Perry Keyt

Wow, what a year it has been.  First we move to a new city to take a new church which is in the middle of transition.  In doing this we leave our son Matthew with some very dear friends so he can finish his senior year.  Then 2 weeks after taking the church, they tell me I have stage 3 lung cancer.  What a shock, but God is healing me day by day.  Of the 5 tumors only 2 remain.  One of them is just barely hanging on.  The other one I know will soon be gone.  Today Matthew graduates from Dominion Christian High School.  What a time of reflection this has been.  Looking over pictures, remembering special events, and wondering what God has in store for the future.  Matthew is such an incredible man of God.  To say we are proud of him is an understatement.  We are so proud of him.  Then there is Tiffany.  This has been a tough year for her.  She has been away from her Bubbie (Matthew), had to change schools, found her place in a brand new youth group, and made some wonderful new friends.  She is the bravest girl we know.  She is such a beautiful young woman and creates sunshine wherever she goes.  Missy and I don’t know what we would do without her she is such a ray of sunshine.

Thanks to all of our friends and family that have prayed for us and stood with us over these past nine months.  They have truly been the hardest of our lives.  But we have a new appreciation for the faithfulness of God.  He has not nor will he ever leave us or forsake us.  He is our strength and our rock.  Thank you God for your love, mercy, forgiveness, and strength.  God you are the greatest.

Sorry, long time no blog.  My Children’s Pastor Chris Lotz just came back from two conferences.  Upon his return he gave me a book (thanks again Chris) called Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  Wow and Ouch!  Great book!  I encourage all who read this to read it.  It will make you examine your personal relationship with Jesus.  In it he tells of one missionary doctor in Africa.  He had to leave his post to have some dental work done.  When he got to the dentist, he told him that he didn’t want to miss any more time with the people God called him to minister to.  He asked the dentist to go ahead and pull all of his teeth and give him a set of false teeth so he would not have to leave his people again. Wow that is dedication.  Read the book!!

A couple of weeks ago I started a new series called Taking Flight.  The whole purpose of this series is found in Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.  If I read this correctly, there are 2 things created in this verse.  First God created all of us in His image.  He had in His mind’s eye what He wanted us to be.  But I also see that He created, prepared, things that he wanted me to accomplish.  I believe that my very design and make up is to fit hand and glove with the things He also prepared in advance for me to do.  An airplane was not designed to sit on the ground, it was created and built to do one thing…fly.  We were not created to sit, God created us to do the things that He created us to do. If you study the Gospels, you will find that everywhere Jesus went, he asked people this question, “What can I do for you?”  We have taken the challenge to ask that question whenever God opens the door!  It is amazing and cool to hear the reports of the people of our church who are taking the challenge and asking the question.  Just one example of the many that I have heard.  Rob, flew to the bedside of his dying stepfather.  God had helped Rob write a letter sharing his feelings about him.  When he finished reading the letter, Rob just asked the question.  Guess what happened…his stepfather and mother both made professions of faith in Jesus Christ.  We are the Body of Christ in this world.  God wants to and will do amazing things through us if we will just ask the question.  Way to go Rob, and all those who have and are going to ask the question.  When God opens the door, ask the  question

This just happens to be one of my favorite weeks in the sports world.  It is the week of the Masters Golf Tournament.  I have had the opportunity to attend 3 or 4 practice rounds, but never the tournament itself.  It has to be the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen.  I love watching every shot that I can fit into my day.  One thing however bothers me, these guys have to have everything perfect before they can hit the ball.  I know that golf has rules, and the proper way of doing things, and I agree with most of it, but sometimes it seems like these guys take it a bit to far.  If a person takes a picture during Tiger’s swing, cover your ears or you might mistake him for a salty sailor instead of the number one ranked golfer in the world.  I saw one player actually stop in the middle of his swing because a bird chirped.  You should have seen the look on his face.  It was like “how dare you bird, to chirp during my swing.”  Come on, if Andrew Jones, who is a pretty good baseball player can stand in a stadium of 50,000 screaming people and hit a small baseball that is traveling at between 90 and 100 miles an hour right at him…surely you you guys can handle the flicker of a camera shutter.  At least if that happens and they hit a bad shot, they have someone to blame.  Maybe that is why I sometimes find it hard to do certain things.  If it goes wrong I like to have someone else to blame.  You know the reality of the situation is that I will one day stand before God and give an account of myself alone…who will I blame then?  The point is that if God calls us to do something, we don’t have to wait until everything is perfect…just do it.

R.T Kendall said the greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday. Oh God, please keep me fresh in the move of what you are doing today. 

Today I had the joy of watch my 18 year old son Matthew play in a region tennis match for his High School.  I have to say that I was proud of him and his doubles partner.  They won their match 10 games to one.  Watching him play, I couldn’t help but remember when I took him to the tennis courts in our neighborhood for the first time, the improvement in his game is astounding, he has come a long way. There are three sports that I have taught him, tennis, ping pong, and golf.  Golf is the only one that I will still play with him, because it is the only one that I can still beat him in.  (I’m not that good, but I am the one keeping the score, but that is beside the point).  As I was watching him today, and thought about that first day on the tennis court years ago, it dawned on me that on that day I created a desire to play tennis in him.  The bible teaches us to train up a child in the way he should go.  What that really means is to create a desire for more.  When we begin our walk with God, He reveals himself to us to create in us a desire for more of him.  More leads to more. Like David said deep calls to deep.  I have to believe that the same pride and satisfaction that I had today watching my son play tennis and noting his growth, God must also watch our growth and take pride in it.  God may we always make you proud of our growth.  Please keep showing us more and more of you.  Deep is calling to deep, do you hear it?

After a great Easter weekend, I wanted to do something nice for my staff.  We had 3 wonderful services and they had worked so hard, I wanted to take a day and just have fun with them, (well we also toured another church’s building to get some ideas so it wasn’t totally without work).  Our volunteers also worked hard but I didn’t have room for all of them in my car.  I decided to take them bowling.  All in all bowling is a simple game.  The object is to roll a ball of various weight down a wooden path and knock down as many pins as possible with up to 2 rolls of the ball.  (I did that for those of you who were raised in the USSR and were not allowed to experience the thrill of bowling).  With that simple goal in mind, there seems to be a countless number of ways to accomplish this goal.  Right handed, left handed, curved, straight etc.  However, I noticed that all of us finished in a different “form” at the end of our turn.  The goal was the same, but the method was very different.  I reminds me that just because I do things one way, that doesn’t mean that it is the only and right way.  Jesus made our goal very simple, to make disciples, how are we going about that?  Obviously the Bible is full of guidelines, He pretty much lets us do it.  How are we doing?  I believe that one of the best ways to make disciples is in our relationships.  It needs to start where we are…how are we doing?  By the way I’ve never bowled in a league, (ask Anita).

You know, I like to think of myself as a manly man.  I don’t like “sissy” food or “sissy” things (whatever that is).  Having said this my wife and I had lunch today with a couple from our church that is involved in one of our ministries.  They told us the name of the restaurant that they wanted us to meet them at, and the minute I heard the name, I was convinced that I would not like it.  It was a beautiful sounding “sissy” name.  I had this picture in my mind of a bunch of ladies sitting around having tea and cucumber sandwiches.  For those of you who don’t know me I am 6′9″ tall and weigh about 270 pounds.  It takes a lot of cucumber sandwiches to fill me up.  I have to admit that I walked in with a little attitude.  I had already judged the place and it’s food and I hadn’t even been in the door before.  My wife and I sat down and I thought I would have an ally in the husband of the couple we were meeting.  The minute we sat down, he starts telling me about this wonderful steak sandwich that they have.  He said that it was all he ever orders there, it is the best.  What…a steak sandwich at a “sissy” sounding place.  Does the Food and Drug Administration know what they are doing?  They are presenting themselves as one thing when in reality they are something different.  Now mind you they did have their assortment of salads and such, but the point is I sat in a “sissy” sounding place and had a very “manly” steak sandwich.  All of this got me to thinking.  How do we present ourselves.  Do we try to be one thing when reality we are something very different?  And then I thought how I had been guilty of judging this place based on a name and not on first hand experience.  How many times a day do we all do this?  We pass judgement on people based not on first hand knowledge, but on our wrong ideas and misconceptions.  Wow…If we are to be Jesus with skin on, what kind of job are we doing?  All I can say after asking God to forgive my judging is let’s be true to who we say we are. 

I have always heard people say that living the christian life is an adventure.  I always have this picture in my mind of hiking up a mountain on a beautiful sunny day, standing at the top of the mountain and thanking God for His splendor and majesty.  While standing there thanking God for His grace and mercy I would be overwhelmed by his goodness.  The truth is that most of the time this is the ideal and not the reality.  Yesterday I found myself standing not on the top of some majestic mountain but in a chemo room at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta Georgia.  I was supposed to have what would have been my 5th round of chemo therapy.  However I was told that my blood work would not allow them to administer the cancer fighting drugs to my body.  While sitting there in a vinyl lazyboy rocker I still felt the presence and majesty of God.  This was a day that we had asked our church, our family, and our friends to join us in fasting for my healing.  While sitting there wondering what God was up to and trying to make sense of it, ( I know that none of you ever try to figure God out), I had the thought that there could have been as many of 1,000 people at that moment praying for me.  I found myself totally bewildered and incredibly humbled at the same time.  The truth of the matter of life is this…we need each other.  You think that you can do it by yourself.  You think that you are all that and a bag of chips.  You think that you are a self made person.  The truth is you are not!  All of us whether we want to admit it or not are totally dependent on God and on the people that God brings into our life.  They are there for a purpose, God’s purpose.  So for all those of you who are on this humbling and bewildering journey with me, thanks for being in my life.  You all are the best!

You know, you are never ready for life when it sneaks up on you.  You think you can prepare for whatever comes your way.  You can study, pray, make notes and do all sorts of things…but life still has a way of sneaking up on you.  When it does how awesome is it to know that no matter what happens, what people say, what people do or don’t do, God is still in control.  I am learning this more and more.  I am a person who likes to be in control.  But if I am in control that means that God is not.  And I have to say that more than anything, I want God to be in control.  I have to trust His soverignity in my life, everyday.  A few years ago I was introduced to the concept of my life being “Father Filtered.”  What that means is that everything that comes my way passes through God’s hands before it comes to me.  What peace that brings knowing that no matter what, God has looked at what I’m going through before it gets to me and He allows things that will make me stronger and more reliant on Him to find there way into my life.  Yes at times I question, but I still trust Him and His love for me.  What an incredible God we have.  His love is beyond description.