Men Of Integrity

In this week's article from Men of Integrity.net was this featured article:

Key Bible Verse: So think clearly and exercise self-control (1 Peter 1:13). Bonus Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-19

When Karen and I got married, we set a guideline. Since eating together can be intimate, we said we wouldn't eat alone with someone of the opposite sex unless it was either truly necessary for work—which this wasn't—or we gave our spouse advanced notice—which I didn't.

During the week our project groups met daily, and I spent a lot of time talking with Becky. I was thinking, Maybe I shouldn't be doing that. But we're friends, there's nothing wrong with talking.
The last night of the course there was a dance. I remember thinking, I wonder if I should ask her to dance with me. That probably wouldn't be a good idea. But if I don't she'll perceive me as rude. See how sexual temptation was surrounding me with a cone of delusion?

What kept me on the safe side of the line, even though my toes were right up to it, were two people with whom I have honest relationships: my wife and my friend Tim Jones. I knew they were going to ask me how the course went. I wasn't going to be able to bluff them. When I told Karen about this, it was a hard conversation for her; it was a hard for me too. But accountability is what saves you.

—Kevin Miller in Preaching Today

My Response: Who do I have—not condemning, but firm—to walk through situations like this with me?

Sunday Thoughts - 3/22/09

What a good day yesterday! God has renewed my fire and passion for preaching all over again. It’s been a struggle over the past few weeks and I wasn’t sure why it was. I think it was my defeat in understanding my study of Adonai because I’ve never, in my ministry, struggled with a text like this before where it has caused me to abandoned it and preach something else.

After my post on Thursday, I still tried to study and develop thoughts on Adonai, I took it as a challenge, but I lost. So, now I’ve resolved to commit Adonai to a personal development study for myself but not for preaching or teaching.

So yesterday I preached:

Topic: Appreciating God’s Blessings
Text: James 1:17

Thesis: You are blessed believe it or not.

The text teaches us two (2) important reminders of God’s blessings to aide us in our appreciation of God’s blessings.

God’s Blessings are Sufficient – “Every good and perfect gift comes from above…”

Point: God is good all the time!

God is good all the time in Salvation - Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),…Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God.”

God is good all the time in Sanctification - Tts 3:3-5 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

God is good all the time in our Security - 1Jo 5:11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Conclusion: God is good to us with blessings that last a life-time.

Eph 1:3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ,


God is the Source of all Blessings – “and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

Paternal Source of Blessings – “..and comes down from the Father…”

Pure Source of Blessings – “…and comes down from the Father of lights…”

Protected Source of Blessings – “…whom there is no variation or shadow of turning…”

The nest was cast but none came in.

Last night I preached in a revival in Pomona, Ca for Pastor Terry Johns for the 1st time. For the last 20 years they have a 30 day revival (Sunday – Friday) in the month of March. What a worship experience! The young people of the church are on fire for the Lord and loves the Word of God. I preached “Strength for Weary” from Isaiah 40:28-31. The church was very receptive to the presentation of the Gospel and many responded in faith during the invitation. God be Praised!

This week is going to be pretty busy with work, our quarterly church conference, sermon preparation on El Elyon-God Most High, Aysia’s track meet(s), preparation for Resurrection Sunday, and so much more. God has not failed me yet in giving me strength to handle all my responsibilities and He won’t let me down this week either.

That’s it that’s all, see ya later.

Sunday Thoughts - 3/15/09

This weekend was very busy, very great, and very relaxing!

I took a break from work and the church this weekend something I really needed to do, rest. I have not been out of the pulpit all year nor took a few days of work off for rest and it started to burn me out. My boss has been out all year due to a knee surgery and work has been stressful because of a downward spiral in business due to the recession. So, I told everybody good-bye for a minute.

Tracy and I started out to a concert to hear one of my favorite R&B/Jazz singers Kem on Friday in Riverside, Ca. But the traffic was so crazy that we stopped at Chili’s for dinner and went back home. I hate I missed this concert but it worked out for the best because Saturday was extremely long. We had a women’s meeting at the church, I picked up Pop’s clothes and take them to the church for our Impact Day 2009 in April (hopefully), I picked up a board for Tracy to finish a sign job, and made sandwiches for Aysia’s track meet. All of this Saturday before noon. Wow!

We arrived at Aysia’s track meet at 2:30 pm but the races didn’t start until 5 pm. She was in rare form Saturday. Nobody could out run her in the 200 meter nor the 400 meter relay. She started having problems with shin-splints in the last race so she didn’t do well. The re-occurrence of shin-splints stems from inadequate stretching. As with all teenagers, they know everything. We got home at 8:30 pm and everybody was totally exhausted from the day.

I didn’t preach Sunday but I did go to church. My nephew Louis Monroe preached and did excellent with El Oloam – Everlasting God. His sermon title; “Just In Case You Forgot” -Genesis 21:33. We had good worship but off crowd from the good crowd we’ve been having over the past few weeks.

After church, Tracy and I packed up and went to San Diego, Ca for her birthday. Her birthday is on March 18th but we celebrated the weekend before. I wanted the buffet at Pala Casino but when we got there it was closed until 4 pm and I didn’t want to wait so we left and went to our favorite Mexican food restaurant instead. After dinner, we went back to the room to watch movies but as our bodies would have it, we fell asleep.

I’m an early bird so I woke up at early (5 am) Monday morning but forced myself to sleep until 7 am. We had continental breakfast and laid around watching movies until checkout time. We took a slow drive back home. We didn’t do much but we did have fun getting away from those teens of ours. We needed another day but I'll settle for what we had for now because budget said one day is enough.

We had our playoff game last night and won. I had a decent game (15 points – 9 assists – 12 rebounds). I was one assist away from a triple/double and a beast on the boards. Bring on the NBA! Hey, right! Quarter final is tonight at the Westside Jewish Community Center. We’re projected to take championship, hands down.

Now, it’s back to the grind! Hope all is well with my blogging family, peace.

Sunday Thoughts - 3/1/09

How do I explain this weekend? Uh, let see...busy, awesome, tired, blessed, tired, great, tired...you get the picture by now.

This was a great yet busy weekend for me. Friday, we had sound check with the Greater Los Angeles Cathedral Choir. My calling is not a sound technician but thank God for past experiences that's allow me the ability to step in when needed. It's been years since I've conducted sound for concert productions. But thinkgs are quickly coming back to memory. I did my best and pray that they were satisfied. I do, however, have some issues that require my sound engineer to come back to check. So I'll be giving him a call this week to make some adjustments.

Saturday, I went to Aysia's track meet. She didn't run because of shin-splints that keep re-occurring. Her official track meet is this Saturday and I hope she runs. I won't be able to make it because of the prayer breakfast at the church. I left the track meet and went home to clean up and rest before set-up time for musical at the church. I was amazed at the choirs timeliness. Great job! An additional sound check started at about 6 pm and the choir hit the stage and started singing church started before church actualy started. Unbelievably! I have not seen this kind of ministry in years from a community choir. These young people love the Lord with all their heart, mind, body, and soul. They are definitely my favorite group of people besides the people of FGMBC. Prez Blackmon and Renee Spearmen sung "He Changed Me" and killed us. Markita McKnight led praise and worship, WOW! My first time hearing her, WOW! Shari Demby killed it, WOW! Gospel rapper Ezekiel gave us something to think about, WOW! And GLACC was awesome! Overall, Awesome was the word of the day.

When we left church Saturday night, there was a party down the street from the church. It got a little rowdy so I told the saints to get in their cars and go home. Sunday morning the street was taped off and police were everywhere. Not a surprise, someone was killed at the party. Please keep our community in your prayers, Huntington Park, Ca. It's predominantly Hispanic and it seems like the violence is increasing every other week.

Our Sunday morning worship was excellent. We had guest who came by that were new faces for our church. I've been praying that God would burden our hearts for lost people and I'm starting to see some fruit from that labor of prayer. I'm not stopping.

I had a struggle with a name for God, Adonai, last week. This one is giving me the blues. I'm going to pick up this week for Sunday. So far, I got the meaning of the name "Sovereign God". But one of my systems for studying the names of God is to preach the name in it's first mention of scripture. For the most part it works but for this name it's difficult when mentioned in Genesis 15. Too many possibilities of using symbolisms in a sermon and I try to stay away from that especially when we preaching an OT passage.

So, I preached Numbers chapter 13 and 14; "Trusting God For Your Future". I'll post outline later.

After church I went home and Tracy cooked the best dinner; roast w/potatoes and carrots, rice corn bread, and oatmeal raisin cookies. I ate while watching the Fakers (Lakers) who got mopped up by the Suns. Shaq with 33 points. I'm not a prophet but I think if the Suns don't make it in the playoffs, Shaq is coming back to LA, UGHHHHH! I went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 5:30 pm and started watching the Stellar Awards.

This week will be long and stressful. My job starting laying people off on Friday in the shop and this week they'll start in the office. Lord, help me keep my job! I must study to be ready for Sunday, we have to prepare for our 67th Church Anniversary this weekend: Saturday; Prayer Breakfast, Sunday; Worship Service @ 10 am and Afternoon service @ 3 pm. So this week is going to be pretty long for me.

A lot to do and not enough time to do it all.

That's it, that's all, Be blessed.

I Have An Addiction!

These past few weeks have been extremely difficult because I've been holding in a secret that I have to let out or God and my friends won't forgive me. I need you all to pray for me. This thang has taken serious control of me and I can't let it go. I mean it has caused me to neglect the most precious things in life to me, like blogging. It's caused me to neglect some of my work. I feel like I've committed....a serious sin that has now got me by the heart.

I plead with all of my friends in blogtown please pray for me that I get delivered from....................

FACEBOOK!!!!!

It keeps calling meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, man!!!!

Sunday Thought - 2/22/09

I must admit yesterday was a good day, especially, after having such a discouraging day last week. Praise God for His faithfulness.

Yesterday we celebrated "Family and Friends" in our morning service. I was encouraged because there was an evangelistic appearance in our service that really made me excited and proud of the members of FGMBC. Many of our guest were people who are not saved and/or not committed to any church. I challenged our church at the beginning of this year that we're not in business of sheep stealing. That's not what God called us to and that's not what we're going to do. Los Angeles has more than enough sinners (lost people) for every church. That's who we're going after.

So, I was presently surprised and thankful that many of our guest fit the category of lost people in Los Angeles. Praise God!

We have a standard rule that every guest should be greeted three time before finding a seat in the sanctuary. One by our Greeters ministry, one Doorkeepers ministry, and one member. Anything less than 3 is unacceptable.

The service was good but still a little cold in the building. We got a temporary electrical hook-up while the contractor works out details for upgrade with Edison. Needless to say, I thought I turned the heater but it was AC...GRRRRRRRR! But it warmed up mid-way thru the service.

I'm still preaching our series "The God of Our Trust" looking at the names of God. So yesterday we preached:

Topic: Trusting the God Who Will Provide
Text: Genesis 22:1-14

I'll post the outline later this week. But this text was difficult to formulate thoughts because one of the best sermons I heard preached on the text was by Pastor Maurice Watson entitled "It's Only A Test". Not to mention Pastor Charles and so many others. And as I was studying the text, of course, their sermons thoughts kept coming to mind. So, I had to fight the temptation to steal their information. God helped me to pull it out. Thank You Lord!

After service, we prepared a light dinner for our guest. Just some fried chicken, seasoned rice, corn, greens with potatoes, corn bread, salad, punch, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Nothing big but it was goooooooooood!

I went home and relaxed watching MTV's Scarred, NBA, and then the Oscars. I was a little disappointed because I wanted Taraji P Henson to win. She always a ghetto roll so it was good to see her do something different and be good at it.

Today, starts a long week but God is able.

That's it, that's all.
Man Down.

Sunday Thoughts - 2/1/09

Worship was good Sunday! I preached @ Redeemer Baptist Church for Pastor Curtis Monroe in prayer breakfast. I was asked to do something on the topic of change and/or taking risk. I preached Matthew 9:14-17 "A Change Is Gonna Come". The Lord really blessed the preaching moment and that was the first time for me preaching at Redeemer. Thank God for the opportunity.

After the prayer breakfast I had to run out to our church to preach our 10 am service. I didn't arrive until 11 am and went straight to the pulpit to preach. I didn't finish my work on Psalms 139 so I preached John 3:16 "The Greatest Love of All". I was a little tired but God helped me to preach the message.

I was glad to see my mother in church this week. She's been out for the last two (2) weeks. Praise God for His comfort and strength. She's hanging in there like a trooper.

We came to church for the first time, since I've been pastoring, Sunday. Tracy and the kids were hilarious the entire day. I know it's because we rode together. They've been wanting to do that for a long time. But I'm usually at the church at 4 am in the morning getting ready for worship putting finishing touches to the sermon, checking microphones, etc. So this Sunday was pretty cool riding in with them.

One of my prayers for 2009 is that God will help me establish a music department with people with a love for Him and ministry. My problem is that right now finances are tight plus we're still recovering from our renovation project, financially. But, Laweta who's the director of my favorite community choir, made a suggestion and offer to come in to lead our praise and worship but would have to leave to make it to City of Refuge. She would bring a organ player and drummer at no charge. I want to be open minded but at the same minimize distractions during our worship service. I really like the idea because she has a love for God and is a dynamic worship leader. So, I'm praying for direction about this and many other options that have been presented to me lately. We'll let God work out the details.

After church we went to my brother's house to watch the Super Bowl game. We had so much fun as we always do. We didn't play dominoes because it didn't feel right with a vacant seat that belonged to POP so we didn't play this time. But for the most part, we really had a good time. As well on this past Friday was my cousins birthday so Tracy and I went to Corbin Bowl in the valley which is about 45 minutes from Lakewood to help her celebrate with the rest of the family. We didn't get home until 3 am. I was beat down on Saturday. Tracy and I had so much fun on Friday that it continued on Saturday running errands and stuff. That's partly why my work didn't get down for Sunday. But we needed that time together.

Well, that's it that's all.
We'll talk real soon!
Man down.

Quick Thoughts - 1/22/09

First let me thank all of you, who's prayed and praying for my family during the passing of my "POP". We had services this week and thanks to friends (Pastor Payne, Pastor Wilson, and Pastor Albert) all went well. I preached the service which was hard to do being a son and pastor but God held me up in the midst. I preached:

Text: Hebrews 11: 13-16
Topic: A Faith that Never Dies

Thesis: A faith that never dies is a faith that stands the the test of time:

I. God can be trusted because of Past Evidence - "These all died in faith..."

II. God can be trusted because of Present Evaluation - "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced [them] and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that [country] from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

III. God can be trusted because of Promised Elevation - "But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly [country]. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

God truly bless the preaching moment but I had to chop it up because we were on a time schedule to get to the Veteran's Cemetary for an early afternoon appointment.

My mother was a trooper and handle everything extremely well. Tracy and my Aunt Betty helped make sure everything was planned right. They deserve 5 stars for this. Please keep praying for us as we take it one day at a time.

We had a good day all day on this past Sunday. Our afternoon service was encouraging as Pastor Payne preached. The late night service was good. It was a good day! Tracy and I got home at 3 am and was back up at 7 am to purchase flowers and make programs for the funeral service. I catnapped all day, went to visit my mother, played in a basketball game, went home, could not sleep, woke up Tues morning at 5 am to go to the church to get my suit but left my shoes. I had a lot of nervous energy.

When I finally laid my head down Tuesday night that was it, that's all. Yesterday, I rested all day getting ready for work today.

All is well and I will see "POP" again!

It's Been A Long Week

This has been one tough week for my family and I. We've been preparing for the funeral service which will be held Tuesday, January 20th at 9 am at Inglewood Mortuary Chapel. I'm schedule to officiate but I've asked some local pastor friends to handle the service so I can just preach and sit down. I canceled bible study tonight to rest plus my boss is out for the next 2-3 months because of an operation (This is the downside to having a 2 person department) so all responsibilities fall on my shoulders. My plan is to take next Monday, Tuesday, and possibly Wednesday off for bereavement. So I'm trying to get some things done in the next couple of days until I return back to work.

Tracy, Aysia, and Myles are doing good. We were remembering the time God allowed us to spend with "Pop" last night and things got silent with tears. We got a long road ahead of us. But, God is our comforter.

I'm preparing my message for this coming Sunday, "God Sees You" from Genesis 16 (An on time message I think).

This is weekend is going to be extremely busy with family coming from out of town, preparation for this coming Lord's day worship, our Dedication Service is at 3 pm, and we have a late night celebration for MLK's B-Day. I was scheduled to preach for Pastor Curtis Monroe of Redeemer Baptist Church in here the city this coming Sunday at 8 am for his pastor's anniversary prayer breakfast but it was canceled and for that I'm grateful.

We're still waiting for Edision to install transformer to complete electrical upgrade. Geeesh!

Last Sat. was our 1st women's ministry fellowship. It was a good turnout and the women were blessed as well as encouraged. Tracy did an outstanding planning and preparing for the meeting while setting a standard of excellence too. So I'm looking forward to the fruit that will come from this ministry.

Ok, lunch is over and I got to get back to work. See ya later, man down!

Happy New Years!!!!

This year I want to encourage you to "Let Go and Let God have His way! This song has ministered to me over these past few months and especially going into 2009.

Happy New Year's

This will be my last post of the year. May God bless you and your family. Just so you'll know Tracy and I will be celebrating like this to bring in the new year.

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A Challenging Day In the Word!

Here are additional pictures: Welcome Center

Welcome Center mural. "We commit to WORSHIP by rejoicing in the Lord in all things (Psalms 34-1-2)

Women's Bathroom

Men's Bathroom

We had a good but challenging worship service yesterday. It was cold in the building. The city has us handcuffed right now for inspection. They need to come out and inspect work before Edison can install new transformer for our 400 watt ampage. So, we could not run our central air and heating. Ugh!

Our real challenge was with the Word of God. Last week after our grand opening, I started asking God for direction in my preaching assignment for the next couple of weeks. It is my intention to get back our series "The Importance of Supporting the Local Church" at the beginning of the year. But, I wanted to say something that would encourage our church and ride the wave of excitement from our newly rennovated church. So, I prayed for direction.

I started going through my notebook that has all of my information for the project to formulate invoices for church records and our finance team to account for all dollars spent on the project. As I was going through my notebook, our project verse from Haggai 1:8 hit me dead in the face. The text says; Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the LORD.

When I selected this verse, I had no intentions on preaching it. I used it as a vision verse and communicated it in one on one conversations or whenever I got a chance but never consider preaching it from the pulpit. I read the verse and then I read both chapters of Haggai and said to the Lord; "Nope not this one!" I kept looking and praying for direction only to be directed right back to Haggai 1:8. After long, God and I started having the great debate about preaching this text.

My argument with God was that we didn't need to preach a text where He was fussing with the people about not rebuilding His temple. As far as I was concerned, we did rebuild and it's time to move forward. Long story short, we all know God won the debate.

His argument was "Remind the people that this is my church and it means a lot to Me!"

Text: Haggai 1:1-15

Topic: Let His Glory Fill This House

Thesis: God is paying close attention to how we treat His church, physically.

Transitional Sentence: This text serves as a forwarning to not let this church get to like it was before.

There are three (3) requirements for insuring God's presence remains in this house:

1. God's glory will fill this when we MASTER MAINTAINING RIGHT PRIORITIES - v. 1-4

Point : Put God first in everything that we do!

2. God's Glory will fill this house when we MONITOR OUR OWN BEHAVIOR PATTERNS - v. 5-11 - ("Consider your ways!")

- Considering your ways must be PERSONAL - You have to acknowledge when you've wronged God by making Him second place. v. 5

- To not consider your ways is counter-PRODUCTIVE (v. 6) - In summary, the text says there is a whole lot of motion but no progress

- Considering your ways must be PUBLIC - You will be held accountable by God for everything you do. v. 6

3. God's glory will fill this house when we MAGNIFY GOD WITH OUR OBEDIENCE - v. 12-15

Point: Obeying God is doing what He says even when you don't have all the details

- Obey the Word of God - v. 12-13

- Obey God by doing what His Word says - v. 14-15

Close: God's glory will fill this house because His promise is true when He says: "I am with you" (v. 13)

I trust God knows what He's doing because I felt like I was fussing at the church.

A former member came to our morning worship service who used to be our sound tech. He lives in Lancaster now and says the drive is too long for him to make it each week. He loved the new appearance of the church and who knows what will come of it in the future.

After service, our women's ministry had their Christmas luncheon at Sizzlers. Tracy, who is our ministry leader, came home extremely excited about the fellowship and was very encouraged. This coming year I'm spending more time with our women's ministry and men's ministry teaching them our two-fold purpose. First, win the lost through relationship building and second, mentor each other through genuine fellowship and the Word.

I went home to rest! I have not fully recoved from all the work we did getting ready for our grand opening and returning to work so quickly. So, I went to Church's Chicken for some legs, thighs, and fried okra. Tried to watch "Tropic Thunder" but before long the movie was watching me.

I wanted to go to George Hurtt's installation but was extremely exhausted so I decided to stay home and rest because this is my last week of work before we shut down for the rest of the year. It's going to be long hours and a stressful week.

This Sunday, we will have a Christmas Benefit concert with Jesse Campbell and other gospel artists giving by CGMUZIC Productions. It's a toy drive to provide presents for needy families this holiday season. Please pray for those who will minister during this time.

Until next time, MAN DOWN!

A Week Of Preparation!

Wow!!!!!!!

I can't believe that we're getting ready for our Grand opening this coming Sunday.

Before I get to the week let me recap:

Thanksgiving was good for me and my family. We went to my Auntie's house in Palmdale, Ca which is about 70 miles away from our house. We always have a good time hanging out with each other and Thanksgiving day was no different. We ate, played dominoes, and ate some more. It sure was good! We did not have service as normal because of rain. To power our little house, we have to run extension cords across our parking lot until electrical underground work is completed. That would be dangerous to have service and it rained and then we all be would shocked by electricity. So, I canceled service.

Friday, Myles and I went to the church to start setting up our media room. Representatives from CZMUZIC came by to see our church setup and we started talking about the process and just about had church in the process. They were really impressed with our setup and I'm looking forward to the Christmas Benefit Concert on December 21st. This is my way of giving back to the community as an expression of what God has done for fGMBC. Afterwards, my friend Pastor Payne came by and we started talking and Myles was having a fit because he was ready to go home. But it was good fellowship of which I need so much more of.

Saturday, the family and I along with my grandson little Jimmy hung out all day. All I heard from lil Jimmy is "MaMA (Tracy), PaPa did it!" I do everything when it comes to him but he can't seem to leave me alone. But I love the little white boy.

Sunday was a real good day of worship, WOW! My auntie Rochelle Dean came to church at 8:30 am in the morning. She's an answer to prayer that I will keep on praying for until she confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior. I preached Psalms 66 "Make His Praise Glorious". What a message! Listening to it again gave me chills.

Sunday afternoon, Tracy and I went to Bishop Kenneth Wells' B-Day party. I met Kenny (that's what I call him) some 20 years ago when I started playing the drums and singing for Riverside Mass Choir of which he was the founder. The reunion choir ministered but I could not make any of the rehearsals and I wanted to. The highlight of the service was hearing the legendary Daryl Coley. This man, even in his sickness, is bad with the vocals. He sung "Even Me Lord" with no musician, and no microphone and killed everything in there. Please keep him in your prayers. He's doing better but still has a long way to go.

After the service, Tracy and I went to eat. That was some time well needed for us as a couple. It was good hanging out with her all afternoon. I kinda love her, LOL!

But, then Monday came! I rented a truck to pickup our church chairs and Pastor Payne went with me. This took all day! Bertollini loaded the truck and pastor Payne and myself unloaded the truck. We finally got help about an hour into unloading but it was still hardwork. I could not get all 500 chairs on the first trip so I had to go back for a second trip. I arrived at the warehouse at 7 am (Tuesday morning or today if you're reading this blog) and the truck was loaded within an hour. One problem, the truck was half full and they did not strap chairs in. So when I went to pickup office furnishings and opened the back of the truck all the chairs fell down. I had to position all chairs in an upright position before I could load office furnishings. Frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we got to the church, Tracy was there painting our mission statement on the wall and before long tears came down her eyes with joy. People just don't know what this means to life our church to have such a huge project like this come to pass. Words cannot even express the feelings I and many of our members feel as well. God Is So Amazing!

Long story short, all furnishings has been delivered, sound system is being installed, underground work for electrical upgrade is in the process, and yet, we still have much to do. But praise God it' almost over.

I'm struggling with what to preach this coming Sunday. Galatians 6:9 "Don't Quit Yet" and 1 Thessalonians 5:20 (He who calls you is faithful and He will do it.) "Faithful is Our God". I'm praying for direction.

Yesterday, I played in a championship basketball game with a league I play in on Mondays. We lost because the game was called due to an argument with the ref. I must admit, I was one of those in the argument. I'm a physical player but can't stand when someone 6' 10" complains about a foul when he fouled out long ago with fouls committed pasted the alotted 5. I actually played in 2 games last night and lost both. It was a bad night in the win category. I had fun none the less but my competitive spirit gets the best of me sometimes. I felt the pain in my ankles and knees this morning.

We're preparing for our grand opening this coming Sunday, so if you don't hear from me that's why. But know that I am praying for you and please keep praying for me.

BE THANKFUL!!!

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I HATE IKEA!!!

Yesterday, Tracy and ran errands purchasing furnishings for our media room and made the biggest mistake ever. We went to IKEA (The House of Assembly)! We knew actually what we wanted to go in and purchase and what should have taken 1 hour turned into 2 hours.

We saw the shelving that we wanted with a price tag of $125. It was a self-serve item so we wrote done all the information necessary (we thought) went downstairs after getting other items but could not find the box containing shelving parts. We spent at least 30 minutes trying to locate these shelves only to discover that the pcs were sold separately. That's right sold separately. We had to go back upstairs and write down every piece required to assemble shelves.

When we got back downstairs everything was available in many different pieces. Hey, right! They were sold out of one of the side panels we needed. We spoke to the salesperson who looked at us like, DUH! When inquired about the part. He informed us that additional parts will be delivered no later than Monday.

We had our whole day planned to purchase and pickup as much stuff as possible to get ready to enter into our church. But those plans were quickly changed thanks to IKEA.

Oh, did I tell you, I HATE IKEA!!!!

Yesterday Was A Good Day

Yesterday was a good day of worship at FGMBC. We continued our sermon series "The Importance of Supporting the Local Church". Here is the sermon skeleton:

Topic: With Your Love
Text: 1 John 4:7-19

During Vacation Bible School one year, a pastor’s wife had an experience with her primary class that can teach us all a great lesson. About an hour before dismissal one evening, a new student was brought into the room. The little boy had one arm missing, and since the class was almost over, the teacher had no opportunity to learn the details of his situation, but she was nervous that one of the other children would say something insensitive to him, so she preceded cautiously with the lesson.

As the class time came to a close, she asked the children to join her in their usual closing ceremony. “Let’s make our churches,” she said, putting her hands together to form the “church.”
“Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, open the doors and …” Suddenly the awful truth struck her. The very thing she had feared that the children would do, she had done.
As she stood there speechless, the little girl sitting next to the boy reached over with her left hand and placed it up to his right hand and said, “Josh, let’s make the church together.”

Sermon Sentence: And can I tell you that that’s what love in the church will do. It will bring us together to form a church of togetherness by the joining of hands in genuine love.

Let's join hands together in genuine love with three (3) important facts about the love God expressed through the people in the local church:

1. Our Love Was Sanctioned By God - v. 7-11

• Love Described - v. 7-8
• Love Demonstrated - v. 9-10
• Love Displayed - v. 11

2. Our Love Is Strengthened By God - v. 12-16

• Our Love is Strengthened in our Relationship with God - v. 12-13
• Our Love is Strengthened in the Redemption of the Work of Jesus Christ - v. 14-15

3. Our Love is Secured In God - v. 17-19

• God will not stop loving us even at judgement time
• Perfecting love cancels our fears to keep on loving
• God put us before Him, so we should put Him before Us by loving his people

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I believe the church was challenged with the message and we will be made all the better as a result of God's Word.

We celebrated with my friend and brother Pastor Reginald Payne for his 15th Pastoral Anniversary. Service was great and Pastor Ronald Saunders murder us.

After church, the family and I went home to relax. We were going to get something to eat but decided to eat Carl's Jr. Tracy ate leftovers from our breakfast at Nellie's (one of my favorite resturants). She had liver and onions, UGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ate my low-cal burger and watched that stupid show Rock of Love Charm School before going to bed. I was depressed after seeing the score of the Cowboys.

Keep praying for us.

Stay Prayerful

On Saturday morning on my way to work I stopped to purchase a cup of coffee. After I entered into the donut shop two men came and started watching CNN as they played the in-hall town meeting Sen. McClain held the day before. There was a lot of controversary surrounding some comments that were made about Sen Obama. Of course, that sparked a conversation within the donut shop that I did not want to participate in. So, I left and went to work.

Later that morning, I met with our contractor to discuss the progress of our project. Afterwards, he started discussing our current economic crisis as a country, increased suicide rate, stock market crash, how much money he lost in his retirement account and now considering working until the day he dies. Sunday after church, my mother told me that my auntie lost $50K of her 401K retirement and not sure what to do. And many of us have and/or know of church members, friends, family members, and associates who are down right afraid of what tomorrow is going to bring because what they're experiencing today. I was riding home yesterday after work listening to KNX 1070 News Radio and listened to teenagers and young adults discuss their fears of the future.

Fear is in the air my friends. The fear of an uncertain tomorrow.

We're in a serious transitional season in the life of our country. Many of us, Christians and non-Christians, are downright afraid of what tomorrow is going to bring. Unfortunately, for non-Christians they should be afraid because they're future is uncertain without God in their lives.

However, the believer doesn't have to be afraid of what tomorrow is going to bring because our hope is in Jesus. The best thing and only thing we can do at this very critical time in our country and lives together is STAY PRAYERFUL! Don't be blind to what's going on around you but STAY PRAYERFUL! Stay up-to-date with current events but when you've been updated, START PRAYING! Before you get to the polls and after you've been to the polls, KEEP PRAYING! After the election, STAY PRAYERFUL!

It is time to cover everything with believing prayer.

Weekend Review

This weekend was very much needed. I can't say I got much rest but Tracy and I did have a lot of fun hanging out together. Friday, we spent all day together. Our day started paying bills and then I took her to the mall to purchase something for her to wear and to have a manicure/pedicure. While she was being tended to I took the car to Jiffy Lube for a quick service before our weekend got started.

We wanted to get rid of the kids for the weekend but for some reason it just couldn't seem to work out. Needless to say, our teenagers was with us the entire weekend and we made some adjustments to enjoy each others company.

We got dressed and headed to the concert. LA traffic is the worst! We left at 5:30 pm and did not make it to the Greek Theatre until almost 8 pm. This messed up our dinner plans. So we went to The Hat for a pastrami sandwich and fries and ate on our way to the concert. What a romantic dinner,uh!

We finally made it to the concert and I found out that one of my favorite jazz artist, George Duke was performing as well. When he came on stage he lit the place up with jazz funk. I'm really impressed with George Duke because his drummer is a 20 year old out of Compton, Ca whom he groomed straight out of high school and he can play. They slammed for about 20 minutes and the crowd went crazy.

Then it was time for Anita Baker. She gave a good show. We saw her last year but was disappointed because it took her 2 hours to come out and the set was not good at all. But this time was totally different. Anita can sing and her set was excellent. On a side note, people are crazy. There were two white women who came and just took over some seats in front of us. They were dancing (off beat) and drunk like you wouldn't believe. As a matter of fact, one lady fell down the stairs. She didn't get hurt but everyone was laughing up a storm and that was because of how she was acting th entire in the concert getting on everyone's nerves. We got home only to find our teenagers up bright eyed and bushy-tailed like it was noon, UGH!!!

Friday was good hanging out. While we were at the concert the kids went to they're high school football game with some friends. Varsity got spanked but a weak team.

Saturday was restful in the morning. Since the kids were here we made them clean up and Tracy and I went to Food-4-Less to buy groceries. We took our time to enjoy each others company in the grocery store (we had to make the most of every opportunity). Later in the afternoon we went to the Getty Center in Malibu which is a Greek Museum. It was boring. All sculptures looked the same after a while so we had coffee and a cookie and came home to rest before going to dinner later that night.

We went to Black Angus for dinner and our plan was to go to a movie but by the time we finished eating we both were tired. I blamed it on her that she couldn't hang as teenager and that's why we didn't go to the movies. Truth is I'm used to going to bad at 9:30 pm every night and no good after that, work or no work. My body is timed to sleep at 9:30 pm no later than 10 pm. We got home laid down and she started talking to me but I went to sleep.

Saturday was good hanging out with my wife!

Sunday morning I woke up at my usual time, 5 am and had some devotional time with prayer and reading scripture. I needed to go to the church to drop off some announcements and other things for the service. But before I left I wanted to watch HB's first Sunday at Shiloh. I was able to watch most of the service but time was running out so I had to leave to go to the church. It looked like all was well during the service until Tracy called to tell me that our niece Natalie was sick. So, I prayed for her and all is well.

When I got the church the contractors was working which surprised me because I told them I didn't want them working on Sunday. But then I thought about it and maybe it was good thing because then the members can see progress. I left it alone this weekend but no more Sundays going forward if we can help it.

I stayed there for a couple hours and Tracy called wanting to know if I went into the church and my immediate response was, NO! But then I called her back and told her I did go into the church of which she knew already. Our oldest daughter Kari and our grandson came over and hung out with us all day. We had breakfast, I fixed my bike, and I had my first softball game as well.

Our plans was to go to the LA County Fair but I came up with another idea after weighing money spent. LA County Fair or a Wii game. We decided to purchase a Wii game and cook dinner which turned out perfect.

Our grandson is a boy at heart. He played until he couldn't play anymore and wanted to keep on playing the Wii game. After about 12 hours, I was glad to see come but I was also glad to see him go.

We laid down for the night and crashed quickly.

This morning we ran more errands and had lunch at Bubba Gumps. We ate so much that we didn't even bother to make dinner so the kids ate leftovers.

Overall the weekend was good eventhough a lot of things didn't go the way I wanted but the time Tracy and I spent together was much needed and enjoyable. She asked me today, Do you feel guilty about not going to church? My answer, NO! I've attended and/or preached every Sunday this year. I think I deserve some me time and not feel guilty about it. And, I don't.

Work starts in the morning but I'm glad about this weekend. I love Tracy a lot and it's during these moments that reminds me why we got married. Keep us in your prayers.

Happy Wedding Anniversary!

Today, Tracy and I celebrate 16 years of marriage. Many people thought we wouldn't make it but look at God.

Happy Anniversary, T-Baby!

We Can Do It Better Together

Labor day was very restful for me after a long good Sunday. We spent the day at Dockwieler Beach eating sandwiches, chips, and fruits. It was very good!

Sunday morning worship was outstanding! The 5th Sundays are dedicated to our "WE (Women Empowered) Ministry". The women of our church led devotion and my wife Tracy spoke on their theme in Romans 12:2; "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Waste. She did an outstanding job.

The sermon for Sunday came from Matthew 18:19-20: "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midsts of them".

Topic: "We Can Do It Better Together"

Word of Importance: UNITY

Context: Verses 15-18 teaches us how to deal with a sinning brother. Verses 19-20 encourages maintained unity in the church through togetherness.

Thesis: Christian living will be so much better when we come together.

I. We Can Do Better Together Through PRAYER - v. 19a

Point: Unity is maintained with believing prayer.

- Prayer must be a priority: "Again I say to you..."
- Prayer must be unified: "...that if two of you agree on earth..."
- Prayer must have a common goal: "...concerning anything that they ask."

II. We can Better Together With His PROMISES - v. 19b

Point: If we pray, God will move!

- God's promises are guaranteed: "...it will be done for them..."
- God is the source of our promises: "by My Father in heaven"

III. We can do it better together in His Presence - v. 20

Point: God dwells in unity!

- The Authority of God Is Present: "For where two or three are gathered together in My Name".
- The Assurance of God Is Present: "I am in the midst"
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Sunday afternoon was our women's ministry 5th Sunday service. The Lord moved in the service tremendously. My Auntie gave words of encouragement to our women and dear friend of the family, Dorothy Love, spoke to the women of our church. God used both of these women in great way. As I was sitting in the service, God placed it on my heart to close the service in a mini-prayer service before going home. Boy! That led to shouting moments. Overall, the day was great!
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This week is going to be extremely busy for me. We sign loan documents this week. We're clearing the church this week to get ready for construction. We're setting the parking lot up for our Praising in the Sun services. Sermon preparation required. It is my goal to finish our sermon series that seems to have a pattern of every other week for the preaching moment. I have to work. My son has his first high school football game and they, Aysia and Myles, start school. I need to cut my sons hair. And list goes on and on.

As the elders would say during testimony periods, "Pray my strength in the Lord!"