Eddie's Blog

Get in the Ring

It is Sunday morning, and I’m actually backstage between services right now, but I had a thought that I really wanted to share with you. The 8:30 service went really well. We talked about marriage, and relationships, and about finding the right “Bend” (train up a child in the way they should go), and how these things help us find out who we are. Marriage should do that. We should be able to live with each other and help each other find what God has created us to be - bending us toward God. We should be better together, than we are apart.

 

One of the people that I want to talk about is my wife Lynn. They always say that “behind every great man is an even greater woman” and that is exactly the case with Lynn. She is that Great Woman behind me. She encourages me in every way. When we were first thinking about starting Marathon, I went to Lynn and I asked her if she thought I could do it, and she said “Yes, you can. You can do it!” So, I asked her if she thought I would be ok speaking to a church every week, and she said “You will be great at it!”

 

So in a marriage, we are to find each other’s best, and move each other towards those things. As I said this morning, “We always have a good idea of what we do wrong, but what we need to know is what we do right?”

 

THAT is what we need to be focusing on in a marriage, because if we don’t know who we are, then how are we going to help the kids?

Giving

At Marathon, we’ve always had this struggle – we’ve always had more people than we’ve had money (and that seems to be the case in most churches). 

 

Getting people to understand WHY you give is a difficult thing. I was raised that way. My Mom and Dad taught me about giving, and about God and His money. One of the reasons for giving is to show that we recognize God, and that we recognize that everything that we have comes from him. Conveying that to an audience of thousands is very difficult, so we have to live on what we can get.

 

Right now we’re trying to teach Faith how to count, and about money – and right now, for her, all money comes from Mom and Dad – but we’re in the process of trying to teach her that the money really comes from God. She’s 5 years old, and she already keeps a list of things that she wants, and I don’t mind getting her some of those things, but the very best thing is when she climbs up into my lap and says “Daddy, thank you. I love you.” That’s when I want to give her the world.

 

That’s the way it is with God. When we give to Him, we climb into his lap and say “Daddy, thank you. I love you.” And He just can’t wait to give us the world!

Middle School Ministry

As most of you know, we have hired Chris Brank to run our Middle School ministry, and he has been a real surprise. He can do things with video, and the way he leads people, the way he speaks – he’s just one of those guys that can do anything, and we’re lucky to have him.

 

The Junior High kids just go back from a trip last weekend, and there were 10 salvations and 4 re-dedications that weekend. It is exciting to see what God is doing through Bryan and Chris through the Youth Department.

 

Chris Brank is one of those guys that you just like to be around. You feel good when he walks into the room, because you can tell that God has called him. I think that it’s obvious that God has his hand on Chris, and on Bryan Holder. It’s amazing what is happening in the Youth Department and with both of them. I’m looking forward to see what God is going to continue to do.

 

Thank you, Chris. I’m glad that we found you!

Father's Day

Father’s Day was a huge day for me, because it was my first official Father’s Day with Faith. The idea was to get her to call me King Edward for the day. Well, Faith has had a hard time agreeing to that, but we’re still working on it. Truthfully though, I was just happy to be a Dad on Father’s Day! 

It was also a blessing to have my brother Bryan speaking to Marathon with me on Father’s Day as my tag team partner. Many people don’t realize just how important Bryan and his wife Brenda were in getting Marathon started. In fact, if it weren’t for Bryan and Brenda, there probably would not be a Marathon, because they were the very first to believe that this thing could work. 

Bryan is very talented, and he can do a lot of things, and speaking is definitely one of those things. So I’m just glad that God chose to put “the brothers” together, because MANY people said from the very beginning, that “the brothers” wouldn’t be able to work together, but God has proven all of them WRONG! We’re going on 13 years old as a church, and we’re still working together. 

So it was a great ‘first” Father’s Day for me! 

Thank You, Bryan and Brenda for all you have done, because without you, there wouldn’t be a Marathon, and my “first” Father’s Day wouldn’t have been as great as it was.

 

The Makeover

On Fridays, I have the day off, and I love to hang out with Faith, and we’ll play and do different things. Well the other day, we decided that it was my turn to do a makeover on Faith and I had never done any make up in my life, but I tried my hand at it. Faith kept laughing at me, and when we got through, Faith looked more like a raccoon, than my little girl. It was all fun and it all washed off (well, most of it washed off). I didn’t know that being a Dad would be so much fun!

 

I know that one day it will end. I was looking at her the other day as she was looking at herself in a mirror, and I thought “One day, I’ll have to give her away”, but for now I’m going to enjoy it and have some fun.

 

I’m really looking forward to Father’s Day, because this will be my first official Father’s Day. I can’t wait to see what happens. I’m hoping that they spoil me. I hope I’m the King of the Castle!!!