Termites?

About a week ago I was in my bedroom and saw some holes in the wall of our bedroom. I walked over to the wall to see what was going on. The holes seemed to form a neat little line. As I applied pressure on them they began to cave in and form a line. I then stopped and looked at the window seal to find it covered with swarmers that were dead. I called Chris (who plays bass in our band) who works for Dependable Pest Control. Man, he came and did a thorough check of everything and gave the exciting news. "YOU HAVE TERMITES!" Can I say that I was pumped......NOT!

As I thought about what I happened I began to think about my life. How often do termites get into my life? The termite of anger, oh no one sees it initially, but at some trigger moment it becomes exposed. Or the mask that everything is okay in my life, but slowly the termite's eat through the sheetrock and wham.....everything falls apart and I can't do anything to stop it. This morning in my reading time in Proverbs 13:6 (NLT) it says, "Godliness helps people all through life, while the evil are destroyed by their wickedness." The pest guys are going to shoot a chemical into my house called termidor. It is potent stuff and guaranteed to kill these bad boys. In the same way, pursuing God gives us life, life at it's very best.

Lastly, today a number of men are helping Trinity Church (partner church in Canton) move out of their old building into storage. I also heard that a number of them are planning on coming to LifeBridge this week. God's doing some awesome things. It may be a week or so before I post again. Jim and I are headed Tuesday to Homestead, Florida to meet with a Haitian church about possibly doing some mission work with them.

Peace

Philip Thurman

What's The Big Deal?

Easter is an incredible time of the year. We see friends and family in church that we don't see for months. They come with their new outfits and hair dos and smiles in tact. Everything looks good on the outside, but I often ask myself how they must really be doing on the inside. You never get much time to dive into any major life issues. Everyone smiles and says Happy Easter and goes about their merry way.

In thinking about Easter, the Bible, Christianity it all points back to one thing.......A Relationship with God and with others. This morning God challenged us to think about three relationships and what we need to do. Let me recap quickly. I challenged us to think about one of these three and work on it for the next few weeks. 1) What relationship needs to be initiated? What about going out to eat, or inviting them over to your house. 2) What relationship needs to be nurtured? Date your wife, take your girlfriend on a fun date. Do things to make it grow. 3) What relationship needs to be restored? This is a difficult one. It requires us to forgive others even if we are the party that has been wronged....forgive! Don't live with that issue, don't take it to the grave with you. God desires for you to experience Life At It's Very Best.

We'll close out next week with HGH.....by the way, great job on tons of you freeing up parking for Easter Sunday. We had a great day and a great crowd. WOW! I heard a number of you talk about someone you had invited to church, great job. Keep investing and inviting.

Philip Thurman

Growing Pains

The last month we have been experiencing something new in our family. My youngest son has been in a great deal of pain on his right knee just below the knee cap. We often walk up to see him in tears because of the pain. We take him to the doctor and the only explaination they can give us is growing pains. He has grown a good bit. He must be growing faster than our older two because they never complained much about their growing pains. The doctors always say, "That's a great sign, he's growing."

Around LifeBridge we don't talk openly about numbers cause we know that the only people that get excited about that are the leaders who watch all that stuff. BUt do you know that every year we have had significant growth. You are investing and inviting and that is amazing. Over the last two weeks I have been able to walk around and see things that I do not normally get to see because of my teaching. This past weekend we had a big issue. I noticed that our front parking lot is full. So would some of you partners and regular attenders consider parking in the back to free up space in the front for our guest. Greeters, please help us direct some folks to the back.

This Sunday (Easter Sunday) we may also have a ton of guest. Please introduce yourself and show them why we are the friendliest church in town. Also, we may need you to give up your chair for someone new. Thanks in advance for doing that. See you Sunday. Let's keep experiencing Growing Pains.

Philip Thurman

Sunday Evening Reflections

WOW! What a day, what a weekend. The weather here in Central Mississippi has simply been fantastic. High of 74 and sunny! It just doesn't get any better than this. Along with that, we have some amazing volunteers. LifeBridge is only as good as its volunteers, and let me say the volunteers are incredible. Today set up team number one had three brand new guys present. They arrived early and ready to go. These three guys got to shadow three experienced guys. It was amazing to watch these new guys jump in and go after it. All of the guys connected and seemed to have a blast.

X-treme (grades 1-5) had there first meeting under the new leadership. Many know that John Mark and Sharon had their third precious baby. So I felt led to challenge some keys leaders to step up. Guess what? Three major leaders stepped up and said, we'll run X-treme, but you need to know we are going to recruit the fool out of adults. I said go for it. This morning at 9:00 a.m. the team met and there was 12 volunteers ready to go. Yes 12! We've never had that many ready and willing to serve. They launched the look today and it rocked. Today Glenn and Sherry, Amanda, Angela, and Mike and Diana brought it. You guys are my heroes. Thanks for impacting kids in a powerful way.

The preschool sign in table worked like clock work today as well. Man, I am pumped about all the incredible leaders God is bringing our way. I'm learning a ton by watching the seasoned veterans who know how to get it done and get it done with volunteers. Keep pushing and challenging us.

Remember Easter is three weeks away, so start thinking about who you want to invite to LifeBridge. Have a great week.

Philip Thurman