Youth Revival

Our church hosted a youth meeting with Greg Lintz this past Saturday evening. A dozen or so precious young people accepted the Lord as their Savior, and many more made decisions for the Lord. The atmosphere of revival overflowed into both services Sunday, with many people, old and young alike, getting things right with the Lord. In the Sunday evening service, the young people blessed us with a moving skit about how our sins hurt Jesus and with wonderful singing. Here are a couple pictures of the youth choir. Sam is in the front row, in an orange shirt.

Poetry

Throughout my teens and twenties, I wrote a lot of poetry. Most of the poems were really horrible, but some of them were actually quite good. I had hoped to some day be a published poet. As it turns out, one of my poems did get published, albeit on of the worst ones, and not one I'd want anyone to read today. The poem below, one of the last ones, was written when I was thirty, at a time when all was well in my world, and my focus was centered rightly. When I ran across it last night, it reminded me that God is still good, even if my circumstances have changed since then.

PRAISE THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD

I praise the Lord for all He has done:
For leading me in the way I must go,
For my wonderful parents and precious son,
For even the times when he tells me, "No."

He is my Shepherd and always knows best;
No one has ever loved me so much.
When I am tired, He gives me rest;
When I'm alone, I can feel His touch.

There are so many hurting people out there,
And my wish is for them to know my Friend.
He is the One Who will love, comfort, and care,
And cause their sorrows to come to an end.

When parents neglect or cause great pain,
When loved ones go off and no longer care,
Jesus can bring joy to that life again;
Jesus will come because of one prayer.

I pray to Jesus, my Lord, every day
That He will look down on all those I love,
Healing their hurts, wiping their tears away,
Getting them ready to meet Him above.

In my life, He has done so much;
He has always been there in my hour of need.
I'll trust Him and His healing touch
To help my friends, because I believe.

Then, they too can praise His name
For the wonderful works He has done.
Throughout the ages, always the same,
He is Jesus, God's Holy Son.

What kind of testimony should a Christian have with unbelievers?

I’m directing that question toward myself as much as toward others. A situation came up at work yesterday which caused me to ponder that question all night.

I work a secular job at a company which is run by a brother and sister who are very active in their Presbyterian church. In fact, the sister is a deaconess, but I’m not going there with this. The brother is a very kind, compassionate man who certainly displays the characteristics of a Christian. At our Christmas dinner, he praised God for what He has done for and through the company – something you won’t often hear in a corporate setting.

Well, the sister does NOT exude Christ-likeness as does her brother. She is a mean, uncaring, self-centered person and extremely hard to work for. In the year and a half I have been here, I have heard her scream at just about everyone and fire people on a whim. Yesterday, apparently she went on a screaming fit toward her brother because she refused to pay one of the men for his work last Friday all because he forgot to clock in that morning. Everyone knows he was here, yet she refused to pay him for it. (This isn’t the first time a situation like this has happened. Last time someone did that, the brother paid the wages out of his own pocket to keep the employee from leaving.)

To me, the real shame in all this is what it causes the employees to think about Christians. One of the other workers said to me, “She’s supposed to be a Christian. Well, if she makes it in Heaven, then nobody should have to go to Hell.” I hate to see supposed Christians making a bad impression like that, and it has caused me to look inward a little closer to make sure that I am being the testimony I need to be. I’ve realized that I need to be careful of not just the words I use, but also the tone of voice accompanying those words. What a wake-up call!!

Fundamental Forums

A couple weeks ago, I came across the Fighting Fundamental Forums. I was excited, thinking it would be a place for some serious discussions. Instead, what I found was a lot of immature bickering among people who argue their positions sans logic and with no intent to hear the other side of the debate. I keep reading it just for the entertainment value, but I have given up on finding anything of real value there. Well, I have found a couple "things" of real value -- old friends from the past. Steve Davis, son of Carol Davis, my babysitter when I was but a preschooler; and Ferrell Phillips from Gilead Christian Academy where I attended from Kindergarten through 8th grade.

Movie Recommendation

Last night, I finally watched the movie "Facing the Giants." I had heard from several sources that it was a good movie, but I was not prepared for how good it was. I enjoyed the movie from start to finish, with tears running down my face much of the time. I'm not going to use this blog to tell you what the movie was about, but rather to tell you that this is one must-see movie.

Where Has the Love Gone?

I'm finally feeling somewhat better, so I'm going to start writing on some weightier matters -- just some things that keep going around in this little head of mine.

Another title for today could be "Where Are the True Christians?" That is not intended to imply that I think everyone I meet is going to Hell. Rather, I am wondering where I can find people who are Christ-like, which is the definition of the word Christian.

Supposedly, they're at the churches. I've attended church (Independent, Fundamental Baptist) all my life, and I can attest that assumption is not always true. People will come up, smile politely and ask, "How are you?" Most of the time, though, they really don't want to know. Case in point:

A while back, I was out of church for a few weeks due to illness. I listened to the services on the radio and heard my name mentioned for prayer several times. It could, therefore, be assumed that the church congregation, particularly the leaders, knew of my illenss. The first or second Sunday I was back at church, a man who is both a deacon and a Sunday school teacher came up to me, smiled politely, and asked, "How are you doing?" When I responded that I wasn't doing so well, you would have thought I had just shot his dog. A look of horror replaced his smile, and I was made to feel that I had just committed a faux pas. (Excuse me for thinking he really wanted to know!) Since then, I have always responded to that question with, "I'm fine"; and I've often noticed the other person actually start to walk away before the answer was even out of my mouth.

According to I Corinthians 13:13, "Now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." It seems like the love is draining away from Christians. How then can we ever expect to win the lost? Romans 2:4 says that it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. How are the lost to see God's goodness but through His people? If we're not even being loving toward our own, how can we expect to show the love of God to a lost and dying world?