Keep Praying

Hey, I'm back! Have you ever experienced not doing something for awhile and when you try to start doing it again it seems like you can't get the hang of it. That's how it seems to me right now as to getting back in the blogging mode. It seems that there is just so much going on that it seems to be no time to do anything. I did enjoy my mini-vacation with my dad as we joined 16 other men in Alabama for a few rounds of golf, which is another avenue that I find myself trying to get the hang of having not playing golf in a year! We had wonderful weather such as we are having this week and a good time chasing our golf balls all over the course. One guy said that we were playing "military golf" - right left, right left because we'd hit it right one time and then left the other. Oh well, I hear my dad say a lot, "a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day at work."

This past Sunday morning at Kempville Chapel was a special one. We had a normal service and had already scheduled for a lady to be baptized at the end of the service and that we did. After we had already dismissed the service and people began to make their way home, there was a gentleman by the name of Mark Jones approach me and asked me if he could talk to me for a minute. For those that don't know "Trooper Mark Jones" of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, he along with his wife and three daughters (and one on the way), have attended our church for as long as I have been pastor and I'm sure they attended before I came. Mark had asked me over a year ago now to go jogging with him one day. The first time that he asked me to go I had an excuse as to why I couldn't go (had the kids at home and Kelly was at work and couldn't leave). The second time that he called and said that he was going running and asked me to go I had to go! As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the Lord put it in my spirit that if someone ask you to go a mile with them you go two! Well, as it turned out, we went more than two! It almost killed me! I'm not in any shape to run two feet let alone two miles! That day Mark and I had a good conversation as we ran and walked down the road about his upbringing and my upbringing and what he has been taught and what I have been taught about Jesus and Salvation and about life. You know it really doesn't matter what "church" you are brought up in as long as there is one common denominator, and that is Jesus and what he did and is to us! That's all that matters because if we turn everything over to Him, He will work all the details out just like He wants them!

For those that don't know, there have been a lot of prayers prayed for Mark Jones to be saved! Prayers from his wife, his in-laws, his church, etc... This past Sunday morning all those prayers was answered and Mark was baptized as well! God is still in the prayer answering business with his Saving Grace! I'm thankful that God answers prayers and I want to encourage you today to keep praying for those in your family that are lost. When you feel like there is no hope and that someone may have gone too far just remember how far Jesus went to Save those that you are praying for. God is an "on time" God!