Content 2…

I had a crazy day yesterday so I did not post and today’s post will probably be short. I wanted to stay on the “being content” theme so here goes…the Apostle Paul really seemed to have this down pretty well…he makes mention of “being content” in Philippians 4:11-12 and tells us to “be content whatever the circumstances”…and in verse 12 “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” what some advice from a man full of the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord! So what about you and me? How do we do it? I believe the answer is in the next passage of scripture…Philippians 4:13…”I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”…It is not about what I can do our what you can do…it is about what He can do through us!!!

He is the one who will sustain us and keep us content no matter what the situation is that we are going through…in this passage the Apostle Paul was in prison, in solitary confinement, in chains, under guard in the cell, under guard out of his cell, and their was a regiment of soldiers at the prison gates assigned to him…but through it all the scripture says that he was content. Why? Because it was not about him…but what he knew that Christ could do through him even with everything that was going on around him! So where does this leave you and I? Relying on Jesus Christ to be our source of contentment…not the things of this world and not what we can conjure up within ourselves…but with how much faith we have in Him to help us overcome everything that we are facing…He will do it if we will just allow Him too…Blessings…and to all a good night!!!

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Content…

 

1 Timothy 6:6-7 (NLT) Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.  (7)  After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it.

The meaning of content is…satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else…our scripture above says , “true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth”…what does that look like? Well let’s talk about it for a moment…we may spend a couple of days here…

I believe that our Heavenly Father wants the best for us…just like we want the best for our children, right!!! I also believe that their are times in our lives where we just need to be content with God…He is all that we need…we do not need the things in this world to keep or make us content. He should be enough!!! Just like the children of Israel though, we seem to be never satisfied, we are always wanting more…more money…more stuff…more of this or that…in the midst of all of this I believe that God is just wanting to bring peace to our inner core and show us that it is okay to be content with where He has us for this season…the next season may be a bountiful season…ask yourself today am I content with where God has me? Tomorrow I would like to talk about…who has me where I am?…Is it me, God or the enemy?…Blessings and have a great day!!!

Until all have heard,

Rodney

The Past Few Days…

Good morning everyone…the past few days have been good but weird I guess! As I stated on Thanksgiving Day it was great to get Renee’ back and be able to spend the weekend with her. Our Thanksgiving was good but Renee and her mother both were still struggling from “jet-lag”. The time difference is still affecting them somewhat. We had plenty of good food and were able to visit with both of our families along with our church family…so overall I would say it was a good Thanksgiving weekend…

Our church service was wonderful yesterday…we finished up our series on the “Functional Family”. After church we joined another church in the city for a meal together…that was a lot of fun as well!!! Fellowship is so good for the Body of Christ! It was a BIG week for many of our people because we distributed food boxes and served people a meal on Thanksgiving Day…I wanted to say thank you to everyone that helped with all of that!!! That ’s what I was talking about when I said our weekend was kind of weird…ADD moment…we did several things that we are not used to doing!!! Crossway Family you guys are awesome and I cannot wait to see what the New Year is going to bring us!!!

I received a neat passage of scripture from my Spiritual Papa this morning…chew on this today…it will bless you!!!

Galatians 6:14 (NLT) As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead.

Hope that you have a GREAT DAY…

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Happy Thanksgivng

I do not know how you started Thanksgiving Day but I stated it like any other Thursday morning…SPIN CLASS @ 4:45 am…that’s right I am insane!!! We opted last Thursday to spin on Thanksgiving Day and we had a few takers this morning…You just have got to love it!!!

I will be very brief today but I did want to let you know that Renee’ made it home safe last night and “wow” was I glad to be able see her, hold her and talk with her!!! It is so good to have her back home!!!

Well like I said I am not going to keep you…HAPPY THANKSGIVING from the Thrift family to yours…May God bless you and have a GREAT DAY!!!

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Note from the Weekend…

The days are clicking down until Renee’ returns…yahoo!!!…Only 2 more full days of being Mr. Mom…The weekend was wonderful…On Saturday…which by the way was my birthday…BIG 4o…I received several phone calls from friends and family…got to hear Renee’s voice for the first time since she has been gone…and thanks to all of you that gave gifts as well…I got to play golf with several men from our church and spend the day with my son, brother and dad…It is not often that the 4 of us golf together but we made up our team in the tournament. Our golf game was fair but the time that we had with one another was awesome…

The presence of God and the crowd was awesome at church yesterday…thanks to everyone for all of the support and doing your part to make things happen in the Crossway Family…I can never thank all of you guys & gals enough and it is awesome to see all of you coming into your calling in the Lord…keep the passion level up and do not stop seeking His face…I love all of you!!!

Yes the GA DAWGS won on Saturday…Go DAWGS!!!…Jimmy Johnson won the NASCAR Nextel Cup points race and now all of us NASCAR fans will not see a another race until February…Sunday afternoons can be relaxed now…Blessings to all…

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Friday…What a Day!

I started my day of in the normal fashion as Mr. Mom in the Thrift home…getting the kids up and ready to go to school…I was able to get everyone to school on time again and then I had to speak for a Veteran’s Day event at a local elementary school! It was really awesome to get to speak to over 400 students and staff about my military career to these wonderful people…I thought I would post the highlights from my message to them…

By the way…PC Bears got beat tonight 21-7…we drove 1 hour and 45 minutes to the game…we are out of the playoffs but we had another winning season…GO BEARS!!! WC Gators won 27-12 and will be going into the second round of the playoffs next Friday night…GO GATORS!!!

Back to the speech…I really had not spoken about my military career in a long time but they asked me to speak and I could not turn down this opportunity…Because my whole 10 year stint in the US Army was during peacetime I used a bit of a twist and told the kids that I wanted to talk to their hearts and not their heads…therefore I ended with these statements that I will end this post with today…

What the military taught me…

• A genuine love for life…
• A genuine love for people…
• An extraordinary love for my family…
• Endurance…the power to withstand hardship or distress…
• To love the freedoms that I have as an American citizen…
• The ability to understand the true meaning of sacrifice…
• P.I.G. Professional-Integrity-Gratitude…in other words…be professional in all things and at all times…Be a man of integrity…a man of my word…and have gratitude for everything…or give thanks in everything…
• Failure does not have to be fatal or final…
• Be hope filled and optimistic about everything…
• And last but not least…to live by these LIFE RULES…Love…Forgive…Accept…Serve…Encourage & Submit…

By far this is not an exhaustive list but it probably ranks the top 10 things pretty darn good…see ya tomorrow…by the way…I turn 40 tomorrow…

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Going into the Weekend…

These are some highlights as we are going into the weekend…they are not in any special order…

• I have been Mr. Mom now for 8 days…No word from the world travelers today…
• PC Bears play in Dodge County tomorrow night…it is the first round of the state playoffs and it is going to be cold at the game…I cannot wait…GO BEARS!!!
• WC Gators play Americus-Sumpter at home…and it is going to be cold…first round of state playoffs as well…
• You do not want to miss church on Sunday I am very excited about the topic of “Biblical Finances” in the “Functional Family” series…
• We have a church golf tournament on Saturday…it is going to be cold…have you figured it out yet?…I do not like the cold!!!
• I turn 40 on Saturday…BIG Stuff huh!!!
• Renee comes home next Wednesday evening…
• My children are doing great and we have had some awesome meals from people in our natural and church FAMILY…thank all of you guys very much!!!
• Had our monthly trans-local ministers CAM (Christian Alliance Ministries) meeting today…it was really great…the ride from Valdosta GA and back was thought provoking with Brian N…thanks for the conversation bro…
• SPIN Class is still going good…I do not think that I have missed one in several weeks…I am so grateful to God for my good health…
• That is all folks…according to what time that we get home from the game…I may post tomorrow night with the scores…

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Staying Intimate…

Some of what I will share will probably be old hat to some but maybe it has been a while since you spent some quality time with our Heavenly Father…Instead of writing these out I think I will just put them in bullet format…

• Find a quiet place…and talk to the Lord like He is your best friend…you definitely do not need distractions…remember your walk is a personal relationship with God! There will be plenty of time to hang out with God and others in celebration services…
•  Allow the Bible to be your plumb-line at all times…look for all the nuggets of wisdom and knowledge that God has placed in it…learn how he speaks and ministers to us through how He did it in the days of old…
• Do not allow monotony to set in…change up how and where you get alone with God…this may work for some and others may be so regimented that they need to be in the same place every day…Jesus would get alone with the Father but it was in different places…whatever is right for you…
• Know that He is speaking…just listen and learn His voice by FAITH…Christianity is a Faith walk…we trust in Him by faith just like the men and women of old…allow Him to heal you and minister to your deepest needs…
• Keep a journal of what He is showing you in His Word and what He is impressing on your heart during your quiet times…this is key especially if you are a visual learner…God desires to teach us if we will listen and obey…remember I said from day one that this is hard work…journaling is still not my specialty but I am trying hard to build it into my quiet times with the Lord…
• Some people enjoy getting up early and spending time with the Lord…do not get caught up in the way  someone else does things…try different times of the day and see what works for you…I find that some of my most intimate times with God are late at night…some of my most creative thoughts come late at night as well…God never sleeps…be yourself as you spend time with Him…do not try to be someone else…God wired us all different…be you…He is not looking for a bunch of robots…He is looking for people that will passionately worship Him and build a relationship with Him that this world cannot take away…
• Just a few thoughts from 18 years of spending one on one time with the Lord…it is not exhaustive by any means I have many more thoughts on this subject but maybe this will help for now…
•  All I know is that God really loves us and definitely desires for us to have a deep personal relationship with Him…this will come through spending time with Him alone and cleared of distractions…I believe quality time is  as important to Him as large quantities of our time…
• Some of these things you have to find out for yourself alone with Him…remember He really loves you!!!

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Back to Intimacy…

I am trying to be obedient to the Lord and stay on track with this subject of intimacy…Renee has been gone since Friday and I have not even been able to speak with her…What does this have to do with anything?…you may ask!!! I believe I am beginning to figure out why my Heavenly Father has me on this little journey…at least one reason anyway…

You must understand that other than God Renee is my everything…my wife, my closest friend and my lover…INTIMACY is at the heart of our relationship! Not only that but she has my heart and I have hers…remember from the Bible (Genesis 2:24) and they will become one flesh…Although we have been apart many times in the past…remember I was in the military for 10 years and I have been on several short term mission trips…Usually I am the one gone so to say the least this trip has a little bit of a different feel to it…When you cannot speak to the one that you are the most intimate with for long periods of time it has the tendency to make your emotions take several paths…fear, anxiety, giddy, not-knowing, lonely, a longing in your heart and the list goes on and on…Okay, Okay…I know you want to know what this has to do with our intimacy with God…RIGHT!!!

Thanks for asking…think about it…although in my circumstances with Renee she is where she cannot call me…by the way I have received e-mails everyday from the team and they are safe and doing fine…as a matter of fact they had 17 salvation’s yesterday…GO GOD!!! back to the script sorry for the ADD moment just wanted to give God some glory…I believe God so longs to be intimate with us…not that He is up in Heaven wringing His hands but as a Father loves to hear his child say “I LOVE YOU DADDY”…Our Heavenly Father is wanting some of our time so He can love on us and make us whole again…He wants to hear from us…but I do not believe it can happen on the run…we must stop take some time out and listen for the voice of the Father…we must allow Him to speak healing words to our spirit and encouraging words to let us know just how much He LOVES us!!! As I stated last week this will take time, discipline, and hard work but the rewards are awesome and eternal…don’t miss out… spend quality time with the Father…DAILY…I know it is hard because I am learning too!!! Longing to hear His voice and Renee’s… Blessings…maybe it was not too mushy for everyone today…

PS…tomorrow we will try to look at some practical ways to stay intimate with our Heavenly Father!!!

Until all have heard,

Rodney

The Weekend at a Glance…

Sorry for no posts over the past couple of days…It has been crazy since Renee has been gone!

• We dropped Renee off at the J’Ville airport on Friday evening around 4:30 pm…then Aaron, Hannah and I headed to Long County to watch the Bears play…Emily spent the night with a friend which was probably best for her…that way she did not have to tell mom good-bye at the airport…

• The PC Bears won 21-0 and the WC Gators won 10-0…both teams will be in the first round of the playoffs this Friday night..Bears play Dodge County and the Gators play Americus…
• If you have not heard the GA DAWGS blacked-out Auburn on Saturday…Go DAWGS!!!

• Powerful service yesterday…Our Heavenly Father did not miss a beat from the start to the finish…thanks to all of you who are praying for me and my family while Renee’ is gone…It is a bit more difficult on me pulling the full load over the next 9 days…the kids and I are fine though…as I said yesterday I always give 100% when Renee’ is here so there are very few things that I cannot do for my children or around the house…this little trip just makes me appreciate Renee’ more when she comes back…by the way she is one “HOT” beautiful awesome woman of God…just thought I would drop that in on ya!!!

• I have heard from Renee and the team on two occasions…they are there and safe…they have had a few complications with getting some of their equipment from the airport but I think that all of that is taken care of now…
• Crossway Family you guys and gals are awesome…I love having the privilege of being called your pastor…may God bless all of you today…keep up the good work of the Gospel…

Until all have heard…

Rodney