Here's Suzi's Spiritual Growth Workshop "picture of the day." Suzi, the sole member of the Woodward Park paparazzi, does such a magnificent job of capturing moments in the life of our church.

From the resolute look on Tori's face; the squinted eyes, coupled with the hands-on-the-hips posture, I'm guessing she's keeping a close eye out for "money-changers" in the area around the Moyers Book Store booth.

------------------

So workshop participants, share with us today in the comments section some of your highlights from the workshop. What is blessing your spiritual life? What can we improve on to make next year's workshop even better?

Is it just me or do the two guys in this picture look like they're talking in church and not paying attention?

Suzi Planas captured this shot last night during the kickoff of the Spiritual Growth Workshop. Stan Williams and I are no doubt sharing a last minute idea about the workshop (you do notice who's doing the talking and who's doing the listening, don't you?)

I love Stan Williams. Stan and his wife, Sherry, have been stalwarts in the kingdom for many years and have raised three children who are all fully devoted to the ministry of the Lord.

Stan spoke last night on the zeal we must have for our "magnificent obsession" -- sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Stan's passion is his love for the Lord and his love for the lost. His sincerity and his passion shine through each time he speaks.

As Stan shared last night, Sherry, his wife, is ill and was unable to participate in the workshop. Today, I ask you to pause and pray for Sherry Williams, a godly, gracious woman who needs strength that only the Lord can provide.

------------------

What a blessing to be with Stan's son, and my dear friend, Kerry last night. Kerry, who ministers for the Sherrod Avenue church in Florence, Alabama flew into Fresno at 9:30 p.m. and he and I shared a meal together at Denny's following his arrival. The renewal of friendships make events like the Workshop so extra special. In addition to the buffet of spiritual food that nourishes our soul, we reconnect with old friends and form new friendships that encourage us and sustain us.

------------------

It's a full day today. Brad Harrub gets it going at 8:00 a.m. with an Early Bird class. Kerry will cap the day off tonight with a keynote at 7:30 p.m. In between, there are two other keynotes (Truitt Adair and Derek Overstreet) and classes and meals and fellowship.

Yesterday, Byron Nelson, a giant among golfers, passed away. What you might not realize is that Nelson was also a Christian who leaves behind a legacy of not only golfing greatness but also great faith.

In Bobby's article in the Christian Chronicle, one paragraph stood out especially to me: "While he played on Sundays, Nelson said he always found a way to attend church services, either in the morning or at night. 'People say, ‘How in the world did you go to church?’ And my answer to that is, you can do things that you feel you need to do.'”

---------------------

Woodward Park members, don't forget the kickoff to the workshop tonight at 7:00 p.m. Woodward Park's first minister, Stan Williams, will speak and no doubt reinfuse our fire to seek the lost.

See you tonight at 7:00 p.m.

--------------------

Got to share this funny with you this morning. Yesterday after school, Trae told me about somebody they learned about in school yesterday with a "funny name." Trae said, "Daddy, we learned in school today about a guy with a funny name who used to be in movies with big muscles. He's really famous."

"Who is that?" I asked.

She said, "Arnold Schwarzenegger" as she burst into laughter.

I said, "Did you know he's the governor of California?"

She said, "No. I just know he has big muscles and a funny name."

--------------------

Last night, Mandy and I participated in Joe's Q&A class as a part of our Prime Time Tuesday ministry at Woodward Park. Joe does a wonderful job reaching out and answering questions from long-time members as well as guests of Prime Time Tuesday.

Last night in the course of answering one particular question, Joe pointed the class to Mark 7.1-8 where Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for sacrificing the true will of God in order to hold fast their traditions.

I've always believed, thanks to a conversation I once I had with my grandfather, that the safest interpretation of Scripture is one that doesn't make rules where God didn't make rules. For example, I once asked my grandfather to share with me his biggest mistake as an elder and what I could learn from it. He told me, "Jim, I think our biggest mistake ever was imposing a 'dress only' code for our ladies in our assemblies."

"Why was that such a big mistake?" I asked my grandfather.

"Because we made a rule," my grandfather continued, "where God didn't make a rule."

I've never forgotten that. Balancing grace and truth in ministry demands that we allow God's Word to speak for itself and avoid the temptation to follow the way of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, and their fences, began as an expedient way to uphold the rule of God, but in the end, those fences became the means of evading the very rule they were intended to uphold.

Today I want to caution us, as Joe so wonderfully reminded us last night, about the danger that exists in withholding compassion and care from those who do not subscribe to man-made rules and traditions. Let us be careful in our quest to understand the true will of God that we teach the rule of God and not the rules or traditions we have created for our own comfort and security.

For the last several days, I have renewed my interest in Paul's letter to the Colossians in advance of our Spiritual Growth Workshop. Colossians is an easy read -- just four chapters -- but its message is life-altering.

The message of Colossians in a nutshell is this: What you believe must affect how you behave!

In the first two chapters of Colossians, Paul paints one of the most exalted pictures of the deity of Jesus Christ in all of Scripture. He makes clear that his deity did come to earth in human form (1.22; 2.9) to debunk the false teaching of Gnosticism that was running rampant in Colosse.

In chapters three and four, Paul builds on those two realities to show the Colossians and us that believing and receiving the deity of Jesus and the blessings of the gospel must make a tangible difference in the way our lives are lived out.

What we do must affect how we behave.

"What matters (to Paul and to Christ) is that the behavior which marks so much of our world -- lust, anger, lies and so on, which split up families and communities -- is being replaced by kindness, gentleness, forgiveness and an acceptance of one another as members of the same family, even where there were major differences of race, background, and culture. This, as far as Paul is concerned, is the true sign of God at work" (Tom Wright, Paul For Everyone: The Prison Letters, Westminster: John Knox Press, 2004, p. 143).

I couldn't help but share this cartoon with you today. I can remember as though it were yesterday sitting at the dinner table and not being allowed to excuse myself until all the spinach on my plate was eaten. Somewhere, kids are celebrating the fact that spinach has been banned due to the recent E. Coli outbreak.

-----------------

Wednesday marks the kickoff for the annual Spiritual Growth Workshop at Woodward Park. I am so excited about being a part of my first-ever workshop and sitting at the feet of some great speakers who will feed us from Paul's letter to the Colossians.

As a newbie to the workshop, what can I expect? You folks from Woodward Park that are veterans to the workshop, tell me what you like most about the workshop.

------------------

Thanks to the internet and phone calls to my good friend Jamie Saveall, I have been able to keep close tabs on the Jessieville Lions football season. The Lions are rolling, ranked #3 in the state in the most recent Hootens poll. My old pal, Lonnell Fort is having a superb season and the Lions seem to have an offense that is unstoppable.

Friday, the Lions have a big matchup at rival Mount Ida. In two weeks, in advance of my speaking trip to the Sojourners National Conference in Marshall, Texas, I will be back for the game with Bigelow.

Keep it rollin', Lions!

-------------------

Finally, chew on this bit of insight today from one of my writers, Dallas Willard.

"Generally, what I find is that the ordinary people who come to church are basically running their lives on their own, utilizing 'the arm of the flesh'—their natural abilities—to negotiate their way. They believe there is a God and they need to check in with him, but they don't have any sense that he is an active agent in their lives. As a result, they don't become disciples of Jesus. They consume his merits and the services of the church. Discipleship is no essential part of Christianity today."

"We don't preach life in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus as an existential reality that leads to discipleship and then character transformation. When you don't have character transformation in a large number of your people, then when something happens, everything flies apart and you have people acting in the most ungodly ways imaginable" (From Christianity Today, September 2006, Vol. 50, No. 9, p. 45).

Last night, I finshed off my third book by Philip Gulley entitled Just Shy of Harmony. Gulley's works are fiction and tell the story of the Harmony Friends Church, a Quaker church in Indiana. The tales he weaves in his Harmony Novel series are hilarious and caputre well the essence of ministry in a small-town.

If you've been looking for some light reading that is funny and poignant in its description of human nature, I cannot recommend Gulley's writing enough.

---------------

I'm also a third of the way through Woodward Park member Gary Villamor's book No Middle Ground: The Church in a Compromising Position.

Gary diagnoses the problem of pretending to be church while avoiding the demands of discipleship. His candid evaluation is a much-needed message for every disciple who wears the name, "Christian."

Here's one nugget from the book that is sure to whet your appetite for me from Gary.

"We often times follow the way of the world, which is never satisfied. The mantra of our society is 'more,' and so, we have thrown Jesus Christ into our bag of more possessions. Are you a husband, father, homeowner, successful business person, 49'er fan, and have an 8-handicap on the golf course? Do you have an RV, an SUV, and lots of other stuff, so much so, in fact, that you have to rent extra space at the mini-storage? And, oh yest, are you a Christian? You must be, because you went to the church building one evening with a few members of your family and got 'saved.' You even have a certificate that says so. I'm being somewhat facetious, of course, but you understand what I mean. We have not separated ourselves from the world -- our hearts love the same stuff they love, and out time is spent in the same manner as they spend theirs -- playing withand caring for all the same stuff. We watch the same TV shows and movies, listen to much of the same music, wear the same clothing, use all the same products, and have similar opinions about most things. This cannot be (emphasis mine); not if we expect to have any moral authority to share Christ with those who don't know him" (26-27).

This morning, Erick Boggs will be going into St. Agnes for a an outpatient heart procedure. Erick and Heidi and their kids have been so gracious to my family in our transition to Fresno. I have been so impressed with Erick and Heidi's faith in the face of Erick's various ailments.

I hope as you read this, you will pause and lift before the Lord Erick today.

---------------

As I watched the close of the Oklahoma-Oregon game on Saturday, I couldn't help but think of my dear friends, Sam and Betty Laird. Oklahoma lost to Oregon 34-33 thanks to a couple of missed calls by the officials, including one terrible call on an Oregon onside kick that was bothced by the replay official.

So, it should come as no surprise that my MSNBC Sports email this morning had this interesting link.

--------------

Bobby Ross with the Christian Chronicle has written an excellent article on Houston Astros' hitting coach Cecil Cooper. Cooper, a former member of "Harvey's Wallbangers" with the Milwaukee Brewers, is a man of faith and his story, as relayed by Bobby, is so encouraging. Give it a look.

---------------

As I finalize the reflections I will share this morning at the service to celebrate the life and faith of Clyde Ramsey, I am reminded again of the depth and comfort of this promise of Jesus: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am" (John 14.1-3).

My God bless you today with assurance -- assurance that the promises of Jesus are true. My prayer for you this day is that the cirucmstances you face in your life will serve to strengthen your resolve to be with Jesus.

There's a Great Day coming! I can't wait! What about you?

Isn't email great?

Through email, I was able to communicate yesterday with friends from 4 time zones. Thanks to email, I've been able to maintain contact with one of my dearest friends, Rick Northen, who with his wife, Gail, is on a mission for Jesus in Cambodia. Because of email, we can send and receive messages instantly.

But when was the last time you wrote a letter? With a pen on paper, when was the last time you poured out your thoughts and feelings on paper for someone dear to you?

-----------------

Much of the New Testament comes to us in the forms of letters. Paul was a prolific letter writer, sending correspondence to churches he had planted, and some he hadn't.

The theme of our Spiritual Growth Workshop this year is "Perfect in Christ" and is based on Paul's letter to the Colossians.

As I began to studying for my sermon this coming Sunday morning -- A Prelude to Perfection -- it struck me how technology has robbed us of the discipline of letter writing.

What Paul sent to those he loved in the Lord were not emails. They were letters.

Perhaps today you could find some time to sit down with pen and paper and revive the lost art of letter writing. You might find, as Paul so often did, the joy in sharing your heart with someone you love.

"My grandchildren were visiting for the week. They came with a written calendar of events, pick-up times and drop-off times. I was in charge of keeping them busy and on schedule. I'm not good at either.

As an elder adult, I manage to keep occupied, but I don't think I'm busy. My dog doesn't care if he's busy. He just wants to walk twice a day. And my cats, in between long naps, avoid being busy. I do not have a busy house, though I have a business in my home. I wasn't certain how my grandchildren would react to the lack of activity, to the abundance of free time. "What are we doing today?" they would ask. "I don't know," I'd answer. I could see by their faces it was not the expected reply. Somehow we managed to pass the day. We did some staring at the squirrels running up the tree. We took the dog for a walk and played with him. We sat on rocking chairs, watching people walk up and down the street, and we wondered aloud where they were going. We spent some time talking to the parakeet in his cage. We drew some chalk pictures on the sidewalk, and for an hour or two, we just sat, bring bored. But that was OK. Because in the free-time zone, you don't have to be entertaining or exciting or wonderful all the time (emphasis mine).

Or busy. You can just be.

But kids today are accustomed to being like busy bees. They're busy from the time they get up until the time they go to bed. And it's a long day. Some of them get up at 7 a.m. and do not go to bed until 10 or 11 p.m. Not only are they busy at school, they are busy with after-school activities, and with keeping up with their friends who are also busy. They do a lot of traveling in cars, keeping busy going from one house to another to fulfill play dates. Play no longer is spontaneous. It's scheduled, as are dance classes, soccer and baseball, and religious classes, and add to the itinerary doctor's and dentist's appointments.

There is little free time. Unscheduled time is a rare treasure, on the brink of becoming extinct. People fear it, run from it and avoid it. One morning during my weekend in charge of the children, we lay in my king-size bed all morning deciding what to do with the day. We thought about it a long time. We watched television. We talked. We told each other things we didn't have time to share before. We explored our feelings about the day and about some problems disturbing us. We even dared to be silent with each other. Nobody moved to get dressed. Nobody made a telephone call to a friend. We didn't know what was going on outside the house. We didn't even care. We were in the free-time zone, the no-time zone, the no-clock, no-schedule, no-pressure zone, where it doesn't matter if there's nothing to do (emphasis mine).

And no place to go" (Harriet May Savitz, The Fresno Bee, September 16, 2006, Section F, Page One).

What a spectacular morning in the San Joaquin Valley! Temps in the mid 50's while the sun peeks over the Sierra Nevadas -- it is just beautiful.

Early morning is quickly becoming my favorite time of the day -- is that a sign that I'm getting older? The handiwork of God is just so magnificent with each sunrise.

---------------

Each Sunday at Woodward Park, separate worship assemblies are held for Laotians, Hmongs, and Cambodians, in addition to those who speak English.

For those of you especially interested in Cambodian ministry, I want to encourage you to bookmark the blog of my dear friends Rick and Gail Northen. They are a part of the Mekong River Boat Project mission in Cambodia -- a mission of the Partners in Progress based out of the Windsong church in Little Rock.

Despite their setbacks with the Cambodian government in getting the boat in the water, Rick and Gail are laboring faithfully. Their stories of life in Cambodia are inspiring.

---------------

Who is going to win the NL West race? This morning finds the Dodgers a half game ahead of the Padres (with San Diego going to Los Angeles this weekend for a big four game series) and three games ahead of the Giants.

In my preseason predictions, I picked the Giants to win the West. I'm sticking with that pick.

--------------

College Football followers are calling this the weekend of the Spectacular Seven. Here are my picks of the big seven games, plus two:

Florida over Tennessee
Notre Dame over Michigan
Oregon over Oklahoma
Miami over Louisville
Auburn over LSU
USC over Nebraska
Clemson over Florida State

Fresno State goes to Seattle to play the Washington Huskies. The Huskies are led by Kenny James, a superb running back from Fresno. Can the Bulldogs bounce back from a tough loss last week to Oregon?

Fresno State by 7 over Washington.

Finally, Houston Nutt has his back to the wall. The wolves are howling throughout my home state as the Hogs have gotten off to a less-than-stellar beginning. But, to steal a phrase from Chris Berman, "nobody circles the wagons like Houston Nutt."

Arkansas by 10 over Vanderbilt.

Last night, I received an autographed copy of No Middle Ground: The Church in a Compromising Position. The book is written by Woodward Park member Gary Villamor.

After a cursory glance last night, I can tell I'm going to be blessed by Gary's writing. He hits on some key themes -- the balance of grace and truth, the need to develop disciples -- that are central in my ministry.

In the days ahead, as I work my way through Gary's book, I'll be sharing insights with you. In the meantime, I encourage you to grab a copy for yourself. I know you will be blessed by doing so.

-----------------

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They has assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples.

Apples flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. All but one. He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, and asked one of his friends to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain to her why he was taking a later flight.

He returned to the terminal and the place of the overturned apple stand to find apples littering the terminal floor. And once there, he was incredibly glad he'd chosen to return.

The 16 year-old girl who operated the apple stand was totally blind. She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, while at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her. The salesman knelt to the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped reorganize her display. As he helped, he noticed that many of the apples had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"

She nodded through her tears. He continued, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the saleman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister..." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.

She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

Her question stopped him in mid-stride and stayed with him, burning and bouncing around in his soul, throughout the remainder of his journey home.

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That is our destiny: to be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to his love, life and grace. If we claim to know him, we should live, walk and act as he would.

Knowing him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day-to-day.

You are the apple of his eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what he was doing and picked us up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damage.

Let us live today like we are worth the price he paid.

Author Unknown

It's taken only two weeks but I have fallen in love with Tuesday Night Prime Time at Woodward Park. From the meal to the various offerings related to ministry, Prime Time is a dynamic, intentional way to cultivate fellowship and spiritual growth.

Last night, I sat in on John Ed Clark's Leadership Class. The class is viewing and discussing Richard Rogers's videos on Leadership. Last night, the discussion centered on the Headship of Jesus in the body. At the end of Rogers's presentation, he noted the differences between a "church member" and a "body member." A church member must attend meetings, must give money, must live morally, must recruit new members, and must participate in projects. Conversely, a body member (thinking in terms of the parts of our own physical bodies) is dependent on others, unites two other parts, passes along nourishment, stays connected and is resilient.

----------------

Rogers' presentation and our subsequent class discussion reminded me of some key insights I'd read a couple of years from Reggie McNeal's book Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church.

"In North America the invitation to become a Christian has become largely an invitation to convert to the church. The assumption is that anyone serious about being a Christian will order their lives around the church, shift their life and work rhythms around the church schedule, channel their charitable giving through the church, and serve in some church ministry; in other words, serve the church and become a fervent marketer to bring others into the church to do the same.

The North American church is suffering from severe mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself. It was and is the chosen instrument of God to expand his kingdom. The church is the bride of Christ. Its union with him is designed for reproduction, the growth of the kingdom. Jesus does not teach his disciples to pray, 'Thy church come.' The kingdom is the destination. In its institutional preoccupation the church has abandoned its real identity and reason for existence.

God did not give up on his mission in the Old Testament when Israel refused to partner with him. He decided to go on with the mission himself. We do not need to be mistaken about this: if the church refuses its missional assignment, God will do it another way. God is still inviting us to join him on mission, but it is the invitation to be part of a movement, not a religious club" (11, 15-16).

Five years ago today, you awoke to a new world -- a world marked by terror on our own homeland. A world in which the threat of terror at home wasn't a distant possibility but reality.

How did the experience of 9/11 affect you? I've got the comments section back on today so that you can share your own personal experiences and insights about how the experience of 9/11 affected you.

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Proverbs 14.34).

It was a beautiful, cloudless morning. I had taken our three year-old daughter to her preschool and was on my way to the office when I turned on 103.7 the Buzz sports radio out of Little Rock.

What I heard wasn't the usual voices recapping the previous Saturday's Razorback game. What I heard was CNN.

I tuned to another channel. Same result.

What is going on?

I called Mandy and told her to turn on the television because something strange was happening on the radio. And I remember the horror she conveyed to me.

I rushed home to watch in shock, along with my fellow Americans, the felling of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. I remember the gapping hole in the Pentagon building. I remember the first sights from Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I also remember Nancy Bonewitz coming to the building that morning asking if she could go into the "sanctuary" to pray. I remember the spontaneously called Prayer Assembly that night at the Village church building. I remember vividly the prayer of Lee Sosebee.

And I remember the way that the tragedy turned the focus and thoughts of a nation back to God. "God Bless America" became more than a motto in the aftermath of 9/11, it became the marching orders of a nation struck by the fact that life never would be the same again.

Today marks five years since that infamous day -- a day that ripped us all with the reality that life in the U.S. would never be the same. The terror we'd seen on the news overseas had crossed those seas and reached our own land.

And now it is five years later. Are we as a nation any different today? Have the effects of 9/11 that caused so many Americans to turn again to God for answers given way to a familiarity that has numbed our national faith?

Just a quick hitter this morning before heading off to breakfast with a great group of senior saints from Woodward Park...

*The Rangers are imploding, as has become their annual August/September custom during the Hicks-Showalter regime. The national media is not being too forgiving this go round.

*Do you know the way to San Jose? Mandy, the girls and I will be in the Bay Area over night so Mandy can catch a flight back to Texas early tomorrow morning for, of all things, the American Idol tour. It'll be great to spend the weekend with the girls!

*Do you see the excellent start of the Colt McCoy era in Austin last weekend? Colt was a frequent attendee at Marble Falls during our time there and is a great kid. Here's hoping he and his mates smush the Buckeyes on Saturday night in Austin.

*Saturday predictions: Two tough picks this weekend because it brings to conflict heart and head. THE Ohio State University will sneak out of DKR/Memorial Stadium with a close 3-point win over the Horns. The loss of Tarell Brown this week is too much for the Horns secondary too overcome. The "human highlighters" come to Fresno for a ESPN-2 tilt Saturday night with the Bulldogs. Oregon stuck it to Stanford in their opener. Pat Hill is calling it the "biggest home game" of his Fresno State coaching career. Ducks win by 10.

---------------

Finally this morning, let me encourage you over the weekend to spend some time reading in Ephesians. It's hard to miss Paul's resolute desire that the identity of the Ephesian Christians would be formed by their connection to Christ and Christ alone.

Too often these days, we qualify our Christianity. "I'm conservative." "I'm liberal." "I'm progressive." "I'm traditional."

But spending time reading Paul reminds me that his calling card was "I'm Christ's person" nothing more, nothing less. I pray that my identity might be so singularly focused that, as was the case for Paul, others might see Jesus in me.

Michael Ross, the outstanding minister for the Cross Lanes, West Virginia Church of Christ, has a wonderful summary of his end-of-summer activities, including a paragraph regarding our recent seminar on Missional Ministry.

------------------

Are you ready for some football?

Tonight, the NFL season kicks off in the Steel City with an AFC tussle between the defending World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the upstart, revitalized Miami Dolphins.

Now, one of the really weird nuances of life on the West Coast is the fact the game begins here at 5:30 p.m. The first Sunday games begin at 10:00 a.m. here -- right about the time I am working toward the conclusion of my sermon.

Best I can tell, moving west greatly inhibits NFL watching...except on Monday night. While all you guys back east struggle to stay awake until midnight for the conclusion of the game, we on the West Coast receive the blessing of a 9:00 p.m. finish.

-----------------

How many fantasy football players do we have among us?

This is year number 9 for me in a fantasy football league with a great group of guys from West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

If you want to cheer for my team -- "The Big Nasty Cats" -- you can do so by cheering loudly tonight for Willie Parker, running back for the Steelers and Jason Taylor, defensive end for the Dolphins. The better those two do statistically, the better the Big Nasty Cats do.

-----------------

I woke up this morning with this hymn in my heart. Hope it blesses you today as much as it has me:

Tis So Sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take him at his word
Just to rest upon his promise
Just to know, 'Thus Saith the Lord."

Jesus, Jesus how I trust him
How I've proved him o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus
O, for grace to trust him more.

What a neat treat to participate in the Prime Time Tuesday ministry last evening. Nearly 200 were present for the fall kickoff that featured some of the best roast beef I've ever eaten!

Following the scrumptious meal, classes and activities were held throughout the building. Classes for the deaf, new Christians, future leaders, SIBI extension school students, homework/tutoring for the kids, an attended nursery, quilting and crafts for the ladies, World Bible School, and even some hoops in the auditorium/gym.

----------------

The annual Spiritual Growth Workshop is just around the corner. The workshop is hosted by Woodward Park and provides an excellent opportunity for spiritual growth and deep fellowship. If you are interested and need more information, shoot me an email at jim@wpcoc.com or jim.gardner@hotmail.com.

So how was your Thursday? Mine was outstanding! I spent the entire day with my girls, sprinkled around some time in the office. Taking Trae to school (after some "healthy" breakfast at Krispy Kreme), lunch with Mandy and Tori, an afternoon jaunt to Ed & Suzie Planas' with the girls to visit with Trevor, our lively little Pekingnese, followed by an evening devoted to refrigerator shopping, capped off with a trip to Baskin-Robbins.

Life just doesn't get much better than that.

---------------

It's hard for me to believe it but beginning this weekend, baseball across America takes a backseat to football. I make no bones about my passion for baseball, but a close, close second has to go to football. Growing up in the South and following the Razorbacks across the SEC, it is hard to beat the color and pageantry of college football.

With that, I give you my week one predicitions of some key games of interest across the college football landscape:

*Fresno State by 14 over Nevada (Tonight, 5:00 pm PST, ESPN). Incidentally, I tried to talk Mandy into going to the game...she wasn't too thrilled with that idea!

*West Virginia by 24 over Marshall. A pick that won't make my Thundering Herd friends too happy, but hey, predictions must be made with the head, not the heart.

*Texas by 41 over North Texas. Colt McCoy has a terrific debut at QB for the Horns as the Horns blitz the Mean Green.

*USC by 26 over Arkansas (Tomorrow, 5:45 PST, ESPN). Last year USC trounced the Hogs by 53 in Los Angeles. This year's game in Fayetteville cuts the deficit in half.

---------------

"I commend cheerfulness to all who would win souls; not levity and frothiness, but a genial, happy spirit. There are more flies caught with honey than with vinegar, and there will be more souls led to heaven by a man who wears heaven on his face than by one who bears Tartarus in his looks." - C.H. Spurgeon (from Jimmy Mitchell's blog).