THE MAJOR’S LIFE BLOG

1.  It’s certainly not a competition as to who gets to the movie theatre first in the morning, but (for a change) I beat Anne J. there this morning by at least a couple of minutes. Then again David C. and David ‘Ritz’ were there before me. They just didn’t know that the front door was already unlocked !  (They were waiting out front.)

2.  Due to personal reasons near and dear to me this morning’s 9 AM service was the most emotional Sunday morning service for me ever - in the 18 months (exactly) that I’ve been attending Life Pointe Church. During selected portions of this morning’s service it truly felt like Pastor Travis was speaking directly to me and about me regarding some situations that are currently going on in my Life. I’m sure that some of my fellow brothers and sisters in attendance felt the same way - that Pastor Travis was talking to them and about them from the stage. The fact of the matter is that God is using our Lead Pastor to communicate to us corporately each and every Sunday morning. That makes Pastor Travis very relevant. God is truly omnipotent.

3.  Pastor Travis spoke on exhaustion this morning. The following statement in his teaching caused me to get the chills and get very emotional with tears - ‘To run with endurance all the way to the end, you have to drop your dead weight.’ It’s based on Philippians 3:13-14:
13  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
14  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

4.  A few of our regular attenders have been asking me about the next membership luncheon at The Capri Restaurant in Florida City (where all of the food is). The next one is scheduled for Sunday August 17TH at 2 PM. You can sign-up for it at the Information Booth next Sunday morning, or you can let us know that you (and your family - if applicable) wish to attend via your connection card next Sunday. If you have any questions regarding the membership luncheon then please feel free to stop me in the hallway next Sunday morning and ask me about it.

5.  I recently switched over from the 10:30 AM service to the 9 AM service, and you can too. There’s plenty of seats available during that first service, so consider making that switch. Be sure to arrive at the theatre in time for the actual start of each service - whether it be precisely 9 AM or precisely 10:30 AM. Jesse leads the LPC band up on stage with at least 15 minutes of rockin’ music that will surely get you up on your feet, singing loudly, clapping proudly, and even gettin’ down with a little bit of dancing. If you’re missing the big music show at the start of each service then you are definitely missing something !

Are you ready ?  Here’s what I’m talkin’ about !

1.  It’s a cool, dark, and stormy Tuesday afternoon in Homestead. We’re still in a drought if you can believe that. We need a lot more rain than this to get ourselves out of this fine mess !

2.  My brother and his lovely wife got me addicted to the TV show TMZ while I was at their house in Texas. I watch it almost every night now. I never saw a single episode of it before my recent trip to Texas.

3.  I never realized how much I actually like iced coffee … before I started drinking iced coffee !  I’ve made the new Homestead Starbucks a Monday afternoon tradition (right before the weekly Life Pointe Church staff meeting).

4.  Irony ? - A coworker of mine standing barefoot on an old chair on top of a hard floor while updating our building’s safety bulletin board !

5.  Yesterday I picked-up the new premium fish fillet sandwich from Wendy’s, and I brought it back to work. I microwaved it (to get it a little warmer than it was), and it emitted a wonderful smell that attracted a small portion of my coworkers. They adored that smell. It probably smelled better than it tasted. It was a fine sandwich, but I wouldn’t consider it to be ‘premium’. If anything it was perhaps a bit overpriced.

6.  Watch this cool Life Pointe Church promotional video from this past Sunday morning. I’m not in this one. I told Jesse that I wanna be a lovable babyface in his videos rather than a miserable heel. Travis alleges that I have a loyal cult following at the church. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a not so good thing.

7.  Every Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church I manage to get myself in to a whole bunch of pictures, yet they never see the light of day. I challenge you to put those pictures online, or send them to me and I’ll put them on the blog here.

8.  Here’s my brother in a recent text message to me describing what he had to deal with regarding his beloved dog Buddy - ‘… on Saturday he ate grass outside then ate insect killer that I sprayed, then vommitted BRIGHT YELLOW PUKE in A CIRCLE in the living room’.

9.  My 2002 HP Pavilion laptop is dying a slow death. I can see myself buying a brand new one sooner than I thought - like before the Summer is over. I may even donate this old laptop to the church once I buy the new one.

10.  Got ‘Rock Band‘ ?  I’ll be the lead vocalist. I’m good like that !

1.  I don’t even try to beat Anne J. to the movie theatre bright and early on Sunday mornings anymore. This morning she was already working on starting the coffee by the time that I got there (well before 7:30 AM). I’ve decided that of all of the tables that are set up in the main lobby the two most important of them all are the tables for the Café (where the coffee and the bagels and the cream cheese go). Everything else comes after that !

2.  The ’summertime slump’ continues at Life Pointe Church. There were a bunch of our regular attenders and members out on vacation, but we still had an above average total of first-time and second-time guests. Instead of a total attendance in the mid-to-upper 400s (kids included) we were closer to the low-to-mid-300s this week (estimated). That’s not bad at all for the middle Sunday of July !

3.  While it’s fine to count people we must remember that it is always about the human lives and what God is doing to transform them. God is only going to send these human lives to us if we (as a church) know what to do with them. If we don’t have our act together at Life Pointe Church then He will stop sending them to us. Right now I think that we meet with His absolute approval. We must keep it that way. We must continue to expand His kingdom here in the big city. We must continue to lead our brothers and sisters by the hand so that they can have total access to Him. We must continue to walk His fantastic journey together as we all follow Him !

4.  Pastor Travis spoke on ‘Conflict’ this morning, and he utilized the following Scriptures from the Good News to reinforce his teaching:
Philippians 3:1-11
Matthew 7:1-5
Matthew 18:15-18
Matthew 5:21-25
Romans 12:17-19

5.  My favourite of the five Scriptures above is Matthew 7:1-5:
1  “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.
2  For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
3  “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own ?
4  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye ?
5  Hypocrite !  First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Check out what this blogging lunatic had to say about this morning’s services at the LPC !

1.  Of all of the regular weekly blog entries that are posted on here this is the one that I look forward to compiling and posting more than any other. This is totally unrehearsed, and I am totally unprepared for it. This is raw, and that’s what makes it so cool. I have absolutely no clue what I plan to blog about for the next 9 items of interest, but I’ll just let my fingers do the talking and watch what happens.

2.  The 10TH season / 9TH summer edition of “Big Brother” on CBS-TV begins this Sunday night at 8 PM EDT / 7 PM CDT. Please don’t bother me while it’s on (three nights a week as usual).

3.  Some days everyone around me is a lousy driver. They either drive too slow in front of me, pull out in front of me, or tailgate me. This was one of those days. I couldn’t wait to get off of the streets.

4.  Everytime I sneak a peek at this book I spend more time in it than I intended. I need to find some time this weekend to intentionally spend a couple of hours with it. It’s what I do for Life Pointe Church. It’s how I serve God and His children here in Homestead.

5.  This afternoon I ordered a medium roast beef sandwich combo (with curly fries and a Sierra Mist) and an apple turnover via the drive-thru at Arby’s in Florida City (where all the food is). That’s what I paid for, and I’ve got the receipt right here to prove it. I got the curly fries, the Sierra Mist, and the apple turnover, but in lieu of the medium roast beef sandwich that I was truly looking forward to devouring I instead got - get this - a REUBEN !  I can dig mistakes like that when they work out in my favour flavour !

6.  Are you tired of all of the rain here in Homestead (nearly 14 inches over the past 22 days) ?  GOOD - I’m forecasting very little to no rain at all for the next 5 to 7 days (until perhaps early next week). Let’s see if I’m right.

7.  The Washington Redskins and The Indianapolis Colts kick-off the 2008 NFL season with the annual Pro Football Hall-Of-Fame Game in Canton Ohio on Sunday August 03RD 2008. That’s only 26 days away. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT !

8.  I saw my hot new laptop on sale at a Best Buy in Plano Texas last week. The longer I wait the cheaper it gets with more power. Laptops with 4 GB of RAM are pretty much standard nowadays. So are desktops with 8 GB of RAM.

9.  I survived my 5TH cold in 8 months. It lasted 6 days. I kinda knew that I was getting it before I got it, and it was pretty much gone before I realized it. Here’s hoping that I don’t have to be blogging about my 6TH cold in 10 months come Labour Day Weekend !

10.  THIS JUST IN - My brother and his wife (my sister-in-law) now have a cold. My 6-DAY cold ‘peaked’ on its 3RD day. That was my last full day at their house. I felt a little bit better on the 4TH Of July - the day that I left them behind and flew back home. A single contact with my nasty cold germs left behind and it was pretty much all over for the both of them. They’ll probably infect each of their coworkers.

1.  I arrived at the movie theatre at around 7:25 AM on this glorious Sunday morning, but you’ve got to wake up mighty early to beat Anne J. to the punch. Why she already had her dependable fuel-efficient maroon car (AKA the ‘LPC-Mobile’) emptied out and parked in a legitimate (legal) parking space by the time that I arrived. She’s expedient like that !

2.  I decided early on that it would be in my best interest to attend the 9 AM service for the first time ever, and then (perhaps) go home and continue on to the road of recovery from my 5TH cold in 8 months. I did just that - attended the first service that is - but then due to a torrential thunderstorm (in which we received nearly 3 inches of rain in about an hour) I decided to stick around and serve during the 10:30 AM service. As it turns out I very much enjoyed the split serve / service / serve morning so much that I asked Anne J. if it would be OK to switch permanently to attending the first service and serving during the second service. She stated that it would be coolio, and so now I am a hero for giving up my prime seat at the second service.

3.  As the 9 AM service began I saw J.T. directly in front of me, and maybe 3 or 4 other people in the ‘cheap seats’. There were more people up on stage performing ‘Praise & Worship’ than there were down in the ‘banana section’. People then started to flow in at a rather steady rate for the next 30 to 45 minutes after that. We finally hit our ’summertime slump’ this week. That’s right - instead of the upper-400s in total attendance we (unofficially) only made it to the lower-400s. Blame it on the rain - oh yeah - and the 4TH Of July holiday weekend.

4.  Pastor Travis spoke on Temptation this week. I think that it was one of his most sensible messages in a long time. Temptation is a fact of Life. Recognizing temptation to sin is a gift from God. It is the absolute power of the Holy Spirit in our Life. If we stray from what is right and then blow it then we must acknowledge it and move on. Even when nobody else is looking we must always act like a true follower of Jesus Christ if we claim so. We must not be a follower for a mere 90 minutes on any given Sunday morning, or just when our fellow believers are all around us. It must be always and forever. Our walk with God must match our talk about Him. It’s OK to be angry at one another temporarily. It’s never OK to be sinful. To be sinful is to be tragic.

5.  After 5 hours of serving, service, and more serving at the LPC I enjoyed a nice Lunch at Chili’s with Tammy. I then proceeded over to the LPC office suites in olde historic uptown Homestead for a couple of hours of follow-up work related to all of the new guest forms and connection cards that were turned-in at both services this morning. It is now time for me to populate this fresh-new-and-improved EXCEL spreadsheet o’ mine !

That’s your ‘Tossed Salad’ for this glorious Sunday at Life Pointe Church in Homestead Florida. Be sure to join me again next Sunday for more on the continuing excitement that is the steady expansion of God’s Kingdom here in the big city. We’re making it really easy to find, hop on, and navigate His fantastic journey. Won’t you join us as we follow Him ?

Be sure to check out Pastor Travis’s ‘Sunday Wrap-Up‘, as well as Kelly’s ‘Sunday CHICK-kabob‘. There’s also Jesse’s ‘From The Stage‘.

It’s great to be back home in Homestead. I’ve been home for a little over 24 hours now, and I’ve used this (Satur)day to relax and return to a more normal routine.

I’m looking forward to a lot of ‘normal routine’ things during this upcoming week. I’m looking forward to serving at Life Pointe Church for 3 hours starting at 7:25 AM tomorrow (Sunday) morning. I’m looking forward to attending the 10:30 AM service right after that. I’m looking forward to blogging the ‘Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad’ on here tomorrow afternoon. I’m looking forward to returning to work at 6 AM on Monday morning. I’m looking forward to the weekly staff meeting at the Life Pointe Church office suite right after work at 4 PM on Monday afternoon. I’m looking forward to a visit from the Orkin dude on Tuesday afternoon because he keeps my home bug-free. I’m looking forward to hangin’ out with my Life Group at 7 PM on Wednesday night.

I’m looking forward to all of these things and everything else in-between that makes this Life the best Life that I could ever imagine. All of these great things are possible because of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He has made this Life especially for me. I am forever greatful of Him and what He did for me, and what He is doing for me. There is no-one and no-thing that is greater than Him !

This morning I didn’t get out of bed until (a SHOCKING) 9 AM !  I’ve already set my alarm clock for 6:30 AM tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Despite the late ‘getting up’ time this morning I’m gonna try to get back to bed at a reasonable time tonight (such as 10 PM). It felt so great to be back in my own bed last night. In fact it felt so great that I was in it for nearly 12 hours (from 9 PM to 9 AM) !

May each and every one of you have a safe and peaceful Saturday night, and until we hang out again here on the blog or LIVE and in-person - remember this (and turn up the volume LOUD !):

Here are a few thoughts from my Saturday morning:

1.  I walked in to Miami Internacional Aeropuerto at exactly 6:45 AM, and by 7:15 AM I had successfully self-checked-in with my airline, picked up my tag for my suitcase, and dropped off my suitcase with the screening section. By 7:30 AM I had successfully gone through security. It took a little over 45 minutes to get from the outside of the terminal to the actual gate. That’s not too bad. Anytime I can get from outside to the gate in less than an hour is a good time.

2.  Your typical big city airport may be crowded, but it can also be one of the loneliest places in the world. It’s never about the sheer number of people. It’s always about the quality of the interaction of the people. Call it fellowship. If there’s a lack of fellowship then it’s not fully alive.

3.  There were large organized groups of missionaries at the airport. Most of them came from or were headed to various Caribbean nations (such as Haiti) to assist in the relief efforts there. I know this because they all had colourful tee-shirts on stating that they were missionairies. Some of the tee-shirts had a map of Haiti on them. Some of them had a verse from Matthew on them.

4.  I usually can’t sleep at all no matter how hard I try to up in the air, but this morning I managed to somehow catch a few catnaps at 38,000 feet. I also listened to the hits on my iPod Shuffle and watched a couple of funny CBS sitcoms on the overhead monitors - “The Big Bang Theory” and “The New Adventures Of Old Christine“.

5.  Fuddruckers - It’s What Was For Lunch !  Need I say more my friends ? 

DOUBLE FEATURE !

• ‘Look forward to great fortune and a new lease on life.’
• ‘You have an ambitious nature and may make a name for yourself.’

BOTH of these fortune cookie messages totally apply to me. As far as the great fortune and the new lease on Life is concerned - YES - I can truthfully sit here tonight and emphatically state that I have been enjoying God’s plentiful fruits of great fortune ever since my previous life died. All bad things must come to an end, and so it did. He saved me, and I was reborn again to begin a brand new Life on His fantastic journey. I think that the second fortune cookie message is the result of this vibrant new Life. For the past 22 months I have finally had real purpose in my Life. I am Fully Alive. I have finally made a positive name for myself after being a lifeless mannequin for the first 39 years on God’s Great Earth.

This is one of my favourite verses in the Good News:
1 Peter 1:23 (NLT) - For you have been born again. Your new Life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new Life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

WELCOME to a fresh new week here on the big blog. TODAY - Monday June 23RD 2008 - turned out to be the busiest Monday in the history of this blog. You crazy cats shattered the previous Monday record (set back in April) by a mind-boggling 28.7%, and you did that without me. I didn’t even touch my blog until after the day had officially ended (at 8 PM EDT / 12 AM UTC).

Last week we enjoyed our busiest Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday EVER, and it was also our busiest (Monday to Sunday) week EVER by a whopping 15.5%. Keep on doing your thing on here - reading and commenting. It’s all part of the overall concept of blogging. You are all bloggers, and together we are keeping in touch with each other when we can’t be right next to each other physically. It’s like a ministry of fellowship on here. This is how we take our faith public via modern electronic means in the 21ST Century.

I was at my Saturn dealership in Cutler Bay for nearly 7 hours today waiting on my car as it was getting nearly $1,100 worth of repair work done. Luckily I didn’t pay that much (because there were exactly 3 days remaining with the original 5-year extended warranty for the car). During those 7 hours I scribbled down a few rough notes in preparation for tomorrow’s ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. It’s the most spontaneous blog entry of the entire week, and you’re not gonna believe some of my thoughts tomorrow. It’s what everyone will be talking about around the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday on Wednesday. Don’t you dare miss it. You won’t regret it pal.

Later this week you may not want to use your cell phone ever again once you see the most SHOCKING ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ to date !  This is the one that could really frighten you to bits and make you tremble in fear, or it could all be an Internet HOAX !  You decide - Thursday night.

So that’s what I’ve got for you tonight - an obvious ‘Blatant Promotion’ of this blog and all of you who are an important part of it. Without you this wouldn’t be. I’ll catch you all back here tomorrow - same time - same channel. Have a great evening everyone !  Good Night Friends. Good Night Gricelda.

1.  Anne J. was the first to arrive at the movie theatre this morning, and she greeted me with open arms once I arrived. Actually she greeted me and told me to open my arms so that she could put stuff on them that came out of her car. Anne’s car is a ‘Mobile Life Pointe Church On Wheels’ at 7 AM every Sunday morning. I’M SAYIN’ !

2.  Richie Nieves and Mark Martinez (in his final LPC appearance) put up Pastor Paul’s Information Booth this morning. It only took them about an hour and 15 minutes to do so. Pastor Paul can usually do it blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back in about 15 minutes or less. OK I’m exaggerating here, but the point that I’m trying to make is that only Pastor Paul can put that thing up and make it look great within a minimal period of time. That’s why everyone refers to it as ‘Pastor Paul’s Information Booth’.

3.  Pastor Travis took a well-deserved break this week to allow Pastor Paul to lead this week’s message. As part of our extended ‘Got Funk ?’ message series Paul spoke on ‘The Funk In Death’. I don’t have any of my notes from this morning’s service because of what happened this afternoon following the services. Pastor Travis and Pastor Paul are expected to post their ‘Sunday Wrap-Up’ and ‘Sunday Stew’ respectively. Additionally Marcela is substituting for the working LL Phil J, and she admitted that there could be trouble if she doesn’t follow through with her promise to post the ‘Sunday Talk Soup’. Look for those synopses to appear at a blog near you later tonight or early tomorrow.

4.  At 12:15 this afternoon I went out to my car in the movie theatre’s parking lot, and it would not start. The battery was low, and it wouldn’t crank. ‘Service Vehicle’ appeared on the computerized display on the dashboard. I ended up riding with Paul and Nathan in the ‘Hollifieldmobile’ over to the LPC offices, and then we picked-up the rest of the Hollifields and ventured east over to Homestead Bayfront Park.

5.  If you’re looking for a down-and-dirty scandalous report from the beach regarding our baptisms then prepare to be disappointed my friend. Everything went fine and dandy at the beach. One of the lifeguards that was a huge part of the April 13TH melee even came over to us and very politely asked us to move slightly over to the left-hand side of the beach area so as to not block the front side of one of the lifeguard stands. We did so, and then we proceeded. About a dozen new believers went public with their new faith in God. We had an audience in excess of 100 including virtually every other soul that was in the water looking on from beyond. It was a beautiful picture and a beautiful event on a beautiful day at the beach. God was smiling down at us, and the devil was running away from the scene of the crime as fast as he possibly could without even looking back.

6.  I won’t be at Life Pointe Church next Sunday morning. In fact I won’t even be in Homestead or Florida. I’ll be on vacation elsewhere. Be sure to check out the previously identified blogs for the happenings of next Sunday morning. I’ll be back with your next exciting edition of the ‘Tossed Salad’ on Sunday July 06TH. I’ll see you cats then !

You know you want it, so don’t let me be the one to deny it:

1.  On this dark and stormy Tuesday afternoon in Homestead I actually heard the following overused phrase from a coworker - ‘I think this is gonna be a really bad hurricane season. This could be the worst one yet !’ Remember when Hurricane Andrew destroyed Homestead 16 years ago this August ?  That was one of the quietest Atlantic hurricane seasons in modern history. It only takes one powerful hurricane to wreck havoc with your life as you know it. If we have an all-time record 30 named storms this season, yet none of them strike land anywhere near you then what kind of hurricane season is that ?

2.  We’re getting a lot of much-needed rain today here in Homestead. I totally dig that. We need every last drop of it and then some to pull us out of this extended drought that we’re in. We could really use at least three FEET of rain (that’s right - 36 inches) over the next three months !

3.  If you think that you haven’t seen that many mosquitoes out and about thus far this Summer then check again by this weekend. Let me know if you can feel them biting you in a few days.

4.  Last Thursday I celebrated the 23RD anniversary of my United States Air Force / Department Of Defense career. Time flies when I’m having fun !

5.  Last Friday I celebrated the 13TH anniversary of me living here in my current home here in Homestead. This is by far the best place that I have ever lived in my entire life / Life.

6.  For those of you who are new to my blog let me explain. When I refer to the last 22 months of my Life the word ‘Life’ is always capitalized. When I refer to the 39 years before that the word ‘life’ begins with a lower-case ‘l’. When I write about my ’life / Life’ I’m referring to my previous sad, miserable, and directionless life, as well as my current Life - full of glory, joy, and purpose for I have been saved and reborn again by the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s all symbolic, but it also keeps it all in perspective.

7.  My next laptop will have at least 2 gigabytes of memory in it. My current laptop has exactly one-fourth that amount. I think that I will finally buy a brand new laptop sometime between now and the end of the year. I’m actually not looking forward to it. Once I buy that new laptop this blog may suddenly go inactive for about 3 to 5 days because it will probably take that long to transfer all of my files over from this laptop to that laptop and also install and configure various programs. There’s a lot of work involved there. If I knew that it would be really easy then I would probably already have a new laptop by now.

8.  Ela O. called me on the telephone this afternoon, and we talked for exactly 7 minutes and 29 seconds. She made me laugh hysterically, and I returned the flavour. The telephone is my least favourite electronic device that I could easily live without; however, when I see that it’s Ela on the other end (via my Caller-I.D.) I know that I should be prepared to laugh up a storm with her. She has every reason in the world to be sad and miserable, yet she is one of the happiest and most joyful women I know in my current Life. She’s got a whole lot of purpose remaining in her Life here on Earth on God’s fantastic journey !

9.  Ela tried to pull a fast one on me during that telephone conversation by telling me that I was being assigned to make coffee this Sunday morning at the Life Pointe Church Café. We have quite a few Medical Doctors and Registered Nurses that are part of our LPC family. They would be put into action and forced to go to work on their fellow brothers and sisters if I were to make coffee on Sunday morning. We would need a couple of shuttle buses to transport the victims from the movie theatre to the hospital. I stopped making coffee for the general public in 1989 - not because I made anyone sick or anything like that - but because I could. Nowadays I actually make my own instant coffee for myself on most mornings. It would probably cause irregular heartbeats for most normal healthy humans.

10.  The Sun is now shining brightly and baking the atmosphere directly above my neighbourhood. That only means one thing. Prepare now for another ferocious thunderstorm with torrential downpours in about an hour.

‘Place special emphasis on old friendship.’

I’m 41-years-old, and I can count exactly two people in this world who have been my friends for at least half of my entire life / Life.

Marge R. is one of them. I’ve known her for over 20 years now - pretty much my entire life / Life since I’ve been living here in Homestead. She was telling me all about God for much of that time. I just wasn’t listening very carefully. She never gave up on me. If it weren’t for her none of you reading this right now would know me today, and I wouldn’t know you. I wouldn’t be living here in Homestead. I have Lunch with her every few months or so. She’s one of the greatest ladies that I’ve ever met in my entire life / Life. I can write that knowing that she’ll never see this. She doesn’t know what a blog is. She doesn’t know how to go online. That’s fine. I prefer to tell her these things LIVE and in-person. It’s not like she hasn’t heard them all before.

The other person who I’ve actually been friends with longer than Marge R. currently lives near an Air Force Base in Colorado. He was my best (and pretty much only) friend when we were stationed together over in the U.K. about 21 to 22 years ago. I haven’t seen him in person since November 1987, but we’ve been keeping in touch consistently ever since then via Christmas cards, (pre-Internet) letters, and (modern-day) E-Mail.

While a few good lifelong friends came in to my life during the 1980s and 1990s I can sincerely state that I now have hundreds of close personal friends today that are praising, worshiping, living, loving, learning, obeying, and following Jesus Christ alongside with me. They are VIPs within our Life Pointe Church family. I believe that many of these ‘new’ friends will be lifelong friends who I shall live the rest of my Life with forever whether it’s near or far. I am currently living the greatest times of my Life, and you sitting right there reading this are truly part of it all. Hang On !  It just keeps getting better !

1.  David Corrado and Richie Nieves arrived at the movie theatre long before anyone else did this morning. They were there long before Pastor Travis, Pastor Paul, Anne J., and myself were there. They wanted to get a head start in transforming a public place of Hollywood movie magic into a public place of praise and worship for God. David and Richie are so assimilated into our living and breathing body that is our Life Pointe Church family. That’s what it’s all about.

2.  There is no ’summer slump’ in-progress at Life Pointe Church. I think that Flagship Cinemas Corporate Headquarters (up near Boston Mass.) would have been totally ecstatic to have a crowd show up at any one of their movies during the week that showed up for our 9 AM service. It was ‘bumping in to other people room only’ all throughout the main lobby just before the 9 AM service, and then again just before the 10:30 AM service. It was surely our busiest Sunday morning since Easter Sunday morning in March !

3.  Pastor Travis spoke on ‘The Funk Of Suffering’ as part of our summer-long ‘Got Funk ?’ message series. Suffering exists because sin exists. God sees and hears all of the suffering in His world that He created. He is compassionate about it all. He endures it all. He never avoids it. Everyone suffers, but will you suffer in a way that God can do something through you ?  Will your suffering compel you to love Jesus more ?  Will your suffering reprioritize you toward the mission of Jesus ?

Next Sunday morning Pastor Paul will speak on ‘The Funk In Death’. Tim Russert’s death has hit me rather hard. I was a big fan of him. He was an important part of my extended Irish family. I got very interested and knowledgeable in politics and the world around me because of him. I’ve been a 16-year fan of “Meet The Press” on Sunday mornings because of him. I never met him in person, but if I had a TOP 5 list of Americans I’d most want to meet and have dinner with he would have definitely been on that list. He’s up in Heaven now. God needed his Moderator and Managing Editor up there, and He got him. He’s probably staying up late and doing his extended research right now so that he can finally discuss the important issues of the century with Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. up there around the big table after all of these years. It’ll be the most intelligent and topical hour of LIVE television that the angels have ever seen. Rest In Peace Tim. Because if it’s Sunday - it is “Meet The Press” - but it will never be the same without you. This is BIG - Heaven’s got you now !

If it’s Tuesday night then look no further than here for a glimpse into what’s happenin’ in my world:

1.  Earlier this afternoon we surpassed the 13,000 mark in total (cumulative) views since this blog’s inception late last November. We keep shattering brand new daily, weekly, and monthly view records on here. I say ‘We’ because without you (reading this) there would be no exciting statistics to write about. Thank You for blogging with me, and for being a part of my Life !

2.  It’s currently raining just a little bit over the Homestead / Florida City area, but there’s a whole bunch of rain (torrential downpours) just to the west of us in the Everglades. We could use several feet of rain - not all at once, but spread out over the next three months or so. The more rain that we receive here in South Florida the less likely hurricanes are to come our way.

3.  Last week I surpassed the 50,000-mile mark in my car, and I was on Homestead’s Speedway Boulevard southbound approaching Campbell Drive when it all went down. It’s the first time in 15 years that I’ve owned a car for its first 50,000 miles. I previously did so in a 1989 Geo Spectrum (my first car here in Homestead).

4.  I enjoyed a MASSIVE Lunch at the White Lion Café this afternoon. It’s the closest that you’ll ever get to fine dining here in Homestead. Last time I ate there I admired Pastor Paul’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes from across the table. This time around I got my own ENORMOUS fried chicken breast - no bones about it. I KNOW THAT’S RIGHT !

5.  I ate Lunch at the White Lion with Marge R. I’ve known her for over 20 years - longer than anyone else (who isn’t related to me) in my entire life / Life. She was telling me all about God back in the late-1980s and throughout the entire 1990s when I wasn’t really interested in Him. She never gave up on me though. She kept on bragging on Him. My Christmas 2006 gift to her ? - It’s when I revealed to her (at Applebee’s of all places) that I’ve been saved by Jesus Christ and reborn. A month later I walked through the front doors of Life Pointe Church for the first time ever. It was my first entrance into any church since the late-1970s when I was in grade school.

6.  Anne J. - I just finished eating yet another MASSIVE slice of birthday cake. I figure that if I eat three more MASSIVE slices between now and Friday then it will be all gone. The cake surprisingly tastes as good now as it did last Wednesday night when you and the crew surprised me with it.

7.  I currently weigh 165.5 pounds. That’s my ideal weight. Can you believe that I actually weighed in the mid-180s back when I was in my early-20s ?  I took all of that excess weight off a few years after that, and I’ve been holding steady ever since. Thank You Jenny Craig !  (Just kidding.)

8.  If I had to give up one of the following 5 devices for an entire year - TV(s), VCR(s), Computer, iPod Shuffle(s), or Cell Phone - then the answer couldn’t be more simple and easy - the cell phone. I typically don’t use my cell phone to make or receive calls (even though it works just fine). I pretty much only use it to send and receive the occasional text message. Other than that it gets little to no use at all. The telephone (standard or cell) is my least-favourite electronic device.

9.  I’m experimenting with homeopathic Murine Ear Drops for Ear Wax Relief. I have a recurring ear wax buildup problem inside my right ear. Sometimes it can get real bad. The worst that it’s ever been in my entire Life was last May in the worst place at the worse time - during the week that I was with my family in The Bahamas to attend my little brother’s wedding. I pretty much could not hear out of my right ear during the entire week. It made for a miserable week.

10.  Forget about the little kid in the candy store - check me out anytime I’m inside an Office Depot or an Office Max !  Let me run loose and buy things !

1.  Memo To Self - In the future if I arrive at the movie theatre bright and early on a Sunday morning, and all of the front doors are locked shut then look for Pastor Travis’s car in the parking lot. If I see it then call him on his cell phone, and kindly ask him to open a door to let his eager staff in from the elements of outside !

2.  Lessons Learned - As per Anne J. we do not skimp and use curtains, bedsheets, mattress covers, or extra-extra-extra-large black tee-shirts in lieu of actual table cloths on any of the Information Booth tables. If that happens then the convenient excuse - ‘I’m a guy’ - will work just fine; however, she will still yank everything off of the tables and redo everything properly. She’s conscientious like that.

3.  That’s What I’m Talkin’ About - The promotional videos following ‘Praise & Worship’ and Communion were absolutely gutbusting hilarious (and yet strangely informative at the same time). They received numerous pops from the crowds. Alex and (the other) Jesse were the wacky hosts of ‘R’ Show - Life Pointe’s version of ‘Wayne’s World’ - and their special guest this week was this really cool, hip, and up-and-coming megastar by the name of Chris Day in the role of a lifetime - as himself. Those cool kids over at Fuser Films Of Homestead have a real promising acting future !

4.  Got Funk ? - Pastor Travis’s message this morning was all about ‘The Funk Of Loneliness’. Everyone has been lonely at some point in their life, but when you have a personal relationship with God you should know that although you may be alone - you are never lonely. God will never allow you to be lonely. God is our Father, our Son, and our Holy Spirit. We must have a ‘Gospel Partnership’ with Him where He is the center of all of our relationships. He must always be our # 1 priority above everything else. Our human relationships should be patterned after our # 1 relationship with God. The Good News says ‘Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26 - NLT, 2ND Ed.)

5.  Fully Engaged - We had our bimonthly membership luncheon at The Capri in Florida City (where all of the food is) this afternoon, as we welcomed nearly 40 of our loyal and faithful regular attenders to become official members of their church by signing the membership covenant. That’s what assimilation is all about. It’s my job at Life Pointe Church to ensure that our first-time guests become second-time guests, and that our second-time guests become regular attenders and get plugged in to the entire church experience to include serving on Sunday mornings and participating in a Life Group during the week. The church is not the movie theatre. The church is you and me. We are disciples of God. We are His hands and His feet - created by Him - here on Earth. My goal is to ensure that you are fully engaged on His fantastic journey here in Homestead. We want you to become members, and we want our members to become leaders in order to expand His kingdom here on Earth. We do it all for the Lord Almighty !

God loves you more than you’ll ever know. He loves you unconditionally. He loves you no matter how much you love Him back. God loves you even if you don’t even know Him. He loves you more than you could ever love Him. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been in your life or what you’ve done with it. God gave up His only Son on that bloody wooden cross so that you could live. That’s how much He loves you. There is not a person in this world that is so far removed from His love. God’s reach is infinite. His reach is unstoppable. Since God can reach you with His love you can reach Him with your love. You should love Him more than anyone else and anything else. Show your love for God. Let Him know how much you truly love Him.  

You waited 168 hours for this ?  Let’s see if it was all worth it.

1.  Last week was the biggest week in history for this blog. Nowadays we are averaging more than double the amount of unique hits to this blog in a typical Monday to Sunday week than we were less than 3 months ago. Today (Tuesday) became the biggest Tuesday ever in the history of this blog before I even turned on my computer this afternoon !  THANK YOU FRIENDS !

2.  Speaking of friends Pastor Travis called me ‘clueless’ in his blog today, and it’s the nicest complement I’ve received all day. I’ll accept the complement because I did a much better job late last night before I went to sleep talking all about Trav to God. Trav is one of the most sensible persons that I have ever met in my entire life / Life.

3.  Paul - There’s no need to be jealous. The person that was going to take me out to Lunch for my birthday today fell ill and had to postpone it, so I ended up eating ‘grocery store grub’ from Publix. Actually it was rather decent tasty - chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, and juicy corn. YUM !

4.  Yesterday (Monday) I went to Panda Express (spur-of-the-moment decision) for Lunch and I received poor service. As usual they had little to no selection of foods available to choose from for the various entrees. I completed and submitted a survey online stating my dissatisfaction with their Lunch service and product. We’ll see if it gets any better in future visits. If the customer service and the food selection doesn’t improve then I’ll just stop going there.

5.  Speaking of the Atlanta Bread Company in Homestead I have received no follow-up communication from Corporate Headquarters in Smyrna Georgia as of yet - more than 80 hours after the fact. Apparently they have no Assimilation / Follow-Up Director.

6.  I was extremely shy as a kid. I didn’t talk a lot. The reason why is because when I did talk nobody was listening and nobody cared to listen. I pretty much lived through a sad and miserable childhood. My little brother was one of the first persons in my entire life that actually listened to what I had to say and was genuinely interested. If it weren’t for my little brother then I may not be here today.

7.  One of the highlights of my day is looking out my personal hurricane-proof window at work that faces due east and watching the sun rise above the horizon. I adore the daylight. I adore chasing it. It’s morning again !

8.  I spent close to 45 minutes at Office Max yesterday and I only spent $8.75 (including tax). The fact of the matter is that I could have spent 3 hours browsing around in that store and $500 or more on quality office merchandise. But I showed real restraint in there. I’m a member of the Christian Conservative Coalition. Yeah - I’m one of those wackos - and PROUD of it !

9.  When Staples opens its doors for business later this year over at the MASSIVE new Homestead Pavilion shopping, dining, and entertainment complex I may hang out there like I own the place !  I’m crazy about office supplies like that.

10.  Exactly 5 months ago this morning - on January 03RD 2008 - Homestead was shivering just a few degrees above the freezing mark. It was in the 30s outside for 8 hours, and in the 40s for an additional 8 hours. It was our coldest morning in nearly 12 years !  I just wanted to remind you of that now that we’re clearly in the bug-infested hot and humid summertime rainy season.

TONIGHT just after 11 PM EDT as I lay myself to bed I’ll pause for a short little while for my nightly talk to God about the random events that are going on in my Life as well as the people that are directly or indirectly involved with said events. I’ll be praying for the usual suspects. The people don’t really change too much in my current Life. God knows all of them quite well on a first name basis. He keeps hearing about them from me over and over again. He’s guiding and directing them on His fantastic journey.

Tonight I’m praying for some of my closest friends on His journey - Gene, Alex, Anne J., Paul, Jesse, Ela, and last but certainly not least Travis. I prayed for Travis in public earlier tonight, and as usual it really didn’t go very good at all. The words weren’t there, and what words were there were all jumbled together. What I ended up saying out loud didn’t really make too much sense at all. I asked God for a ‘do over’ on this one, and so I will pray all over again in my own style tonight as I end this day.

Praying in public (out loud) has been my greatest weakness ever since I stepped onto this fantastic journey some 22 months ago. It pretty much goes in hand-in-hand with my other major deficiency - talking in public. I’m basically praying for the first time in my Life, and it’s really hard when I’m not a very good talker. It’s kind of like learning how to surf when you aren’t that good of a swimmer. It doesn’t work out very good. I’m obviously much more skilled at writing (as you have already realized if you are a fan of this blog).

I think that God understands. He’s all ears whenever I need to talk to Him - even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense at the time. He’s known me for much longer (41 years) than I’ve known Him (22 months). He knows where I’m coming from. He knows where I’m going to. That’s why He is Almighty. There is no one or no thing that is mightier than Him !

1.  The Setup and Hospitality team just keeps on growing exponentially, and that’s a great thing. More and more of our regular attenders are making that next big step on God’s fantastic journey and volunteering their services for our various ministries. There’s plenty of room for everyone to serve God and His children at Life Pointe Church. If you’re interested in joining our team then be sure to visit the Ministries page of our fresh new official web site. You can also call our office during the week (from 8:30 AM to 5 PM) and say, ‘SIGN ME UP !‘

2.  An estimated 50% of our church population on any given Sunday morning are regular attenders - but not members. A frequently asked question at Life Pointe Church is ‘How do I become a member ?’. Another popular question is ‘Why should I become a member ?’. For those of you who have already signed up for our Membership Luncheon at the Capri Restaurant in Florida City (where all of the food is) you will learn all about the ‘How’ and the ‘Why’ regarding our membership. I officially became a member of my church on Sunday December 09TH 2007. It was the next big step on God’s fantastic journey. I’ll tell you all about it next week at the Capri !

3.  We began a 10-week message series this morning entitled ‘Got Funk ?’  It’s all about Paul’s words to the Church at Philippi. They were good people that were dealing with difficulties such as loneliness, suffering, death, humility, temptation, conflict, exhaustion, anxiety, and poverty. It’s a study of the Book of Philippians - this Summer at the LPC. Grab your crew and join us each Sunday morning at Flagship Cinemas. We do two services - one starts at 9 AM and the other starts at 10:30 AM. Come early to get free Starbucks coffee and a good seat at the 9 AM service !

4.  Imagine - a 3RD Sunday morning service at Life Pointe Church.
Imagine - a separate Sunday morning service that’s entirely en Español.
Imagine - a 2ND campus for Life Pointe Church at a school auditorium or perhaps even another movie theatre.
Imagine - You helping to make any of these dreams a reality.
Stop imagining. Do it.

5.  I’m not the only one that reports on the goings-on at Life Pointe Church on any given Sunday morning. Check out these cool blogs from Pastor Travis, LL Phil J, and David ‘Ritz Crackah’ D. At press time none of these cool cats had published their memoirs of this morning, so check them out later tonight or on Monday. You won’t regret it pal.

Incidentally if you are a Life Pointe Church blogger with a blog and I never mention you then I probably don’t know about you or your blog. Let me know about you so that we can link our blogs together.

“Last Regret” - Seventh Day Slumber - 2008
(Currently # 3 on ‘The Major’s Hit Music Box‘)

This song could have been written for me.

Lost in the game -
Finally I can say I’m proud of me.
No hope at all -
A day that I believed would never come.
No one to blame -
The shadows of my past have been erased.
A Life that only God Himself could change.

I never dreamed that Life could feel this way.
Don’t wake me please.
I’ve finally found the place where I belong.
Only one regret -
All those years I lost for nothing at all.

Laughing in pain -
Searching for a reason to exist.
World torn apart -
Excuses left me breathless and ashamed.
Slipping away -
I found a purpose that’s worth fighting for.
The memories don’t haunt me anymore.

I never dreamed that Life could feel this way.
Don’t wake me please.
I’ve finally found the place where I belong.
Only one regret -
All those years I lost for nothing at all.

I never dreamed that Life could feel this way.
Don’t wake me please.
I’ve finally found the place where I belong.
Only one regret -
All those years I lost for nothing at all.
All those years I lost for nothing at all.