I got up at 6AM and went for my morning walk. While walking, I listened to the Dave Ramsey Show podcast. Upon returning home, I got ready and went downstairs with Turner to play Angry Birds (can you tell he loves that game?). After that, I unloaded the dishwasher while listening to the Zig Ziglar Inspire podcast, then helped Leah get breakfast ready.

After breakfast, I finished getting ready and headed for the office. On the way, I finished listening to Dale Jenkins’ 2011 Polishing the Pulpit lecture on better reading that I began last night.

Upon arrival, I met with our secretary to catch up on news, and then went to my office to get some work done. From 8:30 until close to 10:00, I studied for my Sunday sermon, read a handful of blog articles, helped with a benevolence case, and sent a couple of emails.

At 10, Leah came to the building for ladies’ Bible class. She and Mary Carol always go together, and I take Turner with me. We go visiting, and today we visited with one of our sweet ladies from Lebanon Road for about 30 minutes. Turner is getting very good at sitting quietly, and answering politely when spoken to. I’m proud of him!

After the visit, I ran one errand, and then headed back to the building. Turner watched a cartoon on my computer, while I answered a couple of texts and emails on my phone, then did some Bible reading. After that, the two of us had lunch (the ladies’ Bible class had a luncheon together today in another location).

After lunch, it was back to the office for more studying, and I also took the time to write my weekly bulletin article.

Panera, home of wonderful Chocolate Chipper cookies!!!

At 1:30, I left the building and headed to a meeting. On the way, I listened to The Briefing with Albert Mohler, and started the ESPN College Basketball podcast (it’s almost March!!!). The meeting was at a local Panera, and it was with one of our members. We meet every so often to discuss lots of things, and I leave so refreshed by the attitude he displays! (And, by the way, Panera’s Chocolate Chipper cookie? Uh.Maze.Ing.)

When that pleasant time ended, I hopped back in the car and drove to Mt. Juliet to make another visit. One of our older members is in an assisted living home there, and it had been a little while since I had been over to see her. The visit was such a treat! She recently received bad news from her doctors, but she has lived her life in a way that she is prepared for eternity, so she is taking it with amazing levels of grace and acceptance.

(By the way, this must be one rocking assisted living home, because as I walked up, “Smooth” by Santana and Rob Thomas was playing on the PA system! Not the usual 1940s swing era musical fare.)

On the drive to that visit and then home, I finished the hoops podcast, and listened to “This is Your Life,” a new podcast from Michael Hyatt. If you do not get this program, you must. It is excellent!

The front of the assisted living home in Mt. Juliet.

As I got close to home, I called Leah and told her to make sure the kids were ready, because daddy was going to take them to the park. We were blessed with 60 degree weather, and I was not going to let that pass. We stayed there for about 45 minutes, then came home to rest a bit before supper together. Leah made a(nother) wonderful meal, and we all enjoyed it. She is an amazing cook (or, as Mary Carol says, she “is a great cooker”).

After supper, we had some down time. The kids played, and I decided to take it easy this evening. I am still fighting off this sinus stuff, so I decided to just relax, watch a little basketball online, and read.

Before closing up shop for the day, though, we had a family devotional together, and the kids ate their snack. Now they are in bed (woo-hoo!) and it is time to relax a bit.

The kids running onto the park, ready to play.

I woke up when Leah’s alarm went off at 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I made the most of that time and spent some time praying and thinking about the day. At 6:00 I got up as usual, and went for my morning walk, while listening to the Dave Ramsey Show podcast. After getting home, I got ready and played Angry Birds with Turner. Then I took out the trash and emptied out the dishwasher.

At breakfast, we welcomed another person to the house, as Leah was going to watching the daughter of some of our dear friends from church for the day. We ate breakfast as a family, then I finished getting ready and headed to the office.

Upon arrival, I checked email and got our attendance cards from yesterday. I sent an email to the congregation with some important information, then went to my office and spend around the next two hours studying for next Sunday’s sermon, “Keep the Faith.” One of the really cool things about being a preacher is that “yes!” moment when you discover something in the Bible that you can’t wait to share with the congregation. I had one of those today, and I’m am already fired up about this sermon!

Later in the morning, a friend dropped by to visit and we enjoyed the time together. We talked about ministry and other subjects for about an hour.That visit took me up until lunch time, when I ate very quickly so I could get back to some work. But I did take the time to enjoy the CBS college basketball podcast during lunch!

In the time after lunch, I did some general reading/studying in my Bible, caught up on some blog reading, and worked some more on my Sunday morning sermon.

My view for a few minutes on I-40 trying to get to Baxter, TN, this afternoon

The funeral home in Baxter, Tennessee.

At 2:45 I headed out of the office to make a couple of visits. I try to go on Mondays and visit with those who have filled out a visitor’s card the day before, so I had a couple of those visits to make. One of the visits went very well (the other person wasn’t home), and the sweet lady told me she would be back next Sunday. I sure hope that’s true! I did, however, have to make these visits somewhat quickly, because I had to hit the road. One of our members lost a very close family member late last week, and I drove to Baxter, Tennessee, (about 65 miles away) for the visitation. On the way, I made a few phone calls and listened to two podcasts (The Briefing with Albert Mohler and FamilyLife Today) and a lesson from last year’s Polishing the Pulpit by Mike Winkler on how to effectively illustrate sermons.

The visitation was at 5PM, so I tried to get there right at that time. As soon as I was done, I hopped back in the car and drove back to Nashville, because we had our regular elders’, deacons’, and preachers’ meeting tonight at 7PM. On that drive home, I listened to another 2011 PtP lesson, this one by Dan Winkler on First Corinthians 15.

I stopped by the house at 6:10 to eat supper with my family (yeah!). Leah made a wonderful meal and had everything ready (including having built a warm fire) so we could eat together…and then I could head out the door again.

At our 7PM meeting, we met in different breakout groups to discuss plans for working on our 2012 goals. I met in three groups: one dealing with technology, one dealing with VBS, and one dealing with a personal evangelism class. It was a great time with wonderful servants of God, and it made me even more excited about our 2012 plans at Lebanon Road. Driving to and from the meeting, I listened to one final 2011 PtP lesson from Dale Jenkins on “Reading Faster, Better, and More.”

On the way home, I stopped by a store and got Leah a candy bar (okay, I got one, too) as a little “thank you” for putting up with this long, wild day. I plan on reading for a few minutes, then turning in for the night.

What a day!

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What started off to be a not-so-great Sunday turned out great. We knew the weather could be nasty today, but I didn’t count on waking up trying to ward off a sinus problem. When you are going to be speaking in public for over an hour during the course of a day, having gunk isn’t fun! But we worked through it and had a great day!

I got up at 6AM and got most of the way ready. Then I went downstairs, answered a couple of emails, read a couple of blogs, and started working on breakfast. Our family ate breakfast together (as we do every morning), and then we finished getting ready for worship and headed to Lebanon Road.

A mix of heavy rain and some snow (yes, snow!!!) kept a few of our folks away, but we still had a great Sunday. I preached the last in a 3-part lesson on “The Story of the Bible” (you can listen to or download the lesson here) to a crowd of 316. That number included some great friends from Dexter, Missouri. It was great to see them, and I look forward to heading there late next week to teach class at their youth rally.

After worship, I taught a class on Jude, verses 14-16. My class is using Aubrey Johnson’s excellent book Spiritual Patriots to work through Jude, and I am greatly motivated by this study. I love this class, because each member of the class truly loves the Bible, and we enjoy studying together. We have a lot of serious study, but we also laugh a lot.

After Bible classes, we headed home. Leah had a wonderful meal ready for us, but we had to eat quickly. Leah is one of the teachers at Lebanon Road who is taking a weekly Bible school lesson to Blake Rader’s house, and today was her “turn.” We had all thought about going, but Blake’s immune system is very susceptible right now, so our kids didn’t need to go. Also, since I was recovering from a sinus infection, we didn’t want me to go, in case it had really been something else. So, the kids laid down for some rest, and I enjoyed some reading time.

This is a Sunday when I am not preaching on Sunday night, so I try to rest a little more on these days, but still do some reading. (I’ll say more about what I am reading later in the week.) Also during this time, I uploaded our Sunday morning sermon to our podcast feed, listened to a couple of podcasts, and played a few rounds on Words with Friends.

Around 2:00, I looked over some notes for a lesson. Once each month, Lebanon Road leads the Sunday worship service at Heartland assisted

The Sign Outside Heartland

living, and I always try to attend. Today, however, was my turn to speak, so I took a few minutes to look over some notes for that lesson, then our family all headed out to worship with those fine folks at 4PM, and enjoy the fellowship we get from being around them.

Heartland Towers

Following the services at Heartland, we had one of our traditional family outings, as we stopped at a local Subway for some cookies. It was great to be joined this time by one of our elders and his wife. We enjoyed a few minutes of shooting the breeze, then headed back to the Lebanon Road building for evening worship.

I mentioned that today was a time when I was only preaching once. The reason is that we were blesse

Our cookie hangout!

d to host the Lipscomb Campus School Concert Chorus. Some of the young men from that group led the evening worship (including one of our own young men, who led singing) for a crowd of 472, then, following worship, we enjoyed hearing this group sing. They did a great job and brought a lot of encouragement to us.

After that, we had a fellowship meal for the group, their families, and our church family. The fellowship was fun, and we stayed a little later to help take down some of the tables and chairs. Now we are home, the kids are getting ready for bed, and I will be doing a little reading  before turning in for the night.

It was a great day, and I look forward to a productive week ahead.

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Please note that Monday’s post will probably go live later in the day, too. My plan is to post it around 9PM. I hope you enjoy it!

Our view of the Lipscomb Concert Chorus

Months: January and February

Theme: 60-Day Overview of the Bible

This week’s daily readings:

Sunday, February 19: Acts 10:1-11:18 ………………… The Gospel to the Gentiles

Monday, February 20: Acts 13:1-14:28 ……………….. Paul’s Travels

Tuesday, February 21: Romans 3:1-31 & 8:1-39 ……. All are Sinners, All Can be Saved

Wednesday, February 22: 1 Corinthians 12:1-13-13 … The More Excellent Way

Thursday, February 23: Ephesians 5:1-6:4 ……………. We are Children of Light

Friday, February 24: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 ………. Christ Will Return

Saturday, February 25: Hebrews 11:1-40 ………………. The “Hall of Faith”

Note: This series has been adapted from Zondervan, as published at http://alextran.org/2007/11/25/23-bible-reading-plans-that-will-satisfy-anyone/.

FIRST, I recruited some help for our Sunday sermon preview video. I hope you enjoy it!

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SECOND, next week is going to be a very interesting week on the blog. I’m calling it “8 Days with the Preacher.” I got this idea from my friend Chris Gallagher. Each year, he takes one week and simply blogs about what he does during each day. For a couple of years, I have wanted to do this, and I’m finally diving in with both feet. I wanted to do it at this time of year, too. If I chose to do this during the holiday season or the summer, the calendar would naturally be filled with all sorts of things. By doing this at an “off” time (whatever that means), I think you will see that preachers really do wear many hats.

Here are some things to keep in mind for this series:

1. The week will be 8 days, and will run from Sunday through Sunday.

2. I will post later in the day than normal (usually late afternoon or early evening), so be sure to check your blog reader later in the day for the updates.

3. I will not write every single detail (you don’t want that!!!), but I just want to share with you what I do during the week, both related to my work at Lebanon Road, and with our family.

4. I will not use this as a platform to break confidence. If someone comes in for counseling, for example, I will just simply mention that I studied with, chatted with, or counseled with someone, but no specifics will be given.

5. There will still be two other types of posts during this time: (1) Lebanon Road’s Bible reading plan on each Sunday, and (2) the February links roundup on Friday. I may also do a book review or two, but I am  not sure about that at this time.

The rationale behind this series of posts is simply to “pull back the curtain” a bit. Many people wonder what a preacher does all the time, and I hope this will show you that (1) we do work, and (2) we have to remain focused on the major parts of our job in order to get everything done. The first planned post will go up Sunday night, so I hope you are ready to spend “8 Days with the Preacher!”

I also do not like to step out of my routine very often. I was not blessed with a creativity gene, or at least mine doesn’t display itself very often! While I am involved in several different projects, they are usually things that I already liked before beginning. For example, I started blogging because I liked reading the blogs of other people. I started a podcast with Dale Jenkins because I loved listening to podcasts (and enjoy working with Dale!). I like to write because I like to read.

But there are times when I want to try something new, and I chicken out. I do not like to fail, but there are times I really believe something has merit, so I must step out. (And, yes, I am working on a project like that now, if you wonder where this is coming from. … And, no Lebanon Road folks, it does not involve moving!) Often, these things involve a certain level of creativity, which is not natural for me. But I do feel like there is a place for them, so I have to step out of my comfort zone and be somewhat creative.

Here are five things I have been trying to tell myself as I get near the end (at least I hope it’s the end) of this creative-for-me project.

1. Focus on the Bible. Whether this idea ever takes off or not, the goal is Biblical. Some people get the idea that anything that is a little different has to be unbiblical, but that is just not the case. Think of men like Jule Miller. His filmstrips (now on video and DVD) were very outside-the-box when he made them, but the content was clearly Biblical. Due to his work, thousands have put Christ on in baptism, and all because his focus was on the truth.

2. Benefit from the Process. If your work is to write, then remember the process is to learn and to become a better writer. If it is a creative endeavor like a video or audio production, remember to look at the details and learn what makes it work. Even if your project never gets off the ground, you have benefited from the process in a way that will help either you or someone else in the future.

3. Think of Others. In other words, do not try to do something different just to “be seen of men.” How will this benefit the eternal destiny of those you are trying to reach? Are you trying to teach? encourage? warn? inform? equip? Think about how this will do that for other people. (If you want a wonderful example of this, look no further than House-to-House, Heart-to-Heart. They know their purpose, and creatively fulfill it with every issue.)

4. Have an End Goal. What is a reasonable, but pressing, time to finish each part of the project? Personally, this is one I am having to work on. I like deadlines, but I don’t like putting them on myself! But when you write down, “Finish taping of video by June 14,” you have made yourself accountable. (By the way, if you struggle with goals, follow this link for an excellent article on writing goals.)

5. Don’t Let The “Novelty” Consume You. It is way too easy to get caught up in how “cool” or “slick” or “cutting edge” something is, and to lose out on the content. Nothing will make up for bad content, especially over time. Focus on the quality of your message, and then let your creativity tell the story.

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I am blessed to be around creative people, and I love those who have that talent. I’m not blessed with it very often, but I hope these suggestions will help us all stay focused on what is really important when we have a moment of creativity.

What other suggestions would you have for working through a creative process?

Our local Publix store front

Leah loves Publix. I can’t tell you how many times she has praised the friendliness of the staff and the high quality of food there. In reality, the only thing that keeps Publix from being her only stop in grocery shopping is price. While their prices are competitive and they run good sales, she can get some items more cheaply from other stores.

However, I want to praise Publix for something else today. In their checkout aisles, I have noticed that certain magazines are covered by a plastic shield. The magazines (including Cosmopolitan and similar periodicals) are the ones that usually “feature” immodest cover models and racy features.

For some time, I have figured that they did this to block these covers from children and, as a guy, I was thankful for my own mental purity, too.

But I wasn’t sure if that was why this was done…until today. On the way to the office, I stopped by a local Publix and just asked why they did that. I told them I was writing an article for a Christian blog and the young man was more than happy to answer my question.

He said that the company wants Publix to be seen as a wholesome part of the local community, and they didn’t want children seeing these images while they were waiting in line. I thanked him for his honesty, and I thanked him as a guy, too!

Now, we could argue whether Publix should be selling magazines like that at all, and I know they sell other products (cigarettes, alcohol, etc.) that are harmful. But on this issue, I have to praise this store for helping me protect my children. And, as a man trying to be pure, I have to thank Publix for making shopping less tempting.

It may cost a little more at times, but some things are worth a few extra dollars. Surely, our purity ranks right up at the top of that list.

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If you agree, would you leave a comment?

Happy Valentine’s Day, Leah.

Since this holiday always brings about feelings of love and romance, I want to offer the following quiz for husbands and wives. This is a little test you can take more often, but it might help spark some truly important conversations during your Valentine’s Day date (you are having one, right?).

1. When is the last time you and your spouse went on a date that was not tied to a holiday? In other words, just because it was Thursday night! You had someone watch the kids and the two of you went out to eat, or to a park, or to a ball game or concert. And the sole purpose was to spend time together as a couple.

2. When is the last time you did something totally unexpected for your spouse that showed romance…with no strings attached? I probably got a lot of guys with that last little phrase. Did you buy her something? Did you take the kids away so he could watch Monday Night Football alone? Did you light some candles at dinner? Just….because.

3. When is the last time you talked about something that was important…not related to the children? In other words, when is the last time you had a meaningful conversation about your future, your finances, your spiritual maturity, your dreams, your fears, and didn’t say, “It’s like when our son……”?

4. When is the last time you flirted? Remember flirting? It’s when you batted your eyes at him. It’s when you told little inside jokes to her that only she would giggle at. When is the last time you did that?

5. When is the last time you held hands for no reason? You were at the mall (or, in our case, Wal-Mart) and your hands “just happened” to meet. In years’ past, you would have grabbed on. Have you done that lately?

6. FOR HUSBANDS: How long has it been since you really showed manners to your wife? Do you still open the door? Do you still help with household tasks? Do you still say “please” and “thank you”? Do you still hold her coat up and help her put it on?

7. FOR WIVES: How long has it been since you initiated sexual intimacy? I know, stereotype! But this part of marriage is important, too, and it means so much to guys when their wife is interested in it and it means even more when she makes “the first move.”

8. How long has it been since you prayed together as a couple, and not at mealtime? I wish this one didn’t have to be on the quiz, but it needs to be! Couples need to pray together. (Leah…I’m working on it!)

9. How long has it been since you talked deeply about finances together and were forced to make a hard or large decision concerning money? When you agree that this money is going to this account, or that we are going to give more, or that we are going to sell “that” … you’ll be amazed at how it opens up other lines of communication.

10. Finally, how long has it been since you said “I love you” more than once in a day to your spouse? Say it often. It would be tragic if those words were not the last ones you heard your spouse say.

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How did you do? Enjoy Valentine’s Day!

….and Leah, thanks for being my Valentine every day!!!

Months: January and February

Theme: 60-Day Overview of the Bible

This week’s daily readings:

Sunday, February 12: Luke 11:1-13 …………………. The Model Prayer

Monday, February 13: John 11:1-44 ……………….. Jesus Raises Lazarus

Tuesday, February 14: John 18:1-19:42 ……………. The Death of Jesus

Wednesday, February 15: John 20:1-21:25 ……….. He is Risen!

Thursday, February 16: Acts 2:1-47 ………………… The Church Begins

Friday, February 17: Acts 6:8-7:60 ……………….. The First Martyr

Saturday, February 18: Acts 9:1-31 ……………….. Saul Sees the Light

Note: This series has been adapted from Zondervan, as published at http://alextran.org/2007/11/25/23-bible-reading-plans-that-will-satisfy-anyone/.