The Vols Go Down

The season of dreams is now over.  Boy, those were hard words to write.

After a school-record # of wins and the first outright SEC title in 41 years, the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team has played its final game.  I had hoped for at least one more.  Unfortunately we ran into a team in Louisville that has been on a tear as of late.

While I am sad about the game, I am happy about the season.  Actually, the last 3 years have been better than I could have ever imagined.  I’ve lived through some pretty sorry basketball around here so the recent success has been uplifting.

Many thanks to Chris Lofton for his competitiveness, humilty, and all of those 3-pointers.  Many thanks to JaJuan for being an unsung hero–his energy seemed boundless.  Many thanks to Jordan Howell for perservering when others would have quite.  Those 3 seniors made it through some tough times to provide precious memories for the Vol Faithful.

And thanks to Bruce Pearl, who has made Tennessee Basketball exciting again.  I hope he sticks around for years to come.

Go Vols!

(note to readers:  click on “To Help a Church” to see how you can be a blessing to the church that I pastor)

Free Concert

I should have announced this before now–but I forgot. 

On Friday, March 28th, Stoney Point Baptist Church will be hosting a free Praise Concert.  3 local Christian bands (Bone Prophet, 4 and 20 Elders, and Secondman) will be singing and there will also be a couple of drama teams and a special speaker. 

Everyone is invited.  There will be pizza at 6 pm with the concert starting at 7 pm.

For Better or For Worse

Take a look at this (it appeared in the paper on Easter):  http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/003048.php.

Pretty good question, don’t you think?

(note to readers:  click on “To Help a Church” at the top of the page for an opportunity to help a church that seeks to help others)

Hobby Lobby

Crafts were never “my thing.”  Come to think of it, I was never any good at anything remotely artsy and never got much enjoyment from being made to do a craft-like project of any kind.  There were a few things that I did at craft time during Vacation Bible School that I found to be ok–but for the most part I tried to avoid doing crafts.

I guess this is why I haven’t spent much time inside of any Hobby Lobby stores.  Hobby Lobby is a store for crafts and materials to make things.  But even though I hope to never enter a Hobby Lobby, I now respect them deeply.

Yesterday I opened the front page of the Knoxville News-Sentinel and on page three saw an amazing full-page add.  It showed a hill with three crosses and had the awesome statement of:  “Because He lives, you can have eternal life.”  Along with this it had a paraphrase of Romans 10:9 as well as a phone # to call if you would like to know more about Christ (1-888-NEED-HIM).  You can see this add here:  http://www.hobbylobby.com/site3/ministry/.

This add was paid for by Hobby Lobby.  I don’t know much about their business nor do I care about making crafts, but I do care a lot about Jesus and am grateful to them for running this add.

Take a look at the site and drop them a note telling them thanks.  We should encourage those who spread the Gospel message.

(note to readers:  If you want to assist a church striving to help people, please click on “To Help a Church” at the top of this page)

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed

The title says it all.  Stop and celebrate the Risen Savior today and every day.

Good Friday

Easter is upon us with thoughts of the Easter Bunny visiting and new Easter clothes to wear.  For me, it is probably the greatest time of year.  After trudging through winter, it is the sign that spring is truly upon us.  But, of course, it is more than all of that.

Easter is when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  Regardless of what the critics may say, it really happened.  Something that happens is true even if everyone thinks that it is a lie.  Jesus really died to pay the price for our sins, He was really placed in a tomb, and He really rose again. 

Some may say that no thinking person could believe such a thing.  I disagree.  I’ve thought about it, studied it, asked difficult questions about it, and still I believe as firmly that it is a reality as I did when I was a child.  To be honest, I’m more sure of it now than ever.

To get to the resurrection, though, Jesus first had to die.  Which is what Good Friday is all about.  The crucifixion of Jesus is the most evil thing that has ever happened to the most beautiful being to ever live.  So why do we call it Good Friday?

Because even though it was evil, God ordained it to happen for the good of the world and for the good of Himself.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can have access to a relationship with God.  This is both for our good and His glory.  Our God, who is both loving and just, made a way for both his love and justice to be satisfied.  He loved us, so He wanted us to be with Him, but His justice demanded a payment for sin.  On the cross Jesus did what could not be done by us in that He caused God’s love and justice to collide.  The result was gruesome, yet beautiful. 

How did you spend Good Friday?  Did you think of Christ on the cross?  Did you ponder His power and His love?  Did you spend time with your family and talk about the gift of Jesus to the world?

My family and I went to Cades Cove.  We went on a carriage ride, drove around the loop, and ate lunch at the picnic area.  And we talked about Jesus.  I pondered as I drove looking at God’s wonderful creation about God’s unending love for us.  My kids enjoyed our time together and my wife and I did too.  Later in the day, we went by trolly into Gatlinburg from Pigeon Forge, went shopping, and enjoyed a meal together.  All of this helped to remind me just how blessed I am to have the family that I have.

But I’m more blessed to have a relationship with Jesus–the one who made it possible for every day to be good because of what He did on Good Friday.

(note to readers:  if you want to be a blessing to a church, please click on “To Help a Church” at the top of this page to find out how)

The 4th Day of Prayer Revival

The 4th, and final, day of Prayer Revival was last night.  It focused on blessing others with our mouths and with what we do instead of being a curse.

Matthew 5:44 is one of the main verses.  It speaks of blessing those that curse us and praying for those who persecute us.  The blessing it is talking about is not mainly things that we do.  The the Jewish mind, a blessing is something that is said over someone.  This is part of prayer.  Asking God to bless those who do us wrong with His presence and by bringing them into communion with Him.  Doing things for them is important, but praying for them is also.

Don also spoke from Proverbs 11:11–”By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.”  We must bless our city with our mouths and deeds.  Praying for where you live to be a place where God’s word is heard, where people respond to Him, and where the deeds of satan are overcome with the Power of God. 

Christians must be givers of life and not takers.  He used the story of Abraham and Lot to illustrate this.  Abraham was blessed by God giving him the promised land.  Abraham then blessed Lot by giving it to him as well.  Continually Abraham was a giver, doing unto Lot what God did unto him.  Doing this shows that we understand that to be blessed means that we are to be a blessing.  Lot, on the other hand, only took for himself and it cost him everything.

May we be like Abraham–giving, loving, and being a blessing in our world. 

While I’m sad that the prayer revival is over, I praise God for giving us this time of renewal.  I pray that those who were touched will continue on with the fire and with what we learned.  I pray that God transformed us over the last few days and that we carry it on with us with a desire for God and His will that burns brighter with each passing day.

To Don: thank you for your love of God and your faithfulness in bringing His message and thank you for being a friend. 

The 3rd Day of Prayer Revival

What a blessing the 3rd day was.  Of course, I mean the 3rd day after Jesus was crucified.  It stands at the pinnacle of history to show the Jesus is Lord.  He is Risen!

The 3rd day of the Prayer Revival was also a blessing.  There is so much ground to cover with this post, so I will hit the main points that God touched me with. 

One of the things that Don said that touched me was said during the introduction.  He said that when God speaks it is not so we will know more, but so that we will do more.  This is so important to me.  Our churches are chock full of Bible Studies, which is a good thing.  However, those studies should not just lead to us knowing more about God, but doing more in order to bring glory to God.

The main part of the Sermon was about righteousness, having our prayers heard, and the adversaries that we face as we follow God.  One of the ways that a man’s prayers are hindered is by not treating his wife in the way that is pleasing to God (1 Peter 3:7).  If a man wants his prayers to be heard, his relationship to his wife is vitally important.

He spoke of P.U.S.H. praying which can be Pray Until Something Happens or Pray Until Something is Heard.  Persistent pray is needed and is a sign of faith. 

In speaking of adversaries, he read 1 Corinthians 16:9.  Whenever God opens a door in scripture, there are always adversaries waiting for us.  The word adversaries means devils.  So we must be prepared for a fight.  The casualties of the fight will be great if we do not continually fight the good fight, ask God to deliver us (meaning all of us) from evil, and lead us (meaning all of us) into temptation.  We often pray for ourselves in this way, but we need to pray for each other in this way as well.

We also must be driven by desire to pray and serve God, not just driven by duty.  Pray that God will increase your desire for Him and for His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

2nd Day of Prayer Revival

The Bible is a book that challenges its readers on almost every page.  Unfortunately, many sermons from God’s word are not as challenging due to well-meaning yet misguieded preachers who shy away from the more difficult material.  Don Pierson is not one of those type of preachers.

Tonight he focused on 2 main topics.  One is that to be heard by God when we pray, we must be righteous.  While those who have accepted Jesus have been declared righteous, we must strive to remain right before God.  If we do not, God does not hear us when we pray.  As James declares “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  Being in right standing causes us to be heard.

The second main thing is that we need to have more focus when we are earnestly praying.  The main “it,” if you will.  Prayer lists are good and we need to remember all of the needs, however we must be burdened by particular things to pray for if we are to pray with all of our hearts.

I pray that all in attendance (including me) will take this message seriously and strive for holiness.

1st Day of Prayer Revival

Today was our 1st day of our Prayer Revival.  Don Pierson, Prayer Ministries Specialist of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, preached during both services.  Both of the sermons were powerful with a great response from people desiring a more dynamic prayer life.

This morning, Don spoke about being hungy and longing for God and for God’s blessings.  The Bible says that God fills the hungry heart and satisfies the longing.  Prayer, if it is to be effective, must come from a contrite, desiring heart.  Every word that we speak reveals what is in our heart.  A mind prayer won’t do–it must come from the heart.

Tonight, Don spoke of the 3 types of prayers and about praying for the lost.  The 3 main types of prayer are:  1. Crisis prayers–praying for healing, trials, other such issues; 2.  Calling prayers–prayers for God’s guidance and for what He has called us to do; 3.  Kingdom prayers–those prayers that focus on the building of God’s kingdon such as prayers for the lost and the wayward.  He said, rightly, that all too often we just pray crisis prayers, sometimes calling prayers, but we hardly ever get around to Kingdom prayers.  The Bible tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things (our worries when we are in crisis) will be added to us.  So when we focus on Kingdom prayers first, everything else falls into place.

Also, from Matthew 9, he told of Jesus telling His disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers.  So praying for the lost means praying for laborers to go to the lost.  He also proclaimed that we should be willing to be the laborers.

On a personal note, we went out to eat with Don and his wife Tricia after church this morning and had a nice time in fellowship with them.  One thing that impressed me about Don is that before the meal he engaged in a conversation with the waitress before the food arrived, asked her if she had any thing he could pray for her about (she did–her 8 yr old son has autism), and invited her to pray with us when our food arrived.  When the food came, the waitress held hands and prayed with us.  What a wonderful way to show the love of Christ.

 I’m looking forward to what tomorrow night holds.