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!

Holy Week...Sunday...Resurrection Day!!

Just outside the city...a garden expressing it's beauty
Early in the morning...the song birds fulfilling there duty

Shadows running across the ground
As the light was coming around

Dew glimmered in the flowers and the grass
Earth's longest night ever, has passed

Ladies lift up their heads in surprise
They simply could not believe their eyes

The stone has been rolled out of place
Revealing what was now an empty space

Two angels stood shining with Glory
Shared with them the resurrection story

He is not here, He said He would rise
They're story was received as nothing but lies

But Peter and John to the tomb did race
There they found as stated, an empty place

Now one certain Mary returned to the grave
And asked the gardner for His body to save

Mary said He, Please do not cry
Go and tell the others that it is I

I told you I would suffer in Friday's shame
But now ...as promised...SUNDAY CAME!


I have stood at the tomb...IN the tomb that many believe is THE actual tomb... as I stood there, I could not help but notice HE WASN'T THERE!!!
Actually that is not true...He was there, but this time He was there as a permanant resident in my heart, Praise the Lord.
To see that slab carved out of the hillside where the grave clothes were folded and laid that morning as Jesus no longer had a need for the tomb...the original owner could have it back as it was no longer occupied...

The darkness of Friday has passed...Saturdays cloud of despair was cast...Sunday is here at last... Hallelujah what a Savior!

Happy Easter!

Holy Week...Saturday

In front of several churches on my way to the office today, I saw crosses with the black shrouds hanging over the cross beam. The imagery is that of the death of Christ. Taken down from the cross only after they were certain he died and wrapped in clothes and placed in a tomb...a borrowed tomb. A hole carved out of the side of a hill. A stone rolled in front of the opening. He is dead...He is buried. It's over.
Well, we know the rest of the story so we already know that it is in fact not over. Yes, Jesus said "It is finished" on the cross, speaking to the fact that He had done what He had come to do...take upon Himself the sins of the world. Now He must carry them to the grave and He must deal with the dead both good and evil.
As for the living, they did not know. What they knew was the Carpenter, teacher, preacher, healer, changer of life was dead and His body was now in that tomb.
The rock that He Himself had created now encased His body... Saturday...dark indeed.
A crowd of men and women with no idea what to do now...dark.
A mother, who watched her son brutally killed and saw the stone slam into it's place to conceal her son in a grave...dark.

Have I mentioned yet... Sunday's Coming! Shout it with me through the darkness...

SUNDAY'S COMING!!!!