I got to talk about one of my favorite subjects Sunday- Forgiving Others. You know those people who hurt or wound us and never look to make it right- if we don’t learn to forgive them- that bitterness ends up shaping our lives. I will post the video of the message at the bottom in case you missed or want to listen again. Sunday musings:

• It rained from early until late.
• Hats off to the set-up team- you guys smoked it again.
• Dean and Connie head up our parking lot team. They don’t miss a beat- although I think Dean got soaked! Thanks guys.
• We got tired of the rain outside and decided we needed some inside. Yep, the roof was leaking full bore. Hopefully that will get fixed soon.
• If you see a student- stop them and make them tell you about their Easter break mission trip. I heard great things.

In other news:

• I am looking forward to heading over to Orlando for the first half of the week. I will be teaching church planters with Ron Sylvia. I will be bragging on you guys all week. Click here for some info on the Exponential Conference.
• Did you sign up for Open Door on May 2nd from 5-6:30pm? If you are new- its for you. More info here.
• Baby Dedication will be May 16th. It is always a great time as we line up all the new babies across the front of the room and pray for them. If you haven’t signed up you need to contact Don, our Children’s Pastor. Email him at Don@churchatthebay.com
• Here is the video from this weekend’s teaching….

Welcome back Florida weather. On Saturday, I was finally able to take the top back off the jeep. Wow- it is nice riding around town again! This weekend we began our new financial series- Bailout or Blessing. It is always fun to talk about money in church. People never know what to expect- or maybe they expect the idea of – GIVE MORE. This series is way beyond just give more- we are talking about balancing our financial lives. Here are some random thoughts from the weekend:

• I challenged everyone to make a list of every expense you have this week. Here is a ledger sheet if you need one. Remember I am not saying going on a financial diet this week- just track EVERY PENNY.
• An online tool for tracking expenses for FREE is mint.com
• I have listed some books on the left hand side of this blog for further study.
• If you missed the weekend the teaching video is now made available in the upper right hand corner of this blog.
• We had 2 people trust Christ this weekend. Always cool when I talk about money to see people surrender their life to Christ. Must be a correlation.
  
• We gave away a ton of “No Perfect People Allowed” shirts this weekend. If you need help- brown was for the guys and pink for the ladies. I did have some guys tell me they have no problem wearing pink- they might need another opinion, just sayin.
• The next several weeks will be foundational for us to develop a Biblical view of finances and stuff. Plan to to take some good notes.
  
• We had a boisterous group at the house for Open Door last night.
• By the way- Home Teams hits their second week- engage now!

This is our video roll in for this series…

Have a great week!

.

I begin this update on a personal note- The Wedding! Last Wednesday family began arriving and there were meals and brunches until the weeding on Saturday afternoon. I was able to take off Thursday and Friday and hang out with everyone- we had a ball. Even played a little “family basketball” and the good news is no one was injured- well not life threatening anyway. There was a threat of rain Saturday but it turned out beautiful. Here is a pic from the beach:

I will post more later on my Facebook page later this week (you can friend me here).

Weekend Observations:

• I did not teach this weekend- my brother Larry did!
• Larry did a great job- video here- audio here
• If you look at the video you will see why I have outlawed short sleeve shirts for Larry at CATB- He makes it a gun show!
• This was the last week of Marriage Rx and it has been a great run.
• So many new people every week.
• If you are new to CATB be we will be having an “Open Door” at our house next Sunday Night from 5-6:30pm. Details are here.
• We had our new sound system installed this past week. It will make a huge difference in the sound clarity and quality, as well as tear down efficiency.
• Home Teams begin this week. Do you need more info? Click here.

Sandy and I feel like the most blessed parents in the world. We prayed for 3 things for our children:

1. They would develop a heart for God. You know what I mean, not just attend church and read their Bible (although that is good idea). We prayed that they would have a passion to follow Jesus.
2. Secondly, we prayed for godly spouses for them.
3. Our final prayer was that they would raise kids with a heart for God.

They are now two of three. The song says 2/3 ain’t bad- but we are praying for 100%!
Here is the video we used to promo the new “Bailout or Blessing” teaching series.

.

Wow! This weekend was really good all the way around. We have over 100 volunteers that make it happen week in and week out. We had a ton of guests- that never gets old. You can always tell the Yankees in the crowd, on a cold day they are wearing shorts and flip-flops! Yep- we had someone like that. It was in the 40′s and about half the crowd was wearing coats- and I don’t mean suit coats. So here are the bullet points from Sunday:

• Don (our children’s pastor) had a goal post and footballs for the kids to try out. Yep, I tried and failed miserably. I even went soccer style. Several other men were also less than effective.
  
• Our parking lot greeters told me we had 180 cars in the lot! If you get there early please park in the north lot.
• It seems we have several people who understand Spanish! I told of a communication mistake I made ordering some coffee (you will have to listen to the podcast- I will not repeat it here). A lady down front shrieked! I guess I said it right- the same way I mistakenly said it wrong before. But just in case, mi espanol no es muy bueno. Click here for podcast (it should be up by 1pm Monday).
  
• It is too cool to meet people who came for the first time last week… and brought someone with them this week. I heard that story a couple of times.
  
• We had a lot of guys walking out with bruised ribs. Who would have ever thought most guys struggle communicating in their wife’s language?
• I mentioned I would put the pdf test online. It takes about 3 minutes and will tell the test taker their love language. Click on the pencil and hand below for the test.
  

• Here is another tool for understanding Love Languages- Click here
  

• If you click on the picture of the book- it will take you to Amazon.com where you can purchase it.
  

• Remember next week is rated PG-13. Make sure you drop your kids off before coming in. I will not be vulgar- but I will talk about stuff they will have questions about!
  

By the way- My Prediction was Colts 41- Saints 17 and I WAS WRONG! Congrats Saints- New Orleans needs a win and they got it.

.