Thursday, August 13, 2009

WWF in the pulpit!

At the request of Bro. Adrian, I will share the story of the altercation behind the pulpit!
While pastoring First Baptist in Wells, TX, on a Wednesday evening our preaching service had already begun and three men walked in and sat on the back row of the sanctuary. First Baptist, where Josh Luellen is currently pastoring, is right on Highway 69. We would get a lot of people that would stop from time to time and visit with us and of course some that needed some kind of help or assistance.
Therefore, it was not an unusual thing for these three men to walk in during our service.
While I am introducing the subject matter at hand, one of my men got up to take the men an outline of the study that evening. Our crowd, which was usually about 40-50 on Wednesday evenings was down that night to probably in the 30's. We normally had about a dozen to 15 men, but that night we only had about 5-7 men.
The first thing that happened that gave an indication that this would be an unusual service was when the man next to the aisle shouted out to me, "Tell em bout the Holy Spirit," to which I replied, "The lesson is on Abraham tonight," as I continued with my introduction. Before another 60 seconds passed, he shouted out again, "Tell em bout the Holy Spirit." Now everyone was getting a little nervous, including the pastor! With at least one more shouting interuption, the man stood up and started walking down the aisle and shouting, "Well if you won't tell em bout the Holy Spirit, I will!"
At this time, as I look at Him coming toward me and looking around at the shock on many faces in the audience, I could see the ladies of the church shoving their purses and jewlry under the pews and hiding stuff (they thought we might be getting robbed)! I didn't know what to think!
The man walked up behind the pulpit and beside me and tried to push me out from behind the pulpit, as he said, "you sit down I gonna preach about the Holy Spirit!"
As I shoved him back out of my spot I said, "no your not, your not preaching in this pulpit!" (the spirit he wanted to preach about was the spirit of Jack Daniels, because he had definitly been drinking).
He then grabbed my shirt and tried to shove me harder out of the way while demanding that I give him my pulpit! I realized that this idiot had ruined our service scared our ladies (my men are just sitting there while thinking, "alright Bro. Michael, let's see what you got!) and I had finally had enough!!!
I grabbed him by the shirt and gritted my teeth and yelled with spit and volume that made his hair fly up! "YOU ARE NOT PREACHING AND YOU BETTER GO SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW!"
The man finally cowered down and said, "you mean your not gonna let me preach?" I yelled, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
As he went to the back of the church I knew the whole service (which was a total of about 10 minutes) had been shot! I apologized to the people for the disturbance and dismissed in prayer. While walking out and leaving the other two men said they were sorry for the actions of their "drunk friend," they were just along for the ride when he drove by our church and told his buddies that he was going to stop by this church and show them how he "could preach" at this church.
While all of the shoving and shouting was going on, I noticed that one of my men got up and walked out and I'm thinking, "where are you going and THANKS A LOT!"
He later told me that he was going to check on the kids in the back!
I later told ALL THE MEN of my church, "I'm the President, yall are the Secret Service, next time somebody take "the bullet." I think they got the picture!
What turned out to be a humerous story could have been a lot worse if their intentions were different!
I hope to never have a wrestling match in the pulpit again!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Life just seems to keep getting FASTER!

Finally,
getting a chance to sit down and write a post. I have had a chance to read some of the posts and comments along the way and everytime I want to type a comment or response, all I have is my little bitty keyboard on my phone and that gets old.
Seems like the same old issues and a few new wrinkles and a little Bible thrown in for good measure.
I'll see what I can do, to stir the pot for entertainment sake:
James (our scholar)--Jesus is coming again! I don't know when!
Arch-- (he plays the piano very well)--Do you ever learn any NEW SONGS for worship?
Mike--(he graduated and he's smart too)--when are you going to write a book?
Adrian--(he's from TEXAS)--go climb a mountain and don't fall!
Tim--(he USED to play ball)--let the kid play!!!
Jason--(the SERMONATOR)--just had to get back to LSU country did you?
Joseph--(my new neighbor)--you owe me a catfish dinner! When we going fishing again?
Bro. T--(he's shy, doesn't use his real name)--the way you measure church growth is: how big is it before and then how big is it after? EASY
Micah--(just how big a boy are ya?)--take care of that family and yes Taylor is still coming over to clean your house!
Joey--(MR. DDT)--My truck, Your Car for pinks.
Round Two:
James--keep singing your songs, and don't worry about the pronouns.
Arch--You always make a suit look good, stay modest (in other words, keep covered up)
Mike--Your Indian ancestry makes you want to cover your hairy legs. Come to the Philippines with me out to the island, wading the four foot surf and then preach in your suit. (I know you would do it, because you are always a man of your word! ) You would have a good time though!!
Adrian--I know your relatives and they don't feed the rats.
Tim--Take a Sunday off and your and your wife GET AWAY and go to a ball game. It's OK!
Jason--the Sermonator ate a Baconator--is that alliteration? You preach so loud, I can hear you here in Arkansas.
Joseph--you pastor a LOT of preachers, (do you tag-team)
Bro. T--I'll be praying for you during the revival.
Micah--are you there????????
Joey--do you ever roll your eyes? Congrats also for graduating.

CONGRATS TO ALL THE GRADUATES of the seminaries.

If I left anyone out, I'm sorry. Getting ready for a horribly busy summer.
Youth Retreat this week-end.
Helping Taylor pack for Girls State.
Helping her read all of the "Federalist Papers" and understand why they were need to help ratify the constitution.
Building stuff for VBS in June.
Two remodeling projects going on at church right now.
ABA in late June --see you there!!!
Getting Taylor ready to go to Washington D.C. for her two-week summer course in History and Civics (she will be flying on a Sunday, Oh No! She will lose her salvation and burn forever in Hell!! :-)
Teen Camp at Bogg Springs in July
A week off
Regular Church camp at Bogg Springs (pray for me as I will be preaching all the morning services and teaching the College kids) Pray for the salvation of the young people who need Jesus!!
The following week getting ready for the Rapture (oh no! that would be pre-trip) sorry, my bad! He's coming a little later! Well when He does come! I'll be ready for sure!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Memories

I too, like my two bro-in-laws, and many others, have a lot of fond memories of Bro. Wayne Harper and his family. It was 1986 when I started seminary in January that Bro. Wayne and Sis. Lorinda were both going to seminary also. Bro. Wayne and I were both first year students at LMBIS. Sis. Lorinda was the first family in Louisiana to invite me over to their house to eat.
One afternoon, I was able to enjoy a super visit over at their home eating and fellowshiping. Afterwards, Bro. Wayne, who was also an MP on Barksdale Airforce Base, gave me a tour of the base. One of the most impressive things he showed me was the Missile Silos on the base. He said don't go across that patch of grass, you'll never survive. I didn't try it!
Later on in life, I met Karen Wilkes and the Lord said, join Bossier City MBC so you can hang around Karen, so I did. Bro. Wayne and Sis. Lorinda happen to be the some of the youth sponsors of Karen's youth group. It was a great time, looking back in the hey day of Bossier City MBC.
I later on married Karen, of course, and Bro. Wayne Harper and Bro. Roy Chapman were our matching ushers in our wedding. Bro. Wayne was Bro. Roy's associate at the time at Liberty MBC in Shreveport at the time. Sis. Lorinda was the director of our wedding and all three girls, Dannielle, Carrie, and Tami were in our wedding in some fashion (bridesmaids, flower girls etc.)
That was 20 years ago when I married Karen, my how time has flown by! Bro. Wayne is already visiting with Roy and Cloy Chapman and many others.
I am looking forward to seeing my friend and Bro. in Christ again one day. Well I just wanted to jot down a few thoughts before I left for the funeral in Mountain View, AR.
God Bless and pray for a safe journey and pray for the Harper family!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

An Outcast on "Castaway Island"

I like the way Bro. James listed the "front and back flap" of the Sunday School books on his blog page. "The front and back flap" is my way of referring to the "21" of the things "most assuredly believed" among us.

Is it possible for a preacher or a church for that matter to be KJV and rock solid on the "21" and still be an "outcast" in other churches or other pulpits?

Are there some other beliefs (outside of the "21" and the KJV) that if a church or preacher does not adhere to that makes him or that church UNSCRIPTURAL or unfit for other so-called "scriptural churches?"

WILSON.....WILSON......WILSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Preaching Style

An interesting style of preaching...

Is it scriptural for a preacher to preach a sermon and never read from the Bible?

Example: Preach about "Adam and Eve" or "Nicodemus and Jesus" and maybe quote some scripture, but never read a scripture.

Is it just a different style of preaching?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Revival is going great!

Bro. Glen, missionary from the Philippines, is doing a great job preaching our revival, we are having moves every night and really good attendance, which is something with everyone being so involved in ball games and fishing and camping and work and school and life is so busy!
Having visitors every night has been encouraging.
On another note, Bro. Glen and I unloaded some more supplies at the warehouse today. That is such a blessing of a ministry that Calvary MBC performs for missionaries worldwide. I know Bro. Joseph is going to enjoy pastoring a church that has such an involvment in missions worldwide. It's way more than just writing a check.
Pray for our revival!

Monday, March 30, 2009

What a Day!

What a day yesterday at church!
Great worship. Everything went so well! The singing, the preaching (God did it!) the specials.
At the invitation time, we had 20 something down at the altar praying for our church and our revival which starts tomorrow.
During prayer requests we had people naming lost people and asking us to pray for them, not just one, but several. This shows a genuine concern, which is the desire that every true pastor has for his people.
Sunday evening I shared a portion of the Word of God (a devotion) and then we viewed the movie, "Fireproof" and then we had another devotion after the movie and then an invitation and altar call for the strengthening of marriages in our church and for our continuing revival. We had another 20 something come to the altar who poured their hearts out to the Lord for the lost, the unconcerned and those marriages that are struggling.
Our church is overwhelmed with the burden for the lost and for those church members who are uncommitted and only come to Sunday morning worship!
The naming of names began last Monday evening at a Cottage Prayer Meeting that we had in preparation for our revival services. We had a bout 25 in attendance and we prayed for over an hour and a half. I was exhausted and there was not a dry eye in the house. What a "sweet exhaustion!"
Even if this revival just brings one person closer to the Lord, it will all be worth it!

Praise the Lord!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

King James Version

Should one allow a preacher/pastor/missionary/evangelist to speak in your pulpit who does not use the KJV, but will preach out of it at your church because he knows that is your preference and/or your church's preference?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

"Running Naked in the Graveyard"

I don't know where I heard this title, but I actually used it, when I was preaching a series through the book of Mark.
Mark 5:1-20

I remember one year when Bro. Don had an archaeologist visit one day in seminary and he was sharing how archeology and the Bible go together and this was one of his examples.
In many archeology digs, they would find the remains of these individuals bound in tombs and they (the archaeologists) could not figure out the source of the belief. The belief in their findings was that the people in Jesus' day thought that the tombs had healing properties.
A saved archaeologist finally put this belief together with the scripture over in II Kings 13:20-21
Because of a dead man coming back to life, when it touched the bones of Elisha, people started believing that tombs had healing properties.
Therefore, the mentally ill (or demon possessed in the case above) were put into and even bound in the tombs.

Most may have already known this, but is still very interesting to me.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Random Stuff

Since I have already had a blog titled Random Thoughts, I had to go with "Random Stuff."

Following the lead of Big J and Bro. Adrian, I will give this random list thing about yourself a try.

1. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and I love them very much!
2. I love to preach God's Word...pastoring people is harder work than most think.
3. My favorite memories preaching are at church camp and all the different places that I preached before I started pastoring.
4. My son is my younger twin.
5. My oldest daughter has my athletic ability (because I don't have it anymore) and her mother's OCD about cleaning.
6. My youngest daughter already has the ability to lead this nation! She literally runs the entire third grade at her Elementary school.
7. My wife, besides being the love of my life, holds our entire family together. I know this, because when she is sick or gone somewhere, everything falls apart and Alli Jo is organizing and Taylor is cleaning and Caleb and I are just sitting there with blank stares!
8. In High School I was a three year-lettermen in Basketball and a two-year lettermen in Track.
9. Academically I was ranked 9th in a graduating class of 61. Grade avg. 91.2
10. I surrendered to preach at Highway MBC in Huntington, TX (where Bro. Lamar Denby is still pastoring) in Feb. 17th 1985.
11. My first official position in the ministry was Associate Pastor and Youth Director under David McCormick at Vidalia MBC in June 1986.
12. I have pastored New Ramah MBC in Castor, LA (Dec. 87--June 90); Hope MBC in Heflin, LA (June 90--Aug. 92); First Baptist in Wells, TX (Nov. 92--Aug. 2000); Central MBC in Pineville, LA (Aug. 2000--March 2005); Promise Land MBC in Hamburg, AR (March 2005--to present).
13. I cannot run without severe pain in my knees.
14. I can still beat Taylor in a game of "HORSE" (one out of four times!!!)
15. Karen and I were married on August the 4th 1989.
16. Our entire twenty years of marriage we have only lived in parsonages.
17. I hope to one day have a place of our own!
18. I enjoy teaching at C.A.B.B.I. (Central Arkansas Baptist Bible Institute) one of our ABA seminaries in Benton, AR.
19. My favorite seminary memories, though, are during my time at L.M.B.I.S. (Louisiana Missionary Baptist Seminary) during the 86-89 school years, back during the days of Roy and Cloy Chapman, C. Forrest Shook, Wayne Watson, Julius Carter etc.
20. Right now, my favorite recreation is crappie fishing in my awesome boat (which I bought from my Bro-in-Law--thanks Mike!!--it is still running great!)
21. And I may be from Texas, but I am not exaggerating about this, my deacons told me (all eight of them) that I need to be using my boat at least twice a week! No wonder they call this the Promise Land!
22. Everytime I kill a deer during deer season, one of my church members processes the deer for free!
23. Back to my family--I always enjoy getting together with my Mike and Jason and their families. (I miss Nana!) I've never laughed so hard as this past Christmas (Kim has an album on her Facebook page of Big J doin his thing!)
24. I am so thankful for the opportunities that God has given me through his churches to visit missionaries and preach in other countries. ( I have been able to preach in Old Mexico, Romania, Moldova, Russia, Israel, and in the Philippines).
25. I can't believe my daughter will be graduating High School next year.
26. Even this morning we had a family circle of prayer before leaving for school, something that we have done since she was in Pre-Kindergarten (I guess that is about 13 years straight). Our kids just circle up every morning, we hardly ever have to call them for this time of our morning. It has been a blessing!
27. If my life were to end this year, I know that I could have done things better, but my heart could not be anymore full with the blessings that God has given me.
28. Until then, I will keep doing my favorite thing in the world...preaching the Word of God!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pregnant at the Rapture!

This Question may have been answered in one of the other blogs, if it was, I didn't see it.

Will pregnant women remain pregnant after the rapture?

If yes, why?

If no, why?

I've gone back and forth on this particular question, since I first heard it discussed in 1978 in the parking lot of Highway MBC standing beside Bill Baily's chevy truck.
Why do I remember this stuff????

Thursday, February 26, 2009

It Can't Be!


Surely we as pastors of the Lord's Churches could not offend someone!

Surely You Jest!

Will there be a Test!

Why can't we thump our Chest?

In the end we are just Stressed!


Signed,

Someone who just got Blessed!

Philippines Trip


Had the great privilege to represent Promise Land MBC on a trip to the Philippines recently. Bro. Bobby Shockly and I went to check on three mission points that we support in and around Davao, Philippines.

We support Philippines Missionary Baptist Seminary in Davao.

I was very impressed with the seminary and it's faculty. They have a dress code and everyone participates in the Seminary Choir. I sat in on several classes, especially the Greek classes. I was interested to find out the Greek instructor uses the same textbook I use at Central Arkansas Baptist Bible Institute (Summer's--Essentials to New Testament Greek). I let him know about a workbook that goes along with the textbook. The facilities to the seminary are fantastic and second to none, even compared to any seminary facilities here in the U.S.A.


We also checked on our missionary, Bro. Ruvel Albino. He is on staff at the Seminary and his wife is a secretary at the seminary and the mission/church is on Samal Island in the Gulf of Davao. In order for Bro. Bobby and I to go to church that Sunday morning, we had to get in a taxi from the seminary to the port. Get on a bus to get on the ferry to cross the Gulf to get to the Island of Samal. Then we hopped on a motorcycle/taxi (30 pesos= 75 cents) then he brought us to the church. What a great day this was! Four saved! Bro. Ruvel is a very hard working missionary and our church is excited to be able to help this young man and his family as he serves the Lord!


We also checked on our largest financial mission point that our church support which is RIM.

Remote Island Ministries.

Bro. Glen Knight is the director of this ministry. He is sponsored by Victory MBC in Sherwood, AR.

This is an amazing ministry! Starting Churches along with humanitarian aid to the very impoverished islands surrounding the Philippines. The cream of the crop graduating students are pastoring these churches that are started on these remote islands.

I was able to help pour a concrete slab in a Bario Chapel (basically a large hut) and do a survey in the village of Lanca on the Cape of San Augustin. Lanca was an upscale village, because they had electricity. This means they had a light dangling by a wire in their hut.

There are a lot of stories that I could share:

The two fisherman we found who were lost at sea for two months, we helped return them home.

The deaf mute we brought on board and tried to witness to through drawings.

My first time to ride a motorcycle...with five people on it!


Loved the trip... Hated the long flight!


God Bless,

Michael

Monday, January 12, 2009

God has blessed and things are going great!



Wow! I can say it backwards! Wow!
What a day yesterday at church! We had a lot of visitors yesterday at church and a lot of returning families that have not joined yet. We had some come down during both services in prayer for different needs and that is always encouraging to see people responding to the Holy Spirit's movement in their lives.

One of the things that was on everyone's mind was the fact that Sunday evening was business meeting and the church was going to elect deacons, something they have not been able to do since 1979.

There was an attempt to elect deacons a few years ago, but it turned into a mess and the church wisely waited until another time.

To be honest, I had a good feeling about the meeting, but was still a little nervous about how the process would take place.

We had been praying for months, I had preached the appropriate sermons. I was VERY plain and to the point in all of my messages concerning the qualifications of a Deacon.

Yesterday morning, the day of the business meeting, Karen gets up and tells me that she had a dream that we had elected deacons by secret ballot on pieces of magazines and that after the vote was counted, we had a 12 year-old kid from across town and Tyler Perry as our new deacons (Tyler Perry is a black comedian a.k.a. "Madea")! Wow! What a dream!

The church had voted to add four men to our deacon roll and Sunday evening, after all the nominations, (we had eight, but four removed their names) we had four very qualified men and the church voted to accept these men and I was just thanking God for a wonderful business meeting!

So far in my ministry at Promise Land, all of our business meeting have been wonderful and all have brought honor and glory to God. The main thing we have discussed in our business meetings is our building efforts and our mission efforts and I am still thanking God!

Always moving forward for the cause of Christ!

Michael

Friday, January 2, 2009

A Look Forward in Time in 2009 !!

These are not resolutions, but probable hopes and probable mishaps:

1. I will lose 25 pounds, but probably will find it again.

2. I will get more gray hair and my Bro-in-laws will get less hair.

3. I will write my congressman, because my checking account needs a bail-out.

4. I will be too busy this Spring (going to the Philippines and preaching revivals) and I will use it as an excuse to not finish my thesis.

5. I will enjoy more time fishing than I did last year (maybe this is the reason I will not finish my thesis)!

6. President Obama will find out that the job is harder than he thought.

7. Our nation will slide even closer to Socialism, but if we are going to spread the wealth around, can everyone get a new Chevy truck?

8. Did I mention that my checkbook needs a bail-out?!

9. That Jesus will come back in 2009, of course that would mean that Jesus is a "Pre-triber" and we know that is not the case!

10. On a serious note, I do know that Jesus is coming again and I don't care when it is, but the sooner the better.

Have a Happy New Year and may God Bless You and Your Family!

Guadalupe Trip




Bro. Adrian Neal invited me to go hiking with him in the Guadalupe National Park in West Texas earlier this month. I started walking and trying to get in a little better shape because to hike to the top of Texas, consisted of a nine mile stroll with a 3000 foot elevation climb.


I told Adrian that I would love climb 300 sets of stairs over rough terrain. LOL


We made the 13 hour drive from Huntington TX to Guadalupe NP Monday and started strolling up the mountain at 8am Tuesday morning.


We had to go around one mountain just to get to the mountain we wanted to conquer. It was not long until I could tell I was not at 189 ft elevation that was at the Promise Land, but thank the Lord, it was not too bad.


Every time one of us would start sucking eggs and blowing like a horse running the Kentucky Derby, one of us would say, "This looks like a great place for a picture." Which of course, was an excuse to catch our breath.


We made it to the top of our casual walk through the wilderness in about 4 hours. We reached the summit marker about 12:20pm.


Underneath the summit marker was an Army lock box which contained the summit register. Adrian and I both signed the register and put our comments about our journey.


One of the highlights of the hike was encountering 4 Bighorn Sheep. One was fairly mature with horns that almost made a complete circle.


We made it back to camp in about three hours, fairly tired and a little hungry. After supper we drove around the park and ran into another female Mule deer (Adrian ran into one earlier that day).


The stay at the campgrounds was another story, we had a popup camper, but with 30mph winds and 35 degree nights we were a little cold in the mornings. We had a generator and a heater, but the camp had a rule that generators could not be run from 8pm to 8am. I broke this one every morning, because I had to have my coffee and all we had was an electric coffee pot!


Wednesday morning we headed out for Carlsbad Caverns and had an adventurous morning hiking through the largest caverns in North America. They were very impressive.


Looking forward to our next hike!