This is a great book for Dallas Cowboy fans.  I read it when it came out in 2004 but was reminded how much I enjoyed it when I pulled it from my bookshelf this week as I prepared for this weeks message.  I remembered a story from the book that would help me illustrate a point in my message.  I am a sports fan and enjoy using sports stories to help illustrate truth found in scripture.

Charlie Waters and Cliff Harris wrote this book which is simply a collection of stories from their days as Dallas Cowboys.  Waters and Harris were the premier safety tandem of the Cowboys Doomsday Defense.  They were teammates from 1970 – 1980.  They played in 5 Super Bowls – winning twice.  They never experienced a losing season.

The stories are short and most are very funny.  This is a very easy read for any Dallas Cowboy fan.  I enjoyed reading and enjoyed skimming through it again this week.  In fact, just like when I read it the first time, I had a hard time putting it down.

You can listen to my messages at itunes under the  Fellowship of the Parks Podcast.  We have had some technical difficulties so not all of the messages have gotten recorded.  We will improve in this area but I pray that the messages that are available will be used to touch lives.

This week we will conclude the Surviving Life’s Disasters by taking a look at stress.  One of the points I will be making is how important it is to learn to laugh.  Laughter is the shock absorber of life.

This past Sunday there was an article that appeared in the Dallas Morning News about social intelligence and the role it plays in making leaders effective.  Research shows that top-performing leaders elicit laughter from their subordinates three times as often, on average, as midperforming leaders do.

We should be very successful at FOTP Grapevine because I love to laugh!

This is Max Lucado's latest books.  I have read almost everything he has written.  The first several books he authored were absolutely captivating but after a while his style got a little predictable.  In addition, he often pulls stories from one of his other books and puts them into a new book.   That is certainly the case in this book but it was still worth reading. 

Lucado does a great job of taking a look at many of the characters of the Bible and using thier lives to encourage and inspire us.  His books are always an easy read.  You can read a chapter in a few minutes, put the book down, pick it back up later and start again without missing a thing.   That is the reason, I generally take his books in my car when I am reading one of them.  Anytime, I have a few minutes, I read a chapter.  I have even read chapters while sitting at a red light or while in a traffic jam.

I always come away from a Lucado book with some inspiring thoughts.  For instance, in this book in one chapter he makes the point that the secret to loving is living loved.  If we don't allow God's love to fill our hearts to overflowing, when we try to love others we will be overdrawn.  In another chapter he makes the point that the phrase, don't be afraid, is the only phrase repeated in every book of the Bible.  While Iknew it was the number one prohibition in the bible I did not know that it was mentioned in every book.There are many other nuggets that I gleaned from Cast of Characters.  For all those Max Lucado fans this is worth reading and if you have never read one of his books I recommend it.

I was actually speaking at our Keller campus today.  Our senior pastor Doug Walker spoke at FOTP Grapevine where we had over 100 adults in attendance and 32 kids.  Many of our regulars brought nieghbors and family with them.  God is definitely moving.  I am looking forward to being back this coming Sunday as we continue the Surviving Life's Disastors series by taking a look at what God's word has to say about Depression.

Friday Pat and I went to see the movie Fireproof.  It was clean, inspiring and overall a great movie.  I recommend it highly.  It was produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.  This is thier third movie and God is truly using this church to touch the world.  Check out Fireproof

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

I bought this book on Amazon.  I got a used copy that was in excellent condition..  I am glad that I did since it started out great but quickly fizzled.  As I have mentioned before, I guage a book by how much I underline.  The first few pages,  I underlined a lot of information but by the time I was 100 pages into it I was underlining very little.  That is when I stop reading which is what I did.

I loved the over concept behind this book - that is perhaps the most important role of a leader is to be an agent of hope.  The opening story is captivating but the book soon turns into a presentation of one study after another.  This is another one of those books that could have easily been written in less than 100 pages.

I cerainly believe strongly that good leaders create hope for the future.  This book affirmed that belief but was not worth the time to read. 

Monday afternoon Pat, my son John (22 years old and about to graduate from Baylor) and I went to a funeral for Murray Newton.  Murray was John's Caregiver at church from the time John was in the 8th grade until he graduated from high school.  As a Caregiver Murray spent time with John and his friends and taught them about God and his word.  He taught by his actions and life as much or more than by his words.  Murray took the guys to sporting events, went to thier sporting events, had them over for all night video game parties and called them virtually every Saturday to see how they were doing.

Murray died of cancer.  He was only 53 years old.  He left behind a beautiful wife, two daughters, and a host of friends who loved and respected him.  He also left behind a group of young men whose lives were impacted by his.  One of those young men is going to college, has started his own business and spends his spare time coaching a 7th grade football team.  He is showing 7th grade boys what it is like to love the Lord and live with excellence on and off the football field.  Another one is going to Criswell Bible College and serving in a church (our church) working with the youth and young adults.  Another one is going to college and has spent his Firday mornings feeding homeless people and now spends Friday afternoons mentoring three little boys at their school which is filled with underpriviliged kids.  I know more about this young man than any of the others because he is my son.  Like all the others, Murray Newton made a huge difference in John's life.

One of Murray's co-workers spoke at the service.  He made a a statement that has stuck in my mind. He said, "Murray knew life was too short to get it wrong."

I want to live my life with that type of attitude - life is too short to get it wrong.  I want to live knowing that the only things that matter are eternal things like people.  I want to live my life focused on the things that can truly make a difference in this world.  I want to spend less time on things that just don't last.

So let me close by reminding you that life is too short to get it wrong.

We had our first Lifequest 101 class today.  Lifequest 101 is a class designed to help people know more about FOTP.  At the end of the class we give people the opportunity to join the FOTP team.  We had 20 people join today and we had three who indicated that they wanted to be baptized!

We had another family who visited for the second time and said they want to be a part of our future.  God is simply doing amazing things.

Pat, Caroline and I feel so blessed to get to be part of all of this.

I guess most of us at one time or another have overdrawn our checking account.   The root cause is always that we withdrew more than was deposited.

I wonder if the reason a lot of Christians experience burnout or times of spiritual apathy is because they are overdrawn.   They are trying to love others by drawing on an account that has insufficient funds.  I think that is why it is so absolutely essential that Christ- followers be grounded in knowing about God's unconditional, undeserved love for them.  When we do, we act in loving ways towards others (our spouses, our children, our neighbors, our co-workers, the person who cut us off on the freeway) out of an overflow of God's love for us.

David Seamonds a counselor “Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness and the failure to to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness and grace to other people.  We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace.  But that is not the way we live.  The good news of the gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions."

I pray that FOTP Grapevine will be a place where people have the love tanks filled with the radical, powerful, unconditional love of God in such a way that it overflows daily into the lives of those around them.

This past Sunday we had a family who visited Fellowship of the Parks for the second time.  After the service, they told us they want to be a part of what we are doing.  Pat and I have known them for a while.  We ran into them at lunch a few weeks ago and told them about the church and now they are a part of the team helping us reach others.  In fact, they invited friends to the last service.

Today, I went into Quiznos to get a sandwich. I saw a another couple that we have known for some time. They asked what I was doing now.  When I told them about FOTP Grapevine, they told me that they had been looking for a church for a while.  They are planning on visiting FOTP Grapevine.

I told Pat today that there are many people out there who are looking for a church home who don't even know we exist.  Some of them will find out about us, visit and catch the vision.  As they do our church will grow and become even more effective at reaching others.

This whole new church thing is still more fun than I ever dreamed it would be!

This little infant church continues to take baby steps as it moves forward.  Next week we will start our first Life Groups (small groups who meet to grow in thier faith).  We will start a ladies group on Wednesday, October 15 (7-8:30) and a couples group on Saturday, October 18 (5-6:30).  We also will start our Generation Now (young adults) on Thursday, October 16.