A Recovering Baptist in South Carolina

The search for a Girlfriend began as soon as I started college in 2006. I wasn't however looking for a girlfriend just to have a girlfriend. I was looking for the girl God wanted me to marry, so I wasn't going to be casual about finding the right girl. Over the past five years I've show interest in several girls and always God shut the door. Until I met Sarah Ann Ekberg!  Our story is long so sit back, get comfortable as I share how God has worked in our lives. This is not going to be the complete version as that would be the start of a novel! If you have any questions feel free to comment, but please keep the comments on the blog and not on facebook so that we can keep all the comments in one place.    Sarah and I were in school together in the spring of 2007 at Bob Jones University. We took New Testament Messages together with Nathan Crockett, but I don't remember seeing her. (the class had over 400 students in each session) although she vaguely remembers seeing

Not to long ago I was talking to a gentleman from my church about the topic of relationships and he made a statement that I found very intriguing and one that has lead to a lot of contemplation. He said "Love is not something you fall into, it's a choice". This is difference is at the root cause of the massive number of broken homes in our country today. To often couples "Fall" into what they think is "Love" when in fact all it is simply infatuation and the want to have physical desires fulfilled. Love is in fact a choice one makes. A choice to Love someone no matter what that person does, no matter how much that person hurt you, and no matter what happens to that person. Love is waiting for marriage. Love is obeying those in authority whether it be parental, pastoral, or governmental. True Love is unconditional. This leads me to think about what God did over two thousand years ago. He "Chose" to love us and send his son to be born i

In one week most people will be either traveling somewhere or getting ready for family or friends to arrive so that they can celebrate "Thanksgiving". But what should we be thankful for? Of course we need to thank God for the food, a house to shelter us from the elements, cloths to keep us warm and freedom to celebrate the holiday as we see fit. Many will be thankful for football (and thankful that we have a football season), sports, cars, entertainment, technology, toys (both big people toys and little people toys). The list of things to be thankful for is endless and it isn't wrong to be thankful for these thing because God is responsible for allowing us to have them. As Christians we need to be thankful for the Bible, Salvation, a Church family and the Freedom to worship as we please. In the midst of all this thanking we often forget who we are thanking. It the LORD God, Jehovah, YHWH! This is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. We often just say "Thank you

Last night Bill Knipe preached a sermon on missions and then Pastor Minnick gave an invitation for those who were willing to totally surrender to where ever the Lord would have them go, either onto the foreign field or to stay in Greenville. The real challenge (for me) though was in the message of the invitation song "Lord Send Me Anywhere". And it's not even the anywhere that scares me most of the time. It's the third line in the chorus. "Server any tie, save the tie that binds me to thy heart" Am I really willing to let God take away something that I love, even a Godly thing. It could be a place where I have many good memories, an ability that God has used but decides to take away. a family member who I'm very close to, or a friend who means everything to me. Am I willing to give up these things to go or stay where God wants me? Am I using any of these things to not let God use me the way I know he wants to use me? The answer to these question

The month of October has been a crazy month for me. It started off with me being in the Hospital for a weekend. I has gotten Colitis (an inflamed colon) and had put off going to checked out for an entire month until I was so weak I couldn't work. I had lost 30 Lb. in one month (not of my choosing) and had absolutely no energy and no strength. After my stay in the hospital I went back to work, where my employers were very understanding about me needing to take breaks to rest (usually just a 5 min. break to catch my breath). After one week I was feeling well enough to try playing some basketball, but that was an unusual experience for me because my coordination was off and my arm strength was not back yet, and so my shooting and running even may have looked a little like a the way a girl would run and shoot (I'm now back to full strength and coordination). Work has been an adventure in and of itself. While one job (CFA) is going very well, and I'm improving in my abili

Love. What an interesting topic, especially for a single guy to be talking about. A guy often dreams about finding that one girl that he will love for the rest of his life, as I'm sure girls dream about finding that right guy that they will love forever after. What is the outward evidence of Love? Outwardly Love shows itself in what we put our time and effort into. Single guys like myself often but that time and effort into their car, house, computer, job, ministry or even into the search of the perfect girl. In Matthew 22:35-38 we find out where God wants us to place our Love One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." This is the great and foremost commandment. We must love God first and foremost of all! Nothing and no one can come between me and my God. I love that phra

The Texas Rangers are cursed. How can you say they are cursed you may ask. Well being within one strike of winning the World Series twice in one game, having the third longest World Series win less streak (Only the Cubs and the Indians have longer win less streaks) and losing to a team that shouldn't have been there? If that doesn't qualify as cursed I don't know what does. The question still remains though, Who or What has cursed them. The haven't turned a billy goat away from watching a game (Chicago's curse of the Billy Goat, 103 year drought and counting) and they haven't given away the best player in baseball history to their arch rivals (Boston Redsox and the Curse of the Bambino aka: Babe Ruth, 86 year drought). So what have they done to provoke the wrath of the baseball gods? We may never know what the Rangers have done (or not done) to deserve such heart break, but until they win a World Series they will be doomed to reminisce on the "What

One of my favorite hymns growing up was "I Know Who Holds Tomorrow." One of the reasons was it was it was one of the few songs I could play on the guitar, so I learned it well. This evening as the work was winding down for some reason the words of this song came to my mind. Isn't it wonderful to know who holds tomorrow! I don't know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day. I don't borrow from it's sunshine, For it's skies may turn to gray. I don't worry o'er the future, For I know what Jesus said, And today I'll walk beside Him, For He knows what is ahead. Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand; But I know Who holds tomorrow, And I know Who holds my hand. Ev'ry step is getting brighter, As the golden stairs I climb; Ev'ry burden's getting lighter; Ev'ry cloud is silver lined. There the sun is always shining, There no tear will dim the eyes, At the ending of the rainbow, Where th

Last night as I was washing dishes and listening to music on my phone, Ron Hamilton's song "The Fear of the Lord" started playing. It started my mind turning as I thought about what it really meant to "Fear the LORD". When most people think fear they think of someone cowering in a corner while someone else stands over them. That is fear, but there is a different kind of fear, one that a respectful fear. This can be illustrated through my current job at Chick-fil-A (CFA for short) At CFA we have the "Chick-fil-A Way" which is the way certain procedures are done to make sure everything is done the same way every time and the same amazing product is served every time. If I were to not do things the "Chick-fil-A Way" then my boss would have a talk with me and if I continued to refuse to do it the "Chick-fil-A Way" I would eventually get fired. However I don't want to get fired and so I have a respect, or a fear, for my boss. I

Over the past several weeks God has really been working in my heart and in my life. My recent heath problems were followed by a personal situation where God put a decision in front of me. Follow God's will for my life, wait, and have peace about what God is doing or I could do my own thing and have what I wanted right now, not that what I wanted was a bad thing or that I won't get it in the future. I decided to follow God's will for my life and he has kept the thing which I desire from me. After making this decision there is still a choice. I can be content with what God is doing, or I can be bitter, even though I am doing what God wants. Here again I was torn for a little while, but while reading Proverbs 3 this morning I came to verse 32 where Solomon writes "For the devious are an abomination to the LORD; But He is intimate with the upright" The second part of the verse really hit me. The idea that God would be intimate with me, that he would be that cl

What is Gossip and when does something become Gossip? Websters has this definition. ;a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others ;rumor or report of an intimate nature ;a chatty talk ;the subject matter of gossip So lets look at what is gossip according to the world.  Gossip is talking about someone else (a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others) when that conversation doesn't need to happen and in all reality shouldn't happen because you don't know what is going on (rumor or report of an intimate nature). I happens all the time,but that doesn't mean it is right. As Christians we should be even more sensitive about gossip and quelling it where ever it shows up.  I learned this rule along time ago and have tried to live by it. "If you aren't part of the problem and you aren't part of the solution, you shouldn't be talking about it."  Another rule I try to live by is "Don&#

What do you feel when God says "Wait"?  Do you feel frustration, confusion, anger?  Or do you accept it as God's will and simply live at peace that God knows what he is doing and is in full and total control?  Recently God has told me "Wait".  There were plans I had, things I wanted to do, all of which had good intentions behind them.  In the past when God said "Wait" or "No" I would rebel internally and blamed God for not letting me have what I wanted.  God was not to blame, and He would discipline me by sending me through a personal trial.  The Great Shepherd would break my leg and then carry me until it healed..My God has been very gracious to me over the years as He continues to forgive me and guide me back onto the right path.  I have finally learned that it is much easier to simply let God work his plan and to as his sheep just follow his lead.  He knows where the edge of the cliff is and I don't.  He knows where the lion and the be

The past several months have been very busy and interesting.  Over the summer my church prepared to move out of our current building into our old building so that the addition we are adding on to our current building can be connected and finished.  Over all everything has gone relativity smoothly with no major problems.  There have been some video issues with pushing the video from the fellowship hall (our old building) up the hill to the overflow rooms in the education building but those were quickly fixed.  God has also given us more people to work in the sound room.  The challenging part if figuring out how to Train them all, but I'm pretty sure we'll figure it out.   The end of August was particularly stressful for me.  Between work, moving the sound room at church and some things going on in my personal life (which I will not divulge here) I ended up contracting Colitis (an inflamed colon).  Between the end of August and the beginning of October I lost 30 Lb.  Being the i

Ok, it's been way to long since I've been on here so I'll try to update you on what's been going on.  On the culinary side of my life things have changed quite a bit.  I've been able to get a second job at Chick Fil A of Haywood Rd. I absolutely love working there!    On the A/V side things have been going well.  The addition on our church is coming along very nicely.  I a couple of weeks we will be moving out so that the old building can be merged with the new building. The real adventure comes when we move back into the completed building.  With all new equipment and several new people to help run the equipment it will be very interesting.  Hopefully we can find some very adaptable people to make everything go smoothly.

This week has been a good week with no major A/V surprises and/or problems.  I was the cheese specialist all week at work this week.  It was different to do cheese all week long, but it was good and very relaxing.  Wednesday was my birthday and I had a wonderful day.  My co-workers found out that it was my birthday and so they got a cupcake and a candle and sang happy birthday to me.  I recently got a new phone which allows me to get my email on my phone as well as txt messages.  As both my email account and my phone are connected to my facebook account I my phone was buzzing all day long as nearly everybody wished me a happy birthday. My sister baked me a cake and my mom sent me maypo for my birthday, both of which I enjoyed.  I thought that would be it, except for maybe late birthday card in the mail.  Thursday afternoon my sister and I went down to Fall Park to take some pictures.  While we were down there we ran into some Canadian geese and there was also a guy riding his kayak dow

Today at work I became the "Sampling Specialist".  I was scheduled to work as the "Cheese Specialist" today which means I'm suppose to sample cheese along with cutting, wrapping and labeling cheese. When I arrived at work I learned that I was also going to spend a couple hours sampling beef tenderloin.  First I'll tell you about the cheese I was sampling.  I paired "Provolone Piccante" (a aged sharp provolone) with banana and balsamic glaze on a wheat thin cracker.  This combination is very good as an appetizer or a healthy snack.  I also paired "Premoo Gouda" with "Dark Chocolate Dreams" and a blueberry on a wheat thin cracker.  Premoo Gouda is a mild cheese with a very nice flavor while Dark Chocolate Dreams is a peanut butter/chocolate mixture. This sample can be made into a sweet snack/dessert.  After I had made the cheese samples I went over to the meat department and sampled Filet Mignon, (premium choice beef tenderloin).