Block Party

OK, I have been missing in action for the past few days. It seems impossible, but I get more busy every day. Welcome to the rat race.

So today is Halloween and we are having a huge block party at our church. If you happen to be in the Belton area tonight.....drop on in. We will have Free hot dogs, the Youth Praise Band will be playing and most of the SS classes are participating in trunk or treat.

Hope you have a fun and safe night if you do venture out and like always spread the love of Jesus.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Lost In The Shuffle

Well I am glad this work week is almost over. We have been slammed at work and I have been pulling some late nights trying to stay caught up. Being busy is sometimes good, but I like it better when it is just steady.

This week God has once again reassured me that I need Him every minute of every hour. No matter what it is or how hard I try, I just can't handle it without Him. We do serve an awesome God!

What has God shown you this week? It is real easy for us to lose sight of God in the madness we create in our daily routines. Make it a point to always look to Him for guidance (preaching to the choir) and He will not let us down.

Have a Blessed Day and a Great Weekend!!!

Recharge Day

Good Morning. I am praying for each of you this morning and it is my prayer that God would just have His way in your life and that you would let Him. Pray with me that God would be OUR constant today and everyday.

I love Wednesday nights at our church. It is the perfect pick me up in the middle of the week and the fellowship is great. Hope you all have a great time of worship tonight.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

God Places You Right Where He Wants You

So you remember yesterday when I said that I was going to let Jesus handle everything the devil threw at me? Well sometimes we just think it is the devils doings, but it ain't.

Yesterday I was at Office Depot getting some supplies (Duh) and I had a tight schedule with a fast approaching lunch appointment. Well as I was cleaning out the front seat for the customer I locked the keys in the car. I don't have a spare......and yes I felt stupid. Long story short I had to call a lock smith.

Have you ever had a moment when you looked back afterwards you were floored at the events that unfolded before your eyes? Quick story within a story. All of his life I called my dad's dad Papa Locke, and that is what Sid and Lillie call my dad. Well the name of the locksmith was Pop-A-Lock. And honestly it didn't hit me until last night when I was telling Lori. She had gotten it right off the bat, but it wasn't until I said it real fast that I got it.

Well, I had to call the customer and tell him I would be late. I was feeling real stupid. It took the guy around 40 minutes to get there and when he did we started talking and I just happen to have an old Upward coaches shirt on. After some small talk, he asked me if I worked for Upward. I told him no, that I coached in an Upward league. And then we started a pretty long conversation on church and Jesus.

He said he had been out of church for a while, but wanted to get back involved. I have a ton of customers who go to church in Greenville and I was able to tell him of at least 10 different churches in G'ville that range from old school traditional to a very contemporary service. We talked about everything and I gave him a business card and told him to call me with any questions he may have. I also offered up some names of some of my plumbing customers that would love to have him at their church. I did invite him to our church, but he wanted somewhere in Greenville.

God put me right where He wanted me yesterday and He used me. We have to always be ready for whatever God ask of us. And constantly be on the lookout for such opportunities, and He will use you. What an awesome feeling!!

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Music Therapy

Good Morning. Got a question for you this morning....What helps you relax? What can put you in a better mood despite the rotten day your having or just had? For me it is simply.......music.

I have always been a big fat sap, I love a slow song, ballad, or simply a song that tells a story. There was that time in the early 80's when I was into rap and break-dancing, but that was short lived (thank you Jesus). I listen to mostly christian contemporary and some country. Right now at 5:30am while I am writing this I have on the headphones and I'm listening to Chris Tomlin's Amazing Grace (love this version). I downloaded all my Cd's to iTunes (on my laptop) and I really dig the way you can scroll through all the albums and pick out the one you want to listen to. It rocks...no pun intended.

Got two links for the rest of music lovers. These are from You Tube and the content within this website amazes me. The first one is my cousin Jan Jordan who God has definitely gifted with a beautiful voice. You can check it out HERE.
The second link is a new song by Steven Curtis Chapman (mine and Sid's favorite singer). It's a song with a story from his new and upcoming CD. The title is Cinderella and you can check it out HERE. The story he tells coupled with the lyrics really hit home with me. You just have to listen to these. I know it will be just what the Dr ordered.

Finally this morning I am looking forward to today and I want to right now give it to Jesus and I am going to let Him handle whatever the devil throws at me. Its a jungle out there, but He is king of that jungle.....Will you let Him be?

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Are You a First Responder?

Have you ever been at a red light and looked over to see someone just looking at you with no emotion? You can cut the tension with a knife. Then one of two things happens: one of you nods or you just drive off. Has this ever happened to you?

I don't know if its because I'm bald and so handsome that everyone feels threatened (I really am bald), but I get these looks all the time. OK, so I maybe stretched the handsome part, but I really do get it a lot.

I try to always be the first responder in these situations, because I feel that is what we are called to be. We are all God's children, but we act so distant toward each other a lot of the times.

Lets take a little test. If you are in a crowded mall, do you try to make eye contact with as many people as possible or do you just keep to yourself? I like to smile, speak, and nod at everyone I see. I just love people and apparently I am bad at it, because I get asked all the time by the wife and kids who that was, to which I respond - I have no idea. You would be surprised to see what a simple smile can do to a perfect stranger. Even the Bible says that laughter is the best medicine.

So be happy and spread that happiness. We are called to walk the Earth just like Jesus, and to do that we are commanded to love our neighbor as our self. Are you taking every opportunity to share that love?

Have a Blessed Day!!!

The Upcoming Upward Season

This morning I need to ask a favor of all who read this. I need you to pray for our upcoming Upward season. The registration / evaluation nights are less than a month away and we need your prayers. For the new people, you can click HERE to learn all about this awesome ministry.

Pray for Matt Lusk (our fearless leader), pray for the wisdom to lead the ability to delegate.

Pray for all the different commissioners and especially for the new program we are adding......Cheerleading.

Pray for the kids and the parents, because without them there is no league.

Pray for all the volunteers who will be so graciously giving of their time.

And most of all pray that in all we do we will give God the honor and praise for he alone is worthy.

Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Who Brought Snacks

Decided to do a post tonight rather than in the morning. I am planning on doing a little exercise in the morning to try and loose a little weight before the holidays. Putting on weight is a lot like getting in debt; it's a fun trip, but when you finally decide to get back to where you were it gets hard.

Had a soccer game tonight and we got thumped by a team who had not won all year. I talked with the coach before the game and she informed me of the seasons demise. So I decided to take it easy on them (I have a heart), well they beat us 8 - 5. Sure I could have made some changes during the game to change the outcome and I don't like getting beat, but I want everyone to be able to play. I like the Upward way of doing game time - everyone gets to play and everyone is a winner. We had a good time, no one got hurt, but the way the other kids reacted to winning their first game was well worth our loss. They were jumping up and down and the parents were happy and our kids, I think were happy for them. All my kids wanted to know was who brought snacks, that's all they ever care about. I mean its 8 & under soccer, as long as we are having fun who cares about the outcome.

This Thursday is our last game and it will be bittersweet. I love kids, but it will give me back two nights a week to work on the house or just hang with the family. Whew!

Check out these words by Mark Batterson. He is the author of In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and he is also the pastor at National Community Church in DC. I have a link to his blog over on the left, and the below was in his blog this morning.


Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.
Chase the lion.

He has hit the nail on the head with every word, there is a lot of truth and a ton of lessons in that short paragraph. Man I'm pumped right now!!!

Have a Blessed Day!!!

The Weekend

It appears that the wife invaded the blog on Friday's post, she added all the writing in red. We had a great weekend and last night at church we had our celebration dinner for the new youth building. It was a great night filled with fellowship, singing, and testimonies. We really do have a great church family. Afterwards the Crown financial class went to Jake's on Main to have ice cream and hang out. Wishing right now that I skipped the banana split.

They announced last night that we have pledged over $460,000.00 to the construction of the Youth building (over the next 3 years) and yesterday during the first offering they received $88,000.00. This is truly and God thing and it is exciting to see where He is leading. We really do have an awesome church.

Newspring has created a website for their upcoming series entitled "The Perfect Kid", and it is unbelievable. They have invited the youth and parents and given them an avenue to vent anonymously. There is a column for the kids and also for the parents. Take some time today and just browse through some of the entries, it will blow your mind. You can check it out here.

Mr. Steve (the painter) should finish this week and the house looks like a brand new one. Thanks again to whomever. We LOVE you! Hope you have an awesome Monday.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

God Is Still In The Amazing Business

So everybody knows that we are trying to get our house ready to sell. (If not, please pray that we aren't committed in the process.) Well, last Friday this guy named Steve Jones shows up on our porch and tells Lori he wants to scrape and paint the trim on our house. To which Lori responded, "We would love for you to, but that just isn't in the budget at this time." Then he said that it has already been taken care of by a group of our friends. Are you kidding me? Lori called me at work and I asked her if he looked like Ty Pennington (Extreme Home Makeover) and if he had a megaphone. I still am having a hard time believing it, and he is almost done with the prep work!

This is the most humbling experience I have had to date. It is an awesome experience to give from the heart - especially to do it anonymously - but when it happens and you don't know who to thank, it takes on a whole new meaning. Did I mention we are extremely humbled? All we can do is thank God for providing for us, because we will never find out who did it. (Although there have been suspicious reactions from friends!)

I have told a few people that are close to me, and I'll tell y'all... if you know who did this, tell them thank you and that we love them. I think through all this God is teaching us how to receive a blessing and a gift. Like I said before it is a lot easier to give than to receive.

Has anything like this ever happened to any of you? It is an awesome experience that we will never forget and we are just overwhelmed. Thank you to whomever, but mostly to God.

So today Lori and I have been married for 11 years. (Really?) God has brought us through some good times and bad ones, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. Marriage is a funny thing and it's amazing how it changes daily. It is alive and needs constant attention and nurture. Honestly, for me as a husband I am still learning this on a daily basis, but I can't think of anyone I would rather learn it with than Lori. Please pray for Lori as she continues to tolerate me. (Thank you.)

And finally, we have a friend who has entered the blogging world and I am extremely excited about it. This man is a great friend and an awesome man of God - Preacher Eric Boggs of Beech Springs Tabernacle. I will put a link to his blog (on the left, under "Blogs I Read") for you to check out or you can click here on his name: Eric Boggs. (Eric, bless you for being the only soul to let me out on the highway from that unrelenting school traffic a while back.)

Y'all Have a Blessed Day... The Tomb is Empty and He is at Large!!!

The Sid Man

It is very hard for me to believe that 7 years ago today we became parents. Sidney Michael Locke was given to us by God on October 9th, 2000. He is a wonderful son and such a caring big brother.

As I look back over the 7 years we have had to watch Sid grow, I realize that Lori and have grown as well. We have a more healthy relationship as husband and wife, we turned out to be pretty good parents, and most of all our relationship with our heavenly father is far better.

I truly believe this is a result of being parents. Isn't it funny how God can use the innocence of a child to teach grown-ups life lessons. I personally have learned so much from Sid and I look forward to learning so much more. We are all a work in progress, and our tomorrows are promised to be better than our today's, and I can't hardly wait.

For the parents - cherish your children as they are truly a gift from God!
For the children - be patient with your parents, because we don't always get it right!
And God give both of us the wisdom to handle each other!

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Monday AM

Good Morning everybody. I trust that you had a good weekend. I am delighted to tell you that God has showed up and showed out recently in mine and Lori's life. I will get to the specifics later, but just know that we serve an awesome God.

That's about all I got, got to get into a meeting.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Rejoice

I want to tell you that the celebration of Mama Huck this past Tuesday was great. As the minister Jason Webb put it "everything we have ever wandered or had a question to.......Mama Huck now knows". And we know where she is and we will see her again.

The Hope that we have is rooted in Jesus Christ and His promise that He has prepared a better place for us is where we find that Hope. So rejoice today in your salvation and believe in the one who paid your debt in full.

Pray for us as an Upward team this weekend. We are going to have a booth at the Standpipe Festival and then on Sunday night Dodd Wilson will be speaking at Mt Bethel Baptist Church and showing the Caz video. This years season is coming quickly upon us. Start praying now that God will be glorified and given all the credit for what He is going to do.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Mama Huck

I am happy to report this morning that my Grandmother "Mama Huck" has graduated to Heaven. She has been in that glorious city since Saturday night and I am so excited for her. I know that she is at the feet of Jesus and worshipping the only living God because of these verses from Luke:


42 And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" 43 And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
Luke 23:42-43 (NASB)

I honestly don't know how the non-believers handle death? But for us as Christians it is a time of celebration and the promise that they are in a better place. Sure we will miss Mama Huck, but she has won the prize and I know she would want us to rejoice with her. And as Sid told my sister yesterday, we will see her again when we get to heaven.

Have a Blessed Day!!!