pjtheblog

PRAISE

Praise
Repentance
Adoration
Intercession
Supplication
Eternal results

ACTS

Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication

PRAYER

Positive
Reassuring
Action
Yielding
Eternal
Results

PRAY

Praise.
Repent.
Ask.
Yield.

PUSH

Pray
Until
Something
Happens

APE

Always
Pray
Everyday

ASAP

Always
Say
A
Prayer

COPS

Christian
Operated
Prayer
Support

Share on Facebook

Here is a link to information regarding the church of God in Chile after the Earthquake…it sounds like there was minimal loss of life.

http://chog.org/News/tabid/57/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/870/Update-on-Church-of-God-believers-in-Chile.aspx

Share on Facebook

Found these in a Tweet from Kem Meyer, from Michael Hyatt’s web site…good stuff

1. Arriving late. This ends up wasting everyone’s time. Not only do you miss out, but it often forces the group to start the meeting over just to get you up-to-speed. It also screams, “I’m disorganized. I can’t manage my time.” Is that really the impression you want to create?
2. Taking phone calls. This is probably the most obnoxious behavior. You might as well say, “Excuse me, but I have someone else more important trying to reach me.” At the very least, have the courtesy to quietly excuse yourself and step out of the meeting. And, don’t answer the phone on your way out the door. Try to be as discrete as possible.
3. Checking e-mail. This is similar to taking a phone call. It communicates that you have something more important to do than pay attention to the meeting. Just say, “no.” Leave the laptop in your office unless you need it for a formal presentation. And, please, PLEASE resist the urge to pull your Blackberry or iPhone out every five minutes and check your messages. (Okay, now I am preaching to myself!)
4. Engaging in side conversations. A good meeting only has one conversation going on at a time. A side conversation is, at best, distracting. At worst, it is a challenge to the meeting leader for control of the conversation. Engage in a little self-control. If you need to follow-up with someone, write yourself a note, and do it after the meeting.
5. Not taking notes. If it is not worth taking notes, why are you there? This communicates, “Nothing going on in this meeting is worth remembering or following-up on.” If you haven’t done so, you might want to read a previous post I wrote called “Recovering the Lost Art of Note-Taking.” You’ll be surprised how much more interesting the meeting becomes when you are capturing your thoughts or what others are sharing.
6. Talking too much. There’s nothing worse than the person who feels the need to comment on everything. Or worse, once they get the floor, they won’t give it up. They just keep talking … and talking … and talking. C’mon, give the rest of us a chance!
7. Interrupting others. Okay, you have a great idea. You’re smart. We’ve got it. But can you wait until the person currently talking is done? The worst form of this is the person who randomly changes the subject. When you make a sharp left turn, you can give everyone else in the meeting whiplash.
8. Not coming prepared. Maybe you got away with this in school. But this is real life. People notice. When you are invited to attend a meeting, people expect you to make a contribution. If you don’t contribute, people assume you haven’t done your homework. Maybe that’s why you are getting invited to fewer meetings. Hmmm.>
9. Chasing rabbits. This is one of those behaviors that makes meetings longer than they need to be. You don’t need to respond to every comment with a quip. You don’t have to tell some long, drawn-out story that everyone has already heard before. Stay focused. You can do it! The sooner we get through the agenda, the sooner we can get back to our offices and get some real work done.
10. Not speaking up. Every meeting seems to have them. Deadwood. How can you sit quietly for the whole meeting? Sometimes I want to pull out a mirror, hold it under your nose, and make sure you can fog it! Why do you keep coming to meetings? Worse, why do we keep inviting you? Speak up or bow out.

Share on Facebook

For the next few days I will post Acronyms that people use to help them pray since we are talking about “praying in Faith” this week at Floyd

The following Acronym was found in John Piper’s book “When I Don’t Desire God” and he uses it to
help him stay on track through his morning prayers. Maybe you will find it helpful as well.

I—(Incline!)
The first thing my soul needs is an inclination toward God and his Word. Without that, nothing else will happen of any value in my life. I must want to know God and read his Word and draw near to him. Where does that “want to” come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 119:36 teaches us to pray, “Incline
my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” Very simply we ask God to take our hearts, which are more inclined to breakfast and the newspaper, and change that inclination. We are asking that God create desires that are not there.

O—(Open!) Next I need to have the eyes of my heart opened so that when my inclination leads me to the Word, I see what is really there, and not just my own ideas. Who opens the eyes of the heart? God does. So Psalm 119:18 teaches us to pray, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” So many times we read the Bible and see nothing wonderful. Its reading does not produce joy. So what can we do? We can cry to God: “Open the eyes of my heart, O Lord, to see what it says about you as wonderful.”

U—(Unite!) Then I am concerned that my heart is badly fragmented. Parts of it are inclined, and parts of it are not. Parts see wonder, and parts say, “That’s not so wonderful.” What I long for is a united heart where all the parts say a joyful Yes! to what God reveals in his Word. Where does that wholeness and unity come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 86:11 teaches us to pray, “Unite my heart to fear your name” Don’t stumble over the word fear when you were seeking joy. The fear of the Lord is a joyful experience when you renounce all sin. A Thunderstorm can be a trembling joy when know you can’t be destroyed by lightning “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to… the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name” (Neh. 1:11). “His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD” (Isa. 11:3) There fore pray that God would unite your heart to joyfully fear the Lord.

S—(Satisfy!) What I really want from all this engagement with the Word of God and the work of his Spirit in answer to my prayers is for my heart to be satisfied with God and not with the world. Where does that satisfaction come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 90:14 teaches us to pray, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

Share on Facebook

New Living Translation: Beginning to End
Read the Bible from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation.

Share on Facebook

The Paradoxes of Communication

• The more we communicate the less we communicate. Most organizations OVERcommunicate believing everybody should be in on everything.
• When all lines of communication are open for participants to talk to all members of a group – the problem-solving ability of the group diminishes markedly and becomes virtually paralyzed.
• In all of life, the metamessage tends to be more powerful than the message itself. Too often we become so concerned about the content of what we say or write that we often forget the form. Yet the feelings, the rituals, the arrangements, the social and physical design – all that is implied by the way we organize a communicate an experience – are crucially important. When they are taken into account, it is possible to send a metamessage that reinforces the intended message rather than undermines it.
• Listening can be a disturbing experience. It requires a level of self-awareness, even self-criticism, that is not often easy to endure. It’s more of an attitude than a skill. It comes not from technique, but from being genuinely interested in what really matters to the other person.

Taken from Kem Meyer’s blog, after she borrowed it from this book

Share on Facebook

I found this on Kem Meyer’s Blog…see the links section for the address

The Technology of Human Relations

Share on Facebook

We are slightly into our 10^th year of ministry here at the Floyd Church of God and I can honestly say that I am just as excited today about the future of this ministry as I was the day that we arrived. Much has changed with our family since we moved here. Our kids that were once tiny, have grown and are becoming every day more and more of what God designed them to be. I believe the church parallels that growth. I believe that since I became your pastor this church has grown in many ways, and is becoming more and more of what God has designed it to be. What an exciting process to watch both in the lives of my children and in the lives of God’s church. Just as they have had to learn and grow mentally, spiritually, and physically as they experience the life that God gave them, so the church must learn and grow mentally, spiritually, and physically as it experiences the life that God has given it. There have been growing pains, the occasional injury, some challenges, and a few victories, and all together this makes up life both for the church and for each of us as individuals.

I have noticed with my older children that no matter how big or grown up they get, they still have room to grow, and they still look forward to the future with great anticipation. I believe that this too is characteristic of the church. No matter how much we have grown there is still room to grow, and the future will hold far greater adventures than the past. We must never lose the sense of excitement that comes from not knowing exactly what is around the next corner. We can make plans, and we can do our best to speculate but Psalm 33 helps us to put our plans in perspective:

10      The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes.  15      He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do.  11      But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.  12      What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.  13      The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race.  14      From his throne he observes all who live on the earth.

God truly does understand all that we do and His plans stand firm forever. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t plan at all, just that God’s plans take priority. It is my sincere desire that we continue to discover His plan for the Floyd Church of God, and execute it with all the faith we have.

I have been excited over the past year to see some of the good things that have happened: Our Outreach and InReach teams continue to work hard both to make contact with the community and to welcome them once they come. The Board of Trustees has worked hard to maintain our building and grounds and to prepare for upcoming changes such as the city water coming in (have faith it will happen someday:). The Board of CE has continued to staff our Sunday school and oversee our children’s and youth ministries, which is a big task, and requires the recruiting of many volunteers. They have done well, and I would encourage you to pray hard if you are asked to help in some way so that you don’t miss an opportunity to be a part of God’s plan here at Floyd. The Social Committee and Benevolence Committee continue to carry out their duties with great efficiency, and have each poured many hours into the work that they do. You, the congregation, have been faithful with your tithes and offerings, and have supported the ministry of this church at a level that has allowed us to operate in the black financially, at a time when many churches are dangerously low on income…Thank You!

The one group that struggled this year to fulfill its duties is the Pastoral Advisory Team, which failed to meet this year. Part of the responsibility is mine, and the Council has encouraged me to make an effort this year to encourage the Team to try again. We are planning to meet for organization the Monday night after our Annual Meeting and will do our best to get a regular meeting schedule in place. To those on the Team, please accept my sincere apology for not doing my part to make this Team work as it should.

The Church Council under my direction is bringing some by-laws changes for your consideration at the Annual Business Meeting, to be voted on at a later date. Some of the changes are to simply fix what is broken…in other words to put in our by-laws what is already our practice, and in some cases, has been for years. Some of the other changes are to try and help us as we transition from a medium size church to a large church (yes…statistically churches of 250-300 are on the brink of being labeled large) where we must streamline some of our processes and trust the leaders that we appoint even more. In a church our size it is not possible or practical for every member to be involved in every decision related to the operation of the church. Pastor Bill and myself have the responsibility as defined in scripture to care for God’s Flock, and to me that means doing what is best for the church, even when that means making changes that may be a little uncomfortable at first. More will be said about the by-laws changes at the meeting, but let me assure you that change is here to stay. As long as we are healthy, we will grow, and as we grow, we must grow on the inside and the outside. Imagine if Caleb, our oldest son, who was 6 years old when we moved here grew to his current size, but his skeletal structure refused to grow, and remained the same size and strength that it was in 2000. Not only would he look ridiculous but he wouldn’t be able to function very well either. When a church grows but does not address the changes to our skeletal structure or organizational structure that are needed…we too will look ridiculous, and we won’t be able to function well at all.

Through it all, God is with us. I have learned over the years that I can trust you, and I hope that you have learned that you can trust me. Together we will move forward and see His “kingdom come,” And His “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Share on Facebook

Don’t Give Up

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Practical How to’s

1. Recognize your situation did not

catch God by surprise.

2. Recognize that God is still in control.

3. Pray–for yourself and your situation.

–more importantly, for your

attitude and what you can learn

or what character qualities can

be developed in you through

this situation.

4. Get into God’s Word — not so much

to seek answers (though that is valid)

as to seek the Author.

5. Surround yourself with encouraging

people who will stand with you.

Share on Facebook

There Was way more than this but this was all I could get down..

1. Worship Honors God – Worthship

Worship is not in our honor it is in his

2. Worship is directed toward God

worship is a transitive verb needs an object.

3. Worship requires involvement on the part of the worshiper

Without Jesus sacrifice our most noble and heartfelt acts of worship are not acceptable to God

Worship is not “place” oriented. Not a holy place…a holy people.

Jesus Said worship is to be in Spirit and in Truth

Doing it without thinking about it too much comfort

Routine can be the enemy of true heart felt worship!

reticular activating system is the problem.

Share on Facebook