...too small a thing...

If You Don't Ride You Don't Know

I Like This Video.... A Prison Chaplain from South Carolina Shared this with me.... I have the same look as the guy in the video... Cause I Know.

Open Road Video

Defenders Determined

The Atlanta Defenders are a Football Team in the National Public Safety Football League. This group of men are committed first to their work as Police, Fire and EMS workers and then they have another role. Quarterbacks, linbackers, and linemen out on the old gridiron. They had their first game ever last Saturday and (Well it is their first game) and will be having their second game Saturday May 3 in Charlotte. I had the blessing of going out to pray with them before the Game and after the Game. Rough, Tough, and bigger than the average guy these rugged men were there to raise money for charity, have a good time, and play some football. They will only play three games this year but they have a great future. I want to commend them and their dedication to play. I am praying for these men and the safety both on and off the job. It is a great privileges to  serve as a Police  Chaplain and  extra opportunities to  pray and minister are precious  to me. Go  Defenders!

Check out the Defenders Web Site: http://www.atlantadefenders.com/

It Doesn't Seem Fair

This is the cry of so many that see what is going on in Texas with the LDS compound. So many children separated from their mothers and the Mother after all is the one to best care for the child. This issue is complicated and will not be solved for years to come. The culture of the hard core LDS people has made acceptable what the majority of people in the USA and indeed our lawmakers have deemed to be illegal. In many ways it is not fair to the mothers and the children that they have been "brainwashed or made to think that it is acceptable for a 12 year old to marry and have children. I agree. But I am not shocked at the behavior or the practice which I have seen as common practice elsewhere in the world. In Africa and Latin America among the poor marriage and babies as young as 11 and 12 is not only tolerated but somewhat the norm. Teaching in this country that makes polygamy  acceptable is wrong as the practice is illegal.   These poor women were intimidated into this situation to accept and allow this practice. This is what so many will say and they are right. But I am truly convinced that these women know that this is not acceptable to the majority of people and that they are different. They are also willing to lie and deceive and be elusive about the practice in order to preserve its practice.  What we are taught to believe is powerful. It is strange that people will allow things to go on in their presence doing very little to try to resolve or stop the practice. many are shocked at the LDS compound situation as it unfolds because they did not realize it was going on in the USA. But how sad that other things we believe are wrong are going on and we really do know that it is but we do so little to stop it. Say for instance Abortion. How about pornography. How about our own petty and selfish ways that look at they way our society operates and tend to fall in flow of things when in fact we know we should really be taking a stand on the word of God. I agree it does not seem fair that the teaching of the LDS is what has gotten these mothers in the situation that they are losing their children and some may and likely will face criminal prosecution. My point is they know better. The truth is so many of us know better about so many things that we just live with in society and Our Heavenly Father has taught us better. Many are up in arms that Obama sat under the teaching of his church for 20 years and did nothing about it. Is this not the way of most church people. Not the way Obama's church was teaching but the way most churches are teaching. Love Wins. But have you been loving enough to help someone. Do you care enough to share material blessing and spiritual blessing.  It doesn't seem fair to me that if you know Christ and the truth of the  Gospel  that you can live in silence while the practice of the world we know is wrong continues. Just a thought.

Dollars and Donations

No doubt about it, times are tight. I filled my tank on my truck this morning and paid more for a tank than I ever have and the price per gallon continues to climb. The stock market is seemingly like a yo yo when it is just about out of juice and although you are trying to get it back up to your hand it just rolls up and down but each time seems a little harder to get back up and it just will not get all the way back to your hand. What does this mean to a non-profit like Mission Team Inc. Well so far we have been blessed. Thanks to so many of you and your continued giving we are doing great. The gifts to the scholarship program continue and have gotten us halfway to the goal for the year in just three months. I read a great study on giving today and thought some of you might be interested. Here is a quote by George Barna:

In 2007, 84% of all adults donated some money to churches or non-profit organizations.

In the article Evangelicals led the pack on giving but some of the stats might make you wonder about people's real commitments. I thought you might want to read the article so if you do click here.

Again thank you for your faithfulness to Missions and the support of MTI. I am not sure why I have written two articles on faithfulness and giving maybe because it is tax time?

Faithfullness of People

Many folks are faithful in doing what God lays on their heart to do in the area of giving and this is what allows a ministry like I have been called to to exist. When I stepped down as a pastor to go to this ministry it was indeed a world of the unknown. I had to trust the Lord. Thanks to so many supporters we are now in the best position we have ever been of being able to meet needs and support roles in mission.

Recently someone who I had never met felt led to give to a missionary I was working with and wrote a check and sent it to MTI. I forwared the funds on and got this response from the missionary...

We had just been to Life Way trying to find study Bibles for the pastors and didn’t realize they were so expensive.  We were trying to figure out how we were going to do it.  Well, the check will cover the Bibles and it will even cover postage for mailing eye glasses and scarves and hats for the villagers to a team that is coming in May.  We are already over our limit in luggage and they graciously agreed to bring them when they come so God really took care of that need too.  Please extend our appreciation to whomever sent us that donation.  We are not at liberty to ask for help from people but we can always use it and always appreciate it!  Anyway, they really blessed us and it was just in the nick of time.  Please let them know that.  We really really appreciate their gift and generosity.

Praise the Lord for the generosity of people who will do what God lays on their heart to do.

Men Who Were Men

My Friend Al Cochran was buried yesterday. He was a great man who has accomplished a lot in his life. Another great man will be buried tomorrow  Lionell Cole.  Mr Cole  was 90 and Al was 77. Both of these men I had the blessing of knowing and seeing them interact in their church and in their family. They came form different worlds as far as their professions. Al Cochran was a prominent lawyer in Cobb County and was a successful business man  and  bank  executive.  Mr  Cole was really a blacksmith by trade something you do not see now days very often. Both have Their roots in the  Southern Appalachian  Mountains. Mr Cole being from Sand Mountain AL and Al being from Talking Rock GA. Both men were hard working family men who loved their wives and were faithful to them. Both of them were good men with children that they were proud of and Grandchildren they loved and helped along the way. These were real men American heroes that said what they meant and meant what they said. I was privileged to know both of them.

Both of them left suddenly after full healthy lives.  They both had cancer and had battled bravely, but when the time came that they were finished the Lord took them quickly. Mr Cole was only a couple of days at the Hospice center and Al passed quietly in his sleep 21 hours after the doctors told him to go to hospice.

The most outstanding thing about both of these men is the fact that they had given their lives to Jesus Christ. They were men of God. They were both deacons and good deacons. They were welcomed into the gates of heaven this week and met so many they love there. As far as I know these two men never met on earth although they lived within easy driving distance. Now in Heaven they will certainly have eternity to talk and share experiences  about how they  have served  Our Lord  for many years.

As I reflected on these men this morning and their lives, I  realize I may have 30 or 40 years at best of time left on this earth. What will I do with it? I pray that I will be a Man of God like these two giants that I had the privilege to know who have shown me what it is to be a man. I will challenge the men at Piney Grove Baptist in about an hour or so from now. Lionell Cole was a member at Piney Grove some years ago and will be buried tomorrow in the church cometary. I Pray that these men will take up the challenge of being a godly man.

Obituary for Al Cochran

Obituary for Lionell Cole