Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Here's the weekend that was:

• Friday I had a lot of work to get done so I could get out of town for our men's retreat.  Most of it got pushed back because Isla woke up and snapped Jamie glasses in half.  Jamie decided she couldn't be trusted to pick out a new pair on her own, so I got to spend a big chunk of the day at LensCrafters helping her pick out new frames (and watching Isla while she was with the optometrist.  She got a great pair, though, and I got to have lunch at Chick-Fil-A!
• Headed west for the men's retreat at Alliance Redwoods Campground.  Got about 20 miles down the road and realized I forgot to bring any bedding or towels.  Stopped at a Target and picked up a $15 set of purple twin sheets that Mollie could use later, a $5 pillow, and a $3 towel and got back on the road.
• ARC is a beautiful campground in the mountains near Occidental, CA.  Saw lots of dear and big beautiful redwoods.  The retreat was great!  Gary Deaver from Bay Hills Church did most of the speaking and really challenged us.  We joined the Bay Hills Church for this retreat.  They're a good bunch of guys.
• I received one of the greatest compliments of my life at the retreat.  A guy named Joe that was at the retreat last year (in which I was the guest speaker) was back again this year.  He started telling me how he had took all kinds of notes from my talks the year before and how he seriously applied the principles I taught to his life over the last year.  He starts telling me how different his life is now as a result...I was just bowled over.  As a preacher, I personally am not too concerned with immediate praise.  But what I love is people who come back and tell me how they changed the patterns of their life because of a sermon.  There's no greater compliment.  Not that it's about me, but it's wonderful knowing that God is actually using me in such a powerful way. I love changed lives!
• I used the free time on Saturday afternoon to tour Bodega Bay.  What a great little town.  Of course, being a movie buff, I was in heaven. I got to spend some time at different locations that were used in the making of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (one of my all-time favorite movies).  The coolest location is the old schoolhouse where the birds cover the jungle gym and chase the children down the street.  Cool building!
• Today was a great service.  We were in week 3 of our GODLOVESEX sermon series and the subject was "Great Sex".  Song of Solomon 4 is a great chapter of the Bible and we had a lot of fun learning from it.  I've really enjoyed this series.  You can check out the podcast either on the sidebar of this page or on iTunes. I hope God is using the series to improve the relationships in our church, to bring married couples more passion into their relationships, and to challenge the single folks to pursue purity.
• Isaiah bought me a great book this weekend, too.  It's a year's worth of sports devotions.  He was so proud of his gift to me and was so sure I would love it.  He was right!  It's awesome.  He's such a great kid!