The final service of last week’s revival at Pine Grove Baptist Church was designated as Teen Night, and Bro. Gary Dennis preached the gospel message as well as I’ve ever heard it preached. At the end of the service a good number of teens went down for prayer, and two made a public profession of faith. It was truly an anointed service.

When Pastor Tim Mims asked if a few friends might come stand with the two new believers and show that they will support them in their decision to follow Christ, thirty-three teens flooded from their pews! I was blown away by their show of support!

Benjy and a few of the men from Pine Grove sang as a quartet one night. We love it when God’s people use their talents. Great job guys! The choir also did an outstanding job. We would love to take them on the road with us.

The revival was real and visible at Pine Grove last week. It was a joy to worship with the congregation there, and to SEE the Holy Spirit change lives. What an encouragement!

On His Exciting Journey,

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I’m working organizing and backing up all my digital pics this week (or however long it takes), and I keep finding things here and there that I just love … like this pic!

The original pics that were taken for the 2007 Cover Me With Mercy CD cover were too grainy because of some florescent lighting, so at the last minute, I had to take pics of Benjy in our back yard! If you could see the rest of the pic, you’d see him standing on underbrush and you’d see a rusty old fence just behind him. This is not an attractive part of our yard, but it made some really great pics!

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Benjy had the privilege of leading the praise services at Roseland Park Baptist Church last Sunday while Bro. Marty Stone was taking a well deserved vacation. It was a joy to be with the congregation at Roseland Park again. We became very close to this congregation when Benjy served there 2008, while they searched for a new music minister. It was also a blessing to hear Bro. Jimmy Albritton preach again. It’s been a while since we served with him, and as expected, his sermons were outstanding.

Any of you who know me personally, know how much I love to study God’s Word. By nature I am a question asker and researcher, and God’s Word is my favorite subject. I also love the company of God’s people, so I have been blessed by this collection of women from Harmony Baptist Church, who are currently studying what the Bible teaches us about God’s personality, His attributes. We are using A.W. Tozer‘s excellent book, The Knowledge Of The Holy, as our guide. If you haven’t read this book, I recommend you get a copy of it. It is very insightful and well written.

Because I’m participating in a women’s Bible study, McKenzie and I didn’t go back to Roseland Park with Benjy Sunday evening, we went to Harmony, and I’m glad I did, because I was blessed by more than just the Bible study! Pastor Braque Cutrer often sets aside the Sunday evening sermon and arranges to have someone give a testimony of how God has been working in their life. Last Sunday, we heard this precious lady speak about how God has carried her through some very difficult times of dealing with a rare lung disease. Only a few weeks ago, she was so low she couldn’t walk or take care of herself. But Sunday, she stood strong in the pulpit and praised God for all He is doing in her life. Don’t you just LOVE to see God in action!

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Photo courtesy of: Adri’

Perhaps idol worship is more rampant today than it was in Bible times, only we don’t carve them out of wood, we carve them out by picking and choosing the characteristics of God we like, and with these we make a new god that is comfortable with how we are living, even when we are not living according to His Word.

A.W. Tozer says it well in the following quote from his excellent book:

The Knowledge Of The Holy

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt worship has taken place. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.

I recently read a commentary by Ray Comfort, from Way of the Master, in which he describes a conversation that is a perfect example of today’s idolatry. He said a lady told him that her god would not send anyone to Hell because he is a loving god. He told her that she was right, her god couldn’t send anyone to Hell because the god she believes in is an imaginary god! But the God of the Bible does … this is why we NEED to get familiar with what God has revealed about Himself in His Word. If we add to, or take away from, what the Bible teaches about Holy God, we are creating an idol.

I have really enjoyed learning about God’s personality, His attributes in The Knowledge Of The Holy . This is one book I would highly recommend for every believer.

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Image: Michelle Meiklejohn

A couple nights ago, I heard a portion of an interview with Joni Eareckson Tada, who has been a quadriplegic for the last 40 years. She was talking about dependency, humility, and acceptance of the things God allows into our lives that ‘help’ us resist pride (i.e. force us to be humble).

She said that some mornings (more often now that she is struggling with the mid-life thing) she feels that she has NO energy to do the day, no energy to even start the day, especially knowing that everything she attempts to do takes far more effort for her than it does for others. But she said she has learned anew, because of those days, that dependence on God is how He really does want us to live. She said she has learned to pray like this…

God, I feel awful! I don’t have the energy to face today. I don’t even want to get out of bed, because I am already overwhelmed with what lies before me today … but in a moment, my girlfriend/helper will be coming into my room to dress me and brush my teeth and fix my hair and do the uncharming things that are necessary to get me ready for the day, and she needs to see a smile on my face before she gets started … but I need You to put it there, because today, I don’t feel like I can do it.

She also said that she has come to realize that maybe being a quadriplegic is a better way to live, because it forces her to be dependent on God … and pride doesn’t have nearly as much room to take root. She said sometimes she thinks that ‘whole’ people are less blessed, because they get up and hustle out the door, never stopping to ask for the strength of the Lord … yet He has SO much to offer those who will ask.

Joni’s insight challenged me to give more thought to how dependent I am on God. It reminded me that when Jesus taught us to pray, He said we should ask for ‘daily’ bread. I think that was to remind us to be humble and dependent on God daily, so that pride has no chance of taking root.

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Monday was Benjy’s birthday!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you …

Happy BIRTHDAY, dear Benjy …

Happy birthday to you!

Blow out the candles!

Because it was an ice cream cake we decided to just go with 4 candles, instead of the full 47 … it made the job of blowing them all out easier too!

Benjy and I had celebrated with a nice steak dinner over the weekend, but I decided to save the cake until Benjy got home from work on Monday so McKenzie could join us. She was at Student Life Camp 2010 with the youth from Harmony Baptist Church until Monday afternoon.

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Under the leadership of Bro. Kevin Jackson, youth pastor of Harmony Baptist Church, McKenzie and friends loaded up the van and headed out to Student Life Camp early last Friday.

One of the chaperons sent us several pics over the course of the weekend. As you can tell from this pic, McKenzie really enjoyed herself! Student Life has several camp locations. This one is at Perdido Beach, Florida, and McKenzie said the rooms were very comfortable and they had a fantastic view of the beach.

On the ride home, the girls claimed the back seat and started training for the wildly popular Cookie Olympics. From what I understand, you have to perfect the skill of placing a mini-cookie on your nose, flip it off, and catch it with your mouth.

Apparently, all that Olympic training wiped them out!

McKenzie really enjoyed Student Life Camp this year. She came home telling us about the songs she enjoyed, the sermons she heard, and the way she saw the Lord working in the lives of some of our own group. This trip was a blessing to her, and Benjy and I want to thank the leadership of Harmony Baptist for the efforts they put in to planning and chaperoning this trip, and we also want to thank the congregation for praying for our kids while they traveled, as well as for offsetting some of the expenses of the camp. You have made a rich investment in the lives of these young people.

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Benjy and Bro. Bob McNatt visiting after the morning service.

Benjy was invited by Pastor Gary Killen to preach the AM and PM services at Goodyear Baptist Church last weekend while the pastor enjoyed a camping trip in the beauty (and low humidity!) of the Smokey Mountains. As many of you know, Benjy has been filing in as music minister at Goodyear Baptist when his schedule permits, but he enjoyed this opportunity to minister through preaching to that congregation.

It was a very full day at Goodyear, as they have recently added a 5:00pm Praise Service, which includes a praise band and a short devotion, just before the regular evening service. I can’t think of many times that Benjy has had the opportunity to preach three sermons in one day, but he really enjoyed it, and he’s already looking forward to his next opportunity to fill the pulpit.

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McKenzie demonstrating her blue belt form before the judges.

McKenzie has really enjoyed her time in Taekwondo, and she was progressing along nicely until last winter, when she sprang her ankle. She sat out a couple weeks, went back too soon, and seriously sprained all three ligaments in her right foot and leg. OUCH! That cost her several months of recovery time, but she got back in her sport just in time to apply for her next belt level.

Here she is sparring before the judges. That’s her throwing a kick at her opponent.

They DID it!

McKenzie and two of her best friends were awarded their next belt. Way to go, guys!

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McKenzie with Ms. Becky, the VBS director at Union.

McKenzie enjoyed working with the music program for VBS this summer at Union Baptist Church, our home church. Ms. Becky and Ms. Vanessa did a great job coordinating and directing all the activities that make this summer program so successful. It’s a big undertaking, but I know they would both say it’s worth it because of the children who committed their lives to Jesus as a result of this ministry.

The program averaged 176 children daily, and McKenzie tells me that the kids seemed to enjoy the music more this year than they have in years past … even the older kids participated. I don’t know if it was the cowboy theme, or if the music was more energetic, but it was great to watch the enthusiasm of the kids as they performed for family and friends Friday evening.

On His Exciting Journey,

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