Church is not a Spectator Sport!

Phenomenal Possibilities

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:56:00 +0000

We started a new Series on Easter Sunday called Phenomenal Possibilities. Here is the sermon opener that I created for it.

Phenomenal Possibilities Sermon Opener from JC Jennings on Vimeo.

Isabellaism's (Easter) age 7

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:37:00 +0000

During prayer time tonight, Christine asked Isabella if she knew the reason why we celebrate Easter. The conversation went like this:

Isabella: "What does Easter mean?"

Christine: "Easter is the time we celebrate the time that Jesus died on the cross and three days later he came alive again."

Isabella: "How is that possible?"

Christine: "because Jesus is the Son of God, and God is all powerful and can do anything!"

Isabella: "Well can he get me a red guitar for my birthday?"

Spring Fishing Trip Day 1 Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:22:00 +0000

Here's a recap of what's happened so far.

1. On the way here, going through Clarksburg, a pickup truck in front of me hit one of those bridge joints and knocked a clump of mud off his truck, it came bouncing towards me and hit my windshield and it happened to have a rock in it so now I have a quarter sized crack.

2. Today, cold weather, rain, less than perfect conditions. We started out at O'Brien Lake and got nothing. I found out quickly that both of my Pinnacle baitcast reels were broken. Baitcast reels are not supposed to "rewind". Something was up with the anti-reverse. We gave up on O'Brien around 9:15 and headed out for Elk Fork Lake. But first I wanted to stop at Wal-Mart and exchange my defective reels for working ones. They did with no problem. AWESOME, that was $116 in gear. WV DNR was at Elk Fork shocking the lake. There were fish floating everywhere their boat was going. We caught up the "survey boat" and asked them what they were doing and they said that they were collecting Largemouth bass between 14 and 15 inches for the hatchery. They collected 40 and were done. It was a little weird to see fish belly up but they recovered after a while.
I caught the first two fish and Brian was getting worried but I told him to relax because he always crushes me. For those of you on Facebook that call yourself my "friend" and were commenting on the size...I still love you. But understand, the conditions today were horrible. Raingear was worn all day long but we still were able to bring in 11 fish total. So even though they wern't record breakers, they were catches on a day that most wouldn't even attempted.
Another tragedy of the day was that I lost my swiss army knife with USB flash drive that my wife gave to me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I stuck it in my coat pocket which I didn't realize had a hole in it and while we were watching DNR shock the fish, I stood up (because my back was killing me) next thing I heard was a "plop". Brian said "Dude, something metal just fell out of your pocket and went into the water." Oh well. I hope the fish enjoy pictures of Casting Crowns in concert.

So tomorrow the skys are supposed to be clearer, the temp warmer and tomorrow is the start of four straight days of high point "lunar activity" days for fishing. I still hope to break last year's record. Wrapping this up for now cause, 4:45 was the earliest start I've had in a while and I'm tired.

Goals for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:31:00 +0000

My friend Melissa challenged folks to list their goals for 2009.

I admit. I'm not the type to do this type of stuff. I don't like to be so organized, and I don't like to set myself up for failure. Besides, isn't there some type of saying that goes something like "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." For some reason, I just don't want God to laugh at me. That's sort of creepy.

Here's what I'd like to see happen for myself for 2009 in no prioritized order.

Think creative thoughts so that I have something to write on this blog about.
Obtain mad Adobe After Effects skillz to produce awesome looking content for Rock Spring.
Break my largemouth bass record from last year.
Spend more quality time with my kids before they grow up on me.
Live with my eyes open for the opportunities that God brings my way for me to share Him with those around me that need to be introduced to Him.

There are others, but like I said, I don't want to set myself up for failure.

So what about you? Post some comments!

Interesting Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:01:00 +0000

Hey,
I was doing a little calculating today, but first let me give you a little background.....

I've been with Netflix since November of 2005. Since then they have billed us $1,093.89. Wow!!! At first that looks like a huge amount of money so I went back and with a little help from Excel, calculated how many movies that we've had from them. That number came to 676. (That's a lot of movies!!!)

So if you do a little division with those numbers it turns out that the avg. per cost rental for us comes to $1.62. Pretty good since before Nov. 2005 I was paying $4 plus tax for each rental.

If I would have paid $4 per rental for 652 movies it would have been $2,704 + tax + burned up gas.... so we've saved a good bit ($1610.11) over the last 3 years. Nice.

It's nice to have the movies show up in your mailbox (even though sometimes the are damaged)
It's nice to have a queue that you can arrange online.
It's nice to be able to watch movies online from a computer when you don't have one at home at the time.
It's nice to save so much money.
It's nice that they carry Blu-Ray discs

They have a free trial period, why don't you try it out. We currently get the 5 at a time plan @ $31.79/month (which we've been considering lowering back to 3 since we watch so much) but they have several plans that you can adjust to fit your watching schedule... If you're into movies like me.

Ha Ha

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:27:00 +0000

You never know what's going to happen @ Rock Spring
Pastor Mike and Pastor Gloria "argue" about the end times.
Stick with this one 'til the end...

Funny sight

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Pop-Pop decided to sit with the girls for the Hannah Montana concert on tv tonight. Check 'em sportin their 3D glasses.

Hey there!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:44:00 +0000

It's been a while hasn't it?

Prayer for the Chapman Family

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:23:00 +0000

Steven Curtis Chapman was one of the first Christian Artists that I listened to after becoming a Christian. Undoubtedly he has been one of the most influential artist in the CCM industry.

I just read THIS and immediately my heart started weeping for their family. I cannot imagine what and how I would feel or react if something like this would happen to my 5 year old.

Please pray for them during their time of loss.

If you would like to leave your condolences, you can do that HERE.

Best trip so far

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:32:00 +0000

Well, it was a successful week. The best week yet actually. Seems like we picked the right time to go this year. After finding out that the one lake wasn't quite warming up we switched to another lake and were catching the fish right before they started to move up to their beds for the spawn. Once we found that out at that lake we moved back to the first lake to find that the fish were coming out from the deep and in the shallows, hungry for top water lures.

We got rain the first and second days that we were there. The first being the worst, we had our gear on but were still soaked, especially our feet.

We caught some really nice ones and some really nice ones got away. (they were <_____________________________________________________>this big) :)

Brian (my brother in law) got a hook deep in his finger and had to cut the hook and push it through the other side of his finger. I don't think it tickled because he wasn't laughing.

I broke my all time record by 9 ounces, a 4lb 9oz largemouth: (you can click on the pictures for larger images)

I also caught a 3lb 9oz largemouth:

Brian caught some nice ones:
4lbs 6oz

4lbs 11oz

5lbs 6oz

I also caught a 11oz crappie and it was pretty so we took a picture:

Great trip, relaxing but tiring at the same time. Brian likes to get out on the water before any type of light is present which means we were getting up at 4:45 every morning. I told him I don't see 4:45 unless I'm going to bed...I came back a day early cause I missed my girls, they were excited to welcome me home.

Away for a while.

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:46:00 +0000

As soon as this never-ending workday ends, I'll be leaving for the other side of the state to my brother-in-law's house for our annual Spring fishing trip. This year looks very promising because the day/night temp's should be favorable for the bass to start their pre-spawn activity which is usually the best time of the year for fishing for bass. At least this is the best time of year that the big fish come shallow before the spawn. I can't wait. Last spring I went for only a couple of days and it was very cold. It was even snowing on us at times. I've waited out the winter, I've got my gear all prepped, I even had to reorganize my entire setup and re-use my old tackle box because I have so much stuff now. Christine was watching me organize it all the other night and she asked, "Are you even gonna be able to use all of that stuff in a week." I told her that's not the point, the point is that I'm prepared for anything that comes my way.
It looks like we're gonna get rained on a couple of days but I picked up new rain gear so I'm ready.

My brother-in-law doesn't have internet access at his house so this is a way for me to completely "unplug" myself from everything. No e-mail, no blogging, just God, Brian, and creation and hopefully some big fish!

There is nothing else (that I've found so far) that is as relaxing for me than to be out fishing. I'm looking forward for a solid week of it and I praying that I come back relaxed, renewed and refreshed.

I'll post some pictures from the trip when I get back and hopefully I'll break my big fish record this year.

Much needed update

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:53:00 +0000

So here's a list of things that I've been up to since I last posted:

Delivered 2 messages to Rock Spring one on how to pray and one on Fear and I'm preparing for one on April 13th about "The Armor of God".
Purchased a PS3 for Blu-ray capabilities but also fell in love with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Had multiple problems with customer support for several issues: Sprint, Comcast, ordering a bulb for a projector, HP (but they really came through in the end), Frontier.
Switched jobs, but not work location.
Severe withdraw from fishing, but I'm happy to report that I've been out 3 times this year already and have caught 10. (And yes Dana, I'll call these minnows)

Here's what I'm looking forward to in the near future:

Going to my brother-in-laws for a week long fishing trip
Going to Lake Lure, NC for vacation in the summer.
Moving into Rock Spring's permanent home this summer.

That's all for now...

3285 days ago

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:47:00 +0000

3285 days ago (9 years) was one of those "Defining Moments" for me. It was the day I officially became a father.
Bethany Irene was born and I now suddenly had this huge responsibility to take care of this small fragile person. 9 years later she's still fragile in certain ways and the responsibility hasn't diminished in any way. I got up this morning, made chocolate chip pancakes for her and her sister and put them on the school bus.
Time goes by quickly, I need to improve on enjoying every second with them because if I keep blinking too much, they'll be out of the house before long.
What I find so amazing is the insight that God gives to us once we become parents. It's amazing how many times He's given me the opportunity to see how he must look at me sometimes when I look at my girls. Awesome.
I often wish sometimes we could turn the clock back so we could enjoy them longer. Or at least turn it back to that day 9 years ago when I filled my car up with gas @ .89 per gallon.

God the Artist

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:15:00 +0000

Here's a picture of Woodrum Lake in Southern WV. I went for a day and a half this past weekend to my brother-in-law's for one last outing for the year. It rained on us for half a day but the fish were biting and it was awesome to see God show off his majesty with the colors of fall.

Funny things Kids say

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:51:00 +0000

I was channel surfing last night and I heard a comedian say "Kids say the darnedest things, you would too if you didn't have an education." ...I thought it was funny.

Anyway, this reminded me of something Christine told me a couple of weeks ago.
She and the girls were heading into town for something and were stopped by a train. Just as the train was completely by, Bethany (my oldest) asked, "Moma, what's in those round cars?" Isabella, (the youngest) without missing a beat replied, "Cats, Bethany!"

Interesting that she deducted that from the logo on the cars.

Looking forward to a new book

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:18:00 +0000

I'm looking forward to a new book by Craig Groeschel called "Going All the Way"
I really enjoyed Craig's last book and I blogged about it here.

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:58:00 +0000

A friend of mine sent this to me...
and yes "Surely" she is cute!
Man, she would have slammed us back in the "Twentysomething" days!!!

Idol Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:39:00 +0000

I attended the American Idols Live concert in DC last night and here are some of my thoughts:

1. 12 year old girls squeal really loud! (not that I mind that they are excited, but please control yourself while someone is singing or talking, so others can hear.)
2. Blake is an awesome performer. Hands down. Lots of beat-box stuff which was what everybody wanted to hear.
3. The "boys" put together a band...Phil played keys, Blake guitar, Chris S. bass, the boy that shouldn't be there acoustic, and Chris R. drums. They did a medley of songs ending with Hey Jude. I was impressed with their musicianship. Although I couldn't hear the acoustic in the mix, hummmm....
4. KiKi nailed Whitney, goosebumps were prevalent.
5. The boy that shouldn't be there was making dancing gestures not appropriate for the attending audience. No, "you really got me" performance, thank the Lord. You just can't fast forward through real life. His sister came out to wish him a happy 18th b-day and led everyone in the happy b-day song. She still sings better than him.
6. I wish Chris S. would have made it further so that he would have more of a showcase than some of the others.
7. Overall, it was an enjoyable show.
8. I need a better digital camera with a good tele-lens.
9. The show went longer than I thought it would.
10. There are going to be a lot of tired kids in school today.

Today's Catch

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:23:00 +0000

I caught 4 fish in 2 1/2 hours with a weight of 11 1/2 pounds...gotta love days like this.
2 of them were 4 pounders.

Shuffle the Pod

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:10:00 +0000

I always think that these kinds of posts are interesting so I thought I'd start doing it on a periodic basis.
The premise is that you take your MP3 player and put it on shuffle and post what the first 10 songs that it spits out so here goes:

1. Revelation Chapter 15 (The Message Remix) audio Bible
2. In Paisley (Gecko Monks)
3. People People (Dave Matthews Band)
4. Rain Down (David Crowder)
5. You Are Holy (Michael W. Smith)
6. Easy Listening (Steve Taylor)
7. Strange DejaVu (Dream Theater)
8. A Place Where I can Breathe (Stavesacre)
9. Fighting to Survive (Building 429)
10. Soul Circus (Victor Wooten)

Major Building Update Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:48:00 +0000

Hey Guys,
We made a major building announcement today. You can check it out here!

After you watch it, come back and leave a comment on your thoughts!

Girls after my own heart!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:47:00 +0000

Gotta love that the girls love to do whatever daddy does!

YEAH BABY!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 02:49:00 +0000

This will keep me smiling for a while!!!!!

Speaking the truth with boldness

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:43:00 +0000

For those of you that don't know me well, I don't like to travel but if I ever get to Charlotte, NC I will definitely be visiting this guy's church.

Check this blog post out: http://www.stevenfurtick.com/uncategorized/getting-fed/

It's not that we didn't say this in the Table Series a while back, but I loved reading/hearing this again. I find it way too easy in our culture to become a sluggard!

Virtual JC

noreply@blogger.com (Jamison C. Jennings) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:33:00 +0000

Ok, I've never been a Simpson's fan, but as much as I've been playing around with graphics and such lately I had to check out this site and see what it was all about.

So this is me Simpsonized. What do you think? I loved that they gave me the option for Cargo pants!