The most annoying sound in the world

The only reason that I'm writing this post is to help me deal with the most annoying sound that I'm hearing at the moment.

I had to come to the car dealership this morning to get my car looked at because the air condition all of a sudden stopped working. I'm made my way to the waiting room and took a seat closest to the door. There were about four people in the room when I entered. Like most people, I made some space between myself and the others in the room. I noticed that they had remodeled the place and added more seating and gave it a new modern look. I counted eleven seats  in the room with four people including myself.

While I was reading an article on a website a man came through the door and sat right beside me eliminating the space I had created. He then proceeded to eat his breakfast. Now I don't mind people sitting beside me or eating beside me. That's not a big deal. What is a big deal is when someone who is eating beside me has no manners AT ALL. First of all I have auditory issues. Most noise gets under my skin. As he ate I heard every last bite he took while his mouth smacked his food, and smacked his food, and smacked his food. 

I want to say something so bad but I'm going to hold my tongue because I know it will be over soon. 

You may be going through something in your life at this moment where you are extremely aggravated and it's driving you absolutely crazy. Your first reaction may be deal with it in a negative way. Instead, think what you can do in a more positive way to deal with it. When we deal with issues in our life in a negative way we end up making everything worse. 

Crippled by Fear

  It has been a long time since I've posted anything to this blog. I actually transferred this blog to a wordpress blog and kept up with it for awhile but that too faded. Today I thought to myself that I would start trying to blog again because it's very therapeutic for me and it might help someone out who reads it.
 
  Lets fast forward a bit from the last post on this blog, which was sometime in 2009, and let me give you a brief run down of how I am where I am today. The last time that I posted anything here I was serving as the Worship Pastor at Real Life Church in Spring Lake, NC right outside of Fort Bragg. My wife and I felt God moving us out of this ministry and He opened a door for us to go back to our home town in Albemarle when I decided to take a Worship Leader position at NewLife Church in Locust. I served there for about two years and parted ways back in October of 2012. During the last 4 or 5 months of my employment at NewLife I met a guy name Kevin Simmons who was about to plant a new church in Albemarle,NC. We talked regularly and he coached me through some ministry issues I was going through at the time. When October came and I left NewLife Kevin invited me to Vortex Church. Since then I've served as a Worship Leader there on and off.

  Now that you know a little bit of the back story, let me get into the real reason I wanted to start posting again. FEAR. I want to start this new season of blogging on this topic because over the last year and a half I have been overcome with this feeling of fear, worry, and anxiety. While we all deal with a little bit of this at times in our life, some of us at times are crippled by it. What I mean by crippled is that the feeling of fear is so strong that it keeps you from moving where you know you should move.

  I've led worship for over 10 years. During this time I have felt different levels of anxiety because I am not comfortable preforming in front of people. I've always continued to do it because I know that this is what God has called me to do. But here in the last year and a half I have shifted my focus on my fear and I have made it bigger than my God to the point to where it has crippled me to do what I've been called to do.

  This past March, I was told that I had lung cancer. This struck a new kind of fear into me. The first thought I had was, "What am I doing?" What I had realized was that I had been running from God. I have been running from his presence and where He was leading. I found out weeks later that it was not cancer but also that God was trying to get my attention. I realized that He had been trying to get my attention through different events but I was paying Him no attention. He told me to stop running and to keep your eyes on me. Peter only started to sink when he took his eyes of Jesus.

  This post is for the one who is so caught up in fear that they are afraid to move because of what they cant see, or what people may think or what could eventually happen. If God has gifted you with something, use it to bless others, if God is leading you to move a certain way, MOVE. God is bigger than anything we can think or imaging, and that includes your fears.

LAST POST EVER

This is the last post that will ever be on this site. I've moved everything over to Word Press. My new site is.... http://www.rodnod.wordpress.com

HABAKKUK SERIES THIS WEEK!!!!

• 
  This 3 week series starts this Sunday.

1. Why does bad things happen to good people?
3. Where is God when I need Him most?

Check Real Life Church out on Sunday's at 9:45am and 11:15am

Breakthrough 2009

This is the outline from the worship teams devotion Thursday night. I believe we are going to see God's people move to a different level this year in relationship with Jesus Christ.

We all have spirits that we battle with. God says despite what we fight with we have the victory in Christ. Rom 8: 36-37

1 John 5:3-5 Loving God means keeping his commandments. His commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

• Deut 30:15-18
  
  
  BREAKTHROUGH: (1)AN ACT OR INSTANCE OF BREAKING THROUGH AN OBSTRUCTION OR DEFENSIVE LINE; (2) A SUDDEN ADVANCE IN KNOWLEDGE OR TECHNIQUE. (Football illustration)
  
  
• We all have walls that have been built over the years that keep us from reaching the potential God knows we have.
  
  
  Some WALLS we need to breakthrough:
  
• Pride(Prov 13:10) “Its more about ME than GOD or ANYONE ELSE”
  The desire to be more attractive or important than others.
  
• Lust “My heart and mind is wrapped around ________”
  1. Excessive love or desire for someone or something else, to the point that God is rendered second in your heart.
  
• Fear (Heb 13:6) “They will hurt me”
  
• Envy “I want what he has”
  2. Desiring what someone else has. A perversion of this desire to the point that you have sorrow when other people experience good.
  
• Laziness “ Someone else will do it”
  3. An unwillingness to care. Apathy. The opposite of zeal, and this can be seen in the way we care about things that matter to God- basically an unwillingness to act.
  (Prov 13:4, 12:27, 18:9, 20:4 Rom 12:11)
  
  
  
  
  Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
  
  
  Two ways that I can breakthrough is:
  
• Pray(29:12)
  
• Seek(29:13)
  

God will….

• Restore to me what was taken from me (John 10:10)
  
• Set me free

Guest Blog: Craig Groeschel

Reaching the Next Generation
To reach the next generation for Christ, we must be three things:
Conversational.
Missional.
Generational.

Let’s start today with conversational. This generation craves intimacy in relationships. They want to know and be known.

Too many Western Christians are turned off (or intimidated by) the young, tech savvy, tattooed, and pierced young adults.

Some churches preach against these outward appearances. Others are striving full-time to be “cool” and “relevant” believing the right environment, best light show, or hot sermon series will win the young adults to Christ.

Both these strategies miss a key ingredient. This generation wants to talk. Conversation matters. Relationships matter. Intimacy matters.

Here are some rules of conversation:

• Before they listen to you, they want to know if you’re listening to them. If you’ll get to know them, they will listen to you.
• If you’re quick to judge, don’t bother trying to connect.
  
• It doesn’t matter if you’re cool or relevant. It matters if you bring the real you. Fake is the worst thing you can bring.
  
• The fifth conversation might be the difference maker. In my “Christian Witness Training” course at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, we were trained to knock on doors, present the gospel, and ask people to pray the sinners’ prayer. While this might occasionally still work, it isn’t a likely path to life change. This generation builds trust slowly. If you don’t plan on having a third, fourth, or fifth conversation, you might not want to spend a lot of time on the first.
  
• They want to be loved. My most consistent conversations with 20-somethings happens in the gym. After getting to know some young men, I genuinely care for them and believe in them. I try to tell them often, “I’m proud of you… I’m pulling for you… I believe in you… I love you.” They seem hungry for acceptance and affirmation and respond well to sincere Christian love.

Lifechurch.tv

Good Connection??

I started reading the book SEX GOD again by Rob Bell and finished up the first chapter and this paragraph really spoke to me and how I am connected to God and others who surround me. I wanted to share it with you because it seriously struck a chord in me. I don't know who needs to hear this today but my prayer is that this challenges you to go deeper into your relationship with God.


You can't be connected with God until you're at peace with who you are. If you're still upset that God gave you this body or this life or this family or these circumstances, you will never be able to connect with God in a healthy, thriving, sustainable sort of way. You'll be at odds with your maker. And if you can't come to terms with who you are and the life you've been given, you'll never be able to accept others and how they were made and the lives they've been given. And until you're at peace with God and those around you, you will continue to struggle with your role on the planet, your part to play in the ongoing creation of the universe. You will continue to struggle and resist and fail and connect.

Rob Bell
SEX GOD

You Gotta Get This Cd!!!!

This is an amazing cd! WOW!

You Don't Want To Miss This Sunday!!!

Come and join us at Real Life Church this Sunday! We have two services 9:45am and 11:15am
Come and grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat and lets get ready for some high energy worship and praise as Pastor Darrell brings a relevant message that will break down the walls in your life that have been holding you back from reaching the potential in your life.

Real Life Church
1994 Ray Rd
Spring Lake, 28390

HOSTAGE Starts This Week!!!!!

Whats the Big Deal About Obedience?

Jesus says in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

What's the big deal with obeying God other than the fact that Jesus said if you love me you will obey me. I mean it's my life, right? I obey somethings that He says, but some just don't fit well with who I am. What if I did this certain thing I felt He was wanting me to do?

Like, picking up something that another person dropped in the grocery store, just to give it back to them. Or going to pray with someone that God has put on my heart. What if GOD tells me I need to give money to a random person that I see or even give over the 10% that He has commanded me to give.

People might think I'm crazy. Heck I might think I'm crazy. My friends may not want to hang around me as much. It just seems like I might loose everything if I get too close. How do I even know it is even God who is speaking to me?

But WHAT IF this is GOD? What is God commanding us to do? This might be new to some but Jesus tells us that the greatest of all commandment are summed up like this, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Over the next few days we are going to look at how we can know what God is actually commanding us to do. How do I know if it's God speaking softly to me? How do I discern His voice from other voices?

I've Got A Question Pt 2

Can God do anything? This is the question I wanted you to really think about. I wanted you to rack your mind and really ponder this question. So what do you think? Do you think He can do anything?

The natural response to this question would most likely be, " Of course. God is all powerful, the creator of the universe, the Savior of the world. I agree with all of these answers. But there is one thing that God can not do. Well there is two things that He can't do. He can not lie. He also can not make you love Him. He can not make you choose Him over your own interest.

Have you ever asked someone on a date? Not knowing what their response would be. You put your heart out on a chopping block. You gave them a choice to make. To say, "Yes" or "No". You can't control that. You can't make someone love you. It's their choice.

God has put His heart on a chopping block (the cross) He loves you! He wants you to love Him and nothing else. He has given you the power to choose! How will you respond?

I've Got a Question

I've got a question that I want you to really think about. Here it goes...

Do you think God can do anything?

Think about,

Pray about it,

Tell me what you think.

I'll be back and share my thoughts.

Happy New Year by the way!!!

Internet Fast

I'm taking a break from the Internet until the first of the year. I'll be back January 1st.

Real Life Worship Team Photos

Living on a Budget

Here is a great link! If you don't live by a budget, now is the time. Elevation Church has put together a budget spread sheet. All you have to do is punch in the correct numbers and Excel will do the math for you.

God has richly blessed us with what we have. Everything comes from Him. He calls us to be good stewards of our belongings and yes this includes our income. A lot of us don't want to face the problem of our screwed up bank accounts, but how do you expect a financial blessing to come your way if you can't even manage what God has given you to start with.

Lets breakdown the walls of poor financial management together!

Watch Out For The Craftiness of Satan

satan is a very crafty being and is very good at what he does. I'm so thankful that he was defeated on the cross.
I want to remind you guys of Ephesians 6:12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

I was talking to somebody the other day and the person said something that highly offended me. I was in shock, I could not believe that they just said that to me. Anyways I tried to just blow it off but my mind was already wrapped around their comment. It effected the way I worshiped, the way I communicated, the way I thought. But then I realized that satan is a pretty crafty being. he used this person to try to break me down to hinder my leadership and my ministry.

I have just broke through a long drawn out spiritual battle that went on for over a month and for the last two weeks I have been living in the freedom from that battle and I dang sure am not getting wrapped back up in one just because satan tries to be sneaky. (I about did though)

What I'm saying is, that you will come in contact with people for the rest of your life and sometimes they might say things to you that might hurt your feelings or offend you or what ever. Just remember that satan is at work through everyone and he will try to use anyone, but it is not a war against each other but rather against the devil.


(I know I did not capitalize the word satan or words that referenced him, but he's a flippin punk and does not deserve it.)

Worship Set 11-2-08

Faithful.....................Steve Fee
Jesus Messiah..........Chris Tomlin
Shout Unto God.......Hillsong

Worship Sets

Here are the Worship Sets for the last two weeks. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I have come down with the crud and feel like blah.


Worship Set 10-26-08

Undivided.......................Elevation Church
Be Glorified.....................Chris Tomlin
God of This City.............Chris Tomlin
Yearn...............................Shane & Shane

______________________________

Worship Set 10-16-08(Acoustic)

Jesus Messiah..................Chris Tomlin
Reign in Us.......................Starfield
Mighty to Save................Hillsong