The Old Miser Within

SCRIPTURE

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.”

~Matthew 6:19-20, NLT

QUOTE

Everything is safe which is committed to Christ and nothing is safe which is not.

~A.W. Tozer

Living down deep inside of all us is an old miser: a self-centered, self-preserving nature. If this is true, how can we explain generous people. The difference between the generous and miserly is that the generous recognize the old miser but they have learned that he can be crucified by giving. The way to attack greed is to give. You will never become a generous person until you understand this truth.

C.S. Lewis says, “The only thing we keep is what we give away.” Worldly logic declares this principle stupid: obviously, the more we keep for ourselves, the more we have. It would seem that way but that is not reality. Because we are merely trustees of God’s wealth, everything eventually goes back to HIM. He will reward us according to what we gave, not what we saved. Jesus said, “Give and it shall be given unto you.” The secret to getting is giving. Either you overcome your greed or your greed will overcome you. Generous people attack their greed by giving. They have a deep determination that the old miser will not get his way. Remember, old misers do not have a bright future because their greed is never satisfied and in the end they lose everything.

• Went by to check on Gary Garner yesterday: he is scheduled for a pet scan today if all goes well. Pray that his sugar will be low enough for them to do the scan and put in the port. If they get these two things done today, he starts his treatment next week. He is anxious about it and so am I.
• Every offering we take at DBC is a free will offering. We challenge you to give but we don’t make anyone give. The offering this Sunday is intended to keep our general fund at an operating level. If no one gives Sunday, we can cover the expense of the parking lot but we will have nothing left. The deacons did not think this was a good idea and neither did I. If we work together, we can do more than pave the parking lot. Personally, June and I are excited. We talked about it and set our goal and the Lord has enabled us to reach that goal. I want to give. I can’t wait to give.
• I had 15 to preach to last night and I enjoyed it. Holly wants to go back to Wednesday night suppers but I don’t think it is feasible, we may do pizza once a month. I just wish our folks had a desire to GATHER but that will take a REVIVAL. I am OK with Revival, how about you?
• What about this weather? I don’t remember anything like it in August. We have not been able to take down the back fence from the BP. Too wet to drive the truck across the playing field.
• Pray for me, I have to get up at 5:30 and help JD cook B’fast for the football team. I can’t get over the physical demands of the BP and then Mandy worked the dog out of me Tuesday. I was sluggish all day yesterday. I may stay up all night and that way I want have to get up. When I get retarded, I will probably read all night and sleep all day.
• Bobby sent us another classic pic.

You Can’t Lose!

SCRIPTURE

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.

~Joshua 1:7

QUOTE

Confidence is the feeling you have just before you realize the odds. Courage is what it takes to beat the odds.

~Chip Ingram

Think of God’s words to Joshua as a pep talk before a big game. Imagine, if you will: I am the football coach of the Danville Hawks and we are playing Slauderdale County. My pre-game speech goes something like this–“OK guys let’s get fired up. Their offensive line averages 275 but you know the old saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall: just don’t let them fall on you. Their QB is 6’5′ and runs the 40 in 4.3. He has already received offers from every school in the SEC West except Missouri and Texas A&M and he is just a junior. This team that we are about to face is bigger than we are, they are faster than we are and they have more talent but football is a mental game and if we think positive, we can win this game. We just have to believe in ourselves.” The guys are going, “Yeah, right: we might have a chance if they all came down with swine flu in the next fifteen minutes.”

But if you will, imagine a second scenario: Your coach is not Jack Bailey {a pot bellied 66 year old that runs the 40 in 12.1 and has never coached a football team in his life}; your coach is Clark Kent. Yes, I am talking about the guy from Krypton who has a huge S on his blue fruit of the looms. Here is Coach K’s pre-game. “Boys, you are out weighted by 50 pounds per man and they are not only bigger, they are faster and have superior athletic ability but this is what we are going to do. I am going to dress out and play with you. In effect, I am going to become one of you. I am not sending you out to face them, I am leading you out. I will be on the field with you every single down and we will win. I personally will see to it that we win. They are fast but I can fly. They can run but I can run over. They are strong but I am stronger. We will win! I assure you: not because you are superior but because I am.”

Jesus does not send us out, He leads us out. He told Joshua, “For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. No man will be able to prevail against you all the days of your life.“ That sounds like a guaranteed victory to me.

EXTRA

• I have the BLOCK PARTY fever. You would think by now I would be use to it but I am excited and anxious.
• MASS VISITATION tonight. We are going to do about the same thing as last year but not quite the same. No time limit, no convocation after visitation. If you get engaged don’t worry about making more stops. We will be handing out flyers about the BLOCK PARTY and Awana. Everyone can do it; there is nothing to it.
• Tomorrow is the Memorial for Mike Hooper and we are hosting a meal for Sarah and family at the parlor. We love Sarah and her family and we want to express that love in a tangible way. She has been through a lot but she has handled it like a trooper.
• We begin sitting up for the BLOCK PARTY tomorrow [August 13] at 5:00. We will begin with the GRACE BARN which will be in the FORTE.
• We are replacing a sewage line between the sanctuary and the North lawn. It should be completed by tonight. We wanted to get it fixed before we start paving.

Swallowed By Life

SCRIPTURE

While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

~2 Corinthians 5:4, NLT

QUOTE

Death is not the final sleep, it is the final awakening.

~Sir Walter Scott

Just as light is greater than darkness, so life is greater than death. We tend to think the opposite because it appears that death is final. At one time, man was convinced that the sun orbited the earth once per day because he appears to be so. Then we discovered our solar system and the earth is actually orbiting the sun which is the exact opposite of what we thought. It was the rotation of the earth on its invisible axis that creates the days which means our first impression was an illusion. The moral of the story is that things are seldom as they appear. Death appears to be dominant and to have the last word but the opposite is true. Life, not death, is dominant and it will swallow death.

• We have a cold front coming in next week: the highs are in the low 90’s. June tells me that they are giving triple digits for the weekend. Praise the LORD for electricity and AC, amen!
• Count down to Alaska is 3 days. We are scheduled to leave Monday morning at 5:00.
• Joe David did the hospital visitation yesterday and I have not talked with him: I will be going today. I know we need to continue to pray for Kane, Keri and Gary
• Full slate this Sunday: Deacons meeting at 8:15, LCBS at 9:15 and Worship at 10:15 and 6:00. I am thinking about a Pizza Fellowship Sunday night after church, can I get an amen?
• BLOCK PARTY August 15
• SWIM PARTY August 16 from 6:00-8:00 [Hartselle City Pool]: if we have 300 David will do a flip off the high dive naked. That is Wood not Hopper.

Joy

SCRIPTURE

Most of all, friends, always rejoice in the Lord! I never tire of saying it: Rejoice!

~Philippians 4:4, The VOICE

QUOTE

“Joy is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about.”

~Dwight L. Moody

We are all wired differently. Some people are prone to show emotion while others do not. Sylaina talked about this in her testimony Sunday night. Some people are serious and quiet by nature, they are not the cheerleader type while others are just the opposite. If Susan is happy, we all know it but with Frankie it is not as obvious and they have the same parents. Joy is not necessarily exuberance although joy can be exuberant. Joy is anchored in Christ who is seated by the right hand of the Father far above the circumstances of this life. As long as we abide in Christ, there is no chance of us losing our joy.

I speak these things by faith because I have never been surrounded by horrible circumstance like Job for instance but I do know joy is not the absence of problems or conflicts: joy is the presence of Jesus. Happiness depends on what happens but joy comes from Christ the Eternal fountain of joy. I do believe the song writer was inspired who wrote these words, “Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Everyday with Jesus, I love Him more and More. Jesus saves and keeps me and He’s the ONE I’m living for: every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.”

EXTRA

• Had the blog ready to post, hit the button and it vanished into cyberspace. So here we go again.
• Adam Glenn’s mom, Margaret, was promoted early yesterday morning [August 11]. Joe David and I are going down for the service tomorrow so we are making some adjustments in our schedule.
• There is a chance that the church office will be closed until Thursday: Closed today for sure. I intended to take off yesterday but it didn’t work out: I ended up with a 12 hour day. The good news is that all the remnants of the Block Party are gone. Everything was picked up or returned yesterday. Who ever picked up the trash did a good job, you can’t tell we had a party.
• Whereas the outside has been restored: the inside is still like it was Saturday night. We will get on that Thursday.
• Cyndi Wydner’s aunt {Annette, Maudean’s sister} passed away after a long battle with cancer. Visitation tomorrow night at 1st Baptist Haleyville and service Wednesday at 2:00 at same.
• Just got home from another long and exhausting Executive Committee Meeting of the MBA. Trust me, you don’t pay me enough to attend these meetings.

Aint God Good!

SCRIPTURE

 “Our Lord is kind. He is faithful and caring, and he saves us.”

Psalm 40:10, CEV

QUOTE

Aint God good! Amen!

~Jimmy Williams

No commentary, just a few observations in the early post Block Party hours. I cannot remember a week like the past one. The Wednesday night visitation blew my mind, then the GRACE BARN fills up again. One of the WEE Care workers commented on Friday, “How can they do this 15 years in a row?” Don’t ask me, I think the entire week had God written all over it. You know I am a worrier so when I saw the FORTE Saturday, I said again, “There is no way they will cart this stuff off, I will be hauling this stuff off next week.” O ye of little faith, I was wrong again, they got it all in an hour. Frankie, David and Team did a fantastic job with the sound and of course Brent, Justin, Luke, Ben and Blake helped. We are very thankful for Dixie Flavors willingness to play the last couple of years. They are a very talented group.  We appreciate Mike sharing the gospel. He’s got this Block Party thing down, he knows how to hit a moving target. Bryan was fantastic. I cannot wait to see what he is going to do today. The Young Married did great on the blow ups which is one of the jobs that no one wants to do: I think they enjoyed it. The cookers, wrappers, servers all did great. If we had any problems, I did not see them. Personally, I feel good and I feel grateful, very grateful. We got good news about Ryder and the Party was awesome.

Here is what’s happening today LORD willing. We are having LCBS per say but no notebooks. Just meet and debrief and share Block Party stories. Those teachers who want to do the lesson need to do the lesson. We want feed back on the party while it is fresh on our minds. The a.m. worship will be a little different. The Mission offering will go to Bryan Drake. Teddy’s Youth will also be with us. We are thankful for the FRIENDSHIP FAMILY and especially for Teddy sending his youth team to help us. They have been a blessing. We are thankful for our sheriff and all the help she sends.

Bryan will have my time in the worship service. If you missed him last night, you don’t want to miss today. We will also meet tonight at 6:00 for praise and celebration. We want to hear Block Party stories and some of the kids that made the Guatemala trip are going to share: I think Haley Rae and Jacob are going to speak. I may not have the names right but a couple of them are going to share. It will not be a long service unless the Holy Spirit moves upon us and in that case, we will not mind.

All our Team Leaders and Staff did great. I will be thanking you personally later but for now, let me say that I am proud of all of you. Thank you one and all.

I am a leader, I take people places that wouldn’t go without someone challenging them but I am not the cog that makes the block party turn. If DBC wants to continue doing parties, they can be done with or without me. I don’t see how a Pharisee could find fault with the one last night and it may be something we need to continue.

I’m going to go ahead and tell you: The OFFICE IS CLOSED on Monday. We are making it a holiday.

Old and Tired

 

SCRIPTURE

Once I was young, and now I am old.

~Psalm 37:25, NLT

QUOTE

Growing old is not for sissies.

~I can’t remember who said this: it wasn’t me. I do concur.

Technically, I turned 56 yesterday morning about 7:00 AM. Actually 56 is my dyslexic age, in reality I am 65 and I think I was more tired last night than any previous time in my life. Between crawling into my truck and driving from the church to the house, I got stiff and stove up. I had a hard time getting out of old squeak, I practically rolled out. I struggled to muster the energy to get my brief case out of the back of the truck and then staggered to the house and Big Mama had locked the place down tighter than Capshaw. I had to put my brief case down, go back out to the shed [5o feet away] and get my garage opener out of the truck and then crawl back to the house. You would never have known it was my birthday: she is sitting in her recliner wrapped in a blanket watching the NFL. “I thought  I heard something,” was all she had to say as I struggled to get in and somehow managed to get into the shower after passing the medicine cabinet and taking four ibuprofen. Our facets are broke in the shower and you cannot cut the hot water off which she loves but I was sun burned because I forgot to wear my hat and the hot water was killing me. I get out and she wants to read cards to me from my two OLDER sisters who are both telling me that I am now officially old. Of course Big Mama got a huge kick out of the cards. One read, “The test results are in”…you open it up and it says…”Your old.” Ha, ha, ha, what a hilarious card, not! I would say, “Your no older than you feel” but last night, I felt very old. The scripture verse is real, look it up if you don’t believe me but no theological treatise out of me today cause I am give out from being old. I am old and tired but not tired of being old.

I thought maybe I had two more Block Parties left in me but this may be it. Pray that Jesus gets glory tonight.

God Is Kind

SCRIPTURE

 God is kind to the ungrateful and to those who are wicked. So imitate God and be truly compassionate.

~Luke 6:36, THE VOICE

QUOTE

O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

~David

I am amazed at God’s patience and goodness. I do not see how anyone could argue with the fact that God has been good to America. I do not know how He has had the patience to put up with us. You can’t turn on the news or read a news paper without seeing something about gay rights. The entire nation has gone crazy. Gay rights destroyed Sodom, the tribe of Benjamin, the Roman Empire and now it is going to destroy America. One thing is for certain, we can’t accuse God of not giving us a chance. But in the midst of all that is wrong, I want to share something that is right and good: I saw something last night that amazed me. A hundred people showed up for visitation and together, we made over 800 stops. I grant you, we were only doing door stops, and inviting people to the BLOCK PARTY but it blessed my heart to see so many people respond and boy did we have church. You can’t have real church with people who have no intention of obeying Christ but you can have church with a group that has been obedient. I wouldn’t take anything for the experience. We found us a couple of future soul winners in the group. Big Mama drew Ty and Jace. All she had to do was pull in the drive way and let them out. Ty wouldn’t leave until he got a commitment. I understand that both are very vocal. We do have to train them not to talk about odors and people’s weight and age. We have to work on their etiquette but not their boldness. Mandy had the opposite problem with her team: they wouldn’t get out of the car, she had to do it all. 

I am still in shock: what a night!

Tonight we are praying for a miracle of a different sort: the pic below shows you what happened one year ago today. Let us pray that it happens again.

ARE YOU READY FOR A PARTY!!!

The Cheer Leaders are ready

 

The Kids are ready

 

Becky Ready For The Party

 

David and the Giants

Spilling Over

SCRIPTURE

Now that you have welcomed the Anointed One, Jesus the Lord, into your lives, continue to journey with Him and allow Him to shape your lives. Let your roots grow down deeply in Him, and let Him build you up on a firm foundation. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always spill over with thankfulness.

~Colossians 2:6-7, THE VOICE

QUOTE

Enthusiasm is as good a thing in the Church as fire is in a cook stove.

~Billy Sunday

I got a new translation of N.T. a couple of weeks back and I absolutely love it. It is called THE VOICE and it reminds me of the Amplified Bible because you have more words to read rather than less. I was reading in Colossians 2 yesterday when the two verses above caught my attention. I am excited about a couple of things now. I am so hyped up that I cannot settle down to do my quiet time. Tonight we have an opportunity to do something that we’ve never done before: even with two teams dropping out, we still have 35 and the average route has 40 stops. But to be on the conservative side, let’s say 35 teams make 30 visits: if my math is correct, that is over 1,000 visits. Let me blow your mind, there are 40 routes and 1869 stops. We have a shot at 1,000 but I want all 1869. This means the LORD must convict 15 more team leaders between now and 6:30 tonight. The Youth and Women responded well but men I am challenging you to step up to the plate. Don’t use work as an excuse: we need you desperately. We have 5-6 leaders in Guatemala: step up and take there place. Let’s at least get 40 teams on the road but we need 50 to pull this off. Two routes have 80 or more stops and four have over 60. We need two teams for these big routes. This is a God thing folks, there is no way Jack Bailey can pull this off. We are going to eat pizza at 6:00, have a short briefing and then hit the roads by 6:30. We are going to visit for one hour and then meet back at the sanctuary for real church. I’m telling you in advance, if you lay out, you are going to miss a blessing.

You folks in Guatemala need to pray. Pray for the LORD of the harvest to call someone to take your place. PTL, got a new team before I completed the blog. We are back up to 36 but keep praying for 50. Nothing is impossible with God. Our gift is a $1 bottle of gain dish detergent that you can get at Fred’s, Dollar General or Walmart. We need more but we need them ASAP. Pray for me to settle down a little or I’m going to have a heart attack before Saturday. We need help tonight, Thursday and Friday…don’t plan anything that conflicts with the BLOCK PARTY.

Citizens Arrest! Madam, did you know you were speeding?

Oops, we have a mystery person.

Duck Jacob!

Dancing in the rain; he is happy again.

Anna, Karlie and Sadie Kate

Its a bird, a plane, no it is Super Dave and family

A bunch of Clowns

Braden waiting for the Block Party Bus

Now who does this look like?

Bobby, B and Josie T.

Jesus And Sinners

SCRIPTURE

“Why do you eat and drink with such scum?^“

Luke 5:30, NLT

QUOTE

It is wonderful to have a high regard for the truth, but zeal for the truth must be balanced by a love for people, or it can give way to a harsh judgmental attitude which lacks compassion.

~John MacArthur

Jesus was walking down a street in Capernaum when He saw Matthew sitting behind a table collecting taxes. Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow Me,” and Matthew got up, left everything and followed Jesus. Shortly after this Matthew through a party and invited all his friends which includes many tax collectors. He invited them to his house for a banquet so he could introduce them to Jesus. Meanwhile, the ever observant Pharisees are watching and they grab some of Jesus disciples and question them, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” They were already upset with Jesus for forgiving the paralytic sins and now He is dinning with a room full of sinners. Needless to say, Jesus was not what the Pharisees expected in a Messiah. They wanted a Messiah who would pronounce judgment upon sinners not eat with them and enjoy their company. Some time later Jesus will pronounce judgment but it will be upon the Pharisees, not the tax collectors.

I served a small rural church in mid-state Mississippi my last year in seminary. We had only one teenage girl and she had a tendency to wear short skirts and a little too much makeup. We had a half-dozen older ladies who confronted me one Sunday morning after the service: “When are you going to preach on these young women wearing short skirts and too much makeup?” I confessed that I had not given it any thought but that I would take it under consideration. The next Sunday, I preached a scathing message on gossip: all six of those old ladies left madder than an old sitting hen. We don’t need to be so quick to judge, it might come back on us and sooner than we think. I hate to agree with the old ladies but the dresses are getting way too short. I don’t have a problem with the makeup.

BLOCK PARTY TIME

• We are getting down to hours now. Trying desperately to get ready for Wednesday night. We have 37 Teams going visiting and our goal is to make 1,000 visits. We are going to run out of gifts. It can happen, nothing is impossible with God.
• I am still rejoicing over Sunday and thinking about God’s goodness. I got to hear Phil Glisson yesterday at Pastor’s Conference. He and Teressa are with Wally this week at East Highland.
• Continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

 

 

Liberating Truth

 

 

SCRIPTURE

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

~John 8:32, NLT

QUOTE

True freedom is a spiritual condition: a person can be free within a prison or be in a prison though not incarcerated. It is not where we are but who we know that makes us free.

~Yaakov

Insecurity is captivating, it can make you its prisoner in a hurry. Truth has liberating power; it can set us free of anxiety and fear. What truth has this amazing power? The truth that Jesus Christ has conquered sin, death, hell and the grave. He has mastered every situation you could possibly face, forgiven every sin you could possibly commit and given you assurance of eternal life. Why live in a prison of fear: embrace the truth. Meditate on it until you see the prison doors swing open. You are free to go, to live, to serve, to love, to be loved and fulfilled as a person. And that my friend is the truth!

• God is good. Every Sunday night, I feel the same emotion and the same sense of gratitude: God is good, merciful and gracious. If He never did another thing for me, I would be morally obligated to praise HIM for all that He has done in the past. He is infinitely good, perfectly good. What about that duet: was not awesome or what! God has blessed DBC with incredible talent.
• Our Mississippi Friends made it home safely last night: what an incredible day we had with them. We are so thankful they got to come.

Ruth to my right, Dee to left and Renea far left: Big Mama always right.

• My neighbor Ray has had Israel on his heart lately, he reads all the time and watches the news. Israel has been under attack. When I saw Ray’s burden a few nights back it got me to thinking and I have been praying for Israel since. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that they will recognize and give glory to its Prince. I feel very confident that God is going to use Israel in a very significant way.
• I commended the church last night for all that they have done for the community and the children who are about to start back to school. The paper drive went great and Janet is delivering paper supplies to all three schools today. Thank you folks: you are the best!
• Yesterday was huge: we have 37 Teams going visiting Wednesday night. Team Leaders, you are responsible for enlisting your team members. Youth and children can help. I will be working on routes and maps the next two days and Mandy will be putting the bags together. Some have already volunteered to help and you can call her if you want to assist in this project. We are going to have pizza instead of Chick-Fil-A which is a wise move on the part of my executive assistant. So here is our BP schedule:
  • Mon-Wed prepare for visitation and knock on every door in Danville
  • Thursday…fencing, cleaning pavilion and amphitheater and GRACE BARN Thursday evening. We will set up FORTE at 5:00 and be ready to receive at 6:00
  • Friday…processing and receiving at Grace Barn, receiving equipment, tables, etc.
  • Saturday…final touches, setting up Coke Tents [3] games, etc. Lunch break and then cooking at 3:00 and wrapping at 4:00, plus setting up sound and stages.