Oh My What Big Teeth You Have!!!

Well I guess it's time that I talk about the events that unfolded last Sunday night. I was gonna keep it on the down low. It doesn't really have to do with "my life in ministry" but it is so funny I have to share it.

Last Saturday I had a normal routine day at the house same ole blah blah. It felt amazing outside so I went out and cleaned up the trash around the yard that my beautiful dog, Ellie Mae, decided to tear out. After getting it good and clean I felt like a million dollars. ( as usual when I do something manly) Well, that's just the starter of what took place. Sunday night when I got home from our outreach ministry I noticed something in the yard again...My blood started boiling.....I was not happy with ole Ellie at that very moment. It looked like it was just an old pillow that she had tore up. So I approached......... Just as I was going to pick it up I noticed something very peculiar. This pillow HAD TEETH! AHHH yikes. It looked dead but I wasn't sure, so I kicked it...and I mean hard! Nothing happened...still appeared dead, but it sounded like ole Ellie had some gas...then I come to realize that was not Ellie, no it..........was........THE POSSUM!

I called Mary to the door ( BIG mistake ) and told her about it. Well she started dancing around like the thing was after her. After kicking it again I noticed this old sucker is playin dead and I am not gonna let him get me! I ran into the house ( I feel like this is a good time to say this possum was not ordinary possum...It was a monster possum) anyway I ran into the house to get my gun. I was trying my best to keep Ellie away and keep Mary quite. By this Time she had already called all of her family. So I came back outside and disposed of the vile creature ( For the sake of people who love evil animals like this one...I will not go into details). When it was all said and done me and my now empty gun went back into the house. I looked at Mary and there was only one thing I could say and think...I'm a murderer..................I really did feel bad but that thing could have killed my dog......OR ME!

So anyway As you can see my Sunday night was no ordinary one. Many people wanted to know, why didn't you eat it...I wanna tell you this; I know I live in Alabama but I am not eating a possum.

Besides the crazy opossum, I do wanna leave you with a mighty scripture for today!

Hebrew 8:12 says- FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE."

Isn't it amazing how much God loves us little ole normal people!

May God Bless you Richly

ant

BUT...I thought you LOVED me?

I have had the awsome apportuninty to be apart of a ministry called "Celebrate Recovery"for a while now. The idea for these services is for people with addiction to learn to let go and give God control of their life. There is no words to describe the power of these services. When I was invited to lead worship for the first time I wasn't real sure what to expect, but I was in a place in my life where needed God to move in me greatly. As I started to lead worship I begin to feel a great pressure lift from me...It was like a house fell off my shoulders. I was feeling more free than I ever had. The only thing that I could notice was that I was surrounded with people that truely wanted to worship God. Not just because it was the thing to do but because it of their passion for Him.

I have grown up in church all my life. I can remember the day the I accepted Jesus as my Savior King. I was 7 years old and I can remember it like it was a movie I watched last night... Though all the years I have been living for Christ I have not seen a group of people that wanted to just be close to their King like this before. It was the God moving event that I needed in me. I felt all the things that were weighing me down vanish. I learned to let go! If God is not in control of your life then who is? you? I don't think so.

Like I said I have been in church all my life so why did this service inspire me so much. I think simply because I was returning to my first Love. As Christians we can get caught up in the things of the world and before you know it you have slipped right back in to the things that it has for you...... i.e. Depression, lust, anger, FEAR. The devil has all these traps set up and waiting on us to trip over daily. So how do we handle it? We have to map out our course with the Word. It is our sword in battle, our light in darkness, and food when we are hungry. Yet we still leave our first love and chase the things the world has... WHY??? The only way I can compare it is this; have you ever used the phrase with someone "BUT...I thought you LOVED me". I have..We all have probably at some point. Think about what was going through your head...abandonment, hurt, alone... Now imagine God is saying that to us every time we cheat on him. Why is it so easy for us as christians to forget about our first Love. Then come running back when we need Him. Being saved is not just believing that Jesus died for you...It's depending on him for everything you are and knowing you are nothing with out Him. How could we let a world that is going to one day be destroyed sway us from that.

Revelations 2:4 says -Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Thank you God for bringing me that Celebrate Recovery service and reminding me of my first love.

May God bless you richly

Ant

Join us @
Celebrate Recovery
-thursday nights
Dilworth Church of God
With Rev Dale Lawley

dude! Where is my amp?

Things have been going absolutely fantastic since my new role as pastor at church...Everybody seems to be so excited about the things that are happening. "Excited" is not even a good word to express how I feel. I am so humbled by the fact that I serve a God that never gives up, even when I try to. "Thank you Lord for who you are"

So everything has been going great....you got that already! However that usually mean that satan is going to attack harder. Attack harder he did. 2 weeks ago I received a phone call that the church had been left unlocked and that alarm not set... That is never a good thing. I decided I was gonna wait till Sunday to find out who may have done this and go over the importance of LOCKING THE DOOR with them. So Sunday comes and I got to the church about 9:17am and see a couple of the praise team members there getting ready and I ask a few of them if they had been at the church and they said "no". So I forgot about it for a while and moved on preparing for worship. Then the question arose.... DUDE! Where is my amp? I looked at Jake and said probably where my amp is... (My little drummer boy likes to take them home and have jam sessions, I never really think about it)

So as the Zac walks in the church I see he has one amp in hand...Mine (praise God) However Jake's was gone! It turns out that Someone had came into our church and stole our musical equipment...I didn't even realize it. The keyboard and drums were still there, but the guitars and amps....not so much. My heart dropped out of my chest. Why? That is the question that kept coming to my mind. Why would someone steal instruments from God's house? I could not understand this. I assured Tim and Jake that their stuff would be replaced and told them try not to worry. Although I felt my "joy" shrinking.

Don't you see satan has come to steal, kill and destroy and we as a body together cannot let him win... I quote to everyone "the joy of the Lord is our strength" The devil is coming to steal your joy first. You have to push through the fire...you have to break the bonds... satan will not be victorious. That morning as I was preaching the Lord spoke to me about making an commitment to LOVE because LOVE never fails. Even though these people was used by satan to try and steal our joy that day, we have to make a commitment to love them. Can you imagine Jesus hanging on the cross and looking at the very people that betrayed him and killed him, yet he still made a commitment of love...He even ask God to forgive them. Can we make that same commitment with people that hurt us daily.

Focus on what John 10:10 says in whole.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." ( the very words of Jesus )

look to the GOOD not the BAD

May God bless you Richly

OH He's still working on me...Makin me what I'm supposed to be

After being the youth pastor for 4 years now I have seen and heard many, many things. I have been able to be there for youth that needed someone to talk to, or even needed help through addictions... God has truely blessed me with a passion for people...NOT just "saved" people but all people... I didn't realize what God was preparing me for....I didn'want to realize.

In November of 2009 we lost our 3rd pastor (thats right, our 3rd) I was in a place where I just wanted to give up. I wanted to just go to some mega church and dissapear into a sea of faces, and forget about the things that God had called me to do. It was just to hard!!! I didn't understand why we were going through this. The sad thing is I thought that everyone felt the same as I did..."Let's just close up shop and move on", that was not the case!

We had a meeting the week after out 3rd pastor had left and I was sitting on the stage with the elders of the church. I remember A very special young lady coming up to me and saying "We can't close the church, I cant' lose my family". I still remember thinking I still can't do this... Then anthoer young lady came to me and express how hard it was for her...( she was an athiest before coming to a youth revival and dedicating her life to Christ). Things started to get a bit fuzzy in the ole brain at that point...I was battling like Jacob...God was winning! All the sudden I could feel God softening my heart. It was like a chisle cutting through rocks and being almost there. Then it happen...The question I was waiting for... Can we just close the church? Then a VERY special lady stood up and stated with a powerful voice "over her dead body!" I was shocked to see that the people wasn't thinking what I was thinking. They were holding strong when I should should have been holding strong for them. They were holding me up when I should have been holding them up.

God spoke to me then and there as the rocks fell off my heart, "Protect My People". He said it over and over again...It became a voice that would not leave my thoughts. Quickly I looked to my best freind and partner in ministry, Timothy, and said " you know that we have to do this...He looked at me with a funny face and said "i'm gonna kill you"....haha right? Then he said "I'm with you".

I found myself in that wierd place yet again... Unsure of myself but confident I was was where I was supposed to be. Even though I wanted to give up, God had other plans. You see when it comes to his people, God cares! People may look at me and say "how can a 27 year old be a pastor?" I'm not sure myself, But God knows. So I will listen and follow him, feed his word and most of all...Love! We can't do some of the great things that God can do, But one thing we can do just like him is LOVE.

I am reminded of the song I learned as a child... "It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the Earth and Jupitor and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

I will not give up!

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

My God Bless you Richley

A new Thing!

Well my wife tells me that I am the worst person in the world when it comes to grammer. So let me apologize ahead of time for any typos... or uh-ohs.

About four years ago on a Wednesday night I was in a normal church service having a great time when I had this urge to get and go down stairs. I got to the doors at the youth room/fellowship hall and noticed that all the kids were just sitting around not being taught or anything close. They were just being baby-sat for the adults pretty much. My heart jumed out of my chest and The Lord spoke to me and said "feed my sheep". I remember talking to Mary about it for days trying to sort out what I was supposed to do with that, I am a music man not a youth pastor. At least that is what I thought! The next few days thought just ran crazy through my head...( I tend to do that when i get an idea in my head) All I could think about was what The Lord had spoken to me. So I made a step, I ask if I could do a 3 week sermon series for the youth. I had no idea what I was doing so I just trusted God and his calling on me. After the 3 weeks the youth was so excited and pumped about what they had learned and I felt like I was on top of the world. I didn't expect this to be so easy and so hard at the same time...It felt good!

At the end of the 3 weeks I called the church outside to a burning barrell and had told them to take anything that henders them from God and bring it with them. It was amazing at all the stuff that everyone brought... (I even brought my justin timberlake cds) I was so happy to see people giving up things because they love God more... At that moment I knew that I was in the right place at the right time. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do. All I knew was that I had to do it.

A lot of things have changed over the past 4 years I feel a bit more mature even though some would argue that is so not true. I feel I have become a leader, and a protector of God's people and I know that there is nothing else that I could do with my life... I think that I am gonna take this blog and make it a tool to encourage those who are discouraged and to lift up those who are down. I am gonna talk about all the the ups and downs and everything in-between that I have been through as a minister of God.

Remember if you ever feel like you don't know what you are doing or you fell like you are not sure you are doing it right. Just hold on and let God take the lead, his plans are greater than ours. His wisdom and knoweldge is greater than ours, and his ways are greater than ours. He just wants us to obey...

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.(NIV)

May God Bless YOU!