Road Trip.

Hey everyone, I am in Orlando, Florida with my good friend Troy. We have had a very interesting day. I arrived Sunday night in Ft. Lauderdale and our journey began. We spent the night down on the beach at a motel. It was really a nice plTTace, almost 20 years ago 2 of my friends and myself went to the same beach. I'm sure the people didn't recognize me because I have gained a little weight. The trip has been a lot of fun from the airplane ride to the 9 hour car ride today. One fun thing was that the lady I sat beside on the plane was married to a man who played football for the real coach of the Titans (Remember the Titans) She said the movie was pretty close to the real thing.

The reason we had to drive so long today was the fact that they shut down the main road because of a gunman on the loose. The detour took us another 5 hours due to the fact that we went about 4 miles in 4 hours. I don't guess we are in any hurry so no big deal. It is nice to be with an old friend but I wouldn't trade lives with him at all. They celebrated having over 8000 people at church over the weekend today. Big weekend.

Troy is an awesome leader and I am trying to just watch how he leads the church and try and learn what I can do to be a better leader and Pastor. You can follow me on the journey by going to www.mynakedpastor.com it is a lot of fun. I miss all of you especially everyone in the Murray house and yard. I just want everyone of you to know how much I love you and enjoy being the pastor of Emmanuel. See ya tomorrow.

Teenager gives his life to Christ!

I don't know all the details but I just got an email this morning saying that one of our youth invited a friend to church yesterday and after the servie he gave his life to Christ. That is so Great News for me. I have to tell you that I left church a little disappointed in my presentation of God's word. So to hear that some one still got saved lets me know that it was definitely God who done the harvesting. God can do so much more than we can. I love what one of my prayer partners said, "God doesn't need us but He chooses to use us". I hope you want to be used by God this week. Way to go to Adam for inviting his friend to church, you never know what might happen. Hey it's Monday and we have got all week to serve Jesus, do it!
I am on my way to Mr. Rudy's to trim his hedges, pray that I don't mess them up. I'll let you know how it goes.

Live the Abundant Life!

Great Night for AWANA!

Thank you to all the adults who helped make our AWANA kickoff a huge success. We had almost 100 kids sign up for AWANA. Isn't that GREAT that so many kids want to come to church and learn scriptures. I am excited and overwhelmed I am trying to lead this program and I must say I don't know a lot about AWANA. What I do know is that if we don't teach these kids the word of God now it may be to late by the time we get around to it. Would you please consider joining our team of workers that will be leading in our AWANA program.

Our Neighbor went to be with Jesus.

Well for those who may not know, our neighbor and friend Ms. Penny Bradshaw ended her long battle with cancer on Monday night and went to Heaven. Penny touched so many lives over the past few years with her never give up attitude and sweet spirit and desire to live. In the last days of her life all she did was praise the Lord for being so good to her. I am going to miss her attitude and zeal for life. She leaves behind big shoes to fill in the neighborhood. One of the sweetest notes I ever got was from Penny, she thanked us for never giving up on her and her husband. Praise the Lord that some day I'll see her again, but until then I'm gonna try to step into those shoes and make sure our neighborhood still has a zeal for life.

Visitation for Penny will be Thursday night at Hoggard and Sons Funeral home starting at 6p.m. and the funeral will be Friday at 11a.m..

Prayer Request.

Please pray for some friends of mine, (Darrell and Nancy) who live in Harrison, AR.
This wonderful family let me stay with them while I preached Revival at their church. They have a 7 year old grandaughter who was injured when an ATV fell over on her and fractured her skull. Please pray for God to heal this little girl who is in the hospital in Springfield, MO.

Focus!

I am understanding more and more how important it is to focus on what we are doing. Have you ever been distracted? I am sure all of us have, it could be a cell phone to our ear that distracts us while driving or maybe a daydream about some tropical vacation while working. Whatever it is when we are distracted from what we are suppose to be doing accidents often happen. Car wrecks, poor workmanship, fail a test, etc. you get the point.

Starting this Sunday morning I will begin preaching for a few weeks on the theme "FOCUS". How long has it been since you really focused on your relationship with God. Isn't it easy to be distracted by the things of this world. No person ever sets out to get away from God after having been saved. Then why does happen so often? I honestly believe it's because we loose focus. Come this Sunday and focus on the cross wih me. Everything looks different when you view from the cross.