Had to find an internet connection to pay some bills while we are away.  Thought I would drop a quick line. So thakful for our staff and leaders that have everything under control while I am away. A friend from church was just bragging to me about the great job of one of our pastoral staff and what he said really applies to all of them - thanks guys!!!  We also have the best support staff that we have ever had!!!  I have total confidence in them!! I am also glad to give them a break from me - distance makes the heart grow fonder :-)!!!

Love our Parkview family!!  Glad I am away - a few more days of fun. See you soon.

Denise and I are away enjoying a time of vacation together.  Seth is in Texas with his grandparents and we are hanging together. Let me share some of our highlites:

• I barely know that it is Sunday
• We have no cell phone coverage
• We are glad we have no cell phone coverage
• I found an internet cafe to put up this post
• The weather is gorgeous
• The scenery is breath taking
• I ran this morning
• We are having dinner with friends
• We are reading good books
• We both work very hard but we know how to play just as hard
• In fact, we will probably take a short nap before dinner
• My new Crocs are pretty comfortable
• Denise is buying postcards
• We always buy postcards and send about 50% of them - we will see
• God has been very good to us and we are thoroughly enjoying His blessings!

Our workers are the best!!!! It has been a phenomenal week and many hearts have been eternally touched. Thanks Heather, Robin and the 7o phenomenal workers that made this all happen!!!!!!!

On June 22, 1991, in Garland, Texas, I married Denise Renee Dunlap. Today, we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. It was really nice to celebrate Father’s Day yesterday and our anniversary today. We went to the Columbian restaurant in St. Augustine for lunch and had a great time!  We spent some time and reflected over the years.  We talked about the following:

• our 3 best vacations - #1 was the Disney cruise the church gave us for our church’s 10th anniversary
• our 3 best homes - # 1 was our fist place, the ’60’s duplex for $285 a month
• our 3 best meals - #2 was our first visit to the Cheesecake Factory in California in 1994.
• our 3 best cars - #3 is our current Honda Pilot.

Now let me give you 18 reasons I love being married to Denise

1. because I choose to even on the bad days (learned that at the Fireproof Marriage Conference)
2. because she loves me beyond reason
3. because of her heart for God
4. because she is a phenomenal mother
5. because she is an absolute statue of beauty
6. because she is very passionate
7. because she loves serving the Lord in ministry
8. because she is a tremendous pastor’s wife
9. because she completes me in so many ways
10. because she is totally supportive of me in every way
11. because she is always thinking of me first
12. because even though I have thrown her under the bus on more occassions than she or I care to remember, she is still forgiving and loving (I am working very hard to not throw her under the bus)
13. because she is extremely flexible
14. because she loves the people I love
15. because she is modest
16. because she is totally committed to making our marriage work
17. because she is a great cook
18. because she weighs almost the same as the day I married her :-)! Believe it or not I am more than 50 pounds heavier - I was ridiculously skinny then and 15 pounds overweight now. 

Just a few quick highlites from the weekend:

• I love being Seth’s Dad!!!
• He gave me a new pair of silver cuff links for Father’s Day. Wore them at church today. Denise gave me a beautiful leather journal cover.
• We grilled out at my parents today and had a nice time with the whole family.
• The guys watched the U.S. Open.
• I fell asleep and took a nap on the sofa. Don’t remember the last time I took a nap, but it made for a perfect Father’s Day afternoon.
• Had a fantastic weekend at church.
• 6 people trusted Christ as their Savior!!!!
• Loved preaching on the life of Elijah the last 6 weeks.
• Closed with Elijah being taken in a whirlwind to heaven.
• Elijah left behind a legacy for Elisha.
• Everyone leaves a legacy!!!
• I talked about how funerals exist in extremes and there rarely seems to be anything in between. Funerals are either Caviar or bologna.
• Everyone leaves a legacy - what will yours look like?

This coming weekend we are celebrating Father’s Day. Not just in our family but in our church.

With the family we are grilling out, watching the U.S. Open, and taking it easy.

With the church we are going to talk about leaving a legacy.  Make no mistake about it, every man leaves a legacy. What type of legacy will you leave?  Every man needs to be here this weekend and every woman needs to drag their man here this weekend.

Everyone knows that kids can say the funniest things in the world, as well as, some of the most bizarre things in the world. Seth has been on  a roll lately. This morning while at a traffic light, he told me that the traffic was a pain in the neck and drives him nuts. (He was in a hurry to get to summer day camp) Last night he told me, “Dad that was a grind”.  I asked him what that was and he told me it was a skateboard move.  Earlier in the evening we dropped off the weekly 15 second promo spot for our church broadcast on WNZF. This week Seth is doing the promo and invitng everyone to listen to his daddy on Father’s Day. (That was not my idea but it really is cute) On the way to the radio station he suggested we make 10,000 copies of his radio spot and give one to everyone. He is rather proud of his debut.  The best was last week when I was in the surgeon’s office having the stitches removed out of my nose. Denise was in the waiting room but Seth insisted on going back to watch. While the Dr. was removing the stitches, out of no where Seth says, “Did you just fart?”. To which the surgeon asks, “Were you asking me or your dad?”. The surgeon went back to removing stitches and had to stop and regain his composure before he could begin again. He then said,”Kids are so unfiltered.” (Just for the record, no one flatulated)

What about you - are you filtered or unfiltered? Two days ago in my reading, I read Proverbs 25:11. The verse brought conviction and confession. It was a good reminder about how attractive filtered words are. An apple a day keeps the devil away!

Be blessed and be filtered!!

I just read a tremendous book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss entitled, Brokeness, the heart God revives. Here are some things that spoke to my heart:

• People can be right in the middle of religion and yet so far from God.
• Brokenness is the shattering of my self-will - the absolute surrender of my will to the will of God.
• God does not want to break our spirit or our essential personhood. He wants to break our self-will.
• The broken person has no confidence in his own righteousness.
• Brokenness is the softening of the soil of my heart.
• When unbroken people are confronted with the truth they criticize and pick apart the message and the messenger.
• The sobering reality is that proud, unbroken Christians have done far more damage to the church of Jesus Christ than any sinners outside the church could inflict. (this is my favorite quote)
• There is no brokenness where the finger of blame is still pointed at another, brokenness means no excuses, no defending, no rationalizing my sin.
• If you want to experience the blessings of brokenness, you must choose to run head-on into whatever it is your pride is telling you not to do.

• Really bad storm Saturday night and really low attendance as a result
• Good summer attendance today
• Awesome passage from I Kings 19:1-10
• God gave me real liberty on tackling the topic of depression
• If you missed the service or live out of town I would really encourage you to click here and listen - will be up Monday afternoon.
• Many people asked for prayer that God would deliver them from the darkness of their depression.  At 2 of our services we reminded everyone of the opportunity to seek biblical counseling.  Our church counselor is Dr. Randy Poyner and he stands ready and able to help you process and navigate this season of your life.  Email Randy at rbpoyner@cfl.rr.com and he will get back with you and schedule a time to get together. If you are depressed this is the next step!!!
• Met some really nice guests!!
• Our Discovery Pointe luncheon was awesome!! Had about 20 people who have been visiting the last couple months join us for an informal  luncheon.  It was just a great time of getting to know some new friends!!!
• Looking forward to a GREAT summer at Parkview.
• VBS, summer camps and special guests!
• Don’t forget that July 11 and 12 begins our 3 service schedule. We are praying that the construction on the parking lot can begin in about a week. The additional chairs will be added to the auditorium before our new schedule. Sat 6pm and Sunday 9:30 and 11am.
• Have an awesome God-filled week!!!

Yesterday I spoke about what unction looks like and feels like. Today I want to talk about how to have unction.
Unction is obviously a God thing but we must not be passive on our end. While unction is totally God given, the responsibility does not solely rest on Him. I believe that there are obviously some things that a pastor must do in order to get under the spout where the unction comes out.

• Keep short accounts and clean slates before God. I John 1:9
• Walk in humility. Proverbs 22:4
• Do all you can to be right in horizontal relationships so that you can be blessed vertically. I Peter 3:7
• Walk intimately with the Lord. James 4:8
• Do your end in study, so as not to tie the hands of God. II Timothy 2:15
• Give all of yourself to the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18

What else must a pastor do in order to free the Spirit of God to do His supernatural work?