Pryor and the Buckeyes top Miami!!

What a Saturday afternoon in the Culham household and in many houesholds of buckeye fans! The Bucks took it to Miami on Saturday afternoon in a packed house of 105,000 people at the Horseshoe! A great test for the buckeyes to start the season and well there #2 ranking was proven as they took care of business. I am a loyal buckeyes fan and when they are on tv you may as well not ask me, (Pastor Phil) to do a whole lot that day!! I love watching the buckeyes on TV and will take time out of my day to do so. But as much as I love my buckeyes, I do love spending time with my best friend, Jesus. He's an awesome best friend who has always been there for me. He has never failed me and I know that He never will. Can I say that about my buckeyes? I would like to hope I could but in reality my buckeyes could fail me from time to time. They may never win every game, but Jesus will win every battle He ever faces. So many times we are so loyal to our teams but where is our loyalty to our best friend, Jesus? He should have more of our time than any of our teams should get from us. But because of a busy lifestyle we forget to spend that time with Him, and our focus becomes more on our teams than on Him. My encouragement and challenge to each one is to spend more time with Jesus! We can all cheer on our teams and spend time watching them, but more than that I believe God wants more of our time than they do!! So don't forget each and every single day to spend time with the Lord reading your Bible, talking to Him through prayer, and just worshipping Him with your life!

Go BUCKS!

Status Vs. Service

When we look at the world we see so many people trying to climb the ladder in their respective careers. Wanting to get to that CEO position or to whatever it may be and we wonder why do you want to get there? Of course the simple answer that comes to my mind is, "lots of money!" Money to buy that big house, that nice car, have all the fancy suits and nice clothes, go out to eat at nice restaurants...whatever it may be we do it because we want those things. Why do we want those things though? Simple answer...to gain that social status of high class. We work and strive towards those things to gain the acceptance of our social status in this world. We want to be well known.

In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus talks about Social Status. He says dont go to the high seat but go to the low seat first so that you aren't embarrassed when someone of higher class may come in and steal that seat you wanted to be at. "But sit in the low seat so that when the hose comes he will say to you, "Friend, move up to a better place." ...For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." So rather than aiming for prestige let us look for a place to serve.

Than in Luke 14:12-14 he tells us to invite those who are crippled, lame, blind, poor instead of our family and friends who can repay us. So many times we only invite certain people into our little circles because if we are associated with anybody of the low class or someone who has a bad name than we get a bad name, and well we don't want that. God's kingdom is open to anyone though, so isn't that how we should be when inviting other people to join us. We need to be open to all people not just those of high social status but even those of low, because God cares about them too and so should we.

So my question to you is Social Status or Service? Which will you choose?