"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee." (Deuteronomy 33:27) The third verse of "I Am His, and He Is Mine" recalls former times of alarm, fear, and doubt, but testifies of the rest and peace in His love, cradled in the "everlasting arms" of the Savior. Things that once were wild alarms Cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms, Pillowed on the loving breast!
O to lie forever here, Doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear—I am His and He is mine. This verse reminds us of the evening when Jesus and His disciples were in a boat and a violent storm arose. They awoke Jesus from His sleep and cried, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38). Of course Jesus cared, for He loved them. So "he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still" (v. 39). To His disciples, He said, "Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" (v. 40). The time would come when they would need that faith and peace. They would learn to rest in His loving care. The song also reminds us of the special loving relationship between Jesus and the disciple John. "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved" (John 13:23). A deep intimacy with Him was John's, and can be ours, if we will only pillow our head on Him. No passage expresses that intimacy as well as the Song of Solomon, using the analogy of husband and wife to reflect the self-sacrificing love between our Lord and His children. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (Song of Solomon 6:3). The affairs of this life interrupt our times of intimacy with Him, but there will be a day when we will "ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

I will be putting up a bunch of pictures taken as we have unloaded trucks, put buckets on pallets, and gotten them ready for shipment. We will receive our last delivery on Monday the 15th, and the trucks come in the next day to take the buckets to Florida. Our buckets should be in Haiti by the 1st of April. Here is an article found online about BOH.

“Buckets of Hope” 

“Buckets of Hope” are beginning to pour into Florida as they continue their journey to Haiti. A recent comment on Facebook stated, “Buckets of Hope is easily one of the best relief ministries I have seen. I am a college student and work for a Baptist association in Missouri, but I have a home church in Springfield, Ill., and people have just swarmed this idea... It is going to help out so many people...”

Photo: Loaded up and headed to the collection point. The Christian Friends Bible Fellowship class (Melvin Benson, teacher) of First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Ga., was happy to fill 24 Buckets of Hope for the people of Haiti.

See more photos and share yours on the SBDR Facebook page. 

Read a local news story and watch a video about North Carolina “Buckets of Hope.” 

Many have given sacrificially to help Southern Baptists meet the needs of the millions of Haitians affected by the earthquake. Give thanks to God for the multitudes of Southern Baptists for sharing the love of Christ through prayer, monetary gifts, and “Buckets of Hope.”

The Chow Line formed quickly as the ladies set out the lunch meal; smothered hamburger steak, mashed potatoes with the skins, green beans, and cake. It was fantastic. Notice the Youth Minister and Doug were right there.




Mary C. seems to be saying, "Don't mess with my food!" We won't, Mary.

When you work in the kitchen, you get to taste your cookin' ... and these ladies did just that; hot, buttery homemade rolls. Yum, yum!



(l to rt) Gayla, Alvina, Dana, and Head Chef Debbie! They had butter dripping down their chins ...

DATELINE: Monday, March 8th ... D-Day for Buckets of Hope (BOH) to be delivered to Cornerstone Baptist Church. We are the collection site for a number of Associations, both BGCT and SBTC. We were desperately needing shrink wrap for the pallets and it arrived via this truck.



Everyone got all excited when this truck pulled in thinking it was loaded with buckets for us. Fortunately, it was empty, but headed south to start picking up buckets at College Station and other locations.

The First Lady thought I should post this as she thinks I have been waaaay too casual in other photos. Enjoy ... it won't happen again very soon!

"But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee." (Psalm 5:11) It may seem strange to think of rejoicing as a Christian duty, but the Scriptures do contain many commands to rejoice, and many of these are given in circumstances of grief or danger, as is the case of our beautiful text verse. "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4), Paul wrote from a Roman dungeon. In the upper room the night before He was to die on a cross, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). And then He said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John 16:2). But then He said again: "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). If David could rejoice while fleeing from murderous enemies, if Paul could rejoice while chained unjustly in a Roman prison, if the disciples could experience fullness of joy while facing martyrdom, and if the Lord Himself "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2), then our Christian duty of rejoicing in all circumstances may not be such an unseemly command after all. We can rejoice, as our text reminds us, "because thou defendest them." Furthermore, He Himself provides the joy, for "the fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy" (Galatians 5:22). It is not that the Christian will never know sorrow, for Christ Himself was "a man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3). But He also was a man of joy and, in Him, we can be like Him—"as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing" (2 Corinthians 6:10).

I made my appearance at the START of the girl's lock-in on Friday night at Cornerstone Baptist Church. After snapping a few pics, I decided it was time to leave.



The girls loved the Wii "Just Dance" game. Here you see them with controllers in hand, trying to mimic the dancing girl on the monitor. I hear Michael R. is fantastic at this game. Who taught him to dance?



They're still at it!



More happy faces. They all had a great time.

"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." (2 Corinthians 11:4) The verses following our text contain an enlightening warning about false teachers. One should not carelessly follow a personable religious leader merely because he "preaches Jesus" or urges audiences to "receive the Spirit." "Jesus" is quite popular among worldly people today, but not the true Jesus. The popular Jesus may be the baby Jesus in the manger at Christmastime, or the buddy Jesus of Nashville "gospel" music, or the success-counseling Jesus of the positive thinkers. He may be the romantic Jesus of the Christian crooners, the rhythmic Jesus of Christian rock, or the reforming Jesus of the liberals, but none of these are the Jesus preached by the apostle Paul, and therefore not the real Jesus who saves men and women from their sins. Jesus in reality is the Lord Jesus Christ, the offended Creator of the universe (Colossians 1:16), who had to die as man on the cross to redeem us through His shed blood (Colossians 1:14, 20), and who then rose from the dead to be set "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named" (Ephesians 1:21). Finally, it is this Jesus "who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom" (2 Timothy 4:1). The Lord Jesus, as He really is, is not the popular Jesus of T-shirts and bumper stickers, politicians and entertainers. He was "despised and rejected of men" (Isaiah 53:3) so they "crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). He is the mighty God, the perfect man, the only Savior, the eternal King, and Lord of lords. God-called teachers will not preach an imaginary Jesus who appeals to the flesh, but rather the true Christ of creation and salvation.

The Southern Baptist Convention, which we are affiliated with, promotes and receives two major offerings each year in the churches. The first is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering which we just took part in, and the second is the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering that we are starting to promote.

The Annie Armstrong offering goes 100% to our home missionaries, that is, here in the United States. The Lottie Moon offering is for our foreign (overseas) missionaries. Small churches, missions, home missionaries, and bi-vocational churches receive support from this offering. When I was a pastor in Wamsutter, WY, our little church received a lot of help directly from the loving gifts of SBC churches nationwide.

You will be hearing more this month about this mission offering and I am asking you to pray to see what your part will be in this. We will be taking this offering throughout the month of March, ending the 1st Sunday of April which is Easter.



Let's see what God would have us to do ...