Keyes for the Kingdom

Why I don't shop on Black Friday

I did try this ONCE a couple of years ago - WOW... I made up my mind that there was no price "too good" to cause me to get into this chaos for any reason! I much prefer "Cyber Monday" where you can shop for good deals on electronics mostly ONLINE! I LOVE shopping online - don't buy much, but when I do I love it - love Amazon for books and lots of other things...

Our family met to figure out how to "cut back" on gift buying and giving this year - VERY wise, in my opinion... As the families all GROW, we're all trying to be wise - generous, yes, but not overly extravagant. Becky always gives each person an ornament with some significance to something they did during the year. She's been VERY frugal as well, doing most all of this online on Ebay and other sites.

So this year, don't flash the plastic because you see the sign, SALE, or 50% off, or Buy one get one free - (I'm so easily a sucker for these kinds of marketing ploys!) Get on a budget and stay there - simplify - spend less and enjoy more! Ahhhhhh........ Now to just be able to DO THIS!!

Prayer and Pastors

We had a great time last night at MONDAY NIGHT PRAYER! We have some amazing intercessors who cry out to God on behalf of our city. Last night we focused our prayers on FURMAN UNIVERSITY. We prayed for students, staff, workers... that God would bring REVIVAL to this amazing school. I love Furman - that's where my two boys attended college AND where they met their precious wives: Megan and Shanah! So many wonderful prophetic words were given over this school last night....

Today we'll be gathering almost 40 pastors for a special lunch of prayer and fellowship. We really want to see the church OF GREENVILLE flourish and work together in unity for the sake of our city. Thanks to THE CHANNEL for hosting us and for Tom's Bar-B-Que for feeding us today! After our meal we'll show them the short HINGE video, then spend time praying TOGETHER as pastors for each other and our various church ministries. We have several new pastors planning to join us today as well! What's not to LOVE: prayer, pastors, and Bar-B- Que!

Christmas at CRCC... here we go!

WOW... we're already into the Christmas season at CRCC! We had a great service yesterday to kick off our STORY series... (make sure you click on this graphic to see it ENLARGED)...There's LOTS of great detail in it! Thanks to BLAKE BERG, graphic artist extraordinare - lead guitar player in our praise band and full time employee at Wayfarer Ministries....

We answered the WHAT question yesterday? WHAT is Christmas: simple.. the BIRTH of Jesus... The next four messages will answer other basic "story" questions: Who? Where? When? and Why? Don't miss ANY of them! By next Sunday the building will be decorated - any ladies who want to help should come on Wednesday morning this week.

Next Sunday night we'll have a worship night and CHRISTMAS FELLOWSHIP after the service - bring Christmas cookies - we'll supply the drinks!

Tribal Arrival in full swing

well....the WHOLE fam has arrived... We had a late breakfast with all 18 of us! 8 Adults - 10 Kids... Now we're about to "celebrate Thanksgiving" with our Friday evening meal - main course: HAM. I was lamenting the fact of NO TURKEY this year, when an unexpected blessing came my way.

Yesterday morning I played golf with my son-in-law, Mark Thrasher and his work partner, Brian Beem. We played at Holly Tree and had lunch after we were done. A waiter there named Stephen was talking to me and I was telling him of my "woe" of no turkey this year. He then said, "We're having an all-club buffet upstairs in the banquet room and if you'd like I'd just go get you a plate of turkey, dressing, and green bean caserole!" WOW - talk about an unexpected blessing! Every bite tasted like heaven... I think the buffet was about $30 a person - he charged me $6.50 for a "special"....

Stephen's kindness reminded me to go the extra mile with people we love and serve. He did not have to offer this at all - just take our order off the menu and be done with us, but no... the extra mile for me will NOT be forgotten! I plan to drop by and give him a generous "tip" for his kindness! Thanks Stephen for making my day!

Have a GREAT day!

I love Thanksgiving - it always means family, awesome food, and the Dallas Cowboys ALWAYS play a football game that afternoon! I grew up in Dallas and have been a Cowboy fan since I was a small child. This year we're going to have our family dinner on FRIDAY, so our kids can be with their other families on Wednesday night and Thursday...We're also breaking a tradition and NOT having a TURKEY - ARGHHH! I LOVE turkey and dressing, but the fam voted for a great non-Jewish holiday favorite: HAM - spiral sliced ham... oh well, I guess I can "endure" for one day...

We're shutting down the office at noon day and our pastors are leaving to take food boxes to some of our single moms - this food was donated by our friends at Southside Christian School and Dr. Stephen Reel.

I even ALREADY have my outside Christmas decorations up and ready to FIRE UP on Friday! The holidays are.........HERE!!! Yeah!!!

Boxes of Love update

We were able to give out 1500 Thanksgiving Boxes of Love last Saturday with over 38 volunteers from CRCC. Here's a great note from Beka Karr - she and her husband Nathan attend our church. I've known Beka since she was a little girl! I worked with her dad, Olin Mcsherry, at Southside for many years. Dave Newell helped train our people in evangelism before the event...Enjoy...

  Nathan and I enjoyed today so much!  I can't tell you what blessing it was to both of us!  The praise and worship there at Heritage, the camaraderie of the people packing the boxes, the fellowship with fellow believers!  I could go on and on!  What a day!  I am so excited!  What an amazing opportunity. 

Wednesday night was such a help!  Dave Newell really has a gift to communicate!  I felt so equipped!  God really used him.  The challenge was on.  I feel I am prepared.  Armed and ready!  Today I was able to pray with some believers and encourage them while they were going through a tough season and then God used me  to lead a young man to the lord.  His name was Matt and he was 21 years old.  I am so amped up!  Woo Hoo!!  So excited!  I spoke my heart.  I told him how Jesus had rocked my world.  I thought of something Dave had said…  It's not us, it's God, He will complete it.   I told him the way, I told him  God created us to have a relationship, God is perfect not us, that we are all sinners, we are separate from Him.  I told him  Jesus paid it all, what He did for us is enough.  I told Him repent, do a complete turnaround, follow God!  Live the life you were meant to live.   I had about 10 minutes!  I broke it down and he understood!  He prayed with me and I saw his countenance change right before me.  It was truly amazing!  I am so grateful to God for this humbling opportunity!  I love Cross Roads and I am so excited!  He is Worthy to be praised!

Electric Service!

Our church today was simply.... ELECTRIC! - wow - what a great atmosphere from the get go.. We started with our KIDS WORSHIP DANCE TEAM lighting up the room! The HIP HOP older kids really got the blood pumping for sure!

Today was a "SELAH" - a pause between series to just have a townhall meeting with our people about real live stories/testimonies of how God has been at work in our church body... and WOW... what great testimonies - stories - even our own sweet IVEY GODWIN came for the first time in over 8 weeks! Ivey had a severe case of H1N1 and almost died several times over her extended hospital stay. Her WHOLE family was here today and we were able to CHEER and thank God for her healing!!! Rich then read story after story of people's healings this year through our prayer ministry and Monday night prayer. WOW!!!

We celebrated Boxes of Love - 6 people came to faith led to Christ by our people! BRAND NEW believers in God's kingdom!!! There was just such a spirit of freedom in worship - Charis Nett was invited on stage by Rich at the end to sing a song and the whole congregation just joined right in with her... powerful - people praying all over the room following the service... I believe today we made God smile!

Is that awesome or what? I love our church!!!

GREAT Christmas idea!!!!

Death and Dying...

I'd guess that one of my least favorite things to do is to be called upon when someone dies. It's so hard to know what to say, how to say it, and what to do in these very difficult circumstances. It's hard enough when you know the person or know the family.

It's harder still when you don't know the person at all - I got a call like this from a guy in our church - He works with a lady who had a husband drop dead from a heart attack - He was 47 years old. They are not "active" in a church and don't know who to call... I just got back from spending an hour with these people as they try to process their grief and sense of intense loss. I sat and did a lot of listening - listening to the family telling stories about "Scottie" - the man that passed away. It did, at least, give me a pretty good snapshot of the man, his life and the way he was.

I really hope the widow and her 13 year old daughter will come to CRCC and let us love on them - minister to them and let them know we are there FOR THEM - whatever it takes! Pray for the Kozeny family that God would comfort, care, and love on this family in the coming weeks and months.

BUSY Sunday...

We had a great day today at CRCC! I so enjoyed teaching on the book of Jonah - what a strange ending to the book - a QUESTION from God towards his prophet and people... Wow... We learned that the book would better be called, "Jonah and the CITY" - because the book STARTS with a city and ends with the same concept.

Mitch and Rebecca Ledhe shared with us today how they have a new ministry with the homeless. They simply go downtown, take some sandwiches and hang out with people who need love and care. AWESOME story - Carl Altizer shared how he started a ministry for Narcotics Anonymous that meets here at our church during the lunch hour 3 times a week. AWESOME to see our people have spiritual VELOCITY to see a need and MEET the need - not WAIT for us to have some "ministry"... but taking the initiative and going to do Kingdom work. 

After the service we did something we've never done before - we had loaned our church van to a group of Asian college students on a tour of the US doing Tae Kwon Do demonstrations. They all attended our service today, then put on a little "demonstration" at the end... 

Oh my.. I don't see how the human body can contort and MOVE the way these guys and gals do... Boards were being shattered - 8 feet in the air! Master Kim is a strong believer in Jesus and was so complimentary about our church. He said, (something like this - "Like water to fish, I sense the Holy Spirit very POWERFULLY here in this church!) Thanks Master Kim - that's what we cry out to the Lord to do each Sunday while we meet. We want to EXPERIENCE God, not just go through the motions. I'm glad we have a church where this is the NORM .... ahhhhhh...