I have run into a few of you that are in the same boat as I am. You are trying to change your lifestyle of eating and exercise. So here is an update of where I am at. A few weeks ago I blogged about going on a diet and changing my lifestyle for the betterment of my health.

I was at a certain weight and wanted to loose about 20 pounds through diet and excercise. So I have been watching what I have been eating by counting calories and excercising every day. I have lost about 15 pounds. But because I am now lifting some weights, I don't know if I will be able to loose much more weight due to gaining a little muscle mass. That is fine with me.

So I am getting closer to my goal. I have to tell you I feel so much better. So I just want to encourage all of you out there that are making some lifestyle changes as well, keep it up. Hang in there. You will feel so much better.

-We had a great weekend as we launched our new Church name.

-I want to thank everyone that had a part in this weekend. Everyone did a great job. There were so many people involved it would take me a while to list everyone. Thank you for being kingdom minded and seeing God's vision for our church.

-Pastor Jeff did an awesome job on casting the vision for our church, and encouraging everyone to be a part of the Weekend Service.

-He also did a great job on encouraging all of us to invest in someones life by sharing our faith and inviting them to come to church. I challenged all of us to invite at least 5 people to our new sermon series starting in a couple of weeks. We were also given 5 invite cards per person.

-It was great having my friend Scott Bettinger hang out with us and help our church in our transition of our new name. He also taught our church some really valuable stuff this week with service planning. Thanks Scott!

-I am really looking forward to see what God is going to do with our church now. I hope and pray that every person in our church gets fired up and realizes the need to be kingdom minded.

-It is great to be part of an exciting church.

Paul said everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial (I Cor. 6:12)

As believers we do have freedoms in Christ. We are not under the law of the Jewish Customs. Just because we are not under the law, we have to remember that everything we do is not profitable to do.

I had this conversation with someone the other day. Should a Pastor drive a Cadillac, or some other fancy car? I personally don't think there is a set answer on this. The questions I would have are these. Should he drive an expensive car, to show the goodness of God, or should he drive a clunker because his treasures are not of this world, or should he drive a moderate car to show good stewardship?

I think the answer would be dependant upon what God is leading that person to do and where that person is at culturally.

Yes we do have freedoms as believers, but we also have responsibilities to help people into God's Kingdom .We should never put stumbling blocks into people's way. At the same time we should never become so rigid that we rip the joy out of our lives and the people around us.

Any thoughts on this?

It was wild what happened on US Airways Flight 1549. What if you were one of those 150 passengers and you’re headed toward the water? Have you ever thought about that when you are taking off on an airplane?

What’s going through your mind?

James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Life is short and we never know when it is God's time to take us. We must always take time to be thankful for what we have, and always remember there is an eternity at stake for everyone around us.

Many of us have had a laugh at our President with some of the words that he has come up with. David Letterman, Saturday night Live and Jay Leno have all had a great time with it. In his press conference the other day, President Bush was even laughing at himself for a word that he had made up.

I still get flack from saying the word Scochy. I used it in reference to people scooting together in a service to make room for other people. I have been told it is not a real word. Last night I was switching the word, anonymous with the word unanimous. Sometimes words are very confusing for me. But my question is, how do real words come into being? Is there a process? Or can I just continue saying it and it stick? If you are really cool, is that a way for you to get made up words to become real words?

Do any of you use words that you have made up and if so, what are they?

Debates have happened dealing with what wounds afflicted by Jesus actually killed him. Jesus was punctured, whipped, kicked, and tortured in many other ways. But what really killed him was that no one spoke up for him.

Even his loyal disciple Peter denied him 3 times. We can easily sit there are say, "wow, I'm glad I have never denied Jesus like that." And even though many of us never have denied Jesus like that, we deny him by not speaking up on a daily basis.

We need to ask ourselves these questions. Am I sharing my faith? Do I have only Christian friends? Do I hang around any lost people at all? Have I told anyone about Christ lately?

God is challenging me this week about sharing my faith. I can make an excuse that all my family and friends are Christians and I work at a church, but this is no excuse. God challenges me on a regular basis to look to my neighbors, involvement in my kids activities, and other places where I interact with people that don't know Christ. He is challenging me to make some friends at my new gym, and other places where I meet new people.

It all starts with relationships. And many times the best way I can witness to someone is just to get to know them and then invite them to church. I need to do more though.

I don't want to be silent.

We showed this video a couple of weeks ago in church. It is very interesting. Penn from "Penn and Teller" is an atheist, but he tells a story of someone witnessing to him. He says that even though he is an atheist, he can not believe that if someone really believed in heaven and hell, how could that person not witness. Check it out. I hope it challenges you.

The next couple of months at church is going to be exciting. This month we are starting a sermon series called "Destination". It will be 4 weeks, and it will be focusing on 4 things that believers should be involved in with the church and in their personal life. Pastor Jeff will start this week focused more on the individual believer. These are 4 things we as a church are asking each believer to be a part of. It is a roadmap to spiritual growth.

At the end of the month we launch our new name, Bridgepoint Church. The theme of that weekend will be "Get to the Point". I am really looking forward to see what God will do with the change of our name.

Please pray as God is working and doing great things in the life of our church.

The past few months, God has really been getting a hold of me concerning my life, priorities, and the impact that I can have in this life. Many times I feel like I have settled for the status Quo. (Like many of us) I have been challenged by God and other situations in my life to not settle for mediocrity. I don’t want to be normal. I want to always allow God to challenge me to be better, to do more, and always keep my priorities in check. I don’t want to be the guy that works all day and then comes home and plops in front of a TV all night. I want to be challenged, and I want to allow God to do great things through me. He wants to do great things, and has done some already. But I think he wants to do even more. The key to Him doing more through me is to be more disciplined and focused.

Here are some of my goals for this year…. (not in order of importance)

-Be healthier. This will happen through diet and exercise. I will exercise more and eat better. I want it to be a lifestyle, not just a fad.
-Be wiser. This will happen by more time with God, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through me more. Continued time in the Word. I will continue to work on my Masters Degree as well this year.
-Be a better leader. This will take place by cutting out the things in my life that will not grow me. (TV, movies, other wasted time, ect.) I need to read more and fill my mind and life with things that will stretch me.
-Be a better husband and father. This will happen by a not allowing other outside influences to rob me of my essential time with my family.

Many of these goals have time involved. And I look at my schedule and my life, and realize that there is not a lot of extra time. So to free up time I must cut some things out. Those things will be TV, sleep, (I like to sleep, probably to much.) and other things that really are not that important.

What are your goals? How are you going to impact your world around you? What are you going to do?