Today is my Mom’s birthday. She’s the second most important woman in my life. God blessed me when He planned for her to be my mother.

When I was a child, I understood that being a real Christian meant not doing certain things. Those evil things that I understood to be un-Christian-like were things that would lead you down the highway to hell. Here were a few of those no-no’s…

• Dancing
• Drinking
• Smoking
• Gambling
• Cussing
• Certain types of card games (like poker)

My thought process was if you didn’t dance, dip, drink, cuss or do one of the other unmentionables, you were a good Christian. Oh, and you simply had to go to church. I even remember one day looking at my old dog Samson and thinking, “Sam doesn’t drink, cuss, smoke or dance. He is by far the best Christian I know.” (I didn’t know at the time that Samson, much like the guy who he was named after, was chasing wild women at night time. Another no-no that was later to be added to my list.)

While I still try to refrain from most of the above no-no list, it wasn’t until later in my spiritual maturing process that I came to understand that Christianity wasn’t defined by what we didn’t do, but by what we choose to do. It is when we choose to love, when we choose to serve others and when we choose to have a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ that we are Christians.

Sadly, I still meet many Christians today who still hold to that old “AA” belief about being a Christian. They simply believe that abstinence from the no-no’s and attendance get you into heaven.

So, what did you think were “evil” things when you were a kid?

Thank you John Dobbs for being so kind to Taylor. He called last night, excited to tell me that he’d received mail from you. He was very grateful.

Thank you for your friendship,

Trey

1. I think if this obituary is real… it’s really sad.

2. I think if lazy husbands would read this, they’d be up vaccuuming. Immediately.

3. I think this cartoon is very funny.

4. I think it’s been a ton-of-fun watching how the church in Childress has grown.

5. I think this is a good article on affair-proofing a marriage.

6. I think when both parents have cowlicks, their kids will have cowlicks. Sorry boys.

7. I think these t-shirts are absolutely hilarious. I’d wear one.

8. I think this minister selling himself on eBay is crazy.

9. I think Lea thinks that putting up the Christmas tree next month is too early.

10. I think I’m enjoying my journey of reading through the gospel of John.

11. I think that I’m really enjoying twittering.

12. I think I’m getting Lea this for Christmas. Shh, don’t tell.

13. I think this is by far the most bizarre preacher I’ve ever heard.

School started today in Texas. So a group of us from church got up early this morning and walked around the three Childress school campuses praying for the upcoming school year.

I’m reminded that school often brings us lots of lifetime friends. The Morgan family is blessed with lots of good friends. Here are just a few.

It really hurt my heart. I had just asked her to come to church with me when she shifted uncomfortably and said, “I’d like to, I’d really like to, but I need to get my life straightened out first.” Ouch. I tried hard to encourage her, but she still wouldn’t come. Please hear me, it [...]

“I Like…” has been going around the blog world recently. I was asked to participate, so I thought I’d throw in my two cents. Here’s what I like… Vanilla ice cream, not chocolate Sweet tea, not unsweet tea Chevys, not Fords Camping, not shopping Showers, not baths Water, not Gatorade or Powerade (too much sugar [...]

It’s never easy letting your children go, but I did just that with my oldest two weeks ago. I have no doubt that I felt a little what Hannah must have felt when she took her little Samuel to the temple to leave him with Eli the priest. It must have been so hard for [...]

“Hi, my name is Trey, and I’m a recovering stone thrower.” I’ve been reading through the gospel of John this past week. Different things challenge me and different things stick out to me. One of the things that is really clear is Jesus’s unwillingness to classify sin. I’m really good about saying these sins are [...]

We fly home this morning and are ready to get back home and into our normal routine. Boston has been a great place for Lea and I to reconnect to one another, and it provided a good distraction from thinking about our oldest son moving out of the house. Here are a few things we [...]

Tickets to Boston’s famous Fenway Ballpark to watch the Red Sox and Rangers play: $175 Two hot dogs, a coke and a pair of ice cream cones: $21 Watching the Rangers get beat 19-16 by the Red Sox: Painful Spending the evening with Lea on our 20th anniversary: Priceless

Lea and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary tomorrow. It’s been a great 20 year journey that amazingly gets better every single year. Every year I think to myself, “It can’t get better than this!” but it does, every year. I definitely married up when I married Lea. So, to celebrate our 20th, we’re off [...]

I just got an email from an AIM team that’s working down in Honduras. These young people spent a week with me in Childress this past spring. Their team consists of 3 boys and 3 girls and they will be there for just over a year. I have found their ministry so amazing that I [...]

I’ve never been a big fan of “placing membership” or been a “church roll” type of person. For one, there’s nothing biblical about church rolls or membership. You never read of Paul moving his membership from the church in Jerusalem to the church in Rome. I don’t believe I’ve ever read that when the Lord [...]

(Taylor, Evan, Ryan, Brittany and Miranda) Let me tell you about 5 kids I’m really proud of. These five Childress kids are all headed to do mission work for the next 2 years. These 5 kids have committed to give the next two years totally to God. They will be going through the AIM (Adventures [...]

This is our last week to have Taylor at home. We knew this day would come. He leaves for AIM on Saturday. Lea and I feel just like Taylor does, we’re excited but nervous. He’s going to do great. I’ll tell you more about it later this week. Hopefully you’ve figured out by now that [...]

Lea and I ran across a post I did a couple of years ago called, “Ten things I wish Lea would whisper in my ear.” After laughing at it, I thought it needed updating to a 2008 version. So here’s the latest 10 things I wish my wife would lean over and whisper in my [...]

I heard it again last night. In fact I hear it nearly every night. Cooper repeats the same thing every night as I put him to bed, “Dad, will you wake me up early in the morning so I can get up and play. It’s going to be a great day.”As I listened to him [...]

I don’t mind poking fun at myself, but David, I don’t need your help. Not sure how he made this, but I did laugh!

Our youth minister, Nate and some teens at our church made this video last month for a huge youth conference at LCU. The video is shot in the lovely city of Childress, Texas. You’ll see Childress Jr. High building and the church building right toward the end. Plus, it also has my favorite 3 Doors [...]

Wow, the book giveaway was fun. I must do it again soon. I hope I turned a few of you on to reading The Shack. Don’t forget, if you didn’t win it, you can order it from here or here. When I first started thinking of the winning number to pick, I immediately thought of [...]

It was a good question, one I haven’t thought of like she was asking me. The question, “If God told you one specific thing to pass on to His people that they really needed to hear, what do you think it would be?” Would it be to “straighten up and fly right?” Would it be [...]

Can you imagine finding an invitation from God in your mailbox to meet Him at a shack in the woods? That’s exactly what happened to Mackenzie Allen Phillips in the book The Shack. I just finished the book this weekend. I loved it. It was such a great book that I’d like to give a [...]

Another year of summer camp is done. You can’t spend a week of camp with 200 kids and not learn a few things. Here are a few things I learned from camp at QMCC this year… I learned that when you camp in 104 degree temperatures, you can’t stress to kids enough that they have [...]

The following conversation took place on the way home from church services this past Sunday morning, between Cooper (my 6 year old) and myself. Cooper: I fell asleep and took a nap through your sermon this morning. Me: I noticed. I guess I’ll just preach the lesson for you again in a little while. Cooper [...]

Heading to camp to meet about 200 kids. So, I’ll be taking a couple of days off on my blog. I do plan on keeping the twitter thing going. Have a great week!

Who is this guy? That’s Shane Claiborne, author of the book Irresistible Revolution. It is one of the top ten books that has impacted my life. I’m pumped, because today that I’m headed to Dallas to hear him speak.

The Whittenburg blog has a hilarious post on what Noah’s blog might have looked like. You can read them all by clicking here, but here are a few of my favorites. Day 1 – Rain. Day 2 – Rain. Day 3 – Rain. Day 4 – Rain. Day 20 – I hesitate to write this [...]

The Morgan family loves baseball and especially Texas Ranger baseball. Last night we watched the home run derby and saw Josh Hamilton hit 28 home runs in the first round. With tonight being baseball’s all-star game I thought I’d give you my top 5 baseball movies of all time. Number 5 -Tie: MAJOR LEAGUE and [...]

Speaking of Jesus, Luke said, “…he went around doing good” (Acts 10:38). This past week our young people looked a lot like Jesus when they had “Work Camp ’08″ in the Childress community. This was not a fundraiser of any kind, but simply a ministry to people. For five full days our youth gave up [...]

CLICK HERE to see an absolutely amazing picture, taken by National Geographic, of the “Mothership Cloud” that built right over Childress, Texas on evening of June 15, 2008. The tornado did millions of dollars in damage and Childress was declared a national disaster area. A month later, the community is still cleaning up the mess. [...]

I know the sixteen year old kid who was flying down the street past my house, well over the speed limit. When he came back by the second time driving close to the speed of sound, I was able to wave him down. Here’s what I said … “Mike, (I’ve changed the name to protect [...]

Thanks to Donna, one of my favorite bloggers and fellow runner, for turning me on to the second cartoon.

Robert Blevins was my friend. Robert got me started running back in 1995. When I met Robert, he was a marathoner for the US Army marathon team. I was a fat preacher, 60 lbs. overweight, and so out of shape I couldn’t run a block. Robert encouraged me to start running. He explained the “how [...]