A Great Day!

I want you to imagine the best possible day. Imagine a perfect day for you. Do you have that image in your mind? Let me tell you about what might have been one of the best days of my life!

It started early. Amy Lynn and I awoke to the alarm clock at 5:00 am. After a brief cup of coffee, throwing our bathroom toiletries into the suit case, we headed to the airport. The sunrise this morning was breathtaking. By 7:00 am, we were in the friendly skies. By 8:30 am, we were sipping a latte while cruising toward downtown Jacksonville, Florida in a white mustang convertible. Again, the spring morning was breath-taking!

Amy Lynn has been missing some of her family and friends lately on "the farm" so we stopped by her old stomping grounds and visited loved ones. It was one of those priceless surprise visits!

We cruised downtown to a favorite Jacksonville hangout called, "The Landing," which is a boardwalk down by the Saint Johns River. On one side is the river and on the other side are all kinds of cool shops and excellent restaurants. After a slow stroll down by the river, and hanging out in some shops, we landed at a lovely restaurant, outside, on the second floor, and overlooking boats and birds and the rays of golden sunshine dancing on the river.

It was one of those long lunches. You know, a lunch that you never want to end. The good news is that it didn't have to end because we had plenty of time. So there we sat for three hours talking about life, newhope, our marriage, and each of our five kids. We actually talked about all five kids, how we think they are doing, how we think we are doing as parents and how we can do better as a family. Time like that doesn't come around often, friends.

It's about 3:00 pm by now so we take a ride up the coast and arrived at St. Simons by the Sea just in time for the conference. I guess they were expecting us because they gave us this incredible room! As soon as we walked into the room, a nice man came knocking on our door and handed us this basket of fruit from my assistant, Theresa Johnson, on behalf of newhope church! That was too cool!



THANK YOU THERESA!

We then took a walk under these 100 year old Oak Trees covered with Spanish moss. By now, the sun was setting on the marsh land so we enjoyed God's sunset and then joined hundreds of others in worship and Word! Here was our passage of focus this evening:

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." Ephesians 2:19 - 20)

Friends, that is a great day! And just think, the conference continues with Holy Communion at 7:00 am tomorrow morning!

Night - night! I am going to sleep, with a smile on my face!