Thanksgiving thankfulness

I hope you are gearing for a great Thanksgiving with friends and family.  I hope you'll be able to make it back for worship on Sunday as we'll continue "Pointing to a Promise" by talking about David.  We have a lot to learn about character from him.  You might even hear some Christmas songs!

Thought for the Week
"I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving."  Psalm 69:30

I've made it a custom the last few years to make a list each Thanksgiving for the things for which I'm most thankful.  I'll surely leave a host of blessings out, but here's the ones that come to mind this day.

I'm thankful for...

• The blood of Jesus that covers over my multitude of sins.
• The grace of God that sustains me each and every day.
• My sweet wife, Emily.
• My four wild boys, Morgan, Tanner, Walker and Brooks.
• To still have my parents with me, because I know so many that don't.
• Parents and in-laws that support us so much
• Our brothers, sister-in-laws, nephews and niece.
• My church family.  What a gift to serve a risk-taking and outreach-focused community of faith.
• For not having Christmas Eve services in high school in a month.
• For new friends at Harmony Grove that we didn't know a 18-months ago.
• For the faithful who have bled and cried with me for any part of the last 10 years in planting a church.
• For safety.  In this day and age, every day is a gift.
• to Disney for bringing back Star Wars and giving me and my boys the chance to see one in the theater together.
• For Southern winters that don't really start until about mid-December and end quickly.
• For the sunshine...for a while there I thought it had disappeared.
• To the mentors that have poured their cups into mine.
• For the light at the end of the tunnel in my school work.
• For pastor friends to laugh, cry and celebrate with.
• For Jeremy Pruitt, Jake Ganus and Sony Michel.  It would have been a long fall without those three.
• For Mello Yello Zero and Coke Zero.  
• For Pop Tarts -- I love those things.
• For my health, notwithstanding the pop tarts.
• For the opportunity to talk College Football each week on WJBB 107.1 in Barrow County.  It's been a blast.
• For coffee.
• For sleeping in.
• For warm socks.  I'm really starting to appreciate good socks in my old age.
• For the chance to do life every day.
• And I'm thankful for you.  It's people that make this world great and people that have so blessed my life.

In Christ,

Carter

Trust builds relationships

We live in a world where there is an incredible lack of trust.  We don't trust anyone to do anything.  We don't trust that others won't sue us, so we have waivers for nearly every activity under the sun.  We don't trust our community, so we have video surveillance.  We don't trust our kids, or even ourselves, so we have have firewalls on our computers.  Yet, trust is THE currency for relationships, and it builds and strengthens relationships like nothing else.  We just rarely see it anymore.

That's why I was shocked on Monday when I went to eat lunch at a local restaurant.  They don't take cards, only cash, and the server/cashier said, "Don't worry if you don't have any cash, you can just pay us next time you come in."  But I had never been before.  And how did she know I was coming back?  What if I was from out of town?  I had cash, so I paid my bill, but it was still staggering.  But you know what?  It made me want to come back.  The burger I was about to order was now going to taste better because she trusted me.  She believed in me.  She thought there was good in me.  Often, we find what we're looking for.

Trust is believing there is something good in others.  Now, people will disappoint us and hurt us, but we don't do each other, society, and our families any good when we don't trust each other.  Instead, when we trust others, we can often bring out the best in them because, deep down, we humans don't really want to let each other down.

If you want deep relationships, you have to trust.  This is what is so profound about our relationship with God.  He trusts us with so much.  He trusts us with our freedom, the earth, our families.  He trusts us with His Church and His message.  He trusts us with His heart.  And when we don't trust Him, our relationship with God suffers.  Trust is THE currency of relationships.  When we withhold trust from God, we are saying that we aren't sure if there is good in Him.  We are unsure of Him.  We are thinking He might let us down.  He won't.  Think about all He has trusted you with.  It's because He loves you and believes in you.  That ought to inspire us to trust Him.

I certainly wanted to trust Casey's in downtown Winder with my business again because they trusted me.  BTW, the Bacon Pimento Cheese Burger with Sweet Potato Fries is spot on.

Hope for the Hurt

This past week, I had the honor of praying at a Candlelight Vigil for those from Gwinnett County that had been murdered in the last year.  It was sponsored by the District Attorney's Office of Gwinnett County.  We prayed, sang songs, lit candles, reflected and read the names of every murder victim from the last year.  There were too many names.  One is too many.  People from all walks of life and every nationality gathered in remembrance.  Past victim's families also gathered, as they have become a part of this make-shift yearly congregation of hurt and loss.  I asked myself a question as I left, "Why do we hurt each other?"  How could that many people be murdered in the last 11-12 months in my county?  Why are we killing each other?

The events in Ferguson and the death and anger over Eric Garner continue to raise difficult issues.  I would not begin to understand the emotions, evidence and politics behind it all.  I grew up white in the deep South.  Those are the only shoes I've ever walked in, and the only experience from which I can speak.  I'm not an attorney and wouldn't dare to dive into legal issues I don't understand.  But I know this:  we've got to stop hurting each other.

A couple of months ago I flew out to a conference, and I was struck by a sense of despair as I prepared to put my shoes, everything I had on me and my belt in the X-ray machine.  My shoes.  We are now afraid of my canvas crocs.  We don't trust each other.  We are afraid that if we trust others, we will get hurt.  So, we choose to not trust and when when there is one step past the imaginary line we have drawn, we hurt others to protect ourselves.

We do this emotionally and spiritually, and in recent tragic cases, we do so physically.  A teenager is dead because of a lack of trust.  Maybe it was well-founded.  Maybe it was completely unfounded.  Rioters have taken to the streets to inflict hurt because they lack trust in authorities.  The natural order of our DNA is to hurt others if we fear getting hurt.  I'll bet you know someone who does this with their heart and tongue.

But, Jesus gave a different kinds of commands, "Love one another as I have loved you" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Don't protect yourself from hurt -- love!  The thing about love (and you learned this at 13 with your first 'steady') is that if you love and trust, you can get hurt.  But it's the only way.  I don't now all the answers to stopping crime.  I don't know the answers we're all seeking in race relations.  I don't know the issues to fix our legal system.  I do know the answer the world needs, though.  We have to show radical love.  I have to believe we live in a world hungry for it.  And I have to believe that if the Church would do as our Lord commanded us to do in our communities around the world, that people might want to know where that love comes from.  And we might get the opportunity to tell them that it's not a 'where' but a 'who' that is the source of our love.  Love someone.  Trust someone.  Risk for love.  If you follow Christ, this is the only way.

Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (9.18.14)

I hope you've had a great week.  It's been another crazy one around the McInnis household -- fitting for our current series!  Hey, if you don't have plans tonight and you're a big college football fan, come on over to the home of Noah & Mariah McNeely (100 Herring Rd., Grayson, GA 30017).  We'll have food and fun.  You can bring food to share if you like, but you don't have to.  All ages welcome.  We'll watch the Auburn vs. Kansas State game and have a short devotion and prayer time at halftime.  Don't worry if you've got head home early.  Come out at 7:00 p.m.  Kickoff is at 7:30.  You can contact Noah at noah_mcneely@yahoo.com to let him know you're coming if you're bringing a crowd!

This Sunday, we'll be continuing the series "CRAZY."  I'm going to be teaching about David and Saul, and how they dealt with their respective situations differently.  It's a powerful story of what it means to walk faithfully with God, in His time, when it's so easy to take shortcuts.

Thought for the Week
"Then Saul's son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God."

We're not touching on Jonathan in the story of David, but he was another prominent player.  I couldn't help but think of him this week as I've thought a lot about encouragement and friendship.  I learned recently about a friend who had a moral failure.  It his ruined his career, and it's a body blow that will take him a while to recover from.  We don't see each other much, but I thought about the times we did and the subject came to faith.  He was about 12-13 years older than me and had a much higher social standing in life because of his position and pay scale.  For that reason, it seemed to get awkward around conversations in faith.  It can be strange to challenge, encourage, rebuke or guide someone who is older and makes more money.  I thought this week about how I might have been the only Christian in his life who ever asked him about faith or church.  I should have encouraged him more.  In the end, his job and income couldn't save him from his sin, and it's wrecked his life for now.  God puts us in people's lives and others in our lives for a reason.  I hope you'll receive encouragement in the faith when a spiritual mentor offers it.  They may be trying to save you from heartache to come.  And I hope you'll give encouragement in the faith to a friend that might need you to say something no one else will.  Is there someone God is calling you to be more of an encourager to?  Be a Jonathan to someone.  And listen to the Jonathans in your life.

In Christ,

Carter