Here comes Josiah!

So we found out this week that our baby is a boy! There is just something about being a daddy and knowing that your baby is a boy. So we have decided on a name and he will be Josiah Andrew Carr. We are so excited! God has given us this wonderful child and we can't wait until July. He is due to come into the world somewhere around July 24th-28th. We pray that God will make us into the parents he wants us to be for Josiah and I pray that I can be the man in his life that he needs so as to grow up loving the Lord and serving the Lord with his life. I pray that I am a good example to my son.

So much has happened

So I'm terrible at blogging. I never update this thing but I guess it's time to do so. So we found out in November that we were going to have a little Carr due in July and I have to say that I was slightly excited. After trying for 3 1/2 years to have a baby, God is finally blessing us with our first child. As of today we don't know the gender of our baby but we trust that our baby is healthy and Savanna and I have dedicated our child to the Lord.

So what else is happening in my life? Ministry is happening. God is still blessing Sand Ridge Baptist Church and He is doing some great things through our youth ministry. Just recently we took our youth to the Youth Evangelism Conference in Nashville, TN and I must say that it was the best conference I have ever been to and I've been to many a conference. God moved in the lives of our students that weekend. We had re-dedications and one that accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior that weekend too. God is great! We have a great group of students at SRBC. To take a weekend and sacrifice it to attend a conference and grow closer to God, says a lot about a person. And where would I be without the adult volunteers in my ministry? The answer to that would be in a bad place. The adults that we have working with our students are phenomenal and I couldn't do my ministry without them. The theme for the conference was Real People, Real God and about how when you have a real encounter with God, your life is different. It's like I shared with the students Sunday night. There is a story in the bible where Jesus encounters 10 lepers along the road and they cry out to Him for healing and He tells them to go show themselves to the priests. And they do so and come to find that they are healed of their disease. But the story doesn't stop there. No, one of them returns to Jesus to give praise to God and to worship and then Jesus asks the one "weren't there nine of you that were healed?" And goes on to tell the man that His faith has healed him. I believe that this healing that Jesus talks about is not a healing of his disease, but rather a healing of the soul. His sins were forgiven and I am convinced that we will see this man in heaven. This one man had a real encounter with God and because of that his life was forever changed, not just physically but also spiritually. How awesome is that? When you encounter the true, living Christ, your life will be noticeably different. If your life is not noticeably different, then you need to examine it and see why it is not and maybe you need to have a real encounter with the living God.

Please be in prayer for our Mexico mission team from SRBC. They will be serving in Fresnillo, Mexico and will return home on March 20.

Peace!

I guess I should update a bit

Wow it has been a while since my last post. A lot has gone on in the last 4 months. The summer was crazy busy, mission trip, VBS, other church stuff. Just crazy. God has been doing some good things in mine and Savanna's lives over the last year or so and He will continue to do great things. Wow, very philisophical I know.

I've started a new youth series called "Transformed" and I'm pretty excited about it. Last week we talked about how are lives are transformed and have to be transformed when we accept Christ as Lord. This week we are talking about transforming our study time and how to have a daily quiet time with God. Teenagers today have so much going on in their lives that they, like adults, don't always make time for God. I don't want to say, don't have time for God because we all have time for Him, it's just a matter of whether or not we will make the time for Him. The rest of the series will deal with transforming our prayer lives, transforming our influence in our world and the last one will be transforming our dating lives (relationships in general). I'm excited!

Please continue to pray for Savanna and I as we strive to do what God wants us to do!

Peace!

Thoughts On Miss USA

Ok, so I don't normally care about Miss USA or any other pagents, but I have a few thoughts about this past weeks controversy over what Miss California had to say when asked about gay marriage. First I commend her for standing by her convictions and making it very clear that she is a bible believing Christian. That's not easy when you are in a position like she is in. But here's my problem, she stated what her opinion was on the matter, and because it was not politically correct and did not coincide with what Perez Hilton believes and lives by, she for one lost the pagent and secondly, she has taken abuse from Hilton and many other people in Hollywood. Why? Is she not entitled to her opinion? Are they not entitled to theirs? Here's the thing, don't cry for people to listen to you and hear what you have to say, if you are just going to rip someone apart for stating what they believe. I mean honestly! She has the opinion of the majority of California. They voted to ban gay marriage. It's interesting how Christians are labeled close-minded and bull headed. Well it seems to me that those that oppose what Miss California had to say are the pot calling the kettle black.

I am against gay marriage. I believe that marriage is a sacred institution intended for one man and one woman. Yeah this is not a popular belief, but I believe that God created marriage for that purpose. Agree with me or not, but the great thing about this country is that we all have the right to freedom of speech, but it seems like the liberal believing folks in this country would like for Christians to be the ones who have the right revoked.

So on that, have a great day!

Now on to something that isn't about sports

Ok so I got that out of my system. Now on to more relevant things. Things are going pretty good here in West Tennessee. We had a staff meeting yesterday and that's when I realized I'm going to be a very busy person over the next few months. Hopefully I will be able to breathe. Now that he Youth Evangelism Conference is over, we are storming towards the summer. We will be taking a mission to Arlington, TX to assist with Mission Arlington. (http://www.missionarlington.org/) Our youth will be leading Rainbow Express, which is a lot like VBS and they will also be doing some other service projects while they are there, such as working in the clothes closet and food pantry at Mission Arlington. And on July 4th we are taking them to see a Texas Rangers baseball game, which I'm told has the best fireworks show. We'll see.

The other thing I'm working on is planning an international mission trip for our youth for 2011. God has really laid on my heart international missions. Our church just recently got back from serving 10 days in Mexico and some of our youth went on that trip and loved it. My plan is to take them overseas to do foreign missions. I'm just not sure where we will go. So if you don't mind, please pray for me and my youth leadership team as we pray and plan for this awesome trip.

Well, I think that is all for now. Jeremy, I hope this makes you a little happier and I changed my picture as well.

Peace, love and belly button lent.

The following takes place between...

So this is the world of blogging? Interesting. I don't think anyone has ever really been interested to much in what I have to say, but if this will draw them, then I will type. So I have may thoughts going on right now. Thoughts about my day ahead, the craziness of the weather, the state of UK Basketball, March Madness, church tonight. You know, things like that. So lets begin.



My day has been pretty normal up to this point. I got in this morning and began to put the finishing touches on my lesson for tonight. We are going through the KNOWN series by LifeWay and we are the Love Lesson. Tonight it is titled, "Where is the Love? The Beauty of Love." The question that I will ask the kids is, "How can I know that God loves me?" You know that's an interesting question. One that many of us would probably ask ourselves. How can I know that God loves me? In a world that has little to no morals, little to no concept of God, we sure do struggle with how God can love us. Here's the point, Jesus dies for you - to show you God's love - when you least deserved it. That's the bottom line. In a world that tells us that we are lord over our lives, the world wants nothing to do with God, but God still loves them. How can God continue to love people that continually reject Him and His love?



Heavy I know. My next thought for today is about the crazy weather in West Tennessee. The last two days it has been sunny and in the mid to upper 70's. Today.... rainy, cold, 42 degrees and a winter storm watch until noon today. What the dump? Come on now! What happened to the nice weather? Arrrrggggagribble!



So UK Basketball. What is happening in the bluegrass state? I'll tell you what is happening, not much of anything. I am a die hard UK fan. I love my Wildcats, but honestly. They are 19-12 and have lost 4 straight. The unstoppable game plan... give it to Jodie or Pat. Brilliant! At times this team has shown signs of greatness, but other times signs of complete and utter failure. UK nation has some high standards, they do. I read an article yesterday quoting Mitch Barnhart, "Billy is paid very well to be the coach at Kentucky and with that comes a responsibility. The coach at Kentucky is more well known than the governor, and you have to recognize that. When asked how he thought his coach was handling the pressure, Barnhart responds, "It's been difficult. We're not all perfect born into this. We have to be willing to make adjustments. We ask our players to make adjustments and we need to be willing to do the same thing. Self-examination and self-awareness are very important. After two years, we need to sit down and talk about what we need to do to get this program back to where we want it to be.'' That does not sound good for Billy G. Now I am not one of those UK fans that says fire the man, but it sounds to me like he may be having a heart to pink-slip conversation. The question is, if UK gets rid of Billy G, who do you get? Who's out there to go and get? Now the first name that every fanatic will throw out is Billy Donovan, I don't see him leaving Florida. Then there is Tom Izzo at MSU, not to bad a fit possibly. I think Jamie Dixon could be a pretty good fit. Here's his last 6 years, 03-04 --31-5 -- Sweet 16, 04-05 -- 20-9 -- NCAA 1st Rd, 05-06 -- 25-8 -- NCAA 2nd Rd, 06-07 -- 29-8 -- Sweet 16, 07-08 -- 27-10 -- NCAA 2nd Rd, 08-09 -- 28-3, possibly a #1 seed. He has a record of 160-43. I think he could be a pretty good fit, he has the numbers to back it up and the Big East has been pretty good for the last couple of years and especially this year. So what will become of Billy G? Well with a record of 37-26 in two seasons, and barring a miracle in the SEC tournament, no NCAA bid this year for the first time in 17 years, it doesn't look good for ole Billy Clyde.



Well I guess that's about it, oh wait, WKU is heading back to the dance! Go TOPS and let the Madness begin!

First Timer

Well, I finally came to the world of blogging. This is a monumental day for me I guess. Here I can post my thoughts about many things, such as life, love and nonsense. Which the majority of my thoughts consist of; nonsense. So without further ado....

I will leave you with that for tonight. Peace.