room to make sure there was room for the men. Last week we had more men than we ever had and the round table wasn’t big enough. Now the men are seating in a semi-circle; same concept but no table to rest the coffee cups. We had 8 men and a great discussion on the first section of our new study “The Man God uses to Lead The Family.”

The Sunday morning services went very well. We had more new faces and more babies in the nursery. The Q and A Session I had planned with our current Children’s Ministry workers went very well. We had a very good dialog and I am hopeful the changes that are needed will take place and the workers are on board. Lord willing, our children’s ministry will be able to be retooled to better reach the children with the gospel and equip them to grow in their faith. Once the meeting was over and the workers left, I got in my truck (2001 Ford Range; love that thing) and drove 30 minutes to the Great Bridge section of Chesapeake for a lunch meeting with a few ladies.

The lunch meeting was with the ladies who are redeveloping our Women’s Ministry. I got to the house in time to help Ed (the husband) to prep the lunch as the ladies (including Teresa and baby Ripley) watched a Beth Moore video on leadership. The lunch was out of this world; Ed grills a mean chicken. Once the lunch was over, Teresa went home because Ripley was fussy and the Women’s Ministry leadership and I sat down to go over what they had. I had challenged the ladies to come up with a mission, vision, and purpose statement for the retooled ministry. They came very prepared and they hit it out of the park. The meeting portion went from 2:30pm to 5:30 pm so I got home by 6pm. Saying I was tired would not come close to it.

It was such a productive day and God had His way in it all. I had prayed in the morning that everything would go His way and not my way. God is after all the One who does; I’m only following His lead. My loving wife allowed me to crash early and took care of Ripley to the point of sleeping with her in the guest room. She didn’t have to do that but she wanted to make sure I had enough sleep so I would be rested up for work today. I have an awesome wife.

Thank Heaven For Little Girls



“Thank heaven for little girls; for little girls get bigger every day! Thank heaven for little girls; they grow up in the most delightful way! Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
one day will flash and send you crashin' thru the ceilin'. Thank heaven for little girls;
thank heaven for them all, no matter where no matter who for without them, what would little boys do?”

Whenever I see Ripley’s picture (see to the left), the song “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” from the movie “Gigi” pops in my head. Little Ripley is such a little treasure. I thank God daily for His gift of her in Teresa and my life. She has changed our lives for the good. She has taught me more about the love of our Heavenly Father than any book I have read. The love I have for her; the things I would do to protect her; and the things I want for her I know pail in comparison of what our Heaven Father wants for her and for us.

Ripley is so adorable and she changes almost daily. She is so loving and cuddly to her Mommy and me. I can’t wait to see how her personally develops and who she will grow to be.

More Photos of Ripley

Below are more photos of Ripley and a vid of her enjoy her ball.

Ripley enjoying her call time.

I have to what? You see how big that ball is?

Tom has put together an early exercise route for Ripley; feel the burn!

Ripley having fun in her car seat.

Ripley is listening to Daddy tell her how much she is loved.

Look at me! I'm ready for church.

Ripley in her Valentine Day outfit.

Ripley and Mommy in Church.

Ripley with her Grandmommy.

Ripley with her Daddy and Granddaddy.

Downloading My Thoughts



As I stated several times before, I use this blog to download my thoughts so I can sleep. If I don’t, the things on my plate take up too much of my thoughts so I can’t sleep. With this said, this posting is all about what is going on with Common Ground and the excitement I have for our future.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from our Admin. Pastor letting the Elders know our offering amount. This is the first time I can remember that we took in more than our budget needs. We are able to buy a needed bulb for our multi-media projector and pay cash for two needed microphones. For me, it shows that the family meeting we had 2 weeks back has caused excitement for our people. My desire is to keep this excitement going so I really want to keep what we discussed in the forefront of our people. That’s not up to me; I’m one of 5 Elders so it’s group effort. As long as we all keep God’s direction first, we will continue with the momentum. I just want to say again that this group of guys is great and their hearts for the things of God are so tender.

I’ve shared this with our Admin. Pastor and a few others that I see the job as the Executive Pastor has being a person who gets the ball of getting more organized rolling and allow the people God sends our way to use their giftedness to get the job of ministry done. God is the One Who does, and we are simply called to follow His lead. My desire is to set up coordinators over each major ministry and have these coordinators loving manage the people working in the ministry. I’ll make sure they have what they need to execute the vision/mission statement. Ministry is the church body loving on each other; its inreach and fortifying the body for outreach.

I love the fact that Common Ground is Elder lead. All 5 of us hold each other accountable so the quote “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” doesn’t apply here. I know if I get to thinking it’s all about me, one of the Elders will call me on the carpet and I expect to be. Like I said before, I’m excited to see what God will do with us and Common Ground as we get better organized.

Ripley Enjoying Back Time

Teresa pulled out from the garage this map that has lights and plays music. We tried it out today for the first time and Ripley enjoyed it.

Oh, so many lights to see at one time!

I love this music!

Mommy, my hand tastes goood!

Daddy watch Ripley enjoying her back time.

Unleash Heaven


"At my signal, unleash hell."--Maximus (Russell Crowe in the movie “Gladiator”) to his troops.

The last week and half, I have been very mindful that we are a spiritual war. Whenever a Christ-follower does anything for his Lord and Master, Satan tries to stop him/her. It is so predictable. I knew when the Elders of Common Ground made the decision to do more to reach our community, to unleash Heaven, Satan would try and stop us. When a church goes or tries to go to the next level of reach the lost, Satan unleashes his troops to try and stop it; he unleashes hell.

The other day, Teresa asked me why we had been barking at each other more than before. At first I told her that I felt that it was the lack of sleep due to having a newborn baby and then I realized we had stopped praying together. We had been praying at night but had stopped. Satan was trying to cause strife in our home. He is very smooth about trying to destroy his enemy; the Christian. I have stopped looking for his attacks so I had lowered my shield. We should be ready for an attack because Satan never sleeps. He’s like a shark; always moving, always scheming.

God knew that these battles will be fought even though the war was won on Calvary’s tree (the cross) by Jesus’ sacrifice. In Ephesians 6 (verses 10-24), we are told of the armor God has made for each of His children to wear and the importance of wearing it. The most important pieces of armor we have is the shield of faith (verse 16 “. . . taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”) and sword of the Spirit (verse 17 “. . . sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”). We are protected by God from Satan; he needs permission to touch us but he can try and stop what we are doing for our Lord. Keep the shield raised high and keep in God’s Word (the Bible).

Satan knows what can cause us to stable and fall. He has spies following us and he knows us and our weaknesses. Peter warns the Christian to be watchful for Satan’s attacks. When thoughts of importance creep in when you are one of a group of leaders, it could be Satan trying to us your battle with pride to derail a church from going forward. When a co-worker shows you more attention than he/she should; it could be Satan trying to destroy a marriage. Be mindful and hold your shield high.

In the Great Commission, Jesus has commanded His people to go, to charge the world with the good news of His salvation; to unleash Heaven. Satan does not want this to happen so he is trying to stop as many Christians and churches from unleashing Heaven in this world. It’s his world; we live in enemy territory. Always be ready for an attack. The best weapon Satan has is causing the church and/or Christian to have a sense of claim and then hell is released. Keep up your shield.

The war has been won; the battles belong to the Lord. Keep your courage and stay with other warriors. Trust in God, and He will use you to do great things. We have power in Him and Satan has no power over us. Rejoice!