I will never forget the 1st time my uncle asked me, so when are you going to take the sign down outside your church building? I asked, take the sign down, what do you mean?

I asked, how will people know who we are, and how will people distinguish between us and other churches? He just smiled and said, just as Jesus said they would know you...By the love you have for one another. Wow!

For way too long now, it's always been about the sign outside the door. Let's quit making divisions like Jesus asked and start being known by our love, rather than the sign outside our doors. God bless you all, let me know your thoughts.

Our church really is contemplating removing the sign. I hope that we do.

I recently started coaching at a new school, thus I am on the school insurance policy. So, that means when and if I go to a doctor or dentist I must go to one of the doctors on the approved list. Not being familiar with the area or the doctors, I just went with convience and the doctor listed 1st on the list.

My tooth started hurting so I made an appointment and was a somewhat disappointed when I got there and realized the dentist spoke broken english. I was really disturbed when he told me to get up out of the chair and leave his office immediately, because he said(after examining my teeth) my teeth were perfectly fine, nothing was wrong with them and I was wasting his time.

Frustrated, I began to leave, when he says, "does it hurt when you drink cold?" (Which I correctly translated into: do cold drinks cause your tooth to hurt?

Because my tooth constantly was hurting, (and thinking maybe he figured out something) I assurred him YES. He said good! Then Don't drink cold, drink hot water. Needless to say, I wanted to hit the man. As a matter of fact I wanted to get on him, like red ants on a spilled snowcone.

Three weeks later, I couldn't stand the pain any longer, I went to the 2nd dentist on the list. After she observed my teeth the 1st time, she said there doesn't seem to be anything wrong, that everything looked perfect. After studying the x-rays a while longer she said, wait a minute, you have a very, very small cavity that is so deep into the nerve, it is not visible to the naked eye, and somewhat hard to see even with the x-ray.

The drama continues, but to save you the hassle, I will make my spiritual application. Many times, we as a church are just like the first dentist. We are fooled every Sunday by the exterior looks of the members as they mask what their true feelings are. Just because they give the official church answer when asked "How are you doing? (Which by the way, the official church answer to that question is FINE), We assume they are. And we too, just like the 1st dentist refuse to look beyond what the naked eye can see.

Truth is many people out there are hurting, and our job as a church is to look deep into the hearts of those that are hurting and to help them and offer comfort. The church for some reason has given that up to secular world counselors who are charging rates up to $125/hr and are basically finding others to blame as remedy.

This is sad, and we (the church)need to take that back from the secular world and start offering hope to those that need it. God Bless You All! Let me know what you think and how you feel and your advice.

I remember as a child growing up in a very conservative church. A church that took pride in not only knowing the Bible, but pride in keeping all of it's commanments, helping keep track of those who wern't (Judging Others) and most importantly "Doing church Right".

And although I love my heritage and upbringing of loving the scripture and wanting to always do things right I became a very blind individual spiritually.

You see, I thought that all my knowledge of the Bible, and all my works of keeping it's commandments, and (bless my pointed little head) my judging (thought it was my Godly duty to do so) everybody else's relationship with God would earn me salvation and a spot at God's right hand.

It wasn't till later in my life when a friend of mine ( I have no idea why he chose to be such good friends with me)from high school met up with me after not seeing each other for several years told me that He too now was a christian and believed all the same things that I did back in highschool.

My 1st reply was arrogant as I asked "Did the scriptures change?" He said "Of course not, someone just approached me in love rather than judgement with the same message. I was speechless. I said "Brother I am so sorry, Please forgive me, I am going to have to answer to God for the many persons who will never receive Christ on account of my judging attitude and condemnation.

Needless to say, I was spiritually awakened to the fact that I have no authority to judge others, nor did God need my help in that area. I also learned that i had more of a relationship with the book (Bible) more so than I did with the author of it (God).

I was so caught up in my gift of knowing scripture that I had lost focus on the greatest gift of all which is to Love. 1Cor. 13 says Works (Religion) without Love is worthless.

Churches get so caught up into who's right that we spend worthless hours debating on issues while many hurting souls are left to turn to drugs,sex, and all the other things satan has to offer them. Let me know what you think. By the way God Loves You and I Love you Too.

Just recently, I was beginning to start worrying about what I was going to preach about because it was already mid-week and I had still not decided on what lesson or topic to prepare. As I began to pray to God for some insight, He (God) said "Don't worry about it, I'm going to take care of it."

Friday had come along and I began to get frustrated because God had still not delivered on His promise. Saturday night, I decided to put some (of my) thoughts down on paper. The whole time I am writing these thoughts God keeps saying "You're wasting your time, relax, I will take care of this."

As I am driving to church Sunday morning I am still wrestling with God because, as i am reading over my sermon notes, he keeps saying "Throw Your Notes Away, You Don't Need Them!"

When I arrive at the church parking lot, I place my notes in my Bible, still nopt convinced that God is going to provide something better. As the song before the lesson is being sung, I once more peek quickly at my notes, slide them back into my Bible and join in the singing of the last verse.

As I get up to begin my sermon, (And This Is No Lie) I reach into my Bible for my outline, only to realize they are not in there. I calmly walk back to the pew in which I was sitting, to see if I might have mistakenly without knowing layed it down. I had not.

Embarrassed, I took a deep breath, sighed, and asked, Does anybody feel they are filled and need to speak this morning? And a hand was raised midway back by a young lady whom had visited our congregation for about 2 weeks straight. She humbly asked, may I please say something?

Now, for some of you, this probably wrestles with your theology of women speaking in church, but I want you to know for the next 10 minutes of our service she gave testimony into what God has done in her life (unbelievable testimony) and there was not a dry eye in the place. What is even more interesting is that when she got through speaking there were men in our congregation that have never participated in service ( as a matter of fact, these were the same men I had been trying to get involved in participating for some time to no avail) who got up and started telling the congregation how touched they were from this young ladies testimony and started quoting scripture that helped represent their points. The most amazing thing was, they never even realized they were quoting scripture.

After all of this took place, I then shared with the church all that which had led to this (Above story about me wrestling with God about what to preach about and Him telling me that He would take care of it).

Needless to say, we now do church somewhat differently now. 1st Cor. 14 says: Let everyone come with a psalm, a hymn, a word of encouragement, etc so that the church will be uplifted and edified. Now we still come prepared with a song leader, i prepare a lesson, etc, but we are open to our services being led by the Spirit. So if anyone comes to our service and is being led to pray, lead a song, read a favorite passage, or etc, we allow them to do just that.

The Lord loves to come to church when He is invited. Have you invited Him into yours? May God bless you! Please share your thoughts.

One of the things I never knew I would encounter in my life was the fact that I would be asked upon by families (some I know, some I don't)to preach a loved one's funeral.

In each of the funerals that I have done, every one of the families have had individuals whom shared with me that there were things they never quite got the opportunity to tell their loved ones before they passed on.

So please, remember it's never too early (to share with your family and loved ones all the kind words, gifts, and feelings you want to share or tell them,) but any moment may be too late.

P.S. I am currently working on sending a letter to every person that has made an impact in my life. I have also encouraged my students to pick someone in their life that has been a great influence in their life and to do the same.