Covered Thoughts

1. Kansas vs Davidson last night was a historic game. If Davidson won they would be the first 10 seed to make the final four. If Kansas won, it would mark the first time all four teams in the final four were 1 seeds.
2. Davidson was 1 play short of being David to Kansas’ Goliath. Dell Curry’s son didn’t get an open shot so he dished to a teammate who threw up an NBA 3 pointer.
3. I opened a twitter account and started twittering.
4. Jesse needs to put all the videos on youtube.
5. I missed being at church yesterday.
6. Tomorrow’s “profiles” blog entry is going to be great. My dad is writing again about a massive event in 1992 at the church. He really needs to start up his blog so he can write about all his adventures.
7. Someone at work told me that Communism was a good system on paper; he said the only reason it doesn’t work is because man won’t let it. I know what Glenn Beck means when he says that he needs to duct tape his head so it won’t explode! This guy at work said communism ignores the human factor and that is why it doesn’t work. Any system that is set up for man, yet ignores man is not a system that can work EVEN on paper. DUH!
8. The Democrats are trying to get Rush Limbaugh indicted for “Operation Chaos”. That’s ridiculous. Rush is cracking me up on this one.
9. Word on the street is that the Canes will go three deep at RB this year. Could be a fun year for this team.
10. I want to go see Horton Hears a Who this week.
11. I wrote this entry from work but I had to get home to add the links.

Sunday Life Pointe Talk Soup 3/30/08 by Marcela

I wasn’t able to be at church this morning due to the necessity of bill paying. I spent my beautiful Sunday at the plant. Marcela said she would provide today’s Talk Soup.

By Marcela Johnson

Let me just first say that I was coerced into contributing to this Sunday’s blog… the things we do for love.

• This morning I arrived at church just in time for the first service.
• I rushed to get my morning cup of joe (caffeine being a necessary part of the daily routine to keep me sane), and proceeded to sit at the back aisle of the floor section with the rest of the Johnson women.
• Jesse, Alex (the human metronome), and the rest of the Band were rocking the service with : 1 Friend of God, 2 Trading My Sorrows, 3 Say So (which was very energetic and got the crowd going), and 4 How Great Is Our God.
• After the music, Jesse proceeded with the announcements. Let me just say that contortionist/comedian Jim Carrey has nothing on Jesse Santoyo.
• Jesse has a way of contorting his body and face in such a way that he can resemble a blockhead, an alien, and a shrunken head in just a matter of seconds.
• I am having strange flashbacks to the movie “Beetle Juice“.
• Who knew there were so many odd folk at Life Pointe? 🙂
• Pastor Travis continued the service with the message “Why Did Jesus Come to the Earth?” The basic theme was that Jesus was sent from heaven to earth on a mission by God the Father but that in doing so He also came to fulfill three roles: as prophet, as priest, and as King.
• Many times we may accept Jesus as prophet and King but not as priest (or vice-versa). In essence, we need to open all of ourselves to Jesus and not keep anything hidden from Him.

Thanks Marcela! I will see all of my LPC peeps next Sunday. Don’t forget to check out Pastor Trav’s wrap, Chris’ Tossed Salad, and Ritz’s Goosfaba.

Top 5 Saturday – Reasons to visit/live in Homestead

5. Homestead/Miami Speedway – Indy and NASCAR events.
4. It’s the gateway to the Florida Keys, some of the best fishing and diving/snorkeling anywhere.
3. Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park – the only habitat in the world where American crocs and alligators share the same waters.
2. Sun and fun in the winter months and all year. We have an annual average max temperature of 84.2 degrees and average minimum temperature of 63.3 degrees; it might get as low as 30 degrees every 20 years or so.
1. The most hoppin, kickin, rockin church on planet Earth. LPC is experiencing explosive and true growth. People are coming to the Lord for the first time or the first time in a long here. The pastoral team (Lead Pastor Travis, Pastor Paul, and Pastor of Arts Jesse) is incredible. The music is lively, stimulating, and meaningful. The volunteer teams are the best. This group of believers loves God and fellow man without regard to status or background. The Sunday morning experience is worth the trip, from wherever you are!

Citizen Kane – Why is it so great?

Last night, Marcela and I watched one of my favorite movies, Citizen Kane. Let’s leave for a different discussion all of the technical reasons Citizen Kane is listed by many experts as the greatest American film ever made: the cinematography, the clarity, the production value of this 67 year old movie. Let’s talk about the meaning of this movie.

WARNING – this could spoil the movie, so don’t read any further if you plan on seeing this film but have not found the time to do so since 1941.

Charles Foster Kane was a young boy whose family was living on a massive fortune unknown to them. They were poor. When the fortune was discovered on the very property they lived, a trust was set up for young Master Kane and his mother sent him away to be raised by Mr. Walter Parks Thatcher, basically the bank in which the trust rested. When he came of age to claim his fortune, he was asked by his Mr. Thatcher what he wanted to do with his life. He determined that he was not interested in the financial world, he didn’t want to run the railroad, and he was expelled from the finest institutions of higher education in the land. He wanted to be a newspaper man; he thought “it would be fun to run a newspaper” to the scorn of his executor Mr. Thatcher.

The movie begins with his death in his lavish mansion and the last words “Rosebud”. The newspaper writing a piece about the life of this powerful man believed that you could tell everything about a man’s life based on his last words. What/who was Rosebud? FAST FORWARD: Rosebud was not a beautiful woman he loved at a younger age, it was not some item he could never quite get with all the money he had. Rosebud was his little snow sled that he played with as a young child. Just before he died, he saw the snow from a little snow globe that reminded him of his simple yet poor childhood. All the money he had, all the power he consolidated as an influential newspaper tycoon, all the priceless statues, art, and mansions were meaningless. The one thing he thought about was the childhood that was taken away from him by money. As the movie ends, the workers in his home toss the sled “Rosebud” into the fire, as it is only junk to them. Sadly, the threw away the piece of the puzzle that could have answered the writer’s questions concerning the tragic life of Charles Foster Kane.

Enjoy the little things. Cherish the times with your family and loved ones. Don’t live life for the wrong things only to find that you had everything you needed and threw it all away. As a follower of Christ, I find it easier to enjoy life and harder to understand not enjoying life. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I have my wife, my family, my friends, and most of all Jesus in my life. That makes life beautiful regardless of the material goods I attain.

smothered thoughts

• I ended up kayaking at Biscayne National Park instead of Black Point. I’ll throw out a couple pics later.
• It started out peaceful around 2pm, but by 3ish the wind had picked up to around 15 to 20 mph. Dave had a difficult time navigating his canoe since his wife was watching the little ones and he was the only one in the boat with a paddle.
• There were a few whitecaps splashing me. Good thing I left my phone in the car.
• We didn’t see any crocs, eagle rays, dolphins, or sharks.
• We found a nice cove in the mangroves where we plan on doing some snapper, snook, and shark fishing this summer.
• Dave brought two female connections for my kayak paddle so we had to rig it to get it to work. We had fun anyway.
• On the tourney tip, Tennessee is out, UNC is moving on.
• To the ESPN Life Pointe crew, you were right about Georgetown. (Still scratching my head on that one.)
• UNC vs Kansas for the whole enchilada seems like a pretty good bet at this point.
• I watched Citizen Kane with Marcela last night. I will post my thoughts on that incredible film later.

Scattered thoughts

• It’s nice to have a day off.
• I plan on going out to Black Point this afternoon for a little kayaking with one of my crazy homies from LPC.
• I might take a fishing pole or my mask and snorkel, but there are some big American crocs out there.
• The Democrats are in self destruction mode.
• More Democrat chaos and infighting.
• John McCain is only doing better by comparison to the Democrats.
• The Sweet 16 kicks off today as the tourney resumes.
• I love the underdog!
• I love the Cinderella!
• I even like Big East underdogs, a little.
• The egg hunt video Trav posted brings back memories of the Friday night that seems so distant.
• The egg hunt will become a Homestead legend for years to come.
• I won’t be at church this weekend because of work. As a matter of fact, I will be working a lot for the next 6-8 weeks.
• This guy’s blog is cool.

Deep Thought – 3/26/08

Broken promises don’t bother me. I just think,”Why did they believe me?”

–Jack Handey

Profiles HCOG/LPC: Giving Thanks with a Grateful Heart – Thanksgiving 1992

In light of the events of the weekend, specifically the egg hunt, I wanted to write about a massive event rather than a person, that was held on the church property following hurricane Andrew. Instead, I asked my dad to write about the event since he planned and executed: Giving Thanks With a Grateful Heart – Thanksgiving in Homestead 1992. Christmas in Homestead 1992 was equally as big, maybe bigger. But the Thanksgiving event was just amazing.

-By JT Johnson

Giving Thanks With A Grateful Heart(GTWAGH) was another in a long list of illustrious events in the storied history of Life-Pointe Church/HCOG that brought thousands of people together in one place. We announced that 10,000 hot turkey dinners would be served to any and all comers.

That was a real step of courage since Homestead had been dubbed “Bumstead” in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. Squatting along the canals or in damaged abandoned buildings were thousands of homeless job seekers/opportunists in search of a fast buck, a government handout or free meals; they would be glad to have a Turkey Dinner on Thanksgiving. We were glad to serve them, too, but we were really just trying to remind our town to be thankful to The Lord for the really important stuff–our families and our lives. Our housing could be replaced.

We had it all lined up, we thought. TBN purchased the turkeys, a local trucking company provided a refrigerated semi tractor-trailer to keep the food cold and CBN’s Operation Blessing donated thousands of bibles. Bill Bailey, brother of the OJ trial lawyer F. Lee Bailey, raised and donated thousands of dollars for this event and another one at Christmas time. We had all the food, T-shirts, shelter and paper goods/plates we needed. Funding providentially came in many sources. We had plenty of volunteers lined when one hundred twenty-five students/ teachers from West Virginia University heard about it the week before and asked if they could help.

Everything was just perfect until two days before Thanksgiving. Press releases went out to every major news outlet and calls were coming in from the press.

Then our volunteer cook welched on us and I was up the proverbial creek with no means of propulsion. I wanted to resign. Self-destruction seemed for a moment or two somewhat more pleasant than no cook.

Hungry Harry, Official caterer for the NFL Tampa Bay Bucs and personal friend of Bucs’ owner Hugh Culverhouse, got a call from me about 10 pm two days before Thanksgiving asking him to cook for us. He dropped what he was doing for three days and bailed us out. Whewww!! Life was sweet.

GTWAGH was a success amidst the ruins of our roofless sanctuary, unrepaired as yet. We were on the front page of our local paper, the Miami Herald did a multi-page article and USA Today included a picture with a brief mention of our church. AP news wires carried the story of the church with no roof serving South Florida 10,000 hot Turkey Dinners and a few days later the Hurricane Insurance Information Center sent me a copy of an article about it from the Sacramento Bee.

A few days later the foundation started by President George H. W. Bush, “Points of Light” and the charitable “Sears Foundation” awarded me the Hurricane Hero Award for conspicuous service to the survivors of Andrew. I didn’t feel like a hero. Harry was the hero. I was just doing what God gave me opportunity to do. Besides Anne and Phillip were right there with me all the way and they deserved it if anyone did.

I remember the crowds of people gathering, the slosh under foot from grass and dirt being walked on until it became mud, and the tents where the food was being prepared and served.  That was a crazy time and it was so much work.  The egg hunt actually gave me a couple of flashbacks to the Giving Thanks event, and the Christmas in Homestead.  Not everyone has the opportunity to go through one of those events, but it is a character shaping time.

Miami is out

The season is over, and we Canes need not hang our heads in shame. After an incredible come back Miami had succumb to the superior talent and depth that Texas presented. I expected the final to be around a 15 to 20 point margin for the Longhorns, but Miami was brave. They even had a chance to send the game into OT if they could have made a 3 point bucket at the buzzer. Unfortunately, they were not able even to get the ball in position to take a shot, much less make it.

Texas 75 Miami 72

Sunday Life Pointe Talk Soup 3/23/08

What a great Sunday morning. I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, so I will attempt to focus.

• The new sound system was great, after all the bugs were worked out.
• The 8:30 service started without a sound check or a walk-through and the result was a little feedback and no volume for Jesse, until Zech came in and rescued us with a swap of mics.
• 9:40 service was better, there was more energy, and the sound was a little more consistent.
• 10:50 was slammed, and the energy was off the chart. The music was definitely rockin.
• Jesse led us in Pride In The Name Of Love, Say So, and Holy Is The Lord in the musical portion of worship.
• Julie led us in Wonderful Cross during the invitation for people to give their hearts to the Lord.
• There was a large response for people wanting to give their hearts to Jesus.
• The Cold Play song Fix You with clips from Passion of the Christ along with scriptures was moving, and it reminded us of the meaning of Easter.
• The permanent light installation will make things cleaner on the floor, and will make it easier in set up.
• Even with all the last minute rushing, technical difficulties, and hecticness (is that a word?) the whole morning was a walk in the park compared to Friday’s egg hunt.
• There were a ton of new faces in church. I hope to see them all back with a friend next week.