Thinking about Life and the Lord!

A few months ago I was flying from Memphis , TN to Charlotte , NC . The flight was filled with people in every seat. After we took off from Memphis about 20 minutes into the trip the flight attendants began cabin service offering passengers drinks and pretzels. About half way through the cabin service the plane hit huge pockets of turbulence. The aircraft started rocking back and forth and bumping up and down. Several passengers got their freshly delivered drinks in their laps or on the floor. Quickly the flight attendants locked down the service cart and one almost literally crawled back to her seat and buckled herself in. Over the intercom she said some words that not only stuck out in my mind, but that I wrote down as soon as the turbulence was over. The flight attendant said this: “Ladies and gentlemen, the conditions are too turbulent and the time too short for us to continue our service as usual.” You and I are not only commanded by Jesus to “make disciples”, but y...

My friend Dwayne Moore, President of Next Level Worship, has created and just launched a new church-wide campaign called "Live to Win!" Here are First Baptist Church in Marion, Arkansas we were privileged to be a pilot church for this great campaign. We saw a spike in attendance, an huge level of participation both in worship and in small groups, and we experienced people making significant decisions. I had the privilege of writing the sermon material for this great resource. Let me recommend it to you without reservation. I hope you will check it out today at www.nextlevelworship.com/livetowin

Tour Host Clay Hallmark standing on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem I am currently putting together my 2013 Hallmark Holy Land Tour which will depart from both Memphis International Airport and Atlanta International Airport on November 18th for Tel Aviv arriving back in the US on November 26, 2013 which is two days before Thanksgiving. The trip cost for 2013 is cheaper than the 2010 trip coming in at $3,675.00. This is an all inclusive price which includes airfare, 5 star hotel accomodations, all meals, all tips, all entry fees, a full-time guide and a full-time driver through EDI Travel, and you will never even have to carry your own luggage! Walk where Jesus walked and experience the sights and sounds of the Holy Land. For more information, questions, or to request a travel brocure, email me today at clay.hallmark@firstmarion.org . I look forward to hearing from you. (Note: The trip is limited to the first 35 passengers. Enlistment requires a $300.00 non-refundable deposit)

When you hear the word “generosity” what comes to your mind? Do you think of it in terms of making a gift or a donation? Do you equate generosity with a sum of money? Do you see it as something that “rich” people should do in order to meet the needs of “poor” people? Generosity is very often mistaken as giving. The truth is that while giving can be a part of generosity, giving in and of itself can be done with the wrong motives, without love, or begrudgingly. Generosity, however, is always motivated by and finds its source in the foundation of love. On May 30, 2002 , in an interview on PBS, Father Lindon Harris of St. Paul ’s Cathedral which stands at the base of where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood told a story of great generosity. It seems that an elderly black woman heard about a man who had hurt his leg searching for survivors and clearing rubble at Ground Zero. She walked from her apartment to the area and talked her way through security. She came into the c...

Recently our church performed a fantastic original Broadway style musical called “Joe Carpenter.” The story is about Joseph and what it would have been like if the Christmas narratives had been set in a more modern day setting in the rural south. Joe lived with his mama, grandmother, aunt, and sister. It was quite a show filled with the Shepherd Family made up of Carnival workers who were visited with the news of Christ’s birth, along with a small town of busy bodies and gossips. It was as true to life of a story as one could ever experience and it resulted in a number of people giving their life to Jesus and making important spiritual decisions with their lives. However, one of the things that really came out of the show is how narrow focused and how so many “church folks” genuinely miss the real thrust and reality of the Christmas stories recorded in the New Testament gospels. So many “church folks” sadly approach the entire Christmas story with the same legalism of heart ...

I was in shock to see it and even more in shocked to watc h it as the lines started forming on Th an ksgiving afternoon all over the country. People stood in line to get into stores to purchase "doo rbuster" specials , receive special incentives, and fill their bugg ies full of stuff they didn't even need. I know this because my family first had spent over $200 after walking into a sto re on B lack Friday saying we reall y didn't ne ed anything. Get this fact: T otal Shopper spending for the weekend of Black Friday reached an estimated $59.1 billion, which is a 13% increase from a year ago! Online shopping (my favo rite kind of shopping) eclipsed over 1 Billion dollars in sales and increased by 21% over the weekend from 2011 sales. This represents astronomical numbers especially for us to be in the worse economy in 50+ years. T he National Retail Federation is predicting that sales this holiday season will rise 4.1% from 2011 sales.  If the estimate is correc...

A couple of months ago I went to warm up some coffee in our microwave. I opened the door, put the lukewarm coffee in the microwave, set the timer for 30 seconds, and pushed start. The microwave lit up, the little warmer plate started spinning in circles, and my taster was set for some nice hot coffee. When the "ding" indicated the microwave was through, I opened the door and reached in to get my hot coffee. There was an immediate problem...my coffee was not the least bit hot. I didn't understand! How could this be? So I put the coffee back in the microwave, repeated the process for another 30 seconds, and waited impatiently for the "ding." I reached in to get my coffee and still no heat! Could this be the beginning of the end of time? Was I to now drink lukewarm coffee? Even the Lord would spew lukewarm coffee out of His mouth. I finally came to the reality that the microwave oven was in fact broken. It was no longer productive. It had to be replaced...and soon!...