Prayer

If you have children you know that they are capable of prayer from a very young age. My oldest son, Seth, will be three years old on the 20th of May. We have been teaching him the ACTS prayer since he was two years old: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. It goes something like this each night: "I pwaise you Jedus, I sawee to you Jedus, I tank you Jedus..." etc. Since that time his prayer life has grown to "tanking Jedus" for everything you can imagine...Wal Mart, flags, Lighting McQueen (his favorite race car), Mommy, Daddy, Levi, clouds, guns, trees, etc, etc. One of my favorite is that he prayes for "mish-o-mewries" (missionaries).

This blog post was prompted by something I saw Seth do (on his own) before lunch just a while ago. Seth was saying how he missied Mommy because she is gone right now and was not eating with us. He got up from the table and went to his little brother, Levi, and said "lets pray for mommy". He grabed Levi's hands and folded them in a prayer position, bowed his head, and said a prayer for his Mommy. I was blown away! He is already teaching his brother how to pray!

Then, as I was writing this blog post it was time for Seth's nap. I took him upstairs and said nite nite quickly because I was eager to get back to the computer and finish this post. Seth stopped me and said "no Daddy, pray!". So I went back and prayed with him. After I finished I said nite nite and he said "no Daddy, me pray!". So I went back and listened to him pray a prayer of thankfulness for all the important things in his life...like Black Beauty, his flags (all the SEC teams in his room), mommy, daddy, Samson (our 6lb yorkie), etc, etc.

I am so proud of my son.

Sword Fighting

This past week we bought Seth some play swords at Target. We love to chase each other around the house and sword fight. So...this morning, Seth decided to stalk me while I was still sleeping. He woke up before we did, snuck downstairs, and pounced on me while I was asleep. He smacked me right across the forehead. Kelly saw the impending attack and did nothing to stop it. In fact, though the sword across my face is what woke me up, the first thing I heard was the love of my life snickering at me. (thanks, Love!).

Blessed

Today, I spent much time in the mind of a three year old. Their world is so BIG! Really! Hauling dirt and rocks in his F150 (a miniature of his Daddy's), watching for monsters outside the window, organizing his cars in his over sized garage (behind the sofa)...life is full of adventure and learning. We laid in the hammock for over an hour together. I explained to him the difference between a pine tree and an oak tree as he listened intently. He will need to know this when he becomes a deer hunter. I also explained to him how the gray cloud in the sky that was approaching us held water in it, and that the water was about to fall on us...and it did! He was so excited. Then I told him the story...the story of how all creation declares the glory of God.

Then we had dinner and a bath. After that, all his stuffed animals came to life and spoke to Seth and asked him an abundance of questions about his day (his Daddy's voice of course). I am a bit hoarse because he would not talk to me unless I held an animal in from of my face and spoke like a monkey with a British accent. He gave the monkey more eye contact and attention than he has to me all day! :) :)

I am having such a wonderful time learning how to be a dad.

I am in such a wonderful place right now. I have an opportunity to spend an abundance of quality time with my two boys like I never have before, and probably never will again. Thank you Lord Jesus for my sons. They are truly a heritage from the Lord.

Opportunities

It is amazing how God opens up doors of opportunities to share the Gospel when we are open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I was getting my haircut today and had an opportunity to witness to the lady who was cutting my hair. I shocked her when I told her that I have had an opportunity to be involved in turning a lot of Catholics into Baptists. She asked me "how did you know I was Catholic"? Truth is, there are so many Catholics in this area you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right if you guess at it. :) She had grown up Catholic, with a mother who was Mormon, and a Grandmother who was Baptist. I was cracking up! I said "who needs to watch cage fighting on TV when you live in a house like that!" We had a great conversation about the uselessness of man-made religion and about how the most important thing is receiving Jesus as Lord.

Be sure to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. God can use you if you will allow him.

I Am Back!

It is 12:20am on Saturday night and I can't sleep. I can hardly wait to get to church and see all the wonderful people at WBC. I am preaching through a passage in Isaiah about the sufferings Jesus faced. All of us can relate to suffering. It is just a part of life.

I have long since felt that I should return to the realm of blogging. Sometimes I desire to communicate to the church random thoughts that flash through my mind. Sometimes it is a prayer request, sometimes it is something funny that happened, and sometimes is has to do with walking with Jesus.

Also, I love sharing my thoughts about ministry...especially as it is related to our church.

I will be posting about once a week. I hope you will check back each week and see what I am writing. I will usually post every monday...but will probably post throughout the week as well.

Me, Blogging

I am going to be out of the bloggasphere (in case you have not noticed). I am getting a little too busy to blog. Keep up with the Parkison family at www.parkisonfamily.com This is Kellys blog and she posts quite often...mostly about Seth!

I may be back to blogging in the Fall.

BYE!

What do I say

We have finished 4 of 6 weeks of Becoming a Contagious Christian on Sunday evenings and I am so blessed to see many of you become more and more impassioned to share Jesus with others. One of the fears people have about evangelism is "what do I say". They fear that they will be un able to articulate an adequate response to a question when asked difficult questions about God and the Bible. They fear that they are not smart enough or articulate enough to provide people with the "right answers".

But what I always challenge people to do is not to attempt to answer all their technical questions...it will likely not do them much good anyway. The most important message you can provide to your lost friends is THE MESSAGE ABOUT JESUS. I want to challenge you that you have not witnessed to anyone unless you tell them the message about Jesus. You can talk about God, the Bible, creationism, religion, and a multitude of other wonderful topics.

But if you fail to tell them about Jesus, the Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins, was buried, raised again on the third day...and now stands ready to forgive us of sin and reconcile us to God, if we will confess, repent, and turn to Him in Faith...you have not evangelized. You might have had a religious talk about Christian themes and what you believe about them. But the message of Jesus is the ONLY thing that will change their heart.

The Apostle Paul put it this way...

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Rom 1:16

Next time you wonder what to say to your un-churched friend...tell them the message about Jesus. IT HAS UNBELIEVABLE POWER.