Saturday's 7

• We had a Sunday School Party today. I'm not sure how many came (I'm sure somebody did), but it was a lot of folks and their kids.
• Two things I learned today: 1. My wife and Lisa Worley stress out more about these things than anyone on the planet. 2. Me and Heath Worley do nothing but make it worse.
• I do want to say my wife does an incredible job being a mother. She takes care of everybody and everything. I love her a lot.
• My son rode his first horse today. He is growing up so quick.
• My son also stepped in his first pile of horse dook. Don't worry, Mom came to the rescue.
• The Worley's have the ideal living arrangement.
• I'm glad we are at a church where we can love so easily and be loved without question. We have met some of the most amazing people this past year.

Confession: Cherry Pie

Sometimes I feel like a horrible parent. I have moments where I just quit thinking and do some of the dumbest stuff ever. Do you know what I'm saying?? There could be this incredibly huge list I could write out for you, but to be honest it is kind of depressing the more I think about it. But here's one more to add to the confessions of a youth pastor.
So here it is: It started out all cute. We all thought it was so funny, then we started to notice the changes. His ocassional request turned into constant demands. Sometimes we would give in, and allow the cycle to continue. We allowed another taste of addiction. You see our son is addicted to Guitar Hero. Specifically, he is addicted to Cherry Pie. I'm not sure when the obsession with this particular song happened, but for the past two days it has been a continuos, "I wanna pway cherr pie daddy". We should have seen it coming. So you see...Even as a youth pastor I do many stupid things. We have started denying the requests to play guitar hero and therefore have began his treatment. I know what a lot of you are saying, "Ricky, dude, you over reacting." Maybe I am. But we have made a comittment to remain strong on this issue.

Disclaimer-- Please know that this is not a serious post. Do not call, write, email, or comment on how bad of a parent I may be. Also do not request for the termination of my position in the ministry. My son does love to play guitar hero, but I place the blame for his obsession solely on Phillip Weems, The TJ Mauldin Band, The students of Southern Heights Baptist Church, and Megan Sowell:)

DM Demolition

Last night we got to talk a lot about worship. I was excited to see our students realize that worship is more than singing. That it is more than a tireless mechanical repetition. I had great confidence leaving last night that our students understood all life is worship. Big shout out to John Piper for all the quotes I used last night.

• 17 Students last night with 2 first timers...Abel and Blair. That's 4 new students in two weeks!!
• Isaiah 29:13, Philippians 1:20-21, Acts 17:25, Mark 10:45, Romans 12:1-2 were the scriptures we used...look'em up and learn something.
• I got beat in ping pong again by Jessie last night...I've never been so depressed.

I'm pretty excited about some services we have coming up in the future. God is moving and I'm pumped. We can actually see the changes in our students lives week to week. I can't tell you how many times a teacher has stopped me in the hallway and said he or she sure has been differently lately. I'm getting excited.

Here Lately...

Things have been really good here in my life lately. Tiring, busy, constant, but always good. Here is a list of things that has been going on...just to catch you up:

• I finished my exegesis on Phil. 2:1-11. It was incredibly tough and time consuming. If by any chance you would like to read it hit me up and I'll email you a copy.
• We finished our "He Will Be Called..." series and tonight we are going to talk about true worship.
• Ellis Cook has been hanging out with me a lot lately. I've been whooping him in some XBox 360, he has done some stuff for me around the office, and JP absolutely loves him. I see God doing some amazing things through this guy.
• That marriage seminar Megan and I went to seems to really be improving our marriage.
• I have two new classes starting Monday. Theology and Philosophy. The best part...NO PAPERS!!
• Michael Jr may be the funniest man ever...Watch this and this and my favorite one.
• We are going to First Assembly May 28th to go hear Leyden in concert. Big shout out to Wes for getting this one together.

Saturday's 7...on Monday

I feel pretty bad that I have waited until now to do my regular Saturday post. I like to think you guys are checking this every hour or so just to see if I have updated. I know in all reality you may stumble across these posts when you are completely bored and have NOTHING else to do, but for my own pride...I'm going to keep on believing you guys are hooked on my blog. Today's list is a special one. I got to go to a Gary Chapman marriage conference this weekend with some couples in our church. It was definitely a plus to go. Here are some random thoughts on the day.

• Love is you doing what your spouse wants you to do even when you don't want to do it.
• After the conference it seemed like all of the couples had their arm around each other or they were holding hands. I think all it took was one husband grabbing his wife's hand and all of the other guys were like, "Oh crap! I better do something like that too."
• Heath Worley cannot eat without getting something all over himself, and then proceed to "accidentally" transfer from his shirt to his wife's.
• I told Gary Chapman my wife made me come:)
• I learned not to say everything I think...This is something Marci Rogers has been telling me from day one.
• We all went and ate ice cream after the conference. Me and Megan shared our ice cream cone. Not really, but it would have been extremely sweet if I had thought about that Saturday instead of right now.
• Marriage is a lot of work, but there isn't anyone else I would rather work with than my beautiful, caring, understanding wife.

Bread of Life

In my class, "The Book of John" I had to write a research paper on the bread of life discourse given by Jesus in chapter 6. It is so weird to think about how many times I have read passages of scripture but I'm just now learning comprehend them. It all really starts in verse 22, but you need to know that Jesus just fed 5000 men with 2 small fish and 5 loaves of bread. He just refused the people who tried to make Him their king for a political revolt against the Romans, and then walked on water. So now He is sitting with the people and they ask for Jesus to do what Moses did for the Israelites in wilderness, make bread fall from heaven. Here it is...the best part of the whole story: "My Father gives you the true bread of Heaven. For the bread of heaven is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." I love it!! Jesus makes His claim to be equal with the Father. He tells the people that this bread is not about satisfying you physically but spiritually. The people then say, "Give us this bread." Verse 35, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life."

Many of us are like the people Jesus was talking to. They wanted to be independent from Rome. That wanted to make sure their physical needs were taken care of. They wanted some type of position in the new government they believed Jesus would set up. They wanted, they wanted, they wanted!! That's just like us. We want all these things that Jesus can do for us but we refuse to give Him our lives. We are wanted all of our physical needs met, but Jesus came not so that we may have these comfortable lives in our nice houses. He came to live a perfect life and then die. HE came to be the ultimate perfect sacrifice we needed so we can be forgiven and restored. Don't get so wrapped up in this world that you forget to take the true bread of life.

Just like bread is a necessity for us to live physically...Jesus is a necessity for us to live spiritually.

DM Demolition

Another Desiring More service has come and gone, but for some reason I think we'll be feeling the effects from this one for a long time.

• We had 18 students last night with 2 first time visitors that I have never met. I love seeing our students bring their friends with them. It proves two things: 1. They love Jesus enough to want their friends to love Him. 2. Our services are relevant enough to make an impact on our students lives.
• Last night we finished our series, "He Will Be Called...". Prince of Peace was the name last night and to be honest I went in the service not expecting anything big until after worship. I know that is horribly wrong of me, but God just moved in spite of me.
• We sang Mighty to Save and when the lyric, "Savior, He can move the mountains..." I started praying that God would begin to move mountains in these students lives. That He would take whatever is standing in between them and Jesus and move it.
• We talked about the incredible peace God offers through Jesus. Not a life of superficial peace, but a life, that if you know Jesus personally, of restored and redeemed peace. Knowing that you had been bought with the Blood of Christ.

It was a great night, but the coolest thing happened at the end. I've been listening to a lot of Fee. Beautiful the Blood has a lyric that says, "I never knew surrender could feel so free..." I have really wanted to get back to the idea of surrender. Last night we saw someone surrender. It was amazing, beautiful, supernatural:) Brokenness is so sweet. This guy told me, "how can God keep taking me back?? I know He does. I can't believe how great He is." Though he was full of tears and pain, this young guy came back to Jesus...He returned to His first love. We have wondered why Berryville, AR so many times...Never again will there be a need to wonder.