I recently read about a college lecture series entitled, “The Last Lecture”.  The premise was they assigned a professor to share a lecture as if it was his last lecture ever delivered.  At Carnegie Mellon a professor, who had only six months to live, delivered the Last Lecture from the perspective of a dying man and what he would want to say to those in the audience.  He shared about his dreams for life and the pursuit of those dreams.

I was arrested with the thought of how that would be a cool sermon or series.  The Last Sermon: What I would share if it was the last sermon I ever preached.  The Last Prayer: What I would pray if it was the last prayer I ever prayed.  The Last Month:  What I would do if it was my last month to live.

None of us are guaranteed life.  In Kerry Shook’s book One Month To Live he talks about living like you are dying.  I know that is morbid but it would do us good to think that way.  What would I do if I only had one sermon to preach, one prayer to pray, one month to live?  You will find our beginning some time in June.

I would be interested to know what you would preach if you only had one last sermon to deliver.

This week we have a lot on the caIendar.  The Convoy of Hope outreach is Saturday.  We still need some help, so if you haven’t signed up, please do.  Here is the schedule:

Thursday (Grocery Bagging) 4:00pm at the Rock Community Outreach Center in Port Arthur
Friday (Site Set-Up) 9:00am at Barbara Jacket Park in Port Arthur
Friday (Volunteer Rally) 7:00pm at the Rock Community Outreach Center in Port Arthur
Saturday (Outreach) 10:00am at Barbara Jacket Park in Port Arthur

For more information you can call the church office.

Next Sunday (May 18th), Life of a Pastor blog will be featured in the Pentecostal Evangel.

Sunday we continue our WHY series by looking at Why Is There So Much Suffering In This World.  We will answer how to live in these troubled times.  Invite a friend!

In the last couple of weeks we have been working around the house.  A spring cleaning of sorts.  We have painted, cleaned, worked in the flower beds and more.  it has been good and the house is getting some much needed attention.

Because of my displeasure for painting, Sonya has felt sorry for me.  On Monday, I was painting the iron gates on our porch and she grabbed a brush and helped me.  It was a very tedious job, but with two of us working on it, we got done pretty quick.  I worked one side of the gate, she worked the other.  When I would paint my side and use too much paint, it would drip to the back side.  Sonya would brush it out and it looked good.  Isn’t that the way teamwork is supposed to be?  Each on smoothing out the others shortcomings?

In the ministry of the church, it is the same. Two are certainly better than one.  Church is meant to be a team effort.  We help each other build the kingdom of God.  We need one another.  The Bible says that God has given gifts that compliment one another.  My gifting is not the same as others but we all can work together and use our individual gifts for the glory of God.

God never intended for chruch to be a solo project. More can get done when we all work together.

“Thank God for Mothers.  Without them, none of us would be here.”

Happy Mother’s Day

I am excited for the evening!  Tonight Sonya and I get to go on a date.  My parents are coming to get the kids and we will be off to eat a nice med. rare steak for dinner.  It has been quite some time since Sonya and I have had a dinner to ourselves.  Too busy with ministry and a 19 month old running around.  But tonight is the night.

I feel blessed to have a wife such as Sonya.  She is truly a trooper.  In the last two weeks I have been gone about six evenings.  Busy seasons come in ministry but it is usually the pastor’s wife that bears the brunt of it.  When I am gone, Sonya gets little relief from child-rearing.  I thank God often for a wife who will keep going even when it is tough. 

Sunday Evening, I got in my car to drive home from church, and it would not start.  In fact, it wouldn’t even turn over.  The battery was completely dead. 

As many know, I drive an older car.  A 94 Chrysler New Yorker.  I read a blog that was promoting the Junky Car Club and I thought I might join.  My car may not be the best but I love “Lucille”.  It reminds me of Don Chaffer’s song, At Least I Got A Car.  The lyrics go, “At least I got a car I can drive tonight, I know it ain’t much but I guess it’ll be alright.”  That’s my car, now back to the story.

I was frustrated because I don’t know how to fix cars nor do I like to pay someone else to fix them.  So, I took out the battery and went to Wal-Mart to get it tested and possibly get a new one.  I have had the battery for nearly 4 years and I was expecting to pay at least fifty bucks to get a new one.  When the assistant manager got done ringing me up, I only owed $15.26.  I was taken back.  I am not sure how it happened but I believe God was showing me another “small” blessing.

Life is full of “small” blessings.  Many people only count God’s hand at work if it is something “big” like a brand-new car or healing of cancer.  God may not have given me a new car but He saved me money in fixing my old one.  Let us never forget to thank God for the “small” things.  The Bible declares, “In everything give thanks.”  God is a God of big and small blessings.  A lot of small blessings are equal to one big one.

We recently went on vacation , and one of our stops was in Tyler, Texas.  Tyler has always had a lot of congestion on its main road and the state of Texas decided to make a loop around the outskirts of Tyler.  Sonya and I decided to take this “toll” road to see sights we had never seen before.  I remember expressly saying to Sonya, “This is a toll road but there are no toll booths.  I guess they don’t really charge toll.” 

Today, I found out that they do charge toll.  $1.65 worth of toll.  I guess this is a bargain considering I drove about 4 miles on this toll road. I will gladly pay the toll but I have to wonder how cost effective a buck sixty-five is.  You see, they mailed me a bill for a $1.65 cents. 

I pondered for nearly 30 minutes how cost effective this is for the state of Texas.  They print a bill for a $1.65.  They pay someone to stuff this envelope.  They pay the U.S. Post Office 41 cents to mail this bill for a $1.65.  I have never been accused of being smart, but it it doesn’t seem like they are going to pay off the debt on the toll road very quickly.  Somewhere, they need to reevaluate the process.

I think of this as bad stewardship of resources.  Then again, it may not be.  However, this $1.65 bill I received caused me to consider areas of my own life where I might not be the best steward.  Do I manage my time effectively?  Am I a good steward with my time?  Do I manage my money well?  Do I glorify God in my spending?  We can all evaluate areas of our lives where maybe we are not doing things wisely.  Are our ministries run effectively, using the best available resources? 

Everyone of us needs to look at how we spend our time and money and see if there is any room for improvement.

I apologize for the inconvenience but we are having to cancel the Movie Night for Flywheel.  We did not realize that we have to purchase a license beforehand.  This license allows us to watch it in the church. Here is the link if you would like to read about the licensing. http://www.providentfilms.org/providentfilms/license_faq.asp  We will have to purchase the license and then we will reschedule the movie night sometime this summer.  Again I am sorry for the trouble this may cause, especially if you invited someone but we have to keep in line with integrity in everything we do.  If you have any questions feel free to call.