Question of the Day 1.31.09

Question of the Day....If a guy that was about to die in the electric chair had a heart attack should they save him?

Question of the Day 1.30.09

Question of the Day....is capitol punishment right or wrong...this is a set up for tomorrows question

Question of the Day 1.29.09

Question of the day.....You are on a country road and see two neighbouring farm houses on fire. One is yours and the other belongs to a new couple who just moved in. Your wife and child are at home as are your neighbours. You can only save one house. Which one do you save? Remember love your neighbor as yourself.

Question of the Day 1.28.09

Question of the day...Why Does Pluto Live in a dog house, eat dog food, etc. but Goofy, who is also a dog, lives in a condo and drives a car?

Question of the Day 1.27.09

Question of the day....How do you know when your plans line up with God's plans for you...check out an answer here

Electric Sex: Porn Sunday

Electric Sex: Porn Sunday

is Porn chraper than dating....

I think this picture sends a VERY VERY clear message. But let me ask you...IS IT RIGHT?

Porn Sunday

Just finished Porn Sunday sermon. The response was overwhelming. To be honest I did not know what to expect going in to today. Porn and masturbation are just one of those topics that SO many people deal with but NO one ever wants to admit or talk about. In fact when people do admit it...they get labeled or looked own upon. So this was a hard Sunday...This week I asked God this question...'Why did you lead us to start the Electric Sex series with such a tough topic? and Why God are you prompting me to tell my personal history with this issue?'

When the worship experience was over yesterday and we read heard the reactions, and we read the comments and questions of peoples Connection cards and the blog we understood why GOD wanted to start with this message. He had a very specific point to make....Masturbation may not be listed as a SIN but LUST is and you cannot masturbate without lusting and people needed to hear that. I'm excited to hear the conversations that come out of Life Group this week as people unpack this issue and start to deal with themselves on it.

I gotta say though...a couple of the questions we received are gems and we will have to cover them March 1 for our Question and Answer Sunday, here is a sample:

1. Is porn wrong if it is used between a husband and a wife?
2. How do you forgive the betrayal of a spouse who is hooked on porn?
3. Is masturbation wrong if you are only thinking of your spouse?
4. you can read more comments here.

Question of the Day 1.22.09

Question of the day....It is 3 a.m. and you are late getting home. As you approach an intersection with a very long Red light you notice that no one is around. Do you drive through the red light?

Question of the Day 1.21.09

Question of the day....How fast do hotcakes sell?

Question of the day

Question of the day. What was the most positive thing you said to someone today?
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Question of the Day 1.20.09

Question of the day...Does God care about the sex life of a married couple? leave comments www.ElectricSex.org.

When a Kid leads a parent

So a little girl approached our church info table today at Free Movie Sunday and asked a bunch of questions about church. Then proceeded to tell us that her father was going through a rough spot and she knew that he needed to be in church. Then this 10 year old pulls out her phone and put the church phone number in because 'she would loose our business card.

Free Movie Sunday

I'm still in recovery from Free Movie Sunday today but we had an awesome time. We hosted over 400 people (about 100 families). Everything went of without a hitch. Our team was a beast today....they were on point with everything.

For me the best part was the audience was overwhelmingly responsive to church. At our first event most people were indifferent about the fact that a church was their host. Today, there were so many thank you's and questions and interest. A rough guess is that 10% of the families said to us they will return.

Question of the Day 1.17.09

Question of the day...You are a DR and you have a woman who has been in an accident. She is badly hurt and pregnant. Mom needs an abortion to survive...what do you do?

Question of the Day 1.16.09

Question of the day....You are given the opportunity to discover the exact date you will die. Would you want to know?

So when He is in it He is in it

Last weekend I was nervous about our attendance for Free Movie Sunday...not about if people would show up but if we would have enough seats. Thats when God opened up and made a second theater available and then made a sound system and projector available and we got comfortable again. we could seat 560 and we had equipment to show 2 movies. At that point we had about 300-350 RSVPs.


Well today we passed 570...so we are back to being overbooked.

My mom keeps reminding me that He wont send more people than we can handle...that the blessing may overflow but He will provide a way.

So I decide dto take a bold and daring step. I approached teh theater manager, the same guy who said no to everything we ever asked till this week, if we could use 1 of the largest theaters. By rule, he should say no, but I figured why not make the Ask. All he could do is say yes or no.

I called and asked and not only did he say Yes but he said we could use the 2 largest theaters (over 900 seats total). I was totally blown away. I could not imagine or believe what GOd had just opened up. last Saturday we wanted to stop advertising and be happy having 250 people show up. Now less than a week later we are almost at 600 people and God has provided a way for us to seat all those people.

When He is in it He is in it and will make ways that we cannot imagine or fathom...

Question of the Day 1.15.09

Question of the day.....If you could spend one week in any period of history, which period would you choose and why?

Question of the Day 1.14.09

Question of the day...How can something be "new" and "improved"? if it's new, what was it improving on?

Baldy

I made a startling discovery today...I'm going bald. I had not realize that almost all the hair on top is gone. I'm not sure how to feel about that. Pic to come

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VRI in the Press

A couple months ago we were featured in the wash times...check out the article.

What a day...

Man...God out did my thoughts today....again. We needed another projector for this weekends Free Movie Sunday. We planned to rent one and could not get a quote for less than 400 for a 4000 lumens machine. I just never felt settled with that. I checked ebay and craigslist but could not find anything. I knew
the computer chop shop that I use sometimes has them...so I called them as a last effort today, not expecting much. The guy said they just got one in 5200 lumens for 1000 and he was willing to negotiate price. I went right over saw it, tested it, and then said lets deal. He gave us that machine for $700. Let me put that in perspective...the bulb for that projector is $700. All I could say is: look at God, He said to do Free Movie Sunday and He would bless it and He is.

I had my son with me all day and we had such a great father son bonding day. I had to pay cash for the projector so I let TJ pay for it. He got a kick out of holding all that money...we shared a meal for lunch, talked about every kid topic under the sun, and just plain enjoyed ourselves...he's a great kid.

Question of the Day 1.13.09

Question of the day....is God homophobic? leave comments http://www.ElectricSex.org

God moved in a HUGE way

In church we are all learning to understand better how God moves in our lives, because lets face it sometimes He moves and answers prayers and we are oblivious. But every now and then...He moves in such a way that it is unmistakable. We are in the middle of one of those big GOD movements right now....

Several months ago we started the planning for Free Movie Sunday. It was our second such event and honestly it seemed like a bad idea because we could not afford it at all. I remember our exec team all sitting around looking at the numbers with faces that were long and depressed. But we believed God was telling us to go ahead...so we did. I kept praying for signs and receiving them so we charged on.

Our first Free Movie Sunday was a big success we hosted 171 people from our community. We prayed for an increase this time and said we would be ecstatic is we saw 250 RSVPs. Well we are 1 week out and our RSVP count is 380 (thats after only advertising for one week). But that's not how God moved...that was just God saying what ever you think I can do bigger.

We only have room for 330 people. We know all 380 wont show up but we wanted to stop marketing and inviting people to come. My mom called and said we cant limit God's blessing that if He wants to send 500 people He'll give us a way to seat 500.

Today...our theater manager who says no to everything said YES we can get the bigger auditorium and yes we can get earlier access. We now have room enough for 560 people. God also moved and found a second sound system for us to use at no cost.

He did not stop there. In the midst of working all that out...I had a conference call with one of my clients (the only one paying regularly right now) and they said even though our contract period is ending we have more work for you why dont you come in and lets discuss extending our relationship.

So at the beginning of the day...when I did not quite know how our February bills would be paid or how we could fit all these people in to see a movie God showed up and worked it all out.

There are people who doubt God's presence...and I respect their belief...but after a day like today...There is NO way I can doubt His presence.

Now let me give you some icing....I've got a Pastor friend down in Houston, we've been talking about Free Movie Sunday for months. Yesterday he picked a date when he would do his first Free Movie Sunday and now God is going to use all of VRI's experiences to help that church grow. There is nothing in life that we go through for our own benefit only.

Question of the Day 1.12.09

Question of the day....Should the wealthier members of society be forced to pay higher taxes to help the poorest members?

Question of the Day 1.11.09

I got this from a game...What if you are sitting on a crowded bus and the only open seat is next to you and 2 people are getting on: 1 is an old man the other is the most beautiful human being you have ever seen and you are currently single...what do you do?

Question of the Day 1.10.09

So as Christians we are supposed to forgive. I'd say the bible is pretty clear on that. So here is today's question....How do you forgive someone who continually wrongs you and at what point do you become an enabler for their bad ways?

Things I gotta stop doing #2

I am terrible at admin stuff....I have so many outstanding invoices to give to clients and proposals to write for more work....I gotta get better

New AtibadeSouza.com

hey everyone.....just released a new design for the blog Check it out.

Things I gotta stop doing #1

Pizza Hut lunch buffet. It started out cool where else can a dad take his kids and eat cheap. If I just take the 2 little ones its only 6 bucks and we all have a good time. We've now been 6 times in 4 weeks, they now know me and make special pizzas when I come in.....time to stop.

Is masturbation a sin?

Question of the day...is masturbation as sin? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

So do clothes make the woman or does a woman make the clothes

So I was looking up a Levis commercial we are going to use in the the Electric Sex sermon series and I came across this commercial on You Tube. It is hysterical but it forces us to ask a question:

Do your clothes make you look good? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Electric Sex Sermon Series is Coming

On Jan 25 our church is starting a new Sermon Series called: Electric Sex. We will be discussing everything from porn to abortion to homosexuality to issuing a Challenge for all the married couples to Have the best Sex Ever.

There will be a web site explaining everything that launches in a week, the podcast will be available too, and even a mini book that will be freely available electronically.

Sometimes we remember that God actually knows what He is doing

My wife is taking her comp exams and its a pretty big deal. Its 2 days of written exams. This morning she missed the alarm and woke up late and proceeded to run out of the house. She called me from the road and was just a mess. We talked and I tried to reassure her that God had this whole thing planned out. Even if she was late and missed the exam He had good reason. I don't think she heard me, I'm not sure I could have heard me either. She was almost convinced that her oversleeping was a trick of the devil to derail her plans. Her plan last night was to go to bed, wake upearly and study, then go to her exam. Well it was 715 when she woke up for her 845 exam. So there was no way she was going to study.

Well...she took the exam and then called me and said...'There was nothing in my study notes that would have helped me answer those questions....I guess God knew I needed the sleep'.

We are often quick to blame our 'bad luck' on the devil or wonder if the world is against us but with God in control and on your side we must always remember that no matter what the situation looks like He has a divine plan and we must stay the course and execute His plan. Especially when it doe snot make sense. Anyone can follow a plan that makes sense...only someone who has faith in God can follow a plan where they cant decipher the point. For more on Faith listen to our Podcast from Sunday Jan 4, 2009.

atiba@atibadesouza.com sent you a link to content of interest

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Hey everyone...I found this post of a blog I follow and thought you may enjoy it. I do. It catalogs many of the Christian leaders whose work I read or podcasts I listen to.

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