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I’ve often said that we are blessed with the greatest church choir in the country. It’s amazing to be led by our Worship Pastor Todd Bell and the 500-plus voices, accompanied by amazing musicians in the orchestra, each week. What I love best is how Todd and the choir have their own “church” on Wednesdays and before the services, preparing their hearts for worship before leading our church family in worship.
On Sunday, the choir will premiere live its new CD, You Reign, during our services. If you live in the area, be sure to join us at 9:15 or 11:00 a.m., or you can live stream the second service on powerpoint.org. The CD will be available at the Prestonwood Bookstores beginning Sunday.
My good friend David Jeremiah was here yesterday. Had a great talk with him, and then he spoke to nearly 900 at our weekly PowerLunch. David’s got a powerful new book out, The Coming Economic Armageddon: What Bible Prophecy Warns about the New Global Economy. He touched on the book and the current financial crisis our country is facing. It is both sobering and startling.
But David is a pastor, so he focused on four things what we, as believers, must do to overcome these unstable times.
Keep your head in the game. Don’t ignore the situation. We need to know about it and how it affects us. Progress is impossible if we don’t know where we are to start with.
Keep your house in order. W
e may not be able to do anything about the national economy, but we are in charge of our own household. Do two things: Take a personal inventory of your financial situation, and try to become debt-free.
Keep your heart in your faith. Don’t be discouraged. In the midst of debts and darkness is Jesus, and we are His ambassadors. Through our faith, people will realize that God’s Word is Truth in all of this.
Keep your hope in God. We are God’s people; we know that. Troubles don’t matter; God will continue to care for His people. Every generation faces uncertainty, but nothing can destroy our joy. We have real reason for hope. Our hope is not in the current situation, but our hope is in God. Problems actually make us better because they drive us toward God.
If you would like financial guidance, please check out the resources we have available through Prestonwood Foundation:
Financial Boot Camp—Six-week class that covers 10 biblical principles that deal with understanding God’s role in your finances, developing a spending plan, eliminating debt, building short and long term savings, giving, and more.
Marriage & Money God’s Way—God’s Word has a lot to say about money and marriage. Put these two areas of life together and the result can be explosive if you are not following God’s clear path for success and blessing.
Biblical Finances Discovery Classes—Four week class that reviews biblical financial principles as it pertains to fulfilling the call to be a faithful steward/manager with what God has given you.
Prestonwood Foundation also offers one-on-one guidance, providing free, confidential financial guidance. If you are interested in any of these classes or to schedule an appointment, please contact Ron Kelley at 214-820-5439.
Deb and I are having a great time in Southern California, or as they say here, The O.C.
We’ve been following our Rangers on their way to the Western Division Championship. We stayed through the 12th inning last night, watching our guys get the win. It was very cool to hear a pretty good size group of Rangers fans chanting “Let’s go Rangers!” Kinda like the Yankees get everywhere they go ...
But before heading out the game or the beach ... you guessed it. We had to make a stop at In-N-Out for a Double-Double, fries and a Dr Pepper. I can’t wait for In-N-Out’s arrival in the Dallas area in the spring. As far as I’m concerned, this is the lunch and dinner of champions...
One of my life’s ambitions is mentoring young men in the ministry. I was blessed to have a godly mentor in my pastor, Dr. Fred Swank. I’ve spoken often about the influence he had on my life. I benefitted greatly from the investment he made in my life ... and to this day many of the decisions I make are a direct result of his influence.
What I learned from Dr. Swank I want to deposit in the young men who are coming behind me, those to whom I’ll pass the baton... Jarrett Stephens, our Teaching Pastor at Prestonwood, is one of those young men. I’ve know Jarrett for more than 10 years now and I’ve seen him grow more and more passionate about God’s Word. He is an incredible preacher with the heart of a servant. He is a wonderful husband to Debbie and a great daddy to Riley and Kelsey.
And Jarrett has a powerful story to tell. A story of God’s grace and mercy and the restoring power of His love. I am so very proud of Jarrett and I love him like a son. Watch Jarrett’s I AM SECOND film and be sure to share it with someone who will be blessed by it.
And visit iamsecond.com to view other films.
I’ve always admired Jim Kelly from afar. He was a great football player...tough, hard-nosed, competitive, relentless. He was the face of the Buffalo Bills franchise and for good reason. Following the guidance of Head Coach Marv Levy, he kept that team at the top for a long time...unfortunately for Jim, the Cowboys were a better team...But that d
oesn’t take away from this guy’s Hall of Fame career.
Well, I admire Jim even more after having met him and his wife, Jill, and after hearing their hearts and the story of their son, Hunter, at PowerLunch today. Hunter was born with Krabbe disease, a rare terminal illness.
But though he was unable to speak, his short life spoke volumes and helped to restore the couple’s marriage and faith. This is the story of changed lives through the powerful witness of a little boy. Jill wrote a memoir about the precious life of their Hunter in Without a Word: How a Boy’s Unspoken Love Changed Everything. Pick up a copy.
If you live in the area, be sure to make plans to join us next week. M
y good friend David Jeremiah will be our guest speaker. I know you’ve heard of David and you’ve heard his program Turning Point on Christian radio. He’s the Senior Pastor of Shadow Mountain ommunity Church in El Cajon, California...and an incredible writer and Bible teacher.
Check out our lineup for the rest of the year and follow PowerLunch on Twitter.
We had a great time celebrating our annual Dinner on the Grounds last night at Prestonwood North. We come together as a church family each year between the anniversary of this campus and the anniversary of moving into the permanent facility in Prosper ... and we have just a typical Sunday potluck church dinner.
Well, sort of typical... We
had more than 1,200 there and some great food (our people can really cook!) and giant inflatables and games for the kids covered the front parking lot. The Quinten Hope Band provided some great music. (I was itching to get on drums with those guys.)But the evening really was about changed lives and the work that the Lord is doing through our church family. We witnessed the baptism of 37 people, many of them parents and their children who have found a home at Prestonwood North.
One woman who was baptized along with her two children, described the experience as “breathtaking.” She said they’d been looking for a church home and just hadn’t found one until they went to Prestonwood North. Another gentleman told me he and his wife were headed for divorce when they started attending, and last night hi
s wife was baptized. I love to hear that people are plugging in and finding a church to call home.
When God led us to that cotton field in Prosper more than four years ago, we knew He would do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” We knew the fields would be white for harvest... Looking around the grounds yesterday, seeing all these families become one, helped me again to realize that this is only the beginning. God has so much more in store as we continue to reach those communities.
I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to close the evening than by holding hands, looking tow
ard the cross at the church entrance and singing the “Old Rugged Cross.” The Cross is why we exist; why we do what we do; why we continue to reach out locally, regionally, nationally and abroad with the Gospel... until the whole world hears.
as Cowboys fan, you have to go the State Fair and check out the Tom Landry Personal Collection exhibit. The first head coach of the Cowboys was always one of my heroes.
Landry will always be known as “The Man in the Hat” ... And who will ever forget his calm and dignified demeanor on the sidelines? His character and demeanor and style and how he treated his players was always reflective of his Christian faith. He was truly one of the greatest men in the history of Dallas, one of the all-time great coaches and one of the greatest men I’ve ever met.
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