Reconnecting

We really enjoyed Memorial Day Weekend. We went to North Carolina with Springer's parents, sisters, and brothers-in-law... and of course, Max, Jason and Elizabeth's pup. Springer and I visited the Biltmore too. My cousin Anna works for the Biltmore, so we ate lunch with her one afternoon... so good to hear her voice! We also visited with Aunt Susie, who also lives in Asheville. AND we met up with Amy, my friend that I lived with when I moved to Augusta! And she's getting married! It was really fun to catch up with her and to meet her sweetheart.
It was so good for my heart to reconnect with family and friends that I hadn't seen in awhile.
North Carolina was beautiful. The house where we stayed was surrounded by tall trees, and our room had a big window. When I woke up in the morning, I felt like I was outside because the trees were so close! (And I probably need to mention that I am quite blind in the morning without my glasses.)
Finished out the weekend with a road trip back home. We stopped at "the trees", where Springer proposed. And then we had a cookout with the Darnells in Macon to complete a wonderful weekend!

I love these girls!

Moms

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to all the moms I know and love.

I am continuously in awe of my mom. She is the most sacrifical, encouraging, strong, beautiful woman I have ever known. I love you, Mom!

I am very grateful to have an amazing mother-in-law too! I love her creativity and hospitality. She raised Springer to be a wonderful husband. So glad to continue to get to know her better and better!

And I want to say a special HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY! to my sweet blogging friends that are mothers! Camille, Laura, Melissa, Whitney, Amy, Katie, Betsy, Anna (can't wait to meet your little one in July!)

You are such a beautiful example of motherhood, and I hope you all are having a wonderful day and feeling VERY celebrated!

The Pig

The other day I was looking back over all the blogs that we have written in the last year or so. It's funny because I was looking at the first blog we ever wrote. It was about how we were starting a blog, and my intentions were to blog a lot about different BBQ joints we've been too.

Well since that first blog over a year ago there have been exactly 0 blogs about BBQ. I'm actually kind of disappointed in myself. So I have decided to write another barbecue blog today. In the past year I think I have only eaten at 3 barbecue joints. That may sound crazy if you know how much I love barbecue. Even though I've only eaten at 3 in the last year, I have probably averaged about once a week at one in particular. That is the Smokey Pig here in Columbus. It is definitely my favorite barbecue place right now. I love both the chipped and bite sized pork. They use a mustard based sauce that isn't so great on its own, but tastes good when added to the meat. The Pig also has some great potato salad. Their sweet tea is very good, which is a key part to a good barbecue restaurant. Every day on my way to work I drive by there and love smelling that smoke. A lot of times I have to roll my window up, or I will be craving it all day.

Another Columbus BBQ restaurant is 13th Street BBQ. I was not very impressed the time I went, but I know a lot of people really like it. I'll have to try it again soon. The other one is Country’s Barbecue. I grew up on Country’s and I like it, but not as good as the Pig. They have great smoked ham and delicious fried pickles. The other night at a church meeting we had Macon Road BBQ, and it was really good. We'll definitely go there soon, and I'll write up another BBQ blog for it.

Water Baptism

Laura Susan and I had such a great weekend as she mentioned in the previous post. It was capped off by an incredible baptism service at our church. Our church has a baptism service about twice a year. The first one we experienced was last fall. CrossPointe doesn't do infant baptism, but believer baptism. (I know there is a lot of debate about this, but we won't really get into that.) God's word says repent and be baptized.

Acts 2:38 “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.’”

Laura Susan and I were both baptized when we were infants, and we are honored that our parents did this. When we first started thinking about being baptized again, I was a little hesitant. Mainly because I knew I had already been baptized. The more I prayed, read, and thought about it, I decided I did want to be baptized. When I was a baby, I didn't have the choice to be baptized and didn't know what I was doing. But now being a believer and studying God's word, I knew that baptism is something God wants us to do to be able to identify with Jesus.

Romans 6:4 says, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

We knew that being baptized was a great way for us to proclaim the gospel. But we also knew that being baptized is not something we have to do to be saved. It is by faith through grace that we are saved, no works including baptism can make Jesus love us anymore. Jesus did tell us to be baptized though in the Great Commission.

Matthew 29:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

So all this to say that Laura Susan and I were baptized on Sunday. First I was baptized by our pastor, and then I had the honor to baptize Laura Susan. Our church also believes that baptism is not just a priestly function. I am the spiritual leader of our house, so I baptized my wife. It was such an incredible time; we could really feel God moving. A couple more folks got baptized after us. A father got in to baptize his son, but as he was standing there talking, he decided that he needed to be baptized by our pastor before he baptized his son. (I was in the bathroom changing so I didn't get to actually see this.) It was such a powerful moment that it inspired a few folks in the congregation who weren't planning on being baptized to come up and be baptized. It was such an incredible service. Afterwards we had some great yard bird (chicken) out on the front lawn. We love being part of the CrossPointe tribe.

We feel like God is doing so much in us through this church. Another great thing we have coming up this summer is a mission trip to Belize. We are so excited about this. For the past couple of years we have felt God put a desire for missions on our heart. But we haven't had an opportunity to go on a mission trip until now. Please be praying for this trip and the support-raising.

Great Weekend

We love our church. God blesses us everytime we are with our tribe.
Just started helping with worship last week, and it is so good to be back. We had a Night of Worship last night at the church, and it was amazing. God comes when you invite Him!

Some of my favorites lines we sang...

"I believe You're my Healer, I believe You are all I need, I believe You're my portion, I believe You're more than enough for me"... As one who has been healed, my heart praised Him in this song!

"I know I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing!"

"Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades, Never-ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame, and the cry of my heart is to bring You praise, from the inside out" ... It is ALL about Him!

"What can wash away my sin? What can make me whole again? NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS!"

"Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave!"

What a great night! At the end of a looooooooooooooooooooooooong week, I needed to sit at His feet and worship.

In other news, we are headed to Atlanta this afternoon for my friend Ashley's wedding. She is one of my best friends from pharmacy school. I seriously would not have made it through without her and Jenny. We laughed a lot, and I am excited about celebrating with her and Steve tonight.

Tomorrow is our church's third anniversary... and it is a water baptism Sunday. Springer and I are going to be baptized, and we are really excited about it.

Romans 6:1-11
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

G-Day

Laura Susan and I went up to Athens this weekend for G-Day. We had a great weekend. The G-Day game was alot of fun. We decided to sit on the alumni side on the 50 yard line (you can pretty much sit wherever you want at G-Day). After we sat down we saw just behind us that guy who always is on TV with the bulldawg painted on his head. So we had to get a picture with him. He was such a nice guy. the game itself was good, Stafford had a nice TD pass to Michael Moore who made a great catch. Caleb King, who will back up Knowshon, made some flashy moves.

We got to eat at some of our favorite restaurants and got to go to our old church, St. James, which was alot of fun. We also passed along the North Campus frisbee golf tradition to Laura Susan's brother Will. It was a little tough to play in such wet conditions, but we had a good time.

Now I just can't wait for our National Championship run to start in August.
Go Dawgs!!