Victory Concepts, with Todd R. Vick

T-Money and Me at the WFJ Banquet in July

Saturday's WFJ show in Branchville was a huge success. Many came to know the Lord, and many were touched, including a few people in my home! It was great to see everyone in WFJ and I love watching them perform. Along with Tama, I provided ringside commentary and had a blast. The best part was no broken bones!

I have a confession to make. My favorite part of the WFJ show is NOT the wrestling. It is the chance to hang out, briefly or not, with T-Money, the heart and soul of WFJ. T-Money's real name is Timothy, and rightly so. Like the Timothy of the Bible, he has the heart of a pastor, and WFJ is his flock.

WFJ is a Christian organization located out of Langley, SC, aka, The Valley. Most of the wrestlers are from the valley, but quite a few are not. Some are from Charleston, Columbia, Newberry, and Augusta, GA. With WFJ being a Christian ministry, you might expect that all the wrestlers are perfect people and have no problems. Most churche…

Ok, go ahead, if you will, and spew forth all of your "midlife crisis alert" comments, and then we will get to the nitty-gritty.

At age 37, I pursued professional wrestling as a pastime. I met a group who uses the platform of pro-wrestling as a means to proclaim the gospel. I love wrestling, and I love Jesus. I reasoned that I wasn't getting any younger, and having been divorced, was limited in my ministry options. Welcome to life in the buckle of the Bible belt.

For six weeks I trained every Saturday. I would literally ache in places I had no inkling would hurt, but I went back for more every week. Additionally, I was building a camaraderie with a group of people that I can now say I dearly love. I was improving in skill, not hurting quiet as much, and so Timothy, aka T-Money, the CEO of WFJ www.wrestlingforjesus.org thought I was ready to make my wrestling debut...

...as a referee. It wasn't a world title shot, but I was on it. Our first show was out in the middle of …

The following was sent to me in an email from my brother, who is also a die hard Trekker. I wonder if Chekov was aware of this....

George Takei Says He's Gay
Actor Is Best Known for Role of Mr. Sulu on Star Trek

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 27) - George Takei, best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in "Star Trek," came out as homosexual in the current issue of a magazine covering the Los Angeles gay and lesbian community.

My Sleeping Beauty

Today's blog is about my wife, Tracy. The above photo was taken while we were on our way to Walterboro, SC, where I was to preach at a church that day. It was an hour and 15 minute drive.

Tracy is a helper. In her position as a CNA/Nurse Tech, it befalls her to care for the elderly in the same way one would care for an infant. She feeds, bathes, changes (yes diapers), and generally cares for elderly people placed in a permanent care facility. She takes great care in preserving their dignity and making them feel special all the while. I have watched her at work. It is a sight to behold, and the residents and their families all adore her. No surprise to me.

Tracy is a giver. She will do anything for anyone. She knows how to say no, but chooses not to. We have sort of "adopted" a young teen who needed some love and parental guidance. Yup, it was Tracy's idea. Both of Tracy's brothers are living with us right now. She does their laundry, cooks their …

On a typical night I sleep very soundly. So much so that it takes much effort to awaken me during the night. Case in point, back when I was pastoring, I was summoned in the middle of the night to attend to a family who had just lost a loved one. It was about 1:00 am, and to this day, I barely recall actually going. I remember that I did in fact go and sit with Mrs. Doby, but the details are a bit hazy. I hope I didn't say anything dumb. Sleep-pastoring? A new mental disorder which I may delve into in another blog.

Ummmm...no.

Last night I was awakened rather suddenly, which, as I said before, is hard to do. But this time it wasn't a family emergency, or a sick child, or my dog, Levi, sticking his big wet nose in my face desiring a late-night petting. This was something I haven't experienced in a long time.

I had a bad dream.

Bear in mind I seldom recall my dreams. I wake up in the morning and the dreams are gone. Last night I remembered the whole thing. The dream began with my…

There is a sacred place in my house. It is my chair. My recliner. My source of comfort and relaxation. No one can sit in it but me. I work for a living. I pay for everything, and all I ask for is this one chair...all to myself...all mine.

Yet every time I leave the room, someone is sitting in my chair. MY chair...MY world! It's MINE! I make the child get up, and remind them that there are other places to sit in the house, and that this chair is not one of them. Not for you, anyway. It's MINE!

Then it occurred to me. What if God, MY father, MY Daddy, kicked me out of His private place everytime I tried to get in it. I shed tears this morning over the thought of a loving, selfless, Heavenly Dad who welcomes me into His Most Holy Place anytime I want to come in. I can crawl in His recliner, watch the tube, eat my chips and look at Him and say, "Daddy, this is the life." My children have not had that privilege. I have not offered it to them.

They love me so much that they f…

Is it possible to have missed God's perfect will? Let me explain...

I recall the day as if it were moments ago. Truly, it was one of the first big "God" moments of my life. The first of many, might I add.

There I was, kneeling at my bed, Bible open, needing an answer to the question, "Why am I here?" I was a new Christian and only 16 years old. I felt as if my life were a mistake and wondered what purpose there was for me. I was saved now and going to Heaven. What was God waiting for? I wanted to go right then, but I knew I'd have to wait. I said, "Lord, I am Your servant. Tell me what You want me to do with my life."

Though the Bible was open, I had not yet chosen a passage to read. At the end of my prayer, I looked down and saw Colossians 3:16, "Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Th…

Please...no more pictures.

Today has been a tough one. There is a principle that Dr. Jack Hayford teaches called the Principle of Resistance. For every advance of the Kingdom of God, there is a counter attack by hell's forces.

God has been advancing in my life recently, and much has happened. Financial troubles, ex-spouse troubles, teenager troubles, church troubles, etc. They all seemed to pile up today.

My wife had an amazing time at the women's retreat this past weekend. It is easy to see that the enemy is threatened and he is trying to cause resistance in the lives of two of God's babies.

The Bible says that "No weapon formed against us will prosper." In other words, "resistance is futile," to quote the Borg. The enemy's fate is sealed. The war is over. He is defeated, and we are victorious. The enemy can bring it but he can't use it to defeat us. He has NO power and NO authority to mess with our lives this way. He is rebuked, and Father is with us!

Last night was huge. That's the best word I can come up with. After a long time of sitting in the pew, I was put back in the pulpit last night at my church. I preached like it was my last time. I preached on hell from Luke 16:19-31 and Mark 9:42-ff. God's favor was with me, and I received another unexpected miracle.

My 15 year old son Steven received Jesus Christ last night. Oh, how his mother and I have been praying for him.

Thank you Jesus, that his name is now written in Your book of life. Thank you, Pastor Dave, for sharing the pulpit with me. Thank you, church family, for being there and loving me anyway.

After the service, people were lined up to speak to me and express their gratitude for the message. My daughter Katie tapped me on the side and motioned for me to bend down so she could whisper in my ear. She very earnestly asked, "Daddy, are you famous?"

Not in this world, Katie, but I think I made news in Heaven last night! Thank You, Lord.

P.S. No casualties from…

4 of my 7 children made the Honor Roll! One of the 4 made the Principal's List, which is all A's!

In middle school, my best friend James and I were on the Principal's List, but it was a different list!

I am very proud of my bunch, even the ones who fell short of honor roll status. Remember it's not how you start but how you finish that really counts.

One of my best friends is Angela Hill (see links section). She and her husband Tim are two people who fall under my "Solid Gold" category. Back in the day, she was just my hairstylist. Now she is a budding Christian Country Superstar. I will not try to tell Angela's testimony here, but it is a powerful one. Go to her link. Her music really tugs the heartstrings of the downtrodden and brokenhearted.

Angela has been cutting my hair for 7 years, and whenever I go in, I never get just a haircut. Angela and her Mom, Fran, are a ministry team. Over the last 7 years I have been prayed for, prayed with, invited in to prayer, ministered to, rebuked, encouraged and blessed.

All for the price of a haircut.

Now my hairstylist is going to Nashville to perform at the CCMA Awards Nov. 5-10. I know that the Lord is gonna use Angela and that new opportunities will open for her. I have always known they would.

NowI am left with the dilemma of who's gonna cut my hair. I may just have to dr…

My wife is going on a women's retreat this weekend. This leaves me home to attend to the children...all 7 of them. I will post on Monday how I did and report any casualties.

On the left corner of my desk sits a "megarita" sized cup containing a blue fish. That is until today. When feeding him today, I noticed that he had gone to fish heaven.

I recall my first day on the job wondering why I had a fish on my desk to begin with. Now that he is gone, I miss him. I never even named the fish.

At any rate, I performed my first (hopefully last) Fish Funeral.

For no reason, I recalled a spinoff from the old "Barney Miller" 70's TV series starring Abe Vigoda (how old is he now, 1000?) called, "Fish."

There's something fishy about that (like you didn't know that was coming!).

I have always wanted to make a list of things I wanna do before I die. My motto is, "Get busy living!" It is taken from The Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorite films. The defining moment for me was the line, "You have two choices, get busy living or get busy dying." At the time, I was going through a separation and divorce, and so I decided to get busy LIVING.

Here is just a partial list of things I wanna do before I expire (hopefully no time soon):

1) Own another Harley. I miss my bike.
2) Put my wife on the back of said Harley and ride with no worries and no hurry to get home.
3) Jump out of an airplane. Yes, with a parachute.
4) Go to New York City and just hang out for a few days.
5) Go to Las Vegas to catch Manilow's show. www.musicandpassion.com
6) Be financially independent...SOON!
7) Be buff. Why not? I have been average with extra padding long enough.
8) Win the WFJ US Heavyweight title. www.wrestlingforjesus.org
9) Take my family to Disney World.
10) Increa…

I think that my views of Christian music of today are fairly well documented within the confines of my humble blog. I was in Christian Radio back in the 80s, and I did a lot of local singing. The songs of that day just seemed to challenge me more. Maybe I am just showing my age. But I have good news.

At long last, the winds of change seem to be blowing in the realm of Contemporary Christian Music! Allow me to introduce someone who I discovered on the web, Rhonda McCoy. She is a christian jazz singer out of Virginia. Visit my link section and check her out. Now! Go!

Welcome back! So what did you think? I have not recommended a Christian singer since the late Rich Mullins. However, it gives me great joy to present Rhonda to you. Those of you who live in my area will be treated to a visit by Mrs. McCoy as soon as I can work out the details. Meanwhile, go back and buy her CD.

A reviewer of her CD at Amazon.com called her the "Diana Krall" of Christian Jazz. That's major. Mrs. …

This morning I baptized my sister's two sons. Both of my nephews are great. Justin is so athletic. He is 12, butI think if I provoked him enough, he could whip me. Jacob (Jake) is his younger brother, and the comic relief of the bunch. Jake is the life of every family gathering. In 1983 I watched as their mother got baptized. That was a proud happy moment in and of itself. I never thought I'd ever be baptizing her boys much less anyone else. I have had the privilege of baptizing 4 of my 7 kids and my wife. In a few weeks, I will have the honor of standing to baptize my stepfather, who has been more like a Dad to me than any man on this earth. I prayed for his salvation for 13 years. He was a tough nut to crack, but the Lord specializes in cracking us nuts. He and my Mom both attend church and now Sunday School. Go, God!

My sister's church has evidence of God all over it. The pastor is a man who I knew as a kid growing up. He was a wild one. You should've heard him preac…

My 12 year old son, Cody, is a 7th grader who does high school math and college level reading. Talking to him is like talking to a very smart grown up, and yet he is still very much a kid. He loves the Lord. At a recent Acquire the Fire event, he went with the youth from our church (my firstborn is now in the youth group...AHHHHHH!!!!), and he gave his birthday money during the offering. The other teens couldn't figure out why he would do that. It was a $20 bill. Thank you, Lord, that my children are learning the joy of giving over receiving. To be honest, I was a bit surprised that he did that myself.

Now he has been tapped by Duke University because of his Homeschool Placement Test scores to participate in their TIP program www.tip.duke.edu.

He is the only one of my children who is homeschooled, and his mother (my ex-wife) and I have probably heard every reason not to do it. Both sides of Cody's family have all protested and told us how crazy it is to homeschool him. "He …

I have had the privilege of travelling quite a bit for a guy who's usually broke or close to it. On of my favorite places to visit is Seattle, Washington. My brother lives there with his precious wife and daughter (with whom I had the distinct privilege of playing "Pirates" on my last visit).

I have been to several big cities in my travels, the trips usually funded by the company I was working for at the time. Atlanta, St. Louis, Kansas City, New York City (ever too brief visit...got lost in Queens), Madison WI (born there, done that), Chicago, and of course, Seattle.

In most of the big cities, I found much pretention among the city dwellers, many of them transplants with no love for their city. In Seattle, however, I found real people of all ages who work very hard and are mighty proud of their fine city. Even the beggers on the street had a certain charm I cannot seem to find in my own city back east. So much to look at. So many great places to eat. So much dang coffee. …

I have two heroes: Captain James T. Kirk and Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Why, you may ask, at 37 years old (almost 38) am I still looking up to two larger-than-life fictional characters? Silly though it may be, here goes:

Captain Kirk is bold, fearless, and in charge. He is creative in his problem-solving. He keeps going when everyone else would just give up and die. As Bones said in ST:IV, Kirk "turns death into a fighting chance at life." He just won't take no for an answer. When the crew asked why, he would ask, "Why not?"

Captain Picard has many of the same qualities as Kirk, yet he is also compassionate, cultured, and down-to-earth. He speaks with authority and can convince you to do anything, and yet you don't mind because his tone is gentle. He is diplomatic and can diffuse even the toughest of situations by talking and reasoning.

Put the two together, and you have a character combination worth striving for.

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. (Colossians 2:6-7, New Living Translation).

I have a personal issue. Call it a character flaw if you like. I don't like to be told what to do. I am not sure when or how this started. I think it may be a family trait in the male gene pool. Maybe this is why I preferred to play alone for the most part as a kid. By myself, I only answered to myself. Then Jesus came along when I was 16.

When I got saved it was glorious. You shoulda been there. After I got saved it was harder. All of a sudden I was being deluged with a list of do's and don'ts. Gotta pray, give, go to church 3-4 times a week, dress right, live right, talk right, listen to this music and not that, et…

I love the Lord, with all of my heart, soul, mind, body and strength. I don't always understand him, and sometimes He makes me angry...only because He is always right I am always wrong. But I love Him and will never let go of Him.

I love my wife very much. I love her eyes, her smile, and her laugh. I love her heart, because frankly, it's bigger than her brain. That's how it should be. You should watch her take care of everybody at home and where she works. I have never seen such love in a woman ever before. She has a servant's heart that I am certain makes the Lord say, "Yeah, that's how to do it." I am blessed to have her.

I love my children. Watching them grow up every day (too fast) is more fun than a Sanford and Son marathon. Their lives are so innocent and pure. It terrifies me when I cannot be with them and protect them sometimes. I know the Lord can protect them much better than I, but I would walk through fire for every last one of them. I envy them…

One of my old SBC buddies posted a blog bashing women preachers. To imply that someone like Joyce Meyer is not in her right place in ministry is just arrogant. The Bible DOES speak of female deacons and prophetesses. How can we claim to "rightfully divide" God's Word and insert our own prejudices? I am beginning to suspect that the SBC hates women.

How can you not like Joyce Meyer? My wife is reading a JM book right now and has turned three other ladies onto it. It is changing their lives. According to my SBC friend, it is OK for the ladies to read it and be taught, but if I read it, then that is not biblical.

I am no Bible scholar, and I do not feel like delving into a dissertation in defense of women in the pulpit. But I will offer this:

Joyce Meyer's book has been a breath of fresh air into my wife's spiritual walk. I see the difference in her life. Why is it that anytime the Lord has breathed Fresh Air into my life over the years, the powers-that-thi…