Serving Others

This past week I read a interesting story about a minister who served a church for many years, then one day the church asked him to leave. He confided to another preacher friend and said, “What they did to me was dirty. After all I did for them, and they treat me this way.” The preacher friend listening to him thought to himself, “It’s a shame he didn’t do it for God.” If you’re using God for the attention it brings to you, stop that today. You are supposed to serve God; the only attention it should bring to you is from a lost soul watching you who wants to know how to live the life you have. If you’re doing right, people may mistreat you, but what difference does it make if you are serving the Lord? God will prove Himself faithful and will reward you for your obedience. When our own faults are clearly before our eyes, we have no room left for criticizing others. We all get to heaven the same way, saved by Grace through Jesus Christ. When we, in genuine and personal humility, see others as we should, we will quit looking for ways to please ourselves and begin to look for ways to help others. Rather than using others to better ourselves, we will use ourselves to better others. What thoughts or plans have you made for this day? Are you planning the hours in such a way as to better your own situation or as to better the situation of others around you? Is your great concern the fulfillment of personal ambitions or is your ambition to lose yourself in the service and benefiting of God’s people around you? How we plan our day, how we use our time, how we spend our money — these are all measures of true humility. May your self-esteem be transformed today into service for others. May you find the great joy and satisfaction that only comes from giving up your own pleasure for the sake of others’.

All about Homecoming 2012

Homecoming services were held at Philadelphia Missionary Baptist Church last Sunday May 6, 2012 and what a blessing we received! The church was full of current and former members and it was so good to see each one in service for our Lord! Bro. Robert Newton brought a wonderful message of hope for us and it was good to see Mrs. Joyce and some of Bro. Robert’s fellow church members in attendance as well. We enjoyed hearing that Mary Beth Glover Wilson has now been to 62 homecoming services at our church, and learned Mr. JL Wilson has been forced to come to 21 of those! Good for you Mary Beth! Many families were well represented by the number in attendance. Our church history is rich with good Christian men and women and sometimes we don’t take the time to appreciate what we have right before us. It is “easy” in today’s society to join the crowd instead of setting the example. Lunch was outstanding as usual, there was so much good food it was hard to pass anything up! I hope you all worked hard as I did to lose those extra pounds this past week! Mrs. Zelma, your rolls were perfect even though you felt they weren’t! Mrs. Lucille, and that prize winning coconut cake, you just can’t say enough about that! I don’t want to slight anyone, but if I keep going, we are all going to hungry and Bro. Jerry won’t have anyone left to preach too because we will be home eating! Our afternoon singing was amazing! It was loud and so good that Bro Jerry could not sleep at all for all the good blessings that kept flowing! There is nothing more refreshing than an afternoon of good old gospel singing! Bro. Red and his granddaughter Jenny sang Let the Lower Lights be Burning, it was just beautiful! I am so thankful to you Bro. Red for teaching us to shine our light! We had a male quartet that was mostly Hollinger’s but had a Winston in there, and those guys were good!! Bro Billy Van, Miss Emma Lee, Bro Leonard, I just can’t say enough about how good the singing was! Piano players, Evelyn, Donna, & Mrs. Frieda excellent musical talent that we appreciate so much! Lynn Kendalls husband sat behind me and beside Sis. Martha. He was classically trained in music and what showmanship and spirit he gave to each song, again, truly a blessing to have had him sing with us! We have it all, our blessings flow from God, there is nothing we need. My prayer is that we continue to set the example and reward each other with Christian love and praise because the journey is hard. These hardships are just a minor fraction of what Jesus endured. So I want to thank each of you for staying on your path with God. You might not realize the impact you are making, but I am sure there is someone watching you who does.