Sunday, Monday, Birthday…

Upon my arrival at church this morning, I was greeted with the news that two of our men who spend every Friday with visitation and evangelistic efforts in our community were able to lead a young girl to faith in Christ this past week. I make a point to go visiting and knocking on doors with these men twice a month, but this past Friday I had other appointments. Nevertheless, they assembled as usual at 9AM, gathered the materials that we’ve put together, and went out pounding the pavement.

After they were done with the streets we had marked off for last week, they followed up with a visit to a teenage girl named Rose who visited our church last Wednesday night. When Rose came in the building, she wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. She refused to speak. She sat quietly on the back row of our prayer meeting and looked down at her lap the entire time.

After prayer services were over, Roy and Charles were able to find out where she was living. On Friday morning, they found her at home. Within 30 minutes, Rose trusted Christ as her Lord. The guys have already talked to her about baptism, and Lord willing, we will baptize her in two weeks.

Tonight, after the evening service, a man named David asked me to visit with him. For four weeks now, David has been quietly slipping in our evening services. Last week, he asked me to pray for him. This week, he wanted to talk.

We went into my office, where David shared with me that the Lord had been dealing with him about sin in his life. He needed the Lord’s forgiveness, and he needed a new chance at life. Within about five minutes, David was telling me that he believed the gospel and wanted to commit his life to follow the Lord. I talked with him about baptism, and we prayed together. Then he asked if he could spend some alone time in the sanctuary. I opened the doors back up and let David in to pray, which he did for about 20 minutes while I went around making sure that air conditioners were shut off and doors were locked.

Somehow I end up being the only person in every church that knows how to run all the A/C units.

When he was ready to leave, David came and found me. He had tears streaming down his cheeks, and told me that he wanted to be baptized. Before he walked to his car, he handed me another check — his fourth tithe in his life — and thanked me for just listening to him. He’s going to come to Sunday School next week and join a class, after which he will attend his first Sunday morning worship service since he was a very young man.

Tomorrow I have breakfast with a fellow pastor, then lunch with one of our deacons. After an appointment tomorrow afternoon, I will drive to East Texas to spend the evening with my 90 year old paternal grandmother, who is turning 91 on Tuesday. I’ll spend Tuesday driving her to her old hometown in Jonesville, TX. We’ll visit the Old Concord Cemetery and the Scottsville Cemetery to see the places where her grandparents, parents, and siblings are buried. I’ll take her to eat raw oysters at a local restaurant — a favorite of both of ours — and then we’ll drive to visit two of my childhood homes.

I have already written three posts that will go up Monday and Tuesday. They are, in order:

The Roman Baptist Convention, Part Final; The Way Forward, Part Two; and a post entitled, “Is there anything right with the Southern Baptist Convention.”