Labels: Church, Jesus

Taylor, my friend Dane (who came with us) and Connor.

A visit to Elizabeth Town and cemetery (now a ghost town)

Charles Kennedy, an old west outlaw, was hung by a lynch mob.

Here's were 1200 of us met this past Sunday morning for worship services.

Labels: General, Morgan Family

Hope everyone is well...

Labels: General, Morgan Family

Labels: Sermon Link

Pretty sweet, hua?

Labels: General, Morgan Family

I'll have very limited internet capabilities there. I do plan to try and post a couple of times, but I probably won't be able to comment much. Hope your week is good.

Did I mention I got to do a little fly-fishing last year? I hope to do the same again.

Labels: General, Morgan Family

Okay, so I did a good job teaching Cooper (age 5) how to ride his bike, BUT I forgot to teach him a very important part .... how to use the brakes and stop. Oops!

Lea and I laughed so hard at this video. Does that make us bad parents?

Labels: Family, Morgan Family

1. Surprise your spouse by finding a babysitter for the kids and going out on a date.
2. Leave a romantic note for your spouse to find.
3. Give your spouse a "good" kiss for no reason at all.
4. Call your spouse during the day just to say "I love you."
5. Make a list of "25 Things" that you love about your spouse.
6. Mail something to your spouse.
7. Men ... send flowers to your wife at her work place.
8. Compliment your spouse everyday.
9. Plan an evening at home together by yourselves.
10. Give your spouse a massage.

So, can you add some more?

Labels: Marriage, Top Ten List

Believe it or not, God created sex as something good, and the bible actually has a lot to say on the subject. You may think, with all the warning about not having sex before marriage, that sex is bad. The Bible says something quite contrary to that. Sex is biblical, if looked at from a Godly perspective.

Here's what I see the Bible saying about Sex...

1. Sex is a Good Thing. Sex was created by God as something good. He gave a husband and a wife this gift as a way for them to express their love for one another. God did create sex to be a beautiful and enjoyable expressions of love, but only between a man and wife (Genesis 2:24; Proverbs 5:18-19; Song of Songs 7:6-7; 1 Corinthians 6:13). God also created sex as a way for a husband and wife to have children or as the bible says, "be fruitful and increase in number" (Genesis 1:27-28).
   
   
2. Sex was Created for a Husband and a Wife. Sex is in just about every movie, book, television show and song on the radio. Our world has become lax about sex, making it seem like sex is okay with anyone because it feels good, but the Bible does not agree. God created sex for the confines of marriage only, and He calls us to control our passions and wait for marriage (1 Corinthians 7:2-3; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).
   
   
3. God wants each Person in the Marriage to Conscientiously fulfill their mate's sexual needs and desires. Strong sexual needs exist in both husband and wife. Sex in marriage is wonderful! But like all blessings, there can be an accompanying curse. Unfulfilled sexual needs sometimes lead to illicit relationships. God addressed this strong sexual desire and need in humans through the writings of Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:2-5. "But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."

For more information read Joe Beam's article on Sex and the Bible or see Focus on the Family's Sex & Intimacy page. Also an excellent book is Ed Wheat's book, "Intended for Pleasure." This book should be a must read for the "about-to-be-married," the newlywed and the long-time married.

I had Lea proof this for me last night before bed. She said reading this gave her a headache (joke).

Labels: Sexuality

Labels: Dads, Fathers

Labels: General

1. As a child, by obeying and respecting.


2. As a young person, by accepting and appreciating them.


3. As an adult, by affirming and not abandoning them.

I think we preach 1 and 2, but we've done a poor job on number 3. We need to honor our parents when they get older and not abandon them. "Honor your father and mother" isn't just for little children.

Walter Wangerin is one of the best storytellers ever. Walter tells of a time when he visited a friend Mel on a crisp autumn afternoon in Wisconsin. Mel spent much of his time reading and studying in his parlor, where he could be with his aging mother. As Walter entered his friend's home, he was enveloped in the wonderful aroma of apple pie. "Oh, I see your mother is baking pies," Walter said with a smile.

"No," Mel answered. "I see to the necessary things now." Looking around, Walter understood what he meant. There was a pool of light cast by Mel's reading lamp, and just beyond it, in a bed, was Mel's ailing mother. Walter had known her for years. Now she sat propped up, her face an empty slate. Mel made introductions as though they'd never met. As Walter reached forward and shook her hand, her watery blue eyes never gazed higher than his stomach. Walter sadly comprehended: A dear old friend that no longer knew him.

After sharing a walk and a slice of apple pie with his friend, Walter retired to bed. In the middle of the night he was awakened by a sound from the parlor. Someone seemed to be in great pain. There were awful, inarticulate screams coming from downstairs: "Yeeeahhhh! Naaaaaaah!" He rose quickly, wrapped a robe around himself, and hurried down to the parlor.

Mel wasn't in his chair. With eyes adjusting to the darkness, Walter could see his friend Mel kneeling beside the bed of his mother. Mel motioned for Walter to be seated. As Walter did so, he became aware of an awful odor, and he knew what his dear friend was doing --- he was changing his mother's diaper. He was cleansing his mother with tenderness and grace. He was honoring her in the very spirit God prescribed for the honoring of parents.

And as he did so, he softly sang. He was singing lullabies to her in the language she knew as a child. And you know what she was doing? She was singing along: "Yeeeahhhh.... Naaaaah....." And as she sang along with her son, I know she was young and beautiful once more. She was in no prison and under no slavery, neither of sin nor of body. She was, in her mind, a little girl again where all was new and all was good. And she was singing at the top of her lungs to her Father in heaven."

So the question begs to be asked, "Have you honored your father and mother?" When they get old, will you remember them? When they have no hair or teeth; when they've lost their beauty and mostly smell; when they cannot control their tears, will you come? With tenderness, conviction and strength, will you sing the songs that your parents knew in their childhood? Will you sing for them so that they may be honorable again? Will you sing?

Sing for someone today.

Labels: Parenting

VBS is all about kids and this week has been great. We've had about 285 each night. Tonight will be our biggest crowd. We won't be competing with little league baseball and other community activities tonight. I love VBS because it's one of the ways we reach kids. And I love the fact that the Childress church goes "all out" for it's VBS and everything is done first class. I believe that if we want to SERIOUSLY impact the world we live in, we MUST do it through dynamic youth and children ministries. We must reach out to children. They must be a major focus and investment of our churches.

It's been a very busy week. VBS week always is, but add in to the mix my brother Bruce, and his family, are here for two days from Juneau, Alaska. Bruce preaches for the church in beautiful Juneau. We haven't got to see Bruce, Amanda and the kids in over a year, so we've spent a lot of time this week catching up, talking and laughing.

One of the coolest parts of the week was getting to spend a little time with blogging legend Neva, from Dancing in the Light blogspot, and her husband Ned (or Mrs. Neva as we call him). They came over and taught one of our Bible classes during our VBS. And they also got to eat at a famous restaurant, "The Deuce." Okay, so maybe it isn't famous, but it is the Morgan's favorite restaurant.

See you tomorrow...

PS - I loved the comments to yesterday's post "10 Signs Your Spending Too Much Time Blogging." You guys make me laugh. So, anyone for starting a support group?

Labels: Children, General

1. Your spouse carries a picture of the back of your head in their wallet because this is what they normally see.
   
   
2. Sitemeter goes down and you have a panic attack.
   
   
3. The first thing you do when visiting a new blog is to see if your blog is on their blogroll.
   
   
4. Your spouse's lawyer serves you with divorce papers by leaving a comment on your blog.
   
   
5. One of your children walk up to you while you're at your computer and you ask, "Now, which one are you?"
   
   
6. Your mom finds out you're having another child by reading your blog.
   
   
7. You find yourself thinking, “That's a great blog idea,” so you get out of bed in the middle of the night to write the idea down.
   
   
8. You’re putting off going to bed with your beautiful wife so that you can think of number ten on your top ten list.
   
   
9. You decide to take a sabbatical from your blog for a full day.
   
   
10. You have more friends in the blogging world than in your real world.

Labels: Blogging, Top Ten List

1. Is the Criticising done with Love? If someone comes to me with a bad, negative or condemning attitude, I just ignore it. The Bible does say, "Speak the truth..." but it says to do so "in love." Feel free to come to me with anything, but do it unkind and unChristlike, and I won't hear a word.



2. Is The Criticism Personal or Shared By Others? The truth is we tend to focus on the negative and forget the positive. As ministers we can have 100 people tell us the sermon was great on Sunday and one person say we stink, and we focus on that one that was negative. We all do that. Or we fall for the line that I hate people using, "I've been talking to a lot of people and everyone is saying..." In most cases that's not true. I once heard a person say, "There are a lot of us who don't feel like he's qualified to be a deacon." I asked the man for names of those who felt the way he did. He back peddled and never brought it up again. He was simply giving his own personal opinion and adding some "others" to make it sound good. Don't bring that garbage around here. That's not Christlike.



3. Is the Person Criticising a new Critic or a Regular? What I mean is if it's the same guy complaining about everything all the time, then you can probably bet he needs to be ignored. Some people feel it's their gift to complain and criticise. And when you find someone that does nothing but criticise ... ignore the criticism and be sympathetic for the people that have to live with him.



4. Does the Person Criticising know Me Personally? One thing I'm learning is just because someone can send an email or write a letter, that does not make them an expert. I know people often act before they think and you have to understand that. But an unsigned angry letter or an email from someone you don't even know, both deserve the trash can. In fact let me say this: If you write mean-spirited letters that you don't have the courage to sign, that's sinful. If you have a problem with a brother ... go to him. But let me add, I am more than willing to listen to anyone close to me who comes with a kind, concerned spirit. I'm always willing to listen to concerns, and I'm more than willing to admit when I've done wrong, made a mistake or just plain screwed up. I do make mistakes on a regular basis, and I'm willing to listen to people and their opinion matters to me greatly. I do NOT know it all, and I'm constantly learning and growing.



5. Is What They Are Saying based on Scripture or their Opinion? When someone comes at you with an "I think" but cannot back it up with any scripture ... I don't really take it to heart.



6. Is it Something Worth the Time? The majority of criticism I get over my blog or other matters isn't worth my time. I just don't have time to argue. There are times to address issues that someone complains about, but not every time. Jesus gave us a great example of this when in the bible, there were many times that Jesus refused to even answer his critics.



7. One last thing, Smother Your Critics with Kindness. I have found that when people come to me angry or with criticism about something, instead of returning their venom I try and smother them with kindness. I few years ago, I got an angry mean-spirited letter that was from a woman I'd only met once. I wasn't sure how to respond or if I needed to respond. I called an older minister for advice and he told me, "There are only two good options. Either throw it away and forget it, or write her back and smother her with kindness." He was so smart. I chose the second. One year later she wrote me a second letter apologizing for her first. Would you believe we're friends now?

I know criticism hurts, especially unfounded criticism. Maybe the best advice comes from a Jewish carpenter who said, "Love your enemies and pray for those you persecute you."

Labels: Christian Living, General, Preachers

• Family Vacations - This summer we're talking about where we want to go on vacation. Lea would like to have something exotic, I would like to go to the mountains and the boys would like to do Six Flags. And then when you add in the good way that families communicate you've got Lea and I saying, "Boys, you have Six Flags on the brain and besides it'll be 110 degrees." I'm telling Lea, "Honey, we don't have the money for exotic stuff." And the boys are telling me, "Dad, go buy you a Field and Stream magazine and get it out of your system."



• Dinner Out - When it comes to figuring out where we're going to eat out. The boys want something fun, Lea wants something with "good food" and "atmosphere," and I want cheap.



• Television - The young boys want cartoons, Lea wants a movie, and the two older boys and I want ESPN.



• Sports - Parker, Lea and myself would just soon watch a good NASCAR race as eat, Taylor will always be hunting a Dallas Cowboy's game or baseball game, and the two little guys don't want to watch any of them, they're still hunting cartoons.

We're all very different. Families are made up of different people with unique likes and dislikes. Healthy families choose to affirm the value and uniqueness of each person in the family. In the family there should never be a black sheep, no partiality should be shown, and you should be able to be yourself.

God must have a sense of humor and He must love variety. Why else would He build families with polar opposites in them. "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain" ~ Psalm 127:1.

So, how is your family different?

--------------------------------------------------

This week's sermon is posted (here) if you're interested. "Faithful? ... Who me? God expects us to be faithful in every area of our lives. And you show that faithfulness to God in at least 6 different areas of your life.

1. Keeping your P___________________.


2. Honoring your M__________________.


3. Standing by your F__________________.


4. Managing your M___________________.


5. Doing a Good J_____________________.


6. Committing to the C__________________.

Sorry ... you'll have to fill in the blanks.

Labels: Family, Morgan Family, Sermon Link

• "I don't know any non-Christian who wakes up and thinks, "Gee, I should go to church today." Churches need to find ways to make people think that very thought--whether it's through billboards or outreach events or the incredible example of their members (or all three and more--my point, don't get hung up on the method). If churches aren't getting people to think that, then what are they doing? Unfortunately, too many churches have settled for the status quo, the steady stream of Christians who do wake up thinking they should go to church, and for some churches that's good enough."

I think we can all learn and grow from each others experiences, good or bad. So, how does your church attempt to reach beyond its walls?

Labels: Church

• Pretty Ugly


• Work Party


• Jumbo Shrimp


• A Little Pregnant


• Healthy Tan


• Dressy Flip-Flops


• Dodge Ram


• Plastic Glasses


• Tight Slacks


• Rap Music

Here's another oxymoron that probably got a laugh from Paul's readers when they read Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship."

A "living sacrifice" was a huge oxymoron. Sacrifices for them were something that were killed and put upon an alter. Back in those days, the sheep didn't come back from the sacrifice. There were no "living sacrifices." You never heard the little sheep say, "Went to the sacrifice yesterday. I had a great time, but I'm a little burnt out." Didn't happen that way. There were no "living sacrifices." They killed them all.

Then Paul comes along and tells us to "offer our bodies as a living sacrifice." God doesn't want you as a dead sacrifice, but a living one. The dead sacrifice (lamb) didn't have a choice, but you do. You choose to get on or off the altar every day. You have the chance to offer yourself daily as a living sacrifice.

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Hebrews 13:15-16

Do you still offer sacrifices today? Yes, you offer yourself, all of yourself. You offer your words. You offer your good deeds, and you offer your gifts.

• Today offer yourself "holy and pleasing" to God.
• Today offer God praise in your personal worship.
• Today offer a sacrifice of a good word said about God to another person.
• Today offer a kind deed done in the name of Jesus.
• Today offer God your heart and your mind.

It's about living your life as an offering of worship to God. Open your heart, open your hands, and offer your body to him as a living sacrifice.

So what living sacrifice will you offer God today?

Labels: Christian Living, General

• I'm thinking about sex. Got your attention? I'm going to do some posts soon on the subject of sex. There are so many misconceptions about sex today, and sadly, we avoid the subject like the plague. Society has taken sex and made it everything but what God really intended it to be. Sex is a gift from God, something to give thanks for and something two married people should never be ashamed of. God talks about it in our bibles and even devotes one whole book to the subject. More later.
  
  
• The weekend was good. We celebrated Lea's birthday Saturday by having a garage sale (I'm so romantic). It was her idea. We did find time to have a little party Saturday night. Supper out and then brownies that the boys made. We gave her the afternoon out for a pedicure and then flowers for her flower beds. All in all I think she enjoyed the day. She wants me to say thanks to you all for the birthday wishes you sent her way.
  
  
• I'm doing a funeral (a celebration of life) for an awesome lady today. Jeanene Johnston, a wonderful Christian lady who has directly and indirectly affected many lives. Her husband is "Coach Charlie" who coached high school football in the state of Texas nearly all his life. Jeanene gained her victory in the Lord this past Friday after a 20 year battle with breast cancer. Twenty years ago when they discovered cancer, they told her to get her house in order, that she didn't have much time. Twenty wonderful years later, she showed everybody how much of a fighter she was. She enjoyed quality of life and a wonderful sense of humor right up to her death. I'll never forget when I was diagnosed with cancer, Jeanene was the first person I wanted to talk to. I knew she knew what I was feeling. She gave great advise. She and Charlie didn't just live these last 20 years together, they "really lived" these last 20 years together. The last 5 months of her life she was pretty much confined to a hospital bed in her home. But everyday, she and Charlie would pray together, study their bible together, read books about heaven together and listen to sermons on Cd's together. They grew closer spiritually in the last 5 months than they ever had. My prayer is simple. I want Jeanene's courage and Charlie's love. She was a fighter and Charlie took such awesome care of her. I pray that I will always be as faithful, loving and good to Lea as Charlie has been to Jeanene over they last few years when she got so sick. Today's funeral will be a celebration simply because ... Charlie was the apple of Jeanene's eye, but Jesus was the King of her heart.
  
  
• I need to go take a shower, put on a suit and go love on a family who's sad today. Say a prayer for them if you get a little time today.

Thanks for reading ~Trey

Labels: Morgan Family

1. She laughs at my stupid jokes.


2. Her smile triggers an endorphin release in my brain.


3. Her hand fits perfectly in mine.


4. She loves to hug me 20 times a day.


5. She puts lots of thought into ever gift she gives.


6. She is as beautiful on the inside as she is the onside.


7. She proofs things I write on my blog nearly every day and always finds lots of mistakes.


8. She has learned to love things "I like" just to spend more time with me.


9. She plays the roll of preacher's wife very well.


10. She is a great mother.


11. She knows how to balance a checkbook.


12. She prays beautiful prayers.


13. She has never cussed.


14. She never cheats at cards no matter how hard I try and talk her into it.


15. Her come-hither expressions makes me weak in the knees.


16. She is great at finding deals at stores.


17. She likes being a stay-at-home mom.


18. She does lots of laundry with out complaining.


19. She babies on me when I am sick.


20. She has great curves.


21. She doesn't make me watch chick-flicks.


22. She loves God with a passion.


23. She likes to look good for me.


24. She likes NASCAR and the Dallas Cowboy football.


25. She forgives me when I act like a jerk.


26. She has big brown eyes.


27. She likes to snuggle.


28. She likes to date.


29. She likes to go camping.


30. She is willing to put up with a husband, 4 boys, a dog and a cat.


31. She never told a lie in her life.


32. She cries at sad movies.


33. She is a great bible class teacher.


34. She likes to be romantic.


35. She smells really good.


36. She makes me feel manly.


37. She was created by God just for me.

Labels: Morgan Family