My Grown Up Christmas List

A video slide show I created to help bring more…

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What a great DAY!

I, along with my wife,  3 children, and sister – in -law Rebekah,  were able to go to downtown Nashville today and talk, feed, and hang out with HOMELESS!  Why don’t I do that more?  I absolutley loved and was blown away by what the Lord did.  The common thing I kept hearing from all the homeless guys and girls I met was that they were so blessed and had everything that they needed!  WHAT?  I look at them and think how little they have, yet most of them were telling us about how blessed they feel to have breath and life, clothes on their back, family somewhere who loves them, etc.  Most of us who have everything don’t have this perspective!

I had to really think about that and I realized that the Lord absolutley LOVES everyone, INCLUDING homeless!  They are people that have all different types of stories and lives.  They have all gotten in this situation from by a different way and my heart just broke for them.  Even now I am thinking about one of the guys that said, “THANKS FOR REALLY SEEING US!”  He took a bagged lunch from us and a gray hooded sweatshirt.  He was ecstatic to have a hoodie to wear.  Are you kidding?  I almost cried when I heard that, because I don’t stop my crazy American christian life long enough to just LOVE the way my KING did and does!  Oh, Lord help me to SEE what you see and be moved by LOVE alone.

We cooked hotdogs all morning and my girls colored and made drawings all over paper bags at the house.  We also made cookies, took as much money as we could get together, and just asked the Lord to lead us!  HE DEFINITLEY LED US!  My girls, they are only 4 and 6,  were a hit with all the people as they just handed out bagged lunches along with a bunch of clothes and jackets that we had in our closets.  We just drove all around downtown Nashville looking for people that were in need and stopped whenever the Lord told us to.   We gave money to people that seemed just hopeless and helpless and we shared JESUS with them the best we knew how!  We talked to a guy named RED; I will never forget him.  He was huddled up by himself against the wall as we drove up to him and we just began to talk.  He was a broken man, torn by the years of bad decisions that he made; he carried them all on himself.  He was a prime canidate who needed hope, love, and FAITH.  We talked to him about Jesus and he just said I NEED HIM!  He was so ready for the Lord to step in and do a miracle and He did!  He cried out with us to Jesus in his own words and began to tear up and so did I.  I heard a man in his despondant and desperate situation from the depths of his soul cry out to the only One that could change him for eternity.  Our Lord saved RED 2000 years ago as well as took care of his sins and today for the first time he BELIEVED Him!  We gave him a hug some cash and told him how much we loved him and wouldn’t forget him.  This is one of the many we met along with only one of the stories we heard today.  My wife met someone she had known for years back from her hometown who is now homeless.  It broke her heart and we gave him a meal and just loved on him.  It made me think how quickly life can change, how sin can creep into someones life, how the enemy will DESTORY lives!  I was able to pray for a guy who had a sexual addiction, a man who was in such pain from his back and injuries that he got high just so he didn’t feel it; his name was Dennis and I prayed for healing for him.  Whether he got it I don’t know but I believed the Lord was ready to do it for Him, just like He ALWAYS is!  Ok so the DAY was great!  It was the first christmas that I didn’t think about myself and my presents and my needs, but about Christ and others!  HOW BLESSED I AM TODAY!  This is only the begining!

NEW post?

So what is NEW?  I mean take clothes for instance; they are manufactured either by machines or people so they are constantly being handled even before you ever get to wear them.  What about restraunt food?  They might call it a new menu item but have you seen or watched how that food is handled?  When it comes to ideas, there has always someone that seems to have come up with that idea before you and it drives you crazy!  I never understood why everything is so much better new in this world?  In this world I am realizing more and more that there is nothing new!  That is ok though, because most of us are easily entertained, the job we are in is the same one some else is doing down the road as well,  your car already had 50 miles on it before you drove it off the lot and we still pay the NEW price for it all.  This email is probably just some regurgitation of something  that has already been written at one time or another, maybe in Ecclesiastes?  There is nothing NEW under the sun that we live with, but we chase after what we think is new in order to keep up with the Jones’s!  In all my years the only thing that I have ever gotten that was and is NEW, is the life that was given to me by Jesus.  Call it what you want, but THAT NEVER GETS OLD!

I HATE FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNTS- at least MOST!

Ok I don’t know if you have ever had a FSA account but it will drive you crazy!  I got one of those debit cards from them and let me tell you it was great like I had all the money I needed up front for all my medical stuff.  But, a month before the end of the year I receive the letters saying claims were denied from back in FEBRUARY!  Come on can’t we do better than that?  Alright, enough gripping about this, but I realize there is a lesson in this whole mess for life.  You know way back when, like 2000 years ago back when, there was this incredible gift kind of like the ultimate FSA DEBIT CARD that was born in the manger.  I am not trying to be sacrilegious at all but the Lord came down in the most humble of ways and gave us an account that is limitless and I realize that I am always trying to front the money on my own in life instead of allowing the Lord to step in and pay that debt.  I am not just talking about a get out of hell free card which eternity in heaven will be amazing, but I am talking about what He paid for like our sicknesses, diseases, pains, deliverance, forgiveness.  The payment is on that FSA DEBIT CARD, Jesus HIMSELF, and all we have to do is in an essence is swipe it and let him take it.  We need to let Jesus have what HE paid for when He came to this broken earth.  Let us rejoice this season because unlike the AMEX where you go into debt and every famous person seems to use it,  I would rather have an ETERNAL and DEBT-LESS  way to pay, not just in life but for it!

Let it be known…..

N

Senior Adult Choir Hip Hop (Short Version)

THIS IS WHERE OUR CHOIRS ARE HEADED! I LOVE IT!

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I am PUMPED!

Ok, so I am new to the blogging!  I never thought that I would enjoy it or want to do it but, I DO!  I love hearing others thoughts and giving them as well.  My prayer is that people will never get tired of running the race or seeking the adventure in the journey we call life.  If I cannot IMPACT THE WORLD I DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN IT!  Jesus is my greatest teacher and role model and that will never change.  I am nothing by myself and unstoppable with Him and what He has given me because of the cross!  I read this once from another blogger who found this prayer and didn’t know where it came from:

“DISTURB US, LORD, WHEN WE ARE TOO WELL PLEASED WITH OUSELVES. WHEN OUR DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE BECAUE WE DREAMED TOO LITTLE. WHEN WE ARRIVE SAFELY BECAUSE WE HAVE SAILED TOO CLOSE TO THE SHORE. DISTURB US LORD!”

On another note my kids are healthy well, which I have four!  2 girls and 2 boys

My wife is the hottest godliest woman I know and for that I cannot wait to see her and listen to her everyday! (She just had mouth surgery so she is a little under the weather right now!)

LET IT BEGIN!

Cant wait to get started on a great adventure!

Nathan