Q & A

Pregnancy Questions and Answers.

Should I have a baby after 35? No, 35 children is enough.
I am two month pregnant now. When will my baby move? With any luck, right after he finishes college.
What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex? Childbirth.
My wife is five month pregnant and so moody that sometimes she is borderline irrational. So, what is your question?
My childbirth instructor says it is not pain I will feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right? Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.
When is the best time to get an epidural? Right after you find out you are pregnant.
Is there anything I should avoid right after childbirth? Yes, pregnancy.
Do I have to have a baby shower? Not if you change the diaper very quickly.
Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to act normal again? When the kids go of to college.

Grow

"We must never be content not to grow for if you are not growing more, you are growing less - if the light is not increasing, darkness is encroaching."
George MacDonald, nineteenth century Scottish minister

From Five Star Families. A book to be given to all ladies this Sunday, May 11, 2008

Contagious

Your attitude is contagious. Is yours worth catching?

Bang

The following is taken from a book Sunrise is givng to all ladies this Sunday, May 11, 2008. I am doing a quick scread (Scim + Read) of the book. Good stuff. I am so thankful for the church in which I serve.

One piece of advice for new moms, "Watch out when changing diapers... poop shoots."

LOL

Release

As children bring their broken toys
with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God
because He is my friend.
But then instead of leaving Him
in peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
with ways that were my own.
At last I snatched them back
and cried, "How can you be so slow"?
"My child", He said, "What could I do,
you never did let go?"

Ten

Adapted from Rev Mag, March/April 2008, p.30. Good leadership thoughts. Have fun.

Top Ten Ways to Fail As A Team Leader and The Somewhat Solution:

1. Fill your team with people just like you.

Others are important. Good leaders surround themselves with sharp and people who may not be like the leader.

2. Ask someone to do a specific job, and then do it yourself.

Let other do it. Follow up and encourage.

3. Don't trust anyone.

Develop trust.

4. Look out for #1.

That is not team.

5. Exercise high control.

Trust. Develop people and leaders. Help others succeed.

6. Make sure all ideas originate with you.

Brainstorm. Give others credit. Be open to ideas that will help accomplish purpose of team and of organization.

7. Foster an atmosphere of paranoia.

Foster and atmosphere of Koinonia (Community/Fellowship).

8. Make sure nobody appears smarter than you.

That will take a lot of effort. Put you effort into purpose.

9. Have a closed door policy.

Open the door. Pick up the phone. Read your emails. Communicate with team members.

10. Conserve affirmation.

Compliment, encourage, and give thanks regularly.

This is good information for any leader, boss, supervisor, etc. to practice. have fun.

Inspection

Yesterday I took the vehicle our daughter drives to a local Auto Shop for the yearly state inspection. I sat in a vehicle line long enough to have a good prayer time, thought time, planning time, and thank God time. A couple of verses that came to mind and heart later in the day are from Psalm 139.

23) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24) See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

These verses are about a God Inspection. It is good for you and I to open up before God and allow Him to make sure we are in line with Him, His glory, His truth, His wonder, Him. As you commune with God today and this week allow Him to search your heart and lead you in His ways.

Waking

"We wake, if ever we wake at all, to mystery." Annie Dillard

Privilege

I am privileged to serve and work with some smart, hard working, fun, loving, growing in Christ people who are a part of Sunrise Community Church. This past Sunday I heard positive word after positive word from various people. Individuals who are very intelligent and really are thinking through their walk with God. People who are living in joy and are helping me and my family live in joy. I thank God for the privilege of being able to serve Jesus Christ with these people and the honor to be their local pastor, hope dealer.

Take just a minute and thank God for people in your life and offer up a quick "Shout Out" to God for them. Have fun.

Concert

My wife and I went to a concert last night at Busch Gardens. We were introduced to a group from the land down under called Revive. They were smooth and rockin' and there lyrics were right on. We also heard Matthew West. I did not realize how many of his songs I liked until he started singing them. He was also very funny and interacted with the crowd really well. The evening ended featuring Third Day. I have liked the sound and lyrics of Third Day since their first release in 1996. The evening was beautiful, fun, inspiring, and God did His thing with a few little Godcidences occurring. They really were not and are not little. They were God working in His wonderful and mysterious ways. The concert series is being billed as Glory At The Gardens. Cool name. Cool Place. God moving. Looking forward to next Sunday at Glory At The Gardens.

If you are not familiar with Third Day I would recommend you purchase a CD of theirs called Chronology, Vol.1. It was released in '07 and has some really good songs from their other CD's.

Optimism

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

A Letter To Sunrise - Joy In Your Finances

Greetings,

“And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” This is how Paul ends his letter of joy to the people in the church at Philippi. What a way to end a letter of thanks, joy and hope. I hope you have experienced your joy quota increasing as we have taken a look at the letter of Philippians for the last seven weeks.

Paul ends the letter of Philippians by thanking them for the financial gift they sent to him and by encouraging them to continue to trust Jesus Christ in all things. He is positive, upbeat and hopeful because of the joy he is experiencing in Jesus Christ. May you and I experience that kind of hope in our lives and in our families. May we live in the realm optimism day by day. As we go through the weekdays may we live with a sense of anticipation. May we “Delight ourselves in God, yes, find our joy in Him at all times”.

As you and I go through the work days I realize that money is a major part of our thought life. I am aware of the time, prayer, planning, preparation, and thought that you and I give to our finances. We desire to make healthy decisions in regards to our income, expenses, and giving. Because money is such an integral part of life it is very important that we understand that God wants to be involved in our financial decisions and He wants to bless us so we can bless others. He wants us to experience joy in our finances, and we can if we will flesh out the truths found in the Bible and in the book of Philippians.

This morning we gained a little insight into the possibility of experiencing joy in our finances. As I think about money, work, expenses, bills, raising children, savings, unforeseen expenses, and giving I thank God for the opportunity to be able to think, work, serve, and learn how to make the most of His financial blessings. What a privilege it is to make decisions in regards to finances. You and I can decide to be bummed or joyful about our financial situations. We choose to make the most of our finances or allow our finances to get the best of us. We have the opportunity to be joyful or disheartened about our finances. I want to choose joy. I hope you will also. I must admit I am not always in the realm of optimism when thinking about finances, but I am learning to live in joy in all of life as I walk with God. I hope you and I will grow in the areas discussed this morning in the service. I really hope we will trust God and seek to honor Him in our finances. What a joy it is to ask God for help with money. What a joy it is to give so others can know Jesus Christ. What a joy it is to sit before God in stillness and be content with the current blessings and challenges in life. What a joy it is to help others and make a difference in someone’s life. What a joy.

Again, May your joy quota increase. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” Philippians 4:4

Rejoicing,
Steve Nethery

National Day of Prayer

PRAY. Pray for America to bless God. Pray for your walk with God. Seek to be in tune with God today. Pray for your family to follow Jesus Christ. Ask God to heal broken relationships and watch with anticipation and hope. Pray for your church leaders. Pray for your pastors. PRAY.

In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice. In the morning I will make my request and watch for the answer throughout the day. Psalm 5:3

A Little Humor

Hope

17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD."
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Lamentations 3:17-26

Almost 24 Years Ago

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

These verses became real to me in my early college years. I was asked to help lead a group of teens on a mission trip from north TX into the heart of Houston TX. We prepared for two months, traveled to Houston, worked in the inner city with young children and overcame many obstacles along the way. I do remember children accepting Christ. I do remember cleaning out areas that were trashed. I do remember walking children to their homes and noticing their home had no doors or windows where there should have been doors and windows. I do remember lives being changed. I do remember the above verses being the theme verses. That was almost 24 years ago. I thank God for "forward" as I briefly reminisce.

I am thankful that in God's grace I have the opportunity to continue to serve Him and see others learn to live in "forward". Thank God.

Powerful Words

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Website Helps

The below is taken from an eletter I recently received from www.faithhighway.com. I found the article brief yet helpful. I am not a techie yet I know the tech world is a relevant and needed way to reach others with the Gospel. Faith Highway had a person visit a church website with the intent of evaluating the site. Have fun learning.

Our first visitor is a thirty to thirty-nine year old white (non-Hispanic) female who has resided in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for the last six to ten years. She infrequently attends church and was only vaguely familiar with the church whose site she visited. Our visitor was asked to rank her experience in 4 main categories.
The definitions of those categories and her scores are listed below:
Navigation “…the framework of a website, the organization of content, the prioritization of information, and the method in which a viewer moves through the website… good navigation gets you where you want to go quickly, and offers easy access to the depth of a website’s content”:While the visitor was able to find most information easily, she mentioned that “One icon says, Our Mission, but that really doesn’t list the church’s beliefs. The main beliefs are found under the Our People icon.” GRADE: B
Functionality “The site works well, has live links, loads quickly, and is functional and relevant for the intended audience. Good functionality makes the user experience paramount, and makes the technology invisible.”: The visitor found no broken links and the pages loaded quickly. GRADE: B+
Content “The information provided on the site. Good content should be engaging, relevant, and appropriate for the audience. It has a voice, a point of view, and regardless of whether it is informative, useful, or funny, it should always leave you wanting more”:Although the information was complete and thorough, it was not current and updated. GRADE: D-Graphics: “The appearance of the site. Good visual design is high quality, appropriate, and relevant to the audience and to the message it is supporting”:The graphics and style did not impact the visitor either negatively or positively, but the site seemed to be designed with the visitor in mind. GRADE: D-
Overall: When asked about her very first impression of the site, she indicated that she did not like the home page for two main reasons. The first was “a ‘ticker’ at the bottom of the web page” that “reminded [her] of watching CNN news.” The second element she disliked was the “fast changing text in the upper right corner. Before she could finish reading the first thought or verse, a new one would appear.”While our visitor was displeased with the graphics and found the navigation confusing and somewhat misleading, she did mention that “one is able to find directions, service times and contact lists easily.” If she could improve one thing, it would be to have the name of the church more prominently featured on the home page. Based on the user’s experience with the website, she would consider visiting the church.

Gas Price Solutions - LOL and hehe

Thanks to Tommy for sending this my way. A little humor is some price gouging times.

April 10, 1979 Tornado

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/wxevents/19790410/wichitafalls.php