This and That

This And That
Or
Happy Birthday, House Plans and Hi Mandi!

Happy Birthday
Today is the 67th birthday of Pastor Kenny Morris. We have been here for several years on his birthday and we are glad to be in Ellisville for it again!

Happy, Happy Birthday, dear friend! I hope you have a super great day. I know that lunch at Strick's BBQ will be good and I believe that church will be good, so maybe you can make it through the rest of the day with a Happy Birthday smile on your face. We love you very much and we are glad to be with you on your birthday this year!

This may be the last picture taken of Bro. Kenny while he is still 66 years old!



House Plans
The planning process for the house is coming right along. The man drawing the plans mailed the printed copies to my Dad and he received them yesterday. The next step is pulling everything together to submit it to the county for permitting.

Here is the front elevation. The porch will go all the way across the front and down the side allowing Odie some access to the outside without having to get her wheelchair in the grass.

Hi Mandi!
The dash cam in the bus stays in the windshield all the time but it stays off most of the places we park. It is motion activated so in a busy parking lot it may come on for 30 seconds or so a few times a day. We never check it unless we have reason to believe something nefarious happened and the camera might have caught it.

Well, something nefarious happened earlier this week in Ellisville and the culprit told us about it and told us what time it happened. I pulled the memory card the next day and sure enough, the suspects were caught on camera!

Jason and Mandi Morris pulled into church with their teenage children and Mandi wondered if the camera was on or not.

Was it on? Yes and No! It was not on until she started waving and jumping up and down. Then is was on and captured everything.

I thought that was pretty funny. Sis. Mandy is a good sport and gave me permission to post the pictures. Hi Mandy!

This week is flying by and we only have two more nights of revival in Ellisville. I believe that God is going to help us!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

100% Response to Preaching

Great Altar Services!

We had a tremendous service Monday night in Ellisville that ended in a great response in the altar and a wonderful altar service last night too. It has started me thinking again about how important it is to respond to the Word of God.

I have stressed the importance of the altar service for all of our years of evangelism. Looking back over the blog the last 18 months, I have had several altar services with 100% participation. I am absolutely thrilled with that! 

If you have heard me preach very much in the last 14+ years then you have heard me ask for "100% response in the altar service by every one that is physically able." 

I am always pleading with people in revival services to respond to the preaching of God's word by coming to the altar to pray. It seems like the message is finally getting through and I am happy about that.

Preaching has always been an important part of Christian worship.

I Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 

If preaching is important then responding to the preaching is important too.

When is the last time you got up out of your seat and responded to your Pastor's preaching? Do you run for the drinking fountain, grab the nearest baby or ease out to be the first one to the buffet or McDonald's? 

Try turning away from the door and going the other direction. Try spending some time praying with others about the Word of God you just heard. You will be amazed how God will work in your life and the lives of your family when you take preaching to heart every time.

Make a habit of contributing to 100% response to preaching, 100% of the time. I know God will respond to you as well. He always does.

I say this next statement over and over and over. I have Never seen a revival with lasting results in the lives of the people AND empty altars. Empty and neglected altars Never result in real lasting revival.

I understand that not everyone is physically able to come forward. Not everyone that is able to come forward can physically kneel at the altar. That is not the point. God blesses those that respond as they are able. God honors those that honor His Word enough to pray about it.

Let me clarify something. It is not the brilliance of my preaching or the cleverness of my phrasing or the emotion of my plea that I am asking folks to acknowledge. None of those things will matter ten minutes after the sermon even IF they were present in the sermon, which is doubtful.

What is worth acknowledging, accepting and responding to is the Word of God! The Word of God will speak to every person in every pew and in every situation of their life. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and faith will demand some type of acknowledgement. Preaching of the Word of God demands a response.

I realize that altar services have been out of style in many churches for decades. Walking the aisle and kneeling at an altar is too country, too simple, too spiritually immature and completely unnecessary in some people's view. Besides they can pray while seated in their comfortable pew or when they get home.

Preachers want to be relevant and in step with other churches. They do not want to be seen as pushing people for a response. 

But churches that incorporate an altar service at the end of the sermon and stress its importance, still see people's lives totally and radically changed. Men and women are saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, healed, uplifted and encouraged when they respond by faith to the preaching in the altar. 

Churches that avoid altar services also avoid talking of such experiences and changes in lives.

It is evident to me that they are not receiving the same blessings while sitting in their pew or praying about the sermon when they get home. I believe that once they exit the door of the church without responding to the preaching the wicked foul of the air is likely to pluck that seed out of their heart. Mark 4:4,15

Preaching demands a response. God's Word demands a response. Are we too spiritual to spend a few moments joining with the saints to pray about what we have heard? 

Are we too proud or lazy or stubborn to humble our hearts when God has been speaking to us? Are we too carnally minded to hear and acknowledge God is speaking to our hearts?

"Wait, preacher," you say. "If God was speaking in my church I would respond. I would get right down on my knees and ask Him to help me hear His Word and do His Word."

But preaching IS God speaking.

Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;  

3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

God is speaking to us today through preaching.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 

21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Wow! That is a perfect description of our attitude today. Our world is so wise and prideful in our own wisdom. We are caught up in what we know and the next big thing we can learn. 

But God sends a preacher equipped with nothing but the Word of God, preaching the cross and the world can be saved through that preacher's message! Praise God! The world thinks preaching is foolish. The modern church may think it is foolish as well. But unto us that are saved, preaching is the power of God. 

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Believing the preaching demands a response!

Most of the time I am asking for 100% response from those that are physically able and I receive about 50% response instead. I am thrilled when 70-80% of the people come to the altar in response to my preaching. Most of the time I am ready for the rapture when all but a handful of people come to the altar to pray.

The 100% response I have received several times the last 18 months has thrilled and inspired me! I will keep on asking. I will keep on pleading. I believe the end result is worth it.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Surprised By Special Friends!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that we had two visitors Sunday night that absolutely blew us away. I want you to understand they got us bad. We had no idea they were within 500 miles of us. When I walked into church Sunday night they were sitting in the pew about half way back and I nearly swallowed my teeth.

I have wrote about Bro. Bruce and Sis. Priscilla Mayhan several times on the blog. They have been dear friends since 1989 and they have traveled literally thousands of miles to be with us in services all over the USA. They drove down from Oklahoma this weekend to visit us and some other friends in Mississippi.

Here they are Monday at Front Porch in Hattiesburg, Mississippi before they headed home.

Here they are with us outside on the front porch at Front Porch.

I am still amazed that they showed up at revival this week in Ellisville, Mississippi. I do not know why it shocks me so much, they have showed up in Hazard, Kentucky and Fayetteville, North Carolina and about a dozen other places through the years.

What incredible friends!

God has blessed us with tremendous friends in this world and the list keeps right on growing every year. We feel like the most blessed people on God's green earth and we are thankful to have such an abundance of friends. Thank you, our dear friends all over for embracing us, keeping us and loving us. 

Thank you to Bro. Bruce and Sis. Priscilla for your adventurous efforts to visit us on a regular basis. You are amazing. We value your friendship more than we can say! I want to BE the kind of friend that you are to us.

Thank you all for reading.

Davy

Weekend Woundup and Weview #9

Friday was a beautiful day in Mobile. I love spring weather and this was definitely a spring weather day. I had quite a bit of work to do outside Friday morning so it was perfect. I had to reorganize the two front bays of the bus since we had it turned inside out trying to make sure it was dried out.

After I had it mostly together I took this picture of the temporary water heater.

Here are a couple of pictures of where we were parked at Foster Grove Church.

We had a great final service Friday night with Pastor Jimmie McDuffie and all of his folks. They are so good to us and we love being with them. After we were packed up we went out for one final time of fellowship with lots of talk and hugs all around.

We had almost everything ready to go when we got back to the church Friday night so we hooked up the Green Machine and left for Ellisville. We left about 11:30 and about 111 miles and two hours later we pulled into First Assembly.

By 3:00 we were unhooked, parked and tucked safely away for the night. Saturday morning we unloaded our sound system and set it up in the church. By 12:30 we were in the car on our way to Lusk Baptist Church north of Gilbertown, Alabama to hear the Isaacs.

This was sound check in the nearly empty church but it was not empty for long.

An hour before start time the church was full and by 6:00 it was jammed packed inside and many, many people outside. It was a great night of singing and we enjoyed it all. We love visiting with the Isaacs and enjoyed the service.

I am sure there will be plenty of pictures from the night with Isaacs in next Saturday's post.

We were back at the bus at a decent hour Saturday night in time for a good night's sleep. Sunday morning we finished the sound set up and settled in for a tremendous day with Pastor Kenny Morris and all of his people. The day included a great service Sunday morning, a wonderful dinner Sunday afternoon and another great service Sunday night.

Not only did we have an outstanding day at church but we had two surprise visitors Sunday night that really blew us away. I will post more about that tomorrow.

We have several pictures from Sunday. This first one is me with Bro. Jack Eubanks that I wrote about a week or two ago. Bro. Jack is 86 years old.

Those are two little miracles singing in the choir Sunday at First Assembly.

That wraps up our weekend. Thanks for reading.

Davy

View Out The Front Window February 26, 2017

Here are links to the posts from the last week.

Odie's Saturday Post

Revival In Pictures - Foster Grove

Ground Breaking, Plans Shaping

An Amazing Privilege

A 40 Year Old Act of Kindness

Weekend Woundup and Weview # 8

This is our view this week at First Assembly in Ellisville, Mississippi!

We are thrilled to be back in Ellisville with Pastor Kenny Morris and all of his folks. We are beginning revival here this morning by God's grace and will be here through Friday.

I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy