It is so funny how people are so resistant to change. Now, I am certainly one of those people when it comes to certain areas in my life.  I resist change, until I quit being stubborn and realize it is for my good! But, there are some things that I hold to dearly and would prefer not to have any change in my life, now, notice I said prefer.

Why is it that people do not like change? Why are we so scared of change? Why do we hate it? Why do we loathe it? Why do we fear it? Why do we dread it? Why do we dream of ways not to change? Why do we pray we do not have to change?

I wonder if it is because we have figured out that we will have to give up control.

God setup the world for change.  He designed the world to change seasons, years, months, days, nights, time, etc. If God were not for change, why would He create the world with change in mind? Not only does our environment change, but WE change… our tastes change, our height changes, our weight changes (some for the good, some for the bad), our looks change, our hairstyles change, our desires change, etc.  Not only do we change physically, mentally, and emotionally, but w also change spiritually!  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

We must change! We must be willing to give up control, so that we can receive the new.  We must be willing, even after receiving the new, to continue to change by growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ!  Each day, we should be changing/growing in our relationship with Jesus.  Even though it may be tough to change, we are better for it!

So, I guess, my question is:  How can people be so against change if they are a follower of Jesus Christ?

Anyone got any thoughts?

Read this quote out of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson:

“God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.”

This is a GREAT book. I am only on chapter 4 and it is really ministering to me. Go get a copy and read it!

I have just been informed by Steven over at gamecocksportsforum.com, that Lou Holtz has picked the Gamecocks to beat LSU tomorrow! NOOOO!!! Please Lou don’t do that!

Guys, play hard, play smart, play with heart! Everything else will take care of itself!

Go Gamecocks!

Also…we have had a little game going on in the office at NewSpring, where some of us have tried to predict the wins and losses for both, the Gamecocks and the Tigers. For each correct pick you get a point. It has been pretty interesting…I will post the leaderboard here after this weekend’s games are completed!

This weekend is off to a great start! Today I played golf at Southern Oaks Golf Course with Saunders Gibbes and some other groomsmen. I haven’t played a full round of golf in quite some time, not to mention I only have Wal-Mart Special clubs…you know the ones that you can get for $125-$150…I played pretty descent. I shot 47 on the front and 44 on the back. Not to bad for me. I enjoyed playing at Southern Oak, it was a nice course…the company was quite interesting. Played with two of Sandy’s college friends that were hilarious!

Then went to pick up my penguin suit, took a shower, then got dressed for the rehearsal tonight. Rehearsal went well, then off to Brick Street Cafe for the rehearsal dinner. I had the filet mignon topped with wild onion rings, with wild mushroom and pea risotto, and steamed asparagus. The chocolate cake, The Best Chocolate Cake I Have Ever Had Cake, for dessert was fabulous.

The night was topped off by hearing some of the awesome words that people had to say about Sandy and Andrea. Sandy’s father has had a tradition of writing a poem to read at each of his children’s wedding rehearsal dinners, which he did tonight for Sandy…well, Sandy surprised his father with a poem about him and the influence he has had on his life. WOW! It was powerful and awesome.

Looking forward to tomorrow for the wedding and reception! It is going to so much fun.

The only thing to make this better…South Carolina Gamecocks beat the LSU Tigers!?!?!?!

The University of South Carolina Gamecocks mascot, Cocky, is in the running for the 2007 Mascot Challenge. Be sure to cast your ballot for Cocky! Follow the link below to cast your vote:

Capital One Bowl: 2007 Mascot Challenge

Would the fact that Lee Corso from College Gameday is now on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks‘ bandwagon a KISS OF DEATH?

Last week, Lee Corso was confronted with the fact that the University of South Carolina is using some of the words that Lee said a couple of years back to BASH the Gamecocks. During that segment, Lee basically showed his lack of character and ignorance. He was mad that someone would take something he said and prove him wrong. (No offence Lee, but you bash teams each and every week, so when a team proves you wrong…which you will be wrong again in the future…take it like a man!)

This week, Lee Corso was asked whether he would BUY or SELL, a typical segment on the show, and he said that he wanted to BUY. He said, “When the Head Ball Coach wins the ugly game, that means he has a defense. That is a scary combination.” (Side-note: Interesting enough, last week Lee said that there was no way the South Carolina Gamecocks would be able to stop UGA.) Are you serious? Lee Corso wanted to buy the South Carolina Gamecocks.

I wonder if that is the K.O.D. or will that motivate the team even more? I am sure with the Head Ball Coach will have our guys prepared for each game. Go Gamecocks!

Any thoughts?

Sunday at NewSpring was, once again, AWESOME! I am so blessed to be a part of a church that God continues to bless and move in some amazing ways.  Today, we kicked off our new seres called, GAMETIME. This is a series to cast the vision of where NewSpring will be going in the next couple of years and serve as our Capital Campaign. Here are some of the amazing things that God has called us to do in the next couple of years:

• Open a new campus in Greenville by next Easter. We’re getting close to acquiring a 60,000 square foot building off of Roper Mountain Road off of I-385. This campus will have children’s ministry space, student ministry space office space, and a 1000 seat auditorium. The teaching will be broadcast live through a satellite video. Perry also mentioned that he hopes to have campuses in every major city in South Carolina within the next ten years. This is going to CRAZY!
• Expand our Children’s Ministry Facility, by building a 45,000 square foot facility that will give dedicated space for more nurseries, special needs space, and individual theaters to minister to our grade school children. This facility is going to absolutely amazing. I look forward to our (Deanna and me) children hearing the name of Jesus in this facility! (No, this is NOT an announcement!)
• Build an awesome Student Life Center on the Anderson campus. This will be a 37,000 square foot facility with a 1,000-seat auditorium and all the trimmings to make this an amazing place for students to come hang with their friends, feel loved and cared for, and hear about the love of Jesus. This place will be the home to both IGNITE Middle School Ministry and FUSE High School Ministry.
• Investing in local and global missions. Check this…we will be tithing on EVERY dollar to missions efforts both locally and foreign. Locally, we will be focusing on meeting the needs of students at Homeland Park Elementary School. We are still researching which missions organizations we will be partnering with to minister to the people of Africa! This could mean 2 million dollars for missions! Sweetness!

We believe that it will cost a total of $20 million for these ministries efforts. WOW! I am so stoked about this whole thing!

Another exciting thing about this campaign, is that the children and student ministries are doing the same series in our services. Tonight was the first night for IGNITE, I will post more about how it went, but it has been a lot of fun to plan and do the same series as the main service.

Be sure to check out the NewSpring website in the next couple of days to get more information. Needless, to say this is all Deanna and I talked about at the lunch table today. We are so excited to hear from God what He wants us to give to the campaign. Stay tuned to hear much more about it and to see what God is going to do!

Saturday was an AWESOME day! Saturday evening at NewSpring was through the roof. We held a baptism with a twist. We told our congregation that we were going to tailgate before the baptism and oh boy, they bought into it. They showed up with RV’s, tents, grills, chairs, satellites, tvs, etc. and to top off the evening we ended up baptizing 562 people. Here is a pic from overhead (courtesy of tonymorganlive.com):

Yes, those are three pools that had 2 pastors in each. We were baptizing 6 people at a time. I am so grateful that I was able to be one of the pastors baptizing people. It took a little over an hour and half. It was amazing and so much fun to watch people publicly proclaim that Jesus is their Savior and Lord. Please jump over to jakebeaty.com and tonymorganlive.com for more information on the baptism!

Also, the local paper, Anderson Independent-Mail, had a write up in today’s paper. Check out the article here.