Full Day, Good Day

It is a full day, but a good day. Had an International Team meeting this morning. Took Tricia out and got her a new cell phone this afternoon. Yeah Verizon! New every 2! She entered the palm world with her Hubby. She got the new Palm Centro. Tonight we are going out to the National Harbor for my sister Selah's birthday. She turns 30 on Monday! Wow! We are the closest in age of all the siblings. That means that I am almost 30 too! Time must slow down!

I hope that you are having a good weekend! Leave me a comment and tell me about it!

--Noah

Message Tomorrow

See if you can fill in the blanks for tomorrow....

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NIV) (9) Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: (10) If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! (11) Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? (12) Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

1. Focus more on ______________ a friend than on _____________ one! (v.9) You can make more friends in a month by being interested in them than you will in ten years by trying to get them interested in you.

2. Talk _______ your friends, not ____________ them! (v. 12) Gossip is when someone says something negative or unkind about someone who is not present, whether it is true or not.

3. Be careful not to downplay the importance of ________________ friendship; it’s prevalence is speaking! We were all born with the desire to connect!

4. Pay attention to who _______________ chose as friends! The church out to be safe place for the wounded, the sell-out and the sinner.

5. For the real deal, _______________ is a must!

What happened on September 11th?

Was shocked tonight when Tricia shared with our Small Group that the 1st grade students that she teaches were not even born yet on September 11, 2001! Mrs, Kaye, what happened on September 11th? Wow! Someone else at Small Group tonight was telling us that they were teaching their 6 year old son about 9/11.

Am I the only one that finds this crazy!?! Time flies. I cannot believe it has been 7 years. I pray God's peace today for those impacted.

--Noah

Men of Purity

Just learned the Pure Life Ministries is holding a "Men of Purity Weekend" at Trinity AG in Lanham at the end of this month. Looks like this will be a great event for men to grow in Christ and increase in purity. I want to attend and I am going to be inviting any men at CCF and beyond to attend with me. You can click here for more info such as exact date and time, etc.

Be listening and looking for more info on my blog, in the mini and announced at church. I would love to have you come along! Ladies....tell the men!

--Noah

Squeeze the Pineapple

You have to see this video of Davis at dinner tonight! Hilarious!

I sold my anointing this morning!

Now, here is a funny one! It has kept me laughing on and off all day....and I need to laugh right now.

My friend Ben asked me if he could buy my class books off of me because he has procrastinated in buying them (Go, Ben...procrastinators unite tomorrow!). I said yes. This morning he came to get them. Before he arrived I was running around the house searching for them. I found all but one. The one that I could not find was entitled "The Anointing" by R.T. Kendall.

I frantically texted him that "I had lost the anointing"! I told him that I was searching for it everywhere. Then I found it. Well, he stopped by and bought it from me for 10 bucks! Later he texted me..."I bought the anointing for 10 dollars!" My reply: A cheaper anointing cannot be found!

Moral of the story...you should never lose your anointing. And you should also never sell it for cheap to your friends!

Hope you got it and that it brought a smile to your face the way that it did mine.

--Noah

"Our First Missionary to India"

Rabindra just sent me this note and picture from India. This is his lovely family. Pay special attention to the last sentence of the letter. Wow!

Pastor, this is my family picture!

My 13 year old daughter is the oldest, my son is 7 and my baby boy is 3 and running now! Remember us in your prayers and please ask the church to pray for us, your first missionary to India.

Yours in His Service
Rabindra Robinson

Plane Crash kills Pastor Fenwick

The Pastor that lead my parents to Christ, Ron Fenwick, was killed in a plane crash during the night last night. He is local Pastor for over 25 years at Woodlawn Baptist Church in Bowie. Please pray for his wife Kaye and their 3 grown children. What a tragic thing for them to experience. You can read an article about the crash by clicking here.

Convoy of Hope- Report

I blogged about Convoy of Hope the other week. It was scheduled for this past Saturday....you know, the day that Hanna pounded DC. Well, the leadership of the event made a last minute decision to move it to Sunday. The weather was perfect and the event was a HUGE success. For more info, visit the site by clicking here! Or read Mark's thoughts here. Made the Post and the Times.

--Noah

Speak up

Why is it so hard for some of us to be honest? Why are we afraid to speak up? I find that there have been times in meetings and relationships where I am hesitant to speak up and say what I believe in and I end up getting frustrated at myself. Listen, don't be so concerned about your self image that you hold back sharing what you really believe! Sure, you might be wrong...and if you are all it costs you is a little pride (which I tend to think we can all afford to give some away). But, hey, if you are right, the possibilities are endless. Be careful not to put fear and pride before who God has called you to be and what God has asked you to say. You have something to offer!! Speak up!

--Noah

Idols of the Heart

I shared some on Sunday about Idols of the heart. I just touched the tip of the iceberg. I am indebted to Darrin Patrick for this material. Here is some stuff to think about.

An idol is something I serve instead of God - anything other than God that I put in the place of God - it can be anything - a relationship, image, role, political party, aspiration, hope, pleasure, a church...

We put our hope in idols - we draw comfort from them - we look to them for meaning.

We will either look to God or we will look to something else to find security and significance.

Most of the time, we are clueless about our idols (but we see others' clearly).

Here is how you know your idols the fastest…we know our idols when they are disturbed or threatened. Other good questions to ID the idols in your life:

• What do you worry about most?
• What, if I lost it, would make me not want to live?
• What are my release valves?
• What do I do to feel better?
• Where does my mind go when it's free?
• What do I daydream about?
• What makes me feel the most self worth?
• What do I want to be known for?
• What do I lead into conversations with?
• What do I talk with new people about?
• What prayer, if unanswered, would make me think about turning away from God?
• What is my hope for the future?

These are some things to think about. Here is what you can count on. You have some idols!! We all do! What are yours? How can you work toward replacing them with Jesus?

Proverbs for the day

Read these proverbs today. Good stuff! The Proverbs have such an eloquent way of giving great advice!

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet, than a house full of feasting with strife! Proverbs 17:1

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way. Proverb 19:2

Discipline your son, for in it there is hope; do not be a willing party to he death. Proverbs 19:18

Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path. Proverbs 23:19

Nash Family

We did end the day right by having a family from the church over...the Nash's. Bernie and Cydne are going to serve with us as Small Group co-leaders for our Thursday night group! Really looking forward to that. Tricia cooked a great meal and we enjoyed the evening with them.

Oh, gotta tell you one more thing...Bernie is an author! He had a new book released just last week. The title: "Crossing the Bridge over Troubled Water." They brought me a copy tonight. Looking forward to reading it. Click here to get to Bernie's website and learn more.

I keep marveling at the gifted people at CCF! The longer I serve here, the more I get to know some amazing folks!

--Noah

My head is pounding

One word defines the day I had today. Intense! I rarely get headaches, but I have one tonight. It was just an intense day. Had to deal with several things that required a pretty big outpouring of energy and emotion. Good things. Necessary things. Just draining. Need a good night sleep.

My heart is especially heavy tonight for a couple that lost their 1 week old baby today. Please pray for Darnette and Dwayne. The pain they must feel tonight could never be put into words.

--Noah

Beginnings

Fabulous day at CCF today! Lots of beginnings! And yes, we planned it this way...start of the fall, start of the school year, start of new ministry at CCF!

• Capi's Kids and Capi's Babies began their new children's ministry approach! They began checking kids in before the service and some new workers began serving!
• Club 78 began again....now under Jaye Lindo's leadership.
• Club 56 resumed and Lisa Edwards began her leadership in this ministry.
• Sunday Small Groups began this morning. Awesome turnout! I do not have a small group, I have a large group (20+). We will be multiplying into a second group next week.
• Small Groups began the "Making Connections" curriculum this morning.
• I began the coinciding sermon series on "Making Connections." Our first message/session was "You Are God's Beloved"!
• The September Capital was introduced.
• The new CCF website was introduced in the service. (Oh, and it was such a cool surprise to have the president of our web company, Terrence Hines in our service today!! We just went live with the site on Friday and somehow he was here today all the way from Atlanta!)

I believe that these things are some of the signs of the new work that the Lord is doing at CCF. I sense that we are in a time of undergoing improvements in many places in the church. I love this time of new beginnings and I am pregnant with the vision of the future.

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:5-7

Terry, Abuela, Mom

Well, after about 5 weeks with us, Tricia's mom flew back to NY tonight. You know, you hear a lot of mother in law jokes out there, but they honestly do not resonate with me at all. My mother in law is a gem! She blessed our socks off during her visit. Never a burden, always a blessing. She cooked, cleaned, helped with Davis, and was a HUGE help with the move. We are really going to miss her. One of the things that I appreciate the most about her is her passion for the Lord. Numerous times this month, I "caught" her on her knees passionately seeking the Lord. I love when someone is in my home going after God! She has said numerous times that it has been her Lord that has taken her this far in her grieving journey. I believe that.

My family and our friends will miss Terry! Davis will miss Abuela! And Tricia and I will miss Mom!

Davis the Painter

While we were at the church today painting the kids wing (Capiland), Davis slipped out of our site for 30 seconds...that's all it took to produce this beautiful site! Love parenting! ...And love that CCF has showers on site. You just never know when you may need them.

--Noah & Tricia

New CCF Website Launched!

Folks, CCF has stepped it up to another level of excellence with the introduction of our new website that just went live tonight! After many, many months of hard work, here it is! Please send the link out to your family and friends!

http://capitalchristian.org/

Friend Day is in 8 days!

Friend Day at CCF is on September 14th....next Sunday! I really hope that you are inviting people to join us that day! It is gonna be a great day! See you then!

Bees

Somehow Davis learned early on that anything that flies in the air is a "bee". It is so cute when he sees an airplane, he starts yelling frantically..."bee, bee, bee!!" His Daddy loves airplanes too and so this morning, my brother and I took our sons on an excursion to National Airport to watch bees take off and land. It was a blast! Even stopped at Ebenezer's coffeehouse on the way home. Great morning. Now it's time to get ready for this funeral. Pray for the Kegley family today. Then, a hot date with the wife tonight!

--Noah