4th of July

I wanted to share the "Pastor's Note" that was posted in our bulletin this morning. May God bless our Nation, and may God bless each of you as you seek to pray for our great land.

Pastor's Note

America. A land that we love to say that we are from, and a nation filled with a historic past that spans more than 234 years. Throughout all of history, we have seen many successes and even failures that have been opportunities to learn and grow spiritually. Our challenge today is to look for ways to share the Gospel with everyone we come across; understanding that the only way our Nation will ever return to God is if we, the church, will show Him to others. Will we be as proud of our county as we are of our Lord? Prayerfully, we will strive to do that and much more. God bless you. – Bro TJ

A few updates for June 21, 2010

Yesterday, my family and I drove to Atlanta to participate in my Masters Degree graduation and to be honest, I was glad that I went. I mean, it wasn't the most memorable thing in the world (what event with 1,400 graduates and 6 key speakers that I had no idea who they are is), but it was nice to walk across that stage and know that my wife and kids were there to see it. Of course, driving to Atlanta (which is 3 hours away) on Father's Day and missing church was not what I had planned for a Sunday afternoon ... but all in all it was (like I said) nice to go and have that behind us.

Today, I was given the privilege of officiating a funeral for a young man who passed passed away last Friday in a drowning accident. He was 18 years old, and had just enlisted in the US Navy ... such a tragedy to see his life cut short. It is a good reminder to us all that none of us knows the day nor the hour when the Lord will call us home, and we need to be ready. While the funeral was a somber time, it was a celebration of his life and prayerfully God will continue to lift up the Odom family and allow them to heal and comfort one another through this time.

Lastly, I just checked my retirement calendar and we are just 37 days away from the "big day", that is ... the END of my military service!! This morning I gave the final go ahead on my shadow box and although the layout is still being tweaked and everything needs to be tacked into place -- I really think the designer did a fantastic job on it (see picture below)!


Well, that is about all that is happening here. I realized I had not posted in a while and so I thought I would get an update out to all on what is going on in our world. I pray that the Lord is blessing each of you in a mighty way today ... God bless you.

- Bro TJ

God's Timing is Perfect!

Note: Most folks have seen this news on either Twitter or Facebook, but I thought I would make it official and post it here on the blog.

This past Sunday, May 2nd, County Line Baptist Church in Deatsville, AL, voted to call me as their new Pastor. To say that Lisa and I were in shock is an understatement; but more correctly stated would be to say that we were in awe of how awesome our God is!! When the Lord sent me there several months ago to fill the pulpit, the prayer of my heart that morning was that God would make it completely clear if my family was to serve at this church, and in His perfect timing we feel that He has done that very thing.

I can say, though, that this is a bitter sweet piece of news for us. You see, we absolutely love the church that we are serving in now (New Vision Baptist Church), and more importantly we adore the folks that we serve alongside.

Yet, when I was called into the pastorate almost 10 years ago I told God that I would go anywhere He sends me, and so that covenant I made with Him as well and standing on Philippians 1:6 as my life's verse ... we have always had peace in our hearts that the Lord would one day see fit to use me again in the pulpit, and allow me the privilege of serving Him in the capacity as Pastor of a congregation. And so, this coming Sunday (Mother’s Day) we begin a new journey anxiously looking forward to seeing how God will reveal Himself in this new endeavor; and we await with joy in our hearts at the opportunity to watch Him grow our church and our community. God is so good my friends … and we are rejoicing today!!

May God bless you and keep you always …

In His service,
Bro TJ

Ministry prayers are needed

Well, I promised several folks I would give an update as to what is going on with me, and this seems to be the easiest way to update everyone at once. I'm sorry it has taken so long to write this, I have actually been working on it for a week now to find the right words.

During the last two weeks of February, I was invited to preach at County Line Baptist Church (which is about 3 miles from our house) and to be honest it was really good to preach God's word again. I confess to you that I went there solely to preach the Word and fellowship with other believers, but after the message last Sunday night the pulpit search committee asked me if they could meet with me and I agreed.

The meeting simply began with one of the deacons saying to me, "If our church was to call you as pastor would you be interested in serving?" Well, I was floored, honored, and suddenly very terrified about being a pastor again ... but I'll come back to that later.

We talked for a while about the church's vision and about what they feel God has called them to do, and then of the ladies on the committee said to me, "Our church has a desire to grow, to reach people for Jesus Christ, and we are willing to do whatever it takes and go any distance to reach people .......... we'll knock on doors, we'll send letters, we'll visit .......... we see God using this building as an outpost to reaching the committee and our city." I also discovered the church is debt free, has 3 deacons, and a core group of about 20 folks who are sold out to reaching the lost, and have a desire to ONLY see Christ lifted up. Wow. I was floored for the second time in one meeting. So, you are probably asking what's wrong with this church and why is TJ having problems with it? (Well, if you're not asking this I am ... hence the purpose of this entry.)

You see, we went through some struggles in the previous pastorate, and I guess we are terrified of entering these types of situations again. Now, I understand and have been around enough churches to realize that not every congregation is perfect and there are always challenges, especially in the area of getting folks out of the pew, but to think that this church wants to reach out is really an eye opening experience. I said to the committee that I believe the SOLE purpose of a church is "to connect people with Jesus Christ" and they emphatically agreed.

Additionally, the church is without youth and for that matter many young people in attendance, but the infrastructure to do so is in place. What I'm saying is they already have Sunday School teachers for each age group, and even dedicated nursery and youth workers, but without the people in attendance those gifts are not being used. This of course, is a major downfall for us since we have a 15 yr old daughter who desperately needs to be in a youth group with her peers, even though I'm sure she would love to continue going to the youth group she is in now; which if she did sadly would split up our family on Wednesdays and quite possibly most Sunday nights.

So now that I've said all of this and you've been patient enough to read it ... I like to ask for your prayers for any word that you receive from God on this. I'm scheduled to preach there again on Easter Sunday (Apr 4), and right now we are praying that the Lord would give us His peace and allow us to answer the church's call (either yes or no) before then and that we would only be in God's will. Would you join us in that prayer? Would you join us in praying that only God's Will would be done in this? Would you also pray specifically for County Line Baptist Church that the right man, God's man, would be called to lead them? I don't know if I am that man, but I know I can go to the One who has the answers and He promises to bring peace (reference Philippians 4:6-9). So, would you please join me?

Our family is praying and talking constantly, and we only want to be in the Lord's will. Thank you in advance and may God bless you.

God already knows!

Psalm 139:1-5 says, "O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me."

I tell you something friends, as I prepare to get ready for this ministry trip on Friday with No Greater Love I am filled with thoughts of wondering what God is going to do and how He is going to speak to me personally; and am then comforted in the above passage that God already knows!! I am excited and yet at the same time filled with a sense of calm that God is already there, preparing the places we will stay, the people we will talk to, and the witness we will proclaim. Truly, it is an honor to work for the Lord and follow in the footsteps of the disciples, going out and giving the Gospel to those Jesus died for. It is a humbling experience my friends .... humbling.

Throughout the weekend I will (hopefully) be blogging from the trip (as time allows) and will try to toss in a picture or two with the thoughts. I will have pictures posted to my Facebook as well and with any luck can keep folks up to date and in the loop.

If you are praying, my personal prayer requests are: for peace when chaos is abound, for rest when we are in need and weary, and for boldness and energy when God is moving us to expand our tent stakes and take back what the devil has robbed from those around us!!

Thank you for reading, and may God bless you always.

A tough week behind us

This past week has been a real challenge for my family. For the sake of some legal issues that are still ahead of us I am not going to go into details, but we have really seen some ups and downs this week and are now I think are beginning to see the sunlight again. There are some definite, challenging roads ahead that we have to face, but we confess that the Lord is in control and only through His grace and leadership will we see this through. After the ordeals of this week, I can only cling to this one verse which God gave me this morning when I woke up.

David writes in Psalm 30 verse 5, "For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning." I believe we are seeing the joy return to our home and it is a very welcome sight. As I mentioned there are some challenges ahead, but my God is bigger than anything we can imagine and He has total control over everything we have faced, are facing, or will face. And that, settles that.

Chris and I, and his friend Stevens, are just 13 days away from attending the Mardi Gras Ministry outreach with No Greater Love Ministries and our excitement is definitely growing. We appreciate your prayers as we make the final preparations for this trip and confess that God is in control; and whatever circumstances happen He will get His Glory through whatever He brings into our lives. Thank you for reading friends - may you be blessed today and forever.

Haiti and the Believers' Focus

Editors note: This blog is dedicated to a very discerning Sister in Christ who helped me today with her own words. God bless you, my friend.

By now we have all heard the misplaced comments from Mr. Pat Robertson, and I want to say up front that I will not use this time to tear into him or try to understand why he continues to offer such opinions.

What I will say is that discernment is the order of the day; and as believers our J-O-B is to follow The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and to anxiously wait for the Savior to return who has been promised in Acts 1:11. The promise, reads like this: "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." Today, we need to be about the Lord's business and not caught up in trivial matters.

So tonight, let me ask you: Are you doing all you can to witness for our Lord? Are your hearts and minds focused in prayer for this terrible tragedy and for the lives of those being devastated in Haiti? That needs to be our focus friends ... anything else is simply worldly propaganda and the enemy would love nothing more than to see the Body of Christ fighting amongst itself.

Prayer, is our only avenue to talk to the Lord. In this time, I pray that you would exercise it intentionally, and without ceasing. God bless you.

How bold can you be?

My Pastor, Bro J.B. Burt, spent some time a number of years ago with Miss Bertha Smith who was a missionary to China for several decades -- and probably one of the greatest heroes of the faith in my opinion (look her up sometime if you have the chance). At our staff dinner, he was telling us of a story that happened to him one day while he was in a prayer session with her and it goes something like this ...

He said that in the middle of the prayer, she said that it was time to stand up and so he thought the prayer time was over. But, out of curiousity he asked why they were standing and this was her answer:

"Well, now we're going to talk to the devil, and the devil will never see me talk to him on my knees ... so I stand up when I rebuke him in prayer."

Wow. I mean ... WOW!!!!!!

Think about the implications of that faith!!!!! Think about the simple act of faith in standing up to the evil one himself and showing him that you shall not bow down to him in prayer. Imagine if more believers caught hold of that and decided that they would take a solid stand for Christ; and that nothing in this world would cause them to bend their knee EXCEPT in the presence of a Holy and Sanctified God?

How much of an impact could we have on our own lives if we were that bold? How amazing would it be to see our own prayer lives transformed in such a way that we were that intimate with the Father, so that we could boldly tell the "father of lies" that he has NO authority and NO power in our lives!?!

Wow ... just wow.

Veteran's Day 2009

This year, 2009, marks my last Veterans Day that I will spend on active duty and there are so many things to think about that I just do not know where to start. From the brutal attacks on our Nation that started an 8 year war on terror, to the recent shootings in Ft. Hood that make no sense, to the wars of the past that have granted us the freedom we have today ... we have much to honor our veterans for.

We have seen brave men and women willing to sacrifice their lives, and I am caught short of breath wondering what we have done to honor them in return. Veterans Day has nothing to do with taking the day of off, nor is it a day for sales to begin at the stores, but I believe it is a day to thoughtfully spend some time in reflection and prayer and ask the Lord to continue to protect this Nation of ours.

We have much to be thankful for and I wonder if you would accept my challenge to spend ONE HOUR in prayer for our Nation? Would you be willing to ask God to continue to protect us from those who seek to destroy our land and for our soldiers in harms way? I confess that I do not know what the future holds, but I am confident that I know who holds the future. We need to turn back to God and seek His guidance and continued mercy for our Nation.

Joel 2:12 says, "Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Indeed America, we need to return to the Lord with all of our hearts so that He may comfort and lead us in these troubled times we are now facing.

So, are you up to it? Can you spend one hour in prayer on Wednesday?