In case you are wondering what we are talking about on our Group Recovery Nights, at the House of Rock, here is the first week. It is a general overview of the whole program. In this video, I am simply trying to paint the background from which we can now operate.  It is probably the longest teaching component of this ministry.  Folks did great with being open to us trying to describe why we need Jesus in our recovery.

If you want the note sheets you can email Bonnie Jones, our coordinator, and she can get you what you need.  It’s not too late to sign up.  You get one week’s grace so again let Bonnie know if you would like to join us.

This material was used, under a licensing agreement, with the Village Church in Dallas Texas. Want more info on the program check out their Recovery Page.

Redeeming Recovery Overview – Jody May Fall 2010 from Oak Leaf Church on Vimeo.

This video is of Dana Sutton, who is our Coach for our small groups in this area.  She is going over what is to be expected when people participate in this group process.  She always does a great job in helping people relax while expressing to them that this will require work on their behalf.

Redeeming Recovery – Dana Sutton – Group overview Fall 2010 from Oak Leaf Church on Vimeo.

If you can’t make it this time we will be offering it again in the spring. If you are a member or a regular at Oak Leaf please take a moment and pray for our group leaders in this recovery process.  They are helping people get from where they are to where God wants them to be.

Josh Proctor
Vicki Harris
Bonnie Jones
Jamie Wilhoit
Dana Sutton

Here’s what I sound like on radio in case you were wondering.  Why is it your voice sounds good to you till you play it back. Have a laugh and listen to this…  I will post another one this week.

Dinner time, great for mental health too.

This was a recap from an earlier blog post I wrote about the healthy habit of a family eating together:

“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be dysfunctional?”

These scenes are from one of my favorite movies, which by the way if it is a half way decent western you have made it to my favorites list..

No big secret here.  If you have scene this flick you would notice that the character Kevin plays is all about intentional living.  Once he has decides to fight this thing out he knows none of the bad guys can survive.  In his own words to his boss, “I aint spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder!”  Now this is intentionality at it’s finest.

Once you make up your mind DO IT!

I mean I get the whole planning process and taking care of loose ends but geeeesh!  We lose so much momentum when we know we should do something and then we hem and haw about doing it.  Here are some areas where I see us as Christians blow it.

• “Should I lead a small group?”
• “Should I be in a small group?”
• “Should I serve in my church?”
• “Wondering if I should invite my neighbor to church?”
• “Is it safe to ask my co-worker over for dinner?”
• “Should I say something about a friends sin in his/her life?”
• “Maybe I’m the one wrong and I should apologize?”
• “Do I open my mouth at work and possibly risk job loss?”
• “Is it time to talk to my kids about sex yet?”
• “Is now a good time to pray?”

I don’t know what you are currently going through but for 90% of the time I bet for many of you your answer to the above questions need to be “YES”.  And probably if you are the one thinking, “Jody, you don’t understand.” Then you are wrong.  I wrote this for you.  I do understand so stop dragging your feet and DO IT!

The Church (Big C) needs more people that are ready to live with a sense of Intentionality.  You think God is speaking to you about something that’s a good thing?  Great, set your parameters for your prayer time/fasting, make the choice, and GET IT DONE ALREADY!

Not living with intent is like sailing a boat without a rudder.  Lot’s of action but no direction.  Jesus was intent on saving us and did not stray.  I thank God He lived that way.

By the way in the movie, the bad guys die, Kevin lives and gets the girl…

• They actually thought about making an instant Latte drink.  Why should us regular coffee drinkers have all the fun?
• Then they were clever enough to put it where these fufu coffee people hang.
• The fact that it’s instant explains to people all you need is hot water to make this happen.  Don’t fret – no machine required.
• The spiffy blue packaging let’s you know it’s different than their other instant stuff and yet it also goes with many of the newer SB stores décor.
• The price is right to get you to pick one up.

So here’s why I am pointing this out.

As a church how doe we point out what we want you to do?  Use a bulletin?  Make an announcement from stage?  A weekly email blast?

How’s all that working for you?

What if we tried to think about what we want our people to try and strategically thought about its placement?

• Putting information in a high traffic area where they will stop and notice.
• Do we offer things at the right price?  Free means cheep but low cost is a bargain.
• Do we stick to one product and just make variations of it?  Think ministries as compared to a variety of small groups.
• Put thought into packaging.  The rest of the world does this for the sake of attractiveness so should we.  Neon colored paper is soooo out guys.
• Is it easy to do?  Are there multiple steps to it or is it one stop shopping, as in signing up for a class or getting involved in serving.
• Can you create a culture/environment for the people that like to browse?  Most sales are done on impulse buying.

In times where nothing is certain in our economy we should be ready to embrace some changes.  What can you start doing today to attract the attention of your people?

There is a common theme that I am finding between all of them.

Idolatry

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.    Colossians 3:5-6 ESV

Idolatry can be defined as “worship or reverence given to any created object or person.” Now you may say, “I don’t go around bowing down to things and worshiping them.” Yeah granted, because if someone saw you praying to your new iPhone which you spent three hours on today while you spent like 15 minutes reading the Bible people would think you were crazy.  Which, in the very example I just gave lets look at another form of idolatry.

Fetishism (fetish is derived from the Latin word factitius, meaning to make – ironically the word fact originated from the same Latin word) is when “any living or inanimate object is regarded with awe and devotion.”

Over and over again I hear how the sin of idolatry creeps into the lives of people and destroys families.  Let me show you some examples of what I heard.

“He spends all night sitting down in the basement watching tv but what about me?”

“All he ever talks about is fishing or work.  That’s why I don’t like going out with him anymore.”

“Yep, I am traveling again this week. If I don’t I can’t work.”

“I am always asked where does all the money go.  I get accused of spending it?”

“They don’t understand this is just a hard time.  Trying to close down this business is killing me.  I have to work all the time.”

“I know it’s wrong, but I think about them all the time.  I still love them.” (me-but you are married to someone else, duh!?)

It all comes down to where is your heart.  I gotta tell you I am really sick of hearing excuses.  Marital covenantal relationships is about SACRIFICE! It ain’t about you doing your thing!  It is a sin against God and He definitely can’t bless your relationship while you are engaged in the act of worshiping something else other than Him.  Doesn’t work that way.  So don’t go there.

The biggest thing out of all those examples above is that we make ourselves the idol.  We worship ourselves. That is why we have to put our needs above others.

Later this week I will share some personal examples from my life and how this affected me but let me leave you with how God views this.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.  4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.   Exodus 20:3-6 ESV

It also reminds me to stop with the pity parties for myself because my problems are small compared with most of these people.

I talked with a gentleman yesterday who is separated from his wife.  This is the good part because then it all goes down hill from there. I can’t get too specific but it involves drug use, drug dealing, multiple jail times, unfaithful spouse, you get the picture.

The good part to this story? He tells me that God found Him while he was in jail.  Not him finally believing and following, but God got him.  He hasn’t used, hasn’t been around his old friends, and is seeking how to do this life right.  I love hearing about how the God of the universe chooses to love us by reaching down, picking us up out of the dirt, brushes us off  and makes us one of His!

Now here’s the funny thing.  I have heard this before.  Seriously, like a month earlier I almost heard the same story from another guy.  Then the wheels starts to turn in my head.  God is getting ready to redeem a people!

There is a part of our town here that God is about to call home.  He is about to destroy old habits, stop generational sin, rescue the fatherless, deliver the users, and care for the destitute.

That’s why a few months a go God puts in my head to start some type of recovery group this year.

This fall we will have two recovery groups begin.  They are the beginning of of something that I think God is going to bless over time.  There are so many people out there with, as I like to say, “junk in their trunk” that they need something like this to begin unpacking all of it.

Please pray for this with me.  Pray that we can become a church that will become the lighthouse in our community.  That we will be able to go to bat for those that need us the most.

To think that that there was an eye witness to voter intimidation AND he was a civil rights lawyer. Then to top it off they dismiss the whole thing!?

It seems to me now the we have seen the interpretation of the law by the government. Law is only good if it works for you. It is call postmodernism.  It is a way of thinking that quite honestly doesn’t make sense.  Read that definition of that word and then watch the news for a while.  Then give me your honest opinion of how Washington works.

If you want to know how I think we need to get back to reality you can watch an old post/message of mine here.

Wake up now. We need to show up in droves and vote for the way we want the country to go at the next election.

Catching up on some news today I came across the following video. I wanted to share it with you all because this is the type of thing that will go unnoticed because of the oil spill or what’s going on in Afghanistan. It was a major precedent upheld (remember our talk about doctrine) in the Supreme Court about our Second Amendment rights.

In this piece of information we find that in a 5 to 4 decision that again it was decided that you cannot take away the right for citizens to bear arms.  No big deal because it is a pretty cut and dry wording in that particular amendment.

Although, here is what I found to be interesting.

• Justice Sonia Sotomayor is nominated by the left and yet she sides with the right, whoops bad choice there.
• Congress is actually accusing the courts or Judicial Activism saying that it is putting their political interests above making fair decisions based on law.
• They are accusing John Roberts of being a ring leader?  Seriously?  Common man…
• Mr Schumer and Mr. Frankin (still can’t get over him being in there ) state that the courts are denying the rights of citizens and going on the sides of special interests.  Are they reading the same Bill of Rights I am?

So we ask why?  Well I think our commentator kind of hit it on the head.  Could it be a threat?  Can people actually try to intimidate the Supreme Court?

We shall see because like it was reported in the end all the Obama Care trials are coming.  I wonder if we shall see a balance of power actually come into play?

Should be interesting…

1.   The Patriot – reminds me of a lot of stuff.  Fighting for freedom, good   triumphing over evil, and what it takes to be a passionate dad.  And yes, it makes me cry evry time his little girl runs up to dad and begs him not to go.   But it also makes me more determined to keep the faith and live like I should.

2.  Jaws – Oh yeah!  Real patriotic right?  Nah, but there is something about watching this movie in summer because that’s when all the craziness goes down in this town during the opening of a holiday season.  By the way the water is still too cold to swim up there in the summer time. Been there done that, Crazy!

3.  Star Wars – By this I mean the original 1977 Episode IV A New Hope.  I remember the summer release of this movie and unfortunately so did my mother.  It was the first time I ever made her take me to see a movie twice.  Miss you mom!

4.  Meatballs – Oh the memories of summer camp (by the way I hated summer camp but Heather’s dad was an actual camp director, she loved it! Go figure…)  If you are a Bill Muray fan then you would like this film.

5.  Any type of John Wayne Western.  Why?  Because he’s American and cowboys is about as American you can get!  You won’t go wrong with one of these choices and you just might introduce your family to an old icon.

Well there you go, my top 5 movies I like to watch this time of year. Do you have something you like to watch in the summer?  Got some holiday traditions for the 4th?

Whatever your holiday traditions are do them with friends and family and remember God is the reason that America is great.

Happy 4th of July!

I was listening to some of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings. At one point Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her how could the Supreme Court over turn gun legislation based on decades of litigation based on a 5 to 4 decision.

Basically (and I am summarizing here so if I am misquoting please forgive me) Kagan stated that doctrine can be changed.  That if the precedents set are found not to be useful or the doctrinal foundations begin to erode then change will happen.  Also if some of the original facts that established the doctrinal beliefs are found to be misgiving then it can change.

Meaning, that the beliefs of the High court can change when they find it no longer useful for what they are trying to do.  Although, they should respect precedents.

In Honor of God at the Movies Oak Leaf Style

Now, funny thought comes to mind.  I think it’s important to understand something here.

Culture reacts the same way with Biblical Doctrine.  Culture will accept long standing biblical doctrine as long as they like it and it helps them in what they want to do.  When it stops working for them it is time to change.

Questions that come to mind:

Is it ok to change doctrine?

When is it ok to switch from one doctrine to another?

Can everyone be right?  If not, then who has the right answer?

These are just some of the questions that I have been asking myself over the last couple of years.  Because, I have found myself changing lately?  Am I changing to help myself cope with culture?  Or, is God showing me how it really is?

What about you?