Day Six & Seven: Viva Las Vegas!

We made it!

Sorry I haven't Blogged in a while, but we are a little tired out from the journey and have been resting up.

Rob & Nicole have been incredible. I love them both so much. I have truly missed them a lot since they moved here a little over a year ago. They are amazing people that I am blessed to have in my life.

Friday night was our actual arrival to Sin City and we were so tired I can't even explain it. We stopped by the Hoover Dam for a quick look on the way in and it was pretty sweet. It was all lit up and very dark out there in the desert.

Saturday, I ran errands with Rob and Nicole. We took their dog, Bella, to the groomers and then went out for breakfast. Rob headed to the hospital to make his rounds and Nicole and I cleaned up their car, got a car wash and filled it up with gas. Aaron and I had a great talk on Saturday night and rested some more. We are having a tough time adjusting our internal clocks...

Today we checked out Rob & Nicoles church, the Crossing. It was really great. I met some very nice people and got to pet a handsome Golden Retriever named Frisco. He was a helper dog for a really nice woman, Kelly. She allowed me to pet Frisco and it really made me miss Bailey.

Chris & Andrea got back from Chicago tonight, so it will be great to see them. Quinn will probably be so grown up that I will freak out.

The best part of this trip is coming up in just two days... my Sunshine will be arriving. Can't wait!

Keep us in your prayers.

Flaws...

Fatigue brings out the worst in me.

When I am tired, I am very impatient. The smallest thing will send me over the edge. I have become a lot better at not completely losing it when frustration boils over, but there is definitely a change in my demeanor.

This is another case of not living in the Spirit. When we live in the Spirit we bear the Fruit of the Spirit. Guess what? Patience is one of them. I could pat myself on the back and say, "Well, at least I didn't blow up, I had patience." Did I really? Was the patience flowing out of me naturally or did I have to struggle just to muster it up? The reality is, while outwardly I am sort of patient looking, it was not really Spirit led. I relied on my own will to make it happen.

So what's the big deal? That's how we get better at something right? We work on gaining control of it. We gradually get better at the thing we are lacking in.

I have a different opinion...

When we become followers of Jesus Christ, we are given His Holy Spirit. He lives inside of us. Now let me stop for a minute and really drive that point home. The loving, patient and perfect Spirit of God lives in us. Think about that for a moment. You have a Spirit in you that can help you be patient. He can help you be kind. He can help you speak the truth. He can reveal God's word to you. He is your personal tour guide for this thing we call life.

Are you excited yet?!? You should be. The problem as I see it is that we do not give ourselves to Him to be led by Him. We rely on ourselves. "I can learn to be patient on my own..." Can you? I beg to differ. Only when we say, "God, I can't do this on my own. I give up. I give myself to you to be led by Your Holy Spirit. Let my actions and most of all, reactions be Yours," can we truly be patient. You have to let go in order to be led by the Spirit. As Aaron said to me one time, "God is going to knock on the door but He is not going to knock it down." You have to let Him in. Let Him fill you and take over the controls.

Now I know that some people will think this is a little to extreme, but is it really? Is it extreme because we all want control and to think about losing it is very scarey to us? I would just point to the life Christ lived on this earth. He was always in contact with the Father. He never did anything without the Father(John 5:19). He was always led by Him and did what the Father was doing.

Jesus said in John 15:5 (TNIV) "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me, you can do nothing."

I think that says it all. Remain in Him today.

Day Five: Albuquerque & the Petrified Forrest

Albuquerque, NM

We made it into Albuquerque on Wednesday night. We had no idea what it looked like because it was dark before we got into town. Let me tell you, in the desert when the sun goes down, it gets pitch black. You really can't see a thing.

When we woke up we saw all the mountains and amazingly blue skies. The West is just plain beautiful... I love it out here. I called Cheryl told her to start looking for a new job in Albuquerque. It's a dream, but it could happen.

Petrified Forrest, AZ

Our original plan today was to hit the Grand Canyon. We wanted to catch the sun setting into the Canyon then wake up really early and get out to see the sun come up the next day, but we got a late start and decided to hit the Petrified Forrest in Arizona. It was amazing!

Here's the thing... it's not really a forrest. You think you are going to see tons and tons of petrified rocks and the like, but really it is just a ton of some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.

You hear people say this all the time, but when you see things like this you have to know that there is a God. You have to know He loves us. This stuff is just too beautiful to even capture in a picture. I kept looking out and seeing something that took my breath away so I would take a picture and look at it and just realize the only way anyone will ever understand it is to be there. So my advie to you... head out on the open road and check out this breathtaking stuff for yourself.

I want to thank all of you who are praying for us on this trip. God is working on my heart and my mind. There is a lot going on spiritually speaking... growth. Things are coming to light in the silence and in the amazement of God's awesome power and majesty. My prayer is that everyone of you will get a chance to take a journey and enjoy God's creation.

Just a note of encouragement and faith building... Mac, whom we prayed for got some good news about a spot that was possibly cancerous. Praise God and His faithfulness, it was not cancerous. Keep him in your prayers, there is more healing to come!

God is good... never forget it.

Day Three & Four: Memphis, Little Rock & Tulsa

Memphis, TN

We left Lewisburg and headed to the home of Elvis Presley, Memphis, TN. Aaron talked me into stopping to see Graceland and then twisted my arm and we headed to Sun Studios where tons of legends like Johnny Cash, Elvis, and many more have recorded.

I got a great pic of Aaron hanging out in front of Sun Studios...

Aaron, it was worth it. Thanks.

Little Rock, AR

Let me just say to the people of Little Rock, Arkansas... I am sorry that I had a bad time. I hope that what I am about to say about your fair city will not hurt you, but... IT SUCKED!

That is kind of harsh, but a lot of things went wrong there, I just had a horrible time. No offense.

Tulsa, OK

Tulsa was one of those last minute ideas. We were really thinking about heading to Oklahoma City, but Aaron mentioned that it would be nice to stop by and see an old friend of ours, Scott Herrold. He works for a Christian Rock station in Tulsa called the Kross.

We met up with Scott for breakfast at Panera where I was able to tell you updates were coming. After that we headed to the KROS studios, 55 floors up inside the gaudy gold building. This is the same building that Oral Roberts said God told him to build or God was going to kill him... I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Tulsa has Oral Roberts hands all over it as evidenced by those giant hands I am standing in front of... all I can say is... WOW!!

We headed back on the road with lofty ambitions of making it all the way to Albuquerque, NM. Google Maps said it would take us 11 hours, but we decided to make a reservation to spur us on toward making it there. We made it and the views in New Mexico were amazing... we will hope for the Grand Canyon tomorrow!

Thanks for the prayers.

God Bless you all and we'll talk soon.

Day One & Two: Lewisburg, TN

I thought I would break the trip down into cities instead of one huge Blog, so read away...

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Lewisburg, TN

As I stated previously, we had many people tell us to expect a lot from God on this trip. From the moment we got in the car and started down 275 I could see this trip was going to be special. The sky was like a beautiful painting that God made for us to send us off in style. He is amazing!

We spent 2 days with Kenni and her sisters, Sally and Sandra. They let us stay with them and they were such a blessing. They are huge Red Wings fans, so we were connected immediately. Their family lived in Motown for a long time before they headed down to Tennessee.

After we went out for lunch with Kenni on Monday afternoon, we came back to her place and Aaron played two songs he wrote for us. They are truly amazing... you'll love 'em. After that we started talking and praying and then... BOOM! God showed up in a big way. We all prayed for one another and just worshipped the Father. You could feel His Presence all around us, it was incredible!

Three hours later... we needed to catch our breath. I wish I could really give you a taste of what happened, but words just can't express it.

We headed over to Kenni's parents house for a home cooked meal later that night and they were both great people that love the Lord. We talked about all sorts of things. Kenni's father, Mac, moved up from Kentucky with his wife to work for Ford Motor Company back in the day, so we chatted about Ford and the fact that my dad recently retired. I found out before we went on the trip that Mac was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.

Aaron and I had talked about praying for healing for him before we even headed out for the trip, so when the time was right, we did. After what we had experienced earlier, one would think one ecounter with the Almighty God was enough for one trip. God decided it wasn't!

As we were praying I kept hearing God say to me, "Just believe, that is all I ask. Have faith." I kept feeling Him prodding me to pray for Mac and speak the words that he laid on my heart. It was a huge step for me, but there I went. We prayed for Mac for quite a while and again, the room was just filled with an atmosphere that I can only describe as God's Glory or His Presence. When you feel something like that you realize you are experiencing something out of the ordinary, something very special.

You hear so many times that if we just "had enough faith" God would do amazing things in our life. Well, I hate to state it this way, but what if that really is true? What if God is just waiting for us to believe He will heal someone or He will rescue us from our circumstances? What if all He is asking of us is to believe? When God was speaking to me that night, I decided to take Him at His word. I believed. The enemy, Satan, came at me immediately with doubts and fears, but I decided to resist and just believe.

This trip is starting a new chapter in my life. My hope is in the Lord. I believe in Him and His promises. I will find my joy, my peace and my salvation in Him. God has never given me a reason to doubt Him, so it's time to cast doubt aside and just BELIEVE...

Tulsa...

Finally!! Internet access...

Hey, just a quick note to say that tonight when we arrive in Albuquerque, New Mexico, there will be much Blogging. I am at a Panera Bread and just about to go to hang out with Scott Herrold at his radio station for a few minutes, but I will talk more about that later.

Bye for now. Check back in the morning.

God Bless.

Confirmation...

It's hard to believe that Aaron and I set out on our journey tomorrow.

There are a laundry list of things that I wish I had accomplished before I left, but overall I have a real peace about this trip. Aaron mentioned on his Blog that many people have given him a word about this trip. Words about what God is going to do, what He is going to show us and who knows what else. The idea of not knowing excites me. I can't wait to share with you what God reveals about Himself and shares with us through His wonderous beauty of creation.

I know that great things are in store, not just because Aaron has heard about it, but thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law Phiona sharing the same words with me at breakfast this morning, I can say I have confirmation!

I am going to try really hard to keep everyone up to date, so check back often. Leave a comment or two to let me know you are out there too. More than anything, when you think of me, pray for me. I covet your prayers.

First stop... Nashville! We'll see if we can't get Aaron to understand how awesome Country Music is... we can hope anyway.

God Bless.

Awe

I cannot remember a time that the weather in Michigan has been so beautiful for so long. It feels like an amazing gift from God. I am sitting out on our deck in the backyard typing this and the breeze and the sunshine along with the birds, trees and leaves changing color is reinforcing some teaching that I had this week.

Aaron and I have been going through a message series by Mike Bickle on Tuesday mornings. This week he talked about the Fear of the Lord and the Joy of the Lord.

There is a lot of confusion when it comes to the Fear of the Lord isn't there? I mean, for me at least it was always this idea that God - we're talking Old Testament hellfire and brimstone here - could crush you at any moment or send locusts to devour your land. Is that true? Of course it is, it could be argued very convincingly that God's judgments are happening all the time all over the world right now.

So are we supposed to be running around scared of Him, hoping that He doesn't vaporize us? There is truth in that, God is calling us to have respect and awe for Him. He is our King. We've lost that reverence for Him. There is not the same feeling in our land of "democracy," no one technically "rules" over us. Not too many people respect the President or are in awe of him.

The way I see it in Christian circles is that we have gone so far the other way - having the Joy of the Lord - that we are missing out on some amazing things in our relationship with the Father. The Joy of the Lord is delighting in the knowledge that we are sons and daughters of God. That He loves us, cares about us and delights in us. If that doesn't make you happy, start praying now. Beg for God to open your eyes and cast out lies that stop you from having that Joy of the Lord. Seriously, go ahead, I'll wait...

The problem, as I see it, is that we have lost site of His Majesty. We see Him as a Father, which is great, but we also need to see Him as King. It can go the other way as well, but I see myself falling into the Joy category a lot more than the Fear side of things.

Mike Bickle says it this way:

We are not just sons and daughters, we are servants too.
He is not just our Master, but our Father as well.
We can't just delight in His love, but also be in awe of His holiness and majesty.

God is both awesome in power and gentle and loving toward us. Have you ever been singing a song about His awesomeness or His power and majesty and just felt the Spirit stir in you? It's amazing when we think or sing about it!

I love the Chris Tomlin song Indescribable. There are some lines in that song that always move me in that song. They talk about the awesome majesty of our King...

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Shuffling

This morning as I clicked on my iPod, I decided to just let fate have its way and put the my playlist on shuffle. Love Song by Third Day was the first to play this morning.

I am the type of person to like a song because it sounds good. I tend to overlook lyrics a lot. Which means I can hear a song a hundred times and still be that guy on a road trip singing gibberish to a song. It also means that sometimes out of nowhere when I actually listen to a song the words nail me right between the eyes (all in God's time I guess).

It happened today. I am reading through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in the Bible. Studying the life of Jesus. Trying to understand the mysteries of who He is. So as I clicked on the iPod, I finally heard the lyrics to Love Song. I have to share them because it's amazing how much He loves us...

I've heard it said that a man would climb a mountain
Just to be with the one he loves
How many times has he broken that promise
It has never been done

Well I never climbed the highest mountain, but I walked the hill of Calvary
Just to be with you I'd do anything
There's no price I would not pay
Just to be with you I'd give everything
Oh I'd give my life away

And I've heard it said that a man would swim the ocean
Just to be with the one he loves
All of those dream are empty motion
It has never been done

Well I've never swam the deepest ocean, but I've walked upon the raging sea
Just to be with you I'd do anything
There's no price I would not pay
Just to be with you I would give everything
I would give my life away

And I know that you don't understand the fullness of my love
How I died upon the cross for your sins
And I know that you don't realize how much that I give you
And I promise I would do it all again

Just to be with you I've done everything
There's no price I did not pay
Just to be with you I gave everything
Yes I gave my life away
I gave my life away

Just to be with you

It's Back!

Two sporting posts in a row... "wah-happened?" If you get that reference consider yourself a true professor of the funny.

Anyway, the Wings were back in action tonight. In fact the entire NHL played tonight - all 30 teams. It was a great way to welcome back all the fans who waited while the NHL and the players hammered out their differences.

Nice to hear the, "Let's Go Red Wings" chant again.

Cursed?

Anyone who follows the Lions must have asked themselves that question at some point. Are they cursed? How can one team be so bad? Can everyone that has come to play for this franchise for the last 50 years be that unlucky?

Over the past few years I have become a big fan of the NFL. Originally I was a die-hard Hockey fan - still am. The NFL has become my favorite all around sport of choice. I will watch any NFL game I can get my hands on... but honestly, I should have said I am a die-hard Red Wings fan. Now that I not only watch the Lions on Sundays and Monday nights, but the rest of the NFL as well, I have something to compare them to.

Honestly, I am not and X's & O's guy, I just know what I see. What I, the average sports fan, see is a group of talented individuals doing their own thing. I don't see a team.

In Detroit we blame Goalies in Hockey and Quarterbacks in Football. It is a storied tradition we will not soon relinquish. I find it extremely annoying. How can one man win or ruin a season? Even the biggest superstars of our lifetime had supporting casts when they finally won it all. Look at Michael Jordan... probably the closest to doing it on his own in any sport, but eventually he learned too. He needed a team. A group of guys that would band together and win together.

Winning changes everything. In this town, Scotty Bowman threatened to ship hometown hero, Steve Yzerman, out of town. The city would have none of it, more importantly, neither would the owner, Mike Illitch. When Stevie adjusted and won his first championship, everything changed. There were still problems now and again, but the team was able to co-exist because they had tasted victory together. They had fought and won the ultimate prize.

The question then becomes how do you remedy a history of losing? Is there some way to get over the hump and move on to greatness? Does hard work eventually pay off? What about oodles of hyped up first round draft picks? Is it having the right coach? The right owner? Better replay officials?

My thought is all of the above. As in any situation where success happens, many things line up and come together at just the right time. There is no magic solution. Hard work, determination, lucky bounces but most of all a TEAM. Those who are willing to go to battle together and put their differences aside on gameday. If McNabb and T.O. can do it, why not Mooch and Joey... or Joey and Charles... or Joey and Roy?

In the infamous words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"