A Recovering Baptist in South Carolina

Over the past 9+ years Mount Calvary Baptist Church has been seeking God's leading on expanding our current facilities to accommodate our growing congregation.  On October 10th, 2010 we broke ground and this past Sunday evening we finally had our dedication service.  We praise the Lord for his leading and provision throughout this project.  The highlight of the dedication service was the singing of our favorite hymn, Hallelujah for the Cross! You and watch it by  clicking here .  There are also many other resources concerning our building renovation on our church website .  We pray that God will continue to use these new facilities to spread his word in Greenville and around the world!

 What happens when two people fall in love and they know they are going to get married and yet marriage is still over a year away? It's to early for engagement cause you just started dating less than two months ago and yet you want to make this permanent.  What can someone in this situation do?   This was the situation Sarah and I found ourselves in not to long ago.  If you've been here before you know that Sarah and I started courting on Christmas day.  We both entered this relationship certain that we were meant for each other.  That confidence has never wavered even once! We also wanted to make sure the Lord remained at the forefront of our relationship.  Once we officially became boyfriend/girlfriend our relationship took off!  We couldn't wait to see each other (we still can't but we can control ourselves a little better now) and each and every time we were together became more and more special.  I knew that we w...

The search for a Girlfriend began as soon as I started college in 2006. I wasn't however looking for a girlfriend just to have a girlfriend. I was looking for the girl God wanted me to marry, so I wasn't going to be casual about finding the right girl. Over the past five years I've show interest in several girls and always God shut the door. Until I met Sarah Ann Ekberg!  Our story is long so sit back, get comfortable as I share how God has worked in our lives. This is not going to be the complete version as that would be the start of a novel! If you have any questions feel free to comment, but please keep the comments on the blog and not on facebook so that we can keep all the comments in one place.    Sarah and I were in school together in the spring of 2007 at Bob Jones University. We took New Testament Messages together with Nathan Crockett, but I don't remember seeing her. (the class had over 400 students in each session) although she vaguely remembers see...

Not to long ago I was talking to a gentleman from my church about the topic of relationships and he made a statement that I found very intriguing and one that has lead to a lot of contemplation. He said "Love is not something you fall into, it's a choice". This is difference is at the root cause of the massive number of broken homes in our country today. To often couples "Fall" into what they think is "Love" when in fact all it is simply infatuation and the want to have physical desires fulfilled. Love is in fact a choice one makes. A choice to Love someone no matter what that person does, no matter how much that person hurt you, and no matter what happens to that person. Love is waiting for marriage. Love is obeying those in authority whether it be parental, pastoral, or governmental. True Love is unconditional. This leads me to think about what God did over two thousand years ago. He "Chose" to love us and send his son to be born i...

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...