Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

SEAPs

This afternoon, Brian and I will be judging some of the Senior Exit Action Projects at Amelia High School. If you're unfamiliar with the SEAPs, these are projects that high school seniors have been working on all year. This project is a requirement for graduation.

The project culminates with the student giving a presentation before a panel of judges. I have served as a judge for the past two years and I will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I love it.

I love seeing the fruit of a person's hard work.

I love it when a person stretches himself/herself.

I love the art of public speaking.

I love meeting prominent people in our community who serve on the judging panels.

I love interacting with students.

It's gonna be a great day!

One More "Beautiful" Week To Go

I am loving our Beautiful series!

This past Sunday, we talked about how to have a beautiful marriage. We had some straight talk about issues such as the roles of a husband and wife in marriage, mutual selflessness, and…what was that other thing we talked about? Oh yeah. Sex. The Bible doesn't evade the issue, so we can't either. If you missed the message or you want to check it out again, click here.

The response to this series has been stellar! Lots of couples have told me that they've been challenged and encouraged.

A lady who has been a widow for several years said, "My husband always told me I was beautiful." How cool is that?

A divorced person told me, "I wish I had heard that before I got married. Things might have turned out differently." That broke my heart. But it also encouraged me to keep preaching the truth about marriage!

We've got one more week to go in our Beautiful series. This Sunday, the message is entitled, "Stretch Marks Are Beautiful, Too." We're going to talk about how to be a beautiful mom. And for the guys…we're going to talk about how God expects us to serve our wives in their role of motherhood.

It's going to be a "beautiful" day. Don't miss it.

This Is How It's Done

I read on Mark Batterson's blog that this ad will run during the American Idol finale. I love it.

For what it's worth, this is how Christians need to approach the abortion issue. This type of positive approach is much more winsome and attractive than the negativity and condemnation that many Christians are known for.

Don't get me wrong…we don't blur the lines on issues like abortion. But how we take our stand makes all the difference. Yelling…screaming…condemning…it just makes pro-abortion people more committed to their stance. You can't have a conversation with someone who is yelling at you.

I pray that we can see more of this type of positive conversation. It's one thing to be anti-abortion. It's quite another to be pro-life.

Let the world know what you're for…not just what you're against.

A Beautiful Marriage

Are you married? Planning to be married someday? Then you need to do whatever it takes to be at ACC this Sunday.

We're continuing on in our Beautiful series. This week, we're talking about beauty in marriage. It's going to be straight up, in-your-face, change-your-life-and-change-your-marriage truth.

One word of warning…we're talking about marriage, and that means that we're talking about sex. The Bible doesn't shy away from it, so neither do I. The message will be graphic, but not pornographic. Big difference.

But you will want to have the kiddos attend our awesome children's ministry programming (which they should do every week, anyway!). I'm telling you upfront so I won't have to apologize to you later. Melanie is offering programming during both services this week to help out our parents.

I am STOKED about what God is going to do in our marriages this week! Every marriage has the potential to be beautiful if we follow God's will and God's Word.

She Did!

In a previous post, I mentioned that my wife would probably complete grad school with a perfect 4.0 average.

Well…

she did!

Did I mention how incredibly proud I am of the woman I married?

In A Worthy Way

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me. (Romans 16:1-2, NIV, bold mine)

I've read these verses many times before. Well, that's not entirely true. I've glossed over these verses many times before. They never seemed all that significant to me.

Paul was writing to the Roman believers, asking them to help out a woman named Phoebe. Other than the author/singer of Smelly Cat, I've never known a woman named Phoebe. This never seemed like a Scripture that was relevant to me.

Not so fast.

Paul asks the Roman believers to “receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints.” Fellow “saints” (aka, Christians) deserve our very best, and yet they often receive our very worst.

How often do we treat one another like enemies instead of friends?

Like foes instead of family?

When someone comes to Christ, the Bible calls them a saint. Contrary to popular theology, this isn't a term that is reserved for a select few special dead people. If you are in Christ, you are a saint.

The call to treat one another “in a way worthy of the saints” must be the driving force for relationships within the church.

If you are a saint, I must treat you in a way that is worthy of someone who wears that title.

If you are a saint, you should treat me in the same worthy way.

The Cost of Procrastination

In my case, the actual cost was $4.00. That is what it cost me today when I returned four overdue videos to the library. I could have saved myself this money, but I just never got around to renewing or returning the videos. Hence, my $4.00 fine.

As a Dave Ramsey disciple, this irritates me. I could have spent that $4.00 paying down our debt!!!

But I digress. Debt reduction, while a worthy goal, is not the point of this post.

The point is that procrastination comes with a price tag. Granted, our financial condition is good enough that we can handle a $4.00 library fine. But a lot of times in life, the cost of procrastination is much, much higher.

What have you been putting off? What do you know that you need to do? Why haven't you done it?

The right time to do the right thing is always right now.

If you have been meaning to write that note of encouragement, write it.

If you know that you need to give that gift, give it.

If God is leading you to have that tough conversation, have it.

Procrastination is not a Fruit of the Spirit. It's a tool of the devil.

I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. (Psalm 119:60, NIV)

Delay or Denial

Someone once said, "God’s delays are not God’s denials."

God's timing is impeccable. He knows what you need, when you need it. If you seem to be in a holding pattern, just hang on.

That doesn't mean you should be lazy. Keep praying. Keep working. Keep trying to make something happen, with the understanding that God will partner with you…in His time.

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust… (Psalm 40:1-4a, NIV)

God's delays are not God's denials.

When Computers Attack

This past Sunday was not a good day for technology at ACC. It was one of those "if it can go wrong, it will" kind of days. You especially know this if you were in our first service on Sunday. In the beginning of my first service message, I finally asked Lindsey, our computer tech, to just shut it down. For the first time in years, I preached with no slides on the screen.

Lindsey and Josh were champs on Sunday. They did everything they could to make it work. It wasn't their fault. The computer just refused to run properly.

I tried to take it in stride and move on. But honestly, I didn't do that nearly as well as I would have liked. I was angry with our computer. I was distracted by all the technical problems. And I let it throw me off my game. From where I was standing, the first service message bombed. And it was nobody's fault but mine.

Anybody who thinks that I've "got it all together" because I'm a preacher…this should convince you of the truth. I let a computer malfunction take my mind off the preaching of the gospel. And honestly, I'm disgusted about that.

God is using this whole experience to teach me a few things…

1. The gospel was preached for a couple of thousand years without the aid of technology. It's a great tool that we have. I believe we use it very effectively for God's purposes. But if it goes down, then it goes down. The gospel is bigger than a computer. Shame on me for forgetting that.

2. Sometimes I worry about too many things on Sunday, when I need to concern myself with preaching the gospel. We have very talented people in these other areas…people who can do a better job than me anyway. I need to focus on what I'm called to do and let them focus on what they're called to do.

3. Perfection can never be the benchmark of success. Sunday was far from perfect. But a lot of people told me how much the service impacted them. Yeah, even people who were in first service said that. I always want us to strive for excellence because God deserves our best effort. But perfection is not, and can never be, the standard that we expect to attain.

4. I need to lighten up. I am very intense when it comes to preaching. Don't expect that to change. It's a massive responsibility, and if I don't approach it with prayerful intensity, then I should hang up my Bible. But when something goes wrong, as it inevitably will, I need to roll with the punch.

I read this post from Elevation Church recently. It's about a total technological meltdown that they experienced a couple of weeks ago. When you are a multi-site church who is COMPLETELY dependent on video, it is a really big deal when it doesn't work. That's exactly what happened…and they rolled with it. I need to improve in this area significantly…and quickly.

I appreciate how patient our team was with me on Sunday. Everybody involved with the tech stuff was very understanding. Everyone kept telling me, "We'll do our job. You go do yours."

That's my plan, starting this Sunday.

Gotta Love Mother's Day

Confession time…

As a general rule, I don't like preaching on Mother's Day. I don't have anything against the holiday. I definitely don't have anything against moms or women in general. It's just that, in the past, I have always felt rather unqualified to speak on anything relating to the subject of motherhood, women, etc.

But then I came to a simple, yet profound, realization. God created women. He loves them. He knows what they need to hear. That takes all the pressure off of me. I just need to step aside and let God do the talking.

I really felt like that happened yesterday as we opened up our Beautiful series. Can't wait to get on with the message for this coming Sunday. The message is entitled, "The Wedding Dress Doesn't Fit Anymore."

You read that title and tell me that we're not going to have some fun this Sunday at ACC!