Baptisims & Food!

This Sunday - May 30th - at 5pm at the Lawleys we will be hanging out, baptizing and eating!

Oso Creek is providing the meat and buns. If your last name begins with A-L please bring a side dish, M-S bring desserts and T-Z bring water (we have sodas). The address is 5438 King Acres.

If you want to be baptized and still haven't gotten in on the fun call the church office today -- 993-4463.

Weeeeeek . . .

Been an exciting (?) week at the Bradshaw's . . . Cindy went to Hollywood on Monday with her sisters where they went to American Idol live on Tue & Wed nights!

Cindy's sister had won tickets and they had a blast.

Me and the kids survived (on hamburgers and little sleep) and then this afternoon Sarah & I drove to Houston where we picked up Cindy at the airport.

Tomorrow morning Sarah has bunion surgery on both feet here in Houston (Corpus docs referred her here to a specialist).

Please pray for God's provision as the Dr. breaks bones in both feet tomorrow and resets them. She will then be on bed rest for 8-10 days and then off her feet (re: wheel chair) for 6 weeks!

The Life of a Dad . . .

Prom Tonight . . .


2 Beautiful Daughters . . .


Will be up LATE . . .


Nuff said . . . :)

Backwards or Forwards . . .

The Corpus Christi Coliseum debate (and now demolition) is running parallel to a lot of thoughts going on in my own life right now . . .

Two groups have been rallying around the Coliseum . . .

One trying to save the past. What I hear from them in the papers and on TV is how they love the memories of the past. Here's a quote from the Caller Times this morning:
[ ] attended dances, their daughter’s graduation and concerts in the building. They sat silently watching the crews from a bench across the street. Tears welled in his eyes when he talked about moments there. "We have a lot of memories,” he said. “They should have never destroyed it.”

The other group seeking to move into the future . . . They want to create space for new development downtown.

So here's what I'm getting at with life . . . . We can live in the past . . . Or, We can lean into the future.

Yes, we learn from the past but God has been showing me that we cannot afford to live in our past failures and mistakes and regrets. It will kill you! You've heard the term 'dead weight.' The past is dead, carrying it around will just weigh you down.

So I'm heading into the future. It's not worth it to stay in the past. The future has too many possibilities.


"But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead . . ." (Philippians 3:13)

Missing God

I've often said that reading is my most powerful mentor. Reading is fresh life for me in so many ways.

I get a greater view of the world and how it works - I get fresh perspectives of God's Kingdom - I get out of my little world and into new places when I read.

Francis Chan has become one of my favorite writers and I recently finished an excellent book he wrote called The Forgotten God.

Chan is so honest and pointed about our need for the Holy Spirit. A couple of quotes early in Forgotten God . . .

'The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation. We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God." (intro)

"And this is the question I just can't get around: If it's true that the Spirit of God dwells in us and that our bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple, then shouldn't there be a huge difference between the person who has the Spirit of God living inside him or her and the person who does not?"

I could go on and on . . . Chan describes that Spirit empowered difference. And he describes how we live it out in a very honest, authentic way.

Get it. Read it.

Different But the Same

Recently Aaron Schaub stuck a book in my hands called Same Kind of Different as Me.

I get a lot of books. I started it one night before bed . . . and ended up being up realllllly late.

If you don't want to be challenged in your assumptions about people who are different from you, then don't read it.

It's a true story about two people from two different socio-economic and racial worlds. It's a story about how lives are transformed when we truly seek to understand others . . . especially those who are different.

Staying Locked In

"You are in error because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God." Matthew 22:29

Jesus said this in the midst of a conversation with a sect of the religious leaders called the Sadducees. The Sadducees were questioning Jesus about details of what happens after the resurrection and trying to trap Him because contrary to the Bible they didn't believe in resurrection after death. (That's why they were Sad-U-See :)

Jesus never minced words. The reason you're so far off is because you don't know the Truth and you're missing the power of God!

I wonder, do we ever doubt the Truth, miss the Truth - because we're not digging in the Scriptures. Jesus says here that not knowing Truth prevents anyone from walking in faith and life!

What's your plan for knowing the Scriptures and knowing God's power?

Proud of this Guy . . .

Luke just finished his Freshman HS baseball season last night and got to play with the varsity the last month of the season.

I'm proud of how he is growing into a young man and the decisions he is making. What a blessing to have an awesome son!

"The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him." Prov 23:24

Survey Says . . . .

Beginning this Sunday morning we will be doing a church-wide survey for the next 4 weeks . . .

We are asking everyone who is there on Sunday to fill out a survey EVERY week (the idea being that if you are there 4 Sundays then your info should weigh more than someone who is there for 1 Sunday).

This survey is part of a larger coaching program that I'm going through and is going to help us tremendously in moving forward for the Kingdom!

Shepherding a Child's Heart

Hitting me in the gut this week as I continue the sermon series on Family and prepare to talk about Leading our Children.

My kids are nearly all gone! Wow! It happens in a blink. You wonder: How have I done? Have I been faithful? Was I as intentional as I could have been?

I hope that you're asking those questions now. All of us only have a short time to lead our children.
Where are we taking them?

Be there Sunday as we talk about shepherding their hearts!

And who are the folks around you who need some encouragement in raising their children?
You'll never know how God could speak to them until you invite them!

Is It the Miracle or the Men?

I wonder sometimes.

One morning this week I was reading in Matthew 20. Near the end of the chapter Jesus comes across these two blind guys sitting on the side of the road yelling for Him to have mercy on them. The crowd around them was embarrassed by them and told them to shut up.

Some of you know the story. Jesus stopped and asked them: 'What do you want me to do for you?' They answered: 'We wanna see!'
"Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him." Matt 20:34

It's a great story. I've used it to talk about how Jesus wants us to talk to Him about what we want. We're intrigued by the 'on the spot healing' and how Jesus 'touched' them to make it happen when He didn't have to.

As I was reading this morning I thought about how it's easy for us to get so caught up and giddy in the miracle itself, that it's easy to forget that it's about the people!
Jesus loved people, NOT processes. He wasn't there to impress anybody, but to show compassion to two men who everyone else had forgotten about.

It makes me wonder about me. What am I pursuing?
Are we more intrigued with the spectacular; or the details of faith. Or, with the people all around us who Jesus died for?

Divine Appointments

"As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” (Matthew 21:1-3)

I've been thinking about Divine Appointments . . .

Jesus was teaching His followers to expect Divine Appointments. He was saying: You must EXPECT that God is going to go ahead of you and He's going to prepare a path for people to respond to Me.

By the time Jesus left the earth, His followers were looking for Divine Appointments (see Acts 3:1-10).

Here's my point: Are you looking for, EXPECTING, Divine Appointments today? Are you looking for where God is working in people's lives around you? Are you willing to be His messenger?

Somebody Missing?

Our next group will go to Ban Ho, Vietnam on August 12-21.

We have a team ready to go, but we also have a couple spots open.

I know that there are some of you who have heard about what God is doing there and keep ignoring this inner voice encouraging you to check it out.

So . . . one last opportunity to go and build the Kingdom in August around the world.

Contact Greg as soon possible (email him here as soon as possible to find out more !)