Sterling Griggs

I've been at the beach all this week with my family and have had the most relaxing and fulfilling week that I've experienced in a long while. I'm not the most chilled out kind of guy but I also wouldn't consider myself a total stress head either. However, I am smitten with some Type A tendencies that can drive me to be a tad bit on the obsessive side on the order spectrum. When we first got down here, we hit the beach right away. After a couple of hours it was time to head inside and get cleaned up, and that's when I had my first encounter with my old nemesis - sand. This stuff is everywhere, yet somehow in the idealistic vault of my structured mind I assumed I could keep all the sand where it belonged, which is on the beach. You know that ain't happening, especially with four kids. It looked like a dump truck delivered a load of fresh sand in that house and since it is all wood flooring in there I could feel every grain under my feet. So I did what I know ...

The beach is my most favorite place in all the world. The salty air, warm sand under my feet, sounds of the waves crashing on the beach - all these things stir and calm my soul at the same time. Seeing the beauty of it all draws my heart to God and His great love and power and grace. Psalm 147 says it well as I sit and observe His glorious creation: "Hallelujah! How good it is to sing to our God, for praise is pleasant and lovely..,He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of stars; He gives names to all of them. Our Lord is great, vast in power; His understanding is infinite...He is no impressed by the strength of a horse; He does not value the power of a man. The Lord values those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His faithful love."

With a house full of kids and a schedule that is just a little chaotic, I seek the early morning hours for a little solitude and time to myself before it gets too crazy.  There is a spot at my kitchen table where I commune with God, or if it's nice outside I find a place on the deck.  Then I take whatever time I have left to study and prepare for those opportunities of ministry that God has already brought my way and for those He will provide in the future.  Since I never know when or where God may use me in His ministry next, I always try to be prepared for the next opportunity He will open up for me. We all have interests that capture a lot of our time and intrigue.  Those who are history buffs spend much of their time reading books on history and even engaging in reenactments of historic events.  If you love to tending and cultivating plants, then you will spend hours in your garden and working on the landscape around your home.  For those that like to...

I am a schemer.  If I find myself in a bind - whether it's financially, with my schedule, or with a tough decision - my mind will race to find a solution that will benefit me the most.  My reasoning is that God gave me common sense so I better use it.  What's so wrong with using the brain that God gave me to figure things out?  However, when I do this it usually means that I trust almost exclusively in my own devices and not in the Lord who provides. Where do we draw the line with what we know we are capable of achieving ourselves and laying it out before God?  Is there a line at all?  No, there isn't.  It really doesn't matter the magnitude of any decision that you have to make, we should live lives saturated in prayer and dependence upon God.  One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your pa...

In Luke 9:49-50 there is the account of Jesus' disciple John getting all bent out of shape.  It appears that he saw someone driving out demons in Jesus' name - which in itself isn't a bad thing at all - but what bothered John so much is that this person who was doing this wasn't one of Jesus' followers.  Can someone who isn't a follower of Christ still be one who is used to build His kingdom? I believe that this is possible.  Yesterday my family had the privilege of being a part of Community Serve , an extension of the ministry of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC.  We joined several others in going door-to-door in an inner city community, passing out invitations to a community-wide cookout that was being held Friday night at a local recreation center.  We met at the church and were split up into teams, and since the whole Griggs' clan was going our team was already pretty big.  But a woman who was there by herself was asked to join our team an...

Over the course of my 40 years on earth, I have had the privilege of participating in some pretty amazing mission opportunities.  In high school there were trips to Florida, the Outer Banks, New York City, and the Bahamas (yes, really).  Then through college and my adult ministry years there have been opportunities to serve in Phoenix, Kansas City, Seattle, Georgia,Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Ohio, Tennessee,  Antigua (yes, it really was a mission trip), Turkey, and Sudan.  On these trips I sang with choirs, conducted VBS in the inner cities and community parks, roofed homes, painted, replaced windows, hung vinyl siding, went door to door sharing the gospel, worked with a house church in a Muslim nation, prayer walked, preached the gospel at community events, and ministered to missionaries who were taking a break from the field. I have thousands of pictures and countless more memories commemorating these mission trips.  There are many souvenirs ...

As much as I love the summer months, I do not always enjoy the oppressive heat that comes along with it (especially when my air conditioner unit decides to misbehave on the hottest of days - why can't it do that when it's pleasant like in the spring or fall?).  With each passing week I've noticed that my grass gets a little dryer and grows a little slower.  Those essential weekly mowings have now stretched out into bi-monthly affairs, since the lack of rain and balmy heat have caused my grass to take a hiatus from growing. It's been a little over 2 months now since my family and I took a step of faith to leave the ministry where God had been using us for 9 years in order to walk in a new direction.  As convinced as I was at the time (and still am) that God was leading us onward, it was still a bit nerve-wracking knowing that there wasn't another "firm" ministry opportunity laying in wait for us.  God has been gracious to provide me with several opportuni...

Several years ago I received a phone call from my wife that made me cringe.  On her way to work that morning she had been pulled over by a state trooper and was issued a speeding ticket.  If you've ever been pulled over by a state trooper then you know that they can be some of the most pleasant off all law enforcement officers, yet they rarely if ever let you off with a warning.  You are getting a ticket no matter how hard you plead your case. We were in a situation of life where we had just had our first child and money was tight, so the extra insurance premium was not going to be a welcome addition.  I had a friend who was a state trooper, so I called him for advice on how best to handle the ticket.  He asked me details about the ticket - who was the trooper who wrote it, how fast was my wife driving, etc. - and then he told me that he would have to get back to me. Later that afternoon after my wife had returned home from work, an unmarked state trooper ca...

This Sunday I have the chance to preach at Christ Community Church in Sumter, SC.  The pastor there is an old friend and he has entrusted his people to me while he is out of town.  He is currently preaching through a series on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 and, not wanting to break the series up, he asked me to preach on the next series of verses that would come next if he were there to preach them.  My topic: prayer and fasting (Matthew 6:5-8 & 16-18). Hmmm.  Prayer I get but fasting not so much.  It is one of those spiritual disciplines that sounds difficult, not just to understand but to practice.  So on I marched trying to learn as much about fasting as I could and to further understand what the Bible says about it.  As I pulled my notes together for preparing my sermon I realized on a personal level at least one important truth about fasting - I desperately need God.  When I'm hungry, my stomach growls and lets me know it'...