Author: nick

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Nine Years Ago Today

nickiNine years ago today, the most amazing and beautiful lady changed the story of my life with two small words, “I Do!”
Those two words sealed into history a love that’s never ending; even when we’ve felt like letting go, the love that we share held us together. I can’t count the stupid decisions I’ve made in my life and all of the wrong choices I’ve made, but one thing is certain and one thing is clear, asking Nicki to marry me was the best decision I have ever made, and at least I can always say I did one thing right! Our story has changed in many ways over the last nine years, together God’s blessed us with three amazing children who have taught us to love deeper and in ways we had never experienced. I am thankful God put our paths together all those years ago, and that today is just a reminder that we’ve just begun and that there are many pages to our story that has yet to be written.

Nicki, you are the greatest wife a man could ask for. Thank you for sharing the last nine years of life with me and for being a great mother to our children. I know you do a lot every week (college, your purse business, 3 kids, working at Cudos on the weekend, cleaning the house during the day, cooking dinner, helping me etc, etc, etc…….) but what is more impressive to me is that you do not complain and you do it with a personal sacrifice unmatched by many women. Thank you for doing all that you do selflessly. I look forward to next chapters of our story together 😛

Happy 9th Anniversary! I love  you.

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Hope in Despair

We kicked off our new series yesterday “There’s An App for That” – Cyndie one of our vocalists shared her story after the message before the closing song about her hope in despair during a recent scary event in her life. If you don’t want to watch all of the music, the intro video, and message, Skip to 53:03 on the video to go directly to Cyndie’s story. After you watch it, Join the Conversation and share with us how Jesus has been a “Hope” during a despairing time in your life.

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Theres An App For That

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We kicked off our new series today at New Passion Church called “There’s An App for That.” During the series we will be exploring how the Bible has an app(lication) for some of the tough issues we deal with in life. Today we kicked off with “Hope in Distress.” Below is the schedule for the remaining 5 weeks:

November 8 – Healing for Broken Relationships
November 15 – Healthy Finances
November 22 – Harmony at Home
November 29 – Guest Preacher Tim Carnes
December 6 – Honor in our Uniqueness


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I Consider Love as Wealth

close-earsI met today with George Robertson, the pastor of First Pres, where I work my day job. I asked him if he came across anything of value for a new, young pastor in his reading to feel free to recommend it to me.

He immediately grabbed something from his desk and said he did have something. He told me it dealt with handling criticism, which he was sure I had not heard any, but told me I could make a copy. I read it as soon as I got back to the office and thought I would post it hear on my blog for you all to read.

Now, I will be the first to  admit. Okay, maybe my wife would be the first to admit about me and then I would be the second, that I am no stranger to being a critic. I feel I have made great improvements in keeping my mouth shut and my heart right towards people, but there are times I allow myself to be critical of people; so I am a work in progress and I know first hand that this practice is much easier said than done. I thought this would be healthy for anyone, check it out:

Handling the Criticism of Others That You Hear

Charles Simeon, Anglican Minister of the Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge, England from 1782 to 1836, speaks to the issue of protecting another’s reputation by the things we say and the things we believe. He wrote in July of 1817, “The longer I live, the more I feel the importance of adhering to the rules which I have laid down for myself in relation to such matters. First, to hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others. Second, to believe nothing of the kind until I am absolutely forced to it. Third, never to drink into the spirit of one who circulates an ill report. Fourth, always to moderate, as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed towards others. Fifth, always to believe, that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter. I consider love as wealth; and as I would resist a man who would come to rob my house, so would I a man who would weaken my regard for any human being.”

A huge task, but one I want to Conquer.

Join the Conversation…What’s your Thoughts?

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Legalism at its Best

judges-gavelI try to take my Bible with me to lunch to get some bonus study time in for Sunday’s message since I am bi-vocational and only have so many hours in a day. I swear that book brings out all kinds of people, including the weirdos.

Most of my encounters have happened at McDonald’s in downtown Augusta. I’ve had run-ins with weird pastors, a homeless man that sat down in my booth, didn’t say a word and fell asleep. I didn’t say a thing. I knew that McD’s would kick him out into the Summer heat, if he was all by himself, so why not let him get some rest in the A/C? Today, was a new encounter.

A guy stopped by and asked me if I knew of a church that worshiped on Saturday like the Seventh Day Adventist, but that was not Seventh Day Adventist. I questioned why he was looking for a Saturday worshiping non-Seventh Day Adventist Church and he explained that they have other Doctrinal issues that he did not agree with, which I agree with him on. However, as soon as I explained that I do not know of any type churches that he was seeking out, he asked if he could sit down and show me something, to which I agreed. Let me just say, this man knew scripture.

He takes me all over the Bible showing me the old Covenant and the new Covenant. 99% of the stuff he was saying was right on and true. I do believe this guy was well intentioned , but totally misguided. Of course he was putting his case together as to why Christians should keep Saturday as the Sabbath. I gave him time to make his case, and then I asked him a few questions:

1. What about Jesus? In the eyes of the Pharisees Jesus worked on the Sabbath and even defended those who labored on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12)
2. What about the first church? They worshiped God and met DAILY. I do believe daily is everyday including Saturday. Now of course, his angle was that we should rest and worship on the Sabbath, but this verse through him off and he started talking about how 300 years after Christ’s resurrection Christians still recognized the Sabbath as Saturday until the evil Catholics came along and brutally murdered Christians for worshiping on Saturday and forced them to worship on Sunday, for which this awful tradition began. He then quoted John 15:20 and declared that the Catholics fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy because Saturday worshipers were persecuted by the Catholics for their recognition of Saturday as the Sabbath.

3. What about the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law? Once again, he attempted to answer this one, but was angling to twist Scripture to back up his view. This time  it was my turn to share. I explained that the letter of the law declares that one must recognize the Sabbath on Saturday (a specific day) whereas the spirit of the law declares that we still honor that which we were commanded in Exodus 20:8 but that God’s desire is that we simply do it. We make sure we have A Sabbath, but to be dogmatic about the day is legalism, for which he declared Jesus was the ultimate Legalist. Hmm! Okay!

I could see him boiling at this point. He then went for Pharisee approach. He asked me what day did I think the Pagans who worshiped the sun god had for their Sabbath? For which I played dumb to his question and responded, “I don’t know, which day?” With a big smile he responded “Sunday!” As if he had cornered me. I responded, “Well, I guess that could be true!” For which he replied, “Oh no, its true, I’ve studied it!” – I responded that God was not worried about the day, just that we have a Sabbath.

Here’s Legalism at its best worst…When the man could not control me or move me towards his thinking or his religion, he got angry and he attacked me. He called me a pagan sun worshiper and got up to pack his Bible back into his book bag. When I refuted his claim he asked me to read 1 John 2:3-4, and tried to use Scripture to guilt me into believing his way, when I still did not bow at the alter of his religion, he declared once again that I worshiped the sun and took off. And then I sent a tweet 🙂

Join the Conversation…When was a time someone tried to use Scripture to point you in the wrong direction?