Yep, It's Me Again

Well, here I go with some stuff.
I have the pleasure of being a part of a great men's group called Outside The Walls. One of my tasks is to lead a weekly gathering for the guys. Lately I have been talking about "Random Thoughts". You know, the stuff that God just bangs into your head from left field, that shakes you up. One thing that has hit me this week is fear. Or should I say FEAR!
FEAR often keeps us from being all that we can be to serve our great and mighty God. Fear is something that keeps us from our forward motion in our walk.
The question is why? Why are we afraid of anything when we have the Creator of the universe on our side? I have read that "God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go". So if that is true, and I believe it is, why are we afraid of jumping into what He wants? Yeah sometimes what He wants does not seem to be what we can see or into our plans, I get that. But, I know everytime I mention my plans to Him that He has a good laugh and then says "Ok, now really, this is what I want".
I use this illustration a lot but the point is good. Remember when you sat on the floor with your infant kids when they were learning to walk? I sat on one side of the living room and Christy sat on the other and we helped and supported these babies across the room. We cheered for them and said "come on, you got it, come on". We cheered and clapped and hugged them and we were so proud of those baby steps.And then little by little they started to get it, we helped them as they stumbled and loved them through the swerves and werves. I picture Our Heavenly Father doing just that with us along the way. He holds out His Hands for us to walk slowly towards and He supports us when we fall or stumble. He watches us and is proud when we get it right and He cheers for us along the way.
Why would we fear anything that He is asking us to do?
I don't know why but I still get scared sometimes when I know I should go or do what He says.
Maybe one day I'll be able to take more than a step or two without Him grabbing me.

If you want to hear some other "Random Thoughts" go to http://www.mcgregor.net/ and find the Outside The Walls podcast and see what's up. I would appreciate any constructive advice as well.

Well, gotta go. We'll do more later.

Peace-
Captain Dave

Many Moons Ago...

Well it has been many moons since my last post. This is really difficult for me b/c I feel like I don't really have that much stuff to talk about.
My Buddy Rusty and his wife Tina and the kids were down last week and it was great to see them. Rusty had a whale of a time on an overnight fishing trip, he loved it and wants to do it again especially in the summer.

My little girl Hayley turned five last week and tomorrow I will be officially on the downhill side of life. YIKES!!! It goes by fast.

It is really odd that the last ten years of my life have been the best. The best friends that I'll ever have have all come around, I have been blessed with two amazing kids, my wife is incredible (even when she isn't) I would not want to be with anyone else in the world. Christy is just perfect for me and I am seriously lucky.

The best thing in these past ten years was coming to know Christ, what a change. I will never be able to explain all the mysteries of God's work but, my life being changed is undeniable. What a gift. That gift has also led me to the thing that fires up my heart more than anything else.
Have to save that story for another post.

To all my family and friends i say thank-you for being around, I love you all and feel so lucky to have all of you in my life. We have all had ups and downs but were are 'pressing on'.

By the way, the new Relient K C/D comes out soon and I can't wait. Those young guys are great, give them a listen sometime.

Well gotta go, talk to ya' again in a couple months.

Living in a Techno World

For those of you that know me, you realize just how limited I am related to things that are technical. I am just getting the hang of computers. Things with lots of keys and screens and knobs and buttons scare me.

The other thing that scares me is public speaking. I mean really, who gives a rip about what I have to say. This combination makes this whole Blog thing very weird to me.

I had the pleasure and honor of doing not just one but two Podcasts today. Now you may ask well, how many Podcasts have you done so far in your life there Big Boy? Well that's an easy answer. Two, and they were both today.

I humbly and with a great deal of care am leading our men's morning Bible study. It will be available on the MBC web site at some point. The series is called 'Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude'. And let me assure you that it is not the gospel according to Jimmy Buffett. It is about setting our attitudes in line with the Attitude of Christ. It is at least a good idea for a series, we'll see how well it gets done.

And then this morning I was asked to be on the "Mark and Miller" show. Which is a cool show that a couple of our pastors do each week. It can be heard also on the MBC web site under Podcasts. Once again I felt honored to be a part of it and I had a blast. But, I had to ask again who cares about what I have to say. My friend David and I had fun chatting about a few things and maybe even made a point somewhere along the line.

I am excited that David is going to be preaching a good bit in our near future, he has a great style and is very relevant. I am sure that many people will be blessed and challenged by his messages. I know I will.

So, for a real low tech guy this was an exciting day. Maybe there is hope for me yet in a Techno world.

Captain Dave

My Service Light Is Getting Dim

Do you ever have those days or times when your service light goes dim?
You know the little red light in the corner eye that shows how much is left in your battey.
Well, mine is getting dim. Sometimes work and stuff and life just gets to ya'. And when it does you know that you need a jump start. Well sports fans, Captain Dave needs a jump start.

It seems like the only thing I really look forward to is what I get to do with Outside the Walls. Now I'm not talking about my family, I always enjoy my time with them. As a matter of fact today was the first Sunday afternoon that I have had off in a very long time. I spent most of it on the floor wrestling with Dylan, we had a blast. Christy was out at a bridal shower and Hayley fell asleep on the way home. The boys had a big time.

Apart from my family I am spent. I am having a difficult time motivating myself, maybe it is a sign, maybe I need a vacation, I don't know. What I do know is that God has made this men's ministry deal become so important to me that I really want to do just that. I don't know what that means or looks like but........I know that is where my heart is at.

So, any great suggestions on how to move on when you have been stuck would be appreciated.

Way busy and not a real good blogger

Well it has been a while I know but, as far as bloggers go, I'm a good reader.

My wife and kids have been out of town all week and I have been way busy.

Here is a really great thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. I was invited to go out to California to a training session at Every Man Ministries. Man what a great week. My buddy Wayne went with me and we had three days of very intense training on Intentional Men's Ministry. Man those guys do it right.

The Saddleback model is incredible and we got every bit of it handed to us. This was the very first of it's kind and was by invitation. We had six guys from across the U.S. whose hearts are all about Men's Ministry and transformation. We had a great time with Kenny Luck, Tom Crick and Howard Mazer. We even had Rick Warren walk in unexpected and give us about 20 minutes on his views of Men's Ministry. Wow, that was cool.

It is just wild what happens in a persons heart when God really gets a hold of it for His purposes. I just can't explain how much desire I have to very deeply involved in this area of ministry. There are lots of men out there who just don't know where to turn for help when the lions are about to cut them to shreds.

God is Large and in Charge and we can never lose sight of that. Lately, I have been asking these questions in classes 'How big is God?' and then 'How big is your god?'. Those are two very different questions. We may believe and say the God is in charge and that we trust Him. That is until the lions attack. Then, we have to fix things ourselves or doubt that God will come through. Often we get in His way and mess up the plan. Sometimes I think that He actually waits until the answer is just humanly impossible so He can show His glory.

Another cool thing happened last Sunday. I got back into the store after Sunday school and there were two people waiting for me. They asked if I was Dave and cautiously asked why?

They asked me about a book that I had featured called "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day". I pointed to it and told them that I was leading a class based on the book in our Men's Ministry. They said they were aware of that and introduced themselves. They were Mr. and Mrs. Batterson, the mom and dad of the author, Mark Batterson. They were really nice and quite blown away by the attention to their son's book. Wow, stuff has been cool lately.

A Real Lion Chaser

I have been given the pleasure of leading a class, along with a couple of fellow lion chaser, based on the book "In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day".
So, the other night I was going through the book and writing down all of the characteristics of a 'Lion Chaser'. It is amazing how far I have to go to be a Lion Chaser. During all of this my four year old daughter starts to scream Daddy, Daddy. So, I ran to her rescue.
Later that night I was telling my wife about Lion Chasers and Hayley walks up and says "Daddy, you are a real Lion Chaser, you can kill bugs". A wasp had found its way into her bedroom.
I don't know if the author would have put this in the book but, at my house, a Lion Chaser kills bugs.

Where did that come from?

Started reading a new book, well new for me anyway.

In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day by Mark Batterson.

It is a real good read if you have not seen it yet. A little seen almost obscure verse is so full of God's power.

The author really has challenged me.

I just wonder would I chase a lion into a pit on a snowy day? Not likely, I live in Florida and I hate snow but, it could be a Florida Panther on a rainy day.

Point is that this is a real good book and I would suggest reading it.

I pray that as my lions show up that I will be a lion chaser.