Friday, November 30, 2007

11-1

How 'bout them Cowboys! What a great game! Now, I know some naysayers might say that the Packers didn't have Favre. Favre went out in the second quarter, but he had thrown 2 INTs at that point. Rodgers came in and made a comeback. So, that argument is futile. The Cowboys are the real deal.

We watched the game last night at Dennis Smith's place. He's got a great setup. So, we watched the game on his 42 inch HDTV. Nice. It was our first Guy's Night Out. We had a great time. There was a lot of food and lot of great conversation. On top of that, we had a great game.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

It's beginning to look a lot like.......

Christmas is here! Yesterday, we had a crew of people who decorated the church for the Christmas Season. I would like to send a big thank you out to everyone that helped. Thank you Beverly and Dennis Smith, Lillian Smith, Peggy Erlewine, George Hicks, Colton Hicks, Austin Mote, Coleman Stuart, Tammy Caraway, Marc and Gina Mote, Maureen Marshall, Joseph May and Brent Caraway. The church looks great!!!!

Tonight, is our First Guy's Night Out! We will be heading to Dennis Smith's House to watch the Cowboys/Packers game on the NFL Network. Go Cowboys!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Back from a Blogging Break

1. I decided to take a vacation from Blogging during the Thanksgiving Holiday. I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving!

2. We made the short trip to Texarkana for Thanksgiving. As usual, the food was excellent and there's nothing like watching the Cowboys win on Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is definitly one of my favorite holidays.

3. The Christmas season is upon us. We are starting a special Holiday Season Series entitled "Unwrapped" next Sunday. I'm really looking forward to this series.

4. I caught the tail end of the LSU/Arkansas game. What a game! For you LSU fans that read this blog, I am sorry to bring this up. I am not a fan of either school. However, I think the upset is good for College Football. I just wish the powers that be would institute a playoff system. It looks like this year the National title game could be Missouri/West Virginia or Ohio State/West Virginia or Ohio State/Georgia.

5. I am looking forward to our first Guy's Night Out at Cornerstone. We are going to Dennis Smith's house on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. There will be hamburgers and hot dogs. Plus, we will be watching the Cowboys and the Packers play.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Mackenzie

Mackenzie is a trooper. Over the past few months, she has non-stop ear infections. So, this morning, she had to have tubes put in her ears. I am amazed at how fast they do that procedure. We arrived at the surgery center at about 6:15 a.m. After paperwork, they called up back about 6:45 a.m. They took us back to the room and put her gown on her. She looked so cute.


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She went into surgery about 7:10 a.m. Within 15 minutes, they came and got us to tell us everything was great. We left the surgery center about 8:00 a.m. I can't believe how fast they do those things. Sasha had tubes when she was small. She had to stay overnight in the hospital.

Mackenzie is doing great. She is so much fun. Before the surgery, she was blowing kisses to all the nurses. She was putting on a show for them.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Monday Night Blog

1. Yesterday was a great day. I enjoyed speaking the message on Formed: Strong. Last night, we had a great time at the all Church Thanksgiving Dinner. There were a lot of our people who are relatively new to Cornerstone there. I am convinced that our best days are ahead of us. :)

2. I had a great time at Youth Convention with our students over the weekend. Jeff Deyo, Robert Madu and Rick Lorimer all did a fantasic job!

3. Dallas beat Washington to go to 9-1 on the year. How 'bout them Cowboys!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Mackenzie's Birthday Pictures

Tonight, we celebrated Mackenzie's Birthday! We will see all the grandparents over the next week and we will have mini-celebrations with them. Tonight, just the 4 of us had some cake celebrating this milestone. Here are some pictures from the evening.

Mackenzie and Mady getting ready for cake!

Mackenzie shoving cake into her mouth. :)

Mackenzie discovers that the icing is the best part!

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

Wow! It is hard to believe that Mackenzie is turning one year old today. In some ways, it seems like she has been with us forever and in other ways it seems the time is passing by so fast. She is wonderful. She makes us laugh. She loves her big sister, Mady.

It is so much fun to watch her walk around the house. Last night, she had real milk for the first time. She is beginning to experiment with new foods and feeding herself. She is getting so big.

Happy Birthday Mackenzie! Don't grow up too fast! Love, Daddy

Monday, November 12, 2007

Weekend Reflections

1. Worship was awesome yesterday. Yesterday morning, there was a word from God crying out for us to worship him. There was a wonderful presence of God in the place. Last night, we were singing the song "Everlasting God." I have to admit. I wasn't "feeling" it. After the song was over, the congregation erupted in spontaneous worship. It was awesome. I was pleasantly suprised by the reaction and the worship to God. He's amazing and he deserves our praise.

2. Mady had her last Soccer game. This season seems to have flown by. I was really proud of her. She got in and kicked the ball a couple of times. Then, the rain came and the game got called.

3. Sasha and I had a date night. We really connected. With two kids and us both having jobs, it is sometimes hard to find the time to focus on one another. We had a great time.

4. Little Peyton got to come home yesterday! He is now one month old and they released him from the Hospital. Please continue to pray for him. They still may have to do surgery because an artery is closing.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Sports Musings

1. What a game last night! I stayed up and watched the Mavs game against the Warriors. Both teams were missing key people, but it looks like the Mavs can run with the more athletic Warriors this year. Brandon Bass was huge! He had a double-double. Great game! Dirk was huge in the 4th. 4-1 to start the year.

2. How' bout them Cowboys! 7-1 at the half way point of the season. I have enjoyed watching their games this year. I haven't seen everyone of them....especially the afternoon games. I usually head back to the church around 3. They have a big game with the Giants this week.

3. Yes, I am a Baylor fan. My family moved to Waco when i was 11. Several years, my parents had season tickets to the games back in the Southwest Conference Days. I had always cheered for the Longhorns....and still do. However, I became a fan of the Bears. Let's just say the last 12+ years have not been kind to the Bears. Multiple media outlets (Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News and ESPN) reported last night that the current head coach will be let go at the end of the season. Guy Morriss has done a good job of getting the program on the right track. However, they have had a few setbacks this year. The candidate of choice is legendary Bears (both Baylor and Chicago) Linebacker, Mike Singletary. I hope he is the next head coach. I always liked him as a player. The only drawback to Singletary is a little video called the Super Bowl Shuffle. How embarrassing! :)

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Building Children

To the right of my blog, you can see several other blogs that I read on a regular basis. My friend, John, has a blog that I read. He writes about life, his family and the church that he is planting. This week, John wrote about Chick-fil-a and their core values. At the end of his blog, he gave the following reminders for building children. They spoke to my heart and I thought I would share them also with my blogging audience.

7 Reminders For Building Children* by S. Truett Cathy - Founder and Chairman of Chick-fil-A

1. Every child I know who overcame long odds and grew into a responsible adult can point to an adult who stepped into his or her life as a friend, mentor, and guide.

2. Don’t be too concerned that your children don’t listen to you. But be very concerned that they see everything you do.


3. Be so consistent in your discipline that you’re boring.


4. Stop arguing in front of your children.


5. You may think children have outgrown the desire to be rocked to sleep at night. They
haven’t. 


6. Children will never believe in the covenant of marriage unless they see you living it with their own eyes. 


7. How do you know if a child needs encouragement? If he or she is breathing.



* Excerpts taken from Cathy’s 2004 book: It’s Better to Build Boys Than Mend Me

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Hope

Today, I was reading in the book of Lamentations. I'm reading the author make statements like "He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated" and "He has made me chew on gravel." I'm starting to get depressed. Jeremiah wrote Lamentations during a time when he saw the walls of Jerusalem torn down and the majority of the people taken into exile to Babylon. It was not a great time in the History of Jerusalem.

In the midst of all the wild statements about chewing on gravel and bones being broken, Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3:22-24 (NLT) that "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

This had to be the darkest time of his life. Yet, he never lost hope. He believed in the faithfulness of God. He looked beyond his present circumstances and saw the mercy of God. He knew that tomorrow was a new day.

Today may stink! Tomorrow is a different story! Be encouraged! The Best Is Yet To Come!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Hide And Seek

Tonight, we had a great night at the house. Mady and I played Hide and Seek. We used to play in our house in Oklahoma, but there's not much room here in the duplex we are living in. However, we were creative and found some great places. She didn't want to quit when it was time to go to bed.

I love my girls! They are the best! All three of them. ;)

It never gets old...

Again on Sunday, we had one person commit their heart to Christ. It never gets old to see lives changed in an instant. I've said often that God can do more in an instant than we could ever do in a lifetime. I love to see people give their lives over to God.

We started a new series on Sunday called "Formed." In this series, we are looking at the relationship between the potter and the clay found throughout the Bible. Sunday, we talked about how God formed us from the dust in his image. We were made in God's moral likeness...sin free. Then, sin entered the world and Romans tells us that we all have sinned. Ephesians tells us that we are God's Masterpiece and he created us anew or formed as anew in Christ Jesus. The Potter created the masterpiece, but sin tainted it. So, he throws us back on the spinning wheel and recreates us. When we allow ourselves to stay on that wheel, then he will finish the work that he started.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Family Fun Fest Recap

We had a great time last night at the Family Fun Fest. From 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., there was a steady stream of people. We had almost 450 registered attenders and we know that there were those that did not register. We estimate that over 500 people attended the Family Fun Fest at Cornerstone. We served almost 300 hot dogs and drinks! We gave away one $100 gift card to Wal-mart and 5 $20 gift cards to Wal-mart. I'm going to be posting a lot of pictures of the Family Fun Fest soon over at http://www.cornerstoneatlanta.tv/

I personally passed out over 3 bucketfuls of candy as I walked around and met countless people. Today, a man met Sasha at her school. After she introduced herself, he asked her if she was "Rusty's wife." He said he had met me last night at the Family Fun Fest.

I want to thank all of the workers. At Cornerstone, we believe every member should be involved in ministry. Several of our new families got involved last night and helped with the booths and clean up. We had everyone from our students to our senior adults pitching in to pull off this event. We could not have done it without you. THANK YOU!!!!

Today, we sent out flyers with information about our church to approx. 120 families that attended last night! I am praying that if they don't have a church home that they will connect with God at Cornerstone!

My aunt and uncle drove down from Texarkana to come to the event. They suprised us. We were not expecting them, but it was a wonderful suprise. When we were in Oklahoma City, our nearest relatives were 4-5 hours away. Now, we are only 25 minutes.



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Mady had a blast last night. She loved the inflatable slide. Sasha took lots of pictures of her and Kenzie. I wanted to post a few on my blog.



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Mady was Uniqua from the Backyardigans T.V. Show. The Backyardigans is one of the best and most creative kid's shows out there. Mady loves it.

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Mackenzie Striking a Pose