Mt. Gilead Baptist Church

On Wednesday, our nation celebrated and honored those who have worn, and are wearing, the uniform of our armed forces in service to the United States. It is easy to take their service for granted, particularly when we are “at ease in Zion.” Since September 11, 2001 we have been reminded how vulnerable a free people are, and how much we depend upon those who put their lives on the line for our safety and protection. We have also just been tragically reminded how much of a sacrifice these brave men and women are prepared to make on our behalf. Our entire nation mourns the loss of 13 courageous soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, at the hands of one of their own.

This reminds us of their willingness to sacrifice so much on our behalf, even to the giving of their lives. This week we have honored our veterans and active duty personnel, we have remembered the sacrifices made by them and their families, we have prayed for them and we have thanked them for their service. But let this not be for one day or one week only. Let us continue to lift them and their families to the Lord in prayer. Let us pray for their safety, and that they will serve with honor. And let us give them our heart-felt gratitude for their service in the cause of liberty. If you know someone serving in the military, send them a card or a letter. It’s tough to be away from home and family at holiday times. They would really appreciate it.

May God keep us free, and bless those who strive to make that so.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

As I read about the prayer life of Jesus, one of the qualities that stands out in my mind is the amount of time and, especially, effort Jesus put into His conversations with the Father. He was always doing business with His Father. And since He was, His praying was intense as any prayer I have ever heard or read. I recall a story told in my youth by a saint of God now with the Lord about a revival meeting that was being held in a certain church. The guest preacher had done a fine job. His preaching was strong, and the Spirit was obviously with him. But throughout the scheduled two-week meeting, it seemed there was just no response by the people.

On the final night, as I remember the account went, a prayer meeting was called for before the beginning of the service. In that meeting, one of the elderly deacons was called upon to lead them to the throne of grace. He began something to the effect that they had been having a revival meeting for two weeks, and he went on to tell God, “And You haven’t been there one night!” Probably not the way most of us would talk to God. But he went on to labor before God in prayer for the church and the preacher and the community, pouring out his heart, laying siege to the very throne of God. And that night, real revival broke out, with repentance and confession and forgiveness and reconciliation taking place between individuals and families.

Our praying must be an intense labor of love with our Father in heaven. We may not pray to the point of sweating great drops of blood, but then again, that may be the only way to prepare the environment for spiritual awakening.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ . . . The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ . . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (I Corinthians 12:12, 21, 27)

In the last half of Corinthians 12, from which the above verses are taken, Paul stresses the need for unity in the body of Christ. In particular, he points out that we need each other. One person cannot complete the ministry of the church any more than one part of our physical bodies can make up a complete, functioning body.

So much of the work in the church is done “behind the scenes”. Too often, we don’t notice the clean floors, the straightened-up rooms, the smell of the cleaners that have been used. But let something be out of place, or a fixture be neglected, we want to know what happened. We are so blessed that we have four crews of people who take the cleanliness of our building seriously. “Thank you!” to John, Sherry, Anita, Annette, the Fissells, Betty, Pat, and Geri. You do a great job. Art Hoepf, who mows our lawn, always goes above and beyond the call of duty. This week, Bob and Jennifer spent time changing out light bulbs and cleaning the covers, and making the building brighter. Thank you all so very much. It couldn’t be done without you!

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

In His High Priestly prayer recorded in John 17, as Jesus was praying for all believers, He said, “I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one: I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me,” (John 17:22-23).

There are so many things that divide us, and it is easy to focus more on those than on the unity we have with all believers. On Saturday, we saw the unity Jesus desired for His people at work at the block party in Mt. Gilead. Believers from Assembly of God, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches joined together to bless our community and reach out to those in need. We worked side by side with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and it was as much a blessing to those who volunteered as those who came to the party.

Isn’t it wonderful to join together as the body of Christ? Isn’t it wonderful to serve shoulder to shoulder with fellow believers? Isn’t it wonderful to minister to our community in the spirit of unity in Christ? May God increase our love for one another as we continue to serve Christ together.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

I believe it is the desire of every follower of Jesus Christ to be found faithful when the Lord returns. That includes being faithful when we meet Him in death. This week, we were all saddened at the passing of Myrtle Franks. Myrtle was one of only five people, I believe, still members of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church who were here when I became pastor. She has served in many ways, but most notably in Vacation Bible School and as our Church Clerk. In that capacity she was responsible to keep the minutes of business meetings, additions and deletions to the church membership, and official correspondence. We all appreciated her so very much, and we’ll miss her smile and her laughter.

Remember that next Sunday is our worship day at Dogwood Valley Campground. Worship begins promptly at 10:30, and we’ll have a picnic together afterward.

This week, be in prayer for the school systems in Morrow County, or wherever you might live. Pray for the students, the bus drivers, the teachers, aides and office workers, the custodians, and the administrators and school boards. Their jobs are vitally important to our communities and to the strength of our nation.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

If you want to know where you are going, it’s best that you know where you are. Decades ago, when we didn’t have all the technology we have today to know where we were (Garmins and Tom-Toms and the like), sailors on the high seas in the Northern Hemisphere, out of sight of land, would fix their position in the ocean by locating Polaris, the North Star. By taking various measurements, they could calculate not only where they were, but if they were headed in the right direction as well. By being able to get this information, they could keep on course, even if they encountered a storm.

Sometimes when we encounter storms in our lives, it is easy to get blown off course. The challenge for us all is to stay on the course God has plotted for us. The question is, “How do we do that?” The Book of Job is a fascinating account of a man who encountered a monstrous storm, and how he made his way through it. As we study Job this week, let’s allow God to speak to our hearts about our own spiritual navigation skills as we find True North.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

How are you preparing for Easter? In just four short weeks we will be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like with any holiday, there is a tendency over time to shift the emphasis from the original meaning and purpose and concentrate on something quite different. It’s happened with Christmas, and even such holidays as Independence Day, Labor Day and Memorial Day sometimes have an emphasis not completely in accord with the original purpose.

Easter is a season fraught with great meaning for believers in Christ. The week leading up to Resurrection Sunday is indeed Holy Week for Christians. The event that changed the course of the history of the world took place when Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind, and He rose from the dead on that Sunday morning.

So, how are you preparing for Easter? Many people fast from some food or activity in order to spend that time focused on what God in Christ has done. Use this week to pray, and to study and meditate upon the truth that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

How many times have you heard that distinctive voice say, “Paul Harvey. Good day!”? But last week that voice was stilled by the thing that eventually stops every voice. Paul Harvey died last Sunday at his home in Arizona, but by his own testimony, he still lives, for he was a believer in Jesus Christ and had the promise of eternal life and heaven.

The series of sermons I have been preaching about heaven has been enjoyable, and I am looking forward to the next three or four weeks as I wrap it up. The promise of heaven reminds us that as good as it is to live here on earth, it will be even greater in heaven where there is no imperfection at all.

A second thing I want to share with you is an effort by the Morrow County Ministerial Association to have prayer being sent up to God 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Trinity Methodist Church is the location for the 24/7 Prayer Room. It’s located in Trinity Chapel on the Church Street entrance. You’ll receive information about this prayer room today along with suggestions on how you can become involved. I strongly encourage you to be a part of this ministry to Morrow County. Especially in such a time of challenge for us all, we need more than ever to put differences behind us and unite in fervent prayer for God to work in our midst. As Mordecai said to Esther, “Perhaps we have been put here for such a time as this.”

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

A boy came into the local lumber company. “I want to buy some 4-by-2’s,” he announced. The man at the counter said, “Are you sure you don’t want 2-by-4’s?” “I’ll have to go ask my papaw,” the boy replied. In a few minutes he came back and said that he did, indeed, want 2-by-4’s. The man at the counter asked, “Well, how long do you need them?” “Now, I don’t have to ask my papaw that! We’re building a barn, so we need them for as long as you can spare them.”

It’s so important for us to know what other people are trying to say to us, isn’t it? God wants us to know His will, and He wants us to know the assignments He is giving us. It’s not His idea to keep us in the dark. But if we’re going to know God and His will, we need to communicate with Him. That is, we need to make sure we spend time in prayer. When we meet God, and fellowship with Him, and worship Him; when we read and study and meditate upon His Word, we put ourselves in a position to really hear God when He speaks, and understand Him when He reveals Himself, His purposes and His ways to us.

Be sure to make fellowship with the Heavenly Father a priority this week. It’ll change your life.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

Music seems to be a kind of universal language. Different peoples with different languages can connect when they enjoy some great piece of music together. I’ve always loved music. From the grand symphonies to the indigenous music of the various cultures of the world, it brings joy to listen to the results of the creativity of talented musicians.

Music is also an integral part of worship. In both the Old and New Testaments, music brings the worshiper into the presence of God in a most wonderful way.

I have a little book, published in 1891 by the Baptist Book Concern in Louisville, Kentucky. It’s called “Manly’s Choice”, and was compiled by Professor Basil Manly, a Baptist minister and professor at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. It is a collection of approved hymns for Baptist churches. The interesting thing about this little collection is that it was compiled in response to the trend of the day to leave the “old hymns” and focus more on the new modern hymns, “novelties”, as Manly described them. I suppose there have always been disagreements about styles of worship.

When John told Jesus the disciples had told a man to stop casting out demons in His name, Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:38-41) Rather than seeking for things to divide us, let’s join in affirming the fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and seek to serve Him all the days of our lives.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence