Thinking about Life and the Lord!

Recently I read a statement that relates to many churches. The statement read like this: "Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited...until you try to sit in their pew." Obviously this is an overexaggeration for most churches, but there is a hint of truth. How many of us on a given Sunday go out of our way to make new people (guests) feel at home and welcome in our church family? At First Baptist Marion, we average well over 50 guests every Sunday. When guests come to FBC they often have questions in their minds like a person visiting a store for the first time. Truly many of them are "church shoppers." They are asking these kind of questions: * Am I needed? * Can I make friends here? * Where do I fit in? * Is this worth the effort of my time? * Are these people real? * Can my life really change? I am more and more convinced that before Sunday guests will buy into or believe our Sunday message of salvation or even become interested in one of our many minis

On February 5th I turned 40 years old. Out of love for me, I was thoroughly harassed by my staff who came to work wearing all black to "mourn the death of my youth." Additionally, I was greeted with a black coffin in my office, streamers declaring that I was "over the hill," and one friend even gave me a gift of products one would readily find at the local nursing home. You know...it is a great thing to have friends who genuinely love you enough to go to all this trouble to see that I had a GREAT birthday! I do appreciate and love them. Now that I am 40, I began to think about things that I have learned and found to be true over the past 40 years. Can I share some of these important thoughts with you today? 1. My father was right when he taught me this truth: "It is not what happens to you in life that matters. What matters is how you react to it." 2. John Maxwell was right when he said, "Everything rises and falls on leadership." 3. Personal e