A Recovering Baptist in South Carolina

In one week most people will be either traveling somewhere or getting ready for family or friends to arrive so that they can celebrate "Thanksgiving". But what should we be thankful for? Of course we need to thank God for the food, a house to shelter us from the elements, cloths to keep us warm and freedom to celebrate the holiday as we see fit. Many will be thankful for football (and thankful that we have a football season), sports, cars, entertainment, technology, toys (both big people toys and little people toys). The list of things to be thankful for is endless and it isn't wrong to be thankful for these thing because God is responsible for allowing us to have them. As Christians we need to be thankful for the Bible, Salvation, a Church family and the Freedom to worship as we please. In the midst of all this thanking we often forget who we are thanking. It the LORD God, Jehovah, YHWH! This is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. We often just say "Thank you

Last night Bill Knipe preached a sermon on missions and then Pastor Minnick gave an invitation for those who were willing to totally surrender to where ever the Lord would have them go, either onto the foreign field or to stay in Greenville. The real challenge (for me) though was in the message of the invitation song "Lord Send Me Anywhere". And it's not even the anywhere that scares me most of the time. It's the third line in the chorus. "Server any tie, save the tie that binds me to thy heart" Am I really willing to let God take away something that I love, even a Godly thing. It could be a place where I have many good memories, an ability that God has used but decides to take away. a family member who I'm very close to, or a friend who means everything to me. Am I willing to give up these things to go or stay where God wants me? Am I using any of these things to not let God use me the way I know he wants to use me? The answer to these question

The month of October has been a crazy month for me. It started off with me being in the Hospital for a weekend. I has gotten Colitis (an inflamed colon) and had put off going to checked out for an entire month until I was so weak I couldn't work. I had lost 30 Lb. in one month (not of my choosing) and had absolutely no energy and no strength. After my stay in the hospital I went back to work, where my employers were very understanding about me needing to take breaks to rest (usually just a 5 min. break to catch my breath). After one week I was feeling well enough to try playing some basketball, but that was an unusual experience for me because my coordination was off and my arm strength was not back yet, and so my shooting and running even may have looked a little like a the way a girl would run and shoot (I'm now back to full strength and coordination). Work has been an adventure in and of itself. While one job (CFA) is going very well, and I'm improving in my abili

Love. What an interesting topic, especially for a single guy to be talking about. A guy often dreams about finding that one girl that he will love for the rest of his life, as I'm sure girls dream about finding that right guy that they will love forever after. What is the outward evidence of Love? Outwardly Love shows itself in what we put our time and effort into. Single guys like myself often but that time and effort into their car, house, computer, job, ministry or even into the search of the perfect girl. In Matthew 22:35-38 we find out where God wants us to place our Love One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." This is the great and foremost commandment. We must love God first and foremost of all! Nothing and no one can come between me and my God. I love that phra