Send us a text They are putting in new roads in our neighborhood, and as such they are compacting the ground. As such, there is a constant, loud, repetative thumping noise from sunup to sundown that cannot be drown out. It's like living in an apartment with someone banging on your wall over and over again all day. At this point, I'd do anything to make it stop. Well...that's the kind of way that God wants us to pray. He wants us to pray and never stop, to go to him over and over again. Don't bel...
Nov 20, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 97
Send us a text I received a free copy of the Bible in the mail yesterday. Not just any copy, a goatskin leather bound large print new Christian Standard Bible particularly designed for pastors. It was incredible to be given something of such immense value, not just the material, but the very words of God. Well...I want each of you to give someone the Bible, and the Bible I want you to give them is you . God's word is not merely to be read in the pages of Scripture, but seen lived out in our live...
Nov 19, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 96
Send us a text It's that time a year again that I start my Christmas shopping for others. The problem is, I'm really bad at picking at gifts for some people. I have gotten to the point that I have given up on surprising my wife, I just tell her to tell me plainly what she wants. That way I know she'll be happy with what I give her, because it's exactly what she asked for. Well...why do so many call Jesus Lord and yet not do what he asks of them? We presume that we know better than what God has a...
Nov 17, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 95
Send us a text I had the blessing of joining a discussion on another podcast last night with my friend Hal Hammons along with Terry & Peyton Francis. The topic was "jocks" and we used sports to springboard some very deep spiritual discussions. At one point Terry discussed Peyton's relationship with his teammates on his football team in high school. No player ever just showed up for the game, they practiced, work hard, and were always together. Well...what kind of players are we? Do we just s...
Nov 17, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 94
Send us a text We got talking about puzzles this morning after our morning study and how long it took to put some of them together. Then comes my least favorite part, after all that hard work over a period of days, weeks, or months depending on the puzzle...you pull it all apart in seconds and stick it back in the box. Well....what takes years to build only takes seconds to destroy in our life. Our reputation, a marriage, a career, all of these things are grown and last when we honor God, but ev...
Nov 12, 2021•9 min•Season 1Ep. 93
Send us a text Today is Veterans Day here in the United States. We honor those who have served in our armed forces and have been honorably discharchged to come home. Their sacrifices are not forgotten, and we are forever grateful to them and their families. It is my hope that all Veterans are able to find peace & rest from their service now as civilians. Well...there are no veterans in the service of God. Even into our old age, we are called to bear much fruit. Until the day we die, we conti...
Nov 11, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 92
Send us a text I want to grow an epic beard, but this cowlick on the right side of my face just makes me look silly. After some research, the only answer I could come up with is that you have to grow it out enough for gravity to take effect and counter act that strange growth. Until then, I'll have to deal with this awkward stage until enough time passes to have a full & mature beard. Well...we are all doing this. No, not growing a beard, but growing spiritually. It's a process. Not everyone...
Nov 10, 2021•14 min•Season 1Ep. 91
Send us a text My wife has now taken on the task of painting the interior of our house a new color. While it has so far been fairly easy, we've made it to the living room with 12 foot vaulted ceilings & other hard to reach places because of built in bookcases. We were not equipped to take this part on ourselves, which is why we borrowed a free standing ladder to help. All of our projects have gone something like this, where alone we couldn't do it, but with the help of others we could get th...
Nov 09, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 90
Send us a text This week, the football world was shocked when star wide receiver Henry Ruggs III drove intoxicated at incredible speeds and struck another driver. His choices ended the life of a 23 year old girl, as well as his career. He will spend the next 2-20 years in prison while his young girls family will spend the rest of their lives mourning her tragic loss. Well...do we take sin seriously? Sin is not worth the cost, which is our soul. Not only this, but our actions impact others - phys...
Nov 05, 2021•12 min•Season 1Ep. 89
Send us a text Susan Sparks has become one of my favorite people recently - she is my great Uncle Keith's attorney. She is a disciple of Jesus, kind, patient, and honorable in all of her work. But something I discovered blew me away - the countless hours she has poured into our case for our family have all been pro bono, that is to say, free of charge. Why would she do this? Her answer: because that's why God put her here, to help others in need. Wow. Well...we likewise as Christians have been c...
Nov 04, 2021•12 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Send us a text I have been on a 10 year search for a particular copy of the Bible that has been long out of print, a World Publishing New American Standard New Testament. No matter where I looked, a copy was nowhere to be found. That is until a new friend learned of my search, and sent me my very own copy in the mail yesterday. I couldn't believe it. What an incredible act of kindness...Well, every single act of kindness is a fruit of hte Spirit, and ultimately a reflection of the gospel of Chri...
Nov 03, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Send us a text Our son had a severe reaction to penicillin that landed us in the ER late last night. Our poor son was all swollen and covered in a horrid rash from head to toe, compltely miserable. As I sat there holding him, I felt terrible as there was nothing I could do to fix it. I love my son, and if I could have even taken his place I would have. Well...isn't that exactly what Jesus did for us? He saw our sinful condition, and through the cross on account of his great love for us he took o...
Oct 28, 2021•12 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Send us a text Everytime I see a jet stream up in the sky I think of my daughter. She loves airplanes, and she is so excited to point one out everytime she sees one. Actually, she doesn't even have to see it. As long as she sees a jet stream, she knows a plane was there. If you told her it was just a cloud, she wouldn't beleive you, she's smart enough to know a jet stream is no accident. Well...even though we cannot actually see God, we see clear evidence of him and his design in everything that...
Oct 28, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Send us a text We love talking about the things we love. Today I was talking about the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC with a Barista and others joined in and shared their experience. It is second nature for us to share our own experiences, we do not have to think about it, we just do it. Well...why don't we just talk about Jesus with others? Many times we are afraid, we do not know what to say, or unfortunatley some might even feel ashamed. But I think primarily we overcomplicate things. You do...
Oct 26, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 83
Send us a text My wife keeps a beautiful home, and I'm grateful because I don't really have an eye for the kinds of things she does. My lone contribution is buying her seasonal flowers on a regular basis to display. While they are beautiful while they last, I'm looking at my last bouquet which is now wilting and dieing. That's the thing about flowers - they don't last for long. Well...so it is with all things in this life. Their beauty & memory are short lived, but are soon gone & forgot...
Oct 23, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Send us a text I saw some powerful data today that challenged me and I wanted to share here. Did you know that it would only take the average reader just over 72 hours to finish the entire Bible? When you break it down over a period of a year or months, it's embarasing how many Christians still have not read the entirety of the Bible. What's our excuse? We don't have time. Well...when it comes to equiping ourselves & our salvation, we had better make the time. We make lots of time for the th...
Oct 21, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Send us a text I was helping to move a heavy grill over the weekend for a friend who was moving from their old house to their new one when there was a huge breakdown in communication. He told us to put it on the porch, which I assumed was the outdoor upstairs covered area off the kitchen. Half way up, we found out he meant downstairs - what I considered a patio. Same words, different meanings - and a lot of grill moving. Well...it's important that we define out terms or it can lead to serious pr...
Oct 21, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 80
Send us a text We're back at it again, and unfortunately so is some kind of virus or infection with our kids. Dane has been running a high fever for several days, and Ava just started tonight. We've ruled out almost everything after several visits to doctors, which is good but also frustrating. Rotating Tylenol & Motrin is fine, but it just treats the symptoms & not the root issue. Well...don't we deal with our sin the same way sometimes? We attack the symptoms, but not the real issue. W...
Oct 20, 2021•15 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Send us a text We will resume the Set Your Mind Above Podast next week on Tuesday, October 19th, 2021. Thank ya'll for your overwhelming love and support. #SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Oct 13, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 78
Send us a text Transparency moment: not a good day for me. I have so much going on all at the same time, and all of it kind of came to a head for me this morning emotionally. My wife, knowing me well, also knew how much I could use some encouragement and time to talk with her Dad, so she asked him to reach out to me. I didn't realize how much I needed his counsel, and I am so grateful for his love. Well...that's by God's design. We are dependent upon each other, even emotinally and spiritually, ...
Oct 12, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Send us a text The spiders are terrible this year, it seems like everytime I turn around outside or inside there is one there. Well today it turned out that the kids got a show put on for them. They got to watch a jumping spider pounce on a stink bug that was on the outside of the window. It never saw it coming, it was a sudden aggresive attack. Well...Satan works this same way often in our lives. Sometimes it's not a lie we believe, but a bold faced sudden attack where we least expect it. Are w...
Oct 08, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Send us a text Last night we were under a tornado warning, not a watch, a warning as the storm came closing in on us. As the sirens blared, I was thankful to be downstairs in the cement walled basement of our house of worship as we were attending midweek classes. As I stayed up late tracking the storm, I found myself thinking how we desperately need a storm shelter in the future as a part of our home. Well...where do we turn to in our lives for shelter? Often people turn to the wrong things, and...
Oct 07, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Send us a text I was given a suggested artist to listen to today, but as soon as he started singing I recognized his voice as the lead singer of another band. Apparently this was his solo work, completely separate from his work with the band he started with. Lot's of mucisians do this, becauase there is more freedom as a solo artist & those lines are not blured between individual efforts & the bands mission. Well...the same goes for the church as a collective local body and the individua...
Oct 06, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Send us a text Maybe it happened to you just like it did to me yesterday. You picked up your phone to open Facebook or Instagram...and nothing worked. In a rare, still unexplained event, these social media platforms went down globally! But you know what? For one whole day, no one was fighting with each other on Facebook. Well...whether it's up and running or not, Christians are called not to be quarrelsome. We are to distance ourselves from foolish, ingorant controversies. I think we all must st...
Oct 05, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Send us a text I was so pleased to see the Hub Coffee Shop here in Danville partnering with a local organization to raise awareness for having good mental health. In addition to free coffee, as you walked in you were able to put a note up telling others what helped to bring you good mental health. To quote the Hub, "Your mental health is just as important as your physical." Well...so is your spiritual health, above all. Jesus grew in every way - in wisdom (intillectual), in stature (physical) an...
Oct 01, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Send us a text Over the past week we have seen countless instances where other people here that are a part of our church family have shown tremendous love to our children. When others love our kids, it makes us feel so loved ourselves. And that's the way it should be - would anyone beleive you if you said you loved them but hurt their children? Well...don't you think God feels the same way? How can we claim to love God while we treat one another with hatred, malice, and contempt? The greatest co...
Sep 30, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Send us a text I spent the day building cabinets again, which I found very rewarding. At the end of the day, we got to sit back and see all that we had accomplished over a few days. Instead of boxes stacked on boxes, there were dozens of cabinets we had constructed and worked hard to build. It's nice to work hard on something and see immediate results. Well...in our Kingdom work, it doesn't always go that way. Fruit is not born in a day, either in others or ourselves. Sometimes you work hard, bu...
Sep 29, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Send us a text Is there such thing as too much of a good thing? I found out today that certain is the case. We were putting together cabinets at the Leber's new home and I was supposed to lay down a thin layer of wood glue in the grooves before fastening the cabinets together. Well, I wen't a little overboard and made a huge mess. Less is more when it comes to glue. Well...self-control is not just about learning to stay away from bad things, but learning to limit the good things. Food is a good ...
Sep 29, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Send us a text I had the pleasure today of sitting down with Earl & Lu Adams, long time members of our congregation. They were married at the age of 21 - and are now in their mid 90s. They have been married for 75 years, which is the second longest marriage I have ever known! How have they made it work? Well...marriage from the beginning was designed by God to be one man and one woman for life. God joins two together in a marriage in such a way that they are never to separate. Divorce is man...
Sep 24, 2021•11 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Send us a text Fall is here! The weather was well under 70 degrees, and I've broken out my flannel and sweatshirts. I love fall and winter, they are my favorite seasons. No matter what your favorite is, you can bank on the fact that seasons will always change. Can you imagine if things that don't change suddenly did though? Such as the force of gravity? Or the freezing point? It would result in chaos. Well...God does not change, and for that we should be grateful. If his promises changed, if our...
Sep 23, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 67
