Thursday, September 11, 2008

Threat Level


Today is the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As for a lot of people, that was a very profound day for me. I grew up during the cold war and all the talk about possible nuclear armageddon...by the way, I love the movies that came out of that era!

One of the most profound things to me that unfolded on that day is to not take our safety for granted. In my town where I lived at the time, we lived about 3 miles from a nuclear powerplant. I remember almost every day as I went to work in the days after 9/11 watching the f-16's circle around the area almost constantly. It was an uneasy time.

Today I thought about our little threat level matrix that someone came up with. How is this supposed to help? Then I thought, shouldnt we always be on the highest alert? Isn't that what vigilant is?

Then I thought about it in terms of how I protect myself from sin. Do I have a threat matrix for sin? Do you? Are most people just going about their day on low alert? I want to be on the highest alert possible at all times. Our enemy attacks us every single day...for some of us every few minutes! We should be vigilant against sin in our lives...the highest threat level.

What level are you at today? Is it a green day? Be careful. Be vigilant.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Buy a tarp!

Hey everybody,

I know that our thoughts in recent weeks has been on the people of the Gulf who have suffered losses during Hurricane Gustav, and now it is looking like Ike may become an issue by the weekend for them. It was reported today that some parts of Louisiana could be without power for 4-6 weeks...maybe more with the possibility of Ike hitting the same area.

Healing Place church in Baton Rouge, LA is a church that Seacoast is very close with and they are right in the thick of assisting people in need after the storm. Pastor Dino Rizzo, who you may remember from our "One Prayer" series is Pastor at Healing Place and says that one of the best ways people can help is to send roof tarps. Please check out this video with Pastor Dino. http://vimeo.com/1689234?pg=embed&sec=1689234

As a church I want to ask you to donate the money for us to send some tarps down to Healing Place Church so that they can distribute them. I am asking that you let me know via email, or a phone call that you are willing to donate to this cause. The number of you that respond will dictate how many we can order, but the average cost per tarp is somewhere around $10-$14. If you can donate 1 or 21, please let us know by the end of the day on Wednesday and we will take care of ordering them and having them shipped to HPC. You can bring your cash or check made out to Seacoast Church (tarp) on Wednesday evening and/or Sunday morning.

Thanks for making a difference, and continue to pray for the Gulf region.