Throw Another Yule Log On!

We set up our Christmas tree tonight. Does this look like a Norman
Rockwell painting or what? My wife is even sporting a June Cleaver
smile.

Marco was here!

It was great to have Marco back with us this Sunday. He was part of
the original launch team that helped plant SouthPoint. Of course he
had to move....,punk! But he came back to visit this weekend And lead
worship. You can also tell that my son Noah thinks Marco is pretty
cool.

Phoebe's Birthday

Its always rough to have a birthday around a major holiday, but we
gave it a shot! Phoebe is offically 6!

How Thankful Are You?

How thankful are you? Better question: how thankful would your friends say you are? Would you get a, ‘very thankful’ or would you be at the bottom of the ranking with a, ‘not so thankful’? That’s a tougher question, huh?
Of course, everyone would immediately say, “Oh I’m very thankful. I love life and everything about it!” But when you listen to what you say when you are around your friends, it makes you stop and think doesn’t it? Many times we can have a very deluded opinion of ourselves. Deluded from reality, that is.
As you sit around the wonderful Thanksgiving table today, pay attention. Pay attention to how many of your family and friends have a complaining mantra instead of a thankful speech. So often without even thinking about, especially during the busy times in our lives, we complain instead of giving thanks. We all have a lot to be thankful for.
Unfortunately, complaining has become a way of life for so many people. We complain about our cars, our homes, our clothes, and about our very own family. Everything in our lives could be better. Everything in our lives seems to somehow be tainted by the “greener grass on the other side.” Their house is bigger, their car is newer and their kids seem nicer.
No, we don’t actually verbalize this, but somehow, it manages to be lodged in our hearts like a five-day-old burrito. This burrito of complaint is what spurs us on to work harder and longer hours, to achieve more, make more, and therefore, buy more. Thanksgiving is a great time to adjust and examine our hearts.
Adjusting can be a painful process because, first and foremost, we have to admit the point at which we are currently is not the healthiest place for us to be. We have to recognize that we could possibly be operating out of a complaining mindset as opposed to a grateful one. This is not an easy thing to admit. It’s actually very painful.
My very first trip to Honduras was in 1993. I lead a group of teenagers there to do some construction and ministry. I was a cocky, complaining American who had it all figured out. The missionary sent me up the mountain in the back of a truck with all the luggage of our ten-member group. I was going to stay with the luggage while he took the one-hour drive back to the city to retrieve the group members. I was to sit and play guard dog. I figured this would be a cushy job and expected a good two-hour nap in the jungle. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
As I sat there on this giant pile of luggage – 20 suitcases total – I looked across the dirt road at a mud hut that was approximately ten foot square. I watched the family go in and out and realized that about five to six people lived in this ten-foot square mud hut. I looked up and down the muddy path and realized that I was sitting on more stuff than this entire village owned.
I began to cry. I thought about how I had complained that the airplane was too uncomfortable, and how the luggage was too heavy. I had complained about the very things I should have been thankful for because I have been blessed with so much. I was complaining, while I was guarding more stuff than this entire village owned!
Our complaints are usually the very things for which we need to be giving thanks. I am so grateful for my home; so grateful for my family; so grateful for my church; and so grateful for my country (Democrats and Republicans). I am grateful.
So today, let’s look around and see with naked eyes the lack that surrounds the globe, and adjust our hearts to a path of thanksgiving and gratefulness. We all have a lot to be thankful for.

Dinner Give-A-ways

What an incredible day! Special thanks to all the organizations that were involved. We had an awesome day delivering 800 meals! How incredible is that? Over 30 people from SouthPoint showed up to help deliver the meals to families all over Desoto County. It was simply a huge win, not only for SouthPoint, but for all of Desoto County! Since SouthPoint is only 10 months old this is obviously our very first Thanksgiving outreach and it was put together like we had been doing it for years! Dale Cross organized the entire event and managed to get numerous companies and organizations involved. John Woods Catering cooked all the meals and they wee quite tasty. I just can't say thank you enough to everyone involved. I can't tell you how many phone calls we received with people on the other end crying in appreciation for what had been given to them. Woo-Hoo! This was so fun, let's do it again next year! Thanks to all who was a part!

The Good, the bad, the Nutcracker

Went skeet shooting today - that was good.
Michigan lost to Ohio State today - that was bad.
Now I'm headed to watch my two awesome girls dance in the Nutcracker. I guess i could post some pix of them later, but for now - just guns.

Think it - Pray it

Sometimes my wife annoys me. Don’t get me wrong, I have the best wife in the entire stratosphere, but sometimes she annoys me. It happens when I start to tell her something exciting or entertaining that happened to me that day, and she interrupts me with a glorious, “Oh I already know that! Sally’s sister’s nephew, who used to be related to uncle Joe saw you, and he told me.” It only annoys me because I’m a storyteller, and part of telling a story is the joy of taking someone on a mental journey to a fun ending. Yea, it bugs me when you already know the punch line before I get there.
Of course, we’re all that way aren’t we? To make it worse, God pulls the deity card, and says that He knows what we are going to pray, even before we pray it. So it’s like no matter what’s going on in our lives, God already knows what you’re going to pray before you utter the words. So seriously, wouldn’t it be easier to just wake up in the morning and say, “Yea God, you know,” and then go on with our day? It sure would save a lot of time.
The passage where Jesus says, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” is in Matthew. It’s the precursor to the infamous ‘Lord’s prayer’ that many people quote. Understand this, it’s the lead-in that Jesus uses to encourage us to pray, yet we think of it more as a deterrent as apposed to a catalyst.
When we pray, we don’t have to throw up a smoke screen. We don’t even have to use “thee”s and “thou”s. There is no need to convince God how important your request is. There is no need to beg and plead for Him to understand how heavy this weighs on your heart. Not once do you need to convince Him of the pain of loss, the heartache of a jilted love, or the stress of unpaid bills. He knows. In fact, He knows it before you pray it.
This verse that seems to be a deterrent to prayer is actually a wonderful incentive to pray. To share our innermost pains with Him, because He already knows. Sometimes when we share hurts, heartaches, and soul aches with a friend or spouse, things get lost in translating emotions to words. True, others understand better if they’ve experienced the exact same thing as you, but that’s rare. Most of the time they are grappling with their own issues, and listening to your problems through their own filters of pain and hurt. However, God knows.
God not only knows it before we pray it, He truly knows it in every aspect of knowing. He knows your hurts and pain not only intellectually but experientially as well. Through Christ, our heavenly Father knows what we need, and how desperately we need it, before we ever pray it.
When you turn your attention to God; when you throw your attention heavenward, whether it be in anguish or delight, God is already relationally connected with you, knowing your heart’s passions, hurts, dreams, and goals before you pray it.

PICTURES!!

Just added a few photos from the tailgate party. Wanna see? Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/spcmemphis/

Great Sunday

Naeem and Ashley Fazal were here with us and he did a tremendous job Sunday. He gave an awesome talk on trusting God. Working on letting go of those things the we think we have under control. It was nice. I know it ministered to many of our people. It was just one of those messages that was timely and potent. Thanks for coming Naeem!

picked him up

I picked up Naeem & Ashley from the airport today. They are alive and well. They flew in from Mosaic Charlotte today. He will be speaking at Southpoint tomorrow. As for tonight.....well we are going to find some barBque and jazz. Tomorrow is gonna be awesome!

Conference

Naeem worked it out for me to be picked up from the airport from a man from L.A. who was picking up a couple of the speakers at the same time. I climbed in the SUV and it was just Mike the driver. (Young guy with a ball cap on.) He let me know we were waiting on the other two to arrive. When they arrived they were both bald. That’s important mainly because I’m not. I have the gift of hair. When we got on the interstate it was decided (the bald men decided) that since it was such a gorgeous day that we would ride with the windows down. bald men should always be more considerate of hippie people. When we arrived, my hair was large – they were refreshed.

Traveling Man

Well here i am in Charlotte. I'm hanging out with Naeem who we interned under for a while here at Mosaic church. It's great to catch up and just enjoy each others company. Naeem & Ashley have opened their home to me so it's just awesome to be around them and enjoy. We head out to the Ethos conference in a few minutes to get a taste of the Erwin experience.....we will see.

Of course let me also say how grateful I am to my awesome church. They blessed the poopoo out of me and my fmaily Sunday by taking up a collection and blessing us with it for pastor appreciation. I was BLOWN AWAY! I had no idea. Normally I at least have a sense of what is going on, but it just goes to show how absolutley clueless I really am!

Thank you SouthPoint - You guys are awesome!

Love Flows Low

The other morning was a bit difficult with my three-year-old Noah. Before we could ever get out of the house he had gotten in trouble several times for being mean to his sisters, getting into a sundry of things he was not supposed too, and of course the ever popular disobedience. It was just one of those mornings.
I drove him to school, and on the way in, I looked down at him and he was just so cute. He had his little backpack on and was carrying his lunch box; yup, cute. So I said, “Hey Noah. You sure do look cute today, and I love you.”
He looked back up at me and said, “I love you too. Are you going to keep me?” After laughing quite vigorously, I was struck by the profoundness of his question.
That is exactly how many of us approach God. We are walking with him, and holding hands with him, but we all mess up. None of us are perfect, and none of us are without sin. Even preachers, but that’s another story. None of us can stand before God faultless.
Yet somehow, when we mess up we think that God is abandoning us. We ask Him if He is going to keep us. We want to know if this is really the one mistake that breaks the proverbial camel’s back, or do we get to keep on trying.
We want to climb up. Climb closer to God to be more like Him, but honestly we have a life to live. We often correlate walking close with God, to daily Bible reading and hours of prayer. And let’s face it, there’s not always enough hours in a day. So instead of climbing up into God’s lap, we feel like we are climbing lower and lower on His scale of beautiful people; and we wonder how low we can fall, before He doesn’t “keep us” anymore.
Taking this path through life is a difficult road. It’s also not a godly road, but a humanistic one. It puts our relationship with God on a points system. If I read enough, and if I pray enough, then I earn the right to a close relationship. That’s just not right. Of course, I’m not saying never read your bible or pray, that would be ludicrous. Phillip Yancey said one time, “Grace, like water, flows to the lowest point.” I love that because no matter how low I go, God’s grace is there. No matter how far I feel from God, His grace could never be closer. It’s not that we strive to get lower on God’s scale. God doesn’t even have a scale. We can’t earn our way closer to God, and we can’t earn our way away from God. God just doesn’t work on a points system. He works on a grace system.
God’s favor is unmerited. His grace is a free gift, and His love could never be earned or deserved. Yes, it’s good to read your bible, and yes, it’s even advantageous to pray. But when the time crunch of life wins the race of priorities, remember, His grace is sufficient, and He is going to keep you.

Gone!

This last weekend marked the official end of summer as far as the church world goes. I must admit this does not make me sad in the least. I'm looking forward to....well, I'm looking forward to consistency. Ah, the breath of fresh consistency. You can almost feel it now can't you? So much to say, so much to do, so many new friends to meet. Ah, the fall! And of course none of us can forget FOOTBALL! YEA!

Easy Button

Life just isn’t easy. Like the “EASY” button commercial. You know something is popular when you begin to see parodies of it on other shows. Nonetheless, the “EASY Button” commercials are profoundly true. We wish there really was an “EASY button”.
Of course life is more than print cartridges and reams of paper. If I was going to have a real easy button, it would need to make real life easier. Wouldn’t that be awesome though? One button to fix our marriage. One button to get our kids in a good place. One button to pay the bills. And maybe even get us out of debt. Yea, a one button life would be easy wouldn’t it?
But where would we be if we didn’t have challenges? Where would we be if there was not a Mt. Everest? Nothing in front of us - nothing to climb - nothing to challenge the warrior that is in each of us. But life would be easier, and after all, who really needs a challenge?
Very few challenges are fun in the moment. I have never heard of a family dealing with financial stress as, ‘fun’. Not once have I heard of someone struggling against racial tension as, ‘enjoyable’. The list could go on and on, but the truth of the matter is the challenges we face in life are not fun in the moment. However, they build a strong constitution within us that can truly weather the other storms of life.
Right now you might be wishing for a big fat EASY button. A quick fix that just makes all your problems dissipate right before your eyes. Fortunately, I can tell you there isn’t one. I say “fortunately” because God is more interested in you becoming the stalwart force on the outside that He knows you are on the inside.
There is an interesting scripture that tells us that when our faith is tested, it builds a plethora of other traits in our lives. At this moment in time you might be walking through one of the darkest times of your life. A time when you feel like the only help would be a big fat EASY button, but there is not just not one to be found. But I also don’t believe you need one. Let me tell you why.
You don’t need an EASY button because you have the fortitude in you to make it. The stuff that God has placed in you, yes you, is so phenomenal that even the angels watch with great anticipation. You don’t need an EASY button because that would just make you apathetic and lazy. But as you face your own personal Mt. Everest, and you don the gear and begin to climb, you’ll discover that you have what it takes within you to not only meet the challenge, but conquer it as well.
We sell ourselves too short, too often. Believe it or not God is real, and on top of that, He knows your name. Beyond that, He is completely aware of what you are going through and the challenges that you are facing at this very moment. And if you take the next step you’ll discover that He even placed in you the tools and skills to overcome the challenge that is looming in front of you right now. It might not be EASY. It might not be frivolous and fun, but you can, and should take the next step. Forget the EASY button. It’s just not there. But then again, you don’t really need it do you? You have what it takes.

This little tid-bit was created by one of our fine members. Let's just say I laughed heartily.

New Band Member

Just thought you would like a peek at one of the latest band members to hit the scene here at SouthPoint. He's a little heavy on the kick drum, but other than that this kid can rock!

We had a great Sunday as we kicked off our "myspace" series. It was truly a great day all together. If you wanna catch the pod cast follow the link on the SouthPoint website.

NEW BABY ADDITIONS!

Josh and Meagan - two of the finest children's volunteers int eh history of the world, have been so burdened lately to help the growth of their area of ministries that they decided to have twins! Meagan gave birth last night to two beautiful girls:Sidney and Riley. The picture is of only Sidney b/c Riley is still in the incubator for a little while longer, but all is healthy and good.

1 + 1 = 1

Once we step over the line and enter, “The Christian” world, we are bombarded with a litany of things we should do to increase or spiritual formation. Good things, things that no self-respecting follower of Christ would argue with. Bible reading, prayer, quiet time, and the list goes on. Things, that when done in a quantitative amount, add value to our lives. In fact, they don’t just add value to our lives, they actually form our spiritual nature.
In Genesis we see man being created. God formed him from the dust of the ground, and then He blew breathe into his nostrils. Amazing huh? The Hebrew word that is used for the whole ‘breath’ thing is the word that is also used for spirit. Man is the only thing that is both physical and spiritual. That’s something Angels can’t even boast.
Trees, ferns, dogs, and badgers are physical. None of these things were created spiritual, only physical. Angels on the other hand are spiritual beings. They have no bodies, and were not ‘formed’ by God. Man is the only one that is both physical and spiritual. We are the great dichotomy of God’s hand. This is why we read in scripture that when we all get resurrected in that last hour that we will get heavenly bodies. Bodies are not bad. They are part of who we will forever be.
For us, you can’t separate the spiritual and the physical, but that is exactly what we try and do daily as followers of Christ. We focus on the pillars of our Christian walk: daily bible reading, prayer, quiet time, etc. these spiritual pursuits are pushed up the scale of importance while leaving the “less important” things behind. We separate our spiritual pursuits, from our physical pursuits.
You cannot separate the physical from the spiritual. How we drive, treat our neighbor, play with our kids, and interact with our wife, are all extremely spiritual things. You cannot somehow draw a line and separate the spiritual from the physical. We are an amalgam of both. In those times when I’m angry, how I treat my wife and children are a much better litmus test for my spiritual formation than if read my bible that day.
Hopefully your mind is reeling right now applying this principle to your life. It would change everything. The bible tells us that the world is full of God (Psalm 24:1). You can’t separate it. How we dress, talk, act, interact, play, laugh, cry, and fight are all spiritual things. Spiritual things are interwoven in our lives with the physical, and whether you want to admit it or not, deep down you ‘feel’ that it’s true.
What do you call someone who reads there bible everyday, but gossips? Yup, you guessed it, we call them a hypocrite. Why? Easy. Because, that person has attempted to divorce the spiritual from the physical. We quickly call them a hypocrite because we really don’t know how else to respond. It could be that they just need to allow more of a proper spiritual formation to happen in their lives. A formation, that encompasses more than merely a laundry list of ‘spiritual’ deeds.
As we step into this ‘spiritual’ life, it’s not that we need to take up a whole new list of things to do. It is more like we need to just do all the things in our lives differently. Not making God a Sunday thing, but making Him a ‘life’ thing. It’s kind of humorous in a way when you think about it. Here we are, the created product of the uncreated-one, and we, in our infinitesimal thinking, want to take the cosmic God and isolate him to Sunday mornings (or crisis moments, because we all need God in the crisis times right?).
God is not just in the ‘spiritual things. He’s in the physical things. He is in everything. We can’t separate the two, but we do need to live out of the two. Recognizing that our spiritual walk is identical to our physical walk. If our physical walk doesn’t line up with our spiritual walk then we have no spiritual walk to begin with.

The Value of The Cup

I went into a bookstore the other day and bought a cup of coffee. Of course, not just any coffee. I was specifically getting ready to partake of the divine Starbucks. This bookstore had the signs out front proclaiming that their café proudly served Starbucks brand coffee. I’m what you might call a mild addict. Yes I admit it, I really like coffee. I even consider it a need in the hours before six pm.
So I go in to this café/bookstore and order my latte. They take my money and then they hand me a cup that says, “7-11”. I looked at it oddly and then glared up at the young girl behind the counter and said, “You’re kidding right?” She smiled and said, “No sir. We are out of our Starbucks cups and lids so we got these from a local supplier, but the coffee is still genuine Starbucks.”
I didn’t want to look like a self-righteous premadonna that was all about image, so I smiled and threw her my best, “cool,” and headed for the door.
It tasted different. I know it shouldn’t have, but it did. As I sipped my steamy hot beverage the taste just seemed wrong. It was not the same experience I was used to having and frankly I didn’t like it. I threw it away.
One of my friends worked at that same café and I asked her about that day. She laughed and said that it was a rough day. That many people refused to purchase the coffee once they found out it was going in a non-Starbucks cup. She swore that the stuff inside was the same, the only difference was the container.
I thought to myself how containers really do matter to us. We can act like they don’t, but they do. We judge so many things by their appearance when the real value is the stuff inside. I wasn’t buying a cup, but a cup of coffee. How often do we pre-judge if someone is a Christian or not based on their container. We put so much stock in the outer label and totally negate and ignore the inner worth.
If someone is dressed nice, has properly combed hair, and no tattoos then he is more likely to be a Christian than someone who is wearing ripped jeans, has a face full of metal (I’m not talking about braces), and a plethora of tattoos. We instinctively think that if our containers are not the same, the good stuff inside cannot be the same either. We look at our lives, and compare it to others. We decide, based purely on the container, if they are as good as us or if we are as good as them. In actuality neither is correct. Value never comes from the container but what’s inside the container.
A treasure chest is valuable because of the treasure inside. An oyster is just a slimy muscle in a shell unless there is a pearl inside. And we have value because of what’s inside us. It’s time to stop looking solely at the container and begin sampling the goodness of others based on the goodness that is within them. The goodness of Christ comes in many different containers. Some are black, some are white, some look like they’ve been colored on with crayons, and others may look like they fell face first into a tackle box, but those are just containers. Again, we are only looking at the outside, and when we are stuck on only looking on the outside, we might be throwing away the best cup of coffee we have ever had.