Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A New Home!

Let me first tell you what a joy and honor it is to be your Pastor!  God has truly blessed my family with a loving church.  God is good!  And by the time you read this we will have moved into our new home here in Russellville.  If you didn’t get a chance to view it during our recent open house you sure missed a great opportunity to see what a wonderful home Second Baptist has provided for my family and me.  Thank you!
It has been remodeled, refurbished, renovated, renewed, and restored (am I missing any words to describe it that begin with ‘R’).  It is beautiful, clean, smells new, with no clutter or dirt anywhere!  The contractors moved some walls, stripped the floors, refinished some of the beautiful wood floors, and recovered some rooms with brand new carpet.  If you didn’t or haven’t had a chance to see it yet come knock on our door, we would love to show it off.
All of this reminds me that we personally need to be refurbished, remodeled, and renovated sometimes.  We call it being revived in the church.  Corporately we hold revival services from time to time in our church so that everyone can experience a renewal with God.  We will be having a spring revival from April 15th through the 18th.  Would you and I start now preparing our hearts for the Lord to do a ‘new’ work in us?  Let me give you some things to pray about as we approach this time together.
Ask Jesus to expose and remove the clutter in our lives that keep us from allowing Him to reside freely in our hearts.  Are there some rooms that you have closed off to Him because there are things that you don’t want Him to see.  Trust me, He already knows about them.
Ask Jesus to strip us of all the old habits and sins that dirty our hearts and hide the true beauty He created us to have.  Let’s ask Him to strip us of all that doesn’t glorify Him.
 Ask Jesus to renew our minds to His truth (Romans 12:2).  How easily we are lulled into believing what the world tells us.  Our Lord will have a Word for each of us.  Let’s not let the evil one blind us to God’s truth.
The Parsonage may look pretty much the same on the outside, but believe me, it’s all brand new inside and that reminds me too that Jesus does His best work on the inside.  We just have to be willing to let Him.  Let’s pray for all that to happen.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Hurting Heart


Does your heart ever hurt?  I’m not talking of indigestion, angina, or the onset of a heart attack.  I’m asking if it hurts from loneliness, tragedy, suffering, being broken over a relationship, or just being brokenhearted?  It’s kind of a rhetorical question isn’t it?  Maybe a better question is what does your heart break over?  What causes your heart and mine to literally ache? 
Some days I need to look into my heart and ask that question.  Sometimes God’s Word asks it for me.  We really don’t like to dwell on painful things so consequently we skirt the tough questions.  Questions like, can I really make a difference in my world when we see so much pain all around us.  If I really, really sold out to Jesus what would my life look like?  If I gave myself to meet and reach a hurting world what would God do to me, through me?
Now, I don’t consider myself an ‘old’ person, but yet I am, I guess, considered a ‘Senior’ citizen.  Just don’t want to admit that, you know?  In retrospect, I am getting older, and I seem to be getting more broken over things around me and this world around us whether across the street or in another nation.  It’s easy to blame it on my age, but is it really?  Or is it Jesus opening my eyes a little more each day like a newborn puppy.
So I see it more and more each day, a child who doesn’t have a home to grow up in as I did when I was young, with a Mom and Dad, and siblings to fight and play with.  A Mom who is trying to raise her children in a Christ honoring way without the support of a husband or a widow or widower who goes home to an empty house without ever hearing the phone ring.  That person in another country who has not been given all the ‘stuff’ that we enjoy each day and never will have those ‘things’?  Is my ‘stuff’ really that precious?  Does my schedule have to be kept to a tee?  Am I on my time or God’s time?  Is it His ‘stuff’ or mine?
I know I’ve been rambling a bit, but these are the thoughts swirling in my head right now.  Will I give up myself that I can be His servant?  I have to remember I didn’t write and choose my job description, He did.  I just have to be willing to fill it.