Observations on My Ordination Anniversary

Today marks the 37th anniversary of my ordination into the Pastoral Ministry.  On this date in 1987, the church in which I grew up affirmed the calling I had from God and set me apart to lead another congregation.  In Baptist life, ordination is an affirmation that God has equipped a person to serve in ministry leadership. Please permit me to share some observations I’ve made over the last 37 years.

Many spiritual significant things happened through my involvement in my home church, Pine Forest Baptist Church

I came to know Jesus as my Savior as a young boy during an evangelistic meeting in our church. 

Faithful men and women discipled me in Christian faith through that church. 

My church faithfully prayed for me when I publicly declared that I sensed God’s call on my life for ministry.

Several pastors and staff members “took me under their wing” and mentored me. Specifically, my pastor Jimmy Corbitt, Gary Hadden, and Pat Davis mentored me and modeled ministry for me.

I met, courted and eventually married the love of my life in that church. 

And February 22, 1987, at the recommendation of five older pastors who comprised my “ordaining council” the church ordained me.

For 5 years prior to my ordination, I served several churches around Macon as  student minister and/or music minister.  But 37 years ago, God set me on a journey that has been nothing short of an adventure.

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A Good Steward of Words

words

In Christian circles, we often use the word “stewardship” with reference to money.  Most church-goers expect that a sermon with the word stewardship in the title will be about giving more money.  But today, I want us to consider stewardship of another commodity.  Let’s consider the stewardship of our words.

The English alphabet has twenty-six letters that can be arranged to form many words.  Most English-speaking adults have a vocabulary of 25,000-30,000 words.[1]  God created us with an amazing capacity to form ideas in our brain and then to communicate those ideas with words.  He created an elaborate “sound system” in our bodies to produce those words in audible form.

The Bible and Our Words

James 3:1-12 reminds is that our words have the capacity to both help and harm. It all depends on how we choose to use them. 

In Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus teaches that our words provide a very clear diagnostic of our heart condition.  He reminds us that we speak from the overflow of what is already in our heart.  Jesus was the first to communicate the concept that “what you say can and will be used against (or for) you.”

In Ephesians 4:25-32, Paul challenges us to use words that build up instead of tear down.  He calls us to forsake words that are untrue, corrupt, bitter, and angry.  And to replace them with words that are true, forgiving, and kind.

Stewardship and Words

My challenge to you today is to see yourself as a STEWARD of words.  That begins with surrendering the rights to our words.  We live in a culture that believes in the individual right to speak one’s mind, or to speak from the heart.  That would be fine if our minds and hearts were not fallen and tainted by sin.  How different would our speech be if we forfeited our speech rights?  Would the content of our words and the way we speak them be different? I believe it would. I remember my grandmother saying, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”  If we followed her advice, our world would be a lot quieter.

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Read the Bible with Me in 2024

Bible Reading Plan

I hope that you have a plan to help you read the Bible through in 2024. If not, I invite you to read along with my family and me. We will be using a chronological reading plan from The Bible Recap (see links below).

The Bible Recap offers not only a reading plan, but also a short summary (hence “recap”) of that day’s reading. The recap helps to keep each day’s reading grounded in the story arch of what comes before and after.

The Bible Recap offers several helpful tools, all of which you can learn about on the web page linked below:

— a podcast featuring each day’s recap,
— a book with each day’s recap for those who would rather read it,
— you can also find The Bible Recap reading plan on the YouVersion Bible app under their reading plans.

If you need help with any of these let me know. For those of you who watch my weekly REFRESH videos, I will be using some of the daily readings for our study.

Why You Need to Read the Bible

In his book The Lord Bless You and Keep You: The Promise of the Gospel in the Aaronic Blessing, Michael Glodo states

“We behold the glory of God in the face of Christ with the help of the Spirit through the testimony of God’s word. The Spirit, which inspired the word and now indwells us, testifies through the word of the glory of God in the face of Christ. We ‘see’ by ‘hearing.'”

There is no greater way we can grow in our knowledge of and love for Jesus than by seeing His glory in the Bible. I hope you will select a reading plan and read through your Bible this year and see the face of Jesus in every passage.

Bible Reading Plan
The Bible Recap WebsiteThe Bible Recap BookThe Lord Bless You
and Keep You
YouVersion Bible App
Links to Resources Mentioned in Article

A Commitment to Finishing Strong

Finishing Strong

In my last blog, I wrote about the thoughts I have been having after my 59th birthday.  (You can go back and read it by clicking here.)  As I mentioned in that blog, my dad died at 73.  If I life the same life span as he, I have about 14 years left. I hope I live a lot more years than that, but in reality, I’m not even promised that many. To put it in baseball terms, this is the seventh inning stretch.  It’s time to get serious about some things.

God has been very good to me in all my life. I was raised by loving parents in a good Christian home.  I attended a solid Bible-teaching church and received a good education at a Christian school.  By God’s grace, I married a wonderful and beautiful (and incredibly patient) wife and have an awesome daughter.  I’ve been blessed to spend my life serving God by leading and teaching His people. Even if my life ended today, I would have no complaints. God has given me more than I deserve.

However, though thankful for all God has done, my passion is to live the rest of my life finishing strong.

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Numbering My Days – The Intersection of Life & Mathematics

Numbering

This weekend, I celebrated my 59th birthday.  The beginning of my last year in the 50s. In case you’re wondering (and even if you aren’t), that is 34,456,000,000 miles around the Sun.  Yes over 34 billion – with a B.  That’s a lot of mileage. No wonder I am so tired all the time!  But like my dad always said, “Birthdays are good for you, the more you have the longer you live.”

Birthday Contemplations

Speaking of my dad, he went home to be with the Lord 2 months after his 73rd birthday. Relatively young.  On my birthday last year, I realized that if I died at the same age, I had 15 years left.  Now one more year has expired, and only 14 remain – should I live to the same age as he. I am not guaranteed as many as he lived. Conversely, by God’s grace I could have a few more than he did.  Only God knows.  But last year’s birthday started me thinking about something.  And this year’s birthday has pushed the thinking into mach-drive.

I share my thoughts with you in hopes that God will use it to spur self-evaluation in your life as well.

Numbering Days

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Psalm 90:12 encourages us to pray that God would help us to “number” our days.  This psalm was written, ironically, by Moses who lived only 120 years.  This Old Testament concept of numbering days goes beyond merely counting how many of them there are. In case you are wondering, as of December 9, 2023, I had lived 21,549 days.  That includes Leap Days.  

In the Old Testament, numbering was counting and dividing into organized parts.  The Old Testament book of Numbers is the record of Moses counting and organizing God’s people into groups. Moses encourages us to ask God to help us evaluate and organize our days.  The goal of such consideration is to help us live our remaining days in a wise manner.

Numbering Questions

Praying and meditating over three questions can help us in this task.  

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It’s Time for Another Reformation

reformation

Used by permission www.unsplash.com

Tax Reform.  Healthcare Reform. Social Reform.  We hear a lot of call for reformation, these days. None of these are as important as a reformation that took place centuries ago.

Today marks the 506th anniversary of one of the most important protests in history.  On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther –  a German priest and professor – composed a list of 95 complaints against the Church.  He nailed his list to the Wittenburg church door the day before the church celebrated All Saints Day, inviting a discussion on these issues.  His timing guaranteed a wide reading.

Had that happened in a Baptist church, the deacons would’ve fired the pastor for ruining the door.  Just kidding folks.  Sort of.

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Living Out Faith Over Fear Is a Matter of Focus

faith

Cruel acts of terror.  Local crime.  Political corruption. People are hurting.  I have friends who are battling terminal diseases.  I know newborn babies who are only a few days old and dealing with serious health issues.  Through it all, God is reminding us to live in faith not fear.  

The night before I wrote this article, a mass shooter killed 18 people and injured dozens more in a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine.  I thought about those 18 poor souls who lost their lives, and I thought about their families.  They all woke up that morning without any idea how their day would end.

I also thought about several in our church family who are battling cancer and other terminal illnesses.  One day, you are feeling OK; the next, you receive shocking news.  Many in our church family have faced the loss of loved ones over this past year.  All this serves as a stark reminder that life is fragile

We cannot let the uncertainties of life paralyze us with fear, dread, and doubt.  What we can do is follow the advice of Corrie ten Boom and trust an unknown future to a known God.

Keeping a Faith Focus

Here are a few suggestions to keep your mind faithfully focused on our faithful God.

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Manna or Quail – Why We Are Spiritually Malnourished?

Manna

In the Bible, manna was an amazing provision of God for His people as they wandered in the wilderness.  On their way to the Promised Land, He fulfilled a daily promise to provide for them along the way.  His Promise was not just a future destination.  He also promised His daily presence, guidance, and protection.

You can read about the manna experience in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11.  Each day, God would miraculously provide a day’s worth of manna on the ground.  All anyone had to do was pick it up and use it.  But only enough for that day.  Any leftovers would get worms.  God wanted them to have fresh manna each day.  

After a while, the people grew weary of eating the same thing every day.  So God gave them quail to eat instead. Very soon the birds made them sick (Numbers 11:31-34), and they realized God’s manna was better.  I can’t imagine why they grew weary of the manna.  According to the description in Numbers 11:8, manna tasted like a doughnut!  Imagine that!  Quail is tasty, but doughnuts from God every morning!  Who gets tired of that?

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How Your Music Either Helps or Harms You

music

“Love my music
Ain’t no one gonna change my tune
Don’t ya know that I love my music
Ain’t never gonna change my tune.

“My Music” by Jim Messina and Kenny Loggins

I grew up singing and as a child I learned to play the guitar.  Sadly, I have let my skills lapse into near oblivion.  For a brief time in my late teens and early twenties, I served as a music minister.  I still remember one dear saint’s comment when I told her I was leaving to pursue preaching instead of music.  “That’s a good idea,” she said.  I think I got her point.

Music touches most of us in the deepest places of our hearts.  If you want to start a war in church, propose a change in music.  That’s like kicking an ant bed or knocking down a hornets’ nest.  Unfortunately, I have observed that many people are more particular about their “church music” than their “out of church” music.  I’ll just leave that statement right there.

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This Verse Keeps Me Awake at Night

awake

The older I get, the more sleep I need.  Conversely, the older I get the less sleep I seem to get.  I experience the usual middle of the morning awakenings that accompany most men my age.  Those older than me assure me it will only get worse.  Don’t you just love people who speak encouragement into your life!  But once I am awakened, there a certain Bible verse often pops into my shattered unconsciousness. While the usual “natural causes” may awaken me, this verse keeps me awake many nights.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 13:17

Responsibility Keeps Me Awake at Night

The gravity of the mission is spelled out in the phrase “keeping watch over your souls.” The phrase refers to the act of staying awake and vigilant to one’s surroundings so others could peacefully rest.  In the Bible, shepherds are great examples of those who would “keep watch.”

 The New Testament translates word “pastor” from the same word it translates “shepherd.” While Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18), He has given men the responsibility to be under-shepherds of His flock.

A shepherd’s responsibility may be summed up in three words: feeding, leading, protecting.  Often in New Testament times, a shepherd did not own the flock he kept.  Usually a rich herdsman owned the flocks, and they hired shepherds to take care of them.  But the shepherd was ultimately responsible to the owner for what happened to his sheep.

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