Good morning everyone,

I wanted to give you some details about the lake weekend if you were not able to be with us in Sunday school yesterday.

Click the link below for details:

YA Lake Weekend 2018

Please let me know if you have any questions.

We are looking forward to a great time of getting to know each other!

WG

Good morning!

I hope your Tuesday is going GREAT!

I’m updating you on a couple of things for this week, and two big events coming up.

First, Bible study is coming back this Thursday night! I can’t wait! Summer Bible studies are always really well attended, and everyone enjoys getting connected (or reconnected) with their friends. It’s a great time to meet new people, socialize, worship through music, and dive into God’s Word – I’m pumped about our new series “The Identity Thief”.  However, it’s just not the same without you! We need you to make plans to be with us Thursday night at 7:30pm at our house, and invite at least one person to come with you! Our group grows through you inviting your friends.  The address is 1085 Campground Rd, McDonough  If you need more specific directions let me know and I can help you.  We also feed everyone supper each week.  This week, we are having chicken and beef quesadillas!  We will have some gluten free tortillas for the folks who need that, and if you have any really specific dietary needs please let me know.

Second, Sunday School is also very important to our ministry.  It gives us a chance to study God’s Word in a different way than Thursday nights.  They’re both GREAT, but they’re different. Plan to be with us Sunday Mornings at 9:45. We are just getting started in a series on the book of Philippians in the New Testament.

Here are our two big announcements in case you weren’t in Sunday school this past Sunday.

1. We have our Braves Tickets in hand – Finally!  Make plans to join us Tuesday, June 26^th.  If you weren’t in Sunday school this week, please let me know if you need a ticket.  Your ticket is free!  HOWEVER – I can’t provide unlimited tickets for all of your friends.  I will give tickets to class members first, then give them to you that need an extra.
   Also, please remember to work on your ride to SunTrust Park.  We WILL NOT PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION in the form of a bus or van.  My suggestion is to find someone else who is going and make a plan to ride together.  Parking isn’t that expensive, and if several are in each car, then you’ll have a driver, a navigator, and a DJ!
2. We are having a lake retreat on July 12, 13, and 14 at Jackson Lake.  Mr Doug and Ms Reda Adams have graciously agreed to host us that weekend.
   Here’s how it will look:
   Thursday night Bible Study will be at the lake property at 7:30pm – I will send out the address and directions from church as we get closer to time.
   Thursday night – you can spend the night at the their lake house if you can – I know some will have to work on Friday
   Friday – Breakfast, lunch, hanging out at the pool/lake
   Friday night – Supper at 7:30pm and session two of our Bible Study series for the retreat, hanging out afterwards and spend the night
   Saturday – Breakfast, Session 3 of the series, lunch, pool/lake time
   Pack up Saturday afternoon to head home
   The cost will be $20 per person just to cover food expenses
   I do need to know if you can attend – and what part of the weekend you can attend – all of it, Thursday night/Friday night/Saturday, Friday night/Saturday only, etc.
   Start to ask off of work, and let me know.

If you have any questions about either of our events or our regular activities please let me know.

I want to encourage everyone to please invite your friends.  We grow because you get excited about what God is doing in your life and in our group.  Other people your age are looking for a great group of people to hang out with, and not have the pressure to act stupid.  They just want to get to know some awesome people, and we have a chance to share Jesus with them.  Friends are always welcome at everything we do – the Braves game is the only exception because I only have a set number of tickets.  So make a habit of inviting someone each week to Thursday night.

I love you very much, and we are excited to see you this Thursday at 7:30!

WG

I’m sitting at my desk on a Wednesday morning (obviously in front of a computer) trying to write about forgiveness without thinking of my own shortcomings.  I don’t think it’s possible. The fact is, I struggle with lots of things in my life.  I’ve lied, cheated, stolen, lusted, said stupid things, been angry in ungodly ways, blamed others for my mistakes, and oh so much more!  I’m not using you all as therapy, but I think it’s important for us to realize that people make mistakes of all shapes and sizes – and yes, unfortunately, that includes us!

That being said, forgiveness is a serious struggle in our world.  We like to hold grudges because it makes us feel powerful!  We don’t like to forgive because we’re afraid it will make us feel weak.  However, to make things clear, God’s Word talks about forgiveness, and God never stutters.  Read Mark 11:25, Matthew 6:15, and Psalm 103:10-13.  God wants us to forgive others because it clears the path for us to experience His forgiveness. Let’s be clear – Our forgiveness of others or lack thereof doesn’t dictate God’s ability to forgive us.  He IS capable of forgiving us no matter what we do – after all He is God.  However, we won’t experience that forgiveness and receive the ability to move on from our mistakes as long as we are holding onto the pain and anger from something someone did to us.

Here are the 8 things we talked about last Thursday night in relation to forgiveness:

1. Acknowledge you’ve been hurt
2. Think through that hurt – journal
3. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes – what are they going through right now that could cause them to act, talk, or think the way they are?
4. Remember, God forgave you so we have no right to hold onto something someone else did
5. God commands us to forgive – see the verses above
6. Let go of the pain and hurt – go to the person involved if possible
7. Continue to forgive – It probably won’t be all better overnight – it may take you saying it over and over again in your head (or even out loud) “I forgive you for…”
8. Pray for the other person – you CANNOT be angry at someone and pray for them at the same time

The practice of these things is much more difficult than writing them or reading them.  I’m praying for you to forgive today like we all have been forgiven!

WG

Good morning!

No matter when you’re reading this, I hope it finds you full of joy! I have told several people I would be posting about some of our fishbowl questions from the last several Thursday nights.  If you’re reading this and you’re unfamiliar with the concept – fishbowl Thursday came from something our student ministry did a few years ago. They had the students write down question pertaining to their spiritual lives (loosely pertaining in some cases) and they tried to answer them from a biblical perspective.  We adopted a similar approach but replaced the cards and fishbowl with texts and my yellow note pad so I could keep up with what had been asked without connecting a person to it.

Here’s a few questions that have been asked so far.

• Why does my life mirror the apostle Peter? I seem to make great choices at times and have everything under control, then in the blink of an eye I can do the dumbest thing ever.
• How do I share my faith with someone who is a professed atheist or agnostic?
• Which Bible version is the best and are there issues with some of them? – reasons I should/shouldn’t use certain ones

The last question I’ll mention is the one we covered last week and I want to spend just a minute recapping it.

Why do I feel guilty over every little thing? Is that healthy or right?

• The short answer is:  no it’s not healthy or right.  God never intended for us to feel guilty over the sin in our lives.  That doesn’t mean He condones it, or our sin doesn’t produce consequences.  God hates sin – mine and yours. His goal for a believer in Jesus is for us to live a life filled with holiness and love. However, He knows we will sin.  It’s inescapable. He still loves us anyway.  Romans 5:8 is proof of how He feels about us and our sin – “but God showed His love for us by loving me while I was still a sinner”.  He loves me, but hates my sin – but love wins.  He loves me so much that He made a way for me to conquer my sin and have the relationship with Him I was created to have – a relationship by salvation through Jesus!  Guilt is an emotional prison created by Satan to keep me beat down and prevent me from becoming who God wants me to be.  Conviction of sin comes from God, and is intended to spur my confession of sin and repentance from that sin.  Scripture never talks about us feeling guilty over sin.  Once it is confessed and I choose to move on from it, God sees it as over and done.  Psalm 103 clearly says He removes my sin as far as the East is from the West.  God doesn’t struggle with our sin after we’ve done what is asked of us in scripture, but we do struggle with it.  It’s much harder for me to forgive myself and move on.
• We also can feel guilty because we have taken ourselves out of God’s will for our lives.  I can agonize over and scrutinize ever little decision to the point I paralyze myself.  I’m afraid to make any choice because I might choose the wrong thing or make the wrong move. We constantly agonize over the wrong decisions and choices. We think “how can God use me?” when we choose poorly.  Guilt over poor decisions and choices can handcuff us to inaction.

I hope the questions and answers encourage you today!

If some of the other questions I mentioned spark something in you, please feel free to respond or ask for more information from our discussion of those.

We’ll tackle more questions this week!

WG

In the beginning God…

These aren’t just the words that begin the Holy Bible, but they’re THE BEGINNING of everything!  God’s creativity put on full display in the creation of…it all! His full measure of power and majesty for the purpose of His creation bringing Him glory.  It’s humbling and strips me of any power and authority I think I have.  I wish those words could have rang in the ears of Adam and Eve when they were tempted by the serpent in the garden, but they weren’t resounding loud enough to drown out the first lie.  Lies have been a part of this creation ever since, and they’re just as damaging today as that first one.

Unfortunately, we’re still falling for the same old lie.  We are tempted, and we fall.  We see something we want, and we chase it. We hear that little voice telling us how incredible this thing, this relationship, this job, this opportunity will be, and we fall head first like an MMA fighter after a kick to the temple.

Why would I choose a lie over REAL life? Understand life carries several meanings that we’ll address later, but the idea is simple.  Why choose something that is guaranteed to leave me empty and searching for more over the ONLY thing that can satisfy and bring true joy?  It makes no sense, but billions of people every day chase the lie.  The culprit has changed tactics over the years, and his current version one of the smallest things you own…your cellphone.  It is constantly giving us ways to compare ourselves, “like” everyone’s posts and have them “like” us, take selfies so we can control what “us” the world sees, and many more ways it sells us the lie!

How do we combat this issue? Come back to find out.

WG

I know so many people who struggle with guilt.  You know, that overwhelming feeling of having done, said, or thought something wrong.  Sometimes the guilty feelings are warranted. I have done, said, or thought something wrong, so therefore, I should feel “guilty”.  The problem most of us have isn’t admitting we are wrong, but it’s dealing with the wrong, then moving on from it.

From a purely biblical standpoint, God never intended us to carry around guilt!  The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin with the purpose of moving us to repentance and change, but guilt is a human emotion that hinders us from ever experiencing the true forgiveness offered by our God.

Our series on guilt over Christmas break hopefully helped us see guilt for what it is, a trick used by satan to keep us from experiencing everything God has for us.

• Where did guilt start? Genesis 3:7-13
• What does the Bible say about forgiveness and the guilt that often follows our seeking forgiveness: 1 John 1:9, Romans 8:1, Psalm 103:11-12, Philippians 3:12-13

How do I defeat guilt in my life?

1. Understand my Position in Christ
2. Live in God’s Power through Christ

Are you ready to live without the weight of your past mistakes? Good, because the Creator of the Universe is ready for you to live that way too!

This summer brought a few series to our group I want to attempt to summarize here – not all at once.  I think the idea of us gathering our collective thoughts and sharing what we learned (or at least needed to learn) is very healthy for our group.  So as you read this blog, there is an innate challenge: to read, think, and respond with a comment so others can see your thoughts.

The End of Me series was loosely based on the book of the same title by Kyle Idleman.  He is absolutely one of my favorite authors, but admittedly, I struggle reading even his books.  Not because they aren’t good or applicable, but because every time I sit down to read, I think to myself how many other things I could be “doing”.  So, my new solution is listen to books when I’m in the car.  My account with Audible has really helped my reading life a lot!

We tackled several concepts over the summer on Thursday nights from this series, but I want to focus on just a couple – Broken to be made Whole and Authentic to be Accepted. All of the concepts in the series seem oxymoronic.  How can something broken be made whole? I understand once something is broken it can be repaired to a usable state, but it can’t ever be like it was before being broken.  If you had that thought run through your mind, you’re right! Nothing broken can ever be made exactly like it was, but in the economy of the cross, it’s not supposed to be like it was – He makes it even better! Honestly though, it doesn’t make sense.  How can I be broken and be made whole at the same time?  To find the answer, you have to understand the definitions of “broken” and “whole”. Broken refers to my realization I have nothing of value to offer anyone.  I’m completely bankrupt! I am incapable of fixing myself.  I can try self help books and podcasts, I can go to the gym twice a day, I can learn to play golf or sing or play an instrument, I can get a degree – or another one, but I can’t fix the most basic problem in my life.  The problem simply stated is no matter what I do or what I achieve, I can’t be satisfied.  I still find myself wanting more of everything – money, fun, happiness, adventure, relationships, friends, likes, etc.  But in true Jesus fashion, He swoops in with this thought – maybe getting MORE of all these things isn’t really what I need. Maybe I need less of all this stuff, and MORE of Him.  When I’m bankrupt – totally incapable of anything worthwhile in life, then I find He can begin to piece me back together in a way I never imagined possible. He gives more value to my brokenness than I could ever amass in my “togetherness”.

The second thought from the series is one that wrecked me personally – Authentic to be Accepted.  The struggle for acceptance is something all of us deal with – most of us deal with it every single day. I am admittedly a pat-on-the-back-aholic. We all want to be liked by whatever group we are with at the moment.  If I’m at work, I want them to like and accept me.  If I’m at school, I want them to like and accept me.  If I’m at church, I want them to like and accept me.  If I’m playing ball, singing or acting, volunteering, or bowling in my off-hand, blindfolded league, I want them to like and accept me! We can’t escape the pressure of wanting to be “one of the guys” or “one of the girls”.  The problem with trying to fit into all these groups is they eventually overlap.  The work me and the social life me can’t exist together some days.  The church me and the bowling league me fight for time on Thursday nights.  Because of this struggle, most of us try the balancing act.  We schedule things very carefully, and try to never let the different ME’s meet.  Wearing all these different masks gets really confusing over time.  I struggle to keep the right mask on at the right place with the right people, and eventually we fail.  We can’t keep up the masquerade for long.  So the challenge in this oxymoron is simple – Am I willing to be authentic in order to be accepted by only One who really matters?  The truth in this is powerful and liberating – If I stop struggling to fit in with everyone and everything, then Jesus can show me He is enough. When I am willing to be authentic – show the real me – He takes me just as I am. No pretenses, no show, no act, no masks, just the real me, who He loves more than anything I can imagine!  Whew – trying to keep up the act for everyone is exhausting! It feels incredible to lay down the weight of that burden – try it for yourself!

Me – you gotta go! Join me on the journey through recovery from being a “ME” addict.

WG

Well, the inevitable has happened.  I’m sitting at my desk on this beautiful Monday morning staring at my computer screen, and my annual trek to the beach with my family is nothing but a memory.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the memories we made this year.  I’m also grateful for the time of rest and relaxation, but facing the fact it’s over can cause serious longing for the past – even if the past is just a week ago!

My struggle with returning to the “real world” after vacation each year is simple.  How do I return to my productive work life while maintaining the rest level I achieve on vacation?  I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to make that happen, unless I look to another source for the rest part of the equation.  I enjoy vacation because I don’t really have to do anything I don’t want to do, but in my “real life” I do lots of things that aren’t my favorite.

Here’s the question born out of my thoughts about vacation for this morning – and maybe beyond.  How do I reconcile doing what I want to do with doing what God wants? Our study in 1 Peter has been one of bold questions and in your face scripture.  Peter didn’t stutter giving the charges to us as believers in Jesus about living out our faith daily.  Take yesterday’s lesson as an example.  Learn to live in peace – not live “at” peace but IN  peace.  How on earth can we possibly expect to live inside peace all the time?  The biggest thing most Christians in America miss today is their relationship with Christ being THE most important thing in their lives.  We want Jesus as an accessory to our lives.  We want Him to be there when we need Him, but we tell Him to stay out of certain places, circumstances, and relationships.  The truth is, we only want Him to be around when we feel like we need Him.  If we think we can handle something on our own, then we’re good leaving Him on the sidelines.

Here’s the thing: He can’t work and move in our lives without our total surrender to Him.  As long as we’re trying to get our way, and tag Him on as an accessory, then He’s blocked from changing our lives.  I heard it this way one time:  God is a gentleman, He’s never going to force His way into your life.  If you say you don’t need Him or want Him, then He’s going to allow you to do it your way.

I hope you can take a few minutes and chew on that today.  God loves you more than you could imagine, but He’s not going to usurp your will and force you to the best path for your life.  The choice is yours.  Follow Him or do your own thing.

WG

Good Morning,

I hope you are having an incredible day so far!  I’m using every means possible to get the word out about tonight’s Bible Study.  First of all, it’s going to be an amazing night filled with great people, music, and time in God’s Word!  That should be enough to get people there, but we’ve added another draw just for you!

We are having an “Easter Dinner” for the meal.  We are having ham, green beans, potato salad, rolls, pecan pies, banana pudding, some chocolate desserts, and more!

I’m not sure everyone always thinks about why we do food each week.  It’s for YOU!  We want to remove any and all hindrances in the way of you getting there.  I know schedules can be tough sometimes, so we provide a meal each week just to help you out.  Some folks eat every week and some never eat.  That’s all good.  We just want you to know we love you and appreciate the effort you make to be there.  BUT, tonight is really special.  We are going to talk about the Easter Story.  We’re going to focus on the crucifixion and how it changed our lives – and our eternities.

Please make every effort to come, invite 3 people, and join us for an incredible night.  The food will be amazing, the music is ALWAYS awesome,  and we can’t wait to see you!

Jenny and I, Doug and Reda, and Daniel and Jennifer love you very much.  Commit to be there tonight, and come EXPECTING great things!

WG