John 4:19-26

"Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?"

Jesus replied, "Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on the tis mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming-indeed it's here now- when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

The woman said, "I know the Messiah is coming-the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

Then Jesus told her, "I AM the Messiah!"

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

garage sale

Saturday, we are having an end of year garage sale. So, tonight, my wife and I are spending the evening cleaning out our closets, Cason's toys, all the junk piled up on the shelves in the garage, and anything else that's not nailed down! WE HAVE TOO MUCH CRAP!!!!

It's amazing to me how stuff can pile up over the weeks, months, and years. I mean, I'm finding stuff in my closet that I haven't worn in like three years. But every time I think about throwing it out, I think, nah... I really like that shirt, or that pair of jeans. But yet, I still fail to wear them. 

Sometimes I think our lives are like that too. We keep junk piled up inside our hearts, habits, anger, sadness, a grudge... etc. You know the kind of stuff I'm talking about. So tonight, I made a decision to clean something else out. Me. I'm going to take an inventory of what's hanging around inside there. I know that I've got stuff that, if someone could just pull it out and put it on display, I would probably be embarrassed or guilty about. As someone who walks with Christ, I know that these are things that I'm not required to carry around. And I know. Sometimes its hard to admit you're holding a grudge, knowing full well that its not the person's fault that your holding this grudge. It's yours. It's pride and selfishness. And I'm not just talking about grudges either. I'm talking about all of it. It all stems from selfishness and pride. All of it. And if you're someone who is, right now, sitting there reading this, getting angry at me for calling you out, then it just proves my point. You are a selfish, prideful person. And you better get it under control or it's going to eat away at you from the inside, until there's nothing left except the shell of the person that you used to be. 

I'm not saying these things because I'm better than you. Everything I just said up there, that was for me. I needed to tell myself that so tonight, when I'm spending some quiet time with God, I'll have something to think about when I'm trying to talk myself out of cleaning it out! But if you fall into the same category as me, than take it as I was talking to you too.  Cause here's the news flash: We are not, cannot be, and will never be without fault. We will always have things in our hearts and in our lives that we will need to deal with. Want to know why? Cause we're human. And we're weak. But that's Ok. There is a cure! 

2 Corinthians 17:9-10 says this, 

9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

C-ya all. Many blessings! I've got some cleaning to do. 

Monday, October 27, 2008

Yesterday was a great day at the Journey. I'll, hopefully, have Erik's talk up by tonight. If you have never gone to our website and watched any of his talks, you need to watch this one. He asked the tough question of whether or not we are ungrateful. And you may think you know the answer to that, but watch the talk and then see if your answer is still the same. He challenged us, right there in service, to write down some things that we are grateful for. Everyone had a piece of paper and a pen given to them, and he took about five minutes out of his talk time to do this. I, unfortunately, didn't have the opportunity to, since I have to float around between the Tech Booth and the stage. So this morning, I wanted to make my list. This isn't complete, but it's the first twenty. Just as he asked us to do, in his talk, I'm going to be adding to this list regularly. Thanks, Erik, for an eye opening sermon. I love you, man. You always challenge me, and I need that, if I'm going to be someone who makes a difference in this world. 

1. I'm grateful for my salvation, that I serve a God who loves me unconditionally.  2. I'm grateful for my family, particularly my wife and son, but my whole family.  3. I'm grateful for my friends and meaningful relationships with people who care about me and my well being. 4. I'm grateful for my country, and the men and women who selflessly defend it and all the freedoms that I enjoy.  5. I'm grateful that I have a nice house to live in.  6. I'm grateful that I've been provided for my whole life, by God and by my family, so that I have never had to go without any necessity.  7. I'm grateful for my education.  8. I'm grateful for having a job that I absolutely love, and desire to pour myself into completely.  9. I'm grateful for my talent and the fact that it has allowed me to support my family.  10. I'm grateful for the prayers that I know people send my way. 11. I'm grateful to live in a place where I'm allowed to pray openly, and people are allowed to pray for me and others openly. 12. I'm grateful for great leadership in my life from those who have mentored me and are still doing so. 13. I'm grateful for my health. 14. I'm grateful that I have all five of my senses, that I can see the beauty, smell the sweet, taste the spicy, hear the music, and touch the soft. 15. I'm grateful for pizza (I know that sounds bunk, but I swear, I'm grateful for it!) 16. I'm grateful for technology, that I can call my wife at anytime, or my mom who lives 500 miles away. Or I can DVR a show that I want to watch for later. Or that I can take pictures of my son as he grows up and be able to look back and see how he grew. 17. I'm grateful for warm weather, especially after five months of cold! 18. I'm grateful that I have clothes to wear and a warm bed to sleep in. 19. I'm grateful people who are dreamers and bring us amazing ideas and inventions. 20. And this one is kind of a joke and is definitely for Shawn... I'm grateful for great hair! :)

Make a list guys. Add to it. Just like Erik said, it will change your outlook on life. I'm going to, because I have way too much to be grateful for, and I don't deserve most of it. 

Here's the songs from Yesterday:   How He Loves Us (Eddie Kirkland), Breathe On Me (Todd Fields), Enough (Chris Tomlin), I Stand Amazed (this is an old hymn, but our version is like Kristian Stanfill's), How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin), Thank You Jesus (me, Robbie Cheuvront). 

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Hanging with the little man


So, yesterday, Cason stayed home from his preschool and we hung out all day. It was awesome. I'm trying to do this more often, when I have the opportunity. 

Right now, he's at such an impressionable age. It's so cool just to have conversations with him. His little brain is so active right now. He's like a sponge! I can tell him something, and he will not forget it. It's kind of annoying, actually! LOL. Like for instance, when we got up yesterday. We just hung out in bed watching Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny. He leans over and puts his head on my shoulder and says, Dad I love you. I say, I love you too buddy. He says, so.... when are we going to go golf putt! (That's what he calls putt putt golf. I told him on Wednesday, that on Friday, he and I were going to spend the day together, just hanging out, and we could go "golf putt".) It was pouring down rain, as anyone who lives here knows. I told him that it was raining and we'd have to wait. But earlier that morning, when Tiffany and I were talking, before she went to work, we were talking about the weather. He heard us talking about how the rain was supposed to let up by the afternoon. 

So, he says, yeah but the rain is supposed to stop when I get up from my nap! Now, how can you argue with that! 

The point is this. I'm so blessed to be able to spend time with my son. I know a lot of people have hectic schedules, and I do too, but sometimes other people can't take a day to just hang out with their kids. But.... sometimes they can and don't. I talked before about priorities. I was fortunate to have parents that loved me and took time to spend with me. Some of you didn't. But that's not an excuse for you not to do it with yours. If you don't, one day you're gonna wake up and your kids are going to be grown up, and you're not going to know them. And what's even more sad, They're not going to know you. 

Whether you can take a whole day or not, you CAN take time. And I can promise you, the time you take for them, will bless your heart tremendously. And it will build into them something that nobody else can. We live in a busy world where kids are neglected and left to grow up on their own. One day, you're going to be old and need someone to take care of you. Wouldn't it be nice to know that your children are taking care of you because they love you and want to, instead of because they have to? And besides, at that point, you're going to wish that they had time to spend with you, in the midst of their busy schedule! 

Blessings

Friday, October 24, 2008

Mickey Mouse Re-Cap





So, I finally got my pics downloaded into the computer. I'll share some with you all, but it's hard to pick out which ones to post. We took like 300 pictures. Ah, the beauty of digital cameras! When we bought this thing, we bought a 2 gig chip for it. This is a great camera. It takes like 8.5 megapixel photos. You would think that at that high of a resolution, you wouldn't be able to take a lot of pictures, even with a 2 gig chip... Wrong! At the highest resolution, it will still take 489 pictures. So, now we have this game that we play. Every time we go on a vacation, we try to see if we can take so many pictures that we have to download them, in order to finish out the trip. We've yet to accomplish this! 

Anyway, here's some fun pics. 


This is us hanging out with Mickey and Minnie.
 As you can see, I'm weighted down with all of the media gear! (2 still cameras and a video camera!)







Me and Cason with our 3-D "Bug Eyes". Getting ready for the "Bug's Life, 3-D Adventure"
  This, by the way, is probably one of the most awesome things to do at the Animal Kingdom park.








My little man... learning how to be a lady's man!!!! (He gave them both a kiss, by the way, before we moved on!)





Probably one of the most fun times we had at the Magic Kingdom. The Mickey Mouse Club House Show. All the Disney morning characters from, Mickey Donald Goofy Minnie & Daisey, to all the little Einsteins, and Handy Manny! All the kids get up and dance and use "Tootles" (the magic mouse ears) to help solve the big problem of the day! It's a really awesome show, and lots of fun.






Snack time. Desperately wanting some ice cream. It was hot. 




So we got some! YUM!!!!!!!!!  Well, that's enough for now. I'll post some more another time. Needles to say, we had a blast. Cason had sooooo much fun. But I can't lie. I did too! I absolutely love that place! I'll talk to y'all later. 





Blessings!






Tuesday, October 21, 2008

back to school

Well, fall break is over. Bummer! I was really enjoying just hanging out with my family and getting some things done around here that have been getting neglected.

So, today I got up and got ready to go to class. Remember when I told you about all the papers and tests and stuff that I had to do in advance, in order to go out of town? Well, today I had to try and remember everything that I had done, so that I could check with my professors to make sure that I got my grades, and didn't miss doing anything. So all day long, I went to class, feeling like I forgot something. You ever get that feeling? I mostly get it when I'm trying to get out of the house, running late for something, and know that there are like four things that I'm supposed to have with me. I always feel like I'm forgetting something!

Anyway, today made me think about, once again, priorities. I had a long talk with Erik yesterday, just about some personal things. He and I are accountability partners (along with Shawn), and we were just doing our normal, "how you doing?" thing. But, there was an issue that came up that dealt with priorities. I won't go into details, but it directly relates to where we're spending our time and resources. This is something that I'm really having to repent of. For the longest time, I've stayed out of certain things in life. For instance, I leave taking care of all of the bills and budget and money things, like making sure the check book is balanced, up to Tiffany. I mean, why not! This is what she does for a living. She is the executive director of a multi-million dollar company (meaning, she deals with million dollar budgets every day). So why not just let her do it? She's good at it. I'm not, nor am I particularly interested in it. But here's the thing.

There is no way I can be the spiritual leader of my household, if I have no idea what's going on with something as important as our family finances. I'm not saying that I'm going to jump in there and start changing things, cause that's just going to lead to something that Dave Ramsey would have a massive coronary over! But I am going to show her that I care about every aspect of our family, and that I don't expect her to have to do something without my support and willingness to be involved. Fellas, I know that if you look hard enough, you'll find an area in your life like this. Ask God to reveal it to you. If your desire is to be obedient, faithful, and God's man for your family, then you need to be shown these areas and do something about them. It may be that you just have an issue watching your kids for two hours so that your wife can go the movies with some friends, or doing the dishes cause she needs help around the house. Whatever the case may be, Christ said to love your wife like He loves the Church. I cannot see how that means anything less than complete and total sacrifice on her behalf. And if you're not willing to do it, then you have a pride issue. And that's something that will come back and bite you in the you know what! I'm talking to myself as much as any of you. It's pride that has kept me from thinking that I didn't need to be involved in things like this in my family.

Proverbs says: When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. And it also says: Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

Blessings!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

sunday thoughts and songs

Hey everyone!  Well, today was a really good day at the Journey. Erik, the campus pastors, the elders, and I all had a chance to talk this afternoon. We all thought that there was a really cool energy there today. Thank you, God, for showing up. I know that people's lives were changed, and I am honored to have been a part of it. Please, come join us for the remainder of this teaching series, if you don't have anywhere else to be. Even if you do, still come join us! You won't regret it. God has really put some cool stuff on Erik's heart. You'll be glad that you came. Remember too, you can go to the website and check out the previous week's teaching, if you missed it live. Hopefully, I'll have this week's talk up by Wednesday, at the latest. You can check out all of the videos at www.thejourneytn.org  Then just go to resources and video library. 

Well, as I told you all before, we went to see Mickey Mouse this past week. It was awesome. Cason really had a great time. I'm still in the process of downloading the pics to my computer. As soon as I have all that squared away, I'll post some. But before I forget, Here's all the tunes from last week and this week. 

Last Week: Savior King (Hillsong United), Holy Is The Lord (Chris Tomlin), All Who Are Thirsty (Kutless), Salvation (Matt Redmon), and  He Loves Us.

Now, I have to interject here! This song, "He Loves Us", is a tune that I heard this past week at the Catalyst Conference. Rarely, there comes along a song that changes my life. And even more rarely, there comes along a song that I wish I had written. Most of the time, I am excited for someone, in that, God has birthed a song in their heart and has gifted them with it to share with the world. I know that Jealously is not a good thing, but I'm jealous of this song. I wish that God would have put it on my heart to write. And because of that, I feel the desperate need to make sure that everyone I come in contact with, knows about this song. There are a few youtube things that you can check out on it, as well. One of them (and I'll post the link here) is the actual songwriter, and the story of the song. The version of the song that I heard at Catalyst was by Eddie Kirkland. He was the worship leader for that segment. You can go to itunes and, at the store, search Eddie Kirkland. It will be the first song that comes up. Again, it's called, "How He Loves Us".  Here is the youtube link to see how the song was written. Click HERE.

Today's Songs:  Let The Praises Ring (Lincoln Brewster), All Because of Jesus (Fee), Glorious One (Fee), How Beautiful the Blood Flowed (Kristian Stanfill), We Shine (Fee)

Ok, so I'm somewhat of a Fee fan!!! Who cares! If you're going to itunes or anywhere else to get this music, you'll understand when you hear the songs. This band is absolutely anointed! Steve Fee (the lead singer and band's namesake) is one of the most awesome people I've ever met. And I've had the pleasure of leading worship with some of his band guys. They are all men who are on fire for God, and what He wants to do in this world. If you don't know about these guys, I highly recommend that you check them out. You can do that HERE!

Talk to you all soon. God bless and have a great week!

-robbie

Friday, October 17, 2008

the mouses house

Well, it's Friday night and I'm in Atlanta, staying at a hotel. Why, you ask? Well, this past week, we went to Disney World, perhaps one of my favorite places on planet Earth. It was awesome! Cason had a blast! 

We left Sunday, after church. Tiffany's parents, her sister and her husband and six kids (that's right! I said SIX!), and we all went to see the mouse! As soon as we got there, it was on! The very first thing, as we got off the tram from the parking lot, there he was, Mickey Mouse, in the flesh... or I guess you'd say, in the costume! Cason was freakin out. He absolutely loves Mickey. So, we stood in line for about ten minutes and got our picture with him and Minnie. I'll post some pictures later, after I download them. And then that's where it all went BUNK, to quote one of my favorite sayings!

Remember, I told you, Tonya and Gerald, Tiffany's sister and brother in law, have six kids. (Ok, I should probably explain a little. They technically have three. Two boys and a girl. They are precious, like all children are! But for this trip, they had their two nieces and nephew with them. Brave! That's all I can say about that.... Brave!) So, we get to the front gate of the Magic Kingdom, after the pictures. I get our tickets out, Steve (Tiffany's father) gets their tickets out, and Gerald starts pulling out pockets, takes the back pack off and unloads it (no tickets). Goes to the stroller, pulls out the other backpack, unloads it (no tickets), hollers over to Tonya to get the tickets out of her purse. He remembers that the tickets are there. That's where they last were.... No Tickets. (you see where this is going, right?) 

fifteen minutes later, after basically ransacking every piece of clothing, bag, purse, pocket, stroller compartment and any other possible place that the tickets could be, it is finally determined that they left their tickets back at the condo. (Six kids! Lot's of stuff to get ready to go at seven in the morning! Apparently, tickets were at the bottom of the list and didn't get checked off prior to departure!) Long story short, Gerald, looking like someone shot his dog, begrudgingly made the journey back to the condo and retrieved the tickets, which were sitting on the coffee table! From that point on, for the rest of the week, we were basically like a herd of turtles, wondering through the four parks, riding everything we came in contact with, and taking in every show available to the masses. It really was a great trip. I'm kind of sad we had to come home. There's something about watching the Magic Kingdom Castle fade in the distance, knowing that you're headed home, that leaves a sad feeling in your heart. It's such a cool place. Everyone there is soooooo concerned with weather or not you're enjoying your stay. The people who work there (they're called cast members, by the way) are some of the happiest people I've ever met. They go out of their way to see a smile on your face. 

It got me to thinking... what if the Church was like that? What if we went out of our way to see a smile on someone's face. What if we did everything we could to make people forget how crummy everyday life can be sometimes. What if we actually did what Christ called us to do... to love one another and bring hope and joy to a hurting and broken world? Why is it that a place like Disney world can achieve this, and the greatest organization ever created can't? Something to think about! 

I hope you all had a great week. We sure did. I'm looking forward to getting back and seeing all our friends, but I can't wait to go back! I know Cason can't wait either! 

Obviously, I've been out of pocket this week, so I'll try to post on Sunday the tunes from this week and last week. I'll see you all at the Journey

God Bless.

Monday, October 6, 2008

sunday thoughts

Hey everyone!

Well this week is going to be a busy one!! As most of you know, Tiff and I are going to take Cason to see the Mouse! Yee haw- 12 hours in a car with a two year old! Does anybody else think this is the equivalent of committing psychological suicide?

But first, let me tell y'all about yesterday. We had a great day at the Journey. Shawn Allen, one of our campus pastors, was our teacher yesterday. Erik has been on a three week break (well not really... he's been working in the kid's area. So you could really say, he's been doing even more work! Thanks, Erik, for your willingness to serve- and lead by example!)

Actually, Erik asked several of us on the leadership teams to spend some time with the kids these past weeks. Our teachers needed some breaks and some help, themselves. I personally got to go hang out with the 4-5 year olds. Man, those kids are CRAZY! :) They are so full of energy and just go nonstop! But they love coming to kid's church! And that's awesome. I was in there with Ginger Reed, our children's ministry leader. She does a great job. If you guys have a kid, you should go tell her how much you appreciate her. She's awesome!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend the entire time back there. About twenty five minutes into it, I got a text from my tech booth saying that they were having "issues". Imagine that! Technological issues at the Journey........ noooooo. Who'd believe that! :)

Anyway, back to Shawn. Shawn is one of my best friends. He's a great guy with incredible insight into people and ministry. I'm blessed to have him in my life. And his wife, Miranda, is one of my praise team leaders, as well. Tiffany and I adore them both. And yesterday, Shawn got to finish the Elements series with "Purposes". Shawn, you did a great job, dude. Sorry about your muffler! (I'm just glad I'm not riding to Catalyst with you!) For those of you who are saying..."muffler?", go to the website and watch it. It's hillarious! As always, go to resources, then video library, then "Elements-week three, Purposes".

So, back to the Mouse! Tiffany and I are going to Disney with Cason, leaving this Sunday after church. This makes my week long! One, because I'm more excited to go than Cason!!!! (I love that place, dude! I'm the biggest kid of all!) Two, because before we go, I have three class periods of homework and tests (four to be exact) that I have to take and turn it by Wednesday of this week. Fun huh? So, here I am, talking to y'all, when I should be writing an essay on "claim of Cause" for Ms. Cynthia Wyatt, my english professor. (six pages, by the way!) So, I'll leave y'all with this:

Jesus talked all the time about trying to do things and live this life through your own strengths. He even said, apart from Me, you can do nothing. Now I don't think that he meant that without Him we will all stand stagnant and litterally do nothing! Most of the time, well pretty much all of the time, when Jesus spoke, he said things so that you would have to delve into it to get the meaning. This is what I think he meant: He is God, God in the flesh. Therefore, He created us. Apart from His creating us, we couldn't do anything, because we wouldn't exist! Therefore, apart from Him, we can do nothing. But I also think there's a deeper meaning as well. If we do things of this world that are not centered around Him, then what we do is meaningless. Now, that doesn't mean that nothing has meaning, it just means that in the grand scheme of things, if it's not centered around God's will for our lives, then it's in vain. The bible says that all of our works are like filthy rags. There's nothing that we can do, no amount of works or efforts to attain our salvation. Because it has already been done for us. We just have to accept the grace that has been extended to us. So, if you're going around doing things without God at the center of your life, does your life have meaning?

Love y'all. Here's the songs from yesterday.

You Are Our God (Robbie Cheuvront, Erik Reed), Mighty To Save (Hillsong), Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin), Because You Are Holy (Robbie Cheuvront), He Reigns (Newsboys).

Thursday, October 2, 2008

r u kidding me!

Ok. Here's the deal. I've got like ten minutes to post this cause I have to do two weeks worth of homework, tests and papers and have them ready to turn in by this wednesday! 

Tiffany and I are going to take Cason to see the "all powerfull mouse!"  (that's disney world for those of you who are running a little slow today.)

So, naturaly, my professors won't allow you to make up any work whatsoever. This means that I have to do it all (two week's worth) before I go. So, yee haw!!!! Let's git-r-done! 


Hope you all have a great rest of the week. Oh, and by the way, I have officially posted earlier than Erik Reed!!!! So, give him a hard time!

Here's the songs from this past sunday.

You Alone Are Worthy of My Praise (Big Daddy Weave), Oh Praise Him (Crowder), Thank You, Jesus (written by me. still don't have an mp3 available. working on it.), I Surrender (Lincoln Brewster).