It is Well!

Sitting in a small room was the husband of 57 years of the dear woman laying just feet away being kept alive by artificial means. The man's daughter and her husband and myself joined by a doctor and a nurse who explained the horrible reality of a choice that must be made.

Not a choice any of us ever want to have to make. How do you choose to sever a part of yourself. A companion heartbeat that has been attached in every way for over half a century.
The body grows old and tired and unable to continue being the affective conduit for a precious life of a wife, mother, grandmother , mother-in-law, friend and so on.

Tears shed and then a funny story of days gone by, blank stares , another tear, a smile, another story, distant look and expressions of emptiness and sadness.

But somehow, there was the sense of joy and hope and yes, even victory. There was the absolute hope of glory because of a decision made so long ago ... a decision of surrender and acceptance.

The dear husband of so many years, burdened bythe guilt of making such a decision regarding the removal of artificial life support, in my way of thinking, offered the most wonderful of gifts when he agreed to allow his precious mate to slip peacefully into the arms of a waiting and loving Savior, Friend and Lord.

Oh Hallelujah, What a Savior.

Take a moment and express your love and enjoy the moment in which you live.

LIFE: A short gig!

There have been several public figures who have died this week that have been very familiar to many of the national and world population for a long time.

We remember "HHHEEERRRRREEEESSSSS JOHNNY!" from Ed McMahon and the hair and smile of "Charlie's Angels' " Farrah Fawsett and "I'll Be There" from Michael Jackson.

Many people are mourning the lost of these well known stars. They have in their own ways touched the lives of millions of people. Each of them have enjoyed their highs and have suffered their lows. Each of them have made some kind of contribution to society.

Much will be said in the press about their good and their bad moments, no doubt. In fact we will be inundated with their stories for a while.

The truth remains from the word of God "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgement." Hebrews 9:27.
Dying is something everyone has to do (except for those who go up in the rapture) and being judged is also something each of us has to experience.

That is why I appreciate the next verse "so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him." Those are the people who have accepted his free gift mentioned in Romans 6:23
"...the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." How do we receive this gift? The answer is found in Romans 10:9 & 10 ... "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

The news of anyone dying, whether it be well known people like those listed above, or the local preacher, Rev. William Mayo, who will not get national headlines, should be a reminder to each of us. A reminder of our mortalilty, our responsibility and the short time we have left.

The book of James reminds us in chapter 4, verse 14 ... "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."

Life is short... eternity is long... hope is found in Jesus Christ.

Tribute to my Best Friend

The first sermon I remember preaching was at the church I grew up in and I think I was around 18 or 19 years old. The sermon was titled "What's in a Name" and it was about Peter and his episode of walking on the water. Amazing that I remember that.

I worked in youth ministry for several years after that and preached on many occassions through the years, often filling in for preachers for various reasons.

Then in the summer of 1985, a new preacher came to our church. We immediately became friends and soon best friends. Though I was preaching a little before he was even saved, he was a big influence on my life. While he was a rising professional God saved him and immediately called him to ministry. He and his wife surrendered to seminary, unlike myself, and the church I attended at the time was his first pastorate.

Chip and Teresa Roberson moved here from Texas (they are originally from Georgia) and God used him to challenge me and prepare me for the next step in my ministry. We went through some challenges together in a church where some people thought they were supposed to be God (rather than serve God) and God grew us through those experiences.

A group of us started a new work and called Chip as our pastor. After a year of that ministry, God called me to Fellowship Baptist Church. Chip stepped out and ordained me to the gospel preaching ministry against the desires of some folks in our association.

God has used us both in exciting and remarkable ways.

Since coming here in 1988, I have preached on five continents and visited several countries. I have preached in many churches in several states as well as conferences and camps. All of those overseas trips and many of those preaching opportunities came as a result of Chip's influence and, or insistance.

Now after 25 years in the Pastoral ministry, Chip has retired and is returning to his previous vocation of being a pharmacist in his hometown in Georgia. Now, make no mistake, he has not retired from ministry as he will always be a preacher and proclaimer of the gospel of Christ.

I am so happy for Chip and Teresa as they return home to be where their hearts are and to have the opportunity to continue to serve the Lord in a less restricted venue.

Thank you Chip for being my best friend these many years and for pushing me to be who I am today. No other human outside of my family has ever encouraged me as you have. May God use you and your family mightily in the years to come.

Dad-Gum Cough

When we arrived in Argentina on Saturday morning, May 16th we were issued, on the plane, masks and rubber gloves to wear until we were out of the terminal. Of course we all assumed it was because of the Swine Flu but it was not. Argentina had recorded 46,000 cases of the Dengue Fever (pronounced Dangu) which is a virus spread by mosquitoes.
Well, I am home now and I did not get the Dengue Fever but I do have a DAD-GUM cough that is ripping my chest out. It starts somewhere just short of my big toe and works it's way up through my fat self and grabs hold of my aorta or something and tries to bring it out with it.
When I cough, boats move out of the way.

But honestly that is a small price to pay for the wonderful time we had doing ministry in Argentina.

It is still exciting when someone walks up to you and says "Hey, by the way, you will be preaching in the special service tonight" and you didn't even know there was a special service planned. I like to say that for fun, but the truth is, I love the opportunity to preach at anytime and I always expect to preach at a moments notice... it truly is one of the blesssings of going.

We had a productive week with 125 decisions for Christ and then on the last night at a soccer stadium we did the empty hearts drama and I had the awesome privilege of preaching one more time and God allowed us to witness 45 more souls come to him. AWESOME!

And regardless of what Eric says...I DID lose almost 6 pounds... granted, I don't know how, but I did...not a problem, I've managed to find of a couple of them already.

Dios es Bueno !!! God is good!

A Tribute to Scott C Calloway

I ran into Mr. Jolly yesterday. Mr. Jolly was my junior high school principal and also was one of my Sunday School teachers. My oldest daughter and my wife have also worked with him in the school system. He would be one the people on my "People who help shape my life" list. It was really nice running into him and his two daughters. He was celebrating his 70th birthday (which was the day before).
It is very hard to believe that Mr. Jolly is 70...at least until I remember how old I am.

Then when I got home I read on facebook that another man on my list, Scott C Calloway, had died. He was our high school band director in our city since the forties , I think or maybe the early fifties.Mr. Calloway had a major influence on my life and I will always be grateful for the character he helped to instill in me. He died on his birthday (93, I think) I remember when I was a senior he announced one day that he didn't expect to live much longer because all of his family died around the age that he was then. I guess he would have never expected to make it another 35 years...amazing.

"Take all you want, but eat all you take" he would say when the band was eating somewhere.

"Make sure we leave this place cleaner then it was when we got here" There's one I have tried to pass on to every group I have ever been with.

"If you want to be respected, rspect others and give them a reason to respect you"

I disappointed Mr. Calloway one time in a dumb decision I made and he let me know exactly how he felt and then he gave me another chance and things changed. In my adulthood I have had a number of opportunities to see Mr. Calloway and he would beam when he saw me and often mentioned how proud he was of how I turned out. I'm quite sure that at one point he didn't expect me to turn out very well at all.

But for any success I have enjoyed, I must attribute a part to him. A true hero to me.

Thank you Mr. C. for being who and what you were... we will likely never know the thousands of lives you touched on your journey here.

Miss California is a winner to me!

Perez Hilton is a homosexual blogger, a self proclaimed queen of gossip...his words, not mind. For whatever reason, he was one of the judges for the Miss U.S.A. pageant.
He asked Miss California if she thought all states should follow Vermont in allowing same sex marriages. She said she believed that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
She knew when she spoke those words that the likelihood of her becoming Miss U.S.A. flew right out the window. But she has no remorse and says she would say the same thing again if she had it all to do over again.

Now for those of us who feel that way are called intolerant. We are narrow minded. We are called haters and now even extremist.

So Hilton was so angry at Miss California's answer that he called her a stupid (word I will not repeat here) . He says she had no right injecting her politics and Christianity into the Miss USA pageant.

Unbelievable... where is the tolerance in this case and any case that has to do with people of faith.
What amazing hypocrisy!

Thank God for people like Carrie Prejean...what a brave young lady. God will bless her in ways she would have never known had she won the pageant.

I'm happy for Miss N.C. and I wonder if she would have taken such a stand.

Believers must take a stand... Carrie did... God is honored.

A great day on Easter

I am so thankful for our folks at Fellowship Baptist Church. As we were preparing for a record crowd on Sunday, I asked that people would volunteer to go to the earlier services to allow room for visitors at our eleven o'clock service and they readily complied.
We had almost identical numbers in all three services and fell just a small family short of 500 in total worship attendance for the morning.
Two young boys asked Jesus into their hearts after the first service and 11 adults responded to receive Jesus in the eleven o'clock service.
What a wonderful day God blessed us with.
The music was great in all services.

Let's pray that many of these people will return next week and the next and so on.

Hallelujah, What a Savior!